Gilmore Girl

Has it really been that long.....

2011-01-16T17:11:00.000-08:00

since I last posted pictures? Wow, way to stay on top of things! My last real post was in July right after Lilly's Minnie Mouse party. A lot has happened since then!! Leila started Kindergarten and absolutely loves her teacher Mrs. Maloy. Leila turned 6 in September. Cole started preschool and is so in love with one of his classmates Sylvia. She also is in Cole's class at church. Cole turned 5 in November. Lilly misses Leila and Cole while they are at school but is such a big helper with Laurel. They love to play babies together. To help keep the kids occupied and to help out some friends, I started watching little baby Carolyn (I think she was 3 months when I started watching her) everyday from 7:30-5:30 Monday through Friday starting in September. I also started watching one of Lilly's friends Will (age 2) on Mondays and Wednesdays for about 5 hours each day. I got a little too stressed and stopped watching Carolyn in early December.

Christmas was wonderful this year!! We started off by going to our friends (from church) house. We ate lots of yummy food, decorated cookies for Santa, acted out the Nativity, and sang Christmas songs. We had a wonderful time!! When we got home we sprinkled our Reindeer food on the lawn and sent the kids to bed. They were extremely easy to get to bed!! They knew Santa would not come if they didn't go to sleep. Roy and I were asleep by 11pm!! I was so excited!

Laurel woke us up Christmas day at about 8 am. (I was really excited we got to sleep in!) Lilly woke up shortly after and we had to wake Cole and Leila up. We continued on my family's tradition of lining up youngest to oldest and singing Christmas songs until we get to the Christmas tree. The kids weren't really big on the singing they just wanted to get to the tree! We let the kids open their stockings and then we ate breakfast. I made cinnamon rolls with icing and pecan sticky buns. They were delicious and brought back so many memories of working at TJ Cinnamons. (My mom and dad owned a cinnamon roll bakery.) After breakfast the kids tore into their presents. Before we knew it there was paper all over the place! We lounged around all day, played games, and watched movies. I made ham, sweet potato casserole, Brussel sprouts, hash brown casserole, and homemade rolls. I got the kids little plastic wine glasses to drink the sparkling grape juice. That was a big hit!! This will be our new tradition! We later drove and looked at Christmas lights. It was so wonderful to not have any plans and to just stay home as a family.

On the 27th at about 12:30am, Roy woke me up having a seizure. I have seen him having a seizure a couple times before but this one seem to really scare me even more! I think because he can usually tell when they are coming on and has about 10 seconds of the "aura". (He gets a ringing in his ear) This time he was asleep and didn't feel it coming on so I couldn't prepare myself. I am having a hard time with it still and continually wake him up at night asking if he is ok. Every snore he makes (or even doesn't make), and every weird noise he makes in his sleep I freak out and can't sleep because I just know he will have another seizure. I am totally traumatized by it! Really a tough thing to go through! The doctor told him to take more of the meds he is already on. Hopefully this will fix the problem and we won't have to worry about this anymore!!

Anyway, here are some pictures of Christmas.....well I take that back! The pictures were taking too long to upload. I will post some later in another post.

Cracking up laughing...

2011-01-14T15:41:00.000-08:00

Cole saw a commercial on tv for Proactive. He says, "Mom we need to get that for me." I asked him why. He says because I have bumps. (He has REALLY bad eczema.) Leila laughed at him and said "nice try Cole!"

I love my kids so much! They continually keep me laughing!

Just a couple of funny things...

2010-11-23T20:40:00.000-08:00

I know I always say this but Cole comes up with some of the craziest things. I bought a turkey baster the other day. He finds it, holds it up to his nose, and says this is the hugest snot sucker!!

On the way to Target tonight, I was trying to get the kids to behave and I said that Santa Claus was not going to bring them any toys for Christmas. Instead he would bring them reindeer poop. Cole immediately says, rainbow poop!? Wow, sounds colorful!

Funny things from my children's mouths...

2010-10-23T18:46:00.000-07:00

So tonight I was making dinner and Cole said, "Dinner smells Delicious. It is off the hoozle." I laughed so hard!!!

I made cookies after dinner and the kids were sitting at the table. Cole moves his chair to sit by Leila. I asked him if Leila was his best friend. He said, "Yes, I love Leila." Leila said, "No Cole is not my best friend, he is my cousin."

Anytime we ask Lilly a question she so innocently says, "I dunno."

I love my kids so much!!!

Kids say the darndest things...

2010-09-15T20:05:00.000-07:00

Roy had to work 2pm-12am tonight on his birthday. We surprised him at work and each kid gave him a balloon that they picked out with a bag of his favorite candy. We were going to eat with him at Subway for his birthday dinner (which is in the HEB shopping center not because we are cheap) but he got really busy and wasn't able to meet us. I told the kids that daddy wasn't going to be able to eat dinner with us because he got tied up at work. Leila and Cole almost started crying. Not because they weren't going to get to eat with daddy but because they thought he literally got tied up at work. They asked me if there was a friend at work that could untie him and asked why anyone would tie daddy up. Then Cole said I bet they used the balloons we gave him to tie him up. I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants!

Lilly's Minnie Mouse Party

2010-07-07T23:02:00.000-07:00

Lilly's Birthday party pictures-

Minnie Mouse ears

Her new Elmo she got with birthday money.

Some of the decorations.

Minnie Mouse cupcakes

Lilly doesn't really watch tv yet but she knows 2 characters really well. She knows who Elmo is and Minnie Mouse. I decided to do a little Minnie Mouse party for her 2nd bday. I only invited a few kids her age because I didn't want it to get too chaotic. She had a great time! We had the pool set up, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, swing set, sprinkler, playhouse, Minnie Mouse ears made out of balloons, and balls for the kids to play with. I made pigs in a blanket, rotel and chips, watermelon, cantaloupe, cherries, Minnie Mouse cupcakes, and ice cream. For the party favors they got a fish shaped cup with a crazy straw, bubbles, candy, and a water gun. We only had 2 kids show up because alot of the families were going out of town and some of the kids were sick but I think the kids had a great time!

After the party we went to Galveston to meet Aidan and her family. We had a great time playing on the beach!! We were going to watch a fireworks show with them but they canceled the show at the last minute due to the weather. Of course I didn't get any pictures of it!

June 2010

2010-07-07T22:37:00.000-07:00

We didn't really do much in June. It really went by pretty quick! We stayed home, swam, played, and had a garage sale. Lilly turned 2 on the 26th. I can't believe she is already 2! At about 21 months she started asking to go to the potty. So I started taking her and she does pretty good everyday! She could be totally potty trained if I would make the effort to potty train her. She usually has 1 accident a day and I don't ask her to go to the potty she does it all by herself! She wants to be a big girl so bad! She is such a great helper! She loves to get diapers, wipes, pacifiers, or any other thing we may need for Laurel. She loves her baby sister so much! She is really funny with her. She will walk up to Laurel and make funny faces and baby babbles to make Laurel laugh. Laurel just thinks she is so funny!! We gave Lilly her big present a couple weeks before her birthday. We got her a Dora trike. She loves riding it! We had a birthday party for her on July 3rd. More on that in another post.

Lilly and Laurel

Cole, Lilly, Leila

Lilly's new ride

Cole and Leila's lemonade stand at the garage sale! They wanted to help me with the garage sale and this was the only way I could get them to stay out of the way and not play with the stuff we were selling.

May 2010

2010-07-07T22:12:00.001-07:00

Roy continued to have meetings in Houston until the middle of May so we were there with him until about the 15th. At the end of May my family had a mini family reunion. My parents, Adrienne and family, Brianne and family, Aidan and family, my family, and Nolan all met up in Slidell. Aidan had her new baby Joey blessed at church that Sunday. That Monday we went to New Orleans to the Aquarium. Tuesday we went back to New Orleans and ate lunch at the Riverwalk then got beignets at Cafe Du Monde. Yumm!! We also got our fix of snoballs!! If you have never had a snoball before I highly recommend getting one. Snoballs are different from snocones in that they have smooth ice and lots of flavoring! They are pure heaven!! Beaumont only has one that I have found and it is horrible! They charge like $2.75 for a small and it is chopped ice instead of shaved. They also barely put any syrup in there. Anyway..enough about snoballs!! We left Slidell on Wednesday morning and headed up to Northeast Mississippi to see my brother Sean and his family. I really love going back to Corinth! Not only to see my family but I just love that small hometown feel! We had a really great time with all of our family!! I can't wait until the next time we can all get together again. I hardly ever took my camera out but here are some of the pictures that I took.

Leila and Cole at the Aquarium

Laurel standing all by herself

Laurel sporting her swimwear

Leila, Cole, Lilly, and my niece Shelby at the aquarium

Cole, Leila, my niece Claire, and Lilly riding the Algiers ferry boat in New Orleans.

April 2010

2010-07-07T21:46:00.000-07:00

I am so behind on my blog that I am going to update my posts by month starting with April. April was a pretty busy month for us! Roy had training meetings in Houston on the weekdays. HEB paid for a hotel for us so that we could stay with him and not have to drive back and forth to Beaumont. It was pretty fun. We got to swim in the pool and do lots of other fun things! Roy's parents and Sister also visited. They only stayed their usual amount of time. They got here late on a Friday night and left Sunday around noon. Cole played soccer this year and Roy's parents got to go to one of his games. He did a great job! He really enjoyed playing and making new friends.

Papa, Leila, Lilly, and Madison (Roy's niece)

Laurel chilling in the hot tub!

Leila, Cole, Lilly and Madison's picnic

Cole's soccer team

Here is Cole in action! He is #7. haha!!

I guess that is really all we did. Doesn't seem like we did much but we kept busy!

Funny of the Day:

2010-05-09T15:58:00.000-07:00

Cole-I want to get baptized.
Roy-Who do you want to baptize you?
Cole-Jesus
Roy-Well, I don't think Jesus will be able to baptize you.
Cole-Oh, I know! Don the Baptist!
Haha...That kid cracks me up!!

Easter and Such....

2010-04-05T19:33:00.000-07:00

Wow I have got to do better at the whole blog thing! Since my last post I started a couple more projects. I made some tutus for the girls, ballerina teddy bear bow holders, and bows. I really enjoy craft projects all of a sudden! We also planted our garden. We planted tomatoes, bell peppers, green beans, squash, zucchini, okra, watermelon, grapes, and spinach. And so far everything is coming up and looking great! I am really looking forward for some yummy garden fresh veggies! They are the best!

Here are some pictures of the last couple of months:

The Easter Bunny left some surprises for the kids and Roy!

Cole was pouting about something. Just thought his outfit was so funny! He picked it out himself!

Lilly at the church Easter Egg Hunt.

Cole, Leila, and Lilly eating a cookie they decorated at the egg hunt.

Lilly and Laurel

My Laursel Morsel!!

Leila and Cole watching Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. They wanted to dress up so Leila is Snow White and Cole is one of the seven dwarfs. (It was the best costume I could come up with at the moment!)

While waiting for Roy to get out of a meeting, I took the kids to see Alvin and the Chipmunks.

One of the tutus I made. I also made one for one of Leila's friends for her birthday.

My little ballerina!

Well I was going to add a video but it was taking way to long to upload. It was of the kids Easter Egg Hunt at home. We had about 20 Easter egg hunts. We each took turns hiding and finding the eggs. They got lazy at the end and just dumped out the baskets in one big pile so they didn't have to walk very far to pick them up. They had such a great time!

For dinner on Easter Sunday I made a ham, hash brown casserole, mustard greens (which I thought were collard greens when I bought them), rolls, and potato salad. It was so yummy!! I was very proud of myself!

I am so thankful for my wonderful husband that works so hard to provide for our family! I am also greatful for my children! I am never without a dull moment with them!

Funny of the day...

2010-02-17T10:32:00.000-08:00

We ordered pepperoni and black olive pizza today and Cole looks at the black olives and says, "I don't want those wheels on my pizza!" So funny!!!!

Time for an update!

2010-01-31T20:20:00.000-08:00

Wow... I can't believe I have waited this long to update my blog! I feel like the last month and a half has been really busy but it really hasn't been. So here is what has been going on since my last blog:

Roy had another seizure. This time it was at work. I was on the phone with my mom and I had 3 missed calls from Roy. I kept blowing it off because I thought he was just calling me back. I was getting off the phone with my mom when the house phone rang. I answered it thinking it was going to be Roy and instead it was the pharmacist at HEB. He told me that Roy was having a seizure. The weird thing is that I had just talked to Roy because I just went to HEB to drop off the kids prescriptions (they all went to the doctor earlier that day and we found out they all had croup) and was telling him he needed to pick them up. I just walked in the door from the doctor when I got the call. So I loaded all the kids back in the car and headed back to HEB. Luckily we live like 2 miles away from HEB. I beat the ambulance there but of coarse we had to go to the ER. We already know he has Seizure Disorder and the hospital can't do anything for him so it is just a wasted 5 hours in the ER. Anyway he recovered from that but his boss took a little longer to recover. I think they must have been really freaked out because they gave Roy the week off. So we got to surprise Roy's family and my sister Brianne for Christmas. That was such a treat!!

Santa Clause came to Nana and Papa's house for the kids. They were so cute this year! This was a very fun age for Leila and Cole! They opened every present with such excitement and loved everything even down to the underwear that was in their stockings!

Laurel had her 6 week cardiology check up and he said that he is pretty sure her VSD (hole in her heart) has closed up by itself. We go back in June for an echo cardiogram just to make sure! VERY relieved to find that out! She is now 2 1/2 months now and weighs 12 lbs. She is getting so chunky now!! She is such a wonderful baby!!

We took Lilly for her Neurology appointment at the beginning of the year. We also got good news there too! The doctor said Lilly is a perfectly normal little girl! She didn't see anything wrong with her. She wants to see us back in about nine months just to recheck her. She wants to do this because of her family history. (Roy having seizure disorder and my dad and sister having MS.)

Cole got referred to an eating disorder clinic at Texas Children's Hospital because of his weight. He gained about 10lbs in 9 months. We totally changed our diets about a year ago. Changed simple things like switched to the light whole wheat bread, whole wheat pastas, and brown rice. Adding alot more veggies into our diets. That is what had me confused! He should have lost weight. Well we caught him sneaking food in the middle of the night. Like alot of food...whole loaves of bread and things like that. So we went to this clinic and they ran a bunch of tests. They checked for Protter Willy Syndrome, thyroid, diabetes, etc. We will get the results when we go back in February.

Roy's parents, sister Kristen, and niece Madison came this weekend. We had such a great time with them as usual! We can't wait to see family again soon! We are hoping to go to my sister Aidan's house Valentine's Day weekend! I can't wait!!!!

I also took on a couple sewing projects. I decided to teach myself how to make pillowcase dresses. I have made 5 dresses in the last week! I think they turned out really cute! My next project is to make curtains for the kitchen. I think I can do it!

Anyway...I think that is about all that has happened since my last post.

Laurel-2 1/2 months
Lilly and Leila in the dresses I made them. Cole wanted to be in the picture also!

Leila in the Horton Hears a Who hat from the game she got for Christmas.

I am going to try and do better at posting weekly and not all at one time! Hopefully this year will be alot less stressful than the last!

One Month... Already?!

2009-12-17T17:30:00.001-08:00

I can't believe Laurel is already a month old. Time has surely flown by!! Laurel is very strong already! Her accomplishments for this month are: she can hold her head up without support, she rolled over from her back to her stomach (I think this might have been on accident but we are going to count it anyway), she focuses very well on objects, and she is starting to smile. Of course I can never catch a smile on camera!

Leila, Cole, and Lilly just love her! I constantly have to tell Lilly to leave Laurel alone. Lilly loves to get in her face to give her kisses or put her pacifier in her mouth. She is such a great big sister but is sometimes a little rough (not meaning to be). Lilly calls her LaLa. The other day I put Laurel on the couch and asked Cole to sit with her for a minute while I changed Lilly's diaper. When I came back in the room Laurel was no longer on the couch. She was in her bouncy seat in front of the tv. I freaked out and asked Cole why he moved her and he innocently said because she wanted to watch Rachael Ray. I couldn't be mad at him for too long because that was just too cute and Laurel obviously wasn't hurt.

Laurel 1 month old!

on her blessing day

pretty in pink

our Christmas card picture. we couldn't get Lilly to put down my phone!

she looks huge in this picture! well I guess all but her legs! she has the skinniest chicken legs!

I am so happy our little girl is doing much better now! When she was born she weighed 6lbs 10oz. Then one week later she weighed 6lbs. 12oz. At her two week check up a week later she weighed 8lbs 8oz. I just weighed her myself today and she weighed 10.5lbs. What a little chunker!! She is starting to sleep a little longer at night. She slept for 4 hrs straight last night. I got some much needed sleep!! I am so thankful for all of my children and I just love them so much!!

Trauma...Drama...and the ER

2009-11-24T15:21:00.000-08:00

My mom and Laurel

Poor baby girl!

My first time being able to hold Laurel. 3 days old.

Laurel under the oxygen hood.

Home from the hospital!!!

Daddy with all of his babies!

Mommy and Laurel

Mommy with all her babies.

I have definitely had my fill of hospitals for awhile! This week has been extremely CRAZY!!! My sister Brianne and her daughter Claire came on Sunday from Slidell. At about 9pm Claire fell off the recliner and ended up having to go to the ER just about the same time that my mom got here at about 1am. They didn't get home from the hospital until 4am and Claire ended up having a mild concussion.

I had to be at the hospital at 6:30 that morning to be induced. They actually didn't start hooking me up to everything until about 8am. We figured we would have the baby by lunch time according to how my other deliveries went. The doctor came in and broke my water at about 9:30am and I was about 2cm. When they broke my water there was alot of blood that came out and they said that there shouldn't be blood like that yet. Everytime they checked me to see how far along I was they would get alot of blood on the glove and the baby's heart rate would go down. At around 11 am the nurses came in and saw that the baby's heart rate was still down and that she really wasn't moving at all. They talked to the doctor and decided to prep me for a c-section. The doctor came back around 12:15 or so because things just weren't progressing like he wanted them to. I was 8cm at that time and they decided to take me off of the pitocin and the epidural pump to see if the baby would start perking up again. A little while later I had about 12 nurses and the doctor in the room with me. The doctor told me that he was going to have to do the c-section. One of the nurses knew I didn't want to have a c-section and asked him if I could try pushing even though I was only at 8cm still. The doctor agreed and said I had to really start pushing good and was only going to give me 1 set of pushes because the baby was in distress and needed to come out now. I pushed really hard for about 10 minutes and at 1:40pm she finally came. Roy cut the cord and they wisked her away to take care of her. She was very blue and not crying. They took her to the NICU without us being able to hold her or take pictures of her. Roy and I were histarical! The doctor couldn't figure out where all the bleeding came from. He said the placenta looked in tact but he decided to send it off to the pathologist to make sure. At around 3:30pm the neonatalogist came in to speak to us. It just so happened that Roy and my mom left to get something to eat and I was in the room by myself. He told me that they syphoned alot of blood out of her stomach and needed to be put on some antibiotics and that they were going to run some tests to look for internal bleeding. I asked when she would be able to come back to the room and he said we would have to go see her in the NICU. I started balling crying I was so upset. My mom and Roy came in just then and asked what was wrong and I could barely tell them. We had a few visitors from church come that night and I felt alot better at that point!! I was discharged the next day but had to leave Laurel in the NICU. It was a very hard thing to do!! We talked to the Neonatalogist again and they found that she has a heart murmur. They did an echocardiogram on her and found that she also has Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) which is causing the heart murmur. This is a hole in the heart that seperates the left and right ventricles. This can cause the lungs to get flooded with blood and liver problems. They told us to look for choking spells and fast breathing. They said it usually closes by itself by 12-18 months but if it doesn't they would have to do surgery on it to close up the hole. So now I am freaked out anytime she coughs or makes a funny noise.

Tuesday night my mom could barely walk across the room so we convinced her that she needed to go to the ER or urgent care. She finally gave in and Roy took her to an urgent care by our house at about 8:30pm. They got home around midnight that night and my mom found out that she has digenerative disk disease.

Now onto the gross part! If you have a queezy stomach you should skip this part!!! On Friday night I went to the bathroom and got really freaked out! I called my mom into the bathroom because I seriously thought my uterus was coming out. She called Brianne into the bathroom to see if it looked like a blood clot to her. Brianne said yes but my mom grabbed one of those red solo cups and said try and get it out and we will see how big it is. I got it out and it ended up being bigger than a softball. Brianne said it definitely didn't look like a blood clot and that I should go to the ER. So down to the ER we went for trip #3. My mom made me bring the cup to the hospital and I am kindof gladI did. They looked at it and knew it wasn't a blood clot and thought it was part of the placenta. They drew blood to see how much blood I had lost. They were also going to do an ultrasound. They talked to my doctor and said that he wasn't surprised that it was part of the placenta. Hello! You can hemmorage to death if they leave something in there!! Anyway they decided not to do the US and to send me home! Hope everything is out!

Everyone left on Sunday without getting to hold Laurel! They just got to look at her through the window of the NICU. We finally got to bring Laurel home yesterday (Monday). The kids just love her to death. I was very nervous that Lilly was going to be very jealous of Laurel. But she loves her so much and is constantly wanting to touch her and kiss her. I am so thankful that Laurel is home and we can finally start the rest of our lives together as one big happy family!!

Dinosaur Day

2009-10-31T13:57:00.000-07:00

I forgot to post these in my last post. The Texas Energy Museum had Dinosaur Day this morning. The kids had fun making fossils, digging for dinosaurs, making dinosaur claws, and painting skeletons. They decorated the outside with lots of dinosaurs! They had a bunch of other activities but it was a little crowded and my patience ran thin very quick!

Well, hopefully my next post will be pictures of Laurel Jane!! I cannot believe she will be here no later than 2 weeks from now!

Family visit, Cole's bday, Halloween

2009-10-31T13:11:00.000-07:00

I have been way behind on my blogging. Partly because I am lazy and because I couldn't find the cord to the camera. So now it is time to play catch up! My pictures are out of order but I didn't feel like fixing them so oh well!! The first group of pictures are of Leila and Cole dressed up for Halloween. Leila is Belle, Cole is Buzz Lightyear, and Lilly is Raggedy Ann. We went to our church's Trunk or Treat last night and our going to go Trick or Treating at HEB tonight. The kids have had so much fun wearing their costumes!!

The next set of pictures are of Cole's birthday party. We celebrated last weekend with all of his friends. The theme was Superhero/ Halloween. Cole wanted it to be Superheroes but he also wanted to dress up in his costume. So we decided to combine them. He got lots of new toys! The kids had fun eating ghost shaped PB&J sandwiches, mummy pigs in a blanket, pumpkin and cat shaped rice krispy treats, veggies, fruit, and of coarse cupcakes and ice cream. I think the kids enjoyed dressing up in their costumes! We also made ghost tootsie roll pops and decorated pumpkins. All in all I think the party was a big success!

The last section of pictures are of a couple of weeks ago when Roy's parents and sister came into town. We ended up going to Houston for a day. We had fun going to Storybook Park, riding the trolley, and riding the water taxi. The kids really enjoy when family come in to town! They really miss all of their cousins!!! We also celebrated Cole's birthday with them while they were here.

My sad attempt at decorating the cake!

Madison and Lilly playing

Riding the water taxi

Storybook park

Hopefully I can be better at posting pictures that way you don't get them all in one big long blog!

Baby Laurel

2009-10-20T15:32:00.000-07:00

Just an update on Laurel. I went to the doctor yesterday and the doctor said the head was way down. He didn't check me to see if I was dialated even though I told him I have been having some contractions off and on and according to my original due date I am 37 weeks. Oh and he will be out of town for the next week and a half. Weird! He felt her head by just feeling my stomach. I don't know how he knows what the heck he is feeling in there. He also said that when he measured my belly it was measuring 37 which goes right along with the original due date. I tried telling him I know my body and there is now way I am due November 23rd. Anyway he said if I haven't gone into labor by myself he would induce on the 16th. I am soooooo ready! I ask Lilly every now and then where is baby Laurel and she will lift up her shirt and point to her belly. She is so funny!

Our funny of the day...

2009-09-23T14:48:00.001-07:00

Ok so I stole this idea from my sister Brianne but thought it was too cute to pass up. We were eating dinner last night and here is how our conversation went... Leila-I am going to sleep under my bed tonight. Cole- I can't sleep under my bed, my butt is way too big! I felt bad for him but at the same time it was so hilarious! I almost spit out my bite of food!!

Leila's 5th Birthday Celebration

2009-09-06T16:10:00.001-07:00

I cannot believe my little girl will be 5 on the 9th. She is growing up WAY too fast! She is such a great big sister and helper. She loves to help me fold clothes. I love this because I hate to fold laundry!! She loves to entertain Lilly for me too! She surprises me everyday! The other day out of the blue she came up to me and spelled moon, star, sun, Leila, Cole, Lilly, Dad, Mom, dog, cat, foot, and a couple of other words. She must figured it out completely on her own because Roy and I have shamefully only taught her how to spell our names. She LOVES to dance. We are going to start dance classes this year. As soon as I get off my butt and register her for dance classes.

We had cake and ice cream to celebrate Leila, Roy, and Madison's birthdays when Roy's parents and sisters came a couple of weeks ago but had a party with her friends yesterday. Leila had such a great 5th birthday party! She wanted to have a princess theme party so I made invitations to send out and told the girls to wear princess dresses and the boys to wear knights costumes if they had them. I made knight's costumes out of grey fleece and gold ribbon. I think they turned out really cute and I think all the boys enjoyed having a costume to wear like the girls. Most of the girls wore their own princess dresses but I had extra princess dresses just in case. The decorations were pretty simple. I decorated all the doorways in the house with 3 different colored crepe paper and pink balloons. I also hung upside down balloons in the entry way.

I planned on having the party outside so we set up 2 tables outside to decorate crowns and swords. It was extremely hot outside and halfway through decorating the crowns it started to thunder. So I decided to go ahead and do all the outside activities first. We played a Snow White apple picking game and hid apples on the fence for the kids to find. I told them that the wicked queen hid a poison apple and they had to find it before Snow White got to it. I think they enjoyed this game.

After the Snow White game we went ahead and did the pinata. We bought a princess pinata (we wanted a dragon so they could slay the dragon but couldn't find one) and filled it with lots of goodies. The kids each took a turn until it fell down and at that point I just ripped it open and spread the candy all over.

While we were doing the pinata Roy and our friend Mike picked up the tables and chairs and brought them inside before it started to rain. I had all the kids come in and we played Kiss the Frog Prince (like pin the tail on the donkey). Roy drew a frog prince on a piece of poster board and I colored it. I cut out lips and wrote names on them. I blind folded each kid and they took a turn putting their lips on the frog trying to get closest to his lips. I think this game was a big hit!! Most of the boys were being silly and wanted to really kiss the frog. It was pretty funny! When the game was done they each got a (Hershey's) kiss back from the frog.

Next the kids all sat at the table and ate a snack of chips, fruit, and juice. Then came the cupcakes. I thought the cupcakes turned out really cute! I bought a cupcake stand from Joanne's Superstore. I just bought a princess pack of cupcake liners and little crowns to go on the top of them.

Leila opened her presents next. I set up the rocking chair that was in Lilly's room as Leila's throne to open presents on. Leila really felt like she was a little princess! I know my kids had a great time at the birthday party and I hope the other kids had fun too!

Leila on her birthday throne opening her presents.
Kiss the Frog Prince
Lilly, Sydney, and Mike enjoying a cupcake
The kids eating their snacks
Leila trying to figure out how to blow out her candle.
The girls decorating their princess crowns.
The boys decorating their crowns.
This is the best picture I got of most of the kids. There are a couple of kids missing.
Leila opening her presents with Nana and Papa.
Madison, Leila, and Roy blowing out their candles.

Summer Vacation

2009-08-28T10:03:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful time at my parents house in Utah for vacation! We left on Saturday the 15th and came back on Friday the 21st. It was a very short trip but we had non stop fun!! My mom picked us up from the airport and on the way to her house we stopped by Ryan's apartment to see his family. We ended up going out to eat at Zuppa's. It was so good! They have soups, salads, and sandwiches. I got the California Turkey sandwich and a cup of wild mushroom soup. YUMMY!!! After we ate we just went back to my mom's house and pretty much just went to bed. We were pretty tired!!

Sunday we went to church with my mom and dad and after church Ryan and Adrienne's families came over and we ate roast. The kids had so much fun playing together!

Monday we met Adrienne and the kids at McDonald's and ate lunch. After lunch we went to the Lehi pool. It is a couple of pools with some water slides and a lazy river. Cole was too afraid to go down the big slide but I took Leila down it and she had so much fun! Tristan and Ana came later to swim with us. We didn't stay very long because Adrienne had to go to work and the kids were pretty worn out from swimming! That night we went out to eat at NYPD Pizza with Ryan and Sandra. The pizza was ok and the service was horrible.

Tuesday I went with my mom to her preop appointment. (She had surgery on her knee again this last Monday.) We got back and waited for dad to get off work and then met Tristan and Ana at Costco for a hot dog. Then we took a drive to Cascade Springs in the mountains. It was so beautiful!! The kids had fun looking for waterfalls and looking at all the water made from melted snow. They liked looking for fish in the water too! That night I think all we did was eat chinese chicken salad at my mom's house.

Wednesday we dropped the kids off at Ryan and Sandra's house so we could go to the Salt Lake Temple. It was so beautiful inside!! I was so glad that Sandra babysat for us so we could go, but wish she could have gone too! After the temple we picked up the kids and went to eat at Mimi's with Adrienne and Ryan's families. The kids were soooo crazy! Partly because they told us it was a 30 minute wait and it ended up being more like an hour wait. Ryan and Sandra invited Leila and Cole to spend the night with them that night. It was such a nice break for us. That was the first time they had ever spent the night somewhere else besides Roy's parents house. They had such a fun time with Max and Luke! Leila just adores Mia too!

Thursday we met Sandra and ate at Iceburg in Salt Lake. They have the best milkshakes! After lunch we went to the outlet mall in Park City. Ryan met us there and picked up Roy and the boys to go play golf. We didn't know this at the time but the golf course doesn't allow children on the course. So Roy and Ryan didn't get to play! I felt really bad! Mom and dad left the outlet mall before Sandra and I. Sandra and I left the outlet mall to go to Quilted Bear. It is this awesome store that kind of reminds me of a flea market. A bunch of different vendors set up their own booths and sell hand crafted things. We got there a 7pm and they close at 7pm. I was so upset!! We just went back to mom and dad's and ate corn on the cob, watermelon, cantaloupe, salad, and some leftover stuff.

Friday, on the way to the airport, mom and dad drove us to Quilted Bear so I could take a look around. I was so glad I was able to go! I absolutely love that store!! Then they dropped us off at the airport for our 1:30pm flight. I really did not want to leave! We finally got home at about 9pm. Roy's parents came to our house at about midnight. We really didn't stay up because we were all really tired!

Saturday we woke up and I made bacon, eggs, and waffles. Then the girls went to Target and the boys went to Lowe's. That night I made chicken tetrazini (sp?) and a birthday cake. We celebrated Roy, Leila, and Madison's birthdays. Their birthdays are all really close together. Leila's is the 9th, Roy's is the 15th, and Madison's is the 18th of September. After cake they opened their presents. Leila was so excited to get new shoes, pajamas, a barbie car, barbie jeep, a Hannah Montana barbie, a shirt, a hat, and some money.

Sunday Roy had to be at church a little early to meet with someone about a new calling. He was called to be the financial clerk. He is really excited about this calling! He was the financial clerk in Slidell and thinks that it is the best calling ever!! We only stayed for Sacrament Meeting because Roy's parents were going to be leaving and they were watching Leila and Cole for us.

We had such a great time with all of our family! We wish we all lived closer together so we could spend more time with each other!

Olivia and Leila

Our view coming home from Cascade Springs
My dad, Ana and the kids at Cascade Springs

Tristan, Leila, and Cole on an abandoned tractor by my parent's house.
Cole inside the bucket.
Almost all the boy cousins. The only one we are missing is Timmons. Back row: Andrew and Cameron. Front Row L to R: Cole, Luke, Parker, Sawyer, Max, and Taylor.
Some of the girl cousins. Olivia, Mia, Leila, and Lilly
Waiting to board our airplane. Lilly was so hyper at that time!

Roy Update

2009-08-05T07:23:00.000-07:00

So Roy finally got in to do his EEG that he was supposed to do back in May but the doctor's office canceled the appointment. He set up his follow up appointment and the earliest time they had open was in October so he went ahead and scheduled it. They called back the next day and said that his doctor wanted him to come in earlier than that. So we set up an appointment for August 31. This last Monday we got another phone call from the doctor's office saying they have an opening for the next day so we took it. We were very nervous for this appointment because they were so anxious to get him in. The doctor went over his EEG and MRI and said that the spots he has on his brain are called mesial temporal sclerosis. Which he said is basically scar tissue. The only thing that Roy can remember ever happening to him that would cause scar tissue is when he was 3 he hit his head on the coffee table and about 8 years ago he was in a car accident. The doctor said neither of those incidents would have caused the scar tissue where it is so we are still stumped. The doctor did say that if he continues to have seizures he can increase his dosage on his current meds and if they continue after that there is 1 more medicine they can try. If he still has them after that they can perform surgery to remove that area of his brain. He said that the scar tissue is in an area that can easily be removed or there is another surgery they can try. They would put something in him that he described would be like a pace maker. He said after the surgery about 70% of seizure patients don't have seizures anymore. We are very pleased that we finally got some answers on what the "spots" are on his brain. (even if we don't know how they got there.) We are also very happy to hear that he would be a candidate for surgery if need be.

Playing Catch Up!

2009-07-07T08:14:00.001-07:00

The past few weeks have been kind of crazy around here. Our friends Mike and Lisa from Slidell came to visit for a couple of days. The kids had a really good time playing with Carson and Sydney. After they left the kids have been busy trying to keep cool in our 100+ heat. They go swimming every Wednesday and Friday at friends houses from church. We are so thankful to have friends that so graciously let us hang out at their pool for play group.

Lilly turned 1 on June 26th. I feel really bad that I didn't have a birthday party for her! Oh well! We went to Houston on June 23rd-25th and stayed in a hotel because Roy had meetings. I took the kids to Chuck E Cheese to sort of celebrate Lilly's birthday. Anyway when we came home from Houston we got Lilly an ice cream cake and let her open her presents. She got a Willa Nilla doll, a little puppy (when you pet its back it barks and wags its tail), and a stroller that will help her walk. She likes the box that the stroller came in much better. I could have saved some money by just giving her a box! At Lilly's 1 year doctor's appointment, the doctor told us that he wants us to go see the Pediatric Neurologist because when he checked her reflexes she over reacted with her right leg. She did the same thing at her 9 month appointment. He just wants us to see if this is something we need to be concerned about. He was very excited about all of the things she has accomplished since her 9 month appointment though. She has started crawling, climbing on things, pulling up on everything, and she is now starting to cruise along the couch. She also has started babbling alot. She can say momma, dadda, bobba, and a bunch of other babble sounds. She also sings when music comes on. She sounds like Ariel from The Little Mermaid. We are so thankful for these accomplishments! We were so concerned that she wouldn't be able to do anything since it took her so long to even sit up or crawl. Lilly has brought us so much joy in the last year and I don't know what we would do if we didn't have her. She is going to be such a good big sister! (I hope!) She will have to share all her toys and clothes when her little sister Laurel comes in November.

Here are some pictures of when Carson and Sydney came to visit and of Lilly's birthday. Sorry about the sideways pictures. I was too lazy to turn them the right way!

Leila, Cole, Carson, and Sydney
Watching a movie with Carson and Sydney
Lilly loving her birthday cake
Lilly climbed on the chair all by herself so she can relax.
Lilly got a walker/stroller but she would rather play with the box.
Lilly sneaking a bite of her cake while we were singing to her.

Misc. Pictures and family visits

2009-06-10T19:08:00.000-07:00

I was going through my pictures on my camera and decided to post them. They are from the last couple of months.

Leila and Cole at the movie Monsters vs. Aliens. They really enjoyed getting the 3D glasses.

Leila and Cole with the Easter bunny at a mall in Dallas.

The only picture I managed to get when my family was in town. My dad decided to dress up as Hannah Montana for Leila.

Lilly's first time in the swimming pool. She really loves it!

Lilly sleeping. This is how she goes to sleep every night. Snuggled up to her baby.

We had a fun time with some of my family last week. I wish everyone could have come! We really didn't do much but catch up. Everyone left on Wednesday and Thursday we left to go to my sister Aidan's new house. We got there really late on Thursday night. Friday we went swimming at her neighborhood's pool, took the kids to the park, got ice cream at marble slab, and went to Walmart. Saturday we went to the outlet mall and ate at a really good hamburger place. That night when the kids were asleep, the adults played the card game Golf. We had a really good time! We left on Sunday to take my parents back to Houston to the airport. We were very sad to see them leave! I wish we lived closer to everyone! We had to drive back to Houston on Monday to take Roy to a meeting and then he left from there to San Antonio for more training meetings. He gets back tomorrow and I can't wait!! I definitely couldn't be a single parent!!! I am so worn out!

Kids say the darndest things!

2009-05-19T17:58:00.000-07:00

The other day out of nowhere it started raining. Leila and Cole were watching out the window and Cole said look mom the house is peeing! I thought this was so funny! Today Leila wakes up to find that Cole put a cookie on her bed. (that he stole!) Leila came to me and said mom somebody put a dead cookie on my bed. I said, a dead cookie was it alive? She replied, yeah it was dancing around but now it's not. She must have heard Cole say, Leila here is a cookie for you. She must have dreamt that the cookie was dancing. She is so weird!

Could anything else go wrong?

2009-05-09T08:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a disastrous day! First, I woke up not feeling well. Then I was laying down with Lilly trying to get her to take her morning nap when I heard someone turn the bathroom water on. Usually this means that Cole is just playing in the water so I ran into the bathroom. I was very shocked to see peanut butter all over is legs, stomach, and arms. He also got it all over the sink and counter in the bathroom. I was very nervous to see what else he got it on. I went into his room and he smeared peanut butter all over his tv, door, and carpet. 4 1/2 hours and $200 (to buy a steam cleaner) later it was finally clean again. Then to top off my day Roy made steaks for dinner. He made 3 steaks. One for him, one for me, and one for the kids to share. I was too full to eat my steak so I was going to save it for later. We put the kids to bed and then I went to go clean the kitchen and put the leftovers away. Only to find there was no leftovers. Roy ate my steak. I asked him why he ate it and he said, "oh I thought you were done with it." I was so mad!! He must have felt guilty this morning because he woke up a little early for work and folded a load of towels. I was very surprised!!

Update on Lilly

2009-05-06T07:54:00.000-07:00

The Physical Therapist and Occupational Therapist came yesterday to evaluate Lilly to see if she qualified for the ECI program. The way they see if she qualifies is they asked me and Roy and bunch of questions about Lilly. The questions consisted of can she do this or that. After so many no's Lilly was qualified. They said she only qualified for her motor skills though. They checked all areas and said she was at her level or above except for her motor skills which she was way behind. I have seen improvement in her in the last week though. She can now scoot pretty well on her butt, can get to the sitting position from laying down on her stomach, and can stand pretty steady while holding on to our hands. We asked them if they see any signs of Cerebral Palsy and they said she does have increased muscle tone in her right leg but they don't like to classify them yet until they have worked with them for a couple of weeks. They said they have seen babies with much more stiffness in their legs and after working with the therapists for 6 months you couldn't even tell they had anything wrong with them. They are going to come back on the 18th to work with her more.

Waiting...

2009-04-22T12:25:00.000-07:00

I hate waiting! I have to wait until May 5th to find out if Lilly is qualified for the ECI program. ECI is Early Childhood Intervention. The physical therapist is going to come May 5th with an occupational therapist. They will evaluate her to see if she is eligible for the program. I wish they would just hurry up already!! I am very concerned about my little girl! She could have at least told me some exercises she wants her to work on. GRRRRR!! The only thing the physical therapist did yesterday was take her weight, height, head circumference, and got some info from me. She was a little concerned about her head circumference. Her body is in the 50% but her head was way off of the charts. She said she was going to talk with the doctor and compare notes. The doctor has never mentioned this to me as a concern so hopefully it is nothing to worry about! Anyway... Just waiting!!

Unexpected Surprise Part 2....

2009-04-15T15:34:00.000-07:00

Well I went to the doctor today for a prenatal interview and labs. So I guess it is official! I am about 11 weeks pregnant. They didn't tell me what my official due date is but I think it is around November 7th (my dad's birthday). I knew I was pregnant a long time ago because I started to gag when I brushed my teeth. Now I have full blown all day sickness. It really stinks!! The good news is I lost 6 pounds last week and still got to eat whatever! We were very surprised about our news since Lilly is only 9 1/2 months old. I know we can handle another baby though because Leila and Cole are only a couple days shy of 14 months apart. We are very excited but a little nervous that Lilly won't even be walking yet. She rolled over one time on accident and has shown no interest in crawling. She hates to be on her stomach!! The doctor is a little concerned and referred us to a physical therapist. If within a couple weeks of working with the physical therapist she hasn't improved we will be referred to a pediatric neurologist. The doctor is concerned she might have cerebral palsy. When he tested her reflexes at her last appointment she reacted too much he said. They look for only one small jerk of the leg but her legs jerk a couple times. He said that is a sign of cerebral palsy. I sure hope it is not!! I don't want anything to be wrong with my little cuddle bug! She is the sweetest baby!

Easter

2009-04-14T11:47:00.001-07:00

I still cannot figure out how to rotate a picture on blogspot and I forgot to rotate it before I posted it. Oh well!! We had a very fun and relaxing Easter! We woke up a little early for church and I rolled Leila's hair. She has hair like me though and as soon as we went outside it was straight again. She thought she was so big for getting her hair rolled with the hot rollers. I let the kids look at their Easter baskets but they weren't allowed to bring anything to church. After church we were invited to an Easter party from our friends from church. We ate finger foods and then the kids had a little Easter egg hunt. After the Easter egg hunt the adults played Taboo. We had a very fun time! Thanks Sonja for inviting us! We had lots of fun!! When we came home the kids played with their new toys. Leila got a Hannah Montana wig, a Hannah Montana pen and paper set, a puzzle, and just a little bit of candy. Cole got a Spiderman book, a Hulk coloring book, a puzzle, a Hulk action figure, and just a bit of candy. The Easter bunny didn't really get anything for Lilly but put some sidewalk chalk for the other two kids and some Peeps. Lilly didn't know what was going on anyway! I would say the kids had a wonderful time!!! Hope everyone else had a wonderful Easter too!

Leila got a Hannah Montana wig in her Easter basket.

The kids Easter baskets. The Easter bunny went cheap while he still can!!

Cole's new outfit from Roy's parents.

Easter Morning

Easter Morning again. You can't really tell but Cole's tie matched the girls dresses. His has a C monogramed on it. The girls have Ls. My friend Lisa made them. She did such a great job!!! She made the bows too with Ls monogramed on them.

Unexpected Surprise!!

2009-04-09T14:12:00.000-07:00

I finally crawled out of bed at about 3pm today. (I was awake it just hurt to move!) I went to get the mail and found a package from Roy's parents. They sent Roy and I money, Leila a dress, Cole an outfit, and Lilly an outfit as well. It was truly an unexpected surprise!! Leila and Cole were very excited to see they had early Easter presents!! Cole loves his outfit so much he didn't want to put it down. He is carrying it around the whole house showing his super heroes his new clothes. He is so funny!! Thanks Nana and Papa!!

Fun Time Coming Up!!

2009-03-30T14:29:00.001-07:00

I am so excited! I got a call earlier today from my mom who said that not only they are coming to our house at the end of May, but that my sister Aidan and her family are coming and now my brother Sean and his family are coming! I am so excited!!! I haven't seen Sean's family in forever! I guess since just right after Lilly's birth about 8 months ago! I just wish the rest of my family could join them also! Well... I need to get busy planning meals and activities! So exciting!!!

Funny face!

2009-03-23T19:31:00.000-07:00

This is the newest thing Lilly started doing. Whenever she wants something she makes this face. She is so funny!

Trip to Dallas

2009-03-22T17:05:00.000-07:00

We went to Dallas on Thursday to visit Aidan, Jeremy, and Shelby. We had so much fun with them! We got there on Thursday afternoon and went to the park and library with Aidan and Shelby. When we got back Aidan made a huge pot of spaghetti. It was very yummy! Friday we met Jeremy at the mall for lunch. After lunch Aidan had to go back to work so Jeremy, Shelby, Roy, Leila, Cole, and I let the kids play at the play center in the mall for a little while. When we were done with that we took the kids to this Going Bonkers place. It is basically like a huge indoor McDonald's play land. The kids had so much fun! We met back with Aidan and went to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner. I highly recommend the pear and gorgonzola pizza with honey wheat crust. This is what Roy got and I was so jealous. His was so good! After dinner Roy, Jeremy, and Cole went to Top Golf while the rest of us went to the outlet mall. On Saturday we went to the Dallas zoo. The kids had a lot of fun but got tired of walking around in the heat fast! Thanks Aidan and Jeremy for letting us come stay with you! We had such a fun time!!

Roy, Cole, Jeremy, Shelby and Aidan riding the monorail at the zoo

Leila at the zoo

Cole and Leila

Leila and Shelby at the mall

Leila and Cole at the park

Lilly Ann

2009-02-25T11:40:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe Lilly will be 8 months old tomorrow! She is growing up way too fast!! She is such a wonderful baby! She loves her Johnny Jump Up! In fact, I think she will start walking before she crawls or even rolls over. That is right she has not started doing either. She hates being on her stomach. She would much rather jump! She will stay in there for hours just jumping and observing.

Lilly feeding herself

working with daddy

enjoying the beautiful day

Playing Catch Up!

2009-02-25T10:53:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from a couple of weeks ago when we stayed with Roy's parents.

Leila, Cole, Lilly, Roy, and PaPa

These are from when Roy's parents came to visit us.

Roy's Parents

Leila at the fire museum

Cole the firefighter

Leila and Madison at the fire museum's play house.

Roy's parents, sister Kristen, niece Madison, and sister Kimberly came to Beaumont this last weekend and we had so much fun! It was so great to see them again! We didn't really do much but I got to make alot of food. (I love to cook and bake!) On Saturday I made the best spaghetti. I browned ground beef then browned smoked sausage. I sauteed red, yellow, and orange bell peppers and added that to the meat and sausage. Then I added the spaghetti sauce. You have to try it! It is awesome!! For dessert I made lemon bars. Sunday morning I made homemade cinnamon rolls. It brought me back to when I was 11 and helping my parents with our cinnamon roll store TJ Cinnamons. For dinner that night I made a ham, au gratin potatoes, rolls, and steamed broccoli. For dessert I made a chocolate eclair dessert. It is so yummy! On Monday I made banana nut bread, banana nut muffins, and oatmeal pancakes for breakfast. We ate at our favorite restaurant Novroskys and then went downtown to see the Thomas Edison Museum and the world's largest fire hydrant. Ok actually it is now the 3rd largest. It is 24 ft tall. It is pretty amazing! When we got home I made chicken tacos, refried black beans, and corn with key lime pie for dessert. On Tuesday morning I made a breakfast casserole and had a dentist appointment in the morning. After that Roy had a neurologist appointment and Roy's dad drove us to it while his mom watched Leila and Cole. They left shortly after the appointment. :( After they were gone I was so tired but missed them alot! I can't wait until the next time family comes!!

Week of CRAZINESS!!!

2009-02-03T21:16:00.000-08:00

I have had quite the week. It started off really nice! We got to see my sister Brianne and niece Claire, Roy's parents, his sister Kimberly, his brother Jarrod, his aunt and uncle, another one of his aunts, and both sets of his grandparents. We had a fun time going to the park and just visiting. H.E.B. paid for the trip!! Which made it even better!! They wanted Roy to go and research some of the cajun foods that they do not carry that WD does. They are trying to attract the cajun/ Louisiana customer. Now comes the bad part of the week. On our way home Roy got a call from his boss telling him that he had a meeting in Houston the next day. Roy got to looking at his email and saw that H.E.B. is having him drive 2 hours to go to a 1 hour meeting. He knew this was not good. He called another Store Director and he told Roy that they were getting rid of Roy's position in all of the small HEBs. We were really freaked out because he just got hired on at HEB and we just moved here. Well, he went to the meeting and he still has a job he just has to go through a training program for a year and then will be placed at one of the bigger HEBs. So we started to feel a little bit better... until last night. Roy was holding Lilly, Cole was asleep, and Leila was playing with my hair while watching True Beauty. At the very end Roy yelled at me to come and get Lilly. He said it 2 times and I knew something was wrong. I hurried and grabbed Lilly just in time. Roy started to have another seizure. This makes 3 seizures so far. Hopefully the last!! This is the first seizure I actually saw him have. It was the most terrifying experience I have ever had. Roy has Grand Mal seizures were his whole body seizes up. His face got really droopy on one side and was moaning like he was having a stroke. His eyes were bulging out of his head and his head was turning plum purple. He was sitting on the couch and I didn't want him to fall so I told Leila to run and get the phone. She thought he was just playing and started laughing at first. I told her again and finally I got the phone. At that point she knew it was not a joke and ran and got her baby and just stood in the corner holding her baby crying. My poor baby! The fire department came about 5-10 minutes later. At this point Roy had stopped shaking but he was still totally unaware of what was going on. He would go from moaning to sounding like he was snoring or gasping for air and his eyes were still bulged out of his head. He finally regained woke up in the ambulance. This was about 30 minutes after the seizure started. The paramedics were asking him questions and got everything right except where he worked. He knew that he had a family and that he should have to work to support his family but didn't know that he actually worked or where he worked. VERY scary!! One of our neighbors saw what was going on and stayed with Leila and Cole while I went to the hospital with Roy. We got home at around 2am to find that the neighbor cleaned our house for us. She made our bed, picked up some toys, did some laundry, and washed some dishes that were left in the sink. We are very blessed that we have always lived in places with wonderful neighbors!!! Roy is ok now. He is just really sore and clamped down on his tongue pretty bad. He also broke a lot of blood vessels in his face and chest. It looks like he has a black eye. We are having some difficulty getting in to see the neurologist. Very frustrating! And to top the whole week off, I opened my bathroom door only to find about 2 inches of water on the floor. Cole tried to flush a whole roll of toilet paper down the toilet. Dare I ask could my week get any worse?

Leila

2009-01-23T19:15:00.001-08:00

Leila did the cutest thing today. Roy asked me if we had any stamps and before I could answer Leila runs to her room and grabs a Noahs Ark stamp. She ran in the living room and said here daddy I have one. I thought it was so hilarious! Just wanted to share.

Leila and Cole

2009-01-04T16:47:00.000-08:00

Today was Cole's first day of Primary! He woke up really excited about going to big kid Primary with Leila. He did very good and had a fun time singing and playing games. On the way home from church Leila and Cole were singing Choose the Right and Leila said choose the right way and the left way. I thought it was hilarious!! I can't believe my babies are in primary already! My, how time flies!

Christmas

2008-12-29T19:34:00.000-08:00

I know i just posted a couple of minutes ago but I have some time since the kids are sound asleep and Roy is at work. I just wanted to share our Christmas with you guys. We had a wonderful Christmas! I feel so very blessed! We spent way too much money this year but we got things we needed and things that we just wanted!! We started off the season by making treats for some people in our ward. Then we had a day of snow. A couple of days later Roy's parents, sister, and niece came and spend two nights and one whole day. Then on Christmas Eve I let the kids help me make cookies for Santa. They were so excited to see that Santa actually came and ate all the cookies. Cole was actually a little pissed off because Santa didn't share the cookies. A couple of times on Christmas day Cole kept going over to the fireplace and saying Santa where are you? To this day he stills says I didn't get to see Santa (in a grumpy tone)! Anyway here are our pictures of our special day....

You can't see it very good but Roy got me a pink saphire ring with diamonds on the side. I was very surprised! He also got me a stainless steel dishwasher, a purse, a candle, and an 8 piece pack of glasses.

Roy finally got his riding lawn mower! He also got cologne, dress pants, and a sweater.

The kids sporting their new sun glasses.

Lilly clueless as to what is going on.

Unwrapping fun!

Leila got the reindeer she asked Santa for. She really wanted a real one but Santa said some of the reindeer were sick and he just couldn't spare a reindeer!!

Hello Kitty!!

The kids just found out that they had their own wrapping paper. Leila had Hannah Montana, Cole had Batman, Lilly had Pooh Bear, Roy had Santa paper, and I had Green with Christmas trees on it.

Our tree on Christmas morning. I couldn't figure out how to turn the picture!

My beautiful angels!!

Leaving Santa the cookies and chocolate milk we made for him.

New House

2008-12-29T18:57:00.000-08:00

So I am finally getting around to posting pictures of our new house. I had to wait until I had the house clean to take pictures. I just noticed as I was downloading the pictures that I don't have a picture of Cole's bedroom. That will have to be at another time. Cole is sleeping and I don't dare wake him up! It has been a long day!! So here we go......

Kitchen

Dining Room

Leila's room

Lilly's room

Living room

Living room 2

Living room 3

Play room

Master bedroom

Dinner

2008-12-15T16:44:00.001-08:00

I am very proud of myself. Roy's parents, his sister Kristen, and our niece Madison came over for the weekend. I made a turkey, sweet potato casserole, squash casserole, green bean casserole, and stuffing. The turkey was so nasty. Well the turkey was yummy but preparing the turkeywas nasty. I think I will stick to buying turkey breasts instead of a whole turkey. We had alot of fun while they were here! We opened Christmas presents with them. The kids really miss all of their cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents!! I wish we all lived close to each other so we can all play together all of the time!

Winter wonderland

2008-12-11T10:27:00.000-08:00

That is right it snowed about 6 inches in Beaumont last night and stuck! It started snowing at about 10pm last night and the weather channel said it wouldn't stick because it was not cold enough. I woke up at about 5am by a phone call. It was the Beaumont School district. They said there is no school due to snow on the ground. I ran and looked outside and the ground was covered in snow.

Bad Day!!!

2008-10-18T14:25:00.000-07:00

I am very much stressed right now! We still have not sold our house, I am by myself with the kids, have to constantly keep my house clean (which is very hard to do for someone who hates to clean!), have to keep the yard clean, etc. I got off work yesterday and noticed that I needed to cut the grass. I mow the lawn and then check my phone. I noticed I had two missed calls from a Texas number. I thought to myself oh maybe Ryan tried calling. I called the number back to find out that it was a Houston paramedic who found Roy on the side of the interstate. Roy had another seizure (this time while driving down the interstate). He felt kindof wierd and got scared so he started to slow down and moved to the side of the interstate. He doesn't remember anything after that. So I frantically packed clothes for me and the kids and picked Brianne up and drove to Houston to see Roy. The kids were pretty good cause it was really late when we got to Houston. We get almost to the hospital and there was a gas can that had fallen out of someone's truck in the middle of the interstate so of course it was in my lane and we ran over it. It broke the washer fluid line on my car. Shortly after that I got a call from Roy and he said his debit card was not in his wallet. I thought to myself what else can happen? We picked Roy up and brought him back to his apartment. The police department towed his truck to an impound place and we had to pay $200 to get it out. That really sucked! We are really blessed because all that was wrong with his truck was a scratch on the passenger side and a tire was all scratched up. Oh and a broken window. When the paramedics got to him he was unconcious and his door was locked so they had to break the window open. Although all of this is going on in my life, I am so thankful to my Heavenly Father. I am thankful that no one was hurt and Roy is ok.

Just our luck!

2008-09-13T20:18:00.000-07:00

Roy got a job with H.E.B. grocery stores in Beaumont, Tx. We put our house up for sale the weekend before Hurricane Gustav. It is now 2 weeks later and now Hurricane Ike hit Beaumont pretty hard. Sister Boyack is our realtor and she told us that someone was interested in our house before the Hurrican but backed off because they don't want to live in a place that has hurricanes. I hate stupid hurricanes!!!

Back to work I go!

2008-08-18T19:15:00.000-07:00

Today was my first day back to work after having Lilly. I had a lot of mixed feelings about going back to work. I actually had a pretty good day at work and it seems like Lilly adjusted well to the daycare. Cole's teacher at the daycare said that Cole heard Lilly crying and he started crying and saying my Lilly is crying fix her! He is such a sweet boy when he wants to be.

We took Colin to eat at Los Tres Amigos tonight and we dropped him off at one of his friends' house. Cole immediately started crying and said I want Colin to sleep in my bed! It was actually kind of amusing!

Peer Pressure

2008-08-16T14:54:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone! I decided to give in to peer pressure and start a blog. I am pretty horrible at this kind of thing but here we go anyway. The following are pictures of the kids:

Roy would shoot me for posting this picture. Cole insisted on dressing up for the season finale of So You Think You Can Dance.

Leila (3) Cole (2) Lilly (1 week)

Lilly is smaller than Dora! She is by far my smallest baby. She was born June 26, 2008. She weighed 6 lbs. 3oz. and 18 1/4 ".