Frey Family Visit & Madeline Update

 Wow it's been over a week since I last posted. Over the weekend our family friends, the Frey Family, came to visit us. Tim was Stephen's best man at our wedding. And Kacey caught the garter at our wedding, they got married the following Spring after us (they were already dating :). Anyhow they live in AZ and anytime we pass through there they are always so gracious to let us stay with them. So I'm glad they finally came out to stay with us. We took them to the famous Salt Lick BBQ. We had a yummy lunch, they really enjoyed the food.

The kids had a lot of fun together. Elizabeth is 3.5 and Matthew is 1. 

 The girls had a ball playing all weekend long!

 I remember when we moved to Texas and made that long drive we stayed with the Frey's and Kacey was pregnant with Elizabeth. The following year we flew out to AZ for her first birthday. She's growing up and such a pretty girl!

 Last summer when we drove home from our CA visit we stayed with the Frey's and it was the first time we met Matthew a.k.a Matty. He was only 3 months old. I remember feeling like I was coming down with a cold so I didn't want to hold him on that visit and get him sick. Well I got my Matty fix this time, he's such a sweet baby - well I guess toddler now that he just turned 1.

We took them site seeing all around downtown Austin. Here are the kids running down a hill at the capitol building park area. So cute!

 Our 6 year old BBQ that we brought with us from Oregon finally bit the dust so this weekend we got a new one and Stephen and Tim assembled it. I made Stephen put on this BBQ apron my mom brought Stephen back from one of her Las Vegas trips. Yes if you look closely it has pockets for his BBQ utensils, salt & pepper shakers and an oven mit. :)

Madeline wasn't scheduled for her Pediatric Cardiologist appointment until the end of April but her appointment got moved up so I took her yesterday. They took thorough blood pressure readings (6 times) and checked her oxygen level - all were normal. They also ran another EKG test which looked normal. Then the Cardiologist and his intern asked Madeline and I a lot of questions. They listened to her heart for a long time. They heard her heart murmur near her left clavicle. So just to make sure everything functioned normal he had Madeline get an ultra sound ecocardiogram test. Madeline did great and stayed still the entire time. After the Cardiologist and intern reviewed the test they came and gave us the relieving news that everything is normal and functioning well with her heart. Hallelujah! So what is causing her to get tired easy and have chest pains sometimes? Well he said that her stamina is probably not as up to par as maybe her brother and other friends we've compared her to. She enjoys participating in PE at school, doing dance and cheer, jumping on the trampoline and riding her bike - but I guess we'll have to work on her stamina a little more. While he was listening to her heart during the exam he put pressure in several different areas of her chest and stomach asking if any of them felt like the chest pain she would sometime get. The pressure on her chest wall and chest muscles did. So he said the pain has to do with that, sort of similar to growing pains. So when she gets them just to have her rest for a few minutes, but that it was okay to encourage her to keep playing or exercising if she wants to. He assured me though that there is nothing abnormal with her heart and that we need not worry of her having a cardiac attack or any heart problems or disease. Oh and lastly the ecocardiogram confirmed that her heart murmur is an innocent functional murmur, and that the blood flow from her heart to her head has a blood flow dynamic that causes a swishing sound in the flow. So thanks everyone for your thoughts, concerns and prayers. After some very expensive testing :)  we have peace of mind that are baby girl is healthy and normal.