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.

Where in the world has time gone?

Just playing with Daddy on a Sunday afternoon

Aubree was not too excited about Clifford up close at the library and I thought it was hilarious ;)

I have been getting a lot of grief about not updating my blog since last fall, so I decided to give a "brief" synopsis of our lives right now. We had a great Christmas and a welcomed "healthy month" of January, but that is where normal life as we knew it ended. Brinlee came down with pneumonia and RSV in February and was diagnosed the end of February with congenital heart disease. Brinlee and I spent 6 weeks in Denver waiting for her first heart surgery while Brice and the kids were here, there and everywhere. We have started a care page for Brinlee that has the details of our journey with her. The address is http://www.caringbridge.org/ Go there and then go to brinleegeorge for the website. If you sign up for the site, you will receive emails when I update the page. We are enjoying being back at home until May 25 because Brinlee is scheduled for her next surgery on May 27 in Denver. I am so excited for spring and have loved the flowers and bushes in my yard that have started to bloom. Above are a few pictures from the past month. Brinlee is already 9 months old! Kellon is loving school, and is a great little reader already--it is amazing how fast he learns. Barrett and Aubree are best friends and spend there days entertaining Brinlee mostly. Brice will be walking in two weeks for his graduation with his associates from NWC here in Powell. The craziness with Brinlee has put him back a semester for his bachelor's, so he should be done with classes in December and student teaching next spring. I am staying busy with the kids, yard work and a primary stuff

Busy Weekend Last Week

We had a couple of big days last weekend. On Saturday, Teecee and I catered a branding out of a restored chuckwagon back in the hills. We precooked the brisket and warmed it up over the fire. We made the biscuits and potato salad the day before. The beans and peach cobbler were actually prepared over the open fire in dutch ovens. We even learned how to make "cowboy coffee." Maybe that will come in handy again.? My dad was our "fireman" in charge of starting the fires and making sure we had good coals. My Aunt Marlene and cousin, Valyn, were visiting from Utah, so they came with my mom to check on our progress. Brinlee came along as my personal assistant. :) I think that everyone liked the food because the people took seconds and take-home plates. We estimated the food pretty close except for the potato salad. There was a roaster pan full left, but it came in handy at a family BBQ on Monday. This was a unique opportunity for us to dutch oven cook, but I have to say it was a lot of work. Especially since we cooked the meat over the fire in the evenings during that week. It meant a lot of hours of cooking and cleanup. It was fun to include my dad though, and we were very thankful for his help and expertise.

Chuckwagon/Food Prep Area
You can see the two of the four fires in this one. They were setup with grates and places to hang the ovens.

The cooking crew

Four of these dutch ovens are peach cobblers and one is beans. Cleanup was quite a project.

Dad making the black as tar and twice as gritty coffee

Aunt Marlene and Valyn

This was Brinlee's perch for most of the day. That is her carseat in the chair with the bright blanket over it. She slept most of the time.

On Sunday, Brice blessed Brinlee at our ward. She wore the blessing dress that I made for Aubree out of the same material as my wedding dress. I thought she looked like a little angel in it. I think that half of the ward's sacrament meeting attendance was our family. We feel so blessed that we live close to family so that they can be a part of these special occasions. We missed those that couldn't come though.

Kellon's in Kindergarten!

We have a big kindergartener at our house now! He is loving school and very excited about all of the new things he is learning and the kids he is meeting. We are glad that he has a great teacher, Mrs. Landwehr, to get him started out right this year. I have to admit that I haven't been quite as excited about the change. Barrett, Aubree, Brinlee and I really haven't gotten used to Kellon being gone all day. He is such a great playmate and helper for us. We all really miss him, but we love the weekends when everyone can be together for a couple of days. It has made for some early mornings also with the bus coming at 7:25 a.m. I know that it could be much earlier, but for a kid that likes to sleep until 8 or 8:30 some mornings, that has been a huge adjustment. Kellon has been a great sport about it though. Most mornings he is up before I come wake him. Kellon says his favorite things about school are recess, coloring, and watching movies on the Smartboard. He also says that the best classroom job is his "free day" when they don't have a job. :) How time flies!! I look at Brinlee and cannot believe that Kellon has already gone from her size to school age. We are so proud of him!

Brinlee Jean George

I am happy to finally get around to introducing you to the newest addition to our family, Brinlee Jean George. I know she is 5 weeks old now, but some of you also know how hectic things can be with real life going on with a newborn in the mix. We are really enjoying having our littlest girl. She was born Saturday, July 25, 2009 at 10:50 a.m. weighing in at 7 pounds, 5 ounces and was 18.5 inches long. We waited an extra 6 days past my due date to meet this girl, and we still had to start things without her permission (I was induced Friday night at 10:30). Everything went well, and she was my fastest labor at 12 hours. I shouldn't say it was "my" fastest labor because Brice and Melanie, my labor doula, can also claim it for sure. Brinlee is a beautiful little girl, but I was definitely surprised at how little hair she has compared to the other kids. It does make getting her dressed up a little easier (for now). She started smiling about 2 weeks ago, so I think that she is going to be a cheerful girl. That seemed early to me anyway. Brinlee also caught her first cold last week which has not been much fun for anyone. We were hoping to be done with that in a couple of days, but Kellon showed up with a different cough this morning. Maybe we will luck out and Brinlee won't catch this one.
Here are a few pictures from the hospital and the first day at home.

Isn't this a good lookin' bunch!

I can't believe I caught her with her eyes open when she was two days old

My sister-in-law, Annette, took some pictures for us when Brinlee was just 5 days old. I wanted to get a few good newborn pictures since the ones at the hospital usually aren't that great. She did a great job!

What a little miracle

Daddy's little angel!

Daddy's little girl