Madison has been taking dance lessons and she had her first recital a few weeks ago. She would run down the stairs and wave to us. I love how in the picture all the little ballerina's are doing their own thing. The whole time I had to restrain Emerie from climbing on the stage with her big sister.
Almost two months ago I had a procedure done called an ablation. An ablation is a procedure used to treat serious, irregular, or rapid heart rhythms. Here is a summary of the procedure. They advance several flexible catheters into the femoral vein or jugular vein and move them towards the heart. High-frequency electrical impulses are used to induce the arrhythmia and then they ablate (burn or destroy) the abnormal tissue causing the bad rhythm. My exact diagnosis was, paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT). This is a rapid rhythm of the heart which involves an accessory pathway. We discovered this condition when we moved to Columbus and I started playing basketball. When I would exercise my heart would start racing really fast and I couldn't catch my breath. I would also have smaller episodes throughout the day. At first I thought I was just super out of shape after having two kids so close in age. After wearing a heart monitor for a month they discovered that my heart would start into a bad rhythm and beat over 220 beats per minute. The length of the episodes would vary but when I had an episode with my girls walking home from the park I knew it was time to get it fixed. The main short term risks of this condition are passing out. They do have medications however I didn't want to manage medications through any future pregnancies. I was very, very scared to get the procedure done however we knew it was the right thing.
The procedure lasted several hours and the most painful part was getting the IV since I have such bad veins. They even had to call in the specialist with the ultrasound machine and even he missed. I was awake during the procedure (they did give me some type of sedative to make me sleepy) and I did feel some really weird sensations in my heart. I do remember the doctor yelling,"Stop, stop, stop..." He apologized after he realized he scared me. I am sure they forget we can hear what is going on. We were at the hospital from about 7am until 4pm. Thanks to wonderful friends for watching our sweet girls and for all the meals while I recovered. Jake was able to take some time off work and he even passed up an amazing golf opportunity that weekend while spending extra time with the girls ;) My heart has been feeling great and it is so good to exercise without feeling like my heart is out of control!
The picture I posted is of one the most beautiful sunsets that I have ever seen. It was even more amazing in person! I put this picture with this post because I love all the rays of light that come through the dark clouds. It seems whenever we go through a hard time the "rays of light break through". Cheesy I know, but I really do feel blessed that everything went well and so grateful for modern medicine that can perform these crazy procedures:)
This year we had a few different Halloween costumes! For months Madison wanted to be a princess kitty cat, then it was a fairy, then princess kitty cat, then at the last minute, 
Sleeping Beauty:) Luckily we had the kitty costumes from my sister Becky and Madison's cute preschool friend had an extra Sleeping Beauty costume on hand. So... for the ward party the girls were fairies, Sleeping Beauty for the preschool party, and they were both warm kitty cats for the cold Halloween night. They loved trick or treating and ate lots of candy all along the way! 
Here are some fun pictures of some Halloween decorations we had this year. The bats on the shelf are painted pumpkins and the ones hanging from the ceiling are made from strips of paper. What a fun holiday to decorate for!
bears that were born and raised in our Toledo Zoo. Ohhh, we felt such a bond to the bears when we found out. Madison has lots of pictures of her with the same bears in Toledo.
This week we had our preschool Halloween party! The kids loved singing songs, playing games, reading storries and eating ice cream! What a cute bunch!
One of our favorite things in the fall is apple picking. There is a great farm not to far from us with yummy apples and fun hay rides. The girls love it. Oh how I love fall!
Fall is here and one of my favorite things about fall is pumpkin. I love pumpkin bread, cookies, pie, and one of my recent favorites is
pumpkin smoothies. Madison and Emmie have become big fans too but we can't convince Jake of their yummy goodness yet (he isn't a big pumpkin fan). But if you like pumpkin this is a good one. I found a recipe at http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/pumpkin-smoothie/Detail.aspx . I don't follow the recipe exactly but just make it to taste. You put some pumpkin puree (from the can) in the freezer, then soften it up a bit in the microwave (so the blender can handle it better, unless you have a really good blender:) then you add milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, we add vanilla coffee creamer (a very handy ingredient for many recipes) and some brown sugar. So good and it feels somewhat healthy:) Happy Fall!
At the end of last month we took an epic journey to New England to visit some family and explore the area. Aunt Shann and Uncle Larry were tremendous hosts letting us, and our energetic children, crash at their home in Boston for a few days and their summer home on Cape Cod for the rest of the week.
The sites and sounds of the big city were new and exciting for all of us, especially the girls. We spent one entire day at the Boston Children's Museum with Jenny's old roommate Mel and her new baby. It is four floors of excitement for kids of all ages. The exhibits were fun for all the children, I include myself here!
Tuesday morning of our vacation Uncle Larry escorted us to their summer home on Cape Cod. He made showed us techiniques for catching minnows, crabs and clams on the beach in front of the house. After making sure that we were all settled safely in he headed back to Boston for some business. Thanks Larry and Shann for going so far out of your way to make our week unforgetable.
The weather was great and we spent each day exploring different parts of the cape. We loved seeing all the coastal wildlife, lighthouses and sailboats. We took a ferry ride to Martha's Vineyard to gawk at the mansions and eat incredible ice-c
ream. It was a fantastic finish to our great summer.
Madison has a cute little preschool group that she goes to once a week. A few weeks ago it was at our house and we talked about the letter C. We made cardboard cars and the kids learned the importance of following rules and directions. They all took turns holding up their red, yellow, and green lights to tell the cars when to stop, go, or slow down. It was so fun to watch them run along the road we built on our kitchen floor. They also sang the following car song (tune to BINGO) Look at my bright shinny car I am driving today-o C-A-R (beep! beep!) C-A-R (beep! beep!) C-A-R beep beep, I'm driving it today-o. 
Madison loves to help cook! I made her this cute little apron to help control the mess such a good little helper makes! Emerie now likes to pull up a chair to the counter and help Madison. Trouble, trouble, trouble... 
