Whew! What a week! Not busy, just full of nasty colds! As soon as we got home from our Spaghetti Dinner benefit I ended up with a nasty cold...luckily I got the worst of it without passing it on to Greg. Cara was a little under the weather but came out of it quickly...it's STILL not out of my system yet! But I feel better and am hoping that it goes completely away soon!

Anyway, the dinner last weekend was a lot of fun! Greg, Cara and I spent the weekend in Rostraver so we didn't have to drive a long distance on Saturday and it ended up that we stayed up til 3:30am Saturday morning putting together 200 take-out dinners for my stepmother to sell at her business in Monessen! From 9-3:30 we got 140 done, and then of course Cara woke me up at 7am. So I was literally running on empty for the spaghetti dinner itself. Thank God for coffee and 2nd winds! We had a great time setting up and decorating, and all said and done we raised over $2000 between the fire hall dinner and the take-outs that were sold in Monessen. Not bad for a first attempt! It was so much work...mostly assembling the take outs, but we had such a good time and we always like to try out new things! 5 out of 6 of Evan and Cara's great grandparents came and Greg was on the ball enough to take a picture of all of them together...a few friends came and of course Rose (from the CICU) also made an appearance. It's always nice to see her! Melanie brought a lot of helpers and things ran pretty smoothly. I tried to help where I could, but it was hard with Cara...she would fall asleep in my arms but would wake up the second I put her in her Pack N Play, so she had a LONG day too. It took half of this week for her to fully recover! But all said and done we had a blast and we thank everyone who helped us out from teh bottom of our hearts. Participating in the Heart Walk is so important to Greg and I, and we love to do what we can to help other kids like Evan.

This past Friday Cara had her 4 month check-up and boy is she ever growing! Here are the stats:

17 lbs, 4 oz.............................above the 97th percentile

26.25 inches long...................97th percentile

42 cm head circumference.....90th percentile

Her pediatrician said her weight is that of an average 7 month old, and her height is that of an average 6.5 month old! At least she's proportional! Our big girl! She also said Cara was the "picture of health" which of course makes us so happy. She is just such a sturdy kid...she is babbling and talking a lot now, and she is so close to sitting by herself it's scary! I am not used to this fast growing stuff! But she is really doing well and we are so thankful.

We have also tentatively set Cara's baptism date for November 23 with Bishop Henry! Yay! We are so excited and happy that he is willing and able to baptize Cara since he also baptized Evan. He is soon leaving the Diocese of Pittsburgh and moving back to England, and we will certainly miss him. He has been such a blessing in our lives throughout the last 2+ years and we are so happy that he is able to do this. Cara will be baptized at St. Andrew's in New Kensington...we have been attending a different church the last few weeks and have really enjoyed getting to know the people there.

Oooo, my laptop just warned me about a low battery so I must go now. Til next time!