Cousins! ♥

My cousin Kara, husband Drew, and daughter Ambra came to visit us on Thursday night.  They left Friday afternoon.  I took the girls out of school early on Friday so that we could spend some time together.  They drove all the way from Washington state to attend a wedding. So they were just passing through.  This was our first time meeting Ambra.  She is so brave! She was born with a cleft lip and had to undergo many surgeries.  She has many more surgeries to go.  She is so adorable and sweet. We love her!♥

 

Carissa & Maia's Piano Recital

Carissa & Maia with their piano teacher, Jennifer. Alyssa, Az, Justin & John are also her students. Justin and John are her sons. There were 23 students in all that played tonight.  Each group has their own teacher. 

Carissa played two songs: "The Grasshopper" and "Where Is My Doggie?"

Maia sang along to "Where Is My Doggie?"

Maia played two songs: "Sandman's Lullaby" and "Is It Spring".

Carissa sang along to "Is It Spring".

Flowers from Daddy♥

Solar Eclipse 2012

Took these in our front yard with a point and shoot camera....

Took this in my front yard through actual Solar Eclipse glasses.

 

Took this in in my front yard through a welding helmet. If you look hard you can see this was shot through the trees.

Daddy's 33rd Birthday!

This was my first time making Scott a birthday cake.

 

 Kisses for Daddy♥

Charley had fun at the party too!

Grandma Livingston ♥ {Sept. 25, 1924 - May 5, 2012}

In Loving Memory...

2004

Easter 2006

Easter 2007

Easter  2010

Easter 2010

Easter 2010

Christmas 2012

Christmas 2012

Christmas 2012

Happy Easter!

Our annual photos at the Jelly Belly Factory ♥

Hole In One!

Scott had the day off on Good Friday so we went to Scandia for a round of golf!
On the 17th hole Carissa got a hole in one!

The Exploratorium & Palace of Fine Arts

We had a girls day at the Exploratorium & Palace of Fine Arts. It was beautiful in San Francisco. I asked the girls what they liked best about it and they said they liked the balloon they got when we were walking the grounds (a street peddler made them each a large tie balloon heart flower). Really?? Glad the entrance to the museum was free. Later, we got to meet Daddy for dinner.

Carissa's EEG Test - March 27

Carissa had two episodes after church (1x in Jan and 1x in Feb) where she complained of having a really bad headache which was followed by throwing up multiple times and then taking a nap for an hour. Her pediatrician suspected it was not a migraine but a type of seizure. To see if it was a seizure, we had to do this test. Well, she did show an abnormal test result from the flashing strobe light (which the Dr. said it's not really an indicator of a stroke) but all the other tests were normal. So he said she has migraines. Which isn't good either. He said she will probably grow out of them and then maybe have them again when she's a teenager.

We stayed at the 4 Points Sheraton hotel in Emmeryville the night before because I had to keep her up late and wake her up early so that she would be sleep deprived for the test. Scott spent the night with us and Maia stayed the night at Hailey's house. We went out to dinner the night before the test and Carissa wouldn't eat. She started crying because she missed Maia. Crazy because they fight all day long and here she has an opportunity to get all the attention and she cries for her sister. Carissa and I stayed up until 1:30 (which she loved) and we woke up at 5:40 am. Surprisingly she woke up without any fussing. The prayers worked!

At Childrens' Hospital in Oakland:

They attach a series of metal discs called electrodes to her head to measure her brain's electrical activity. They did this with her asleep and then awake.

After they attached all the wires, they hold them in place with gauze

After the sleep test, which took 15 min, they did a strobe light test. She had to keep her eyes on the light. This is the test that showed abnormal EEG results.

In the final test she had to blow on this pinwheel for three minutes. It's harder than you think!