Miracle

Today, my Dad is home!  After four months in the hospital, of which 42 days were in ICU, he is home.  For a while, we didn't know if this would ever actually happen.  There was more than one night where we were told, "He isn't going to make it."  We sat by his bed, in a surreal state, shocked, overwhelmed, sleep deprived, barely able to function.  I think we were numb to everything around us.  Nothing in the world mattered, but what was going on in that ICU room, where the machines pumped and beeped in a rhythm.  We watched the nurses, pleading with our eyes to save him.  Hours would pass with little or no change.  Then finally the right numbers would start to rise, then sink again, toying with our emotions.  What an exhausting game, not knowing, not able to anticipate what was going to happen.  It was literally a second to second, minute to minute waiting game.  One thing would improve, but then something else would deteriorate, such a balancing act.  After many,  many scary days and nights the numbers got better and better.  He was starting to turn a corner, then another one.  It is going to continue to be an uphill battle for a longtime to come, but this reminds us that life is so precious, make sure it is lived to the fullest each day.  We love you Dad, keep getting stronger!

Ankle breakers

SASSY!  How cute are they?  The girls have been wanting these shoes for months.  They finally went on sale, so I decided to splurge.  (they don't need a thing)  I have to admit, they are the cutest things ever, but oh so impractical.  They actually had to take them off and put tennis shoes on so they could play at the Y today.  :)  Which I guess was a smart move. 

My logical reasoning behind this purchase was this:  I am physically unable to wear high heels, or anything of the sort, even wedges.  I think this may be due to the fact that I never had proper training.  I had no interest as a little girl, and as I got older, I felt much too tall to add any height from shoes.  At this point in life, 34 years of age, it is embarrassing.  The girls laugh out loud when I even try sassy shoes on.   I look that awkward.

 

 Here is to a Summer of sassy shoes and hopefully no hospital visits with broken ankles!

Mr. James Frye

This is James Frye.  Most of you who know me well, have heard numerous stories about James.  I  worked with James for 12 years.  He was my first client, ever.  I was a brand new graduate student, looking for Summer work.  I put an ad in the newspaper (a real paper newspaper) for "play therapy."  I couldn't legally say speech therapy, because I didn't have my masters degree yet.  Mrs. Wendy Frye called me, and the rest is history.  We hit it off instantly, and we never looked back.

At the time, James was a non-verbal six year old.  He had a few words here and there, but not many.  That Summer I worked with him everyday for TWO hours.  What did I do, you may ask?  At this point, I'm not really sure.  Like I said, I was a brand new graduate student with no experience, but I put my knowledge to the test.  We did a bit of everything and James ate it up.  James is someone that I will always treasure.  So on graduation day, I got a little choked up watching him in all of his glory.  He couldn't have been more proud.  To top it all off, he was one of five students to receive the superintendents award.  That is how amazing he is!

                     Wherever the future takes James, he will always have a piece of my heart.

A sad day for Mom

After five years at PALS for Christ pre-school, our time is up.  It makes me so sad knowing that we won't be seeing Ms. Jenny three days a week.  The girls have graduated!  Ms. Jenny says they are officially ready for kindergarten.  My hearts breaks just a little, each time I hear that k-word.  I can't believe my babies are growing up so fast.  What happened to my SCREAMING infants, and my squabbling toddlers and my chubby cheeked little girls?  Who are these young ladies?  You girls have worked so hard and I am so incredibly proud of the people you're are becoming!

                                                     Ms. Danielle Claire

                                                       Ms.  Elizabeth Mackenzie

                                                   Our lovely Ms. Jenny

Tour de Cure

Here we are, in all of our glory, 27 miles later.  Holy smokes, if I only knew.  There is quite a story behind all of this, but I will keep it simple.  Brayden and I ended up doing the diabetes bike race.  He really wanted to do a race, so I decided I would pull him on the tag-a-long.  BAD idea!  Good in the sense that he was safe(er) behind me.  It would have been horrendous if he was on his own bike.  The roads weren't the best (Hwys.), I was scared with him right there attached to me....but not so good in the sense that I hauled him for 27 freakin' miles.  PLUS it was attached to Kent's bike.  Both of which I NEVER trained with.  :)  Good times.  My suggestion to Tour De Cure:  Make the race a little more family friendly!  It was quite impressive to see the people doing the 50 and 100 miles, that's for sure!  But you can bet there was not one person out there with a tag-a-long or children.  Yeah, maybe I am just that dumb.  :)

The big show!

The much anticipated dance recital finally arrived!  It was as cute as expected.  The girls were beyond excited and looked as gorgeous as ever.  Some steps were made (sometimes even at the right time), twirls were done and there were smiles all around!  They were amazing!

 Ally, Dani and Ellie

 Ally, Ellie and Dani

 Sassy Bella

 Claire Bear

Dani, Ally and Ellie performing!

Vegas baby Vegas!

Ahhh, these pictures make me want to be on vacation again!  Kent and I went to Vegas for FIVE days!  His sister from London was there so we met up with her, along with Kent's brother, SIL, sister and Mom.  It was a good time.  K and I spent alot of time by the pool.  We saw a few shows and walked ALOT.  It was sunny and warm and the perfect mixture of fun and relaxation!

 This sassy M&M reminded us of our Elizabeth Mackenzie girl.  :)

The whole fam damily!

Here and there

We cashed in our Groupons and Brayden and Keegan got to go to a riding lesson.  They grabbed their bike helmets and snow boots (no other boots to be found here) and we headed up to Greenbluff.  They had a blast.  It was an hour and a half of grooming, learning and riding.  The lady had a nice set up, but I don't see lessons in our near future, to the dismay of Brayden.

                                                        Keegan and Brayden

 I had to include this picture of my friend, Stephanie.  We celebrated her 40th Birthday in April.  And by celebrate, I mean, 7 women (all Moms) met up at Amanda's, who kiceked her husband and kids out for the night, and we had a sleep over!  It was a very fun, memorable night!  Steph even has a tattoo to prove it.  Yes, a real tattoo, on her neck.  Apparently you shouldn't mention you want a tattoo when there are 6 women sitting around with no one who has to be taken care of, we can get stuff done.  We were at the shop, and in and out, all within an hour.  She has a super cute pair of flip flops now!

 Then it was my birthday, it was a great day, Kent blew me away by surprising me with an IPAD!  Yay Kent!

 I used my birthday money and the girls and I went and got pedicures.  They were in heaven!  Such a fun afternoon!

Pretty little piggies.  They chose flourescent green and orange.  :)

Brand new hairdos

Brand new hairdos!

We took the plunge!  Ellie has developed a gross habit of chewing on her hair.  For weeks I threatened that I was going to cut it off.  Finally I made appointments with  my neighbor, who has a salon business in her garage.  It's fabulous.  Ellie hopped up in her chair, Sasha asked what Ellie wanted, and Ellie said, "I want it up to here."  Pointing to her chin.  I gasped, in shock, and Sasha went with it.  Dani was sitting in my lap and when Sasha chopped a good 4 inches off, she turned to me and adamantly said, I am NOT doing that.  That looks ugly."  I said, "You don't have to, you choose to do whatever you want.

I was next up and ended up chopping mine off too.  It was all very impulsive and I do have some regret for mine, no more ponies.  :(  I actually have to style my hair EVERYDAY!  It is craziness.  Dani was last up and she definitely didn't want to be left out of this party, she went ahead and chopped hers too.   I ADORE the girls cuts.  I have already referred three different people to Sasha.  They have been getting lots of attention, which helps.  I think they may have had some regret too.  Oh well, it's just hair!

Impromptu photo shoot

We did have a few HOT days a while back and we took full advantage.  The girls put on their

swimsuits and lived it up!  I just couldn't get over how cute they were and how HAPPY they were.  They were having the time of their lives, if life were only this simple all the time!  :)

 Ellie was mildly heart broken because her "bra" swimsuits don't fit, they are all too big. We have since fixed the problem and she will be sporting a green and white striped "bra" swimsuit whenever we get some hot sun!  She can barely contain herself, I thought for a while she may be strutting her stuff in the grocery store.  I claim her as mine, but I don't know where this streak of confidence, self assurance comes from, but I hope she will always have it! 

 Loving my bathing beauties!

Holy Moses!

Wow, life got a way from me and it has been 3 months since I have posted. So much has happened, every time I think about posting I get so overwhelmed because I am so far behind. I am going to do my best to hit the highlights of the last three months. First off, I have two FIVE year old girls! I am so happy that they are growing into such lovely little things, but a part of me is so sad to leave the baby/toddler years behind.....

They had a Hello Kitty party with school friends, and neighbor friends, it was there first "real" birthday party with friends. A good time was had by all! They also got to celebrate at school, it was all very exciting!
March is birthday month in our family.....so many!  We also got to celebrate cousin Hunter's birthday and Grandma Phillips's Birthdays!

 Then we were off to the 'Couve for Spring break!  My kids adore their cousin Leila!  They will  play with her for hours and hours, the poor peanut has no chance of freedom with my kids around!

 On this trip, it was the first time they got to meet cousin Cullen!  He is just a sweet, mild mannered little guy.  I held him for hours, but I had to fight my kids for him.  We love loving on these baby cousins!

 While we were in the 'Couve we had another birthday celebration!  My Mom's!  The kids were more than eager to celebrate again!

 We took a road trip South to visit my Grandma Wagener.  We had an awesome visit and Brayden even got to play a few hands of cards with her.  She is amazing, she and my dad are the reason behind my love of games, and partially due to my competitiveness.  (That's mostly from my Dad though).

 Next up, out  to breakfast with my Cousins, Sarah and Jeremy and Mike.  What a fun morning, we got to eat and shop at Mike's outdoor shop.  They hooked the kids up with hats, flashlights and glow sticks, it doesn't get any better than that!

 Next on the list, a trip to the Oregon Coast, Tillamook.  Brayden all ready to head down to the pool, guess we forgot to pack flip flops....

 A day at the park, Oregon style.  Rain boots, rain coats, and wool hats!  :)

 A new hair hat for Kent.

The beautiful view that we had to leave behind.  It was a jam packed, fun-filled Spring Break!  Now home  to rest!