Annabelle’s Official (online) Birthday Invitation

So here it is!! I’m obviously not very “early” with this invitation, but I’m busy, what can I say!

*slight change of plans*

At the moment, we have decided to change the location to my sister’s house. It is only about five minutes from were we live, so this isn’t a huge change, but her house is bigger and there’s a good chance it will be too hot/too wet to have it inside. Regardless, we’ll give directions/address to those who RSVP!

*NOTES*

For Annabelle’s sake, we ask the following:

• Please don’t attend if you’ve been sick within the previous 48 hours
• Please don’t attend if you’ve been around with (i.e. had sick kids) in the last week (you might be contagious… just without symptoms yet)
• While one-on-one, I’ve let people hold Annabelle… in this setting, only Scott, myself, and our family members will be holding Annabelle to try and minimize germs, so this won’t be a “pass the baby” kind of party! 🙂
• Kids are MORE than welcome! If we can have it outside… we’ll have a few games for them!
• We LOVE hand sanitizer and hand washing!
• A few out-of-towners have asked for our address to send cards. You can e-mail me at krista @ kristaphillips dot com … I’m not going to give out *our* address, but have an alternate address you can send it to. PLEASE do not feel obligated by any means, but just wanted to mention it since quite a few had asked about it.

That’s it!

If you are planning on coming, please RSVP as soon as you can so we can have a count. We’ll be having cake/icecream/finger foods.

**Annabelle Update**

She is doing FANTASTIC!!!!!!! I think she KNOWS her birthday is coming because, well, her progress is AMAZING!

Her clinic visit on Friday was amazing. Doctor said her echo looked even BETTER. Previous echos still showed slightly depressed left ventricle function, but it was improving a little every time. This time, it improved enough to be just about “normal.”

And I really think this is helping her oxygen levels too! This morning, I turned her down to 1/8th of a liter and she is satting WONDERFUL at 91%.

We’ve been working more on sitting up, and I can really tell she is getting stronger. When she sits in her Jumperoo… she used to kinda lean forward and rest against the side immediately. Now, she sits up straight without leaning for the first 15 minutes or so.

We have her PT and OT evaluations coming up soon too! I’m SO excited to have “professionals” helping me with this again, instead of me just winging it when I get time! More trips into Nashville aren’t going to be fun (it’s a 45 minute drive…) but we are down to once a week clinic visits so that makes up for it I guess! And *maybe* we can schedule it on the same day, we shall see!

OH! And another HUGE good thing! When we came home from the hospital this last time, we were on 20 medications. And most of those were 2 or 3 times a day meds. I am pleased to say we are now down to 14… with one most likely coming off week after next to make it 13! Most of the 13 are probably going to stay for a while… but it makes drawing up meds SO SO SO much easier to handle, and less room for errors!

She still has her horrible diaper rash. I’m going to talk to her pediatrician this week since it’s been many weeks with no improvement. Please pray about this too. I know it sounds silly, a diaper rash, but because she is on so many meds, hers tend to be worse than normal, and they bleed VERY badly and are very painful for her. This is NOT your normal diaper rash.

**Rest of the family update*

We are all doing well! Had a “clean the house” party yesterday with me and the girls while daddy went to work and celebrated it being *almost* done with pizza last night which the girls loved.

I’ve started writing a new book. All the other books that are “in progress” are sequels to one of the two completed books I already have, so I decided for now to put them aside and start something fresh. My brain needed something new anyway! Don’t have a lot of time to write… mostly after everyone is in bed but then I’m tired too!!! But I feel SO SO SO good having started a new project! I’ll probably have to set it aside for editing at some point soon, but I’d love to get as much done on it as I can in the mean time.

Still doing some consulting work for my previous employer. Every little bit helps.

Scott is still looking for a job. I’ve told God I’m ready. Up until now, I kinda “wanted” him home to help with the adjustment, but felt selfish from a money standpoint. Now, I think we’re all ready! Although Annabelle’s birthday week is going to be BUSY… so maybe God is just getting us through that. I’m okay with that… (I think God is up there shaking his head and chuckling… “Krista, you think I need your blessing on my plans? Hmmm??? Silly girl! No worries, I know what I’m doing. I am God afterall.”)

OH! And I just have to tell you, remember Gabriella’s announcement about her “dresses” I posted last week? Well, everyday since then, she’s pretty much stuck to her dress schedule. Part of me wants to tell her to stop, it’s wasteful and she needs to pick one outfit a day and wear it. But it’s just TOO funny. I’m enjoying watching her stop and say, “Oh, wait, I must put on my breakfast dress!” TOO CUTE!

So, that is a Phillips’ family summary!

Have a FANTASTIC Sunday and week!