Happy Birthday Drew!

Today is Drew's 7th birthday.

Seven seems so old. He is really growing up right before our eyes.

The awesome privilege and responsiblity of raising this child has been something I've been thinking about lately. I am shaping a person. He is watching me, listening to the words I say, seeing how I interact with people. My every action is a lesson to him in how to behave, how to love. That is a huge responsibility. I thank God that he has equipped me to be a mother to Drew. That He chose me for Drew and Drew for me. That He has gifted me this miracle child who makes me want to be a better person, who has taught me more than I could ever hope to teach him.

Happy Birthday my sweet boy. I am so very proud of you. I know God has great plans for your life.

The words of this song from Sidewalk Prophets remind me of you:
Be strong in the Lord and,
Never give up hope,
You're going to do great things,
I already know,
God's got His hand on you so,
Don't live life in fear,
Forgive and forget,
But don't forget why you're here,
Take your time and pray,
These are the words I would say.

Happy Birthday Ava!

Today my baby girl turned 4.

I can hardly believe it. How did this happen? How did this sweet baby girl...

Turn into this beautiful 4-year old girl?

We are so blessed to have Ava in our lives. What would life even look like without her? I can assure you that it would not be as exciting! My girl feels everything BIG. When she is happy, her joy is absolutely contagious. It's hard not to smile when you hear her infectious giggle. And when she is upset, everyone in the neighborhood knows it! She makes us work hard in our roles as parents. We love her more than words can describe. She lights up our lives.

Some things about my big 4-year-old:

She likes to do everything herself, and can do most everything she tries.
She finds it quite upsetting on the rare occasions that she can't do something the first time she tries it.
She is an amazing gymnast and loves her classes at Fliptastic.
She loves to draw and makes many pictures each afternoon.
She likes to make her own lunches (peanut butter and jelly rollups or turkey sandwiches are her favorite).
She plays independantly while Drew is at school.
She loves to learn. She watches while Drew does his homework and has taught herself how to read, write, spell and do some math. She is going to be a great student.
She is full of energy.
She readily shares with her friends. Has a bit more trouble sharing with her brother.
She is quick to apologize after a time-out and when I say that I forgive her, she forgives me too.
She enjoys Awana and easily memorizes her weekly Bible verses.
She loves the outdoors and loves looking for ladybugs, worms, or catepillars.
This is balanced out by her love of anything princess.
She is a great hula hooper.

Birthday Boy

The morning of his birthday, Drew woke up and the first thing he wanted to do was open presents. We let him open a few things from us and then it was time to get ready for school. I sent him off to school in his favorite clothes, the Nike warm-up suit my parents got him for Christmas. He wanted to bring chocolate chip cookies for his class for his birthday. I asked the teacher to take a couple of pictures of him for me, and she surprised me with how many she took. I love her!

After school, Daddy picked Drew up and offered to take him out to lunch. But Drew wanted to eat at home and do his homework right away so that he could play his new video game, Lego Star Wars. Then we went to the gym in the afternoon, followed by more pizza for dinner! That kid is just like his Dad! We joined our friends, the Scotts, for Family Night at Round Table. The kids got their faces painted and enjoyed hanging out and playing. It was a fun birthday!

Drew's Birthday Party

Drew had a couple of birthday celebrations. The first one was on Saturday. He had a pizza party with a bunch of his buddies. We met at Godfather’s pizza and they played games in the arcade and then ate lots of pizza. We had a Batman theme, so I made a Batman cake and cupcakes, plus we gave out Batman party favors. I think the boys had a lot of fun!

Drew with his Batman cakes

Jacob, Drew and Jacob

Eben, Tommy and Jonah

The little sisters-Abby, Keilani and Ava

Colin, Connor and Jack

Opening some presents

Awesome!

Drew and his best friend at school, Alex

Singing Happy Birthday

Drew with Mom and Dad

Afterwards we invited two of his best buds over for a sleepover. They were all so excited! Drew really wanted to play Wii with his friends so that’s what they did until about 8:30. Then they got ready for bed. The three of them slept in a row on his bedroom floor, and after about an hour of talking and laughing they all fell asleep. I think they did great! In the morning they played with some of Drew’s presents before we had a yummy breakfast of pancakes, sausage and fruit. We got everyone ready for church and even made it there on time. We passed Eben and Jacob off to their parents, and our first multi-kid sleepover was a success!

The boys were mesmerized by the Wii

Playing Super Mario Brothers

Jacob, Drew and Eben

Ready for bed

Birthday breakfast

Happy Birthday Drew!

My little boy is six-years old today!

I can hardly believe it! I could write all about how amazing he is, what a miracle his life is, how strong he is and how much he's taught us about life and what's important. I could tell you how very much we love him and that I thank God for choosing me to be his mother every night.

But tonight, instead, I'm just going to post this adorable picture of him celebrating his birthday at school. Happy Birthday Drew, we love you so much!

Ava is 3!

Yesterday was my baby girl's birthday. She is three-years-old! I can hardly believe it! Where did the time go? It wasn't that long ago that I was just figuring out life with two kids (it only took me about six months). Now she's sleeping in a big girl bed, wearing underwear, taking dance, learning to write, talking non-stop and filling our lives with joy. I love the passion she has for life, although sometimes she can be quite passionate about things like not eating her breakfast or purposefully irritating her brother. She is the sweetest girl, the first to comfort a sad friend or share what she has with Drew. Last night when she was opening presents, she let him open the purple ones for her, because that's his favorite color!

Yesterday we celebrated with a pancake breakfast (a birthday tradition at our house) and a trip to Incredible John's for lunch. I've heard Incredible John's is like Chuck E. Cheese, but cleaner and a little more expensive. Of course I've never brought my kids to either place before now, I was convinced they were too germy! But the food is good and it was practically empty on a Thursday for lunch. The kids had fun picking what pizza to eat from the buffet then playing lots of games and Ava even went on the mini roller coaster. Last night was Drew's spring sing at school (pictures to follow) so we had a late dinner and then Ava opened her presents. We got her a puppy that you have to take care of and she loves it, she even slept with him last night.

Today she is bringing cupcakes into her class and then she has a big ballerina party on Saturday. Should be fun, if I can get everything ready in time.

Happy Birthday Drew!

Dear Drew,

Today is your birthday. I can't believe that you are five years old! So much has happened since that early Monday morning when you made your first appearance. We had waited with so much eager anticipation to meet you, to see which one of us you resembled, to hold your little body in our arms. You were a beautiful baby! You had a full head of black hair, long delicate fingers, and your daddy's toes. You had chubby little baby cheeks and you looked so pink and healthy. When you were born my world changed forever. I became someone's mother. I take the heavy responsibility of protecting you very seriously. I delight in your every accomplishment and my heart breaks with every trial you must face. I know you are going to do incredible things with your life. You have already touched so many people with your amazing story of triumph and perseverance. God created you just the way you are and has a great purpose for your life.

This year was an eventful one. You had your third open-heart surgery at Stanford. The surgery was a complete success, but unfortunately you experienced some complications that kept us in the hospital for six weeks. You were not very happy in the beginning, and who could blame you? But as time went on you impressed everyone with your good attitude and brought smiles to many faces as you rode your tricycle through the hospital corridors. Despite all that time in the hospital you still accomplished many things this year. You've had so much more energy since surgery. You rode your bike to the river and back, learned how to swim and walked the entire one-mile loop at the Heart Walk this year all by yourself. You and Ava became closer friends and playmates. And a big first this year: no hospitalizations outside of surgery. We visited the beach, and made our first family trip to Disneyland! We visited three of your friends in the hospital having their own heart surgeries. We registered you for kindergarten next year and signed up for t-ball.

Drew, I am so proud to be your mommy. I have learned much more from you than I have been able to teach you. I look forward to each year that we have together. I can't wait to see all the things you will do with your life. I love you forever.

Love,
Mom

Happy Birthday Dan!

Yesterday was Dan's 30th birthday! He celebrated by getting up at 6 am, leaving the house at 7 and driving up to Tahoe. Then he and his buddy Pete rode their bikes the 74 miles around the lake! Six and a half hours later, including some breaks and a flat tire change, they were on their way back to Sacramento. When they got here we had some friends over for a backyard BBQ. The food was amazing, thanks to my cousin Heather and her husband John. We had tri-tip, corn/tomato/avocado/black bean salad, green salad with dried cherries & goat cheese, watermelon cubes with lime zest, roasted asparagus and lemon cupcakes with creamcheese frosting for dessert. The weather was a little warm, but everyone had fun watching the kids play outside and toasting with some delicious beverages.

Happy Birthday to the best husband and father of my children I could have hoped for! I love you forever!



Oh, but it doesn't end there.

It's always after a really fun day that something crappy happens at night. And so it was last night. My cousins spent the night last night after the party so they didn't have to make the drive home to Oakland. Around 3:30 am John got a phone call from Heather's brother. He said that someone had called him from Heather's phone and told him that they stole her car and her ipod. Heather & John called the police right away and then woke us up. Once we turned off the house alarm and went outside, we saw that the car was still there, but had been broken into. They did take the phone, the charger, and the IPOD. They also stole our mail that we hadn't picked up that day. So we filed another police report and were awake until 5:00 am. I'm starting to think our neighborhood isn't so safe...

Fun Weekend

I hope all the moms out there had a wonderful Mother's day.

I found myself thinking of my friends who have lost their mom's or who have lost their children. I know it can be a difficult day for many and my thoughts were with you.

Our weekend began on Friday when we left around noon to drive down to So Cal. The kids were good about two-thirds of the drive and awful for about one-third. Ava refused to take her nap and fell asleep at 6, right before we arrived. The two hours of awful involved Ava crying for no reason we could figure out, her and Drew screaming at each other and multiple stops.

Saturday we had a birthday party for Ava at my Mom's house and the whole extended family joined us. It was a jungle animal theme, complete with lots of huge animal balloons and a monkey pinata. The hit of the party was the cake which looked like a tiger and the monkey cupcakes. The kids had a great time.

Ava is two!

Elephant balloon

Ava on the "animal safari"

Drew and his animals

Ava wants to hug the monkey pinata

All the adults watching the kids gather their loot

Poor monkey

Me with Jamie and Baby Ashley

Opening presents

Ready for cake!

Sunday was Mother's Day and my mom and I enjoyed breakfast in bed. Then my mom and my sister and I went and had our nails done and did a little shopping. And we had a nice dinner with the entire family before my brother and sister had to leave to go back home and to school.

Breakfast in bed with my mom

The whole family

Me and my boy

Our gift to Grandma

Monday we got up at 4:30 and loaded the car and were on the road by 5 am. The plan was to leave early enough so the kids would sleep most of the way, but it didn't exactly work out that way. Ava didn't fall asleep until 9 and Drew only slept for about an hour from 5:30 to 6:30. It was still a better drive than on the way down, probably because they were tired and quiet. Plus we were home by 11:15 so we had the whole day to adjust to being home.

I have a list of people to call today.
-blood bank at Stanford to make sure they have CMV negative, irradiated blood for Drew
-housing people at Stanford to check out our options
-radiology nurse at UCD to see if Drew has to fast and for how long for his CT on Tuesday
I also need to find my financial assistance application and turn that in. Should make for an interesting post tomorrow!