Happy 8th Birthday

Today is Em's 8th Birthday! We are so sad we are missing it.

I started looking through old pictures to share and there were so many that I loved. She was such a cute baby. Now she is a beautiful girl!

This is one of my all time favorites!

And this one

Here she is with here two best friends. She loves to spend time with them. Soccer, swimming, sleepovers..you name it. They are so cute together and always have the best time.

Em loves creepy crawly things and slimy things.

Here she is feeding and then petting a fish at the hatchery.

She has played soccer for 4 years now and LOVES it.
She is very good at it and is always scoring goals at every game.

This year I tried to think of something special to do for her day because we were going to be gone for her actual birthday. I threw her a surprise party with 6 of her friends. It was so fun to plan and she had NO idea. I love the look on her face here.

We had a water balloon toss

Did the slip and slide. Decorated cupcakes, opened presents, painted nails and put glitter in hair.

She loved every minute of it.

Happy Birthday Baby!
We love you and we will see you soon.

our mini vacation

Monday morning we took T to the Natural History Museum because we got in for free. One of the perks of being a patient at the hospital. We could have used more time, but we were just glad we got to go. We got to the hospital and were told that the machine that they needed for him embolization was broken. They were so kind to us. We went and had lunch (on the hospital's tab) and left to check into our hotel (on the hospital's tab)

Our hotel was right down town on the river so we decided to take a walk along the path there and cross some of the bridges.

This is one of the cool things that we saw. The stadium of the Pirates. Very cool even if you aren't a baseball fan. There are three games while we are here. I teased T we would leave him in the hospital and go to one. I do love to watch live baseball.

This picture is for my dad! (even though he is a Yankee fan)

We ended up swimming in the hotel pool until 11:30 that night. It was a perfect day to take our minds off of what we are really here for. Yesterday was a VERY long day. MRI at 9:30. We stayed in the cafeteria after lunch and played card games until it was time to check him in. They took him for his embolization about 4:30 and we didn't see him again until 9:45. We stayed in the PICU last night (all private rooms) I will try and update later on how he is doing today. All we were told is that it was going to be several hours.

To Pittsburgh...again

This is how we are feeling in our house. We leave for Pittsburgh today for another surgery. I have been fine up until now. I am a nervous wreck! I think once we get on the road I might calm down a bit. He has surgery tomorrow to cut of the blood supply to the tumor and then the actual surgery is on Wednesday. Please pray for not only him, but for all the surgeons and nurses, the kids here and those who are so kindly taking care of them. The more I write the more I am closer to crying. Thank you all so much for your love and support. We love you.

swimming lessons

We just finished up two weeks of swimming lessons. This is one of my favorite things about summer. Sitting with my friends watching my kids learn to swim better then me. This is our FABULOUS teacher Libby. We LOVE her!

She is quite the swimmer. She will jump off the diving board and swim the length of the pool. She is a fish. Always wanting to get in the pool and never wanting to get out. She learned to surface dive and get things off the bottom of the pool this year.

Here is Am jumping over the noodle. The kids love to do this at the end of the lessons and see how high they can jump.

Am and Libby treading water.

This is E and C's class. The classes are small which is great. They are with their friends and I am with my friends. It really is a great deal for everyone involved.

Here is T diving over the noodle. He is planning on being on the swim team this year. I can't wait to watch him. He really is a great swimmer.
His favorite stroke to do is the butterfly and he is pretty good at it.

Thanks Libby you are the best.
And as always thanks to the Pulleys for sharing their pool with us.

we can't catch a break

We are having a great first half of the year. Tumor, tonsils, appendix, staples, stitches, and tumor again. WOW! We love drama...or trauma. Wednesday we were at swimming lessons and about 20 minutes later we were in the pediatric ED. Em and Am were jumping on the trampoline with friends. I heard screaming I walked over Em was crying pretty hard and had blood on her hand. Our good friend Blaine had Am in him arms and took her into the house. I was trying to see where the blood was coming from on Em. I went in the house to get a paper towel and saw that the towel Blaine has on Am's chin was covered in Blood. I took a peek and realized she was going to need stitches. At that point I didn't know if it was Am's blood on Em or if she was bleeding herself. I went out and we worked through the hair to find a nasty cut. I called the doctor and they sent me on my way. My dear friend Alissa (thank you) drove me there and we met Chris. We were there for three hours. It was pretty traumatic for Em. Am was pretty calm for most of it. They only time I wished I had a camera was when they were sitting on the bed together and Am was holding E's hand trying to comfort her. It was very sweet. E screamed when the staples went in, but was fine after. Am was very brave during the whole stitching up. She was very sad about stitches. She had wanted the glue, but with it being on her face they didn't give us that option. Am was fine when we got home, but Em was pretty emotional all night. All is well. All is well.

I am sorry Grandpa Chester!

Dear grandpa Chester- Here is my garden. I am sorry. I know you had the most amazing garden growing up. I know you taught us well. I remember weeding and harvesting all your wonderful veggies. I have a good excuse. It has rained and rained all summer. There was no sun to make my soil warm for my tomatoes. All the rain made SO many weeds grow it was almost impossible to keep up. I got appendicitis and was out of commission for two weeks. I sent my kids out once and that was it. It was either the weeds or laundry and laundry won. I am sorry kids need clean clothes. I will do better next year I promise. Please rest in peace. I love you!