ER

While in CA we had a very scary little incident with little Miss Greta.  Steve's mom bought Aaron a box of Knex, little pieces to build with.  One afternoon while  I was out shopping with Ashley, Steve was back at the house with the kids and a few of his bros.  While the guys were playing Knex with Aaron, Greta began to gasp, gag, struggle to breath, etc.  After she gained her breath, she began throwing up violently for about 1/2 an hour.  Steve called me to come home ASAP.  It was obvious that she had swallowed something, she was real gaggy, drooling, etc.  We took her to the local ER.  We kept telling them that we think she swallowed a small plastic piece of the Knex set.  This was what we saw on the x-ray:

 As soon as I saw it I remember as we were leaving the house someone said, "I think she also had a quarter in her hand."  Little stinker swallowed a quarter.  Thankfully even though she was gaggy and obviously having some serious discomfort, her breathing was totally normal.  Thankfully, the quarter went down her esophagus and not her trachea.  The local ER that we went to did not have a pediatric GI doc to perform the surgery, so she had to be transported by ambulance down to Sacramento, which was about an hour and a half away.  Her surgery went very well, it was over in about 20 minutes.  They went down her throat to remove it.  She is doing great and other than about 2 hours of being groggy from the anesthesia, you would have never known what happened to her.

We are so grateful that she is ok, it quite scary, esp. after seeing the x-ray.  We love you little Greta.

Lovebirds

I'm so glad that my brothers-in-law have found good women. I"m so happy to have you around, Kayla and Keely!

C-A-L-I

We returned early this morning from a wonderful visit to the state of California!  Steve's baby sis is all grown up now and just graduated from high school and we all went out to celebrate.  We had to miss her actual ceremony but got to spend the week with all  Steve's family.  We had a wonderful time together, it's not often that all the siblings are together, seeing that we are literally spread from coast to coast.  So I will be posting my pics from our trip over the next few days to catch up.  My camera was busy and I had fun!
(If you noticed my title, i learned something on my trip... just as we local Pennsylvanian's say PA, those from California say Cali)
Anyway, Steve's mom and her husband live in northern CA, about 1 1/2 hours north of Sacramento.  It is the "olive capital", lots of olive and almond trees.  It has a unique beauty to it.
We spent a day on the lake, definitely a favorite for all!  The water was COLD, so only the truly brave ventured in.  We went for a boat ride, road the kayaks, and just hung out.

Little man, excited about his ride in the Jeep on the way to the lake

Claudia did a very good job of driving the boat across the lake!

Windblown

Little monkey-butt is always living on the edge

Gorgeous view

Always dancing

Faith Ann

My dear friend, Rachel, whom I've known since high school, just had her 3rd baby.  I took a few pics of the precious one for her.  She was only 6 days old for her little photo shoot.  It's amazing how they are so tiny.  The sweetness of their miracle is overwhelming.

Chad's family

Yesterday I had a little photo shoot with my brother's family.  They are blessed with 3 sweet, adorable kids.  It was fun to capture a bit of them...

Outside

We spent the morning outside at my mom's with my brother's family.  It is fun to see the kids play (or fight) together.  I think Afton and Aaron were playing demolition derby here.

Time out for Afton.  My girls were scolding me for taking her picture while she was in time out.  Oops.

All the girls

Drew got lots of attention and lovin"

I think someone was a bit jealous that Drew was getting his picture taken, poking her little face into the shot