Hair!

Marsi was born with an AWESOME head of hair.

It hasn't ever changed from being awesome.

I love how it curls when it is wet.

And now a picture from today.  So cute, so long.

Shoes

Marsi is infatuated with shoes here lately.    She is getting really good at putting on her own shoes...if they are velcro.  Mostly she just steps on the heels of them like this.

She also loves to put on Mommy's shoes

Her 18 month picture :)

She is so adorable.  I love her.

Dear Marsi,

(this is a little late, I thought I posted this already, but I didn't!)

(March 26, 2013)

A year ago you had surgery to fix your heart.  You were 5 months and 2 days old.  We had only found out about your condition a few weeks earlier.  We had to go in for pre-op procedures  blood work and "tagging"   the day before surgery.  That happened to be a Sunday.  The Sunday your cousin was getting blessed.  It was really hard to put on a brave face at such a wonderful celebration for another miracle child, but I wanted it to be about her and her parents and not the sadness I was facing thinking about the next day.

That night I hugged you so close.  I cried. It wasn't going to be a long, hard, open heart surgery, but it might as well have been.  No parent should understand the pain and fear a parent goes through to have surgery on their baby's heart...or any surgery.

You were the first surgery of the day, and for that I was grateful.  You had to fast for the surgery and I didn't want you to be miserable for too long.  

You did so well.  You got a little sad, but you were smiling and looking everywhere.  All of the nurses loved you.  I am so glad that I was able to talk to the doctor and the anesthesiologist for a while before surgery.  The hardest thing I have ever had to do was hand you over to the anesthesiologist and wait on the other side of the double doors.  Luckily, you loved him and smiled as he took you away.

Now, a year later you are still so much fun.  And so smart.  Daddy has been working on letters and numbers with you and you LOVE it.  You go around to anything with letters and numbers trying to identify all of them.  Your favorite show is "The Cat In The Hat Knows A Lot About That" and was very excited to meet the cat at the library.

You are getting so good at feeding yourself with utensils too!

You LOVE Clifford...enough that we had to buy another one for the wash days :)

You are my special miracle.  I love you so much.  

few pics

Every once in awhile, I still get to snuggle with Marsi.  Those days are the best.  She was upset this day and thought that I had to suck her finger to make her feel better.  It was so cute.

This shows the cute little insky in her.  She is growing up so big, so fast.  Her hair is long, she is beautiful.  

And I can't forget my first furry kiddos.  It is really nice when they like each other.

Just Happy :)

Marsi is such a happy baby.  She loves to play.  he loves to laugh.  She hates me doing her hair.  Her new thing is to grab the toy she wants and sits on the couch playing with it.

I finally was able to find her tent and put it up.  She has started to fill it up with her toys.  I can't believe that she is already taller than the opening, by far!

She is my dare devil.  She tries to give me heart attacks.  

New Clothes / New Toys

 There is a thrift store in Colorado Springs called Arc.  On Saturdays, most of the store is 50% off of the ticketed prices.  We were able to score all of these cute clothes for summer for only $35.

The purple outfit is my favorite.  I was so glad that the pants fit over her cloth diaper butt.

We then went to Walmart and I bought a "toy" that I have been wanting for a while.  Marsi loves to play with the pompom balls the primary has at church so I went and bought some of her own and a cupcake tin.  She played with them for at least 30 minutes after we got home.

Loss

Never in my life would I have thought that having children would be so hard.  Marsi was my 6th pregnancy.  It seems like if/when we have baby number 2, we have a way to go.  We have already gotten pregnant and lost 2 more pregnancies.  8 pregnancies, 1 baby.  I am usually very private about this.  I don't want it all over my Facebook.  I just needed to get this out.  When I say Marsi is our miracle, it is true in way more ways than one.