Famous Joe

My brother Joe has had an incredible couple of weeks. Christmas miracles, truly.

First and foremost:
My sweet brother has finally been able to reconnect with his darling daughter, Morgan. She is 12 now and lives in Florida with her mom and siblings. The background story of Morgan doesn't really matter now. All that matters is that she has reconnected with her awesome father, and boy is she proud! She loves him so much, and hopefully this next year he'll be able to actually go out and visit her. We could not be happier for the two of them, and I am stoked because Charlotte has a cousin!! And a darling cousin at that. Morgan is a sharp little kid who loves to read, and in a video I saw of her she talks JUST like Joe. It's fantastic!

Second:
Joe was signed with one of the biggest drum companies in the nation. These guys endorse multiple drummers in bands that I know quite well! He even has his own page on their website, here! He has been chosen to join the select few that are taken care of by this amazing drum company. And why not? Joe works so hard and is so good at what he does, I'm not surprised he made the list!

I'm so proud of him. So, so proud. I can barely put my feelings into words, honestly. He has come so far from where he started, and he is literally living his dreams. And to add to all of this, now he is the proudest papa of all time. He has someone else to live for now, and she is awesome in every way.

Christmas miracles do happen. They really, really do.

Videos galore!

I take so many videos and photos on my phone, and then I forget to upload them here. So here is the latest bunch of videos of my darling Charlotte. Enjoy!

Little miracles

Unfortunately my maternity leave has caught up with us. This month is going to be a rough one. Ander has been working his butt off, bless him, and I've now gone back to work but we still have to wait for a paycheck for me. And I didn't start back quite as busy as I was hoping I was going to. Yes, things will be pretty tight this month, but that's not the reason I'm writing this post. It isn't meant to be a "boo hoo, woe is me" post. I'm writing this post because something amazing just happened that I just had to write down.

Ander didn't work until noon today, and all day yesterday I was looking forward to having him home this morning for company and to help with Charlotte. Then last night we had one of those conversations... you know that ones I'm talking about. All seriousness and frowny faces.

"I think I need to go out on Lake Austin tomorrow morning," he said.
"What? But I was hoping you'd be home with me and Charlotte in the morning! You don't work until noon! Why do you have to go out?"
"We really need some extra income this month, and the best way for me to get guide trips is to pump out YouTube videos. Each time I post some videos I get booked for trips. I need to go out there tomorrow morning and prove to all my potential clients that the fish are there and they're biting."

I struggle with this. I think I will ALWAYS struggle with this. I'm not really sure why, but it bothers me when he leaves so early in the mornings. I hate waking up to an apartment without him. I don't really know why I'm arguing with him about this. Fishing has technically become his work now, after all. But I found myself getting frustrated. I wanted him to be home with me and Charlotte. I was home with her all day long yesterday all by myself. I wanted his help this morning. At least one feeding, that would have been nice. But no, he wanted to go the lake and go fishing and take some video footage so he could make videos. I knew he was right, that he had to put out videos proving that the fish we there, but I still got frustrated. I think being overtired also had something to do with it... not enough time in the day, or something like that.

ANYWAY.

Charlotte was such a good sleeper and slept until 7:30 this morning, so I pretty much got about eight hours of sleep. I woke up feeling much better this morning and Charlotte and I began our day together.

Ander came home and started getting ready for work. As he was about to walk out the door he got a phone call. I heard bits and pieces of the conversation but I wasn't paying much attention. He left for work while still talking on the phone, but I got a call from him about 10 minutes later.

"Hey, I'm about to go into work right now but I have a story for you,"
"Okay, shoot."
He then proceeds to tell me that it was a phone call for a guide trip, and that this guy, Ryan had been meaning to call Ander for a while now but just kept forgetting. He told Ander that he had just gotten off Lake Austin himself and decided to give Ander a call because he and his buddy had been out on the lake all morning and hadn't caught anything. While they were out there they saw Ander come close to a spot they had been at for a while. They watched him sit there for a moment, catch a four pound bass, make a couple more casts, and then drive away. Ryan immediately pulled out his smartphone and looked up Ander's website and said, "I need to call that guy and have him help me. He just caught a four pounder in a spot where we couldn't catch anything!"

This. This is the reason I'm making this post. I argued with Ander last night asking him why he had to go out on the lake this morning. I didn't want him to. I told him to do whatever he wanted, but deep down I didn't want him to go. But Heavenly Father works in mysterious ways, my friends. If Ander wouldn't have gone out there this morning that man would never have witnessed him catch a good fish right in an area he'd already tried over and over again. Heavenly Father knew Ander needed to go out there today, and thank heaven Ander was listening to that prompting because his wife sure wasn't.

I think this is a little miracle, and you can bet I'll never tell Ander he can't go out on the lake ever again.

Charlotte's ears

After going through weeks of treatment Charlotte's ears are finally done. The whole process was pretty painless, actually... unless you count the many times I got stuck behind some old lady driver in the parking garage slowly trying to read each sign above each parking spot while Charlotte screamed in the backseat.

We were so pleased with the way Charlotte was treated at Wellspring Plastic surgery. Dr. Cone, Lindsay, and Dawn were so kind to all of us. It was a great experience, even with a few mishaps along the way, (like Charlotte pooping all over their carpet, and peeing all over their treatment table) and now I finally have the official before and after photos!

So without further ado:

This is her really floppy ear before the treatment

And this is after!

This is her other ear (which wasn't floppy, but needed some shaping) before the treatment

And after!

And finally, the most astounding transformation of all:

Before

(obviously she is thrilled to be posing for this picture)

 And after! Look at those cheeks! Those baby fat rolls! And as Lindsay put it, "She's hulking out of her outfit!"

Such an incredible transformation in such a short time! She looks like a completely different baby! We are so pleased with the results. Charlotte never minded the earwells when they were on her ears. She did pitch some fits as Dr. Cone was putting them on sometimes, but that's all. She never noticed them after that.

So a huge thank you to Dr. Cone and his staff, our little munchkin never looked better!