Its been a while since I've last updated our homeschool blog. Life has been crazy topsy turvy since the birth of our youngest ..Maggie .  Learning all what it entails to be a mom of a child born with VACTERL Association takes alot of work . Especially since many people haven't heard of this and sometimes even doctors we deal with haven't .

Our school life has been more then just books . Which in a way is a wonderful thing . Marilyn , Katie and Hannah have all learned more then what they ever could have this way they they would of ever of have being stuck in a room with a bunch of kids that are just like them .  They have learned compassion , that there are all types of children not just children like them .  They have learned and have seen the strength their baby sister has each time we go for medical testing or for a surgery to help make her better .

Anyways I'll be posting pictures here in the next few days or so .  So be on the look out !

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Hello everyone . Just wanted to update the blog here a little bit .

We celebrated Marilyn's 9th birthday at Chuck E. Cheese. Marilyn invited her friends and had a great time.  Here are some great pictures that were taken on Sunday .

Happy Birthday Marilyn !!!

Here are the girls when we first got to Chuck E. Cheese . The first friend to come in was Marilyn's best friend Courtney .

Here's the Mod Squad. These three swim together on the swim team . It was nice for the girls to do something together other then swimming . From right to left : Marilyn , Courtney and Gina .

This is a small picture of Marilyn by her table :>)

Here is a picture of Marilyn with the Big Cheese himself . Chuck E. Cheese .

It was great having the party done for us this year. It was planned all down to the minute. Here after the kids were done eating pizza they got to dance with Chuck E.

Ok so this is a little out of order. But here are the kids eating too .

Of course you can't go to Chuck E Cheese's and not play the games .  Here Courtney was showing Marilyn how to get lots of tickets . She is quite a game player .

After they were done playing games it was time to cut the cake and sing Happy Birthday . We surprised Marilyn with the CARS cake. They loved that movie and they have a whole collection of the CARS and the movie .

Then it was time to open gifts. Here Marilyn is sporting the Polly pockets she got . She also recieved some Littlest Pets, some clothes , Bratz diary and a video game for her Game boy .

It truely was a wonderful day . Marilyn had a day that she will never forget . In the end Marilyn said to me " Mom , you know what my most favorite part of my birthday party was ?" And I said "What was that Marilyn ?" and she said " That all of her best friends came and they all had a great time together.

I guess you can't get anything better then that for a birthday :>)

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Boy we just never know where we'll bump into Santa this Christmas season .

Yesterday Maggie went for her checkup at Shriners for her back and lo and behold Santa and Mrs. Claus were there waiting for us .

Shriners is a beautiful place. They have redone the whole hospital. The staff there is great. From the people who do the admission to the doctors. Everyone there has been wonderful .

Here they already had a present waiting for Maggie .  When we got home and opened it , it was a baby's first blanket.

Maggie enjoyed having Santa hold her . She smiled at the both of them.

Santa's helpers wanted to get on the action too. Here was elf " Too Tall" and one of the staff members. They just thought Maggie was a doll.

After being held it was time to go back and get her x-ray . She didn't fuss not one bit .  Then we came back out and visited with everyone in the waiting room.  We meet so many nice families and the children there are so GREAT. They all have different problems but the nice thing about going to Shriners is you can see past all of that and see just the Kids.

Finally it was time to go back and wait .  Their rooms are just so kid friendly. Not even in a pediatrician's office is it this kid friendly. I mean they have a toy box in each room and a toy maze on the wall for the little kids to play with while you wait. Sometimes we get right in and the doctor comes right in . But sometimes we have to wait. There are alot of families that come to Shriners.

This room was the JUNGLE room.

Well that is all the pictures I have for now. In a few weeks we go back so I'll get some more.

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Hello everyone . It was time to kick off the holiday season with hooking up with the red jolly guy. Marilyn , Katie and Hannah made sure that Santa knew what they wanted for Christmas this year.

Yesterday was a beautiful day . We left to go to the park early to see Santa. But to our surprise even though we thought we were getting there early and thought we would get a good place in line . Well we were wrong.  Even though it was such a far trek to get to Santa we were still in a good place in line. Behind us the line stretched all the way to the end of the park.

Oops , well this picture is a little small. But anyways the Big , jolly red guy came sporting on the Corry fire truck .  The kids were just in awe that Santa could come in on a fire truck .

Well it was going to be a little while before we got up there to see Santa .  The nice thing was they had people going around offering hot cocoa to everyone while they waited.  Even though it was warmer and alot less snowier then last year . The hot cocoa tasted good .  While we waited we played guessing games and I spy . We stood in line for a total of an hour and 15 minutes. The girls were really good the whole time. They also thought of their list of things that they wanted for Christmas this year.

One thing though is we always teach the girls that Christmas just isn't for getting but also giving to others as well. That Christmas is meant to celebrate baby Jesus' birthday .

We keep Jesus the reason for the season , even though its hard to get past all the hoopla of Christmas .

By the time we had our turn Marilyn was all set with her list .  She asked Santa for more games for her Leapster , and more movies for her Video Now. She also threw in that she wants a Nintendo DS . But I told her Santa picks out the things that he feels each little girl and boy needs.

Hannah even ventured up on Santa's lap. What she asked for Christmas I wasn't sure. Because when Hannah gets shy her voice is real low . So we couldn't hear it .  Santa just told her to write it all down on a list and send it to him .

Katie requested Bratz Dolls . She knows she isn't allowed to have them. But she thought she would ask anyways.  She also asked for more Littlest Pet Shops too. They have a HUGE collection of Littlest Pets.  But they are the best toy we've ever bought . They don't require batteries ( except for one of the toys ) and they let them use their imaginations . 

Last but not at all the least.  Maggie let Santa know what she wanted for Christmas.  A bouncy seat , and more diapers !

This was our first encounter with Santa. This Friday we get to go see the Jolly man once more before Christmas to finalize what is wanted for Christmas . We always go to the Christmas in Spartansburg . Where the "REAL" Santa lives .

One more thing before I end the blog . Katie's birthday was on November 10th and we had a fun time celebrating it .

Katie got the things she REALLY wanted for her birthday .

Tim and I got her the movies : CARS and OVER THE HEDGE . It was really nice because they both came out that week of her birthday . So that worked perfectly .

After she was done getting her gifts at home. We went up to grandma and grandpa's house . There Katie got the LIttlest Pet Shop get better center. She had been asking for that like forever . Well now she has it .  She also got a Lighting Larry McQueen watch too.

After opening the gifts  dad made the spaghetti and Marilyn made the garlic bread. Which was REALLY good. She did an excellent job making it . This was Katie requested for her Birthday dinner.

After dinner we all saved some room for cake.  I'll admit it . I frosted the cake. It was a little strangely shaped after coming out of the oven. But it was all CHOCOLATE!!!  I added 7 regular candles and the number 7 candle . Katie had alot of candles to blow out . The cake was really good though , and it was served along side bubble gum ice cream . Which was really good too.

Maggie enjoyed it later on

Well until next time everyone. Hope y ou enjoyed this quick little blog .

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This will be a little bit of a short blog today . But I got Hannah's preschool pictures today and I thought I would post them on here. They turned out VERY cute .

She has definitley grown up so much , even though she still is our little girl .  If you look carefully you are looking at a sea of blondes. How cute is that !  There are three girls and three boys in Hannah's class .

She LOVES preschool ALOT . The lady in the blue shirt is her teacher , Miss Lori . The other lady is one of her helpers.  Hannah LOVES Miss Lori . She is always so happy to go into preschool , she gives her teacher a BIG hug and goes and plays. Hannah has never cried once when we've left her so far.

We've seen Miss Lori outside of the classroom and Hannah still gives her a BIG hug then too.

Also here is a cute picture of Maggie . She turned 3 months old yesterday . She is growing up so fast .  Here she is sporting Hannah's favorite onesie . Dora !

Well everyone , swim season has started and Marilyn and Katie will be going to their first Invitational Saturday .  They are really excited . I can't wait to see what they will do . I'll update everyone and let you all know .

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Its ghosts and goblins and ghouls . Its Halloween night !

We all had a wonderful time yesterday for trick or treating . So lets start with the beginning of our scaaarrryyy day ....

It was time to get up and get ready for school ..........

 For  later that day we were to meet up with gouls .................

There were ghosts and goblins that gave us a whirl ,

And as soon as we went in we bumped into ..Bubble girl !( Hannah ) .

and flower girl ( Maggie ) ............

And present girl( Marilyn )  , right at the door .............

There were candy, and games, and so much more .

We saw friends     ( little Abbey , katie's friend , and her brother Kyron )

We saw family     ( Ann Louise , Grandma , Me and Maggie ) and we thought we would try ........

To judge the best costume . How hard was that ,,oh my !

There was dinner , snacks and grown ups to  laugh at ,

all while they sat.

And Santa showed up with his big belly and hat .

It was time to trick or treat and get wet in the rain ,

Which made trick or treating a bit of a pain .

Once they were done it was time to go to the fire hall

To eat donuts and drink cider and wait for the call ...

Oh wait ! Can't forget the best picture for last . Goggle girl fighting for truth, and justice ,

what a blast !

The End  

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Saturday , the girls had their first swim meet.

They had alot of fun swimming against the other team .  The girls swam well and swam fast even though they had some tough competition .

Here the girls were gettting out to the pool area. They were ready to swim turbo speed.

Here's a nice picture of Marilyn in the pool . Even though our camera takes great pictures it doesn't do to well with action shots .

But here the girls are taking turns practing their flip turns .

Maggie came along with us too. She was a very good girl. When the buzzer went off she would turn her head towards the pool .  Maggie knows those sounds because Mommy was pregnant with her during swim season last year .

Hannie came along too. She's used to the swim meets. They can be VERY long depending on how big the teams are .  But she was a good girl too. She stayed with mommy the whole time and cheered on her sisters.

Daddy took a nice picture  of Katie and her friend Abbey . Abbey is a sweat little girl and she loves my girls ALOT .

Here's a really nice picture of Marilyn and her friend Courtney. Courtney started right along with Marilyn . This is their 3rd year together . Courtney moved up to Cadets though . Would you believe she is older then Marilyn ?  All of Marilyn's friends moved up to Cadets this year. Only because of the date of their birthdays made it possible for Marilyn to swim a third year in Midgets this year .

This picture is a little bright . But next to me is my friend Penny, she is a third year mom like myself  . Penny has been my inspiration . She had the gastric bypass surgery ( she was actually bigger then I was at my heaviest at one time ) . She is now down to I believe she said 140 and she keeps it off.  If you can tell in this picture I've actually gained some weight here.  Not very proud of myself . But I'm hoping after Maggie weans that I can get back to my old exercise and diet routine so I can shed off the pounds again .

Like I said these meets can be a little long .  After a while Maggie decided to take a snooze.

O.k. after the swim meet was all said and done daddy took the girls up to the farm and they carved out their pumpkins with .....well... Pumpkin .

This is something they do every year with their grandpa and they love doing it .

Here Hannah and Pumpkin where coring out the pumpkin . Hannah decided she was going to make a robot pumpkin .

Of course dad wanted to get in on the action . He loves to carve out the pumpkins too.  Dad was the "pumpkin artist." The girls told him what they wanted and he carved .

So everyone , here are the finished products . Hannah's was the robot pumpkin , Katie was the "sccarrry " pumpkin , the tiny pumpkin was Maggie pumpkin ..its a little different pumpkin with the sideways nose .. and Marilyn's pumpkin was a Halloween cat.

Well everyone . I will post the Halloween pictures tomorrow . Here is to a night of funfilled costume dressing and gorging on lots of candy ....

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Hello everyone.  Sorry its been a while since I last updated my blog here. We've been a VERY busy family and finding the time to sit and do this can be tough .

But I now have a moment to post some nice pictures of the girls.

As we all know October is Fire Saftey Month and every year the kids go to places and sit in the fire trucks and learn all the important things everyone should know to do in case of a fire .

So here are some nice pictures of the girls that Tim and I both took of the girls celebrating the month of October .

Here are the girls with pumpkin at the Fire Hall's Open House .  They sure did a beautiful job fixing it all up . They had punch , coffee and cake to celebrate the new opening . It happend at the perefect time for Fire Saftey Month .  As you can tell it was cold that day . I had to break out the warm hats and coats . But it wasn't long before the snow began to melt anyways .

While mom was in visiting with the ladies of the Fire Hall , dad and pumpkin took the girls out to see the fire trucks in the garage .

The girls jumped right in . They sure were excited to sit in the big fire truck. In this last picture Hannah sure did look ready to drive away .  We told them they would make great fire girls some day

Dad took this nice picture of the Spartansburgh fire truck .

O.k. we didn't want to leave out Maggie here either  . Dad took this picture with the cell phone so its a little out of focus . But it really is a nice picture .

This is a great opportunity here to tell you all that I have developed a page called Maggie's page . It's to update everyone on Maggie's Dr. appointments since this is a big part of our lives right now . I thought it would me much easier to put it all on one place then to type it out everytime someone asks.  We see alot of doctors and for different things  so sometimes it can be hard to keep track of what is what .

So if you get a chance come and visit Maggie's page . I update it regularly and there is a guest book for you to sign it to let us know you visited  .

http://thereedfamilypa.tripod.com

Now after all of that Maggie is growing and doing very well. We're dealing with a nasty case of diaper rash . But all is well .

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Hello everyone . Thought I would update the blog with the first of the year back to school field trip.

We went to Family First Sports Park and had tons of fun . I mean the girls had tons of fun

I did take some pictures.  Some maynot be that great because I was taking them with one hand  and holding Maggie in another .

Marilyn also took some pictures too of her new Pacyber friends.

The first activity they did was the indoor golf. They had alot of fun doing that . Marilyn LOVEs to play golf.

Here Katie was getting a putting lesson . It didn't take her long to figure it out .

In this picture Marilyn and Katie were getting another golf lesson . Marilyn really enjoyed this alot .  Then after a little while it was time to move on to the next activity ......................

Rock climbing !  This was not their favorite one though . My girls aren't really climbers .

This was one of my favorite pictures I took. After the girls were done with rock climbing we walked over to the next building for lunch . Hannah decided she was going to hitch a ride with one of the Pacyber staff .   Hannah made an instant friend . Miss Aleesha .  They both ended up with each other after lunch and Miss Aleesha wore Hannah out .

Here it was lunch time . The kids all got to sit together and the moms had a table of their own .

After Marilyn got finished eating she decided she wanted to get some pictures too. So here Marilyn took this picture of mommy and Maggie .  Do I look tired ? I was

This was one of the friends Marilyn made that day. Its not hard for my girls to make instant friends .

Katie made one too......

Marilyn took this nice picture of some of the kids in the younger group. I believe there was alot more .  It was actually nice to see more younger kids this year on this field trip. Last year it was more older kids then younger and Marilyn and Katie felt a bit left out of it all . But this year they were too excited to meet everyone.

After lunch the kids then played basketball. I didn't get pictures of that because Maggie decided she wanted her lunch then .

So after basket ball, the kids went to make rockets and they got to shoot them off.  It was really neat to see how far they all went .

After all of that we went out for a bite of dinner and took a quick ride around town and traveled back to our back to school fair .

I didn't get pictures of this because we were busy going from booth to booth and talking with friends and making new friends.

When we got home though I took a quick picture of their t-shirts that they got from the Back to school fair . It was a Safari theme . The girls and I had a great time and definitley plan on doing it again next year.

I'll end our blog here with a cute picture of baby Maggie . She sure is growing . Time has gone by so fast . She is so bright eyed and alert and is such a good baby .

In this picture Maggie is 7 weeks old.  She will be turning 8 weeks here on this Sunday .

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Hello everyone . Thought we would share some pictures from the PennDot open house.  This was the first year we made it to the open house because in past years it was always raining and cold.

But this day it was sunny and fairly warm. Just a slight cool breeze . If the breeze wasn't there it would of been perfect .

Marilyn , Katie and Hannah enjoyed seeing the Emergycare ambulance .

The Erie Zoo was also there with a few animals the kids could pet. I'm not sure what animal this was because I was in the van feeding Maggie . So I missed hearing what it was and Marily couldn't remember the name. I'm sure it was a LONG name for a tiny animal .

After we were finished inside looking at the animals we went out to check out all of the trucks.  Penndot had a nice turnout . It was really nice to see all of the families enjoying themselves. Plus it was cute to see the dads look at all this stuff with their children too.

The kids were also allowed to sit in the trucks and beep the horns. Marilyn and Katie LOVED that .  Hannah didn't want to sit in the truck though .

Anyone ready for snow ??? I know I'm not . But Penndot is with their big snow plows.

Next it was time to check out LifeStar. This is our emergency helicopter in Erie . This is only a substitue helicopter though because the original LifeStar was crashed some months ago . The pilot had a heart attack .

The girls hopped at the chance to sit in the helicopter though . It sure was neat to see all the gadgets and gizmos that are in there .

Here is  nice picture of the girls standing behind the helicopter. It sure is small in there. If your claustrophobic it wouldn't be a good place to be .  This helicopter is smaller then the original LifeStar. I think they are expecting the new one to come sometime soon here.

Next it was time to stop for a bite to eat.  They had drinks and cake and popcorn for everyone .  Here we are standing at the table by the chocolate cake .  I don't usually stand by the cake and eat but since my hands were a little full that is where we had to stand to eat

When we were finished eating the girls decided they wanted to get their face painted . Katie decided she wanted it on her arm and not her face though .

Katie decided she wanted a caterpiller and Hannah wanted the pumpkin . Don't they look cute ?

Marilyn was in true football spirit and decided on a football. Go Steelers !

As we were getting ready to leave ,Smoky the bear made his entrance into the garage . So the girls had to stop and hug Smoky the bear and get their picture taken with him. I was surprised that Hannah wasn't scared of him . She just walked right over with her sisters and gave us a great big smile .

After all of that we stopped at my sister Michelle's house to visit our new addition to the family .

This is baby Annea ( pronounced uh-nay-uh ) . Annea is Polish for Ann.  Annea was born on August 31st so she's about 3 weeks younger then Maggie .  Its so great to have a large family , and the best thing of all is getting to welcome each new one with hugs and kisses .

Well there you have it folks. Some updated pictures of us all .

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Alrighty everyone. Its that time of the year . Where the weather changes from hot to cool. The fall clouds make their debut and kids start going back to school.

Its also the kick off of the Spartansburg fair .

This fair we have gone to every year for .. boy ... I think at least 8 or 9 years, and every year we ALWAYS enjoy ourselves.

So everyone , , here are some pictures that you can all enjoy .

We started our morning with the obstacle course. The girls have been doing this course ever since they were three years old .

Here Katie was just crossing the finish line .

This picture Tim got of Marilyn jumping over one of the obstacles.  There was alot of competition in Marilyn's age group.

Hannah also did the course as well but somehow we didn't get a picture of her . Tim had the camera and he also helped her get through it . She won 2 tickets for being 3rd place . Go Hannah !

Here daddy got a nice picture of the girls and I . Where's Maggie you ask ?

She was at Grammy's house relaxing .  She really liked it there up at the farm . She seems to know that she is someplace different and she really likes being up there .

After we were done with the course we went back up to Grammy's house to have some lunch . After we were all finished we went back to the fair grounds for the Ride a Rama .  The girls love the rides .  This was the first ride the girls went on .

Here is a nice picture of Katie on the carosel horse .

Here Hannah sat with daddy . Daddy gets motion sickness so he couldn't hold her on the horse . But  she liked sitting too .

After they were done with that . Mommy took Maggie and went to go and feed her . But dad took the girls around to ride on some more rides.

Marilyn LOVES this ride.  The faster for Marilyn the better.

Here the girls are riding on the swing. It was a nice little ride because it didn't go very fast . Hannah really liked this ride.

This ride Hannah and Katie didn't care for. Katie said she didn't like it and Tim said Hannah looked like she was ready to get sick so he had the ride operator stop the ride to get her off. But as for Marilyn ,,,, the faster the better.

Katie likes this ride alot .  She said she rode on it two times , and she'll ride on it some more on Friday and Saturday .

This ride was more of Hannah's speed . She liked this one alot . Katie rode on it too .

After they were all done with the rides it was time to get ready for the 5K race. Marilyn decided to run the race. So dad also went along with her too .  They started off with their stretching . Very smart . Because there is a small incline that you have to up .

Grandma, Katie and grandma's friend Mary Ellen walked the race.

But Katie didn't walk very far before stopping . As for me and Maggie we sat at Aunt Janet's house . Its the perfect spot .

There was lots of people there and the weather was perfect .

We waited and waited and finally after about 50 minutes  we saw Tim running down with Marilyn on his back . How's that for a work out . Marilyn is definiltey no lightweight .

Once they got to a certain point . Marilyn got off and finished the race with dad .

Shortly after grandma, and Mary Ellen came down the hill too. Katie and Hannah ran over and walked the rest of the way .

After all that walking it was time to go and eat. There's nothing better then fair food from the fireman's stand.

Maggie on the other hand slept the whole time we were there.

While we were still eating Hannah wanted to ride the ponies. So grandma's friend took her over so she could ride before we had to take her home to get her ready for bed.

Well there you have it everyone. This was our Labor Day and kick off to the fair .

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Hello everyone. We're back up and running with the Reed Family blog.

I have some up to date photos of Maggie and her sisters too .

We have all been enjoying our new little addition to our family .

Maggie is such a sweat little baby .

She nurses quite frequently right now as we still haven't found our schedule with it all yet .  She sleeps really well and gets up from 1-3 times in the night .

Anyways I'm sure you're all waiting for the pictures . So here goes .....

Here is a picture of Maggie at 1 1/2 weeks old .

Here is another great picture of Maggie at 2 weeks old .  She is wide awake here .

Dad took this nice picture of all of us girls .

So in turn I took this nice picture of daddy cuddling with Maggie . Doesn't she look so comfy in this picture ?

A few days later her umbilical cord fell off . So it was time for a BIG girl bath . Here Maggie is posing for mommy .

Marilyn took this picture of Maggie getting ready for her bath. Here she is sporting her bath towel . All in all she LOVED her bath . Much more then her sponge baths mommy gave her . 

Of course we're not going to forget to add some great pictures of the girls enjoying the last dog days of summer.

We'll be getting into school work here pretty soon . So they are taking advantage of it all right now while they can .

Katie will be starting 2nd grade here and is excited about it . She LOVES to read .

Hannah will be starting preschool this year . On September 5th .  She is just growing up to fast for her mommy .

Marilyn will be starting 3rd with 4th grade math this year. She's hoping to finish 3rd quickly and get into 4th grade. How's that for motivation ?

Here dad "caught" her reading the paper . We love "catching " the girls when they read .

I am hoping to start Marilyn and Katie on September 5th . Marilyn is excited because she'll be able to take an online class for math this year.  We'll see how that goes and if we all like it she may take all her subjects online eventually .

But for now one subject is a good start .

Well everyone that is it for now .............

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Hello everyone . Just wanted to post baby Maggie's birth announcement , and our birth story .

Margaret Claire Reed

Born: August 8,2006

Time : 10:12 am

8lbs 0.9 oz

19 1/2 inches long

O.k. well I'll start from the beginning  . Here is a nice picture that Tim took of me . We were getting ready to have baby Maggie. We were SO excited  and just couldn't wait to meet our baby girl that we've waited so long to see.

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Here is a beautiful view from the room that we were in that Tim took too :>)

Of course I don't have any pictures of the delievery ( she was born c-section ) . But little did we know that Maggie was going to have some unexpected problems that we all didn't know about .

Maggie was born with no right thumb , and no anus . 

So she was having to be taken to Pittsburgh children's hospital that day .

It was a VERY emotional time for all of us .

Here is a nice picture of my midwife Peggy , Maggie and I .  Maggie was named after my midwife.  So she is her little namesake.

Peggy and I have been through  quite a bit with the delieveries of Hannah and Maggie here.

I was so happy that she could be there to help with the delievery of Maggie . It was very comforting to have her be there and I was glad to share Maggie's birth with her too

Here's a nice picture of Peggy talking to her little name sake , and comforting me too .  I can never thank Peggy enough for being there that day.

That day was filled with alot of emotions . 

Tim had to leave and go down to Pittsburgh while I stayed at the hosptial recouperating .

I missed my baby girl so much and missed my husband too .

That Thursday I was discharged and made the 2 1/2 hr trip to Pittsburgh . Not easy after having surgery .  But I just wanted to be and hold my little Maggie .

She had surgery that day to repair her bottom so that she could go out the right end.

Luckily all her plumbing was there . The skin had grown over her little pooper hole so the doctors had to give her one and reroute it to the right place .  In this picture it was probably an hour after her surgery .

The NICU was a big place.  So many babies with so many different problems. Each family I'm sure had their own story , like I did .

All I felt at that moment in this picture was that I wanted to take my baby out of there and take her home .

Maggie was still pretty sleepy from the anethesia . But I kept talking to her anyways . I know she heard me because I could see her little eyes move under her eye lids .

I got to hold her for about 30 minutes that day . It didn't feel like it was enough . But I knew I had to let her rest too , and I needed to rest. 

The day after at about 10pm we got a call from the hospital . At first that scared us . But we were pleasantly surprised that Maggie had been moved up to the 10th floor to the Observation Room for babies.   So Tim and I got up early that next morning and got right up to the hospital . The atmosphere of the 10th floor was much nicer then it was in the NICU . In the NICU I felt I had to ask for permission to do anything with Maggie . Here I could feed her , and hold her anytime I wanted . That day felt so good to me . I just held her and held her, and we worked on nursing since she had been given a bottle at the hosptial . But that had to be since my milk didn't come in until that day this picture was taken , and she was  a HUNGRY girl .

That very same day we were told that Maggie could go home the next day .  Maggie and dad had been down in Pittsburgh since Tuesday and this was a Saturday night.

Both Maggie and I stayed in the Rooming In room.   She was just so comfy and cozy in this picture .

Here Tim took this really nice photo of Maggie and I . That night we were filled with so much emotion . I couldn't believe that we would be going home soon. Neither Tim or I could wait .  Our little girl had been through so much in such a short time .

Definitley our faith in the Lord helped Tim and I through this whole thing .  Leaning on HIM and knowing that things would be alright was SO comforting .

I really believe that the Lord watched over Maggie and all of us that week .  I also believe my mother watched over her from up above as well .

In turn I took a nice picture of Maggie and daddy. Here he held her and talked to her before getting ready to go and get things packed up for tomorrow .  I can definitley say both Tim and I were exhausted , but so glad at the same time.

We knew that it wouldn't be long until we got to take Maggie home so she could meet the rest of her family .

I know that this picture was a little fuzzy. But hey , it was about midnight when I gave Maggie her little sponge bath and freshed her up to get ready for our special day .

Well before I knew it  the sun was coming up and it was about 6 am . We woke up to a beautiful sunset  .

Here mommy was getting Maggie ready to go home. Here she is sporting her dress that I had planned for her baby pictures after she was born. It wasn't meant to be , so it became her take home dress.

We finally got home and Maggie's big sisters were ready and waiting to meet her. They were SO excited to finally get to see her , and I was so glad to get to see the girls too because both Tim and I missed them SO MUCH .

 Of course the girls were itching to hold their baby sister.  I don't blame them of course. They waited so long to see her.

So we got out the boppy pillow and they each got their turn.

I know the girls LOVE their sister very much and already they are being the little mother hens over her .

Maggie is such a wonderful blessing from God ( as all of my girls are ).  I know she will teach us all a thing or two for sure .

Actually she already has .....

Happy Birthday Baby Maggie

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This is coming in a day late . But here goes .

Marilyn and Tim  had a daddy and me day . So they decided to go to the Lake.  Little did they know it was quite a bustling day there and they would get to see alot .

Mommy wished she could of been there but its been TOO HOT for me .

Marilyn and dad took turns taking pictures at the lake .  Marilyn did a GREAT job taking this picture of her dad .  She is quite the photographer for an 8 yr old .  She definitiley inherited that from her dad because as you can see from some of the blurry pictures mom doesn't have that gene

So in turn daddy took a beautiful picture of Marilyn by the lake . Behind her were a bunch of boats out enjoying the weather and to the right of her a tug boat taking out a big boat that was meant to be a floating restaurant on the bay , but it never did make it .

Unfortunatley it sat in the bay for about 3yrs or so and it just became a BIG eye sore.

Here are a couple of more pictures of the boat being taken out .

On the bottom is Marilyn watching the boat being taken out to Lake Erie at the channel . 

Marilyn said her legs sure were tired when she got home. She and daddy ran alot to get these nice pictures .

Marilyn also took this picture of her dad.  She told dad that she wants her own camera .  She definitley deserves one for taking such nice pictures . Maybe mommy can learn a little something about picture taking from her .

Thought I would throw this picture of a sail boat in there. There were lots of boats on the lake Marilyn and Tim said .   The lake is such a nice place to be .  They both agreed it was the coolest place to be as far as temperature was concerned. Since it was like an inferno yesterday ,and like it is today .  Doesn't that just make you want to jump right in ?

After they were done taking pictures over at the channel , they drove back to the bay and saw Channel 24 setting up their cameras for the news. They were asking locals about their feelings of seeing that big floating train boat leaving .

Tim got to be on the 6 oclock news. How exciting !

They asked Marilyn if she wanted to talk , but she was a little shy ... that's o.k.

They also got to see scuba divers from the fire department there.

How neat was that !   It definitley was a perfect day to jump in the water .  Though Lake Erie has been having some difficulties with Ecoli in the water lately and the beaches have been closed more then they have been opened this year .

If you can't tell by now dad really LOVES taking pictures of fire trucks. There are just so many of them and they all are different for sure .

So here is the end of today's blog .

If your some where warm and just want to cool off , take a look at the pictures of Lake Erie here and think cool thoughts .

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