A Great Season

Jake played city league baseball with a couple of his buddies this year. He liked it well enough, but he decided he liked soccer a little better, because he said that he liked to be able to run whenever he wanted. Here are some of the highlights of a great season.

Jake was a great little hitter. He got at least a base hit at every at bat. He was so proud when he would get to first. What he lacked in strength hitting the ball, he certainly made up for in speed. Sometimes he even lapped a few guys running the bases.

Playing in the field. His favorite position was 2nd base, I think.
And, running the bases.

Here is the team, waiting for thier trophies.

This boy loves his trophies!

All three silly boys with their trophies: Jaden, Jake and Grant. So fun to play with friends.

Of coarse, this was my favorite moment of the season. I love to see my kids sharing and looking out for eachother.

Another sweet moment at the fields...

These two are meant to be together. They are courting already :)

Don't they look like the proud parents of a little baseball star?

Kindergarten Graduation...Again

Here's Jake with his wonderful teachers, Mrs. Gormley and Mrs. Karen. He had a great year, and awesome teachers really do make all the difference.

This is a picture of Jake last year at graduation...notice how short he is compared to his two best buds.

Here he is at the end of this year with his best buds...notice how we have leveled the playing field just a bit, literally and figuratively. I think we made the right decision to hold him back. I think he will love 1st grade. I'm not sure I am ready for him to be gone all day, but I am sure I will manage somehow.

When this one leaves me for kindergarten, I might get a little emotional.

And here are the proud supporters... I am obviously present, just behind the lens :)

Even Jake's cousins came all the way from Alaska to cheer him on.

Birthdays in Seattle

For our birthday gifts to each other, Ben and I decided to spend a weekend in Seattle. This was our second time visiting together, but the first time was only for about 8 hours to research a business idea just after Ben had graduated from college. This time we drove and stayed in a nice hotel right downtown. We parked the car when we arrived and walked everywhere we went all weekend long. We had a blast!

This is the famous Pike's Place Market, just down the street from our hotel. This is the place where all kinds of people congregate to wait for someone to buy a whole fish. Then these guys take a 25 lb fish and throw it over the counter to be cut up and packaged. We thought it was so cool to watch, but Ben wouldn't let me buy $400 worth of fish that he would never eat. Oh well, there were plenty of people who did.

For my birthday dinner, all I wanted was some fresh crab legs. So, we found a great little restaurant, right on the ocean, and I didn't even have to look at the menu. Ben did; however, and couldn't find a thing he would eat (not a fan of sea food or shell fish). Here's a funny story for those of you who know my husband well. We had passed a little burger stand on the way to the restaurant, so Ben left the restaurant, went and got a burger and fries, and came back to eat them with me. Talk about a little compromise!

I was in heaven with my crab legs, and Ben loved his 'bigger than your face' fries! Somehow I ended up choosing the restaurant two nights in a row and guess what I picked the second night. Yep, crab legs again! The second time around, Ben actually helped me crack them. It was fun, but he decided that was a lot of work for a little meal. Yum, how I love sea food!

One of the nights we went to see Candide at the 5th Avenue Theater. The musical was o.k., but the theater was unbelievable. This is the ceiling right above us. I couldn't believe how ornate and colorful it all was. We agreed that we should have gone to see Fiddler on the Roof, but we took a chance on one that neither of us had heard of and oh well, it was funny anyway.

Here is another funny story...we walked all over downtown searching for a place to have some dessert. We finally found a little bar with some mediocre apple pie and chocolate cake. When we got back to our hotel, we found an empty banquet room with a whole table full of desserts. Yummy cheesecake and tons of other things to taste.

Good thing our hotel also had an amazing two-story workout room with a great view of the city. We spent a lot of time in there and in the pool.

Here we are trying to take our own picture in front of the space needle. Little did we know the Folk Art Festival was going on down there at the same time. We saw some great musicians, some very interesting people, and were aproached by tons of supporters to sign a petition to legalize marajuana. How's that for some culture!

I wanted to take a closer look at all of this silverware art. I thought it was the coolest thing there, but as you can see, it was so crowded we couldn't even walk, much less browse. This is as close as I got.

We decided to take the monorail back after a long day and lots of crowds. I took this picture for my Buddy, who loves a good McDonalds cheeseburger whenever he can get one.

So, with our anniversary and our birthdays so close, I'm not sure what we were celebrating except for being together without the kids. Eight years of pure bliss and we are still so in love! Thanks to Grandma and Aunt Sarah for hanging out with our little Angels so we could have a weekend away! We loved it!

Nightmare Surgery Saga

Warning: This post gets a little graphic and very long. But if you handle a long story, read on.

On May 27th around 11:00, I took Jake into the Southwest Idaho Surgery Center for an extremely routine, outpatient surgery: tubes in his ears and getting his adenoids out. This was his second set of tubes, so we even knew the drill. Not even a bit nervous, Jake knew he was in good hands. That little mask would put him to sleep and he would wake up half an hour later in my arms. No problem!

They didn't even put that IV in until after he was asleep.

He woke up pretty groggy and with a headache, but still my happy little Buddy.

Ben and I were planning a little trip for the next day, but we decided to see how Jake was doing before we really took off. The next morning Jake was feeling great. Since we had done this before and knew the recovery was quick, we left the kids with Grandma and Sassy and drove to Seattle for the weekend. Jake did very well, while we were gone, but on Monday, he started to get a headache. We were up all night that night. Jake was in so much pain that he couldn't sleep. I started to give him Tylanol and Ibuprofin when the pain was really bad. I did this for a couple of days. My friend who is a nurse told me to not let the medicine wear off. By Wednesday, after alternating the two medicines every three hours for two days straight, I called the doctor. He said that was a pretty unusual reaction and prescribed him a stronger antibiotic. We took the full round of antibiotic for 10 days, but I was still giving him tons of Tylanol and Ibuprofin. Nights were terrable, and he would wake up in the morning moaning in pain. He missed an entire week and a half of school. He would be o.k. with pain medication, but as soon as it wore off, he would go down in pain. We had Ben's entire family come and visit for a family reunion. Even Jake's cousins from Alaska came and surprised us and Jake was extatic! I knew he was in a lot of pain when he couldn't even play with them. Finally on Sunday, a week and a half later, when Jake was laying on the couch in so much pain, amidst a frenzy of playing cousins (there are 14 of them now), I paged his doctor in desperation. He told me to bring Jake in. After looking at him, saying everything looked fine, but that being in pain was highly unusual, he prescribed a steriod. I left the office in tears! How could he everything be fine if he was in so much pain. I wanted my happy, healthy buddy back. I wanted him to enjoy his last week of school, his cousins, baseball, and his birthday was coming up. He would say things like "Mom, what if the doctor can't make my head feel better?" I felt so helpless, but I knew that I would take him to every doctor in this country if I had to. So, after being on the steriod for a few days, I still wasn't seeing an improvement. His doctor ordered a CT scan to see what was going on. Here he is acting so brave again.

We loved this nurse, she made him laugh so hard. He had no idea what was about to happen.

Then she started putting in the IV. I had to look away.

Yipes! He was so brave, I couldn't believe it. I'm pretty sure I didn't handle an IV that well when I was in high school.

The cat scan machine was pretty cool, though. Kind of like Star Wars.

This kid was so brave! Here he is with his war wound and a popsicle. Way to go, Buddy!

So, the ending of the story goes like this: the cat scan came back perfect. Nothing out of place. A couple days after Jake finished the steroid, he stopped having headaches. Almost a month after his initial surgery, everything was fine and he was able to enjoy his birthday party with some buddies, the day before his cousins went back to Alaska. The night after they left, he threw up all night and was fine the next day. Poor kid! My guess is that it was all the pain medication I pumped into him so he could enjoy all of the fun things we did with the family. Why we struggled for so long, I have no clue, but I am so glad that it is all over! And let me just tell you that watching Jake suffer like that was one of the most heart-wrenching things I have had to go through in my life. I know there are millions of mothers who have had to endure so much more and I am grateful that this has been the worst of it for me. Jake was so unbelievably brave and strong throughout. I just can't tell you how grateful I am to have my happy little Buddy back!

Painting the Garage

We have been in our new house for 6 months now, and Ben felt like the garage didn't look finished enough. So, one Saturday, we decided to buy some white paint and finish it up. I spent the whole day on Friday cleaning it out and gathering the supplies, so on Saturday, we were ready to go. We spent the whole day and most of the night painting, and when we were done, the garage looked fabulous! As we were standing out on the driveway, admiring our work, our neighbor came over and offered us his paint sprayer. For some reason, we really like to do things the hard way. Oh well, we were together and we had fun. Ben's back was only sore for about a week :) Hooray for Saturday projects!

Fun in the Mud

So, these are our new neighbors, and we think that they are great! While they were building their house and doing their landscaping, it rained, thus making a gigantic mud puddle.

The kids had a blast! Clothes, shoes and all...

Nothing like a full body mud mask. It was fantastic! I think their faces are frozen like that.

Here is the clean up. Gotta love being hosed down in the freezing cold! A very cold hosing down, then straight to a warm bath. I still haven't washed the muddy hand prints off of my front door.

This kid is so expressive, we all just love him! His face says it all!

Jake's 1st Lost Tooth

When we got home from Texas, Jake had an incredibly loose tooth. He was always playing with it, but wouldn't let Ben try to pull it out. Finally, after a week of finessing, Ben bribed him with 50 cents to let him pull it out.

Jake was exstatic. He couldn't wait to put it under his pillow to see what the tooth fairy would bring. Well, the tooth fairy did come and brought him one dollar. He was so excited, until...he recieved a card in the mail from the Texas tooth fairy (my mom), who send him twenty dollars!
Now, he wants to loose all of his teeth in Texas. Smart kid!

Trip to Texas in April

So, I am going back in time just a little, but when you see how long this post is going to be, you will see why I was putting it off for so long. There were so many pictures that I loved that I didn't include. In April, I took all three kids to Texas by myself to attend a memorial service for my Grandma Trudy and Grandpa Popito. They both recently passed away. My grandma passed away last year in January, and my grandpa passed away this January. My kids had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with him in December when we came to visit for Christmas. He was pretty ready to go and he loved seeing my kids. He kept asking where my grandma was, so I am hoping they are together now and enjoyed seeing all of their family together remembering them. It was a great trip!

Feeding the Ducks with Pop and Mimi

When we first arrived, we met Pop and Mimi and Haley and Matt at a park to feed the ducks. It was so fun. We missed you Kristin and Nate!

Haley and Matt and beautiful baby Landry


The kids had so much fun!

Brinley had so much energy after a 5 hour plane ride.

Jake was brushing up on some rock skipping that he learned with Pop last summer.

Pop and Mimi doing one two THREE with Brinley. It is Sophie's absolute favorite!

The Dallas Zoo with Pop and Mimi

Ready to see some really cool animals. I remember taking school field trips when I was young. So FUN!

The Gorilla exhibit was spectacular!

Pops in his Longhorn shirt and Jake supporting the Boise Broncos ;) Born to a third generation University of Texas alum, this kid bleeds orange. He thinks it might be Bronco orange, but with time he will learn the truth, that it is really Longhorn burnt orange!

Jake absolutely loved the crocodiles. This one is an albino and we couldn't believe it was real until we saw him breath. They called him the ghost of the bayou, and we searched the zoo all day, led by a very eager boy who was not going to give up until we found him.

Ice cream after a long, hot day at the zoo is a must. Thanks Pop and Mimi for the really fun trip to the Dallas Zoo.

Chinese Food with Nanny and the Fam

Love this picture of my brother with Sophie. He is the biggest teddy bear!

Brinley was pretty sick that night. She stayed pretty close to Nanny, but I think she just got a little too much sun at the zoo.

She did muster up enough energy to take this great pic of me and my mom

Cousin Lonny was totally in love with the girls, playing a little 'do as I'm doing'

All the girlies chillin' on the couch

Shopping with my best friend, Amber and her darling girls at the coolest store ever. No idea why we didn't take a picture of me and Amber, but here are our girls together. They hit it right off...Brinley, Sophie, Brooklyn and Addison.

Dinner at Maggiano's

My mom and Brinley get along so well! They are both such free spirits, it is like they speak the same language.

Another great picture of me and my Mom, taken by Brin, the budding young photographer. See how we are always having to bend down? We hope that will improve with time. Isn't my mom a Babe?

This picture of all the great-grandchildren was pretty challenging to get. My cousin, Brian has two kids, Henry and William. This was my first time to meet both of them. They are cute little guys!

Lonny worked so hard all night to win Brinley over. I think he finally managed to loosen her up a bit, and by the end of our trip she thought he was pretty cool. Too bad you live so far away in Arizona!

This went on for hours at our wonderful 4 course Italian dinner. Good thing we had our own private room. My grandma Trudy would have joined right in.

My dad took Jake to a Rangers game earlier that day. He made it just in time for dinner. They had great seats at the game and had a wonderful time!

Brian and Kim took their boys home early

Parting is such sweet sorrow...Henry really took to Sophie. Too bad they are like second cousins or something

Cute!

My Aunt Suzie has always loved playing with the little ones

We think Sophie looks just like my Aunt Joyce

Some things never change. These guys have always been best buds!

My mom and Joyce with my Grandpa's sister, Silvia

Love, love, love this picture! Who loves Uncle Zach?!

This is my little brother...that I used to beat up on...don't think I will mess with you anymore Lil' Bro!

Luncheon at the Crescent before the Ceremony

She has him wrapped around her little finger. We sure hope you are having a girl ;)

Stacking the little jams and ketchup bottles. Look at that intensity. She is my daughter, so I guess she comes by it honestly.

Suzie taught Jake how to use chopsticks and now he is a pro

Aunt Vel can be silly, too

All dressed up for the Service. My friend's mom made these dresses...so so so cute!

I loved watching my cousin Brian play with the kids. A true Harvard grad with his top button undone, his sleeves rolled up, and sunglasses in the shade.

I was a very nice Service. The Rabbi did a great job and it was so nice to be all together. We missed you Mark and Lauren!

My grandma was a truly amazing lady! She lived a fantastic, very hard life, but she never let it get the best of her. When we were small, we called my grandma Happy Trudy. Even a the very end, she never missed the opportunity for a joke. I will always remember her happy, hard-working, full of energy, and loving my kids! Thanks for teaching me the value of hard work, enduring to the end, and never taking no for an answer!

Starting to say Goodbye. Don't be strangers!

We went to visit my grandpa's friend, Martha after the Service. She had just had neck surgery, but was glad to hear everything went well. My mom looks great with her grandbabies. Isn't she a beautiful Grandma?!

Our last day in Texas

The girls were exhausted and watching the Princess and the Frog at Nanny's. Lots of family, good food and fun makes for some seriously tired girls.

Nanny desperately trying to get one last picture of the kids to watercolor. We took like three hundred pictures, but they had had it. Isn't that the way it always goes?

Saying goodbye to Pop and Mimi at Friday's. With all of his well intentioned advice, he is one proud Pop!

All in all it was a fantastic trip. When I got home, I told Ben that that was the last time I would ever travel that far with the kids all by myself! Exhausting, but worth it!