Say it isn't SO ~ My baby is 12!!

Where did the time go?!

I blinked!

Can we just pause lift for a little bit?

My baby girl is 12!!  I can't believe it.  I'm so proud of the young lady she has grown to be. It's AMAZING how far she's come in really such a short time.  

Coming into this world on her own terms ~ 8 weeks premature and with a blood disorder she is ROCKIN it!  

I can remember the medical team consulting me on the high possibilities of her being delayed/behind then the "typical" kids her age.  Well she must of been listening and heard them LOUD and CLEAR!  Proving all early medical & educational expectations WRONG!!  For a lil girl who should be in 6th grade due to her age she is in 7th grade and taking some 8th grade classes, she had straight A's last year for the WHOLE 6th grade and this year she is acing it ALL once again.  What a great start to 7th grade. 

Top left is one of her fist photos.  She was in an incubator for many days.  Top right is the first time we were able to actually put "real" clothes on her :)

Av and her bday dog, Sully :)

Dream BIG Baby Girl!!

 The day before her bday she hit me up with baking her a cake...not just any cake, a Monster Inc themed cake.  Not too shabby for a last minute idea.

 She wanted to go to HuHot (Mongolian Grill) for dinner with her Friends.  Of course I had the guys at the grill sing Happy Birthday to her.  What kind of mom would I be if I didn't embarrass her.

 Dessert ~ at the table smores

 The next day we were working at the Neenah High School pool for the Girl's dive invite.  What a meet, wonderful watching all the talented divers.  Too bad the eDive program I had to crash course on didn't work smoothly, but we got r done!
Pencil head!!

 Then it was back to the house for games, pizza and pumpkin carving.

 She even made her brother one :) Very Cool!!

Then on Sunday we had a Family get together at Luigis for some pizza!!  4 Generations :)

What a great kid we have!!  Just don't grow up too fast. You're AMAZING Av!!!

IT'S A BOY!!

Yesterday Av and I went out bumming and decided to stop at some local animal shelters.  We played with some pups and then this lil guy came in and melted out hearts.  He's alil over 1 and comes from a HIGH kill shelter in Kentucky.  We are so blessed to announce that "Sully" is now apart of our family.  He's adapting in very well.  For his first nite I'm pleasantly surprised!!  I'm anticipating some hiccups here n there as I can bet he's been in a shelter for most of his life and there are some things that he needs to learn.  But for now he listens, is very gentle and is a go with the flow kinda guy.  We would like to thank the staff at New Pawsibilities in Oshkosh WI for taking such great care or our lil guy until we rescued him.  They were wonderful to work with!

Sully's photo from the Shelter ~  How can one say no to this face?

First time we got to meet him ~  his name was "Ish" in the shelter, but Av liked Sully better

 Walked in and about 30 minutes later he was on his way to his new life....I hope he likes it!

 First meet n greet with his brotha n sista

 He took to Danny and Danny wanted to hold his paw right away

 Got Toys?!?

 They are bonding well

 First nite and already got a bath........so handsome

 Sporting a bandana like his bro n sis

 He even dances!!

 Looks like I might have a helper, Danny has a cuddler, and have has a companion.

Sitting nicely ~ My heart is overflowing!!

It's Av's 12th bday on Friday so she's just tickled she got a puppy :)  I'm sure the puppy love will wear off after the "work" comes into play, but for now she's on cloud nine!! 

It was just meant to be, so many things that fell into play that were not planned.  We just stopped on a whim, We were filling out an app for him and someone else was walking into see him, a lady backed out on him a few days before, his manner is wonderful, the bday they put down for him is mine and Dan's anniversary.  He was meant to be in our family :)

In plain View

I am so happy that we were able to get some wonderful family photos again this year.  I know you all know how much of photo freak I am.  I just LOVE them.  Capturing the moment!  You never get that moment back and you never know when it will be the "last" photo.  A very cruel reality in my world.  Tomorrows photo could be completely different then today or yesterdays and I want to remember it all!!
Here are our photos done by All Season's Photography in New London.  Didn't she do an amazing job?!?  Despite Lil Man being out of sorts she still captured him wonderfully.  And Av ~ I'm speechless at how mature and grown up she is.  I'm so blessed to have a wonderful, beautiful family.

Of course I had to do some previews and as you can see Danny was, well .... not impressed.  I knew Season's had her work cut out for her.  It's so hard to schedule as I'm really at the mercy of Danny's mood.  I can't really coax him, if he's sleepy he's not waking up...if he's crabby, good luck!!

 All Season's photos ~  She did great!

 A bond like no other!

 Av!!

 A special LOVE!

 Danny !!

 I had really wanted to have Fall colors in our photos so Season's fixed the "blacked" out areas in them and put back the color.  Unfortunately the colors weren't as "fall" as I wanted them to be but Love the way they turned out!!

I started to have some blurry vision last on the 10th, Friday evening.  I just chalked it up to being tired and it was the end of the day.  Nothing too surprising, but when I woke up on Saturday I had a very large blurry band that went right across the middle of my visual field in my right eye.  I called the Neuro on call as I've never had this happen to me before, but he felt that it was optical neuritis and seeing it was a weekend I could wait and call my regular Doc on Monday.  Well by Sunday I lost vision from mid to lower field.  I could only see the upper 1/4 in my right eye.  Monday I called my eye doctor and my Neuro.  They both agreed MS must be acting up again, not sure what for this time but MS doesn't have a rhyme or reasons most of the time.  I went in for a dilated eye exam and had some visual field testing done.  The Dr confirmed I lost mid to lower visual field, well I didn't need the test done to tell him that it was gone.  He did say that the eye itself looks good, but theory is I must have a lesion on my brain near the optic nerve causing it to inflame resulting in my vision loss.  Well isn't that special.  So if I can't get this lesion to calm down and or go away I might never regain my complete visual field.  SUX!!!  I have started back up on IV treatments of 1000mg Solu Med Drol which is a BIG dog steroid in hopes to shrink this lesion.  I normally do 500mg of this med for 5 days as it causes some significant side effects for me; headaches, high heart rate, high Blood pressure, frequent peeing, heart burn, and my favorite loss of taste.  Today I go in for day 4 of treatment and unfortunately I haven't seen any improvement in my sight and the side effects are in full force.   So now I sit a wait impatiently to see if this is going to work.

Stay tuned!

VEGAS Baby!!

Wow what an experience Vegas is.  I'm so glad I got to go, I can cross that off the bucket list, but I have to say I will not be in any hurry to go back.
I haven't flown in a very long time and I have to say my anxiety was alil high.  I'm not a fan I'd rather be driving in the RV.  The flights to and back went well and the views from above the clouds were tranquil.  It made the flight more relaxing.

 Isn't this just the weirdest thing......all these perfect circles

 Must be getting close ~ dirt as far as the eye can see

 They have water!!

 There's VEGAS

 Funny even in the airport there are lights and slot machines

 whoa it's a hot one out there

 We got a shuttle to and from the hotel/airport

The flight home there were so many clouds

 I wonder if this is anything like heaven

 We got to see some of the changing fall colors

IN VEGAS
We stayed at the Hotel Bellagio, it was AMAZING.  definitely on the list of fabulous places and the wow factor........WOW.  It was very clean, friendly, and the decor was beautiful.

 Beautiful Hand blown glass Chandelier in the front Lobby.

 Behind the check in counter

 The Bellagio at nite

 Bellagio during the day

 Let's go shopping!!

 The Conservatory just beyond the Lobby

 this portrait was designed all out of flowers

 Beautiful!

 Um - YUM!

 Outdoor pool area

The Bellagio is home to the Dancing Fountains.  A wonderful water show done to music

Here is the Link to the video ~ CLICK HERE

I couldn't believe how every Hotel was it's own city.  The Bellegio (and all the others) once you walk in you really wouldn't have to leave.  It's a hotel, a mall, a casino, theater, shows, multiple restaurants and bars.  WOW!

 The first evening we went for a very nice dinner and walked the strip to the South.  

We ate at The Prime restaurant in the Bellagio.  It was so relaxing, just a great time just the 2 of us.  Dan had steak, sweet potatoes and a coors light.  I had a duck, potato, we shared asparagus and a glass of wine.  Want to take a guess at what the bill was?  We definitely were not in Wisconsin anymore toto.  If you're wondering it was approx $260.  Seriously?!?!  Well at least it was great food.

The nite life is.............well they don't call it sin city for nothing.  It was interesting to say the least.  I enjoyed people watching that was for sure.  I was exhausted from all the walking.  I brought comfy shoes, but my legs n feet were definitely feeling it.  We were NOT the typical Vegas nite people.  We were in the room ready for bed by 11 (pretty much all the nights were like that).  Unfortunately for me I didn't sleep much at all while there.  I couldn't get comfy and tossed n turned trying to will myself to sleep.  I think if I got 11 hours total from the 3 nites we were there that would max.  I was SO happy to be home back in my bed, it was the best sleep EVER!

After that first nite I knew that I needed to find something to do while we were in Vegas as walking the strip the first nite was enough for us and we don't gamble.  Just not our thing!  We found a couple shows we'd like to see while over there so we set out to go there.

Day 2 Breakfast Buffet at the Flamingo Hotel and Casino.  Good food, but again pricey.  Most of all the buffets we went to were about $35 a person to eat.  Guess we better start gambling and win BIG just to eat there.

Then we left the "strip" area in a taxi and went to tour "Rick's Restoration", a show we like to watch.  Now that was a great place.  The tour was free and it was within the actual shop, so we got to see the WHOLE cast from the show in action ~ Rick, Brettly, Tyler, Kyle, Kowboy, Dale and Ron. It was so cool to see them all and even cooler to see all of the things they had there.  We couldn't take any photos while inside as there were items that were completed that haven't been shown on the show or to the owners yet.  But the outside was cool.

Then from there we walked over to "The Pawn Stars" store called Silver and Gold Pawn shop.  It was NOT what we had thought it to be.  It's VERY small in there and we didn't see anyone from the show.  Definitely made up more for TV.  But being able to go was nice as it's another show we like to watch. 

From there we walked to Fremont St aka Downtown Vegas.  We sat down at one of the outdoor hotel patios, "The 4 Queens"  to people watch and have a cocktail before our Buffet and show started.  I had my first Redd's Balls.  Mighty tasty I have to say.  They had Redd's Apple beer there but you can take any of the flavors out there and add Fire Ball (cinnamon liquor) and wallah you have redd balls. Other then the homeless people coming up to ask for money while we are on the patio we had a nice time.  There are tons of things to see on Fremont street, the canopy of lights, the personal entertainment, the zip lining down the middle of the street, The Mob Museum, and the list could just go on.

We ate at the Golden Nugget buffet and then went to the show there. Gordie Brown ~ an impressionist, Comedian, and a Musician.  What a great show, it was nice to get sit back and be entertained.  

The canopy during the day.  It goes all the way down Fremont st

 Redd Balls

 Zip Lining ~ it was really cool at nite

 This guy paints these beautiful paintings with spray paint and a putty knife.  WOW!  Wonder if he painted a few railroad boxcars in his time, lol

Yeap I had to get one :)

We went through the Mob Museum too.  That was very interesting and educational.  WOW!

Looking good on the line up

The Nite is Near, lol

 WOW

 Canopy of Lights ~

To watch the video of the light show done to music, which was amazing ~ CLICK HERE

Gordie Brown at the Golden Nugget

  

Day 3 we had the Breakfast Buffet at The Bellagio and the we were off on a tour to the Hoover Dam. 

We had alil time to blow before the going to the Hoover Dam so what else is there to do in Vegas?  Hmmmm ~ we had to try our luck in the casino.  I had more than doubled my money, but then gave it to Dan.  So between him and I we lost it all, but had fun doing it :)

 The Dam has been a place that Dan has wanted to go to, I had just found that out so I'm glad I chose that tour over the rest.  I wasn't too sure we were going to survive the tour bus shuttle, lol.  I was just awed by the views there....I know it's just alot of dirt but here in WI we are FLAT where we live so to see the mountains, to me was just wonderful.

 Wouldn't catch me going over that bridge.  HELL NO!  Dan would have loved to be driving just to scare the hell out of me and drive over it anyway.

 Power lines coming out of the top of the Dam

 Walking through the tunnels to get down to the bypass room

 Bypass tubes ~ the force of the water running in the tubes was amazing.  The room just shook when they switch tubes for the water to flow in.  They stated the amount of water in there would fill 11 olympic size pools in 1 minute flat.  WOW ~ I hope there is never a leak!!

 Then it was over to the generator room....where all the power is made.  When all the generators are running it can power 65 million homes.

 See the different color (white) on the bottom of the rocks, that was the water level table when it was at it's highest.  They are loosing water.  Did you know that Nevada has a water contract with California and California gets most of Nevada's water.  Weird, Seeing they are mostly desert NOT around large amounts of water and they don't even get to use most of their own water supply.

 I was in Nevada and Arizona at the same time :)

Once we got back from the Dam tour taking the Dam photos, lol, we headed across the street to the Planet hollywood to watch the Vegas! Show.  It's a great show that pays tribute to the old Vegas.  Again another great show and I'm so glad we saw it.

VEGAS! The Show at Planet Hollywood.

After the show we walked the North side of the Strip seeing the Volcano show at the Mirage and we went to see the Pirate show in front of the Treasure Island, but it must have been broken as there was no show :(  We sat down at the Gilley's right by TI and had a very late dinner.  It was back to the Bellagio at 11 to take a 4 hr nap and get ready for the shuttle to take us back to the airport at 4:15am.

More nite entertainment.....levitating! 

Here is what our room looked like ~ 

 Fully Stocked Snack bar and Frig.  The wood box and the frig has weight sensors on them so you pick it up....you bought it.  Check out the prices ~ OUCH!

Thanks Vegas!  It was a trip to remember and boy an experience.  Thanks to Dan for an amazing time and trip.  I can't think of anyone else I would have wanted to be there with.