Brenna's ready for the water

Brenna's getting SO big.. 10% weight and 95% height at her 6 month check-up. Here are a few pictures of our little girl in her new swimming suit. (Yes, I'm addicted to embroidery)

Practicing her back-stroke

Lovin' it!

Legacy Park...

The weather in St. Louis has been showing signs of spring so we have been spending lots of time outdoors. Jacob loves being outside and we have trouble getting him inside every night. We are really enjoying our new neighborhood and all the friends that Jacob has here. Almost nightly there are kids are our driveway as we pull up wanting Jacob to play with them.

Brenna has been doing better in general. However, she is struggling with allergy induced asthma but the breathing treatments seem to be helping a lot.

We visited our local park with Jacob this past weekend and here are a few pictures...


Swinging away!

So much fun...

The best part was gathering sticks on our walk, the more the better

Looking at the water with Daddy

It was a long walk back..

Jacob's new toy

Jacob got a new toy from Nonna a few weeks ago. Yep, his very own John Deere Gator. Here's a few pictures of him riding it. For the record, I know he should be wearing a helmet!

Already has stuff in the back - the more to haul the better !

Beffa Family Gathering - March 2011

We all gathered at Matt's parents house yesterday to spend more time with baby Colin and Terri. It was a crazy afternoon. 14 of the 16 Beffa grandchildren were there along with lots of others. The kids had a blast, as always, playing with their cousins... both fell asleep on the way home. Mom and Dad wish we could have taken a nap too. Here are some pictures from the day..

Brenna before we left - too cute and happy not to get a picture! Aunt Katie and Brenna with Ashley and Colin

Aunt Katie with Brenna, Ashley with Colin and Matt with Jacob

5 of the 16 Beffa grandchildren

Uncle Pat with Brenna and her cousin

Aunt Michelle with Colin

Jacob playing the piano with his cousin

Having SOO much fun. These two are trouble!!

Both so tired they could take a nap.. just kidding!

Aunt Michelle playing with her niece and nephew.. they were having lots of fun!

Special Visitor.. all the way from Germany

We have had a very special visitor the last few weeks. Aunt Terri is in town from Germany with baby Colin!! Colin was born January 11, 2011. Therefore, he is roughly 3 months younger than Brenna. Here are a few pictures of Jacob, Brenna and Colin. We have had a great time getting to know Colin and spending time with Aunt Terri!

We can't wait for Terri's US wedding in June when we get to see the whole family again!

Colin (apx 2 months old) & Brenna (apx 5 months old)

Colin, Jacob and Brenna .. Doesn't Colin look so cute in his French outfit?? He's such a little European baby.. LOVE IT!!

Colin, Jacob and Brenna.. Jacob was trying to be small by curling up his feet.. LOL

St. Patrick's Day Parade

St. Patty's Day has always been one of my favorite holidays. I started going to the St. Patty's Day parade many years ago when Aunt Nicki and I were much younger and would go to the parade with her family. Now we are excited to be able to take our kids and start that tradition.

This year we went with Nonna, Aunt Nicki and her family, Uncle Steve and Aunt Crystal (our neighbors and friends) and a whole bunch of others. The kids had a blast and so did mom and dad. The weather was fabulous and we can't wait for next year!!

Brenna pre-parade in her green shirt from Nonna

The kids in their green!

Parade groupie's - Nat has Brenna and I think we found ourselves a new babysitter!

Aunt Nicki and Daniel

Aunt Crystal and Brenna - Bren fell asleep on Crystal and stayed there the entire parade. She must have been getting to know her soon-to-be boyfriend, Cameron. Cameron is due to join us on June 8th and we are very excited!!

Matt in charge at the judge's stand

Jacob and Nonna - lovin' some popcorn!

Jacob and Daniel - Daniel is thinking he would be better off out of that wagon

Jacob borrowing Natalie's hat.. he loves it!

This is how Brenna spent the entire parade!

This is how Jacob ended the parade.. he was so tired!

March Update

Sorry for the delay in posts. It seems like the last month has gone by in the blink of an eye. We've battled a few sicknesses around here. At last count we are at 6 ear infections and 2 strep throats in the last 6 weeks between both kids. Jacob accounts for 4 of those ear infections so we made a trip to the ENT. They ended up taking out the tubes that were put in when he was 9 months old because they were no longer in the right place. Given that he has had repeated ear infections in the last 8 weeks they believe he will likely need a second set of tubes. The dr is also recommending they take out his tonsils. Apparently our little man has abnormally large tonsils. We are waiting to see how he does over the next few months but will likely have them taken out prior to another winter.

I would love to say I think he's doing better but he came home sick again today with a slight fever .. hoping that it's not his throat! Brenna is doing better though - she recently had 2 ear infections and strep and just finished her medicine. We took her back to the doctor last week and other than her cough (which the dr said would likely not go away until Spring) she is doing great. Here are some pics from the last month...

My son trying to reach another life form - loves the bowl on his head

Just what mommy likes - daddy and Jacob cleaning. This is Jacob's favorite thing to do after dinner.

Brenna, all smiles! She is such a happy baby.

So sweet - sleeping in her swing

Brenna - 5 months old

We have been working on rolling over and sitting up.. she still does do either but we are hoping she starts soon.

Jacob - being a little ham for the camera

Such cute kids :)

Brenna's 4 months old!!

So time flies when you are having fun huh? Brenna has been doing better since she got out of the hospital. She went back to the doctor on Friday for her hospital follow-up and her 4 month checkup. The dr is happy with her progress and only hears a slight wheeze on her right side. We've cut back on the breathing treatments and she is going back to the babysitter tomorrow.

At 4 months old Brenna weighs 12 lbs and is in the 20th percentile for weight - this is up from 10th percentile at 8 weeks old. She is also 25 inches long - that puts her in the 75th percentile for height! To compare (which the doctor specifically told me not to do) Jacob weighed 14lbs and 3 ozs at 4 months old and was 25.5" in length.

Here are a few pictures from this week:

Jacob showing off for the camera..

Daddy giving Brenna a breathing treatment.. Brenna sleeping right through it all

Brenna getting ready to eat her first food. Not quite sure what to expect and is looking a little scared. I find it odd that with Jacob they specifically told me not to give him any food until he was at least 6 months old. Apparently there is new research that indicates that food allergies are avoided when introducing foods earlier. Squash here we come!
Looking sad.. Mom what are you doing to me?

Hmm.. maybe this is good!

Nope, initial reaction was right. This is not very good and I'm going to spit it at mom! LOL

Brenna's 4-Day RSV Hospital Stay

As most of you already know Brenna was admitted to the hospital last Sunday. We debated all day Sunday if we should take her in because she was worse than when we saw the doctor on Saturday. Finally at 6pm we called the doctor and described her symptoms. We were told to go to St. John's Children's Hospital for an evaluation.

Matt stayed home with Jacob and my mom and I headed in for what we thought would be a quick ER visit. Not so much.. We were admitted after they confirmed her oxygen levels were low. Not so bad timing as all the weather reporters were predicting a huge snow storm to hit St. Louis. Unfortunately, the mega-storm never came but our little girl had high respiratory rates (rapid breathing), low oxygen saturation levels and crackling and wheezing in her right lung.

The next few days revolved around supportive care including breathing treatments every two hours and oxygen. We tried several time to lower/eliminate her oxygen but she wasn't having it until Wednesday. Brenna was so good during it all - every nurse commented how happy she is and on the huge smiles she was giving them all no matter how much she was struggling.

We are home now and will follow-up with the doctor tomorrow (Friday). Below are a few pictures from the last 4 days.. they were taken with my phone so I apologize for the fuzziness.

Brenna and Nonna - Nonna was our only visitor since the weather predictions were horrible. Nonna was also nice enough to deliver my meals morning, noon, and night. Without her I would not have been eating as I was alone at the hospital with Brenna. Matt was hunkered down at the house with Jacob waiting for the storm to hit. For those of you that do not know, my mom is the director of surgery at St. Johns and was stuck at the hospital with hundreds of nurses, therapists, techs etc who did not leave for days based on the weather predictions.

Brenna so close to rolling over. She did do it once at the hospital but I think it was a fluke thing. Nothing like rolling over for the first time when you are in the hospital.


Happy baby with her oxygen

All smiles even sick!!

Thanks for all the prayers, calls, e-mails, etc while we were in the hospital. Also, thank you to our neighbors Steve and Crystal for feeding Matt and Jacob while we were in. A HUGE thank you to my mom for taking good care of us while we were there as well. Again, I will say we have the best pediatrician ever. He came to see us each day even when it was snowing or he had the day off. He would call us at night as well to make sure we were still okay. Dr. Bob is honestly the best and I owe him LOTS of cookies for taking care of our sickly children.