my teeth.

yes, a whole post on my teeth. interesting, right?! well, yesterday i went to my orthodontist appointment for my next set of invisilign trays. he gives me usually 4 or 5 at a time and i wear them for 2 weeks each. then i go in and he gives me some more... it's so he can check the progress and make sure that my teeth are doing what he wants them to. the good news is - that i am on my last set of 2 week trays! yay! so i will head back in 2 weeks and then we'll start the retention phase. which basically just means i'm still wearing trays. but, we are moving teeth anymore and so no biggie.

my ortho is awesome and was comparing my before shots to the most recent pics that were taken in Jan - when my braces were removed. seriously, the differences is ridiculous. i had no idea. i mean, i did.... but i didn't remember or realize what a huge change it actually is until i saw those comparison pics. i just knew that i'd have to do a post about my teeth... so i asked if he could email the pics to me sometime and he said sure! he could do it right then! and so, my friends: check out my teeth!

the before. don't judge my "i'm going to kill you face". i'm usually going in without showering or putting on make-up. and they tell you not to smile for the middle shot. please note the spaces, gaps, and literally 2 teeth that touch. oh yes, my ortho likes to point out how 'squared' my upper front teeth were. it's hard to see, but this was when i had what the docs call an open, cross, and over bite. and for all these reasons, they assumed it would be too hard of a case and couldn't just be fixed with braces - which is why they thought i'd have to do jaw surgery to correct all these issues.

clearly the after images! and not even the current after images. this was done in january just after i got the braces off. since then, i've been doing invisilign to finish things up... and they look even better. these are just the most recent shots he had. please note how the teeth are just so much straighter, less boxy, and more rounded and oh my gosh, they actually touch like they are supposed to!! and praise the Lord, but jaw surgery turned out not to be necessary and good thing... cause it would have been scheduled for last fall... and we all know how hectic and shitty last fall became for our family... i am so glad i didn't add to the stress... because my surgery would have been in october... and then dad's diagnosis would come not that much later in november...

Piper Time!

the saturday before devs had to go back to work, she and patrick graciously let me and mom come over for a little bit of piper time and graham time! mom is famous in her love for babies and little kiddos and is dying for her own grandchildren... which she is unfortunately not getting anytime soon... so she just borrows other people's kids... please be weary if she tells your kiddo... "hey... wanna see my blind kitten?!"... i swear, it's innocent and all... and she does have a blind kitten... who is super duper cute... anyways... i digress. 

mom was flying in on saturday afternoon and i knew she's love a quick visit with the larkins. she hadn't seen piper since she was a tiny baby! i knew it would be a bit of a hectic weekend since dev's was preparing to go back to work and all that, but like i said, dev was super gracious in letting me and mom stop by for a bit. she even sent pictures she took with the funniest captions... and since she has so much stuff to blog about on her own blog and i thought they were the cutest pics/captions... i thought i'd just post it on her behalf! i also took a bunch of pics from that day... and i'll post a few of my own too later...

the scamming begins

the loot

the watch

the bracelet

and the ring

oh yeah, and an iphone

luckily, your mom had collateral!!

i think the pigeon scared you :)

 just to supplement the pics a bit... on the way over, i was telling mom how adorable the kiddos are and how piper is in a "it's piper's!" phase. and not just a "it's piper's!!" in a super cute way, a 'i love shiny sparkly jewelry way and iphone way'. mom was just sure piper wouldn't care about her jewelry b/c she wasn't wearing anything particularly shiny or sparkly and i told her.... well, i'll bet she likes it and asks to "try on?" in her super sweet cute voice that you just can't resist. as you can see from the pics above, not only did miss piper like mom's jewelry, she liked quite a few pieces!

and as for the iphone, i just couldn't take the droid i had anymore so i finally found one to buy on ebay for a pretty good deal and since i realized after talking/visiting with verizon that there was no chance of getting a new phone deal before end of march next year, i decided 9 whole more months with that shitty phone was just not gunna work for me anymore. and when you amortize the cost of what the new phone cost over 9 months plus the aggravation of the old phone... it was totally worth it. but it quickly became 'piper's!'. and she took quite a few pictures for me (i'll post those in my next post).

as for the last picture, miss piper asked me to read "don't let the pigeon drive the bus" book. super cute. and dev was right, the pigeon totally scared me... he almost drove the bus! a pigeon driving a big bus sounds pretty scary!! :)

mom really enjoyed seeing what a neat, sweet, smart little girl piper is becoming and she loved holding the sweet baby, graham, who is beyond mellow and adorable. and so, thank you, devon and patrick for making a little bit of time to share your family with me and mom!