Easter in an eggshell...

I know it's supposed to be "in a nutshell" but I thought it sounded pretty crafty.  

We had a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious day!  I REALLY REALLY love Easter.  I love the promise and hope it brings.  I love the new growth that Spring brings.  I love the story of the Resurrection.  I love going to church and hearing such amazing musical numbers.  I love having family over for a yummy feast.  I love the fun and fancy clothes.  I especially love it when it is nice and sunny and we can enjoy an egg hunt outside!  I just simply loved today.  

I hope you all had an 'EGG'stra special day as well.  'HOPPY' Easter Everyone!  (sorry, had to sneak one more in, hehehe!)

 Easter Egg Dying!

 Coming down to find their baskets...

 It was pretty much IMPOSSIBLE to get a good 'group' shot. :)

 Going on an egg hunt...

Jack did a super cute dance for us... I love this boy.

I will survive...

We survived another Tonsil surgery and recovery!  Today is the first day Olivia hasn't wanted Tylenol in the morning with breakfast.  I am so glad my little one is back to her happy self!  I do have to say that this round was much easier than when Jack was recovering.  I still believe with all my heart that girls are MUCH more tough than boys.  It was a night and day difference waking up after anesthesia.  Olivia had a few tears fall but she never really cried out loud.  She was amazing.  I was so relieved everything went so smooth and I was so proud of her strength! 

She had tonsils, adenoids, ear tubes and allergy testing.  A whole 'blue plate special'.  And she hasn't had her follow-up hearing test yet, but I can already notice a HUGE difference in her hearing!  She had failed 2 hearing tests and her doctor told us her hearing was only at 50% in her right ear and almost no hearing in her left.  Her testing on her left ear showed a flat line.  Poor girl had her whole world sounding like she was under water.  She now has noticed lawn mowers in the distance, birds chirping in the morning, she covers her ears when we start the vacuum or blender and she says that Jack's voice gives her a headache now.  :)  

I'm hoping her testing comes back positive!  We go in for more testing in a week and a half.  This should also help with her speech as before it was a little hard to understand what she was saying (not to me, but to other people) as she tended to slur her words and didn't' really pronunciate. 

Yay for being done with Doctors (hopefully) for a while!  

Here she is getting ready to go to the O.R. for surgery!  She was so brave!

 Waking up.  Not quite sure what is going on at this point.  

We had her baby blanket (which she still loves) and her little stuffed friends there when she woke up.

 She fell in and out of sleep for about an hour or so.

 She was excited to open a new barbie after she was up.

We were headed home after a couple of short hours.  She was a trooper!

My good friend brought us a yummy dinner and dessert.  Olivia was excited to try the raspberry cheesecake that same night.  She said it felt good on her throat, nice and soft.

We snuggled up and watched plenty of Barbie movies. 

She was sent some fun gifts from family.  It helped her get thru taking her yucky meds.  Every time she took it she got to open a gift.  So THANK YOU EVERYONE!  Here she is with her new PJ's (matching set for her and her stuffed animal) and crowns.  She got a very cute personalized silver bracelet that she loves.  She also got a pink flashlight and it was handy during the night when she was up for meds.  She got a gift card to her favorite frozen yogurt place, that was a fun date.  People brought popsicles and sent cards.  Our favorite little neighbor friend brought her a little 'flower' every day.  It was adorable. We were so grateful for everyone's thoughtfulness.  

This week, she's back to her normal self, running and playing! 

This little light of mine...

Has your life ever been touched by knowing someone with Autism?  Mine has.  Every. Single. Day.  It is the hardest challenge I've ever been faced with, yet somehow, it also brings my life endless amounts of blessings and joy.  Jack keeps me grounded, tests my patience, makes me see the world in a different light, makes me laugh, makes me cry, makes me appreciate quirkiness, wears me out, and has completely and utterly captured my heart.  My whole heart.  I. Love. Him.  Just the way God made him.  He is my son, he's been through a lot in his short 6 years, and he continues to make great strides in life and that makes me one proud mama. 

Happy Autism Awareness Day!  Did you know that as of this month, statistics show that 1 in 88 children are diagnosed with Autism?  It is all around us.  If you haven't already done so, read up on the topic.  Be aware.  And be patient with people affected by Autism, it is not an easy road to travel.  

We did our part to spread awareness by putting up blue light bulbs for the Light It Up Blue event and giving all our employees blue lights for their homes.  We are all wearing blue ribbons and blue clothing!  Dan's office is also doing an Autism Speaks fundraiser for the month of April.  They are raising money for a great cause, a cause that is close to our hearts.  If they raise enough as an office, Dan is throwing a patient appreciation BBQ and the girls at work get to shave his head bald.  :)  

Let me know if you ever want to know more about this topic!  I love to chat about it!

“Autism, is part of my child, it's not everything he is. My child is so much more than a diagnosis.” 

               ― Sandra L Coelho

Playing catch up...

I plan on blogging and making photo collages for the next hour and a half...because that's when I leave to pick the boys up from school and Olivia is content on the couch watching the movie Bolt.  So let's see how much I can accomplish in 90 minutes...

First I need to take care of a few items of business before we get to this post 'highlight'!  

KJ had his Cub Scout Blue and Gold banquet.  He played a part in a skit and I was proud of him for being the main character as he is super shy when he performs in front of crowds.  He did great.  I don't think I see an Oscar in his future, let's just say acting is not his forte.  :)  The cake assignment this year was to think of something that has changed the world for the positive.  He chose to make a steam engine cake.  He had fun decorating his 'Oregon Duck' steam engine.  

I am a counselor in the YW program and I have loved every minute of it.  I REALLY love working with the youth.  They give me hope for my own children that the 'teen' years don't have to be that bad!  We have a fabulous group!  We had our New Beginnings night and it was hilarious.  I love those girls. 

Dan took KJ and Olivia to see the Monster Trucks.  Jack said he didn't want to go because it's too loud, so while Dan took the other kids, I took Jack to a movie.  It was a great date night with my little man.  I told Dan to be sure to take pictures and this is all he could come up with.  Now we see why I am usually the one behind the camera!  But they had fun and Olivia wants a dirt bike now.  :)  She sure is a well rounded child.  She's not scared of a thing.  

It has been unusually warm this March.  We've seen 80* a few times and the kids are loving it!  I also love that for Spring sports we've had great weather so far.  I remember Spring sports in the past have been FREEZING so this has been very welcome weather!  

Liv made us some grass stew for dinner.  I love that she so easily keeps herself entertained.  

Jack has finally mastered the swinging monkey bars.  Now at recess, it's all he wants to do.  The poor guy has blisters and calluses on his teeny tiny little hands.  But he has gained some confidence on the playground, and I was so proud of him.

KJ has made his way back to the dirt bike park.  He's also gained his confidence back after his 'wreck' last year.

I started babysitting a friend's baby over the past few weeks.  He's such a little cutie pie.  Originally I thought this would be a great cure for my baby hunger, but alas, it's only gotten worse.  Here is Ryder.  The kids and I did a photo shoot with him the other day.  He gets lots of love and attention at our house.  Isn't he a sweetheart?! 

We have a new family photographer.  I uploaded pictures from our Spring Break and was shocked to see that I had 316 pictures.  186 of them were taken by Jack.  I didn't upload most of them, but you get the picture of what's important in Jack's world.  What a little stinker.  

I know this is silly, but I have to blog about this...Taco Bell has a new taco.  The shell is made of a giant DORITO!  Brilliant, I tell you, Brilliant.  And so so delicious.  We stopped here 2x in a few days during our road trip.

Which brings me to our feature story for this post...SPRING BREAK!
We were able to meet Grandma and Grandpa Howard in Kansas City for a long weekend.
It's always fun getting to spend time with them.  We all had a great time!


Here are some of the things we found ourselves doing during our 'mini-road-trip-vacation'...

We, of course, had to try a few Kansas City BBQ joints.  Mmmmm.

We stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge and shared a very large 2 story room with Grandma and Grandpa!.  It was a kid's paradise.  There were all kinds of fun things to do.  

Most importantly...there was a giant water park.

Our hotel was next to a nice shopping center...which is always a bonus for me. 

Grandma and Grandpa treated us to a fun day at the Kansas City Zoo.  Perfect weather.  Lots of fun.  My favorite part was the Polar Bear.  He would swim laps and laps and bounce off the glass walls right in front of us.  What a fun and memorable day that was. 

Since we were out of town for St. Patty's Day, we found the next best thing to having a green dinner at home.  We went to Ihop for breakfast and they had fun & festive 'green eggs and ham'.

 I'm glad we had the chance to do something fun for our break.  

The kids said it was the best trip ever.  :)  

A BIG THANK YOU to G&G Howard for driving to meet us there.  

We miss you guys already.

So behind...

I realize that I have been so lazy on keeping up with the blog lately.  I am not sure how or when my life became so crazy busy.  I also feel a real lack of motivation and creativity as of the past couple of months.  Maybe it's the loads of allergy medicine's that I'm taking every day just to be able to function.  I have a love-hate relationship with Spring.

Olivia had surgery this morning and so tomorrow, when I'm not so exhausted from a long day of taking care of my little princess, I plan on catching up....in case any of you were wondering.  ;)  I just know you are on the edge of your seats waiting.  Who am I kidding, I'm not even sure if this blog is still read by anyone.  But I am determined to keep up on this blog if it kills me.  This is my own personal way to journal about my family and it's been fun to go back and read our blog in book form.  It always brings back lots of fun memories.  

So for now... I'm signing off for the night.  

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......