Tuba's Celebration!

Tuba turned 11!!!!

Standing up front at church being sung to...."God Grant You Many Years".

Playing at the park.

Opening presents. He got TONS of clothes which he LOVES. This morning he was having a great time looking at them all and trying them on.

Blowing out the candle on his ice cream sundae.

Enjoying the bonfire in our backyard.

Happy Birthday my sweet, sweet boy!

Mile High Laundry!

Why is it that my washer or dryer always breaks when I have a 10 ft. high stack of laundry? Oh yah, it's because I ALWAYS have 10 feet of laundry!!! It also never seems to fail that they break down on a Fri. and the repairman can't come until Mon. or later. You do not even want to know how much laundry there will be by the times it's running again.....yikes. This time it's the dryer so at least I can wash what's needed and hang it to dry. Right now the shower rod and the whole laundry room are full of hanging laundry drying. At least it's summer time too. I think I'll hang some things up in the garage and outside today. It takes a long time for boy's cotton undies to dry! The hubby and I have spent the last 24 hrs. debating whether to buy new or have it repaired AGAIN! We need to have the venting blown out and inspected so we opted to have the guy come out.....one more time. He's been here 3 times in the last 5 years (2 times dryer, 1 washer). I already picked out the new washer and dryer that I want so I'm hoping the repair guy says, "It's time for a new set"! I can dream.....can't I? Anyway, here's a picture of my dream machine team!

Washer that holds 16 pair of jeans!

Fabulous Dryer!

This is the counter top that goes over the top of washer and dryer.....Super Duper cool, and a must have accesory!!!!!

A Kitty's Life

Nap time

Bath Time (10 minutes after this while the middle child was having his bath he decided the kitty should have a bath too:)

Snack Time

Play Time

Funny Sticker

PETA
People Eating Tasty Animals
This gave me a lot of amusement today:)

Neurology Check-Up

My oldest had his bi-annual neurology check-up at our local children's hospital yesterday. They check his VNS, check med levels in his blood, get height/weight and a general update of seizure control. We left home at 10:30 for our 11:30 appointment time. Just the two of us for this outing so I was looking forward to a little one-on-one time with Tuba. As we pulled in to the "ever so familiar" parking lot a wave of feelings flood me. This always happens and it's a nice, yet hard look down memory lane. I think about all the clinic visits, tests, in-house hospital stays, and worries of the past 10 years. We arrived at the hospital a bit early so we grabbed a drink and snack to have in the waiting lobby. By 12:00 our snacks were gone and we were called into the intake area. After being weighed (78 lbs.) and measured (4'8") we were told that the "Dr. is running about 90 minutes behind schedule". Oh well, at least there was only the two of us and the hospital is full of fun things for kids to do. We were given a pager so we would know when to return. We headed back to the cafeteria for some real lunch and a visit to the huge fish tank. We hit the cafeteria at peak lunch time. Finally it was our turn to pay (4 lines with about 15 people in each line). As I hand the cashier my debit card he calmly informs me that their card system is down! Yikes, "I have no cash". As I'm looking for a space to set my tray so that I can go to the cash machine.....this woman behind me says, "No, problem I'll pay, just add her meal to mine." Before I could protest, the transaction was done! I asked her if she would be eating in the area so I could get cash and re-pay her. "No, it all comes out in the cosmic wash" she tells me. I quickly look at her hospital name badge. Thanks to Caitlin in the surgical department!!!! I can't wait until I can pay this forward to someone else in need! I'll be sending her a thank you note today. After our lunch we walked down to the playroom and outdoor park area. We had a great time playing in the water feature and passing the basketball back and forth. At 1:20 we finally got a page to return for our appointment The Dr. came in at about 1:40. We had a nice catch up with the Dr. Tuba is doing great and his VNS is working fine. We've only seen a couple a seizures here and there in the last month. He probably won't need a new battery for the VNS for another year! We've seen this neurologist for the last 8 years. He told us he is moving to another local hospital. We're not sure if we will go with him or stay with the children's hospital.....tough decision. The last stop was at the lab for a blood draw. At 2:15 we were ready to go home. It was a long day but it was such a great day! I got to spend fun one-on-one time with Tuba. It was also a great day because each time we visit the hospital I'm reminded how lucky we are. My child isn't sick, isn't in pain, isn't dying. We saw many children and families who are in pain, who are sick and some who will die to soon. Each time we visit the hospital I'm reminded how blessed we are.

Latest Project

This is what I made at sew day on Saturday. Another little quilt for our future daughter!

Baby Friends

Here's baby guy's first friends! The cutie on the left is two months older than our guy and the cutie on the right is 3 days younger. They have a great time together. I love this picture and plan to frame it. They are so serious about their play time! In about 17 years I'll pull it out when they are all graduating from high school.

Tender hearted boy

Yesterday in the car my Mom and I were talking about taking the kids to Ethiopia when they are old enough. Specifically we were talking about taking baby guy and his future Ethiopian sister to see Ethiopia when they older. So this morning my sweet tender hearted 4 yr. old said to me...
4 yr. old: Mom, I don't want baby guy to go when Ailish (we already have a name picked) comes home.
Me: What do you mean, you don't want him to go with when Papa brings Ailish home?
4 yr. old: No, I don't want baby guy to leave when Ailish comes home.
Me: Oh, no your baby brother is ours forever and he's never leaving!
4 yr. old: Okay, good.
So sweet. He wanted to make sure we weren't taking baby guy back and bringing home a new baby!

You gotta love Veggie Tales!

Sometimes after dinner, before the bedtime routine gets under way, we call out..."Do you want to watch a Veggie Tale?". Baby guy goes racing to the TV and plunks himself down ready to go. His little arms get going in anticipation of the music to come. His older brothers get settled in and ask for popcorn. The three of them will sit on a beach towel on the floor and share their popcorn snack and sing along. Baby guy hums the Veggie Tale song many times a day now....so cute. Even I have the songs stuck in my head...broccoli, celery, got to be Veggie Tales!

Fun Day in the Water!

We had such a fun day today at the new sprinkler park near our home. The boys all loved it. Baby guy jumped right in and was soaked in no time. Middle boy was cautious but warmed up to the water after about an hour. The oldest loved it! He smiled ear to ear and kept saying "more, more". We will be practically living at this park for the summer!

Kitty Shiloh

We took a huge leap and got a kitten. She is adorable and we are having so much fun playing with her. Mr. 4 year old named her Shiloh (he has a movie with a dog named Shiloh). Baby guy really likes the kitty....but.....yikes, a little too rough. Tuba loves the kitty too and is getting used to petting her and holding her. She purrs all the time and loves to snuggle.

4th of July

4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. I think I like Valentine's Day the best and then the 4th. To me it's so much more fun than Christmas with all of the exhausting craziness. On the 4th of July we went to a small town parade. Baby guy loved all the loud noises and action. He danced all around and put on a little show for everyone. You can see from the picture that our middle baby boy still doesn't like loud noises. We spent most of the parade in this pose and I was lectured if I let go. Our oldest was having a dream of a time eating chips and candy. I think each boy ate at least 15 pieces of candy. They were a super sticky mess! After the parade we went to our good friend's house for dinner. We had the traditional BBQ'd chicken, potato salad, veggies/dip, baked beans, deviled eggs, and the BEST strawberry shortcake ever! I've made the same for my family to eat tonight because it was sooooo good:) Our boys (and all the men) had such a great time lighting off fireworks. By 10:00 pm we were so beat and headed home. On the way home we had a beautiful 30 min. long firework show. As we drove along the freeway we could see fireworks for miles around.

Books

Summer reading has been a big topic lately. I just started reading Wild Swans by Jung Chang. I like it so far. I'm about 100 pages into 500. It's very similar to Amy Tan's (The Joy Luck Club)books. I've read all of her books and really enjoyed them. The hubby and I are getting excited for our annual vacation read. Each summer we take the new Janet Evanovich book. I read out loud and we eat junk food and laugh our heads off. It is getting harder to do this with 3 little boys making so much noise....but we'll try. We've been reading the Stephanie Plum series for the last, at least 8 years of beach vacations. The latest is #13 in the series. The series is about a female bounty hunter in NJ. The characters and the plot are always a riot. Besides reading I've been cleaning and organizing. Sort of a summer clean out. I cleaned my sewing room yesterday. I'm not sure how it got so messy since the only time I sew is when I leave the house for "sew day" with my friends once a month. Anyway it's really clean and ready for me to sew....I hope I can carve out some time soon. The cabinets all have locks on them now and the gates are up and keeping baby guy out of trouble....mostly:) Today I hope to get the floors all vacuumed and mopped....we'll see about that.