HAPPY HALLOWEEN

The Grandparents hanging with Katelyn on Halloween at Trunk or Treat at the Methodist Church


The Allen Fam on Halloween

Katelyn's a beautiful fairy-don't you think?

We bought this for Katelyn for her 1st Halloween outfit. I think we bought this in August. She outgrew it about a week before Halloween..so I went on a frantic search two days before to find her something. The good news was there were lots of sales...The bad news was it was difficult to find a costume in her size! We had a wonderful Halloween and really enjoyed seeing her taking it all in by watching all the other children. She was so good! She didn't once try to take off her hat or her shoes! I was so shocked. We are so blessed with a very well behaved baby!:)

Videos of Katelyn

Katelyn's 1st Rice Cereal - August 24, 2009



Katelyn crawling: please ignore my annoying proud Mommy voice:)

Mema making her laugh!

BAILEY UPDATE

Ryan brought Bailey home yesterday with 3 pain medications and an antiobiotic. He was restless all day and night (we got 3 hours of sleep!), still very uncomfortable and tries to bite at his tail alot. He is not handling this tail amputation well, but really who would? Poor guy he is still having alot of the phantom pain (where it feels like his tail is still there but it obviously isn't)... Please continue to pray for him to have a speedy recovery. The vet is expecting at least 14 days before he can remove the sutures, so he has to continue to wear that e-collar (which he hates!) We are praying he settles down tonight, so we can get some sleep!Thanks for all the continued support and prayers:)

FAMILY OUTING AT THE PARK

Mema & Katie joined us at the park for Katelyn to swing for the 1st time!




Allen family pic




Katelyn absolutely loved swinging!!

She loves to be with her Daddy!

We are really enjoying this weather...Almost every day this week, Katelyn and I throw a blanket down outside in the grass and play! She loves to be outside! It is so funny that when I put her sunglasses on, she doesn't even attempt to take them off!!

Wearing her new bling shades!

Feeling grass for the 1st time...

PUMPKIN PATCH

Last weekend we took Katelyn to the pumpkin patch and had a great time! The weather was absolutely beautiful! She is obsessed with anything orange, so we had a difficult time getting her to look at the camera as all these really cool ORANGE pumpkins were on the ground!


I am ready to go to the pumpkin patch!

Mema & Katelyn

Halloween family pic

Katelyn's 1st time to see a billy goat..

Trying to lunge out of Daddy's lap to "pat" the pumpkin

FAMILY WALK

Katelyn wearing her new bunny coat from Mema... I love this coat!


We have been going on family walks in the evenings since the weather has been so nice!

Look at that little ruffle butt..so cute!

UPDATE ON BAILEY

On Friday, Ryan took Bailey to the vet to get his bandage removed off of his tail and it was awful! Apparently the tissue was necrotic (aka dead) due to lack of blood flow and we were now faced with a new VERY HARD decision. Do we remove the tail or not? Do we wait and see if it he gets better when he is home? I was not at the vet so I had 100 ?'s that I wanted answered for my FURRY BABY! So, the vet mentioned to Ryan that he was on call in the emergency clinic last night...So I called and asked him questions about what to do.....He recommended we remove his tail in the next COUPLE OF DAYS due to risk of infection, gangrene,etc... My heart dropped.....Here we are on Tuesday, dropping him off for surgery for a simple mass removal on his tail...thinking no big deal..it's routine...he will be okay....NOPE we are wrong. This is by far one of the hardest things Ryan or I have ever had to deal with. Since Tuesday, Bailey has been in pain....won't walk, won't potty, won't eat, just cries... and gives you the saddest little eyes:(... We have had our fair share of tears and demanded answers... After calling a couple of other vets including one I trust in Dallas, we tried to get more answers..We knew we couldn't stand to see him like this anymore...It was tearing us up and we just wanted effective pain management!! When the vet mentioned he could do the surgery to remove his tail on Tuesday, that seemed like forever to us as we have had to watch him suffer for 4 days already! Apparently it is common to have tail amputation with a mass removal on the tail as there is not much tissue there...

So after ALOT of prayer, we decided to do the surgery today. Our biggest concern was PAIN MANAGEMENT! It was so hard for Ryan to have to bring Bailey back up to the vet AGAIN for another PROCEDURE when we knew he would be in even more pain for awhile. Although we know in the long run this is the best thing for him, we are worried about quality of life, how will he act now, Will we ever have our Bailey back again? Is he mad at us? So... another thing frustrating is we wanted him comfortable.. Well, they do the surgery at the clinic and then 30 minutes after the surgery, Ryan had to pick Bailey up and transport him to the Emergency Clinic, so he can be monitored until Monday morning. The good thing is he is on a morphine IV drip and hopefully staying comfortable. It has been a very emotional day and I have been up to the hospital twice and it broke my heart to say goodbye to him tonight:( I know he is in better hands up there as they can manage his pain...We pray this is a quick recovery and we have our sweet Bailey back soon..Please pray for him to have a speedy recovery and for us to recover emotionally from all of this as it has been so hard on our family.

Thanks for all your emails, phone calls, texts....We really appreciate all the support! We will keep you updated on his progress!:)

PLEASE PRAY FOR BAILEY........

As I am typing this post, I have tears in my eyes for our sweet little dog Bailey. He is currently crying, yelping, moaning, you name it.... You see in the picture above his tail is wrapped in gauze... A couple of weeks ago, Ryan and I discovered a mass on his tail and we brought him into the vet last week and he recommended we remove the mass. It was fairly large and it has been sent to the lab to make sure it is not malignant. We were anxious about the surgery, but knew it would be best to remove the mass. Since he is not put under very often, we went ahead and had a teeth cleaning done as well. Poor Bailey ended up having 5 teeth pulled and he is only 5 years old! I was upset about this as I never consented to his teeth being pulled....it just happened. Needless to say, yesterday Ryan comes home with Bailey yelping and his tail was already bleeding. Ryan took him back up to the vet, he was given a shot for pain & they wrapped the tail. I have never seen my dog like this.....it is breaking my heart in two... He won't walk......we carry him everywhere & he hasn't pottied outside...We have already had 2 accidents in the house... Little did I know that this surgery would impact him in this way:( PLEASE PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR "FURRY BABY".... We are so sad to see him like this... On a happy note, baby Kate is doing well & we have lots to update when I have some more time to blog.. I am now off to take care of a dog that is in alot of pain and we can't fix it.....It's just plain awful....

7 MONTHS OLD!

7 months old... Here's the photo shoot! This is such a fun age!!


I am ready to play Mommy & Daddy!


You talking to me?



Sucking her bottom lip... Teething stinks!




Getting playful...loves to eat her dress!





Staring at her Daddy which always makes her smile....It melts your heart:)

At 7 months Katelyn is:

• rolling up a storm, getting up on all fours (in quaruped position) & will definitely be crawling soon. Has anyone heard of Downward Dog in Yoga? Ryan and I laugh as Katelyn will get in this position in an attempt to crawl, but will end up rolling over on her back!
• has now tried green beans, squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, Baby Mum Mums & rice cereal....loves them all..still doesn't like oatmeal and gagged on peas yesterday..She had a little rash on her cheeks today, so the pediatrician thought it could be a possible food allergy
• still nursing 5-6 times a day & getting solids (2-3 times a day)
• she is a good sleeper for naps, but has recently been waking up in the night again!! Just when we think we have something figured out, it changes....so we realize this is the life of parenting.. Anyone relate? lol
• Teething stinks! She moans in pain, her gums are swollen & this has been causing her to wake up in the night!
• When she gets excited...she does a slaps her knees & laughs...Actually she will do anything to get our attention! Sometimes she does her fake cough, sometimes she grunts, sometimes she does her belly laugh, sometimes she just babbles.....cracks us up!
• We have a CD that we play for her at night and naps & now she hums & sings to her lullaby CD as we rock her to sleep...it is such a special time!! I look forward to it every day! It is so sweet how she tucks her face into my neck
• Sleeps on her stomach with her butt in the air..Can now find her paci on her own at night and put it back in her mouth....PRICELESS!
• Her favorite book is touch & feel books (she LOVES feeling all the different textures)
• She likes to roll over in the middle of diaper changes...
• Loves to play dropping games off of highchair....cause/effect... I drop something & Mommy picks it up......This is fun!
• When she is in my lap, she leans forward to grab any & everything she can get ahold of
• She bears weight on her legs when I hold her upright & loves to bounce
• sits without support & is able to turn to reach for objects
• still loves peek a boo & patty cake
• can clasp hands together and hold onto sippy cup, but still needs assistance to sip
• loves to grab at our faces (especially our noses)
• Obsessed with my diamond necklace! Ryan says Uh-oh to that:)

It amazes me how, in such a short amount of time, I have fallen crazy in love with every little thing about her. Even though it has only been 7 months, it feels like we have never been without her. She completes our family & life wouldn't be the same without her here. I want to cherish every little moment of every little stage because soon she will be running around like crazy & that sweet baby of mine will be a distant memory. I love everything about her from her dark hair/blue eyes to her chubby little legs & toes. I love the way she giggles with excitement when she sees me and if anyone else is holding her she is looking around to make sure her Mommy is near. I love holding her in my lap & watching her lift her head to look at me...that sweet little stare melts my heart every time! Why God chose to make me her Mommy, I will never know... but I can promise that I thank him daily for such a perfect little blessing & I will thank him the rest of my days!

We love you Baby Kate, Little love, Our princess, Punky Girl, Sweet love!

Mommy & Daddy

Updated pics

Sitting like a big girl in her chair


Putting on an outfit and getting a picture before she outgrows it or maybe she already did, but we put it on her anyway & took a picture. Man, she outgrows stuff so quickly it is hard to keep up with what fits and what doesn't?! Does anyone else have this problem?

I don't know why this picture is sideways and I couldn't fix it.... Isn't it cute though?

She tried out Baby Mum Mums & liked them, but she tried to shove the whole cracker in her mouth, so I have learned to give her 1/2 a cracker at a time... The picture I took of her with her Baby Mum Mum was sideways too, so I left it out and put a picture of the box!

All done with peas, carrots & rice cereal... This little girl loves her veggies! (except for peas!)

Trying out her new bath seat....

This past weekend we went to Aimee Dewey Witherspoon's to celebrate sweet Abby's 1st birthday! It was so much fun and it made Ryan and I start thinking about Katelyn's 1st birthday! It will be here before we know it! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABBY!

6-7 Month Pictures from Deb Evans Photography

This past weekend we had some more pictures taken of Katelyn & here are the Sneak Peeks! I am very pleased with them & can't wait to see the rest!


Katelyn wanted to eat the tutu in most of the shots!

AWW.... I love love love this one! It really shows her happy personality!

In all of these family shots she was very serious! So the only thing that made her laugh was to bouce her up & down... Needless to say it was difficult for Ryan and I to try to bouncing her up and down, 1-2-3 pose, smile & try to look normal!

One of her Christmas dresses....


Thanks Mema for all your help and making Katelyn's beautiful bows!

4-5 MONTH PICTURES OF KATELYN BY DEB EVANS PHOTOGRAPHY