800

Well, i did not get my planned 800th post done so we must move on...maybe i will save it for my 1,000th.

Avery had surgery on Friday to have her ear tube put in. We were the doctor's first surgery so we had to be there at 6:30 am and things moved along a whole lot faster than when Raegan had her's done and was scheduled mid morning!

She did great! She was not nervous, and she was done and we were headed home by 9:30 am! She was a little bummed that they didn't give "my operation was bearable" t-shirts anymore since Trey and Raegan both have them but was super excited at the homemade quilt that she picked after surgery...she also though it was pretty cool to be wheeled to her car in a wheelchair.

Day one was pretty frustrating for her as her ear felt "clogged/hurt" but by the next day she was feeling much better! The doctor said he drained a lot of glue like fluid from her ear and assumes this will hopefully correct her loss of hearing in her ear. I'm excited to se her hearing test results at her follow-up visit!

Avery played the nintendo ds the whole time we waited to go back for surgery

she had her blankets and her sprite! she did not like how her ear felt!

The "party"

This is my 799th post...almost 5 years...almost 800 posts...what to do for my 800th post??

We had Raegan's "party" aka- cupcakes around the table with the family with a couple of presents Monday night. And by the way...she is still two...she says so emphatically!

giving her own little pose with her box from Grandma

we are still working on this pose...mommy had to place the thumb over the pinky and it lasted for the picture

her new pink teddy bear

The baby turns 3

3 years old!

mommy and her birthday girl...then and now

She is not a baby anymore, but she will always be the "baby" of the family! I am pretty sure the birthday girl has been on a mission all day to destroy the house. She has become the "bag lady"...she fills bags with stuff and then dumps it all over the place ...i hope this is not a sign for what the threes will bring with her, she was a tornado in her twos!

She brings so much happiness to our house. She is feisty, sweet, funny and strong willed. She loves to say "but why mommy?" She does not like to hold my hand in a parking lot...you may see me half-dragging her, but i have her hand by golly! She likes to hide under clothes racks, she has to have a map every time we go to worlds of fun, she falls a lot! She takes her siblings things and runs like the wind, she loves to play barbies with her big sister, she loves to have her nails painted, she hates getting water in her ears in the bath tub! She says the cutest prayers ever, she always tells trey and avery she loves them when they go to school, she grabs daddy's cheeks when she kisses him. She hates taking her medicine at night, she gives me at least three hugs before i go to work, she is not poty trained but will go on the potty, she is a handful. She is loved SO much!!

We love you Raegan! You are a super sweet three year old and we can't imagine our family without you! Happy Birthday!!

Avery has monkeys!

Forewarning- this may be a boring, info filled medical post with some big words, i have found i like having these posts to reference back to...read on if you wish...

We have been waiting all summer for our appt with the ear nose and throat dr at Children's Mercy for Avery, we were on a waiting list. It of course came right on the first week of school. She wasn't too thrilled with missing school already!

Loved the doctor she saw today! Little background...Avery has sensoneural hearing loss in her right ear, this has been since birth and it has remained stable over the years. She sees the district audiologist each year just to makes sure things remain the same year to year. This past year her left ear showed hearing loss and she had a flat tympanogram most likey caused by fluid in her ear so she was to come back and get it rechecked. long story short...many tymps later, more hearing tests, 20 days of antibiotics things remained the same and the audiologist and her allergist suggested she see an ent dr.

Fast forward 4 months...today...everything remained exactly the same as it was 4 months ago, showing hearing loss in that left ear and a flat tympan, also referred to as conductive hearing loss. I loved the simple way one of the nurses explained it to me today, the neural they can do nothing about, that is permanent....the conductive is something they can do something about. I love when they put things simply for me. The dr was also very good today about explaining things simply to me...maybe my blonde hair told him to go slow and simple. Ha! He put her ear under a microscope and saw that there for sure was fluid behind the eardrum. They tried several methods to get it to "pop" to no avail. The doc said it is very rare for a child her age to all of a sudden develop fluid in only one ear (it is usually bilaterally) so he really wanted to do a scope to see if there was a "bigger issue, something back behind the nose". My heart kinda skipped a beat because i had a feeling i knew what he was talking about. They sprayed some lidocain up her nose and stuck this long tube with a camera all the way up her nose and back in her throat. Avery is such a trooper, she handled it SO well! She was sneezing and eyes were a watering but she sat as still as could be! Thank GOD, there was "no mass" !! The word mass had not been a passing thought with this ear problem so that caught me completely off guard and made this suddenly seem ever so minor!!

Next step is to get a tube put in her ear. We went ahead and scheduled her for next Friday. They will drain that darn fluid, put the tube in and Avery will probably feel like she has a brand new ear!

We told Raegan that Avery has to go get the monkeys out of her ears just like she did...

What to do with my girls... they keep us hopping with appointments! I am ever so thankful though for my healthy children! I couldn't help but think several times today "what if he had seen something with that scope?!" I was just reminded how grateful i should be!

"Playin winter"

First day of school 2010

School is underway! I couldn't hang on to summer, it slipped away...i know, whine, whine, whine! Trey had his 6th grade orientation day on Monday and will be off in the morning to his first full day! I will be a nervous nelly mom all day waiting to hear that he made it to all his classes, made it to lunch with his id card, had no trouble with his locker... and then i will breathe a sigh of relief when i'm sure i will hear that it all went alright! He is not so fond of school morning pictures anymore...

off to middle school!

Avery had her first day of 4th grade today! She has the same teacher that Trey had in 4th grade so she is excited about that. This is the first year that Avery has banned me from taking pictures in her class. I settled for a quick shot outside the school with a "hurry mommy" and a quick shot outside her classroom doors since there wasn't anyone else in the hallway! Again just a reminder that they are growing up :)



Hope you two have an awesome year!!

Oh, and i told my youngest two tonight..."guess what we get to do tomorrow?! we get to take naps!" "but why??" was the response i got, i have no idea why they didn't share mommy's excitement!

Lazy days at the pool

Fun dip by the box, cups of crushed ice, sitting in the front of the line sweating for our chairs, sunscreening more shoulders, backs, tummies and noses than i can count, a salty soft pretzel with cheese...mmm, these are a few of the things that our pool days were made up of. And, do i have pictures? well yes, of course i have pictures...

the "big" kiddie slide that raegan decided to finally go down after the whole summer of refusing. this picture was her first time down!

the snacking boys

taking a little break from the pool

cousins...evan, micah, owen and trey

ethan and molly graduated from their life jackets this year within the first few weeks of summer, although i still made ethan wear his when jumping off the diving board

did i mention fun dip?

maggie, malia and avery

i believe they call this the "butt bomb" or so i am told

this past wednesday was the last weekday it was open and they had free massages. my sisters and i were all told our necks were a little screwed up...about 10 minutes later we were sitting out in the pool with about 5 of our little ones all climbing all over us and some of our older ones attacking us with water and someone said "i have no idea why our necks would be screwed up?! ha!

I am already missing our pool days and can't wait till next summer!

Cramming summer fun

This past couple of weeks we have been cramming every last bit of fun into our last days of summer. We have spent so many days at the pool that it will have it's own post next but here are some pictures of our past week or so...

This past Friday we loaded up on snack food and went to the drive in. We had to go home mid second movie because Daddy and Mommy couldn't stay awake!

Our church had a car show and bbg challenge this past Sat so we went and wandered around for awhile and the kids got in some of the rescue vehicles. They were giving helicopter rides and that was what they REALLY wanted to get in, but we passed on that...

when avery gets a hold of the camera...

and but of course we spent an afternoon at worlds of fun, have i mentioned we have gotten our moneys worth twice over for these season passes? :)

raegan has been scared of ALL rides except for the motorcycles or horses that go round (she would stay on those all day) and round. she screamed so much they had to let her off the mini detonator this past spring. She has been getting brave and has decided she likes the kids rollercoaster...

Ethan rode the pirate ship and loved it!! they are on the far left side of the boat.

i decided to take the kids out for a day trip yesterday and let them ride some rides. forecast was sunny with some clouds and 90 some degrees. someone failed to mention there was going to be a nasty storm roll right over WOF!! It even hailed a little, the lightning and thunder was so loud it was a little beyond saying "God is bowling" and the wind and rain felt a little more like a monsoon (not that i have any idea what one of those is like) . we took shelter by the first aid station and waited the storm out...

the kids decided that playing in the puddles would finish out our day. oh, and after we had gotten under cover, raegan had pulled the pullup out of the bad and started drying off, that is why she is holding that. smart girl, they are absorbent!

The Patriot

All summer, this has been the ride at WOF that Avery has been dying to ride! She is but a half inch to an inch too short, she is SO close! She has tried numerous times to get on to only get denied and come walking down the walkway in tears. Last Friday after we got back from vacation we went out to WOF for a few hours and she thought she would give it a try again. Maybe she grew over the past couple of weeks...

i will just let you guess what is going on in this picture ;)

the patriot!

this time she came down the walk way all smiles! Yep, she got to ride it...the picture above, she is actually on that ride! One happy girl, i tell ya!

Oh the joys

of summer... we are savoring every last bit of it this last week! Spending the last three days that the pool are open at it (we will still catch a weekend or two). You will most certainly hear me whine about summer ending in upcoming posts. I'm not ready, i would like a few more weeks! No such luck...Monday morning is gonna be a shock to everyone's system including mommy's. This momma has loved every day of not having to set an alarm!

We went and spent a small fortune on school supplies tonight...but for the rest of the week we are just going to soak up every last bit of summer!

First 5k

Trey ran his first 5k this morning! He did great finishing in 31:56. in that time he even managed to stomp on about 15 cups (after the water station, he got a little side tracked) It had some hills on the course and he wasn't a big fan of those! Going up one of the last hills and with the finish line within a half mile i said "cmon Trey, the finish line is just around the corner", to which he replied "yea, while my barf is right here (pointing to his neck)...made me laugh!

Daddy ended up running with us. He was not going to because of the trouble he has been having with his ankle but decided yesterday to do it anyway.

We crossed the finish line all three of us together. Since i didn't take my camera, actually forgot my camera would be more like it, we snapped a couple shots once we got home...

a friend of mine from work was able to come and run with us too. it was a fun time, thanks for joining us Christina!

I am very proud of my boy for completing his fist 5k and can't wait to watch him run cross country this fall!