Dad Update...

Many of you are aware that my dad has been pretty sick for almost the last two weeks.  As things have gotten a little more serious, I wanted to update everyone on what's been going on.  Almost two weeks ago my dad started feeling sick...we thought he might have the flu or even West Nile.  He would get really high fevers (like over 103) and get really shaky and shivery.  After almost a week of feeling like this, his family doctor (that my mom works for) suggested he take a day off of Tylenol and see what happened.  He got a very high fever that night, and went back to the doctor the next day.  They had done/did a TON of different blood tests, x-rays, etc. but couldn't figure out what was wrong so they finally decided to admit him to the hospital this Tuesday and he's been there ever since.  They know that his white blood cell count is up, and so are other indicators that he has some type of infection, but they can't figure out where the infection is or what it is, so they can't figure out what medicine will help.  They've tried several different antibiotics but nothing has helped so far.  He has had some pain around his chest, but they didn't think it was related to a heart attack.  Last night (Thursday night) he had a pretty bad night and his heart went into a-fib.  (I'm not medical at all...so that's probably the complete wrong way to spell that).  Basically, his heart was beating really fast and in a weird rhythm?  An EKG of his heart also showed something "suspicious" with his heart valves.  Today at 3:00 pm they are going to do a procedure where they put some kind of little camera down his throat to look at his heart and the valves.  They think there could be some kind of bacteria/infection around his heart valves.

Please keep him in your prayers.  He is trying to remain upbeat, but has been kind of down the last few days.  He hasn't been able to see Brynn, and he really isn't supposed to have visitors because of the infection.  We have been able to visit, but they want us to wear gloves and all the nurses wear masks around him just as a precaution against infection.  Please pray that the doctors will be ale to figure out what is causing his sickness and also that he will feel hopeful in the middle of all of this.  Please pray for a speedy recovery and complete healing.  We know God has a plan for everything and are trusting Him in the midst of this!!

Even though he isn't really supposed to have visitors, he has had lots of phone calls!

It's NO FUN seeing my dad this way...we want him to get better QUICK!

We LOVE YOU Dad!  Can't wait until you are BETTER soon!

Craft Night = FUN!!!

Last Thursday night we had our "girl's craft night."  We hadn't had one in awhile, so we were all ready to get together and get crafty!  We have done craft nights where we all made the same thing (like the same wreath, etc.) but this time we decided that everyone would bring whatever craft project they wanted to.  Some didn't even bring a project...they just came to visit and eat!  YAY!  We had it at my house and we had a blast...I hadn't laughed that hard in a long time!  I spent a good portion of my time gabbing and eating, so I didn't get done as much as I had planned, but it was so fun I didn't care!

Kelly was working on shadow boxes for her boys rooms, and Erin was attempting a St. Louis
Cardinals poster thing she found on Pinterest.

Sarah and I were making shirts (the no-sew shirts with the iron stuff), and we had the iron set up
near the food...perfect for eating and working at the same time!  HA!

Heather made the coolest silhouettes of her kids!

Lots of fun projects!

Here are the little shirts I made for Brynn!
Yesterday I went over to Jennilee's house and she helped me stitch around them, so they look
a little different now...I thought they turned out super cute!  Now I just need to make a cute orange tutu,
put her in some leggings and boots, and we are SET!

I just LOVE being crafty...we have so much fun, I'm already ready for the next one!

17 Months (and 16 months too...we forgot that one!)

On Wednesday Brynn turned 17 months!  (And we forgot to write anything about month 16, so we will just include that here too!  HA!)  If I could sum up this last month it would be "word explosion"...she usually only says one word at a time (no phrases yet) but she is learning so many new words.  Here are some other things we want to remember about the last month...warning - this will probably be extremely boring to most of you, so feel free to skip it.  I want to write it down to keep for us, but I totally understand that it will not be very interesting to anyone else...HA!

• I think she weighs around 24 pounds.
• She is wearing a size 4 diaper, size 4-5 shoe, and mostly 12-18 month clothes, although some 18-24 month stuff fits.
• Sleeping great at night, usually from around 8:30 or 9 until about 8 or 8:30 the next morning.  She had been taking about 2 hour naps from 1-3, and then after a week or so of not as long naps, we decided that maybe since she was sleeping later in the morning, we should wait and put her down a bit later.  If she doesn't wake up until 8:30ish we usually put her down around 2 and she naps from 2-4ish.  
• She's still a great eater!  She likes pretty much anything, but right now her favorites are grapes, anything "noodles"  (she calls them noona's), and hot dogs.  For breakfast she still usually has her oatmeal with fruit, for lunch she will have macaroni and cheese or spaghettios, maybe a hot dog, some fruit, some veggies, etc.  For supper she eats whatever we are eating.
• She is really into dipping her food...I love to have chips and dip with my lunch, and she always ask for "dee, dee" (dip).  She puts everything in it.  She likes ketchup, and pretty much any sauce!
• She is OBSESSED with her new baby cousin Charlie (Cha-ee).  She kisses her constantly when she's around.  If she sees a car seat she says "cha-ee?"  
• She's gotten better about the separation anxiety.  She doesn't cry when I drop her off at the gym or at church.  They told us she only cried for about 15 seconds, but I gotta admit...I like dropping her off at places a whole lot more when she doesn't cry at all!  HA!
• She loves to "read" and look at books.  When she's in the car seat she will hold them and just say random words that sound like Chinese as she's looking at the picture.  She loves to watch the Wiggles in the car, but still isn't interested in watching television for any extended period of time at home.
• She loves shoes and is always trying to put them on.  If we don't have shoes on she will point to my feet and say "shoe!"
• She has learned to say please and says it ALL.THE.TIME.  I'm glad she's learned it, but it is crazy how many times a day she will point to something and say "pees, pees"  (that's how she says it).  And she usually keeps repeating it until we do whatever it is she wants...like opening something she hands us, or getting down her toy, etc.
• She likes to tell us to sit places and she will point to the couch and say "seat."  She doesn't say "sit" just "seat."
• She has become quite the climber...we've been to Chic-Fil-A several times and she does the play area all by herself.  We also go to the park a lot and she loves to climb up and go down the slides all by herself!  WHOA!
• And lastly...this little chatterbox has compiled quite the list of words over the last month...I was bored in the doctor's office a couple of weeks ago so I decided to write down all the words she is saying - mommy, daddy, more, please (pees), no, duck/quack, woof-woof, dog, cat, shoe, sock, giraffe (jaff), book, pee pee, poo poo, Pamaw, Papaw (paw paw), Grandpa (Ba-Paw...nothing for grandma yet...sorry mom), Lindsey (insy), Curt (cut), shampoo (poo), up, bubble, turtle (tur-tle...my all time favorite word right now), Charli (Cha-ee), Ansley (Ann-ee), baby, toothbrush (teeth), hot, ball, car, uh-oh, drink (jink), juice (joos), swing (sing), boo-boo, bye, balloon (boon), draw (daw), cheese, cracker (caw caw), tree, tweet tweet

Football Friday!!

We are really getting into the football spirit around here...THANK GOODNESS!  I just love football so much and I am so excited its finally that time of year again.

Last night Mizzou's tickets went on sale for their first ever SEC game, which is against Georgia on September 8.  One of our best friend's from college, Guthrie, is engaged to a girl who graduated from Georgia (and was their homecoming queen too...whoa!)  They are flying in for the game, and we are meeting up with them.  So last night we got online to TRY to buy tickets.  It was hilarious...they went on sale at 6, and we knew it was going to be crazy with so many thousands of people trying to buy them, so we had a 3-way conference call going on between me, Guthrie, and Ryan (who was just getting off work but stayed at work to use their computer).  Anyway - you should have heard us...Guthrie was saying "okay, Whitney, refresh your screen in five, four, three, two, one, now go Ryan, etc."  FINALLY it worked and we scored tickets for the four of us...we were hooting and hollering in the phone!  SO EXCITED ABOUT THAT GAME!

Then Ryan got home and we ate a quick supper and headed to Central's first football game of the year.  One of Ryan's friends from work is also the trainer for Central's football team, so he put us on the pass list to get in.  We got there and walked up to the pass gate and there was a lady sitting there with no pass list.  She said "are you coming through the pass gate?"  Ryan said "yeah" and she says "oh, you guys are teachers, huh?"  Ryan said "no, we're here with the trainers" and she was like "oh, awesome, go on in."  HAHA!  I thought about calling everyone and saying "hey, if you want to get in to the Central game just go through the pass gate and say you are a teacher!  HA!  We had such a good time and Brynn LOVED watching everything.  Can't wait to go back soon!

Brynn was all dressed up in her Mizzou outfit while we were trying to get our George tickets!  

We found a row that was pretty empty and she was going back and forth pulling down all the seats
and playing around...I'm sure the people around us were not amused...

My poor Dad (who is a football junkie...and who instilled in me such a LOVE for the game of football) has been sick for almost a week!  (I seriously think he might have West Nile...what grown man has a fever of 103?)  Anyway - he was so bummed he couldn't go to the game, but hopefully next week he can join us.  We sent him updates and pictures...

I sent this picture to my dad and said "I guess she has some Pingel blood in her...
she's mesmerized by the football game!"  

A few of these are from Ryan's camera...

She was pointing to the big speaker...she loved when they played  the loud rap music
before kickoffs...she kept pointing and saying "more, more."  HA!

She kept pointing and waving at one point during the game.  I couldn't figure out what she was pointing at
and then I looked down and the Tiger mascot was walking around.  She watched that Tiger and waved to him
for a solid five minutes, until he walked away and she couldn't see him anymore.  When we left,
we saw the Tiger and took her over there.  She kept waving, and gave him a high five, but she didn't want to
let him hold her!  HA!

The first half didn't get over until about 8:30, so we watched the band play their halftime show (mom,
just so you know, she LOVED the band as much as you...she was waving and clapping the whole time)
and then headed home.  I think she was so worn out she just sat in the stroller all the way back to the car
and didn't move a muscle...HA!

We had such a fun Friday...if it's full of football, it can't get much better!

Goofy Girl...

Brynn has been one silly girl lately...here are some funny moments from the past week.

When I went in to get her up one morning she had her arm out of her shirt! HA!
I don't even know how she did that...

She has REALLY been into climbing up on things...she has been loving climbing
up on this chair.  

Then her new thing is to grab everything out of her baskets (the one next to the chair is full of blankets
and stuffed animals) and pile everything on the chair with her.

She's also really into coloring lately "daw daw?"  (Draw, draw??)
Unfortunately, some of her beautiful artwork ended up on the seat of her pretty pink chair.
(Luckily the chair is slipcovered, so I took off the cushion's slipcover and laid it out
to show Ryan.  Then he scrubbed and scrubbed and got all the red crayon off!)

We've been to Chic-Fil-A several times recently.  She's getting big enough to enjoy the kids play area.
Side note - that is SO EXCITING...to be able to sit and gab and just watch her play is really fun!
Anyway - they gave her this hat and she has been wearing it all over the house.

I already bought her Halloween outfit for this year (it's not because I'm just so excited that I couldn't wait,
but bought it from a friend when I was looking through her little girl's old clothes) but if I hadn't already gotten
her costume I think I would make her be a cow!  She is just about the cutest cow ever...and her "moo" is
adorable too!

Oh my, there is something cute and new everyday, but those are just the things I have pictures of!

iPhone Pics

I've had some pictures on my phone and figured I'd go ahead and post them.  They are completely random, but oh so cute!

We were at Chic-Fil-A and they gave Brynn this "cow" hat.
She is so funny.  At home she likes to put it on and she will say "mooooo!"

Last Thursday we stopped by some dorms at SEMO to pass out water bottles to the freshmen moving in.  (Actually, my parents and Ryan's parents lead the college group at church and THEY, along with some other people from our church, were passing out the water bottles.  We just walked around and watched.)  It was so nostalgic watching the kids move in...it felt like yesterday that I was that anxious college freshman moving my stuff into the dorm.  Thankfully God blessed me with an amazing roommate (shout-out to Alicia!!) and my four years at Mizzou couldn't have been better.

Thursday also happened to be the first day for kids at most nearby schools, and I was thinking about my teacher friends welcoming all the new kindergarteners, and all the kindergarten kids and their parents, and what it would feel like to be taking your child to kindergarten for the first time.  Then I looked around the college and thought, "holy cow...what would it feel like to drop your child off at COLLEGE!"  I just want to soak up all the time we have now, because I'm sure it will feel like no time when I'm dropping Brynn off at kindergarten, or taking her to Mizzou (wishful thinking...although 3 hours will probably seem too far away and I'll want her to stay close to me...ha!)

Whose child wore a full-fledged Mizzou outfit (hairbows, dress, and  Mizzou shoes) to watch the SEMO kids move in?
MY CHILD!  I'm not an extremely proud alumni or anything...
I think I was just in a "college-y" mood or something.

Let me tell you, we were working so hard passing out all those water bottles...HA!

Oh the nostalgia of college move-in days...

We hung out with Ansley and Baby Charli at Pamaw's later in the week...all Brynn wants to do is give Charli her paci and kiss all over her...I always ask her to kiss mommy after she kisses Charli but she never wants to kiss me as much...darn!

This only happens 1,234,567 times in the course of Brynn's time with Charli...

I know the quality of these pictures isn't that great...but the memories they capture definitely are!  (Okay...that sounded really cheesy, but I'm really serious!!)

Wyley's Birthday Party

Last Wednesday we got to celebrate Wyley's second birthday!  It was Disney-themed and we had lots of fun playing with all of our little friends.

Isn't this castle cool?  I couldn't get Brynn to actually look at the camera...but close enough.
Doesn't Will look cute in his Peter Pan outfit?

Making a fun little foam craft.

Playing pin the tail on Eeyore...it was so cute to watch!

Little Brynn put her tail right in the middle!  HA!

The birthday boy with his proud mama!

One thing I'm loving MOST about not being at school every day is that I'm able to do stuff like this.  Wyley's party was Wednesday morning, when I would have been at the first week of school.  While I miss my teacher friends and the kids at school, I'm so glad I'm at home and was able to take Brynn to the party!

Future Gardener!

Last week we took a visit to see my grandparents.  Brynn had so much helping Pawpaw pick the garden and fill up her basket with tomatoes and okra.  She was a hoot...she would fill up her basket and then go back to their house and take everything out and set it out for Granny.  I think we have a future gardener on our hands!









Granny and Pawpaw...next time the garden needs picking, you know who to call!
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