Thank goodness for washable markers

The kids were downstairs coloring and being quite, so I was getting some stuff done and so was John.

We came downstairs and Savannah tried at first to say that Ian had colored himself with the markers (Considering his back is covered, we doubted that SERIOUSLY). When we pointed that out to her..she said "Okay it was teamwork.." Hmmm..not exactly what we meant when we said they should use teamwork more often..but OK. Anyway..enjoy the pictures!



yeah, I don't think he is flexible enough to do this by himself




he was rather pleased with himself though..




There was another sign besides the fact that his back was covered. There was also some marker on Savannah's nose where she had wiped it (I do not think she realized this either). The third sign was the Savannah sized handprint on the wall. It is next to her in the picture. It came off the wall easily - like I said..thank goodness for washable markers!

Savannah's Ladybug face

Last week we went to Chick-fil-a and they had clowns painting the kids' faces. Savannah chose ladybugs for her face.

Caroline is getting bigger!

These are a mixture of 6 and 7 month pictures. She still loves the exersaucer. She can sit up by herself. She is almost crawling. She occasionally tries to pull up on stuff. She is only eating chopped up whatever we are eating. She babbles a lot. She is always happy. She is just the best baby!

Caroline gets some food

Caroline keeps reaching and trying to take my food when I am eating. She will eat baby food, but does not seem to like anything other than cereals and fruits. I decided to give her some mashed potatoes and squished up black eyed peas. She LOVED it. Here are some pictures. She was smiling, she just would not smile for the camera.

Savannah the magician

Savannah did a "magic trick" for us today during supper. I had her do it again later so I could video it. The second time she had lost her wand. She said that it was okay because a magician is always prepared and she showed me a pencil. This child is so funny sometimes! Here is the video:

Savannah and Ian Have a Splash Party

These were actually taken before Savannah's 1st day of Kindergarten. I am just now getting them up here though. I will give a little update before I place the pictures. Savannah was diagnosed with the flu on Monday. She had been fine, but then she spiked a fever. I took her to the doctor where they swabbed her and diagnosed her. She was then strted on Tamiflu (which makes her even more hyper than she already is). Ian came down with a fever that night. He was diagnosed on Tuesday and is also on Tamiflu. Caroline does not have the flu, thank goodness, but she does have a very stubborn ear infection and is on Amoxil. We have 3 small children on medication. They are not easy to get to take the medication, but they do take it.

In these pictures they are playing outside on the patio in the swimming pool that John's mom got Savannah for her birthday. They were having so much fun!

Here is video




Hugging each other



Savannah by herself




Ian by himself

Savannah's 1st Day of Kindergarten

Savannah has been excited about this day for weeks. This morning she was so excited she could hardly eat her breakfast. The day has come - she is officially a Kindergartner. She got dressed in her pretty purple clothes that she refers to as her "thousand thumbs up" outfit. She even let me put a pretty headband on her.

We had to leave early in order to get Ian and Caroline to daycare first. You will notice in the pictures it was still dark when we left. She was so excited! It was hard to get pictures of her due to her bouncing so much. She went into Nanny's when we dropped the other two kids off and gave everyone hugs and showed off her outfit (Did I mention she is proud of that outfit?).

We then went to school. The traffic was not as bad as I expected, but I imagine when all the Kindergartners are there at once it will be much worse.

We went in and sat at her class' table in the cafeteria. It is where she will go every morning and sit until she is called back to her room. They called us back and we all went back there. We met with her teacher, Ms. Justus, for a minute and looked around the room. It is a nice room. The teacher is really nice. She has a lot of experience as well. I have been told she has taught Kindergarten for about 30 years! I think she will have fun and that this will be a great year. She made 4 new friends.

When we picked her up, she had a good report. The bounciness had settled down around 0900 (for her and the other kids..they were just excited). She said her dolphin stayed above the water. I think that means she did not get in trouble at all..which is a good thing. She really loved it and was upset when she found out she can't go back tomorrow. She doesn't want to wait another week to go back - she loves Kindergarten. In some ways I am sad to know this is the first step of many in letting her go..but I am so glad to see her grow and to see her happy. I am just going to try and enjoy every moment as I watch her and help her become the wonderful woman I know she will be one day.

Here are some pictures:

Savannah right before she gets in the van



Savannah and Daddy walking into school. (sorry it is blurred..I shook the camera..i think taking a tripod with me would have been a bit of overkill though :) )




Savannah waiting at the table to be called back





Savannah doing a puzzle in her classroom

My MRI results

As many of you know I have neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). This is a genetic disorder in which tumors grow on my nerve tissue..if you remember I posted a video of a precious little girl that was on the Today show for all of you to see.

Well lately I had been having a lot of headaches. What would be an inconvenience for most, is more than that for me. Frequent headaches for a person with NF does not automatically go to lower your stress level, wear your glasses more often, get more sleep, take a pill, etc. It automatically has to go to lets get an MRI to make sure nothing is happening in your head. I have become quite familiar with that big cylinder they call an MRI. (I hate being in tight spaces, but have found if I count the time I am in there off by minutes it makes it easier on me..might not work for everyone, but it works for me.)

I am very happy to report I have no tumors on my brain..not even a little one! (And that I now have more positive proof there is a brain up there!) There are a couple of little fibromas in the proximity my cervical spine..but they are very very tiny and of no concern. They are no where near pressing on anything.

I had one of my lumbar and sacral spine a couple of months ago. It was clear except some scalloping of the lumbar region. This basically means that little sac of fluid that everyone has around their spine - well mine is quite a bit bigger. I also have a slight scoliosis in that area..but both things are fairly common with NF1 and are of no danger to me. The doc even said that because of all that space I never have to worry about degenerative spine problems :) .

It turns out my headaches are just migraines after all, and I now have medication for that. Lack of sleep (imagine that with 3 kids 5 and under) and stress may make the headaches worse..but hopefully the preventative medicine will help.

I just wanted to thank everyone for their prayers that my results would come back good! Prayers were answered! Praise Him!

Savannah helps bake her Daddy's Birthday Cake

July 14th is John's birthday. He will be 35 this year. Savannah will be in Memphis with her grandparents and cousin on his birthday, so we had a birthday party for him this weekend. Savannah helped make the cake. Here are the pictures.

Pouring in the mix



Adding the water



Adding the applesauce (we substitute it for oil)




Adding the eggs (I did not let her crack them - just pour them in)



Using the mixer



We let it cool overnight, so she has a different outfit on now..but here she is putting on the frosting..



Here she is adding "sprinkles". As you can see she has already sampled the frosting..




Here is the cake



Here is Savannah giving the cake to Daddy

Savannah makes a pizza

Savannah helped make dinner tonight. We had pizza! (We cheated and used a pre made crust and spaghetti sauce)

Putting on the sauce



Putting on the cheeses







Putting on the meats (pepperoni and hamburger)





The finished Pizza before it was cooked



The pizza after it was cooked





Eating the pizza

In honor of the 4th of July

Savannah learned to say the Pledge of Allegiance in school. Here she is saying it. (She was shouting..turn down your speakers)

We celebrated the 4th by making a major purchase..

Fitting 3 kids into the 4Runner has not been an easy task. Poor little Caroline gets tortured by her well meaning big brother and sister, who are only trying to play with her. That is no longer an issue now as we are now owners of a 2005 Toyota Sienna. We are very proud of the mini-van and are very grateful for the room it affords us! There are seats and room for 8 people!

Here are some pictures:






Here are the front seats..


Here are the middle seats



The middle of the middle seats will slide up and put the baby in reaching distance of the front seats. The seats also will come out if needed. They also will fold over and make a table of sorts for the backseats.

here is a picture of the seat as a "table"






Here is the back row of seats. The back seats also fold under to make more storage/towing type space if needed.




Here is the storage behind the backseat.

A segment from the Today Show

This morning the Today show had a segment on a little girl with Neurofibromatosis (also called NF). The reason I am blogging about this is as many of you know I have this disease as well. Savannah inherited it from me. The other 2 children to do have any signs of it. The video gives a good explanation of it and this little girl is just precious!

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/31708691#31708691

Savannah's Birthday

Savannah had her 5th birthday party at Pump It Up. Here are some of the pictures.

The cake she picked our herself





Eating cake



The group of very tired kids








Playing