Andrew's Visit

So Andrew had the opportunity to drive up from KS to visit before he headed to final training and overseas. He came up February 4th just before the big snow storm hit KS. He stayed until Monday before heading to Omaha to visit his Dad and then back to Grandma's house in Olathe. Nick decided to go with him to say "hi" to everyone and that meant that Andrew had to bring him back at the end of the week. They brought Claire, Andrew's girlfriend, back with them on Friday, February 12th, for a quick visit over Valentines weekend. Andrew and Claire left Sunday for the long drive back to KS. He then had to leave for a training base in Oklahoma (I think it was that one) for special final training before heading overseas. He leave within the next month and we all will miss him terribly! I am so glad he had the chance to visit! It was wonderful seeing him and meeting Claire again. Below are some pictures from both visits...


The kids all in Nick's temporary bedroom (the guest room) playing games and having a great time!

Yes, I was busy distracting them...


Nick giving me the usual response when trying to take his picture.

Nick usually has several games going at once on the dual computer screens, laptop and TV. Kids and their technology!

Isabela taking pictures on her phone and Rhianna hanging in the background.

OK so since I had all 4 kids in the same place at the same time I wanted to get a picture - something nice. Ha Ha !! As usual I took more than 40 pictures and I think I only got one decent one. Reminds me of the pictures I took at the lighthouse the last time Andrew visited Illinois...






As you can see I didn't get one of the 4 of them and the atmosphere disintegrated dramatically! Went from bad to worse... I guess I'll have to use the goofy ones for the Holiday cards and pictures on the wall.

Did get a halfway decent one with Claire and the kids. She's such a sweetheart and bravely ate the breakfast I made before they left. She ate the fried egg even though she doesn't normally eat eggs. Brave child - Nick told her! I love my children!

Then the boys got goofy!

And tried to drag the girls in...

Took a couple of shots of just Andrew and Claire. These turned out well I think! Especially with their siblings being ornery behind me!



Well that's all she wrote for the Valentines holiday. I hope you had a great one and were able to celebrate the love in your household! We sure did and the minute Andrew and Claire left we all missed them terribly. Sarah, Andrew's dog we adopted, was the most heartbroken. Keep him in your thoughts and prayers as he heads overseas for his Army tour. We'll keep you posted on his progress and hopefully news of his home coming soon!

The 2010 January Birthdays!!

WooHoo the 2010 January Birthdays are over!! As some of you may know January is the birthday month in our household with Isabela's on the 12th, Rhianna's on the 16th and Andrew's on the 18th. We are done with birthday fun and excitement until June!

When the kids were younger we had what we called birthday weekend. Somebody would take Friday night, another Saturday afternoon or evening and the other would get Sunday afternoon. Makes for a crazy and wild weekend but done all at once and we weren't dragging parties on for weekends that the relatives had to fill their schedules with. Mark off that whole weekend and we are done!

As the kids have gotten older and wiser to my strategies for no sleepovers ( DARN ) things have changed. With Andrew all over the country training for his Army career and the girls more interested in having a couple of special friends over versus the everybody in the class coming idea we have simplified quite a bit. In many ways I actually miss it.

This year was very simple and casual. The girls each had a couple of friends join us for pizza and cake ahead of time and then we headed to a local movie theater, Round Lake Regal Cinema, to hangout in the birthday party room and see Avatar 3D. Originally we were going to open presents and eat cake at the theater, hence the party room, but the cakes seemed to be cumbersome (see pics below and you'll understand) and we were running behind schedule. Imagine that six teenage girls running behind! HA! Anyway we got there had some drinks (and no not that kind but don't I wish) and they took our orders for treats. We then were seated in our reserved seats and watched the movie. Wow what a movie! Afterwards we dropped the guests off and headed home for a good nights sleep.

May sound boring but it was tons of fun and the girls have asked to do it again that way next year. I told them I didn't have a problem with that. The price was certainly right! The theatre tickets were $14.75 each kid and that included one of those kiddie combos of drink, popcorn and gummies. Two adult tickets were included so Wayne and I didn't have to pay. Then the party room was an additional $25 and you could choose from two times 12-4pm or 6-10pm. We choose the later and the room included pitchers of pop refilled as we wanted plus they kept the door locked and we left our coats and stuff in there. We would have taken more advantage of it except the movie we choose was a three hour epic! Oh well! The staff was great and I highly recommend checking it out. I can't promise that every Regal Cinema is this way but I'll be headed to the Round Lake one again for my movie needs!

Anyway, I didn't get many pictures but here are a few. Mostly of the cakes I put together at the girls' requests. Yes two cakes because, ya know, we can't share one! It was my first time working with fondant all over the cakes. I got a lot of tips and some decorations from my dear friend Joyce. Thanks Joyce! A wonderfully talented women! So I hope you can't see my oops in the pictures but that the pics are good enough for you to see the detail. I think they turned out very well considering all the bad words I said. And most importantly the girls loved them!

So on to June and the next birthday!

Rhianna's cake was a "box of chocolates". Silly me should have taken the pictures BEFORE I pierced the cake with candles.

Hand made the rose candies. Nick really liked them!

Isa's castle cake. Had to take several pics to get all the angles. And again should've taken the pictures BEFORE I stuck all the candles in. Hard to tell what's cake decoration and what's candle. Also hard to put 14 candles in that cake!

A little pathway to the castle entrance and ivy trailing everywhere and covering my goofs...

A beaming Isabela - she LOVED the cake!

Rhianna being goofy for the camera but she LOVED her cake too! I think she liked the chocolate candy best though!

Blew out all 13 in one blow and then... one of those stinkers lite back up. Didn't realize I'd grabbed one of the relighters out of the BDay candle box. Boy was Rhianna ticked at me!

Look at that glow from those candles!! It only gets worse from here Isa!

Isa didn't get hers all in one blow. ;)

Enjoying cake and just hanging out...

Rhianna's December Adventures

You've heard for awhile now that Rhianna would be scheduling a major important surgery in 2009. We tried in 2008 but didn't care for how the Urologist treated her and were uncomfortable scheduling anything with her. So we searched and found another Urologist, Dr. David Hatch, visited with him and scheduled the surgery for the middle of December minimizing her down time during school.


Well, after having labs and tests done ahead of time we sat in the OR waiting room on December 16th! Finally ready to have a bladder sling and MACE procedure done. Both of these procedures were suppose to help in keeping Rhianna "dry" as her little body doesn't have that ability because of her Spina Bifida. The surgery took 3+ hours and was sort of productive.


The bladder sling looks to have helped in tightening up her bladder neck and urethra to lessen leakage BUT the docs were unable to do the MACE procedure. In order to complete the MACE the docs needed to use her appendix as a stoma and they couldn't find it. They looked around for awhile and didn't want to risk damage or the anesthesia running out so they had to fore go it. We have the option of trying again with additional tests to locate the appendix. So we'll see how that works out.


Rhianna had the surgery at Loyola Hospital and it was a great experience, nice hospital. She was in the hospital for a couple of days. Probably should have stayed one more but she had a nightmare of a roommate and we all felt she would heal quicker at home. While in the hospital Rhianna had a couple of special visitors. Santa dropped by to wish her well and delivered a teddy bear. She also had a visit from a violinist who teaches at a local school. She played for us and then allowed Rhianna to play a little. It was a really neat experience! Made Rhianna's day with those visits. Thanks to all who sent well wishes, hugs and kisses. It's always helpful in the healing process to know that you are loved!


Rhianna has a follow up appointment the end of February and we'll find out more about the MACE and missing appendix plus get the final determination on how the bladder sling is working (I'm not convinced it is but they keep telling me give it time...) and if we are done with that process. We'll keep you posted. If you'd like more information on this procedure, Spina Bifida or any of the health issues Rhianna has been challenged with feel free to contact us. Rhianna is always willing to share and help folks understand a little more about her.


Rhianna waiting for the docs to come in. Isn't this a great look? A warming hat and her hospital piggy... she gets a new one for every hospital stay she has. Grandma Carol sent this one to her from KC as Mommy forgot to get one ahead of time.


Waiting and watching bad hospital TV...

Still waiting... the docs ran behind a little bit and the 1:00pm surgery didn't happen until 3:30pm! So after a 4 hour surgery, two plus hours in recovery you can imagine what time we finally got her settled in a room. Needless to say once comfy she and I passed right out!

The morning after and not such a happy camper :(

But a visit from that jolly man helped a lot! Having her picture taken with him for a card and he brought a cute little teddy bear. She was also given a bead kit the morning after her surgery by the child life staff. Very nice group of folks!

Making her laugh Santa is a nice thought however... it really was painful. :)

I love a kid who still believes even when she's a teenager! She was thrilled to see Santa and it makes these kinds of times much more tolerable to see smiling friendly faces.

The Violinist (my apologies but I have no idea what this gracious women's name is) entertaining Rhianna. She and Rhianna talked for almost an hour about music and I was so proud of Rhianna. She had a very intelligent adult conversation. She's growing up way to fast!

Then the brave women let Rhianna play her violin. She actually did a very good job. Shocked me considering she was laying in a bed, stomach incision, and uncoordinated when it comes to the hand/eye stuff. She now wants to add the violin to her repertoire... good thing I have a couple lying around!

Getting a little help...

Listening intently AND following directions...