Fun filled May

Starting May off by planting some flowers!

May in my household was quite the month! I have to say I got very spoiled this month. I am a full time stay at home mom, and for those of you out there who also stay home all day, every day, with your kiddo's knows that we are a blessed and also very challenged group of people;) I love it, but it is far more of a challenge than I could have ever imagined. That said, my wonderful hubby takes over this role some weekends so I can have some me time with my fantasic friends. This month I got a double dose of time away. It was great and very rejuvinating.

My first weekend away was a girls trip to Chicago to shop and go out and do lots of girl talk with no children or husbands around. I am so lucky to have the great group of friends I have found. They make staying home so much more fun and I am so blessed to have them all in my life! Love you girls;)


May 9th we celebrated Alex's 4th birthday! I cannot believe he is 4 already. Time is passing by so quickly. We had his first "friend" party this year with one of his best buddy's, Tate. Tate is also the son of one of my very dearest friends in the world, Melissa, and he turned 4 three days before Alex. We planned an outdoor party and of course it was freezing cold that day and sprinkling. Luckily, 4 year olds don't care how cold out it is and all 16 of them had a blast.


We also had a family birthday party. I usually make the cakes for the kids birthdays because I like making them and decorating them. This year though, I decided to forgo the making of the cake because I knew I wouldn't have the time to do it with two parties going on. A women in my playgroup used to be a pastry chef and does lots of cakes for others in the group so I went to her. She did a fantastic job on making Alex a "gator" for his cake. It was adorable. Things turned bad after my husband brought in the cupcakes to go with the cake from the car and the dog jumped into the car and took a big ol' bite out of the cake!! Ahhh!! I was so upset! How was I supposed to serve a cake my dog just bit into? I was franticly thinking ok, I could fix this, but we were heading out the door for the other party. My quick thinking hubby took the cake to a bakery in town which luckily had the cake decorator there and she fixed it right up for us. You couldn't even tell the dog got the cake. Sadie (the dog) thank God took her bite NOT from the Gator side, but from the front end. And NO we didn't serve the cake to the guests. We had plenty of cupcakes and Alex never knew that the dog got his cake... But it was a funny story to tell in the end.

The next interesting part of May was that Alex decided to give Gabby a "hair cut". Ugh. Yes, he got out his little crafting scissors and started chopping away. I always wondered how something like this could happen without someone knowing, and now I know. I was making dinner and thought they were both watching a cartoon and playing with their toys. Nope. Walked into the living room to find lots of locks of hair all over the carpet. Gabby was all smiles and couldn't have cared less. She had her hair up in a pony on top of her head and Alex didn't chop the whole thing off, just took a cut here and there out of it. There was more hair piled up in the front room in the house. I got her into get a proper hair cut the next morning, but they could only cut the back to make it as even as they could without cutting it all off. Most people don't really notice it, but if you really look at her it is so uneven in the back and in one section almost all cut off. That boy. I don't know what goes on in his head sometimes! For his sake though, I did get a haircut myself the day before and he said that Gabby needed short hair like me. My hair is not really that short Alex!

After all that drama I got to go on my second vacation of the month. (I told you I was spoiled this month!) Two of my best friends from high school and I about every other year get together and go somewhere. In the past it has been to visit one of them in Boston and then the other time visiting the otherone in NYC. It was my turn to pick this year and I choose Napa Valley. I have always wanted to go there. Luckily so did they. It took about a year for the trip to finally come together, but it was worth the wait. We stayed in Calistoga and spent our time tasting wine and eating at some of the best resturaunts I have been too. It was a great trip, but when I got home I was so happy to see my babies and stay home for awhile. Which is good since I don't know if Mark will agree to let me go again anytime soon... :)

One Year Post Op!!

Today marks Gabby's one year anniversary of her surgery. I cannot believe it has been a year already. Time sure is flying by. Today we also had her one year appointment with Dr. Jensen. She had to have another CT scan done to see the progression of her skull. I thought that she would just be able to get the oral sedation, but she weighed to much for it. That was a bummer. I was so hoping to avoid her having to be poked. She did as well as any child would when they are being held down and having a needle shoved into their arm. At least they did it pretty quickly and only had to try once.

We got to see the scans from last year compaired to this year and it was amazing. Looking at her you can obviously tell a big difference, but looking at the scans you can really see how much her bones were corrected. She has some large areas still in 3 spots on her skull that have gaps. Dr. Jensen said this was expected and that over then next couple of years he would monitor that the space was getting smaller, and bone was filling in. If over time this was not happening, then he would have to go in and do some work to fix this.

We were cleared for another year. She will have to go through the same routine, but they said by 2 1/2 yrs sometimes the kiddos don't need to be sedated, they will just hold still on their own. Here's to hoping! We are so, so happy today that we are a year out. I am relieved that after all of Gabby's falls, bumps, and bruises to her head (and there were many of them!) she is just fine. Dr. Jensen even reviewed the part of the CT scan that is of her brain. I was telling him how clutzy she is so he went to look at that to make sure all was good there. It was and that made me feel better:)

On another great note, my nephew, Owen, was born March 19th. He was born with absolutely nothing wrong with him!! He is just perfect and my whole family is thrilled!




We have a lot of fun activities coming up around here. Both Alex and Gabby's birthdays are coming up. I am heading to Napa Valley with some girlfriends I don't get to see very often, and Mark is heading out on a trip to Ireland. Alex is going to turn 4 and I cannot believe it. He is really turning into a little man. The things he says sometime just crack me up. However, he still can through a fit with the best of them. I am certainly looking forward to summer and spending as much time outside as possible!

We have decided to sell our house, and have put it on the market over the past month. We have been eyeing up a particular lot, closer to town that we are now, ever since we bought our house. The price came down enough to make up our minds to move. We are currently finishing up our house plans and are excited to begin the building process some time soon. Should make for an interesting summer!



Happy Easter!!