More pics of family visit!

We are SO enjoying having family in town and the raucous excitement it brings to our little home.    :)  It is going to seem SO lonely and empty once everyone leaves, and Mia's going to feel bereft and alone with out her cute cousins to fuss and coo over her!  lol

Sara loves getting as close to baby Mia as possible and is so cute with her!

Quote of the day was from Claes as Sofia was climbing all over him on the LoveSac - "This girl's about as graceful as a tank!"

Sara and Sofia reading one of their new books with Grandma.

Putting their "piggies" together for goodnight kisses.  Cute book with awesome illustrations by Don and Audrey Wood - "Piggies".

Mia enjoying chilling with Uncle Claes.

Fun little Halloween week outfit.  :)

Playing at the pool - Sara and Fia "cleaning" around the pool with sticks.

while grandpa, mama Nikki, grandma, and cousin Mia look on

Sofia and Sara looking at the HUGE grasshopper Sara found and brought to show her mom - which elicited horrified screams from Nikki, grandma and me!

grandpa, Mia, and grandma chilling by the pool

Claes - the best dad in the world - getting the grasshopper for Sara to take home.  Quote of the day from Sara, "It's dead so we can take it home.  If it was alive we would have to leave it here.  But it's not.  It's dead.  So we can take it home."

Sara was SO excited to loose her wiggly tooth in Texas!  It was her first tooth and the American tooth fairy gave her TEN DOLLARS!!!  Wow, MY tooth fairy never delivered like THAT!  :)

Sofia and Sara with their pumpkins - faces drawn on and ready to be carved the next day

the fam preparing for dinner - Zeus cooked up some DELICIOUS enchiladas that everyone LOVED and devoured!

Mia's little cleft lip pumpkin - we didn't carve it cause it was so little!  Sara picked it out for her and I drew the face.  :)

Mia snuggling Uncle Michael and trying to charm him into giving her a cousin or three...  ;)

My sister Nik and her beautiful family - Nik, Sofia, Claes and Sara

Sofia and papa Claes, and Sara and mama Nikki carving pumpkins

Sofia's gooey fingers from digging out the guts

Sofia and Sara were WAY excited to help me give Mia her bath

they helped get Mia VERY clean and had fun rinsing her off with water and scrubbing her with wet cotton balls... I told Nik she should have another one since she had such great helpers... she declined to comment... 

Mia trying to touch the water - little cutie pie

clean snuggles with mama after bath time

Zeus called today to try and reschedule Mia's surgery at the hospital here in town. We heard back from Shriner's and they wanted to have a preliminary meeting with us on the same day - November 10th.  Shriner's will do Mia's lip and palate surgery for free.  FREE.  It would be such a blessing to not have the financial burden, but our primary concern is that Mia receives the best possible surgery and care.  So, we are going to drive down to Houston next week to meet with their team and see how we feel about it.  The team here is going to see if/what's available in December and get back to us, so we will be driving to Houston the original surgery day instead to meet with the Shriner's team. It is such a scary decision. After the fiasco tonight with getting her NAM in, I'm ready to have had the surgery last week, but then I think, we've already been doing this for 3 1/2 months, what's a month or two more in the grand scheme of things?SO many more pictures to share, but it's just after midnight and I need to get some sleep.  More pics soon of our fun "trunk-or-treating" and all three girls all dressed up in their Halloween costumes.

On a happier note, Mia's started giggling more regularly and it is SUCH a joyous sound!!! :) We took a ton of pics of her and her cousin's in their Halloween get up. It was funny because when Sofia asked where Mia's costume was and I showed her Mia's skeleton outfit, she said as we were walking back down the hall, "Mia is NOT nice. Sara and I are nice, but Mia is NOT nice." It took me a second to realize that she thought Mia's costume was mean/scary. lol I told her that Mia's LOOKED scary, but it was really a NICE skeleton. ;) She said, "Ok," and trotted off to the next thing. Silly kids!

Mia pics and video

Sorry, but we just can't get enough of her, and now that mommy's feeling a little better, prepare yourself for mass Mia picture posting!  :)

Holy Hannah does a having a baby change your whole view of packing for a trip!  How many bags and items did we check for our little Mia?  Can you say FOUR?!?!  Car seat, stroller, diaper bag, and big black duffel bag with diapers, wipes, blankets, outfits, socks, hair bows, and a thousand misc items of necessity.  Oh my!

Our little family heading out on our first family flight/trip to Seattle for Michael and Deena's wedding.

Mia's first flight and a little smile caught on video.  Mia did great on the flights to and from Seattle and just chilled on mommy's pillow on either mama's or papa's lap.  Such a great baby!!!

Yay! - cooler Seattle weather means we can finally use some of the cute long sleeved outfits we were given!

Our little family on our first "cruise", a boat ride to an island in Seattle, dinner on an island and then a ride back.  All bundled up on the chilly ride over.  I think Mia liked the rocking of the boat.  :)  Thanks to Auntie Brienne who's cousin hooked us all up.  We were able to go on the $80 a person tour for only $20 a person - woooo whoooo!!!!  Smokin' hot deal!!!

Our little cutie pie, all bundled up and wide awake in mama's arms.  Love those big brown eyes!

Oh, and there WERE other people from the family on the trip.  :) 

Newlyweds Deena and Mike (oh, and us in the background).  :)

Grandma snuggling on grandpa, Uncle Kevin, and Uncle Dan and Auntie Brienne with Dan doing his sexy "kissy lips" pose once again.  :)

Where's darling cousin Sadie you ask?  Well, down here of course, enjoying the view from her stroller. 

Such a smiley little thing!

Grandpa, Uncle Kevin, and Auntie Tiffany chillin' on the boat trip over.

Now, here are some of Mia's "official" one month old pictures that we were finally able to take now that we are home safe and sound and have the blanket and giraffe for the monthly shots.  :)  Thanks to Auntie Michelle who got Mia the blanket.  It's design name is Mia Rose, so we just had to register for it and Auntie Michelle couldn't resist getting it for her when she saw it's name.  Thank you Auntie Mish, even though you are now officially "across the pond" in the UK, we won't forget you!!!

All stretched out in a food coma.

Oh, little one, all stretching and yet not...  :)

In grandma Lina's rocking chair as cozy as can be.

Tia Bertha learned how to feed me her very first try!!! 

(Mama was a little - okay a LOT - envious of her learning curve, but don't tell Tia Bertha.)

Below are some practice shots of Mia on papa's arms.  We're going to try again when she's in a milk coma and not quite so wiggly, though we think we still got some good shots.

I love this one of her stretching!  :)

Reading with mama.

Auntie Jaclyn sent us this book in a care package for Mia, along with another book and some darling outfits.  You can always count on teacher friends to send books for babies!  :)This one is our current favorite and Mia loves to be read to.

And last, but not least, a video.  :) 

Mia has, in the last few days, started smiling more and more.