What a month!

Well, some of you regulars may be wondering where I've been since my last post on Easter. The answer is - all over the place!!

The weekend after Elle came home from the hospial I had a pre-planned trip to New York City with some girlfriends. Elle was much better and I was able to go and had a great time. It was primarily a shopping trip with two of my good friends from here. We didn't do any shows this time, just shopped...ate...and shopped some more. It was fabulous! Unfortunately, I came home with the flu and was completely out of commission for a week. Thus the lack of posts!

I was barely recovered from the flu and the very next weekend we had a trip planned to Charleston for the Cooper River Bridge Run. It is a huge 10K (40,000 runners) that Jay and I were excited to do for the first time. We met our good friends Andy, Lindsey and Jack Harman at Kiawah for the weekend. Andy and Jay still ran, but the flu had taken any energy I had for the week, so I didn't run. We had a great weekend and the kids had a blast at the beach. If you ever get a chance to participate in the Cooper River Bridge Run weekend festivities it's a great time! Maybe one day I'll get to run it!

We came home from Charleston to a busy week at school and work and were excited about a calm weekend at home this past weekend. But, as some of you may know, my Dad had a heart attack on Sunday. The Lord truly protected him with perfect timing in arrival to the hospital and a fast acting team of nurses and doctors. He gave everyone quite a scare, but is going to be OK. He moved out of ICU into a regular hospital room today and is doing much better. Thank you for all of the prayers and please continue to pray for his recovery as he has a long road ahead. It has been torture for me to be so many miles away. I am tying up loose ends at home and school this week and look forward to going to be with them this weekend.

So, I hope to be back to my regular blogging self soon! Thanks for staying tuned!

An Easter to Remember

Well, if you ask Elle it was probably more like an Easter to forget! Elle was sick all last week with what we thought at first was a stomach virus. After three days of non-stop fever and vomiting we took her to the pediatrician on Friday morning and they admitted her to the hospital. So our Easter weekend started with a not-so-Good Friday! Her white blood cell count was really high and at first they thought that the infection was in her kidneys. Well, after three long days and every test under the sun, they were able to rule out almost every illness, but still don't know why she was sick. At this point they are just chalking it up to a strange virus that sent her body and bloodwork all out of wack. We went back in today for one last round of tests, and hopefully will have all of this behind us soon.

They let us come home from the hosptial Sunday afternoon. We were able to throw an Easter egg hunt together quickly for Elle and Brooks. They enjoyed it and Elle was feeling pretty good. We told Elle that the Easter Bunny would come see her at the hospital since she wasn't home on Easter but she asked us not to tell him she was there. I think she was afraid he would come in the room. So, Sunday morning we delivered her Easter basket to her from the Easter Bunny. I've included some cute pictures from the hospital and once we got home. By Saturday evening she was feeling much better as you can see.

A special thanks needs to go out to my mom (aka CaKi)! She happened to be here this week to visit and help out with the kids while they were on Spring Break (but I wasn't). Little did she know what she was signing up for. She got her on Monday and Elle got sick on Tuesday. So, needless to say she had a busy week! She was wonderful with Brooks and I don't know what we would have done without her! She was supposed to fly out on Saturday, but when Elle didn't come home from the hospital, she postponed her departure until today. THANKS CAKI!!!!!!!

Misc. pictures from the week

Elle and I had fun with Chocolate at her friend Mackenzie's birthday party! She made it...I helped eat it!


Playing outside on a beautiful day. Excuse the shirtless Brooks. He sheds clothing every chance he gets.



Back to swimming lessons with Mrs. Lisa this week. Brooks was hesitant at first, but is back in the swing of things and jumping right in with the big kids now. It should be a fun summer! And considering it was 86 degrees here today, I'd say we'll be swimming in no time.


Elle and Brooks adjusting to Daylight Savings Time. Knock on wood...they're still sleeping later in the mornings!

Spring Pictures

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Well, our trip to see the Easter Bunny was successful! Brooks wasn't thrilled about the giant bunny, but he did sit in his lap which is more than I expected. Elle was very sweet on the way to the mall and I heard her tell him "it's OK, buddy...if you're scared just hold my hand"! After the bunny was my favorite part - the candid shots. There are some cute ones and rather than post a ton of pictures on here, I have attempted to do a video so let's hope it works!

Show-n-Tell / Pajama Day

Today was a big day for Elle and Brooks. It was show-n-tell day in Elle's class and they had to bring in their favorite stuffed animal to share. Elle's, of course, is a horse which she fondly calls "cowgirl horsey". She had a great day!

Brooks had "pajama day" at school and got to go to school in his Pajamas and take his blankie which usually has to stay in his bed. You would think that he would have been excited about this, but a picture is worth a thousand words. As you can see, it takes a lot to get Brooks excited these days. I am trying to stay positive and remember that "this too shall pass", but terrible twos is an understatement with this kid! At least lately. He seemed to loosen up a bit once at school with his friends. They had a tent in the classroom where they pretended they were camping out. Looked like lots of fun!

Tomorrow I am supposed to be taking them to see the Easter Bunny and have their annual Spring Pictures made which I look forward to each year. Based on the Valentines picture below and this one, I am not going to get my hopes up. Wish me luck! I hope to have great ones to share soon!

Easton and Caki's Great Adventure

I apologize for the huge break in blog posts lately. We are staying so busy, but not with anything really worth posting. It's midterm for me at school so things have picked up and are keeping me busy. I have nailed down my externship for the summer at a private practice in downtown Orlando and am one step closer to graduating! Jay is staying busy with work and enjoying a great Tennessee basketball season. Elle is still enjoying cheerleading and Brooks is still wishing he could play basketball. He just doesn't understand why he can't play with the big boys. I look forward to the day that he can!

So, since I don't have any pictures to share from Orlando right now, I thought I'd post one of Mom and Easton riding a camel! They all went to Charleston to the Wildlife Expo a few weeks ago and had the opportunity to ride a camel. Elle was a little confused at first because she automatically associates camels with Alexander in Egypt and thought maybe Caki (that's what they call Mom) and Easton went to visit Alexander without her. We explained, however, and she was very excited for them and thrilled to learn that the camel ate Teddy Grahams and drank a bottled Coke!

I never thought I'd be a NASCAR fan

Never have I ever cared about NASCAR...until a few years ago anyway. I didn't understand it and assumed it basically consisted of wearing tank tops and cut-off blue jeans and watching cars drive in circles. Sounds fun, right? Don't get me wrong...there are plenty of wife beaters and cut-offs but I get it now, and I'm hooked! While living in St. Louis, we became good friends with the family of NASCAR driver David Ragan. Two years ago we joined our friends (his family) in Daytona to watch David race in a Busch series event. It was then that I realized why people could get excited over NASCAR. David has been kind enough to get us pit passes in Daytona for the past three years (as well as once in Bristol). When you're up close and personal, can smell the burning rubber of the tires, and can watch the pit crew at work it's hard not to get sucked in. Last year was David's rookie season in the Cup Series and he finished in the top five twice. Once of those being in Daytona, so we have great expectations that he'll do great in the Daytona 500 today! Friday night Jay and I snuck away to Daytona to meet up with our St. Louis friends and had a great time. We all spent the night in their motor home on the field of Daytona International Speedway. Although we didn't stay for today's Cup race, we did enjoy a day at the track, hanging out with friends, watching yesterday's race (David finished 9th) and taking in the excitement of a weekend in NASCAR. It truly is a lifestyle like no other and I love it! Elle and Brooks didn't get to go this year, but they are proudly wearing the hats David signed for them yesterday!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

We wish you all a happy Valentine's Day! Brooks is a big fan of the holiday already, as you can see! Elle has been looking forward to this day for a while....making cupcakes, signing her cards, and wearing just the right amount of pink and/or red. Brooks on the other hand had to be forced to wear red and refused to cooperate for a picture. He did show some excitement about the NBA basketball valentines cards he picked out for his class, but that lasted about 5 mintues. Maybe next year!

C-H-E-E-R

I have to post pictures of our little cheerleader. You may remember pictures of when we enrolled Elle in soccer a year ago...lots of grass picking and asking when snack time was! Well, I thought I'd try again with basketball, but as soon as she saw that there were cheerleaders, that's all she wanted to do. So, Elle is officially part of the "Junior Magic" YMCA cheerleading squad. It is adorable. Their first game was this Saturday and she had a ball. Even Brooks has learned most of the cheers, and he loved watching the "big boys" play ball! In March they will all get to go to a real Orlando Magic game and watch their cheerleaders, so that should be fun.

Cruise

Jay and I had a fabulous vacation, but are also glad to be home! We cruised with Royal Caribbean on the ship "Enchantment of the Seas". It was a great experience and something that we would certainly do again. I did not get sick at all which was great! I was really nervous about that, but other than a few hours once we first embarked and a little on day 2, which I will mention later, it was smooth sailing!

We went on this cruise with some friends that we've met through church. There were 20 of us in all (10 couples) which was a lot of fun. We set sail on Saturday afternoon and spent all day Sunday at sea. The weather was still slightly cool and windy on Sunday due to a "cold" front that was leaving Florida but overall it was still pretty nice. Monday morning was our first stop in Grand Cayman. Unfortunately, as we all ate breakfast and anxiously awaiting our stop, they announced that the waters were too rough and the Harbour Master was closing the harbour. So, we had to spend an extra day at sea. This was really disappointing. For one...the waters were rough which meant I had a taste of sea-sickenss. I decided to play bingo since we were stuck on the boat another day and it hit me. The nice lady next to me loaned me a Dramamine and I spent the next few hours sleeping in the cabin. After a nice long nap, the waters seemed to calm a bit and I enjoyed the rest of the cruise. Monday night was formal night.

Tuesday was probably our favorite day of the trip. We arrived in Ocho Rios, Jamaica early and some of our group went tubing down the White River, then spent a few hours on Mahogany Beach before meeting up with the rest of our group at Margaritaville. It was such a nice day! Wednesday was another day at sea and Thursday morning we arrived back in Ft. Lauderdale. We had a great time, but were ready to come home and were badly missing the kids by the end. It's always nice to get away, but there's NO PLACE LIKE HOME!