Audrey’s 1st Christmas

One wonderful thing about moving back to South Dakota is having the opportunity to be able to spend Christmas at home with family. This was especially relevant this year as it was Audrey’s very first Christmas.

We celebrated Christmas Eve with Dave’s family. It was the first time since before we moved to Texas that we were able to spend Christmas with Dave’s brother’s family. They happened to be back in South Dakota for Teresa’s sister’s wedding. It was fun spending the day with our niece Tiana (6) and nephew Tyler (2) and watching them and Audrey all play together. Christmas is always way better when your whole family is there. We were anxious to see how Audrey would take to tearing into her presents. I don’t think she quite understood the whole unwrapping part, but definitely enjoyed the toys underneath. She got busy playing with them right away.

For Christmas day we were off to my parent’s house. It’s nice that our parents’ houses are close together that we can hit both sides of the family easily. After some traditional Wahoo playing and a nap for Audrey, it was present time again. Would Audrey know what to do now? Well not so much, but she took a special liking to the bows. I don’t suspect they really taste good, but she must have thought so. And I couldn’t resist putting a bow on the best present we’ve received this year.

Santa

Today we took the 50 mile drive to Sioux Falls to go see Santa Claus. Now I realize that Audrey doesn't know anything about Santa, but we had to go for the experience and of course the photo opportunity. As we were standing in the never ending line, Audrey had fun watching all the kids play in the play area. The whole thing, including her anticipation of seeing Santa, must have been too exciting because when we were finally second in line, she puts her head down on my shoulder, thumb in her mouth, and wanted to go to sleep. I was like great, all this standing in line for her to sleep right before it's our turn. Luckily it all worked out and she was still awake when our wait ended. Of course the first thing she did when she sat on his lap was pull his beard. It would have been really funny if only it wasn't a real beard!!! She yanked poors Santa's white whiskers so hard, I swear tears were going to come out of his eyes! We'll have to leave him some extra cookies this year.

Surgery #2

That's right...surgery number 2 for our little Audrey. Luckily this one is way less sever than the first. Ever since she was born, Audrey's left eye has always been watery, goopy, and somewhat crusty which is the result of a blocked tear duct. So before the year is up and we start over on insurance deductibles, we thought we'd clear this up as well. On December 23rd, she will have a minor surgery to open up the membrane blocking the tear duct so that her eye will drain properly. Thankfully only a light anesthesia is used and the surgery only takes 10 minutes. The doctor said she should be good to go by the afternoon, so it still should be a Merry Christmas for our family. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers for a successful surgery and fast recovery on the 23rd.

All Bundled Up

As I mentioned, we moved to South Dakota at exactly the wrong time...right at the start of winter. At first the weather was playing a little bit of a game with us. It was freezing the day we moved into our rental house, but then warmed up nicely to the 70s the next week. However, it snowed the second week we were here and really hasn't stopped since. It's snowing right now even!! I don't think Audrey has quite figured out what all the fuss is about in the morning when we get her all bundled up to head out the door. She now gets to wear shoes to help keep her feet warm, which I think she actually thinks are pretty cool...at least she always plays with them once they are on her feet. And then there's the winter coat, but no stocking hat since she already has a built in one. However, I'm not quite sure how to get her ears covered up. We even had to buy her a new car seat because the straps were too tight when her coat was on. She's getting so big!!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear

Audrey has started to become obsessed with books right now. We have a basket in the living room that has all her toys and books and she likes to sit next to it so she can grab whatever she wants. She used to just take everything out of the basket one right after another and then look at us like “it’s empty, now what am I supposed to do?” However lately she goes straight for the books in there and one in particular, ‘Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See.’ No matter what other books are easier to get to, she always goes directly for that one. I don’t know how she can pick it out amongst all the other books in there, but somehow she does. As we read her that book, which I’ve memorized I’ve read it so much, she bounces up and down each time we turn the page. It is quite hilarious. However, when she is playing with them by herself, she gets frustrated when she can’t open all the pages and starts to whine a little. Dave and I get a chuckle out of it. It’s like she has a love hate relationship with them.

Professional Halloween Picture

So I just had to include the professional Halloween picture that I discussed because it turned out so darn cute!! Audrey even made the photographers blog talking about the event. I think we have a star in the making!!

Audrey's First Halloween

Audrey was a pink kitty for her first Halloween. It was actually a beautiful day outside (70 degrees), which is not the norm for South Dakota Halloweens. When I was little, I remember my mom sewing my costumes a size larger so that my winter coat would fit underneath! We didn't venture out trick or treating as I didn't think the households would appreciate giving out candy to a baby that couldn't even eat any of it. We did go get some pictures taken at a local photographer who was doing them for free as long as you donated 2 boxed food items that would be taken to the local women's shelter. I haven't seen them yet, but am exicted to see how they turned out. I of course had to take some myself just in case. Next year, we'll be trick or treating up a storm though...I can't wait!

Pumpkin Patch

In honor of Audrey's first Halloween, we took her to a local San Antonio Pumpkin Patch. Granted she couldn't do any of the fun kiddo stuff, I basically thought it would be cute to get some pictures of her with the pumkins. I have to admit they turned out extremely cute and I'm very glad we did it.

Moving Day

What else would we expect on moving day in South Dakota besides 30 degree weather and wind gusts between 30-60 mph! Yup, that's what we dealt with. Luckily we had some help from a guy Dave works with at Daktronics and my friend from college and her husband. With 8 people unloading, we got it done in 2 1/2 hours. Not too bad if you ask me. The house was a disaster though with everything from the truck everywhere in the house.

My mom is staying the week to help me get the house in order as Dave had to go back to work and head back to San Antonio two days after the move. I can't believe he found a way out of unpacking!! Lucky him! I'll find a way to return the favor though.

Getting Ready for the Move

My goodness it all happened so fast. We put our house on the market, but have only gotten one bite so far. All good comments, but unfortunately they just put their house on the market and would like it to sell before they commit to buy a new one. I have to say I was getting really tired of making sure the house was in showing condition every time I left. That is really hard to do with a 6 month old and all her toys!!!

My last day at KPMG was October 17th. It was a very sad day for me as I just wasn't ready to leave. I loved working there and all the people I worked with. I held back the tears for as long as I could, but by the end just couldn't hold on any longer. I'll definitely miss it.

We really couldn't start packing until right before we were going to load the truck in case we got a showing on the house, so the packing started at 1:00 on Monday October 20th. The plan was to have the truck loaded by Thursday night so it could take off first thing Friday morning. My parents were going to move us back to SD with their semi truck. They arrived in SA on Monday evening to help me pack and get the truck loaded. Believe it or not, we got the whole house packed and loaded by Thursday at 5:00. We were exhausted, but glad it was over. It is somewhat amazing what you accumulate in 4 1/2 years. When we moved down to San Antonio we filled the largest rental truck you can get and when we moved back to South Dakota we filled an entire semi truck!!!

It was hard driving away from the house that night knowing that we would never live there again. We both really loved that house and were really sad to say goodbye.

Audrey's New Helmet

On October 13th, Audrey received her 2nd of 3 helmets. We were lucky enough to get it before we moved back to SD. Her first one lasted 7 weeks, which is how long the first one usually lasts. The 2nd helmet should fit for approximately 5 months depending on how fast her head grows. It's amazing how quickly the helmet goes to fitting fine until it's really hard to get on! Clarisse decorated this one as well and did a wonderful job. I can't wait to see what she does with the last helmet!

Audrey's 6 Month Pictures

We're Moving!!!

Dave and I have decided to move back to South Dakota. I know you are probably all shocked, as are we. Everything happened really fast and most of the time I can't believe we are actually doing it. Let me give you the run down of how this happened.

Weekend of August 30th - Dave and I were talking and I told him that if the Daktronics Corporate headquarters (located in Brookings, SD) called him and wanted him to come back to SD to work, that I wouldn't be opposed to moving back. This was the biggest step of this whole process for us. As probably most of you know, I always said that I would never move back to SD, but it's amazing what having a child will do to you. What made me ultimately tell Dave this was that I was really tired of the long commute from home to work and vice versa. I would spend an hour in the morning before work and an hour and a half after work on the road with dropping off and picking up Audrey at daycare. Many times I would sit in the car and be thinking that I could be spending this time with her instead of sitting in my car. By the time we got home, Dave and I would only have an hour and a half with her before she would be in bed. Time is too precious at her age to waste!

Wednesday September 3 - Dave sends me a text that says "Internal Audit Director position at Daktronics." I texted him back asking him what he was trying to tell me. You see, he had been wanting to move back to SD for quite a while, but just never said anything because he knew that I didn't want to. He took me telling him I would be OK with moving back as a green light to go see what was available. Well this position was absolutely perfect for me and he knew he would have no problems transferring to corporate.

Friday September 5 - I talked to Shelia Anderson on the phone. She was the contact person on the open position. She explained to me that this was a new position for them and the person who gets the job would basically be creating the Internal Audit department. I was very excited about this opportunity. After our very informal phone conversation, she invited me up to SD for an interview.

Thursday September 18 - I headed up to SD for my Friday interview at Daktronics. I met with the CFO and 2 Controllers. All interviews went great as they offered me the position before I left.

Tuesday September 30 - I officially accepted the position as Internal Audit Director at Daktronics.

Talk about quick!! As you can see, this all happened in ONE MONTH!!! Call us crazy because I'm beginning to think we're nuts!

Audrey's Helmet

Six days after her surgery, Audrey got her first helmet. She will probably have 3 helmets in total as she will out grow them. We gradually let her get used to wearing it through four hour intervals. The first day she wore it one hour and had it off for 3 hours. Each day we added an hour wearing it. By Saturday she was wearing it for the required 23 hours a day. She gets an hour break each night for a bath and a little play time. Her head sweats pretty good in the helmet and it gets a little smelly. So while she gets a bath, her helmet gets a good washing.

As the helmet is clear plastic, a couple of my friends decided to decorate it up for her. Julie and Clarisse came over one night and painted it pink and added some stickers and rhinestones. Every little girl needs a little bling! They did a terrific job and I get lots of comments on how cute the helmet is. Thanks Julie and Clarisse!!!

Surgery

August 14th came really fast and before we knew it, we were sitting in the pre-op area of University Hospital at 6:00am. Audrey was asleep in her car seat and had no clue what was going to happen. Then the nurses, anesthesiologists, and doctors started coming in to see how we were doing, going over the procedure, and asking us if we had any questions. Audrey woke up and was started "talking" away. I guess she thought she'd charm the doctors first. It made us laugh, which was great considering the situation.

I have to say that the anesthesiologists and doctors made me feel so good about everything. I am the first to admit that I am a very emotional person and I didn't cry at all while she was in surgery. Dave said that's what they are supposed to do. I told him that they are very good at what they do then.

The surgery only lasted 42 minutes!! After the surgery she was taken to the PICU where she was going to spend the night and where we got to see her for the first time, which was about 2 hours after they took her to surgery. I have to say that it's a really scary thing to see your beautiful baby laying in a big hospital crib attached to monitors. The doctors said the surgery went perfectly and she was doing great.

The day of surgery was a really long one. There was about 3 hours where Audrey was crying pretty constantly before the morphine kicked in. But once it did, she started doing great and we were able to leave by noon the next day.

She looked pretty rough a for a couple days following surgery. We thought she looked like she was in a boxing match. As the days progressed, she started looking more like herself and was back to her old self. You would never have guessed she had surgery days before.

Craniosynostosis

On July 9th, Audrey was diagnosed with a condition known as Sagittal Craniosynostosis. When babies are born, the skull is divided into 5 different areas. The spaces in between the areas are called sutures. The divisions allow the head to grow as the brain grows. Audrey's sagittal suture, the one on the top of her head, had prematurely closed. What this was doing was causing her head to grow thin and long instead of round and thus putting pressure on her brain.

We were referred to a neurosurgeon here in San Antonio named Dr. David Jiminez. We were completely stunned when we were told she needed to have surgery. The thought never crossed our mind that surgery was even a possibility. We thought the worst would be that she'd have to wear a helmet for a while and that's it. We walked out of his office in a complete daze and I was crying all night long.

Once the shock wore off a bit, we finally sat down and discussed our options. It turned out that Dr. Jiminez pioneered a new way of doing this surgery that is less invasive with a very short recovery period. There would only be two small incisions on her head and they would use endoscopes and basically a specialized pair of scissors to re-open the suture. She would then be required to wear a helmet for a year. The other option would be to make an incision from ear to ear, pull back the scalp and re-build the skull. After thinking about these two options, the decision was obvious. Surgery was scheduled for August 14th with Dr. Jiminez.

Audrey's First Swim

Audrey had her first dip in the pool at 3 months old. First we had to sunbathe on the deck and once we got in, I think she quite enjoyed it. She was smiling and kicking the water. We had such a great time, it complely wiped her out.

Hollywood Audrey

After we left the hospital, Audrey got a touch of jaundice. The pediatrician said that we had to sit with her in indirect sunlight. So we found a window that the sun was shining in and let her bathe in the sun. She loved it! I guess the warmth of the sun felt great. I couldn't help putting on her shades while she sunbathed. Our little Hollywood baby.

First Airplane Trip

Audrey took her first airplane ride at 5 weeks old. I believe my first airplane ride occured when I was 16...oh how things have changed. The trip was up to South Dakota to meet more of her family. The flight attendent even gave her a certificate for her first flight; however it was made out to Andrey Hoff instead of Audrey Hoff and said she flew from Sant Antonio instead of San Antonio. Oh well, it was very thoughtful. They even gave her a shout out over the speaker system!


I was a quite worried how she would take act on the plane...everyone dislikes those crying babies aboard planes. She was a perfect angel on the way there and slept the whole time. Dave and I were able to pass her back and forth when our arms got tired, so that was nice. That was not the case on the return flight. Dave had to go back before I did to return to work, so it was all me on the return. Let me just preface this by saying she still had not kicked the nightime "crying fits" prior to this return flight. I think she cried pretty much the whole time through all 3 legs of the flight. It was miserable and I was exhausted by the time we got back to San Antonio. I don't think I have ever been so happy to get home.

Crying Fits

You always hear about those babies that cry all night long and you never ever think that yours will do that. Until of course yours does that. I'm not sure what it is about 9:00, but that's when Audrey decided that she was not happy and started screaming for approximately 2 hours straight. We were taking car rides to get her sleeping, which would work, but as soon as we got her in the house, she started screaming again. We didn't know what to do until we got a suggestion from our friend Mindy. She told us to buy one of those big exercise balls and while holding Audrey, bounce up and down. Let me tell you, it was like the magic ball!!! As soon as we started bouncing, the crying would stop. It was absolutely the best thing ever. Who would have thought an exercise ball was good for anything besides sitting in a corner collecting dust! Thanks Mindy!!!

The Beginning

Well I finally decided to join the "in crowd" and start a blog as I figured it would be a good way to document all the things that go on in our family. So I guess I'll start at the beginning...of our family that is.


On March 22nd, 2008 our lives changed forever. I know that sounds cheesy and everybody says it, but it is soooo true. That is when we welcomed our beautiful baby girl Audrey Marie into this world. She came an unexpected 2 weeks early, but it was a wonderful surprise and those who know me, know that I don't usually welcome surprises. Arriving at 5:41am, she let us know from the start how little sleep we would get those first couple of months. I swear we got a total of 10 hours the first 3 days combined!! It's amazing how you learn to function off of so little sleep so fast! Audrey weighed in at 7lbs 11 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long...perfect if you ask me.