Back to School

Thursday, August 13th was our first day back to school!!! School starts sooo early in this part of Colorado. What ever happened to summer break from Memorial Day to Labor Day?

All of the girls were very excited to get into the new school year though. And I must admit, so was I. I think I'm a better mom when I have a couple of hours to myself during the day while Rylee and Marcella nap.

Speaking of Rylee...can you believe that she's walking? She started about 2 weeks after her first birthday. Maybe I can post her 1st birthday later.

Here's Marcella getting in on the action. She got dressed for school, but I didn't have the time to get her hair done. It's poofing pretty good this morning.

Marcella and 'Bun Bun'

Audrey Maxine- 1st grade and ready for a whole day of school and eating lunch in the cafeteria.

Emily Kathryn- 2nd grade and very nervous, as you can see. She broke down in tears just as we were taking pictures. But she recovered pretty quickly and ended up loving her first day. Do I see a bit of her Aunt Ashley creeping in?!

Olivia Aaron-4th grade and she has some how forgotten how to smile for a camera that day. She's excited that recess is before lunch this year so she'll be missing a lot less of it this year. Last year she had to check her blood sugar before lunch, then eat lunch, then got to recess...needless to say, Olivia isn't the fastest, so missed recess about a 4th of the time.

Coronal Craniosynostosis

For those of you who have asked and I haven't been able to pronounce Rylee was born with Coronal Craniosynostosis.

Coronal is for the suture involved, Craniosynostosis is the premature closing of sutures, or soft spots as most of us know them as. The Coronal suture is the opening from the top of your head along the side, down to your ear. All babies are born with several openings in their cranium to allow brain growth. I had always thought there was only the one at the very top, that Pediatricians always check. Rylee was lucky, I suppose, that only her right Coronal suture was fused. Because of this condition, Rylee had major craniofacial surgery on May 31st. Our neurosurgeon was in charge of opening up the closed suture and our craniofacial surgeon (a specialized facial plastic surgeon) did work on Rylee's forehead, nose and right eye that were affected. The picture above was taken April 4th, four days after surgery. Sorry I didn't put it in the right order.

This is Rylee in the hospital on April 1st, 24 hours after surgery. In the picture you can see the drainage tube really well on the top and side of her head.

We just couldn't believe how happy Rylee was during this whole process! Even though she could barely see out of her swollen little pumpkin face, she was smiling and playing less than 24 hours after major craniofacial surgery!! The yellow stuff you see in her eye brows was an antibiotic, disinfecting type of stuff that was all through her hair too. It has the consistency of gum. It took a couple of weeks to wash out/ scrape off.

This is Rylee now! I can't believe how great everything looks! You can barely see the scar already!

Our happy girl was 10 months on the 10th...Mother's Day! And she's waving 'Hi' to everyone she knows... Strangers are a different story.

Just this week, Rylee is trying to pull up the furniture. She can pull up to her knees really well and then screams and squeals at everyone until we help her to her feet.

Rylee has never crawled, but she scoots everywhere she needs to get. The picture below is how she uses her feet to scoot around. Boy, can she ever do a 360 in no time!

I know this picture is a little blurry, but it's exactly how Rylee smiles when she's happy or excited! She is such a blessing and source of joy in our family!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! Todd makes fun of me every year that I find and dress all my girls in the same dress. But until one of them complains about looking like her sister or I can't find matching dresses, we're going to keep doing it! Thank goodness for The Childrens Place!

Rylee Jo was 9 months on the 10th. I can't believe that she's grown up so quickly. As you can see she's almost 100% since her surgery. What a blessing that everything went so well and that she has recovered so quickly.

Marcella found her basket under that coffee table. She's almost eaten all her candy already.

Audrey found her basket on top of the book shelf. She has loved playing with her whistle.

Emily found her basket behind the computer amoire doors in the study. She LOVES wearing her new High School Musical sunglasses. I'll have to post a picture later of her wearing them.

Olivia found her Easter basket inside the washing machine...that sneaky Easter bunny! Olivia has also loved her new sun glasses, but has been most excited about finding Easter eggs full of money! She is always saving for video games and books.

First Piano Recital

This is Olivia and her Piano teacher, Meggie.

Olivia had her first piano recital on Saturday! She played "Morning" frome Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite. She was pretty nervous, but played beautifully without any mistakes!

Here's Olivia playing her piece!!

A Fabulous Friday!

Friday was an exciting day in our home. Todd, Olivia and I went the Barbara Davis Center for a four HOUR pump training class. We have Olivia a hooked up, but are doing a trial run with her pump full of saline right now. We can't wait to get rid of shots and load her pump full of insulin!

And our new dining room set was delivered!!! It's so beautiful! It's so nice to have a real table and CHAIRS! Folding chairs are functional, but not very cute.

Marcella Anne Turns Three!

asked Marcella what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday a few weeks ago and she insisted on a chocolate bunny cake! Go figure, the little girl who won't go to sleep without her Bun-Bun, wanted a rabbit cake! So here it is-or was, I guess. The Jelly beans were actually Jello Beans!

This is at Grandma and Grandpa's house on Sunday when all the Aunts, Uncles and cousins around came to celebrate. Isn't she cute!?! I can't believe how much she's grown in the past few months.


Marcella was so excited to blow out the candles! As soon as the lights were turned off, she blew out all the candles with out any one singing Happy Birthday.

On our second time around, she was a little embarrassed to blow out the candles again, so needed a little bit of help from Dad.

Yum! My girls favorite part of birthdays, licking the candles!

On Marcella's real birthday, we had swimming lessons all evening long and I had my Relief Society Enrichment Activity that night. To celebrate we ate at McDonalds in between lessons! What else could a newly turned 3 year old want....she got to eat chicken nuggets and open presents from Mom and Dad and Grandma and Grandpa Riley!

Barbie Thumbelina!!!

A new dress from Grandma!

Opening another present from the grandparents...

Oooohhhh, a puzzle! Everyone wants to see!

Marcella's favorite, Polly Pockets!

It was a great Third birthday!

Happy St. Patricks Day!

Happy Birthday Marcella!! She's 3 today and is soooo excited that it's finally March. She keeps telling everyone she's going to be 3 in March!

I'm back Blogging....for today anyway. Life has been crazy for the Gagon family. I was in PA for my birthday in December and then again in February for my Mom's birthday. Then the end of February my grandmother passed away after battling cancer for a year and a half. So I was back in PA for that. All I feel like I've done for 2 months solid is laundry!!!
Here's Rylee Jo! She's 8 months now!! Not crawling, but tryin to scoot on her bum everywhere. Check out that scratch on her face! I put her to bed a couple of nights ago and she started fussing, then started screaming because she had clawed her face.

Audrey, Marcella and Rylee in there Irish Green!

Look how cute Audrey and Marcella are and how unhappy Rylee is. We gave her a button pin to play with and then she was fine.

Olivia, Emily and Audrey in their Irish green just before they go to school.