A little rewind

I had every intention of posting about Ava’s birthday last week but it got to be an insanely crazy week for me at work and I just didn’t have it in me when I got home.

Ava had a great sixth birthday. My older brother planned to be at my parents’ house the weekend of her birthday, as did most of my other siblings, so we went over there to visit. The night before her birthday and before we left, Zach had a game and was gone, and Reed came home from school feeling sick. After taking his temp and a vomit episode, I threw them into the car and went to urgent care. He had an ear infection and thankfully medicine helped him feel much better.

After that excitement, Ava wanted her annual last picture at age “X” at bedtime. I wonder how long she will let me take those! ;) 

Ava woke up super excited to be six and to celebrate her day!

Zach and I both took a half day off that day and picked the kids up at noon and then headed to OKC. It was such a great time seeing my siblings and especially my niece and nephew. The kids had so much fun playing together!

Walking to the park together

We celebrated a lot of birthdays that weekend. Ava’s was the 19th, my brother’s the 20th and then my sister, my niece and Reed all  had them coming up so we did them while we were all together. Ava got to do hers first since we were there on her actual birthday.

 

Aren’t these boys adorable?

Miss K enjoyed her smash cake!

I about died when my mom told me that Reed told her he wanted a Peppa Pig cake. The bakery had NO clue who Peppa Pig was so I emailed them a photo and they made it PERFECT! He was so happy!

Reed loves his birthday and he loves it when someone signs happy birthday to him, but he gets SO shy!    

We had a fun weekend celebrating lots of birthdays, visiting with people we don’t see often enough and just watching kiddos enjoying playing together!

Happy 6th Birthday, Ava!

Happy 6th Birthday to you, dear Ava!!!!

My precious baby girl! I cannot believe you are SIX. I think it every year, but the each year just go by faster and faster! There’s so much about you at this age that I just love! I want you to know some things about you at age 6:

• You are in kindergarten. And you are THRIVING! I’m so proud of you.
• You have lost 4 teeth.
• You still things that make us laugh and you still have words you say wrong: remote = camote; humans = humets (this is your daddy’s favorite); knife = ife
• You weigh 56 lbs and I only know this because you went to the doctor this past Sunday and were weighed.
• You have the sweetest heart and you are very protective of your family.
• One of your favorite things is laying in my bed with me on Friday nights.

I’m so proud of the little lady you have become Ava. You are so sweet and so fun! I’m grateful for you and for all you bring to our family! You’ve taught me so much more about life and myself the past six years and I am just so thankful God has blessed us with you as our daughter!

I asked you some questions to see what things you love this year and here is what you said:

1. Who is your favorite person in the whole world? Cassidy

2. What is your favorite color? Pink

3. What’s your favorite television show? Jessie

4. What song do you love? Roar

5. What’s your favorite food? Brownies

6. Who is your best friend? Paulina

7. What do you want to be when you grow up? A rockstar

8. What are you really good at? Math

9. Where do you wish you could go on vacation? Disney World

10. What is your best memory? Going to the beach

11. What would you buy if you had $1,000? Another American Girl

12. What vegetable do you hate the most? Green beans

13. If you could have a wish, what would it be? Losing all my teeth in one day

14. Who is your biggest hero? Uncle Nick

15. What makes you laugh? Seeing something funny on a movie

16. What are you afraid of? Earthquakes

17. What is your favorite toy? Barbie

18. What is your favorite snack?

19. What is your favorite drink? Pretzels with peanut butter and chocolate chips

20. What is your favorite movie? The Rugrats Movie

21. What makes you sad? Not seeing my parents anymore

22. What is your favorite place to go? To the American Girl Store

Happy Birthday, sweet Ava! Keep on being you!

Love, Mama

A visit to ACH

At the end of August, we had a check up for Reed at the NWA branch of ACH. The day of his check up was exactly ONE YEAR after his first surgery. I remember that day so vividly.

This follow up was eight months after his last surgery. Reed definitely knew what we were doing and he was a little skeptical.

When his doctor came in, he perked right up and then asked him if he flew in a helicopter there. He’s all about helicopters these days. The doctor laughed and told him no. He looked at him and examined his throat/neck and his scar.

He said that at this time, there is no evidence of his cyst having returned. MOST of the time, these cysts return within the first couple of months after surgery. The safe zone is usually around a year, so we are getting close to that. However, his doctor reminded me that with Reed’s complicated history of being a “problem child”, the statistics probably don’t apply in our case. He said Reed’s case has been anything but typical or textbook, so that he was hesitant to say we were in the clear. He also told me that since he last saw us, he had a case come up where someone came back to him with the cyst returning after TEN years. Crazy!!!

Our next step is to continue to monitor him and call them immediately if we find any lumps, bumps, redness or swelling. We’re very hopeful and optimistic that we won’t have any of that. If we don’t, then we will return to see them in a year. At that time, we will need to discuss the next surgery he needs. Because he had two surgeries so close together, and because they weren’t 100% sure, they weren’t going back in, there are three areas on his scar that didn’t heal nicely. At the ends of the scar, his skin comes together in what look like pointy dog ears. These have bothered me since he had his surgery so I was glad to hear his doctor address them. The skin was very thin and he said when they were in there, their main concern was getting as much cleaned out as they could. There is also a spot where the skin is very skin and has stayed pinkish in color. In probably two years, once we’ve more than likely reached a safe point, he’ll go back and have one more surgery to correct these scar issues. It will be an outpatient procedure but it will clean up the area, which I’m thankful for. Of course scars are just cosmetic, but with it being in an area so prominent on his face, I would rather get it corrected than to have him have to deal with it. The points are very noticeable and I don’t want that to ever be a source of embarrassment or give way to teasing for him. 

So, here we are. Now we wait (again). We are truthfully so thankful that he is healthy right now. I was actually looking back at some photos from around the times he had his surgeries, and I can’t believe I’d forgotten how BAD things got for him. There are a lot of photos I took to send to the nurses and doctor that I never shared publicly and it was so crazy to see those again. I know his situation wasn’t life threatening, but it pretty serious. It’s certainly not normal for a 2 year old to walk around with a hole in his chin! I’m just so grateful we’ve come so far and that we have a healthy little boy! I’m so very grateful to his team at ACH for their amazing care and support. We’re so blessed to have such phenomenal healthcare here in our little state!

A little girl’s dream – a trip to the American Girl store!

Ava has been talking about wanting an American Girl doll for well over a year. I wasn’t quite sure she was old enough when she first started asking. Over the last year, she has played with my sister’s old dolls and has played with them a lot, as well as taken very good care of them. So, after talking about it, we decided that this year, instead of having a friend birthday party, we would take her to the American Girl store in Dallas to pick out a doll and eat at the bistro! We also decided to leave her brother behind so the day was all about her. We waited and surprised her the morning we were going!

She was very excited about her adventure!!!    

We had one EXCITED little girl when we arrived!!!! 

We spent a lot of time just wandering around the store, looking at the various dolls and all the stuff that goes with them! :) Talk about little girl heaven!  

After wandering around for a while and debating the possibilities, Ava finally chose, Isabelle, the girl of the year!

As she has waited for a doll, one thing Ava has seen in the stores and in the catalogs, are the colored hair extensions the dolls can have in their hair. After she had chosen Isabelle, I saw on a display that Isabelle came with PINK hair and this was Ava’s reaction when I told her!

She was so anxious yet so patient while she watched the clerk put Isabelle’s hair extensions in for us!

And finally! She has her doll! 

Another thing Ava has wanted was to get her doll’s ears pierced. I’d told her a while back that if she wanted that, then she needed to use some of her piggy bank money to pay for it and she was all on board. So we headed upstairs to the “salon” so Isabelle’s ears could get pierced before our lunch reservation. 

While we were waiting to get the ears pierced, Ava just kept saying thank you, over and over again. It was so sweet!  

After waiting thirty minutes in line to get her ears pierced, we almost missed our lunch reservation. We got to the desk just in time! Ava was excited about getting to sit with her doll!

I have to brag on her daddy for just a minute. He drove with us the three hours and back on the first Saturday of college football, when the Hogs were playing Auburn. He never complained and was such a good sport about it!  

We had such a great time with our girl. She was just excited to be the center of attention and to do something so fun that she had really wanted to do! She was excited for lunch, though the lunch experience left some to be desired!  

While i knew we weren’t dining at a five start restaurant the food was quite awful. ha! And to make it worse, I had about two bites of my sandwich before i found two hairs in it. No, thank you! The manager came out to apologize and did offer us a free dessert which was the best thing we ate! ;)

It was seriously such a joy to see Ava so excited and so happy during during this day!!!!

I’m so thankful we were able to make this special dream come true for her!!!

An overdue catch up!

Well. A bit of time has passed since I last posted! We got wrapped up in back to school, work has been BUSY, and life has gone on! I have a few things to share this week to get us caught up. Do y’all know what happens this week? My baby turns SIX. That’s what. More on that later.

So when we left off, school had just started. Both kids have adjusted very well and easily to their new routines, new classes and new teacher. We are busy during the weeks, and  on some weekends, so the times we all get to be home together, we enjoy as much as possible!

One weekend in particular, after watching a million ice bucket challenges, Ava asked if she could do it. She was very serious about it and went through her list of nominations.   

August 25th was my 31st birthday and it was a very nice day. Lots of birthday wishes from so many friends and family and my sweet family going out of their way to make it special for me. Zach invited my mom to have dinner with us and she showed up with yummy cupcakes. Because of the stage of life we’re in (or that Reed is in), we typically don’t eat out much, and if we do, it’s somewhere like his favorite pizza buffet or Mexican where the food comes immediately and we can get in and out fast. On my birthday, they called me when I was about to get off work and Reed told me we were going to a “fancy restaurant”. :)

Reed also went for a follow up at ACH at the end of August. We got a good report and I will share more about his visit in a later post.

Ava’s top front teeth have been loose for quite some time, and one of them was literally hanging on for weeks. She was terrified to let us pull out. One Friday afternoon, I got a text from her teacher in the middle of the day and saw this!

Her teacher told me that she’d bit into a carrot stick and the tooth was hanging on for dear life. She told Ava that if she would pull it, she would buy her ice cream after school. Ava was apparently a little scared and apprehensive so her teacher told her not to worry about it. But Ava loves some after school ice cream, and when she went to touch it the tooth came out!

And about a week later, I got to after school care to pick her up, and she had just pulled the other one! She has a big hole in her mouth right now!

She is also having to have some dental work. At her last routine cleaning, x-rays showed she had some cavities. Apparently cavities in molars can spread to the teeth next to them if they are on the side of the tooth like hers were. So, instead of needing 4 fillings – she needs 8. She is also getting caps on some of her teeth. Yuck. She was really brave at her first appointment and did great. She has her 2nd round of 4 this week and we’re anxious to put another one behind us.

Reed is doing well, too. He had a few calm weeks but it seems his Dennis the Menace persona has returned with a vengeance. He is so funny and it’s hard not to laugh at all his antics. When he’s like this though, it reminds me what a precious sweetie he is.

The only other thing that’s been going on here is sickness! Almost two weeks ago, Zach came down with a really bad cough. He finally went to the doctor that Thursday and was diagnosed with bronchitis. While he was fighting this, I had a pretty horrific cold come on. By Sunday, I was coughing just like him. I improved some but never got fully better and then Ava started coughing. Yesterday after church, Zach went to school to work on some homework in quiet (it’s his last class for this session on top of a BUSY BUSY week), and I took the kids to the walk in clinic. Fortunately they opened at 9:00 and we were the first ones there and out in 40 minutes. Ava had a throat and sinus infection and mine was upper respiratory. I’m hoping we both feel better in just a couple days!

So in a nutshell, that’s what’s been going on with us!