Procedures & Piano

Today was quite the busy day in our house! Laycie had a little ‘same-day surgery’ done at Children’s Mercy hospital, and Andersin had a piano recital—it was suppose to be Laycie’s first recital, but she obviously had to miss it. Laycie was pretty nervous and I was a bit of a nervous wreck too (I’ve watched too many House & Grey’s Anotomy episodes to know that things don’t always go smoothly ;o) ). She brought her notebook so she could write to keep her mind off things (she’s an amazing writer, I’m doing a post of that later), She insisted on wearing the biggest (and tackiest) hairbow to the hospital, and they let her bring a blanket and stuffed animal. They even gave her a portable DVD player and a whole list of movies to watch! Children’s Mercy really an amazing hospital with just the most quality employees. They are always so impressive.

 

They gave her some verced before they took her back, to calm her down. She got soo giggly and silly; it was comical to see. She doesn’t remember it,but when she sees these pictures she gets a little embarrassed :o)

-

The procedure is really short, so she was done in about 15 mins. She did great and the initial scope looked clean; we just have to wait for the biopies to come back :o)

Well, like I said, it was the kid’s piano recital that night and I was sad that Laycie had to miss it, but Andersin was so great—he made me proud :) I Unfortunatley don’t have any pictures of him at the recital since it was in our church’s chapel and we don’t really take pictures in there, but I snapped one before he left (he’s such a card with his poses!):

8 is Great!!

Andersin hit quite the milestone this year and turned 8 years old! Since his birthday was on a Sunday this year—and not just any Sunday, but Mother’s Day—we gave him the option of celebrating it on Saturday instead. He said, “Well, I don’t know if I want to share my special day with you…..or Heavenly Father.” So we celebrated it on Saturday :o) He also chose to forgo our presents and have a birthday party with a few friends from school. We took them to play laser tag, and they had so much fun!

  

Afterwards we came back to our house and although I thought the cake and icecream would be the big hit, they all shoved it in their faces as fast as they could so they could go out and play on our swingset. Go figure.

Andersin got some fun gift from his friends—top place being the newest Magic Treehouse books and these awesome foam swords.

Um, he stopped and posed before and after each gift for a picture. He’s such a card!

It was a great night and I loved seeing him in a different element with his friends. He has a couple of really high-quality boys that came, so now I know who to lean him towards ;)

Happy Birthday Bud, we sure do love you!!

The BIG 3-0!

Well, I finally joined the 30s club—and I’m going to be honest; it feels great :o) I feel legit now!

I started off the day great; how can you not by looking at these? (Thanks Jeff & Mary!!):

Once again, Lance and the kids made me feel super special. Lance always gets so creative and this year he & the kids came up with a super fun game of Deal or No Deal all for me :). Lance was ‘Howie’ the host, Masen was the ‘hot model’ that opened the cases (turned over the papers)and Laycie and Andersin were the bankers (stationed in the bathroom).

It was nerve-racking because it wasn’t just a game—my birthday presents were on the line! Eeek! I had to win money to go birthday shopping for our date tonight.

So, I put my game face on and let the game begin.

The cases ranged from $1 to $75. I picked my case—#11, since my birthday is on the 11th—and crossed my fingers it was a good one!  After each round Lance would call the bankers on his cell phone and they’d give me an offer and I’d have to push Deal or No Deal (on the socker boppers).

(that’s my No Deal! face)

It was SUPER stressful; the bankers were pretty tough and I found myself down to two cases 25 and 75.

Was I confident mine was the $75?

Could I risk it?

I couldn’t. The bankers gave me a fair deal at $57 and I took it! I was ecstatic….until my case was opened and I DID have the $75 case!! Lance said he put it in #11 because that’s the day my birthday’s on :o) Great minds think alike I guess.

(I just had to mention how ca-uute she is!!)

We all went out for ice cream afterwards:

Lance and I spent the evening together going to one of the coolest restaurants we’d ever been to—Em Chamas; it’s a Brazilian restaurant where they walk around with all sorts of different meats on skewers and they just kept coming and coming ‘till you stay stop! (Which we didn’t do until we absolutely had to!) They also had a fantastic side dish bar with so many yummy things to choose from. It was such a fun experience!

We met some crazy geese while we were waiting for our reservations—all the males were super protective of the female (sitting on top of the rocks); she must have had a nest or something up there because they kept screetching at us the whole time we were sitting there, I thought they might attack me!

It was a great day and I feel so lucky!

Aubrey’s 1 year pics

 

What a doll! Seriously, could you get a cuter little girl?? I don’t think so.

But, just to be fair and show that she isn’t always so cute; here is the outfit that definitely DID NOT make the cut!!

(Brace yourself for some serious boyish-uncuteness):

Yikes.

The big ONE!

So, our little sweetheart turned 1 :o) We actually didn’t do a whole lot for her birthday – no presents, but we did have cake…

I know; we’re lame, and cheap.

She started off the day with a birthday bath!

  

All I have to say is: thank heavens for hairbows and pierced ears ;)

We also was very into helping maker her birthday cake!

Although she didn’t help much, I did get some cute pics of her crawling around the kitchen :o)

   

                                                                                                                                                                                                                    (We call this picture the “Drew”! -- sorry for the inside joke!)

 

Aubrey liked her cake—and I use the term ‘like’ very loosely!  We did capture a cute video of her blowing out her candles—or should I say Lance blowing out her candles :o)

Mr. Masen

I can’t say enough about how awesome Masen is! We have become just the best of friends this past year being home together! He is honestly so fun to be around and I’ll miss him in preschool next year :(

  

The comment I get most from people about Masen is a comment I’ve gotten relentlessly ever since he was born—he had the most expressionate face! The things he can do with his eyebrows, mouth, and his whole little face is really unique. It’s such a big part of who he is and it’s so fun to watch. Here is a few in about a 2 minute span—they’re not his best ones, but his a card none-the-less!!

     

Facts about Masen-

- He is super affectionate; especially with his words. He is is constantly hugging and kissing me, but I’m always taken back by how often he says things like, “I love you mom; You are my bestest friend; You are such a great mom; You look so pretty today; You make me so happy; I like you most; You are beautiful; I like that shirt; etc” It’s a great ego-boost having him around :o) But he’s also like that with everyone else. I can always hear him complimenting Andersin and Laycie’s outfits and telling them how great they are at reading, spelling, etc; and what great siblings they are.

- Although he is a lover, he is also a fighter; he LOVES ‘fighting’ and wrestling with Lance and Andersin. He’s awesome at trash-talking!!

- He is very concerned with how fast he is. It’s constantly the topic of conversations. What shoes will make him the fastest, what shirt makes him the fastest, which friends are faster than he is..He also sings ‘Jingle Bells’ before he starts running because he says it makes him faster….yeah, don’t know where that one came from.

- He looks just like Lance did at that age.

- He is a total mama’s boy. All my kids go through stages where they gravitate to one parent or another, but he’s steadily been attached to me for months. (I can’t complain!)