End in Sight

Just wanted to let you all know that the doctors are finally talking about the day we will go home.  If all of Brinlee's blood work and chest xrays look good tomorrow, we will be released to the Ronald McDonald House for the weekend.  Then we will have a post-op appointment Monday.  That means that there is starting to be a light at the end of the tunnel for us (and those that are taking care of our other kids :) ) Brinlee is really doing better.  She is starting to act like our smiley, fun-loving baby again.  We know that she is healthy enough to leave because she throws a fit everytime any healthcare worker (nurse, doctor or janitor) comes too close.

Lizzy and Angie are two of our CPCU nurses.  Brinlee was okay with them as long as she had her fuzzy.

Sporting her new hair flower I put together yesterday to match her outfit.

What else do we do at the hospital for entertainment?

"When can we go out there?"

Silly Daddy

Laughing is the best medicine.

The balloons from Grandpa and Grandma Barrett, Teecee, Kellon, Barrett and Aubree have been a fun toy.

Happy Birthday Barrett!

Barrett has been so anxious for this special day of the year since a week after his birthday last year.  He has asked me many times over the past year, "Mom, how many days until my birthday?"  I usually gave him a rough estimate and made sure he knew it was a long time.  Now look at how fast the time really has gone. We are so excited for Barrett to be a big five year old.  I can't hardly believe we have been blessed to have this special boy in our family for half a decade already. :)  I wish that I could be home to celebrate with him today, but he is going to get his daddy on his birthday--ssshhh its a surprise.  We had an "un-birthday" party for him the day before we left.

  We hoped that he would understand that we couldn't be with him today.  He was a great sport about it, but every once in a while he would say, "I am going to have my real birthday party at 9:30 at night so that Mommy and Daddy can make it because they are going to be in Denver."  We decided when Brinlee moved out of the ICU and was doing so much better that Brice should be his birthday present today.  Barrett is such a bright spot in our family.  He always gives really good loves and snuggles when we need them.  He is also a great friend to his brother and sisters, always willing to play spies with Kellon or house with the girls.  We love you so much Bert!!

Living separate lives

Right now our family is living two separate lives.  Brinlee, Brice and I are in Denver because Brinlee had her third heart surgery on Thursday.  We have been here since Monday, and it looks like we will be here at least a couple of weeks.  My cousin Marcie and most of her family have been in Denver this week, so we have met up with them a couple of times.  It is always fun to see Rocky and his girlfriend Tiffany since they live here in Denver while they are in physical therapy school.  Brice, Brinlee and I had a free day on Tuesday.  We decided to eat some Thai and Indian food and go to the zoo.  It was fun to have a carefree day before the real serious stuff started.

Brinlee has been holding her own since the surgery on Thursday.  It took 11 hours in the operating room, so she has taken some time just to get everything besides her heart functioning well again.  We miss her loves and smiles since she is sleeping under sedation all of the time right now, but she should be able to wake up in the next couple of days as she continues to heal and has more energy to spend on being awake.  In the meantime, I have actually have time to update my blogs and check my email.  I know you are all so surprised.  If you want to check out a couple of the most recent cakes Teecee and I have worked on, our new blog is sisterssweets.blogspot.com.

Kellon, Barrett and Aubree are staying with Grandpa and Grandma Barrett and Teecee right now.  They have been having fun picking strawberries--I think they are up to 8 gallons.  Also, they have helped wean lambs.  For the 4th of July Grandma, Grandpa and Teecee took the kids to the rodeo in Red Lodge yesterday and the parade in Cody today.  They are having so much fun!  It sounds like most of them crash in the afternoon because they are going from pretty early in the morning until later in the evening.  We are so grateful to them for taking care of the kids and everything at our house.  It definitely takes a load off of our mind to have that taken care of at home.