Forever Young: June 2012

Fathers' Day

Fathers' Day starts out pretty much the same every year. We eat a quick breakfast of cinnamon rolls before Todd has to head out to church.

Todd has to leave early for church, so the kids are just waking up with their lovely bed hair!

After church we took Daddy to one of his favorite restaurants - Buffalo Wild Wings!

The kids pooled their money together to get Todd a video game that he wanted.

And Bekah decided she needed Princess Leia hair for the special occasion!

We love you Daddy!!

Happy Anniversary!

On June 17th, Todd and I celebrated 17 years of marriage! Since Grandma was in town, we were able to go out and celebrate while she stayed home with the kids. Todd surprised me and took me to the English Grill at the Brown Hotel. We both enjoyed a hot brown from the place they originated! We even got free dessert since it was a special day! (We had to ask for the dessert to go since we had to make it to our next stop on time.)

After dinner, Todd took me to The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts to see Andrew Lloyd Webber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat! The show was very entertaining, and we both enjoyed it!

After dinner we snuck our dessert into Wendy's and took advantage of their FREE coffee offer and had coffee and cake before heading home.

I am very blessed to have a husband who loves God and me and our family very much!

Lego Party!

Brandon celebrated his birthday with a Lego birthday party!

Having lunch before the party.

Playing with Brandon's huge Lego collection.

We had a contest to create the most creative vehicle! Then they had a contest to see whose creative vehicle could actually roll the farthest!

They played a Lego chopstick game to see who could pick up the most Legos using only chopsticks!

Then it was time for cake. Yes, those are Lego bricks. We were fully prepared to get a cake from Wal-Mart, but Brandon said he would gladly eat ugly Legos!

Present time!

Who can build the tallest free standing tower?

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They played a game where each boy added 3 or 4 pieces and this is what they created. Now, they just have to figure out what it is!

The Lego boys! I think everyone had a good time!

Karis

These photos were taken during Brandon's birthday party. Karis is such a happy little girl most of the time! I'm so glad we're able to catch some of her smiles on camera now!

Brandon is 12!

On June 15th, our boy turned 12 years old! We are so thankful that God blessed us with this special guy!

Waking up to the decorations!

This year, Grandma got to be with us for his special day!

Yay for new Lego land! Brandon's friend, Asa, had spent the night so he got to share in the birthday celebrations with us!

Everyone wants to see what it is!

It must be something good!

Brandon wanted to spend the day at home playing, so that's what we did! He chose pancakes with peanut butter chips and sausage links for breakfast. He chose peanut butter and honey sandwiches and pineapple for lunch and pizza for dinner. He wanted to watch The 3 Stooges (the old black and white ones), so we did that and he laughed and laughed! We also watched his new Phineas and Ferb movie that he got for his birthday! Fun times!

Summer Fun!

The kids enjoyed an afternoon of water fun while Grandma was in town visiting us! They made water balloons and played in the sprinkler on a hot day!

Grandma's legs made it into the photo!

Karis was "painting" the deck. She still prefers the squatty potty position!

She's learning to smile for the camera!

Karis's MRI

Yesterday we took Karis to the Children's Hospital to have an MRI of her brain, neck, complete spine, and pelvis. Her pediatrician was concerned about tethered cord syndrome. We took her in very early in the morning which was nice since she wasn't allowed to eat or drink beforehand. They gave her an oral medication to make her very sleepy and she was really sweet at first when she started getting sleepy, but then she just started crying. I'm not sure if she was just scared or felt strange or what exactly was wrong, but she just cried and cried. They came in while she was in that drowsy state and took about 10 vials of blood to check for about 30 different things. Since we have no history on her, the pediatrician is hoping to get a better picture of her health by checking her blood for all those things. After they drew blood, they gave Karis an IV and then they wheeled her away for the MRI. It was really hard to see her go through all that crying and to see her wheeled away crying. They assured us that they gave her some medicine in her IV that knocked her out and that she was fine during the MRI. They brought her back to us about an hour and a half later and she was zonked! It didn't take her too long to wake up and she wanted something to drink. She also kept trying to sit up and get out of the bed! When the nurse took off her monitors and Karis got to get in BaBa's arms, she was much happier! She was very floppy and the nurse said she'd be like a newborn for a while! We got her dressed and carried her to the car and then she realized she was hungry and began the crying again until we were able to get her some food. The nurse recommeded soft foods for the first few hours so we opted to stop and get her a milkshake which she seemed to thoroughly enjoy! Then we had to stop and pick up Brandon and Bekah who had been staying at a friend's house. By the time we were home, Karis was ready to eat real food and play! The Dr. mentioned that she might sleep 3 to 6 hours once we got home, but Karis had no interest in sleeping! She layed down in bed a few times, but she never closed her eyes!

This was before the MRI when she was just starting to get drowsy!

And this is when they brought her back to us.

Today we talked with our pediatrician and she said the MRI was normal!! Karis's issues with walking funny and hunching are just a result of being institutionalized for her first 7 years. We are very hopeful that her issues can be corrected with physical therapy and just living an active life with our family! We already see so much improvement in just the 2 months that she has been with us. They did spot a pineal cyst on her MRI but the pediatrician didn't seem too concerned about it. They'll have a neurosurgeon look at it and decide if we need to do anything further about that. We are praising God for this great news!

Young Family Photo

On Memorial Day we were able to get a family photo of Todd's parents and his siblings and the kids! It's been a long time since we had taken a family photo, so we were due for one! We are thankful God has blessed us with a wonderful family!