Amazing Eye Transformation

I know this is a bit overdue, but wanted to quick post a little pic display of Shelby's amazing eye transformation....and also give thanks for this whole process. You all know I had my doubts about the outcome that first day of surgery, but to see the progress her eyes made in just one short week...well, it's awesome to say the least. So, thank you Lord for that! :) Above is her "day before surgery eyes" :)
This is the night of surgery...not quite filled will blood, but starting to look a tad bit scary esp. after all the vomiting :(
post-op day 1...more redness :(
post-op day 2...even more redness?
post-op day 3....still very red :(
also post-op day 3...obviously those painful looking eyes didn't stop her from enjoying a tasty treat from Dave and Heather and fam! :)
post-op day 4 (Vet's Day :))....finally we can see some whites in the side of those eyes! YAY!
post-op day 5....starting to look normal again...double YAY!

post-op day 6! Even better!
Post-op day 7! Tired of mama taking "eye pics", but check them out...awesome!
post-op day 8...what a beauty!
And above are the 2 pics I took at her surgery recheck appt at Riley last Monday....Dr. N. was super pleased with her healing progress and the fact that she appears to have NO more eye turns! Yay, a surgery success! (this is post-op day 9!)
And here's a couple pics of some more of the super generous gifts of friends and family. Above is her line-up of beetles (old and new)....kudos to Nina and Poppy Stegs for finding 2 new VERY cool big beetles (the white and yellow ones)! She LOVES her BUG CARS! :) And can't wait to ride in a REAL one in FL next month with Auntie Lein's mom! :)
Big hugs go out to our BBF's Dave and Heather and future husband Ethan :) (and sisters-to-be Abby and Emily :)) for the sweet cards they made for Shelby and all the goodies that brought over that Sunday after surgery. We all enjoyed the delicious cupcakes and she keeps her new "get well bear" on her bed every day to make her smile. Plus she LOVES flowers and still has these pretty red roses (with 2 cool balloons) sitting in her room (even though they've been dried up and dead for a week!) :)
LOL! Too bad these scary eyes weren't around for Halloween! She could have done away with the princess costume and been some kind of scary creature from a Scooby movie! :) LOL! That's our Shelb...she's got such a vibrant personality during the recovery process! :) Special thanks to her best bud, Cami, for this super cute reindeer animal she gave Shelby to cheer her up and the very cute Coconut (AG) card she made for her.
A big shout-out thanks to Auntie Mary and Great-Grandma G. and Nina and Pops in FL for the fun goodie package of DVD's (and candy) that they sent! Shelby loved her new Tink movie and even though the 2 Scooby movies were supposed to be for Dylan and Hailey, she claimed them as her own! She's a sucker for gifts and when asked about her surgery she said she do it again (probably thanks to all the gifts!!) LOL!
Also, special thanks to our MI friends, Josh and Ann and fam. for the fun Mickey card and tatooos. Shelb and Dylan loved "stamping" themselves! :) And below is a very fun rhyming book from Hailey's "old" teacher, Mrs. T...isn't she sweet for cheering up our Shelby girl too! And somehow we've misplaced the very special card that our wonderful neighbor, Maddie, made for our Shelby (I have a feeling Shelby hid it in a special place in her room :)). Mad brought over her lovely card after surgery and then took the time to sit and play AG dolls with Shelb for the longest time. Jake (her bro) even came over and played AG dolls too, but he'd probably deny that if you asked him. So, special thanks to them as well for making our Shelby feel like she was back to normal in the midst of her scary eye recovery.
So, there ya' go...proof that the surgery was a success! And so far we've not noticed any eye turns....and no more crossed eyes either (phew!). The doc actually said he was glad to hear she had crossed eyes those first few days as overcorrecting immediately post-op usually means that surgery was a success. We are so grateful for Shelby's speedy recovery and we have cherished all your thoughts, prayers, gifts, emails, etc. And I'm glad to say that after one more eye recheck in Indy in 2 more months it looks like we can go back to regular 6 month visits at the IU opthamologist (yay, no more long drives!!!). There's still a 50/50 chance she'll need a repeat surgery in early adulthood...but for now it looks like her childhood eye surgery was a raging success! Soooo happy about that!

I wish I had time to sit and write everyone back, but please know how much we treasure you all. It goes w/o saying that we are so blessed by all of you. Some of you know how "hairy" things have been for us lately....so I apologize for the lack of blogging and coorespondence lately. Between Nutcracker practices and "other stuff" going on I just can't get caught up. But, we are still alive and kicking! :)

Halloween Pics (finally!) :)

Just a "few" Halloween pics to brighten the day :)
Yes, the dad (and the mom) of the house actually handmade Ashley's costume :) We were proud of ourselves! I got the idea last Halloween to dress Ash up like a cupcake this Halloween. I think I saw a cute handmade costume in Family Fun magazine...but for the life of me I could not find it again this year when the time came. But, I was very excited when the Pottery Barn Kids catalog came in the mail and there was this cute cupcake costume on the cover. Of course, I'm too cheap (aka Dutch thrifty) to pay $60 for a costume, so instead we improvised and bought some cheap flannel and sewed to our heart's content. Of course, this all occurred the eve before Halloween since we had no time this October due to our crazy lives, cruise, etc.....Thankfully daddy took a home-ec class in high school so he did a good portion of the sewing. What a great daddy/hubby we have! And does he look excited or what to be sewing on Halloween morning!? :) We were also glad to have our bear model since Ash did not want us constantly trying her costume on her. I think the end result was pretty good for two novices. And it only cost us $6! :) Nice.
And because we were so last minute this year we also had only about an hour on Halloween to quickly carve and decorate 3 pumpkins. Thankfully the kids picked an easy one for dad to do. Hailey used our light-bright lights on one and I did a sad rendition of a pumpkin face on another. As you can see all the kids liked digging out the "gutts" :) Dylan grew bored quickly...but the girls were a great help...even Ash! :)
Ash really got into it....she was very curious :)
Here's where Dylan disappeared and the girls took over :)
And then Ash got very curious....and took her first bite of pumpkin! :) She LOVED it....
...and ate and ate and ate :) (yes, she is our BEST eater!) :)
I had to post this above pic not only cuz Hailey did a great job digging out the seeds and stuff, but because she definitely cannot hide that she is a ballerina (plus she had just come from ballet). Just look at her good posture!
A funny pic of my 4 with all our pumpkins. Can you tell some of us Stegs have sun-sensitive eyes?! :)
"Grandma's Lil' Pumpkin" :) (one of the very cute Halloween bibs from Nina Stegs) :)
Ash chowing on our festive Halloween meal, "Bats and Cobwebs"...yumm! :)
And then it was time to get the kids dressed. Hailey was our Geisha girl :) I loved her costume...it's one of my favs of all her costumes thus past. Love that green on her. It was perfect timing that ballet was that morning cuz we just left her hair in a bun and stuck 2 chopsticks in it. Walah! My beautiful girl!
We also called her the "goofy geisha" (can you guess why?) :)
Gotta love her!
Don't let the ballet talent and smart-ness fool you...she is a ham underneath! :)
But, a pretty one at that :)
This was actually after trick-or-treating...but you know me and all my pics and poses and angles :)
She even points her toes when she's sitting! :)
And our little man. God bless him! I love him so much. He was our Funny Fighter Pilot! :)
He brings new meaning to the word "fighter pilot" Check out those "guns"! :)
This is the "I have to pee badly" fighter pilot pose :)
And here's the handsome man under the mask :) He's my Handsome! :) (that's what I call him, My Handsome) :)
He's my sweet boy
LOL...this mask cracks me up...and he was a good sport and wore it part of the night. Look at those big blue eyes shining through. I was so glad this costume finally fit him. I got in on clearance at KMart like 2 years ago. We've waited forever to use it! It was so cute.
And then there's our fairytale princess Shelby. I loved her costume too. Very elegant and a few people said she looked like an American Girl, which she loved to hear :) She ended up being grumpy about her outfit cuz all of a sudden she wanted to be a ballerina the day before Halloween (and she doesn't even like ballet)...but we had bought this costume on clearance the year before cuz she really wanted it then.....so she HAD to wear it. She ended up loving it....and looked beautiful.
My pretty girl :)
I love this face :) I can't wait til those eyes are shining bright like that again...they are almost there! :)
And here's our lil' chocolate cupcake with pink icing and sprinkles :) I was mad at myself cuz as we were finishing up trick-or-treating I realized I never put her white ruffle-collared shirt on under her costume so it would look like she had whipped cream under he neck. Oh well, a mama of four can't remember everything I guess :) I'll let that be my excuse. But, it would have looked even cuter with that white shirt under!
Is she not sweet or what? And I have to admit this was the easiest photo session ever. She smiled and sat so quietly...usually she's too chatty and on-the-go. She didn't even smudge her make-up too much and she wore the headpiece/headband almost all night w/o fussing :) What a good Cupcake!
I love this scrunchy-nose face!
She LOVES pumpkins too! Especially the lil' ones!
Golly, I love this baby...even with her tongue hanging out!

And she LOVES this kitty trick-or-treat bag from Nina and Poppi in FL. It's staying out all year cuz she loves it sooooo much...carries it around all the time in the crook of her elbow :) Thanks, Nina and Pops!
The Gang plus Urkel :) (aka our fav. Maddie girl/friend/babysitter/neighbor...is her costume hilarious or what?!). I never got a pic of them all w/o one of them with their eyes closed. So, this was the best shot I got! She fits right in with our 4 doesn't she?!
Urkel and the Cupcake....the dynamic duo. We were so thankful to have Maddie along for the evening...she was a great help with Dylan and Ash. She's a wonderful gal and we love her.
Me and my lil' sweetie :) Apparently the white shirt under Ashley's costume wasn't the only thing I forgot this night....I apparently never put on any make-up. This rarely happens, esp. when I'm public...but oh well. I just plum forgot. Good thing I had a small amount of tan left from the cruise! :)
The whole trick-or-treat/neighborhood gang....it was great fun to run around the blocks with all of them! (our 4, plus Urkel Maddie, Princess Leia Hope, Ben (can't remember what he was? A Power Ranger?), Harry Potter Seth and Doctor Riley
And then it was time to Trick-or-Treat....the Pilot was off like a flash of light to get some candy! You'd think he'd be the kid that came home with the MOST candy, but all he wanted to do at each house was carefully go through their bowls and find just the RIGHT candy and then look at it afterwards in the driveway for like 5 minutes and show it off to all of us. :) It was pretty funny....and it really slowed him down...but he didn't care.
Ash was lazy for awhile and took a nice leisurely wagon ride
But, that was short-lived...she mostly just wanted to RUN everywhere! And RUN she did...with her little kitty trick-or-treat bag in hand and her tongue out the whole time!
LOL! She's the funniest baby...I love this age!
Urkel and the Princess helped Ash get to a couple front doors....but mostly she just wanted to jog the sidewalks....
...about halfway through she needed a nap (yes, she laid down right on the sidewalk) :) Have I mentioned that she is a hoot lately. She has quite the personality on her.
And then it was back in the wagon...the only way she would stay in there was if I gave her candy....so she ate and ate and ate......lollipops were her fav! This one lady saw our cute, tired cupcake from her house and ran out in her socks to let Ash have a whole handful of candy...and raisins. Ash loved that!
Me and my two babies :) You can see what was on Dylan's mind...he was all about candy....as was lollipop-lickin' Ash!
Non-make-uped mama and her girl....awww, she's the sweetest cupcake around!
Finally it was dark....and by this time we were almost done trick-or-treating. Ash went through about a half dozen dum dums :)
the Pilot soon grew tired too and wanted a snack so he shared a ride with lil' sister :)
And then it was time to go though the loot back at home! LOL! Look at Dylan's face! Are those "Gimme Candy!" eyes or what?!
Ash and her lil' stash. She worked hard for all that! :)
Shelby and her large mound!
Hailey and her organized groupings :) (reminds me of myself and how I used to make lil' piles of everything too...like mama like daughter, I guess :)) And then it was time to go to our backyard neighbor's house for some hot chocolate/cider. Yumm! Dylan tried his first hot choc...he liked it, no surprise there! :)
It was a great night had by all! Actually it was one of the most relaxing Halloweens ever. It probably helped that it fell in on a Saturday. And would you believe almost all our candy is gone. Shame on us treat-lovin' Stegs! :)