This year for Halloween, all Mia wanted to be was a Spanish dancer......and a darn cute Spanish dancer might I add. She is at such a fun age right now and this Halloween was so much fun with her. Although she didn't quite understand the whole "trick-or-treating" bit, she definitely loved the candy part and was on a sugar high all day long. We went and visited great-grandma and grandpa Christensen and also grandma and grandpa Rosenvall.
Blowing kisses
Grandma has a little stuffed squirrel that Mia adores. Every time we go and visit, Mia goes straight for the squirrel and mauls it. Grandma knew how much Mia loved it and wanted so badly for Mia to have it, but it was a gift from Grandpa and was very special to her. When we went over on Halloween Grandma had bought this little kitty and put it in the place where the squirrel normally is. Mia, of course, went right for it. She took the kitty, hugged it, threw it on the floor, laid on it as it were a pillow and wouldn't let it go. I think she liked it just a little bit. Her new favorite word is "Eeeeow."
We spent the first 2 days in Paris. Our first destination was the Louvre. It was incredible. After spending some time there, you sure gain a greater appreciation for art.
It's like looking out the backdoor at my courtyard.......oh wait!
We decided that we wanted to take city tour of Prague. Doesn't this picture scream "Tourist??"
This little quartet sat and played outside of the castle. The music just added to the ambiance.
Couldn't leave Prague without having a famous "street" frank! 
Here we stopped in a little ski village. Not enough snow yet to hit the slopes. 
Jordan looks like he fits right in.
This castle, Hohenschwangau, is located just below Neuschwanstein and is where King Ludwig II grew up. 
It had been raining quite a bit and so the water level was really high. It was crazy to see water flowing into the various businesses and homes. 
I guess they just have to get used to it.
I think I have died and gone to heaven!!!
Bryan scoping out the local fruit stand. 
It's amazing how 10 days can come and go so quickly {actually 11}. We missed our flight home, causing us to spend another night in Paris {long story}. Anyway, 24-hours later and $4,000 in change fees we were on a plane back to Utah. This was such an awesome experience and I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity. 
More Cupcakes.........
LuLu was born with Alpha 1 Anitrypsin Deficiency, a genetic disorder that causes liver and lung failure. Because of LuLu's declining health, the need for a liver transplant is necessary sooner than later. We know that the money raised through Apple Fest will be a big help to the family of LuLu with the anticipated medical expenses for her impending liver transplant. Again, thank you for all the support at Apple Fest this year and we look forward to another successful event next Fall (September 17-18, 2010).
Sweet Kate, Kater Bugs, Bugaboo and Sissy was born on a beautiful HOT Summer morning, July 15, 2006. With no prior knowledge of any birth defects or a heart condition, Kate was transported to the NICU at Primary’s shortly after birth. During the 7-week initial stay, Kate was diagnosed with Tetrology of Fallot and later was given a diagnosis of Double Outlet Right Ventricle. Although Kate was full-term, she only weighed 4 lbs. 2 oz and heart surgery was too risky for how small she was. The doctors felt the success rate of the surgery would be greater if she could weigh at least 10 lbs. We were so excited to bring Kate home and help her grow. Dealing with oxygen, a feeding tube and A LOT of medications, we were determined to provide Kate with as normal life as possible. Kate experienced swimming, going to the zoo, museums and even a hay ride on Grandpa Roper’s farm. 
At six months, Kate went in for her heart repair. After 12 LONG hours, the surgery was complete and seemed to be a success. Recovering in just 17 days, Kate came home and we were hopeful for some developmental progression and increased strength. Also having a rare genetic condition and not knowing what to expect for her future development, we were hopeful that the heart repair would allow her to start reaching some milestones. One great memory we have is Kate’s 1st birthday. During that first year, especially during those dreaded RSV months, we tried to limit as much exposure to sickness as we could, limiting exposure to family & friends. So when her birthday came around and she was fairly stable, we thought it would be appropriate to have a big celebration. This ended up being much more than we had planned on. With close to 100 of Kate’s friends and family, it was a lot of fun. Having feelings of going a bit overboard, looking back we were so glad we did it because it ended up being Kate’s first and only birthday. 
We wanted to provide Kate with the best quality of life as possible. However, as she grew, her muscles and heart were not able to keep up with her growing body. She started experiencing seizures, which would cause her to stop breathing. Primary’s became her second home, spending over 5-months in and out of the hospital. She was so loved by all who cared for her. I must say that Kate was quite pampered during her stays……having her nails painted, ribbons and bows in her hair at all times and even an occasional massage (with that darn Oscillator). We knew that the only way for Kate to get out of the hospital and hopefully stay out was for her to have a Tracheotomy. This was an extremely tough decision, but we wanted to do all we could, medically, to keep her here with us. Boy, what a challenge. But, we had wonderful help from family and also home nursing.
Kate endured many surgeries and experienced much physical pain over the course of her short little life. As a parent, you want to do anything and everything for your children. Through our religious beliefs, we believe all things have purpose and we know that we will see her again. As much as we did all we could to help our sweet little Kate, we believe she helped us more than we could’ve ever helped her. We always said, “Kate had the biggest heart of anyone we know,” and in reality she did.
Four weeks after Kate’s passing, we welcomed a healthy baby girl, Mia, to fill our empty arms. We want to keep Kate’s memory alive, not only for us, but for Mia and our future children. This past fall, we organized a charity 5k run, in memory of Kate. The proceeds of the event went to Primary Children’s. We hope to keep this new tradition alive. Having Kate in our lives has made us better people. We miss her so much but feel so blessed to have our very own guardian angel watching over us. 
We spent one day hitting all the places that Bryan served. He served over a year in Durham and wanted to see if he could find his apartment. We spent some time driving around familiarizing himself with the area and then Bingo.......we found it.
We also drove to Raleigh to see the new Temple. It was absolutely beautiful. 
I'm a HUGE fan of doing destination races so we signed up and participated in the Salem Lakes trail run. It rained the entire time we ran. I'm typically not a fan of running in the rain, but it wasn't pouring and actually created a nice little mist. I wish I would've taken more pictures because this lake was beautiful. We didn't stay for the awards ceremony after the race, but later found out that Michelle and I both placed 1st in our age division. Not too shabby!
Teresa and Scott (Michelle's sister & brother-in-law) taking a photo of taking a photo!
Visiting NC this time of year is a MUST. It is so lush and green and with the leaves starting to change, it was absolutely breathtaking. We spent a day driving to the Smokey's.
As much fun as we had, we were both very excited to get back to Miss Mia!
I'm embarrassed that it has taken so long to report on Apple Fest this year. We had an absolute BLAST and are are already looking forward to next year. We had such a great turnout and and are so appreciative of the many generous people that came out to support this great cause. We didn't have the "Kate Rosenvall Foundation" set up for this year, but are working on having it in place for next year. Since our daughter Kate spent so much of her short little life at Primary Children's Medical Center, we want to donate the proceeds of Apple Fest each year to something special; whether it's something the hospital is in need or to help a family(s) who are in need of financial help for medical bills. We are so excited for the turnout we had and the many, many donations that were given. A HUGE "Thank You" to all those who participated in Apple Fest this year as well as all the many volunteers who helped make this event happen. Stay tuned for the donation grand total.
We kicked off Friday night with a dutch oven dinner and live entertainment by "Switchback" playing anything from Lynyrd Skynyrd to ACDC. The food was great, the entertainment was great, fun was had by all.
Mia had such a ball! What was I ever thinking?
I had been fighting back the tears all day as we were moving the last few things out of our home and into the moving trailer (aka horse trailer). It wasn't until the new owners showed up and started moving their things in that I lost it. This has been our lovely humble abode for the past 4 years. We have created so many wonderful memories and will miss it so much. We made so many fabulous friends who we are going to miss dearly. We do, however, feel so lucky that we were able to sell our home especially in this down market. So, we are now residents of the the southern part of "The Valley of the Happy." Yes, we moved to Provo and are starting to get adjusted. We've been renting out our town home since living in Lehi and so we have moved back into it and will be here until it sells. With Bryan working for a California-based company, the plan is to relocate to the San Diego area by the first of the year. It's still not 100% since there's talk about starting a satellite company in Utah. So we'll know within a couple of months whether there will be a need for us to move to San Diego or not. So needless to say, the last couple of months have been crazy for us, but we're looking forward to a new adventure.
