Easter Eggs and Cupcakes

With so many of the great-grands around we thought that an Easter party would be appropriate. So, we got to work coloring eggs, and making cupcakes for the party. Actually we did the eggs the night before and the cupcakes the day of the party - but either way it was lots of chaos, mess, and fun!

Yellow and Green GiGi helped out with the cupcakes. Cadence and Kagan took their jobs very seriously :)

The Finished Product!

I don't know really who invented coloring eggs but I do know one thing, they didn't have 3 year olds that they were trying to color eggs with! It's lots of waiting and when you do get to put an egg in or take it out it can often be messy. As Cadence dropped one of the eggs onto the ground while trying to get it into the cup she was very concerned that she had "splatted" the egg. Thankfully they were cookced so there wasn't much "splatting" going on but there were several cracked eggs :)

and really, why even color Easter eggs if you can't wear a bunny mask while you do it

Easter Celebrations

Due to both Easter happening, and Shaun's surgery being bumped up, my Mom and Gran came up from FL to visit and help out. Well, since 5 of the 6 great-grandkids are now in NC we just had to get them all together :) So, here are some pics from our hanging out time with all the babies. The next post will be all of our Easter decorating eggs, cupcakes, and having an Easter Egg hunt but for now, here are some of my favs of the kids.

Sweet Adaline loved both Shaun's swing and Janey!

Janey loved Slang. Shaun did not love his food :(

Kagan and Cadence love popsicles - and ate about a half a box in 2 days!

We're HOME!!

We are so glad to all be back together at home! After a very long week in the hospital and Cadence being with Kagan and Adaline (her cousins) all the NC Andersens are back together. On Saturday Cadence and I went to a Spring Fling at some friends church and afterward there was an egg hunt! We didn't know about the egg hunt so I didn't have her an Easter basket but that's OK. She still managed to have fun.

Here's she's running and playing with Ella before the egg hunt.

Keith helping the girls know how to scope out the eggs :)

Cadence hunting for Easter Eggs. She found 2! She was way more interested in playing than hunting for eggs which was fine with me because a massive Easter Egg hunt with kids running and fighting for eggs isn't my favorite thing anyway.

She traded in her eggs for a treat bag - which was way better in her world.

And here's an update on Shaun. Less than a week ago we were in the hospital

and he looked like this

Today we're heading out to church and he looks like this!

Thank you Lord for your protection and healing for our children in the last week!

Shaun's Adventure

*This blog is alot for my documentation purposes so if the words are boring - skip them and just look at the pictures*

March 18th - Pre-Op appointments with Dr. Williams and the anesthioligists to get Shaun ready for his heart cath. Later that evening, I took Cadence to meet with Christa so she can go play at Kagan's house while we're at the hospital.

March 19th - Chris, Shaun and I are at Brenner's Children's Hospital by 7 am for Shaun to have his heart cath. Shaun goes in, all goes well. We liked the heart cath waiting area because it was warm and quiet :)

In the afternoon Dr. Cook came by and said that after looking over the results of the heart cath, they were uncomfortable with how much his heart muscle was closing off the shunt. The shunt was only operating at about 50%. So, they didn't want him to leave the hospital and we were going to go ahead and do his next surgery on Monday. This seems like a big deal because we were planning on having the surgery the week after Easter but instead, we're moving ahead 2 weeks. early.

All thru the process, Chris and I are grateful for drs who want to do the best thing for Shaun and we completely trust them.

March 20th - hanging out at the hospital watching basketball - it is March Madness after all!

March 21st - Chris and I went home to go to church and Karen came up to stay with Shaun while we were at church. So grateful for great friends! Church was good and afterwards Chris came back to the hospital and I went to Concord Mills to meet up with Christa and the kids so I could spend some time with Cadence and get her clothes for the week. We played, shopped, ate, and had a great time and then I headed back to the hospital.

March 22nd - Surgery Day! This day has been so anticipated in our world - mostly because of the unknown factors - and we know that it will bring lots more freedom and "normalcy" to us so we're so glad that it's here. After several mix-ups concerning DSS and getting proper consents, we're on our way into this 4-5 hour process. Shaun came thru surgery like a champ and was in PICU by the afternoon. They repaired the hole where the shunt had been and took his major vein for the upper half of his body and put it directly into his lungs.

Dr. Cook told us to get a hotel and get some rest because it would be needed as the rest of the week and the recovery process unfolded. Since he was in PICU we couldn't really sleep there anyway and he had a one-on-one nurse all night so Chris and I left. It's amazing what a good night's sleep will do for someone!

March 23rd - We got up, ate some breakfast at the hotel, adn headed back to the hospital to see how Shaun had done overnight. We walked in and the nurse told us that they had already received orders to send him to a regular room. PRAISE GOD! They said that it's unheard of for a kid to do as well as he had done coming out of surgery and we were quick to tell them that we believed that it had to do with the number of people praying for Shaun. The nurses actually agreed because they said from their perspective it's the only way that a kid with his condition would be ready to leave PICU less than 24 hours after open heart surgery.

Knowing how well Shaun was doing, I went to see Cadence and teach lessons for the afternoon. Chris stayed at the hospital with Shaun. Cadence is having so much fun at the Callaways. Her and Kagan get along pretty well (for 2 3 yr olds) and she seems to be pretty well adjusted to being there. It was great to see her because I've been amazed at just how much I've missed her!

They moved Shaun to room 604 and he spent the afternoon hanging out with Daddy. His feeds were going well, adn the only concern that the drs have is how much fluid he's still retaining. Hopefully it's nothing another day or two on Lasix won't fix :)

I came back to the hospital, Chris went home so he can work the rest of the week, and the healing continues.

March 24th - that's today! Shaun seems kind of miserable which I guess is to be expected. He's still pretty swollen and his face looks kind of like he was in a fight. They're continuing Lasix to help with the fluids in him and switching him to motrin to help with pain. The drs just came thru and seem pretty happy with everything. Dr. Cook even mentioned that he might be going home by the end of the week. So, we'll see.........

Pretty much his favorite thing to do is play with the cords all wrapped up in his feet.

The night before surgery, nurses came in to put in an IV to begin his fluids. They put it in his head! He had pulled out an arm one so I guess this made more sense to them. He didn't mind it once they were finished. We just had to keep his hands off his head.

Such a happy boy waiting to go to surgery :)

Coming out of surgery :( a little sadder but a huge step closer to a more normal life.

new pics of my sweet babies

Cadence the mermaid playing dress up with Daddy. :)

Look at our big boy playing! He really does enjoy this thing, especially if Cadence will entertain him but not jump on it or try to slingshot him across the room.

Valentines Day and a voice only a mother could love :)

We have a Valentine's Day tradition in the Andersen home that was started probably 6 years ago. For Valentine's Day we order chinese food, eat it out of the boxes, and Chris gets a new "chick flick" to add to our collection. He's always done a great job and it takes all the commercialism and pressure out of a pretty much meaningless holiday. This year was the first year that we've included Cadence in the tradition - she usually goes to bed before we get started. Chris' movie choice was The Princess Bride on blu-ray. We lost our DVD copy and so this was a great choice in my opinion! Cadence was so excited because we got out the sleeping bags AND we got to eat in the living room. As you can see, she was very excited and VERY into the movie :)

This next video has nothing to do with Valentine's Day but was so funny to me that I figured you could get a laugh out of it too. I had set Cadence up to watch a movie - Annie - on my laptop because had 2 early appointments on Tuesday (speech therapist and guardian ad lidem). So, she was watching Annie with headphones on. When it got to the part of the movie where Annie and Daddy Warbucks sing "Tomorrow" with FDR and his wife, she had several little people watching the movie with her and she was singing along with "tomorrow" By the time I found the camera the song was mostly over but I did catch a little bit of it to share.

*when she says "i'm annie" she's talking to her little people lined up on the computer :)

Click HERE to watch

Tis the Season!

Our mail lady has been warned and reminded that a holiday is coming by the packages that have showed up lately. Cadence LOVES a holiday - mostly because there are packages and we all know that there are few things in life better than a package on the doorstep :)

This package came from Mimi and PopPop a couple of weeks ago. Cadence has really enjoyed eating most of her meals on her Valentines plate and it has certainly kept her well lip-glossed to have her own Barbie lip gloss!

This one came this week from Aunt Connie. The candy is always a big hit and we've had to work hard to pace her on the candy eating this weekend!

We made a video of her opening the package from Yellow GiGi. It's kind of long but actually funny in places. You gotta love having a 3 year old who believes what you say ;) to watch it click HERE

and lastly, Shaun's stuff from the package from Yellow Gigi. We saved it because he was napping when we opened the package. I think he liked his stuff too!