My gorgeous nephew, ETHAN CAMERON! He is younger than Lexi by 13 days, I just so love his face in this photo!
We have just been to our home town of Port Lincoln for a visit, it was so nice to show Lexi off and to see our little bubba nephew, he is soooo cute! And Mia just absolutely loved catching up with her bigger cousins.....














Lexi and Ethan, two little cuties! They both have alot of hair! Love them!













The two little cuties having a little bit of time on the floor together, Lexi is smiling at my brother taking photos of them! They just melt me!




















I have decided that I won't be doing a heart blog for Lexi... I have a journal that I wrote while I was in Melbourne with her and lots and lots and lots of photos aswell, so it's not as if she won't have the information when she wants to know about her start in life. There are a couple of reasons that I won't be doing the blog.... Blogger is a pain in the bum to upload a lot of photos to and also the other day I started doing it and I was pressing the backspace button to delete some text and it was deleting pics and then when I uploaded them again I couldn't get them to where I wanted them to be in the post.... I spent ALL DAY (in between family stuff) trying to get it started and realised that I just do not have the time at the moment. I know that I will be posting about Lexi anyway on this blog so anyway, that's the decision for now!

Am watching Farmer Wants a Wife at the moment, just love that show! I know that most of it is more than likely a set up but still I love it! And am going to be working some more on a new CJ I'm involved in, which I am excited about, it will motivate me to scrap, and has a pretty tight schedule so that is also good for me!

Hope that it's all good in your part of the world.... xxxx

Circle Journal entry, I have had this CJ for way too long, I didn't have motivation before I had Lexi and then it took me so long to complete my entry after she was born... Sincere apologies to anyone reading this that may have been involved in that swap, I hate to let anyone down, but my life just got in the way!

Mi having cuddles with Lexi last week, can't even remember why she has a face like this, but it's adorable... heehee!!

Lexi's latest is to suck her fingers... she gets them half way down her throat and dry retches.... she's doing it right now on the floor!!

And these two photos, I just love them! Fresh from the bath... sweet and clean! She is just so beautiful!!

I've decided to start to document Lexi's journey on my heart family blog, but I am going to make it private,(just as soon as I work out how to make it private lol) let me know if you want to read it... I have no problem if I 'know' you, it's just that I don't want it out there for the whole world to see if they so choose....

xxxx

Little Bubba Lexi staring at her 'little friend' on her playgym thingy!
She really seems to love this little creature, and bats at it with her hand, I don't think it's a deliberate movement, but she loves this little guy!

Miss Mia asleep in her bed o n Friday night, she is trying her hardest to sleep in our bed, but I am standing firm. I need my sleep in my own bed, and that's that!! I'll give her 100 points for trying though! She says she is afraid of the dark so her flower lights stay on all night everynight as does a little dolphin light on her bedside table, but the globe is blown at the moment, better fix that! She sleeps all night so I'm happy about that. When we first got back from Adelaide she was waking up in the night as well as Lexi but glad to say that didn't last very long.

Mia outside 'cooking' it is something she has always loved to do, and I don't care about the mess, I just take her clothes off and hose her down outside, which she thinks is hilarious! She loves to wear dresses and all the pretty things but still loves to get into a mess.... It's good for her,I rekon!

Miss Lexi Lou on Thursday night, just after her bath in the kitchen sink, she must be growing coz she isn't fitting in there so well anymore! I combed her hair right down, it is usually sticking up everywhere, I love this photo the best but have a few VERY cute ones of her from Thurs night.
I have FINALLY worked out how to take photos indoors at night with only the natural light and NO flash, I'm loving that I can take more natural looking pics with no flash, the photo of Lexi and the one of Mia asleep are taken inside about 9 at night with only the lights that are on and no flash. I'm impressed with myself, I really hate my photos when the flash is so bright!

Oh yes, and I had a scrap,although it is quite plain,but I told my little story about this photo which is what I wanted to do. I am ultra inspired by my online friend Belinda V, her layouts are always gorgeous but not too overdone looking aswell, although I bet there is lots of thought put into them. I got inspiration for this one from her blog... Thanks Belinda, will be looking to you and of course Tatum for some scrapping inspiration and all my other online friends too! I have the will but not the time! I'll get there I'm sure!

Have updated my blog thingy, if there are any blogs you think I should be checking out, let me know and I'll have a look when I can..... I have all my faves but if there is something you think I should see, let me know!!!!

What are you up to this weekend???

xxxx

Hi, no scrapping yet to share... waiting for some papers from Scrap Therapy which have arrived but NOT at my house, they were redirected BACK to Adelaide AGAIN along with two other parcels... And just left there to sit outside the place we were staying... Lucky Mum has a great neighbour who found them and is sending them BACK to me here! Let's hope they make it here!! Extremely frustrated with Australia Post ATM, is it THAT hard for them to do their job???
Anyway, the above photo was taken by my friend Amber when she came to visit us when Lexi was still in the WCH in Adelaide... Didn't realise she looked that skinny and sort of ill looking! I just loved her anyway and didn't see it at all. But she has filled out really nicely now!

My two precious girls and I... I look worse than I feel!!! I think I look terrible!! LOL!! Oh well! I'm just being a Mum!! I had my hair done on Thursday to get rid of the roots and got talked into something different and am TOTALLY regretting it. I usually have foils to just cover the roots, hardly anyone ever notices that I have had it done, it blends into the fake blonde that is already there!! And I'm happy with that! But no, I had some totally different way of putting the blonde on the roots and it looks like it used to when I did my own hair our of the boxes that you buy at Woolies when I was 15!!!!! I'm very dissapointed and almost embarrased that it looks like it does at the moment.... Needless to say that I'm going to a different hairdresser now after 3 bad hair-do's.. Three strikes is enough for me! Anyway, it's only hair I do realise that, but I wanted to feel good not shit about myself!! I AM laughing as I'm typing this.... I know that these things happen...

Little Miss Lexi in her cot for the first time, it was just a visit mind you, she sleeps in a bassinet about 30cm from my head!!! lol! I'm certainly not ready for her to be moving away from me any time soon! She was mesmerised by the mobile, she loves looking at the little animals! I'm so in love with her right now, always have been but it's intense right now!!!!
Mia is a sweetie, swimming about 3 times a day and is exhausted at night!!
Have had my parents here since last Wed and another friend staying with us for a week before that!!! It's been great to have extra hands around,I've even been swimming a bit myself!!!

Hope you are good, leave me a message and let me know how your weekend has gone!!
I'm almost wondering if anyone visits much, I'm not blogging so much at the moment!!

xxxxx

Life is good round these parts! Here is Mia above this afternoon while having a swim, with her new orange goggles... She loves the pool, I haven't been in with her yet, she gets to go with Dad while Mum does boring housework.... it is good actually as I can get some things done round the house while they swim! I'll have my turn soon!

Mia and Lexi having early morning cuddles, check out Mia's bed hair!!!! It is turning into an early morning ritual, Mia hops on our bed for cuddles with her little Sis!! Sweet!!!

And I just love these photos of Lexi that I took late last week... I love her little outfit, it's so bright against her hair!! And the expressions on her face are just gorgeous!

Thanks for stopping by! It's a short sharp and shiny post!!

MY GIRLS
(how cute are they??)

Well we are settling in at home, getting to know Lexi in a non-hospital environment, and it's been great!! She seems alot more settled than Mia ever was at that age, but that might be because I'm more confident this time round! She has a big cry when it's time for a sleep, which random people down the street seem to think means she is hungry, but she's not! It's funny how people give you thier opinions but alas do not know your baby!!

Recovery wise she is going really well, her chest scar has taken a long while to heal, which has troubled us quite a bit, she has has one visit to A&E at the WCH in Adelaide and one visit to the Dr here over it, other than Drs appointments aswell.... I have not been keen to take any chances with her and if I have felt that something is not quite right, I have not doubted myself for a second! But last night Brenton and I changed her dressing and were really pleased with what we saw. It is by no means totally healed BUT it is looking great!

Lexi is back to her birthweight and putting on weight really well, she is breastfed and bottled topped up at feed times and this seems to be working well in fattening her up! She is almost smiling at us now which is just precious.. I really was expecting her to be a bit 'behind' after surgery as she was in an induced coma for almost a week.... I have felt she is doing really well but a home visit from the Child and Youth Health Nurse confirmed that she is meeting her milestones for her age! ALL GREAT NEWS!!!

Mia has seemed to cope really well with the big upheavel of the last couple of months and also with the last half of my pregnancy, when I just was not myself.. We left her with our parents while we were in Melbourne which originally I was NOT going to do, but in the end it turned out for the best, she has a great 'holiday' with all of her grandparents and did so much more 'fun stuff' with all of them than could of been achieved if she were with us.... She talks about the time we were apart, and I am honest with her and tell her why, and she seems to cope really well with the honesty of it all... She is a lovely big sister to Lexi and likes to have lots of holds... was a bit of bad timing on Wednesday, I had topped Lexi up and then gave Mia a hold of her and then bubba had an upheavel all over Mia, which she thought was YUCKY!! I did tell Mia that this might happen sometimes!!

And me...
I am feeling pretty good, there are no further surgeries for Lexi and I know that we are very lucky in this regard. There are alot of kids whose journeys last for a long long time.. it is heartbreaking. Hospital is a very unreal environment but also saying that it is amazing at what becomes normal in a very short time...
I feel 'lighter' than I have for many months now, I feel excited about life, Lexi's future and our future as a family with her. I NEVER thought we were going to lose her, you can't allow yourself to think that, but it is a relief to be the other side of surgery. She will have her check-ups on a regular basis of course but I am confident that it is full steam ahead for her.

It is HOT HOT HOT here today, supposed to be getting to 48 degrees. We were up and out to the supermarket early this morning, I NEEDED to go shopping pretty urgently and Brenton has worked every day that we have been home, so I haven't felt confident to take them out to shop until now, and also it has been very hot. Lucky for me when we arrived home on Monday, my beautiful friends had stocked me up with a Shepperds Pie and Salad in my fridge and my fruit bowl had fruit in it, so we could keep going for a while on that. There were flowers on our table and pink balloons and streamers hanging from our letterbox. More tears!!! Didn't think I had too many more to shed but at least there were happy ones!!

One HUGE ramble later, I had better go, I had the photos uploaded for about 3 days before I came back to add the text and I rekon I could keep typing and typing away!!! That's the chatterbox in me!

Here's hoping that I might have some scrappy stuff to show in a week or two, I'm feling like getting right back into it again! Now it's just a time issue!

Thanks for reading my dribble!!

xxx

My two beautiful girls together!!! This is Mia and our beautiful strong little girl on Friday afternoon just after Lexi was let out of hospital. It was surreal to be driving her back to my Mum's place on my own and just having her in the car with me. I could NOT believe it was real that she was with me.

What a month we have had. It started when we found out about Lexi's heart problems while she was inside of me. If you don't know, I kept my head above water but only just at times. Luckily I had Mia and she just kept me going. I had to get up in the mornings for her. I would have slept alot more if it weren't for her. If you sleep you aren't thinking about things.....
I have alot to update on and I will sooner or later, I will tell Lexi's story on my other blog.
I can tell you RIGHT NOW that there are some awesome people out there doing awesome work in situations that are so hard, all so that our children can live. And not all of them do live... but that there are people willing to try to save lives that are so tiny is amazing and a huge commitment....
There are brave, brave, brave parents out there, we are so fortunate that at this stage Lexi does not need further surgery, but there are special people who go through months and years of hospitals and surgeries and treatments for their children and watch them literally go through what people should not have to watch their children go through.

I have to thanks the Women's and Childrens Hospital in Adelaide and the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne.... The care Lexi received and the support Brenton and I got was unbelievable. Not only do all these people make our sick kids better but basically treat the parents aswell.... and with the upmost of patience... Too many names to mention but I have to mention a few, Paul, our escort nurse from WCH, and Kate, Heidi and Liz from ICU in RCH, you guys made a big impact on me!!


Thanks to my special friends, I have many who have helped me through all this time, but my "cyber" friends who are now firmly in my real life that I have to thank....
Lucy
Tatum
and gorgeous Kate (you are my hero by the way)

and everyone else who has sent us positive thoughts, vibes, prayers and anything else...