Head Shots

Over the last several weeks, we've gotten a few good "head shots" of Piper. I suppose we should put them in her portfolio in case she ever does become a real model. (She was a model tonight for our Youth Activity night, they were learning photography.)

Here is a sneak peak at her Halloween Costume. We got the costume in the mail and had to have her try it out.

Here is her best Queen Amadallah (sp?) rendition.

And here are pictures from her drama club tryouts. In the first one she is saying - "Please don't make me sit with her!"

And here she is saying - "Paparazzi, I have had enough! Turn off the cameras and give me some privacy, afterall I AM a princess"

I think she is so totally going to get into that drama club!

Cowlicks and Teeth

I am visiting my sister in Idaho right now. We just took a few pictures and when I saw them, all I could think was - "Wow - Cowlicks and teeth!" All three of us are showing our cowlicks and teeth. On a side note - there were many people at my sister's church today that thought that I was her or made a comment about how similar we looked. It must be the cowlicks and teeth. And poor Piper got that cowlick too.

Here's a cute picture of Piper and me. I'll post this for Dan so he can remember how cute we are!!! :)

Lil Peanut

Piper had her 9 month check-up at 9 months and 13 days (September 5th). Daniel spoke to a good friend of ours last night (Brad Chiapelli) and his baby boy is 5 days older than Piper. Brad said his little guy is pushing 30 pounds. Our little peanut weighed in a 16 pounds 2 ounces. So light in fact that the doctor wants to do a weight check next month. Her length was 27 inches. I was a little worried when the doctor wanted to do a weight check but then I went home and checked my other kids. Chase was 17-8 at 10 months and Maco weighed in at 21 pounds at 9 months, but little bitty Ainsley only weighed 16-2 and 27 inches - the girls were exactly the same. The boys were at least an inch longer as well. So I am not so worried now. The girls were 25% for height and only 5%-10% for weight.

We have nicked named Piper "The Destroyer". She is into pulling hair, tearing magazines, pulling everything off table tops, throwing things on the floor, ripping earrings and necklaces off their intended bodyparts and just being as riotous and crazy as she can be. We do love her anyway and think she looks great in this hat:

Other than that - no more teeth (only the 2 bottom still), Great at feeding herself (see pictures above) but does get slimy. Crawling as fast as ever - loves getting up the stairs, won't stand on her own - it's a mental thing cuz she can totally do it - therefore no walking yet, just cruising furniture. Loves to stand at the piano, reach up and tickle the ivory. LOVES car keys. Screams when I have to take them away to actually drive the car. Still cute as button with a smile so big it looks like her face is going to divide in two.

Incredible Birthday Weekend

This was Daniel's birthday weekend and what a special one it was. See last year we were doing this, and it was an "Oh so SAD weekend". Last year we had stake conference also but I was not about to leave the airport after saying goodbye to my husband and sending him off to a war zone and then drive straight over to stake conference in a rented facility in a town I'd never driven to by myself and while I was pregnant wrestle 3 kids for 2 hours . What a different experience we had this year. We were able to listen to an apostle of the Lord. Elder David Bednar of the quorum of the 12 apostles came to OUR stake conference here in Harrisburg. He was accompanied by one of our area seventy - Elder Gary Crittenden from Connecticut (Mark and Shana, do you know him?) It's interesting to know that both Elder Bednar and Elder Crittenden served in the same southern Germany mission overlapping one year together.

They were AMAZING speakers! I don't know how we got so lucky. I don't know how they have such stamina either. They gave a 2 hour youth meeting on Sat morning, a 2 hour priesthood leadership meeting Sat afternoon (Daniel attended and said it was fabulous!) and a 2 hour adult session that was OUT OF THIS WORLD on Sat night. Then Sunday they had a 1 hour session with new members and investigators and then a 2 hour general meeting. The general meeting was held in the Hershey Theatre in Hershey, PA, an incredibly beautiful building! It was great too and for the most part the kids were good, besides having to take Ainsley to the bathroom 3 times during the general session.

What I can tell you is this: THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST IS TRUE! HIS CHURCH HAS BEEN RESTORED HERE ON THE EARTH! THE ATONEMENT IS FOR ALL OF US!! WE MUST APPLY IT!! WE CAN DO IT! There is no doubt of these truths when an apostle bears his witness. Their command of the scriptures was unbelievable and their ability to speak and answer questions using the spirit as their guide was astonishing. I will have to ask Daniel to tell you about a question that was asked in the priesthood session and the absolutely inspired answer given.

I could go on and on. But it was truly an honor to be in their presence and have them speak to us directly as a stake. When my parents arrived for dinner tonight to celebrate Daniel's birthday, the first question out of my father's mouth was, "So are you still on your high?" The answer is YES. I have been chastened. I have been motivated! I have been inspired! I hope the high lasts. (at least General Conference is only 3 weeks away)

After the meeting was over I happened to run into a good family friend, Rachel T and her daughter Annie. She had just moved to Hershey from Provo, to persue graduate work at Penn State Medical School. We invited her to join us for dinner and they decided to come. It's about a half hour drive. Annie had a great time with the kids. Ainsley adores her and we had fun catching up with Rachel. My parents had a good time too - see I grew up with Rachel in Dover, DE and her mom and my mom are best friends (and incidently our mothers had spent 2 days together last week).

Daniel chose to have brisket for his birthday dinner and our whole house still smells like smoked meat but it sure was tasty. We like that southern cookin! We also had baked beans, green jello and homemade potato salad. Here's Piper playing "Happy Birthday" Ok, not really but she was blowing the flute and really making noise on it!

Daniel also spent a great deal of time on the phone, which I think is the best part. Everyone that you love calls you on the same day! He was able to hear from 6 of his 8 siblings and his parents and my aunt and sister!! What a terrific weekend.

----- Oh I forgot to mention that we attended a charitable fund raiser dinner/auction on Friday night for a charity called "Brush Brush Smile" serving low income families in the county. Daniel's practice has given a substantial amount to this charity and Daniel's office manager serves on one of the committees. It was fun to get dressed up and go out. The dinner was excellent. There was also a silent auction table. About 15 minutes before the silent auction table closed I went up to browse it and see if there was anything I was interested in. These types of things are really hard for me because I am such a "tightwad". I have to keep telling myself that everything is WAY overpriced because it's for charity. I have to tell myself that I am basically just writing a check to a charity for a good cause and that I get a little something in return. Daniel followed me up and asked if there was anything I was interested in. I said there was only one thing - a very large engraved silver platter - actually it was pewter. But it was a lot of money and I really didn't think I would get to use it very often, plus where would I store it? You'd have to make a heck of a lot of cookies to use that size platter. Daniel tried to convince me we could put our Thanksgiving turkey on it. After much convincing and with hand shaking I signed on the next line. This was about 2 minutes before the auction closed. I was the third bid for this item and my line read $122. Did I really sign up to buy a platter for over a hundred dollars? No - I was giving $122 to kids for their dental care and I just happen to get to take home a platter. Yes, that was much easier to believe. After I signed, I actually got a little rush! I got that shopping high. I could envision all the Christmas cookies I was going to put on there. I couldn't wait to show it to my mom.

We didn't want to stay much later so we were filling out a card with credit card info so they could just charge us when they were ready instead of us staying until the end of the evening. Daniel asked the woman in charge if we would be able to take the platter with us. She said sure but to just make sure we won it. Well of course we won - we signed right before they took the slips. So we checked - AND WE LOST!! Someone had snuck in and signed the line for $137 without us noticing in the last second!! All that shopping high for nothing. So I gave nothing to charity and I don't go home with a platter. What a bummer!

Don't get me wrong though - it didn't taint the weekend at all! WONDERFUL WEEKEND!

First Day 2007

Due to the construction going on at the high school we had a really long summer. We got out on June 1st (which was a week earlier than most of the schools around here). We didn't have to make up our 2 snow days and then we didn't go back until after Labor Day. ( a week after most schools started). So our official first day was Tues, Sept. 4th.

The morning went off without a hitch, we were even ready early (even though I was exhausted from our busy weekend.) Both boys needed haircuts and that has since been remedied but as for the first day they were a bit bushy. Chase is a "safety patrol" this year. It is quite an honor to be nominated for this, only a few are chosen from the 4th and 5th graders. He has bus duty and then a "post" on school grounds that he monitors.

Chase was really excited to start school. He really wanted a man teacher and he had a 50% chance of getting one (2 of the 4 fourth grade teachers are men). He got Mr. Kennedy and he is really excited. Some of their early curriculum is learning to play chess (right up Chase's alley) and studying black crickets. Chase had so much fun cricket hunting the other night outside our house. He ended up with 2. As he tried to hand me the big one (because he had dropped the little one and needed to recover him) I grabbed him by the leg. Chase hadn't let go when I pulled on the leg and it came right off. I asked him if they were allowed to study a one legged cricket. He said he thought so. We put the crickets in a bag with some grass. We used a fork to poke some airholes in the bag. As everyone was getting ready for bed I heard the chirping. I said - OH NO! I told Chase he had to put the crickets in his backpack and keep them in his room during the night. He said his classroom is constantly chirping and sometimes it gets hard to concentrate.

MacGregor on the other hand was VERY nervous for the first day. None of his good buddies are in his class this year. Of the 4 2nd grade teachers there were 2 that he really wanted. He got neither. According to MacGregor he got the "strictest" teacher, Mrs. Appleyard. Although when he got off the bus the first day he gave me a shy smile and said that Mrs. Appleyard was one of the nicest teachers. (Since the first day there have been a few instances where I think he has reconsidered using the word nicest.) We'll see how the rest of the year goes. MacGregor is a good kid and shouldn't have any trouble.

Piper was really excited on the first day too. Here's a few photos of how she was feeling.

No More NECCOs

My grandpa ALWAYS has Necco wafers. Ainsley knows exactly where his secret box is. She gets a mini pacakage of Neccos everytime we visit my grandparents. We went for a visit on Thursday. We dropped by some photos and some homemade chocolate chip cookies for my grandpa's 83rd birthday. Each of the kids got their package of Neccos and dug right in. A minute later Ainsley came running in the kitchen making a horrible face looking for the trash can. Apparently the white ones are too minty and she had to spit hers out. Then she picked out another white one and was going to throw it away. I took it from her and popped it in my mouth. As I was chewing this wafer I noticed some really hard crunchy bits. I thought I must have gotten one that had some granulated sugar that didn't get melted down. Meanwhile it seemed that the chewed candy was sticking in a bunch on my back teeth. The granualted sugar lumps didn't seem to be disolving and my tooth in the back didn't seem to be feeling better. I started feeling like I was choking on these hard granules. I started exploring with my tongue and then realized that my 1st molar (2nd from the back) had a huge hole in it and I was chewing up bits of a filling and tooth. I ran to the bathroom and rinsed my mouth trying to rid myself of all the hard bits. I was having visions of my intestines being cut up by bits of enamel.

Luckily the tooth doesn't hurt. Although I will make an appointment with my dentist this week. I think that may be the tooth that I had my first and only root canal on last winter. They decided they didn't need to do a crown then, oh but I guess they will now!! RATS!!!

My sister had a similar experience last year. She had had a root canal on a tooth. They told her that she would need a crown and to make her appointment for that in the near future. Well, getting a root canal isn't cheap and crowns are even more so she decided to wait a little between the two. (Like a year) Valentines day rolled around and she decided to eat a box of candy hearts. She bit into those tiny little hearts and her tooth crumbled. She ended up swallowing most of her tooth and that made her feel sick to her stomach and like she wanted to gag all day. Oh, by the way - guess who makes candy hearts? NECCO!

So the moral of the story is - If you are an adult with bad teeth, lots of fillings. . . root canals etc...- like my family -

Don't Eat Neccos!

Time Well Spent

So last week at this time I was rubbing shampoo into my dry hair, but luckily I remembered almost everything and we were off to the family cabin. We were so lucky to be able to spend the weekend with Wood, Woodine and Mary P as well as my parents. The weather could not have been better!!

There was boating, fishing, frisbee and catching crayfish. I think 27 crayfish were caught but the kids did return them to the creek so they could be caught again. They also had a lesson on extinction from Uncle Wood. Ainsley enjoyed her trip to "bone island" and wanted to spend all her time there. Daniel found the skull of the beaver that he "removed from the pond" back in July. The teeth were amazingly long and curved. There were fireside chats, BIG fireworks and a yummy outdoor cookout.


On Sunday we decided to walk down to the creek where a very large tree has fallen across. My dad wanted to survey it to see how long it would take to cut it up with a chain saw. We were also trying to empty the house so poor Woodine could get a nap. She looked utterly exhausted and with 11 people staying in that tiny house she didn't get much rest. Daniel stayed behind to fish but the rest of us made the long walk to the creek. The kids love it there. The kids were wandering around the rocks and water when Chase began to SCREAM!!! I didn't realize it at first but my mother called to him and said "What Chase, What's the matter?" He was frozen on the bank of the creek just screaming. My parents seemed to realize that he had been stung and yelled for him to start running from where he was. My Dad grabbed him and started swatting around him and lifting his shirt because he was grabbing his back. Well it ended up that Chase had disturbed a yellow jacket nest that was between some large tree roots along the banks of the creek. We all swatted the air for about 30 seconds and then started running back up the trail. It was our quickest visit to the creek ever. Chase just wailed and wailed and paced as we pulled out the first aid kits and searched for ice packs and anti-sting medicine. He was pretty miserable for about an hour and a half. He got stung on his back (right on his spine), on his wrist and on his face (side burn near the top of his ear). All places without any muscle. He can't swallow pills yet so after several failed attempts at swallowing a Motrin I had him chew it up. We then put on a "3 Stooges" DVD to act as a distraction and he finally felt better. He was really lucky that he didn't swell up like a big balloon, especially on his face. My mother was thinking that he might end up on the first day of school with a face doubled in size. Thankfully not.


A few minutes after getting Chase settled I walked around the corner of the house to see a stranger walking up the drive. He stopped to talk to my Dad. I heard him ask my Dad if he could take his daughter fishing in our pond. I hadn't stopped to listen to the rest. A few minutes later my Dad walks around the house and told us how the conversation unfolded. My dad told him that we don't allow anyone to fish the pond. That they had had problems in the past finding people's garbage around the pond, . . . beer cans, worm containers, fire pits and even fish heads (don't let Daniel hear you say that!) So my Dad told him it was a private pond, incidentally there is a public pond about 2 miles up the road. Also we are afraid if we tell one person, yes - go ahead then they'll be back all the time (when we aren't there)and tell their friends, "oh the owners said I could", so then their friends will come too and then their friends etc...


Well the guy got fierce! He said, "so you're really not going to let me fish?" " well you don't own that road out there! I can fish from the road" (there is a road that curves around very near the pond) " My dad said, no I don't own the road but I do own the pond" Then the guys says, "You don't own that water - that's public water that runs in from the creek. I'm going to fish!! What are you going to do - call the cops on me? Go do whatever the *&$#! you want!" Well now, that wasn't what any of us thought would happen when you say no, that someone couldn't fish on your private property. So as my dad was telling us the story, the guys drives to the part of the road that is closest to the pond and parks his truck. We were all sitting outside the house about 60 or 70 yards from the pond. And we wait. My dad thinks he was waiting for someone to go over to him and continue the confrontation but we just sit. He never gets out of the truck. Then the guys stepped on his brakes and spun his tires for 20 seconds or so (it felt like much longer) spitting rocks and gravel into the pond and then he peeled out spitting dust into the air. Wow too much excitement!! Woodine really missed a lot of adrenaline moments during her nap. We were all a bit worried that someone that psycho might come back in the middle of the night and do something stupid. Luckily we slept safely Sunday night and hope that the house is safe while no one is up there.


On Monday between breakfast and lunch we walked down to a different part of the creek. It's called "Snail City" Ainsley LOVES the fresh water snails that live in the pond. This one part of the creek is loaded with them. The 10 feet just prior to snail city is the deepest part of the creek. It is just one section about 6 feet in length and it goes up to the boys neck. Anyway, a lot of baby bass and minnows get trapped in the deep part because then can't get pass over all the rocks when the creek is so low. The boys smashed a few shells and threw the meat into the deep pit. The tiny fish swarmed to the snail meat. I was amazed to see little fish about half the size of my pinkie swimming around with pink meat in their mouths. We then tried to removed the rocks in the creek between the "fish pit" and "Snail City". We created some actual flow and hope some of these little fish will now end up in the pond! We had loads of fun doing this.




The kids got to swim for about 45 minutes before we had to pack up. The boys floated way out and were even jumping from the rafts and boats into the wild growths of "coontail". It's a pond plant that thrives in warm water. Next year we hope to treat it before it grows hog wild. We reluctantly had to leave early so the kids could get to bed at a decent time for the first day of school.

Our most favorite part of the trip was meeting Mary P of course. She is such a doll!!

Distracted

So today we are off again for the weekend. We are going to the cabin for Labor Day and meeting Dan's brother, his wife and new baby. They will only be on the east coast for another 2 months and we want to work in all the visits we can. I love going to the cabin, I really do, but it is so much work to get ready to go. With 4 kids to pack up for 3 days including a Sunday (so we have to remember church clothes and shoes) plus myself. Then we have 3 days and nights of food and of course we need some entertainment for the little ones. And with a baby you have a different set of food, formula, diapers, blankets, portacrib etc...

I suddenly realized that I must really have a lot on my mind when this morning I got into the shower put shampoo in my hand and then realized I was rubbing shampoo into my DRY hair. Yes, I hadn't even gotten my hair wet but was going through the motions of showering while thinking of all the things I still needed to do today. After my shower I was getting ready in the bathroom when my eyes happened to glance at the trash can where I saw my underwear. I guess I had thrown my underwear in the trash instead of the hamper.

With so many children and other responsiblities, school stuff for each child, church callings...lessons, meetings, primary talks, household responsibilities... bills, chores, groceries, home maintenance, applications for insurances, loans, etc.. --- My mind is always racing! There are times that I suddenly stop what I'm doing and have no idea where my children are. I think, "When was the last time I saw the baby or Ainsley?" Sometimes the baby is actually in bed but sometimes Ainsley is outside at the neighbors and I never heard her leave. Sometimes I think I have way too much on my plate. I just hope I don't space something really important!!

SURPRISE

Piper has just started making this "Surprise" face. She does it when she is excited about something, like food or a new toy. If we are holding a bowl up and are ready with a spoon, she will give us this face to show us how happy she is about getting that next bite. If she is happy to see you or you give her the surprise look first, the eyebrows go up and the mouth opens wide. I don't know how long it will last (back in June she would stick her tongue out and suck her top lip but we never captured it on film or video :( - We did get the surprise look on video the other day when she was sooo excited about holding the phone (the real one). And I tried to catch it with the still camera but it was really hard. These are the best I could do.

** You may be able to see her two new little teeth

Party Party

At Little Caesars you get "Pizza Pizza", but on Saturday we had "Party Party".

It started a bit rough, Daniel went white water rafting with the 16-18 year old boys from church on Wednesday and Thursday. Well, I could NOT sleep at all Wednesday night. I kept tossing and turning and in the morning around 7:30 I ran to the bathroom and threw up. Then around 8 am I started having TERRIBLE diarrhea. I had it several times an hour until around 5 pm (and then sporadically until the next morning). I was completely wiped out!! It was hard on the kids too, cuz they were having to get their own meals and help watch the baby. Sometimes I look at Piper and think how fun and cute she is and for a very rapid milisecond I think about having another one, But OH what a reality check it was to be puking and sick and weak and pretty much helpless. And then I know that I really don't EVER want to be pregnant again. It is hard on me and really hard on the big kids.

That was a really long tangent - so Friday I was getting ready for MacGregor's rescheduled birthday party. We tried to have it on the 11th of August but only 1 of 5 kids could make it. This time 4 out 5 could come. Friday I was planning his party, cleaning the house, making a cake and food for the other party (my grandparents 60th anniversary) all the while my stomach was still off. Better but still off.

Here is the official balloon getter. She picked out each balloon and placed it into the towels.

Saturday was extremely warm and muggy and I was really happy. You make think that was odd but early in the week it had been rainy and cold - in the 60s. How was MacGregor going to have a water slide party, using hose water mind you, when it was only 65 degrees outside? We got lucky and it was around 90. Dan and I had to keep running in the house to cool off since we weren't swimming. The party was 2 and half hours and I thought it would be too long but we ended up running out of time and had to make the kids scarf their food down. MacGregor was blowing out his candles with the majority of a hot dog still in his hand. We did rocket balloons, the obstacle course, water balloon toss, towel toss with water balloons and just played on the water slide. All the kids had fun and didn't want to leave when their parents showed up.

But leave they did because we had to get to our other party.....

My Grandparents have been married 60 years this month. Amazing! What an accomplishment! My cousin got way better pictures then I did so check these out.

My parents hosted the a 60th wedding anniversary party and it was really fun. Half my cousins were there, my aunts and uncles, great aunts and great uncles, grandmother's cousins, my parents, brother and 3 of my nephews (one which I rarely see).

My broccoli salad was a big hit (raw broccoli, golden raisins, red onion, bacon and almonds with a mayo, sugar, vinegar sauce) as were the rice crispy treats Dan and the kids made. We used a few handfuls of the Micky Mouse rice crisps which are multicolored, so the treats looked really pretty.

But the biggest hit was the pony. See - as long as ANYONE can remember, when receiving a present (even a tiny box) , my grandfather has said, "Now what do think it could be? Maybe it's a pony!" So this year he really got a pony. OK maybe only for an hour, but still. My Dad rented a pony for an hour and we really wanted my grandpa to take a ride but he has bad knees and couldn't climb up on his own (he is 82) so they brought out a ladder, but the horse wouldn't go anywhere near it. Grandpa did get some great photo ops and got to feed "Coco" an apple.

The kids on the other hand had a blast! They all got to ride it several times. The horse trainers really got a workout on that hot muggy day. They would walk a big circle on my parents side yard which is a huge hill, great for sledding, but quite a work out to walk up. Ainsley would have stayed on it for the whole hour if we would have let her. All the babies got their picture taken on the horse as well.

Here's a handsome crowd waiting for their turns on the horse.

I sure was pooped by the end of the day, but "Party Party" was definitely worth it!

Can it be 12 years?

After my last post, I feel almost guilty doing this one. But 10 days ago, my sweetheart and I celebrated our 12th anniversary. It's hard to believe that it has been that long.

We certainly have accomplished a lot in that time. The first 10 years Daniel was going to school and specialty training. We moved 5 times (in the first 10 years). We have lived in 4 different states. Bought 2 houses. Sold one. We had 4 children. We have owned 7 cars. We survived one deployment and solo birth. We have been on many vacations, mostly to see family, none very exotic. We have made many quilts and caught a lot of fish!

My sister gave us a sign that fits pretty much perfect. (I wanted to hang it on the front door.) It reads, "A fisherman lives here with the catch of his life."

One day Daniel and I will do something really special for our anniversary. Our 5th, we had just moved to Iowa for his internship and he got NO vacation time. Our 10th we had just moved to PA and bought a new house. This year we were going to do something big, but just ran out of time. Daniel wanted to take me to NYC to see a show and have some alone time, but our anniversary was on a Sunday and the weekend before we took the family that won the auction trip to the cabin. All our other weekends are booked in some way with work or church activities. My mom said she would take the kids on a Friday night in September and Dan and I can go to dinner and a movie. That's fine with me! I'll take dinner that I don't have to cook and clean up, or cut up and feed a baby or take a number to say something at the table. And I'll take a movie where I can sit next Dan and hold his hand without 2 or 3 more people climbing on top of us, and where I can actually hear the movie without answering questions. Yes that will be just fine!

Tragedy

The first weekend in August, Daniel interviewed (I say that loosely) a prospective partner for the practice. He had him come and look at the practice and answer questions etc... This prospect is currently in his last year of residency at Temple University and is a member of the church. The kids and I met Dan and this gentleman for lunch and as we discussed our histories we found out that we went to dental school and remain good friends with his wife's cousin. He told us that he really liked what he had seen but we would need to sell his wife, because she would have to be happy. She is very close to her family and was currently visiting them for several weeks in Utah. She was due back around the 20th of the month and we were hoping that Brandon would bring her out sometime in September.

Dan showed him around town and they came back to our house before he headed home. He found out that I like quilting and said that was PERFECT because his wife had roughly 25 quilt tops in progress. I was so excited to meet her and show her around this wonderful area with so many fabric stores etc...

He called Daniel about a week or so ago and metioned that he spoke to his wife about the practice and they had a really good feeling about it. They were both looking forward to their trip here in September. He also mentioned that his wife had found a small lump on her thyroid and was going to have it removed before she came home, delaying her trip a few days.

Daniel spent 8 hours at church yesterday with all his meetings. So last night he was checking his messages. He came to me a bit shaken up with his eyes a bit bleary and announced that Brandon's wife had died! I said, WHAT? It was routine minor surgery!! Daniel said that Brandon had left a message during church and just said that she had passed away due to complications of the surgery. He said, that of course changes everything. He now thought he needed to keep his girls close to family - which is completely understandable. I called our friend, his wife's cousin, to see if they had anymore details. Apparently she came out of surgery fine and went home to her moms. The next day she had some nasal bleeding. She went back in and got that cauterized. Then she went back to her moms. She didn't wake up the next morning.

And though I never met her or even spoke to her, I am devestated!! I am devestated for Brandon that he lost his eternal companion after only 10 years. I am devestated for his 2 little girls, ages 9 and 4, I think, that they will have to grow up without their mom. My heart aches for them! ! My heart aches with them. I am so sad that I will never meet her and show her fabric stores and take quilt classes with her. I am so sad that they will not be coming here. I am so SAD!! I pray he will be able to finish his residency while transitioning to a single parent.

Please pray for this family! Here's a link to see all that he will be missing.

Girls, Girls, Girls

So this is going way back because I am so behind on posts. I told you there maybe some that are really out of date. So WAY back in May when Brielle was visiting, my cousin Michele and her daughter Quinn came to visit. We hadn't seen Quinn in person yet, she was born 2 months early back in October and wasn't allowed to leave her house until April. After Michele walked through the door and we all gave each other hugs, I realized that we were ALL girls. (my boys were at school). There was my mom, myself with Ainsley and Piper, Brielle with Kamden and Aspen, Brinn and Emma, and Michele with Quinn. 11 Girls. Ainsley loved having so many babies in the house.

We had so much fun catching up and visiting, reminiscing of times past, like when the Brielle, Michele and Brinn used to torture Michele's brother Richie in the swimming pool. We ate lunch together and baby swapped. And watch the babies fight over the same toys.

And here's Brielle's baby- not so little anymore but sure is ornery! She was sleeping when we got the group picture and we were all better off for NOT having woken her up!

I am so glad Michele braved the rainy weather and drove all the way up here.

Michele and Brinn had to leave before dinner, but the rest of us hit Rita's for dessert that night. It had been a cold rainy day and so ice cream wasn't the best idea, especially since it had to be eaten outside. Although we do have an icecreamaholic - I think she would fit in with the Ray Hens.

Do you see cute Kamden with her Giant cone in front of her - now look at her counterpart! We were absolutely astonished that little bitty Ainsley could eat that whole cone and eat it she did. The entire thing! We only threw away the napkin. I guess it was a good night for ice cream for her.