:)

Ninja Mom

Ninja Moms wear ninja shoes...

Sweet Oscar

Oscar was Allie's passenger today and he was brave to do it!  She will definitely be our first fender bender kid! 

♥

Al. Most. Done.

Yesterday was one of those days that by the end of it we fully expected to get a flat tire on the way home and then return home to our house having burnt to the ground.  Not a good day.
But, as always, there are moments of good. 

What have I done? Agh!!!!

First Bath

Sweet Oscar. Poor baby, it's too easy to give him a bath, he's going to be getting them about once a week. :) He was sweet and didn't fuss. Thanks to Addison for the pics.

Great Grandma!!!!!

Great Grandma is here, Great Grandma is here! YAY!!!!!!!!! I speak for all of us when I cheer out loud!!!

To the rescue

So a week ago or so, we knew that Mollie's health was failing beyond repair. We have had enough grief and sadness and I was a little concerned about what to do to help this sad situation. Enter craigslist. We've been talking and casually looking for about a year for a little dog for the girls. I wanted a "nice yorkie" and those are very hard to come by. So my next thought was a maltese, they got way better reviews regarding children. So I am on craigslist and there at the top is a yorkie/maltese mix, 6 weeks old tomorrow, available tomorrow. It was 11 oclock at night and I texted them anyway. They texted right back and all of our questions were answered. We agreed to meet them at their vet the next morning and pick up the dog after it got it's shots. Divine intervention. I think so. So we pack up in the morning and head across town. The girls still know nothing. We told them on the way there and they were ecstatic. We pull in the parking lot and the girls exploded out of the car. There were two little boys left of the five puppy litter. Oscar was the smaller, darker, calmer one. He completely fit the bill of what I wanted, but I let the girls ask questions and get their info. All Addison wanted to know, "which puppy is calmer?". YES! Good question! The lady said Oscar and she was right. He was so mellow, so the decision was made and the girls were ecstatic.

Sweet Mollie

Robbie and I got married in August of 2001, in February of 2002 we got Mollie. She was a tiny ball of fur and she was sweet. Jake took to her after a while and then they were besties. Mollie has never known life with us without Jake and so as her health has been failing, we have talked to the girls about Jake waiting for her and that they have been without each other for so long. (about 18 months). And then I found us a puppy one night on craigslist and we went and bought it the next morning. I don't leave things to chance. So yesterday we took Mollie to the vet to get checked out as she had taken a turn for the worse the last three days and they ran tests and said with a lot of meds they would be able to keep her comfortable but there was no medicine or "fix" for our sweet girl. So with heavy hearts we had Mollie put down. It was terrible for all of us, but the girls get sad and then remember that she is with Jake now and they are happy for Jake to have her back. sidenote: 2014 is complete garbage so far.

Hot Tub

My birthday was not the best day. It will forever be known as "the day we lost the picc". We had babied and vigilantly protected that dang thing unfailingly. Then we went to get the dressing changed at CHLA the 21st. The skin on her arm had broken down badly so they used the hypafix dressing which we had never used before. Well, there was a reason we hadn't used it. It didn't last one night of Evelyn's itching she does at night while sleeping. And the morning of my birthday she greeted me sheepishly and showed me her arm. The dressing was nearly Gone and the picc had been pulled. Sooooooo, we get everyone ready and drive back down to CHLA. Back to the infusion center we go and Stawna (the picc specialist), came and took one look and said, "No". Eliza had already flushed it but could get no return....there was no chance of keeping it. So I looked at Evelyn, she looked in my eyes and I pulled the picc out of her arm. Done. 2 seconds changed SO MANY things. Cons to no PICC: On the 29th and May 20th, she will have to have an iv placed each time to receive her chemo and get blood drawn, and on the 20th, also to receive the contrast for the CT. Pros to no PICC: See below photo ;) Also, I am treating her skin 3 times a day and her arm looks human again. It no longer itches, which it did before constantly. She can take a REAL bath with no huge blue glove taped to heck to protect her line. She can wear Any clothes she wants with no worry about anything catching on her picc. No flushing each day, which to me is kind of a sad thing, I liked those moments with her just chillin, doing the flush. So after the sad frustration, we are moving on to better days. PICC is GONE.

After we had planted jelly beans and gum balls last night, we were excited to see that Easter Magic is real and that lollipops and blowpops grew in their place. It was awesome!

The girls were ecstatic about my Easter Bunny pancakes, until Daddy used the chocolate chips to make some bunny poop.  Thanks Dad.

Of course the Easter Bunny left the girls baskets and Easter dresses in the play house.  and Daddy and the girls are ALL sleeping in there tonight.  I love the play house!

We are READY to hunt some eggs!!!!

Pretty girl

Easter preparations

So tonight we had some serious prep to do.  Most importantly we "planted" our jelly beans and gum balls in hopes of getting some suckers and blow pops to grow.  Easter lore tells us this will work. 

I put the girl's baskets together and put them out in the playhouse and then also hung their Easter dresses out there as well.  We are ready I think as robbie is hiding the eggs I filled and also planting the suckers with Keith tomorrow morning.  We are sharing our Easter morning festivities with our friends and next door neighbors Keith and Corey, Scarlett and Fiona.  It will be very fun. 

All Belle All the Time

Endurance.

Now that Evelyn Macie has her chemo every third week, the amount of the drugs she gets has increased.  Her vincristine is now a full third more than she was previously getting.  The vincristine is the drug that causes her neuropathy pain, resulting in a pins and needles, numb sensation in her feet,  legs and hands all the time.  It also makes her mouth tender to all sensations especially cold or crunchy.

As I have watched my daughter experience all that she has since January 1st of this year from the nephrectomy, to 11 days in the hospital, to the picc line in her arm, to the countless appts, to being a bald 3 year old girl, the list goes on and on with both physical and emotional concerns. And as I have watched her do all of these things I often think to myself, "this is what endurance looks like".  When we hear and heed the guidance, "endure to the end", this is what that means.  She doesn't ask "why do I have to have this picc", etc., she doesn't bemoan her situation in any way.  She is simply a ninja and all the rest is just "stuff".

Lots of times I shy away from reading about other kids and their struggles because it's easy to feel their parent's fear in addition to our fear and I just cannot do more fear right now.  And in the same breath I sometimes think I can't wait to get through this and then hopefully start to block some of it out.  But in reality, over time, I believe that this will only serve us.  This is Our lesson in endurance.  We will be stronger, more faithful,  we will be able to hold on to all of these memories as important ones of a time that made us better and stronger.  Just watching Evelyn persevere can't help but do that.  So when you think of sweet Evelyn, please do as I do: smile and remember that if a tiny 3 year old girl can do this with the grace she has, we can endure too.

I detest 3:30 a.m.

Dave Ramsey

So Rob and I pretty much think Dave Ramsey is awesome.  Sooo when figuring out how to introduce allowance vs. earnings to our kids, we went to Dave.  Clear jars let them see their earnings, they don't get paid to keep their rooms or the playhouse clean, but earn money for chores that help the family.  They each have a specific goal they are saving for and right now for both of them it is earrings for when they can change them in 5 weeks.  Anyway, my kids have not been so excited about anything in a while.  The motivation in the timing is that now with Addison out of school, she has less responsibility, purpose in learning, etc.  I think this will help all of that and give she and Allie a goal to shoot for.  And my favorite thing?  Allie cleaned up the poop in the backyard twice today and Addison makes my bed as well as I do. :)  you are awesome big girls!

Panera

We love Panera.  We went there the other day and Evelyn ate all her soup, the soft part of her bread and then sweet talked Rob in to a dessert.  She ate a few bites of the cinnamon roll, gave it to Robbie and got a cupcake.  She ate the frosting and was done.  Her tummy was fully round and I was so happy.