Vienna Faces

I did a quick photo shoot of Vienna making different faces. I didn't coach her - this is her version of each emotion and I only took one picture of each face:

Happy

Sad

Scared

Silly

Tired

Surprised

Angry

Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome

According to the Mayo Clinic the definition of Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome, CVS, is:

         Cyclic vomiting syndrome causes bouts of severe nausea and vomiting that can last for days. The disorder has no known cause.

         Symptoms of cyclic vomiting syndrome typically begin between the ages of 3 and 7 years. While the disorder occurs most often in children, cyclic vomiting syndrome can begin at any age. Adult episodes tend to occur less often than do episodes in children, but adult episodes usually last longer.

        Cyclic vomiting syndrome appears to be associated with migraines in some cases. Most children outgrow cyclic vomiting syndrome when they're teenagers. However, children with this condition are at increased risk of developing migraines.

For the last several months Vienna has been getting an extremely volatile flu every couple of weeks. She wakes up around 4 in the morning and vomits every 10-15 minutes until about 1:30 in the afternoon; then, she takes a nap and wakes up and seems to be completely fine. Strange.....

Last time she got sick, I decided to take her to our Pediatrician - I was worried about what he would say was wrong but  felt like if we just knew what we were up against then we would know where to go from here. Vienna has CVS and our course of action is to first, determine how often her cycle repeats itself and then we can discuss whether we want to medicate her.

As we left the doctor's office I was feeling pretty helpless. There is nothing I can do to fix this and I can't be sick for her, all I can do is hold her and comfort her and wait it out. There is nothing harder than watching your kids suffer. I knew when I held Vienna for the first time that a day would come when I wouldn't be able to protect her or keep her from hurting, but now that the day has arrived I feel totally unprepared. Even harder - knowing there are many more moments of sitting and watching on the way.

Little Pink Curlers

Every Saturday night, my mom would curl me and my sisters' hair for church with our little pink curlers. We would sleep with our curlers in and then magically in the morning our hair was curled. I always felt so pretty with my hair curled and until I cut my hair, I still used little pink curlers occasionally. (They are some of the only curlers that can make any impact on my hair)

I am so excited that Vienna's hair is long enough to curl now! Of course when I went to the store they only had black curlers in the right size - but we still call them "little pink curlers" (More than a little confusing for Vienna). It was so fun to curl her hair - with a little bit of nostalgia. I was the one asking her to hand me one more curler while she struggled to hold still. It made me miss my mom!

Here is our end result -

Of course I couldn't curl Vienna's hair without also curling Bristol's so we tried but Bristol's hair is still too short. All the curlers fell out during the night. Hopefully, her hair will grow quickly and we can curl hers too!

Strawberry Shortcake

Every year on my kids' birthdays I try to pick a theme that will help us all remember a little bit about who they were. For Vienna's third birthday we decided to do a Strawberry Shortcake party. Strawberry Shortcake is Vienna's FAVORITE movie and our ENTIRE family plays Strawberry Shortcake. Vienna names all of us - "Bristol you are Raspberry, Daddy you are Mr. Longface, etc." Then she will refer to us by 'name' and will only answer if we call her by the right 'name.'


Birthday Girl!

  

Vienna set the table about ten times

Vienna was thrilled with her party. We had a strawberry shaped cake made with strawberry cake and strawberry filling served with strawberry ice cream and pop. Shawn and Kirsten frosted the cake - and Vienna put the M&Ms on.

Uncle Shawn and Kirsten decorating the cake 

Vienna helping decorate the cake by eating the frosting....

Vienna loved all of her presents and that (her words) "all of her favorite friends came to her party." (Thanks everyone!)

I can't believe Vienna is three! Where did the time go? She is a great big sister and a joy! I am so glad we have her!

Yo ho, yo ho a Pirate's life for me

Paul's family has a great tradition of going out to eat for birthdays. We have never done this for our kids because eating outside of our house is A LOT of work. For Vienna's third birthday we took her to Pirate Island - I am guessing you can figure out the theme! Vienna was SO EXCITED for her birthday. Right before we left she invited Grandma Walker to come to her party too. I think she thought everyone in the restaurant was there just for her!

When we first got inside the girls were really nervous about the decor and the pirates. They warmed up quickly and they loved their food - you would never guess because they didn't eat anything they were too excited....

This guy came to our table and offered to make some balloon animals. The girls saw him do some for another table and were thrilled when he came over. Vienna got a butterfly and Bristol got a flower. Of course, Paul couldn't be left out so he got a BYU hat.

Vienna's butterfly 'flew' all during dinner

Bristol's pink flower - Grandma was supposed to be in the picture but Bristol
put the flower right in front of her face 

Pirate Island has an arcade and the girls desperately wanted to go and play the games. They were all a little too advanced (way to advanced) for the girls but they loved walking around and seeing everything. We let them ride on the carousel and go down the slide. On the way home Vienna said it was her best birthday ever!

Vienna rode the blue elephant - This was picture attempt 6 it took
that many to get her sort of smiling and kind of looking at the camera!



Bristol rode the Zebra- I only needed one try to get this great picture

Going down the slide