Stylin' Sully

Sully tried on his tux for Aunt Kylie's wedding tonight. Seriously cute!






Get me out of this thing!

Suprise!

We all headed down to my brother Nick's house for the weekend and we had a little surprise for my mom.
My brother Robert who is in grad school in NY had been asked to present a paper at the U of I. We didnt tell my mom he was coming. It was fun to surprise her and then all spend the weekend together.
It was also fun because Joe and Amy just got engaged and we got to see the ring and hear some of the wedding details - it will be August 25, 2007!!!! Not very far away.


Mom and Robert


The happy couple - Joe and Amy


Uncles Jordan and Robert with the girls in the hot tub.

Golfin' with Dad

Jordan and Sullivan headed out for some golf this morning. I wonder how many times they will do this in their lives?

Happy 30th Birthday, Jordan!

Jordan is finally 30 - he finally caught up to me. Its really only been a couple of months but he played it up big time.
We celebrated with a pizza party with our mom's tonight. We looked through Jordan's baby book and marvelled at how fast 30 years can fly by.
The kids and I got Jordan 'blongo' ball and I am so excited that I finally got him a present that he truly liked!
Happy Birthday sweetie! Looking forward to many many more.


Jordan and Lauren playing 'blongo'


Daddy helping Avery with her golf game.

On another note. Jordan's bday party started out with a little drama. I was in the garage trying to get out a chair and my foot got into a fight with a metal bed frame. The bed frame won - big time. I ran around the yard for about 5 minutes screaming that my foot was broken. (Im sure the neighbors were loving this) Then I calmed down enough to decide that it was not broken, but was already bruising and bleeding profusely from the toe nail which is hanging by a thread - I mean a thread. I do not deal with feet well. Id rather have a huge gash in my arm - Id rather give birth. So Jordan has spent much of his birthday night waiting on his crippled wife. I may never be the same - I did not however cry. I am very brave.

Class of 2020

Lauren has kindergarten round-up every afternoon this week. And today she even got to be in Grandma Cindy's class! Although she assured me that she called her, Mrs. Dirks!
I am probably the only parent who cried dropping their child off for this. Im not ready. I know get a grip.
She had a blast. She will have an exciting year ahead of her. I am so happy for her.

Funny story. Tonight while she was putting her pjs on she said, oh mommy, I am wearing 2 pairs of panties. She said she was so excited while getting dressed this morning that she forgot to take the first pair off. Too funny!

Cinderella

We took the girls to see Cinderella at the Children's Theater today. The story was a little different from the 'real' one so the girls were a little confused at first. But they enjoyed it anyway. The play was great, the birds and the stepsisters were our favorite characters.

A boy and his jeep.

We had a fun afternoon outside even with strep. Sullivan LOVES the jeep. He sat in it like this for at least 40 minutes straight, making car noises, pretending to honk the horn and eating a freezie pop. He is so cute.

Instead

I had big plans for my Saturday morning. Instead I spent 3 hours at Urgent Care with the kids. The verdict - Avery and Sully have strep.
God is teaching me that my plans are often not His. He shows me this in small ways like today. Poor Avery and Sully.

Vaseline

Last night we had supper at my mom's. About half way through my mom asked where avery was.
She walked around the corner and Jordan said, she is covered in soap - her hands, arms, face and head!!!! And she doesnt have any pants or panties on!
She was standing quite a ways away from us and we couldnt really see her. I told her to go to the bathroom so we could get her cleaned up. Once I got in there I noticed that the 'soap' was also covering the walls, the door, the sink, and the cabinet in the bathroom.
Then I looked closer. It wasnt soap...it was VASELINE!!!!! COVERING EVERYTHING!
We were all laughing so hard there was nothing we could do. And Avery just stood there as proud as could be!

My mom is still working today to try and get it off everything and even after a bath last night Avery's hair is still very greasy and gross.

Only Avery. I guess that will teach us - when Avery is missing and very quiet - investigate immiedetly! You'd think we would know that by now with her.

He's also my stubborn, problem solver!

Jordan and I took Sully to his therapy appointment this morning. Sully did great. The therapist did a good job with him. She thinks his problem is 3 fold - 1. weak lower back and hip muscles, 2. great flexibilty - which often a trade off for stregnth and 3. He is a stubborn problem solver who has learned that he doesnt have to walk to get everything he wants!

She wants us to bring our coffee table out of storage and use it to encourage him to stand and play. He did SO well at therapy with this. He actually stood up, held the table and took 2 sideways steps to get to a toy. He has never done anything like that before. I think the stair climbing is giving him confidence.

She gave us a few other things to try and said that we should report back and possibly have another session in a month. Basically he is just going to walk late - no real developmental or structural problems. She also said that they did a study of Olympic athletes and a majority of them were late walkers! Odd.

We are happy we went and feeling really good about things! Go Sully!

My climber

Sunday night at the park Sully decided he really wanted to get to the slide. So he climbed the steps! Ever since then he is a climbing fool. He climbs our steep steep steps and crawls up on chairs and anything else he can find. I may be sorry that I have been praying for him to get moving like this!

Sure signs of spring

In our family we know it is spring when we pack up the van and head to the lake for the evening...
It is so fun to see how the kids love nature. We had a great night. I feel very blessed after nights like these...

Sweet Lauren

There were a couple of rough days when I wondered why anyone would willingly do this to their child but we seem to be over the worst now. I wouldnt call her back to her old self, but she is on her way.
Lauren has been SO brave and so tough. We are extremely proud of her.
A bright spot in this for me has been that Lauren has been somewhat of a mommy's girl since having her tonsils out. Since birth - literally, she has favored Jordan, if I werent a source of food for her as an infant I dont think I would have ever held her. She has always been a daddy's girl through and through. But the past few days I turn around and Lauren is right by me. I say, whats the matter honey, she says, nothing I just wanted to be with you. Now how sweet is that!


This was her first real smile after surgery - I believe it was Wednesday before bed and just after ice cream.

God is good, thanks for your prayers.

A million thanks and more...

I cant believe that I wrote all that up about our trip and I failed to mention the three people who even made it possible!
Many thanks and love to my mom, Cindy and Rosanna.
My mom had the kids every night and took them to the sitter each morning - not a small accomplishment! And Cindy was there every night helping out and giving baths and doing our laundry!
Rosanna had the kids the entire weekend and left me a present when she left...the SWEETEST list of all the cute things that my kids did while she was with them. I know I will keep it forever.
Thanks to you all. Our kids were in the best hands.

We're home and she's doing great!

Whatever I was expecting was not what took place. Thankfully.
Jordan and I have been praying about this surgery for weeks. That the dr.'s hands would be guided and that Lauren's fears would be eased. Well her fears weren't just eased, they were not even there!

She was so excited for today that I felt guilty because she didnt know what was coming. She was happy to put on her surgery 'gear' and sit in the chair. Then Jess said, ok, lets go on back. She held Jess's hand and went back to the OR all on her own. She didnt cry or anything, she did better than her mother and father. Although we were so reassured having Jess and the other nurses who we know with her. That was the best feeling!

They told us that she hopped right up on the operating table and acted like an adult. They said she was the best patient they had ever had. By the time we got back to her she had already had some water and was wondering where we were. She ate 2 popsicles, watched part of a new movie we got for her and at 11 they said we could go home! They had told us on Friday that we would probably be there till 3 in the afternoon.

Once we got home she fell asleep and has been up, had some applesauce and has been playing. She has been so brave and I am extremely proud of her.

Thank you all for your prayers! Lets hope she keeps this up!

A couple more

He's even cute in a silly Austrian hat!


Jordan had to 'get into the map' to figure out which way we should go.


Hiking up to one of King Ludwig's castles.

More pictures

Marie and Alber - our hosts at a bed and breakfast in Eguisheim - they were the best!


Beune, France


Castle in France

The trip

I'm finally getting around to putting up a few pictures from our trip. It has been non-stop since we got back and with Lauren's surgery tomorrow it doesnt show any hope of slowing down.
We had a fantastic trip. I didn't know if it would compare to our first experience with over seas travel two years ago, but it didn't let me down. Jordan did another amazing job of planning our trip. I don't think I would trust going over with anyone but him. He does a great job of reading the maps and getting us to where we needed to be. He picked out perfect spots for us.
We had 4 days together just the two of us. We experienced France together for the first time and visited a Roman Irish bath in Germany...an experience that will leave me slightly haunted!!! It was very relaxing, but very European!
Then we got to spend a week with our closest friends and introduce them to Europe. Jordan kept up his tour guide status for them too. We went back to Rothenburg, Germany - a place we had been before but really wanted to show Melanie and Jason. And then ventured back to France and then to Austria - we were in 4 countries in one day...We had so much fun with them. We met some wonderful people at the bed and breakfasts we stayed at and really got to see the culture. We visited wine country and fell in love with it, saw storybook castles and lots of cobblestone roads and half timbered houses, amazing art and churches and ate GREAT food. It was strange for all of us to be there without our kids, but it was a time we will never forget. We are so very very blessed. Thank for the trip Jordan.

I'm sure the rest of our lives will be filled with stories that begin with, "Remember when we were in France..."


Eguisheim, France


Comar, France - I couldn't resist.


Outside a castle in France - see the rainbow!


Rothenburg, Germany - The 'Night Watchman'


Rothenburg, Germany

Pictures speak louder than words...

These are from the night we got home...

Sickies

Well we came home to 3 happy kids. But Sully's rash on his hand looked really bad so I made him a dermatologist appt for today since I had to take Lauren over for her pre-op physical anyway.
We came back with Avery on medication for strep - how can you have strep and not have a fever? SO GLAD I told the dr. she was acting a little funny and he said lets test her.

Lauren is not sick and surgery is set for Monday at 8:30.

Sully's hand is infected and the doctor said it is time to get serious. She is very worried about his hand. She proceeded to tell me that children can loose fingers and toes VERY easily due to infections and that his hand was borderline serious. I about passed out.

So he is on an oral antibiotic, an antibiotic cream and get this...we have to begin wrapping his hands at night so that he cannot suck on any part of this. So, I will be putting cotton gloves on him and then taping those on. Please pray that he does not react to this like I think he will. I feel like I am torturing him, but I know I have to.
Pray for us, especially for Sully. Ugh...

At Last...

We're tired, we're happy, we're home!
Nothing will ever beat the feeling of holding the kids again...


more later...its like 3 am France/Germany time and Im still on France/Germany time.