Riley's Birthday FUN!

Riley had a really fun birthday and it just happened to fall on a day that she was going to preschool. She picked out her birthday cake dress (and panties) and we made pink cupcakes with sprinkles to take as a treat. She was so excited to tell her teacher that it was her birthday. When I picked her up she had a special hat on that she got to wear for the day since it was her birthday!


We decided to wait until that Saturday to actually celebrate her birthday (it was on a Thursday) so we'd have a little more time together on a weekend day. We decided to take her miniature golfing for the first time, then to ice cream, home for dinner, cake and presents. Riley did a great job golfing and had a lot of fun. Lincoln, on the other hand, about drove me crazy. Lets just say we won't be doing it again until the kids are a little older. This picture kind of sums up how the afternoon went: Ty and Riley having a good time, playing the game how it's suppose to be played while Lincoln was running around like a wild child.


Since I decided to forgo having a big birthday party for her, like I normally do, I let her pick out a cake that she would like me to make. She chose Tinkerbell and here she is (this was kind of a difficult cake to do--if I messed up at all, I would have probably made her look cross-eyed).


Riley opening all of her gifts. She gots lots of goodies: Jessie from TS3, Littlest Pet Shop stuff, crafts, a bean bag, too much to list...she and Lincoln have been occupied for a long time with these new toys. Next year we may do a "friends" birthday party for her, but since she didn't care and didn't really notice it was nice to do something low-key with just the 5 of us!

Happy 4th Birthday, Riley!!

A Trip to the Dentist...

Friday, Riley and Lincoln both had their first dentist appointments. It was weird taking them to a different dentist other than my Grandad or Uncle Neal, but we found someone down here we like. However, I always mention that my Uncle and Grandad are dentists, just so they know they better do a good job or else... :)

I had told Ri in the morning she would be going and right away she said, "but I don't want to go". Great. I knew it was going to be a struggle with her if she already was saying she didn't want to go. We got there, they took Riley back and she started freaking out (like she ALWAYS does when she does anything new). I asked Ty very nicely to please, please, please come with me (ok, maybe I begged) because I really didn't know if I would be able to take all three kids by myself when I knew Riley would not do well. Thankfully he met us there and she was able to sit on Ty's lap, as I had Emmersyn in the Moby Wrap, and was chasing Lincoln everywhere. Most of the time was spent trying to pry Riley's hands from her clenched mouth. Once she finally relaxed she did wonderfully.

I had taken Lincoln out of the room because I didn't want it to scare him. But once it was his tuen he, too, sat on Ty's lap and didn't want anything to do with the hygenist but he didn't freak out and there were no tears. Both kids had no cavaties and he said the spacing between their teeth looked good. I am thankful that Emmersyn slept in the Moby the entire appointment and I am thankful I don't have to take them back for 6 months :).
**I told Dr. B to smile because he was about to make his debut on my blog...so he did :)! Cool guy.

Afterwards we rewarded them (and ourselves) with Chick-Fil-A!

Dinner Time with Lincoln...

usually looks a little something like this...

"Ahhhh...finally somthing I could live off of, bread and cookies!!"

Summersville Lake

We didn't really go anywhere this entire summer, because frankly it was too difficult for me. I couldn't move when I was HUGE/pregnant and then we had a brand new baby who I didn't want to take out too much. However, we wanted to at least make one little trip before the summer came to an end. Last weekend we decided to take a day trip and head to Summersville Lake in West Virginia. We had heard awesome things about this lake and wanted to experience it for ourselves. One of the main things it is known for is the Gauley River. The Gauley River is very well known for its white water rafting. Each year in the Spring and Fall the Lake is drained causing awesome rapids in the river. They only have white water rafting for a few weeks each season, but people come from all over the world to experience it. (Ty may be going in a few weeks, too. Wish I could, but one of us has to stay home with the kids :))

Anyways, we did not know all of this at the time of our day vacation. When we got to the Lake we realized they had already started to drain it. So the beach was empty (which was great, we had the whole thing to ourselves most of the time) and the lake level was down a couple of feet so we weren't able to just walk right into the water. We had to walk down a little "hill" to get to it, but we didn't care. The kids had a blast making sand castles, burying our feet in the sand, swimming and throwing rocks into the lake.

Who knows how long we'll live in West Virginia so I am glad we were able to see one of the many tourist attractions while we're here! It was weird going to the beach in late September, in MI it's usually mid-60 but it WV today it was 85 degrees! That is definitely one aspect of WV I could get used to!!

Speaking of the WV climate, my poor kids look like they haven't seen the light of day by the color of their skin. I lather them up so well that they won't get burned and I suppose I would rather them be pasty white than get a sun burn. However, my husband does not listen to me as well as my kids do though because when I told him (multiple times) to put sun screen on he decided "not to obey" (Riley's words--not mine:)). The poor guy burned to a crisp. I have mentioned it before but he goes from white to red then back to white. I am afraid my kids got his skin color and not mine. Maybe next time he'll listen to me :)!

Summersville Lake (only part of it--it's HUGE) I wish pictures would do it justice, but they just don't. It was absolutely stunning!!

Took this picture just for my Dad. Here's the Gauley River. Since my Dad has a few weeks off of work they may come down and visit, he wants to white water raft while he's here. However, I'm pretty sure it's probably not a very good idea just weeks after brain surgery. :)

OUCH!

PRAISE!!

What an answer to our prayers! My Dad went back to NorthWestern today to get his pathology results and for the doc to check him out. The results came back that the tumor was BENIGN! What a relief, we couldn't have had things go any better than they did and we are SO thankful. Thank you all for praying, I have no doubt the Lord heard our prayers!

For more info, check out my sister's (Kasey and Corey link on my side bar) blog for more info. I have to go feed Emmersyn--she acts like she might starve if I don't feed her THIS SECOND :).

Emmersyn @ 2 Months

Emmersyn turned 2 months old yesterday. She also had her 2 month doctor's appt. where she got 3 shots. We found out, there, that she weighs a whopping 14 lbs. 1 oz. (off the charts--big) and is 23.5 (between 50th and 75th %ile) inches long and her head is 39 cm around (off the charts--big). It will be interesting to see how she grows compared to how the other kids grew. R and L were really big as newborns too and were almost off the charts until about 3-4 months old, then slowed down so much so that they only gained about 2-3 lbs. from 3 months to a year.

Emmersyn LOVES her tongue! She is constantly sticking it out and "chewing" on it, she also found her thumb a few days ago (09.17.10) which she is starting to suck on. It will be interesting to see if she ends up sucking her thumb or taking a pacifier!

She still likes to be held all the time, but is starting to get a little better about falling asleep on her own (doesn't have to be rocked all the time) which has been nice because it's difficult to hold her all day. She does spend a significant amount of time in the Moby Wrap still. I swear she'll never roll over, she's never put down long enough! She is also sleeping a little better at night. Still waking up twice to eat, but always goes down right after she eats. Doc says she might continue that longer than the average baby since she's so big and needs to eat more often (she eats every 3 hours during the day and about every 5 at night).

As difficult as having a newborn is, I LOVE it! She is such a fun and smiley baby! I cannot believe she's already two months old. Before I know it she'll be crawling everywhere!

A few pictures from the last month:

**Cute story of the day: I took all three kids with me to Emmersyn's and Riley's doc's appt. yesterday and when the nurse was giving Emmersyn her shots Lincoln looked at the nurse, pointed his finger and said "Go Away...You're not nice". I didn't know if I should have been horrified that my two year old would say that to someone or glad that he was sticking up for his baby sister?!!

"My Best Friend's Wedding"

Last weekend, one of my best friends (Kristin) got married and I had the opportunity to stand up in her wedding. I flew back to MI with Emmersyn to spend this special weekend with Kristin and her fiance, Drew. Kristin and I met in college when we had a Genetics class together. We were partners for mating fruit flies. We must have done more talking than working beacuse I'm pretty sure I got the worst grade on that project than anything else in college (although, I'm still blaming the professor). I am so glad we've kept in touch over the past few years and she's one person I can talk to every day or only once a month and we pick right up where we left off--I think it's so important to have great friends like that and I'm thankful she's on of those friends!

Her wedding was beautiful and so was she. My mom came to the rehersal with my to watch Emmersyn and my step-mom, Jamie, came with me to the wedding since I needed someone to watch the baby while I got my hair done, walked down the aisle and was at the rehersal. I was SO thankful to have them both there to help. Emmersyn was very good, but it still would have been difficult to have done it by myself.

Congrats Kristin and Drew!!

First Day of Pre-School

My first born is growing up and as much as it breaks my heart to know she's getting older and will soon be in school full-time, I am happy for her. Riley started pre-school last Thursday at a private school down here. She will be going every Tuesday and Thursday for three hours a day. As you know, I had gone back to MI to be with my Dad on Wednesday so I was unable to take her to her first day of school. I cannot express how sad I was not to be able to take her, but I knew I needed to be in MI and that was more important at the time.

I had been preparing Ri that she would be going to school soon and everytime I'd ask her if she was excited to go she respoded with "I don't want to go to school, you are going to miss me too much". Ha. I thought that was funny, not that she would miss me, but that I would miss her. As much as I have missed her the past week it has been nice to spend more time with Lincoln and only having two kids to do errands with! (And here I thought taking two kids grocery shopping was tough. That was before I had three! Grocery shopping with two now seems pretty easy!!)

Since I knew I was going to be gone I had layed out Riley's new outfit, shoes, hairbows, and backpack. I called that morning to wish Riley off and to let Ty know that I put her hairbows with her dress but that if he didn't want to worry about doing her hair not to worry. He then proceeded to tell me that he had already given her a bath, blow dried her hair, CURLED IT AND put her bows in! To say that I was impressed would be an understatment. Ty is such a good dad! I was afraid to see the pictures of her because Ty did her hair, but it looked great :)!!

Off she goes...

Putting her backpack in her "locker"!

Riley standing outside her school!

Surgery Update

My Dad arrived in Chicago Tuesday night and headed to NorthWestern early Wednesday morning for his surgery. He had to be there around 5am and had another MRI before the surgery. I don't know all the details quite yet, but I know the important part: the surgery went VERY well. The surgeon was able to remove the entire tumor and he does not feel like there will be any motor skill deficits as an effect of the surgery either! What an answer to our prayers! Today, Dad is still in the ICU but I was able to speak to him briefly this morning! What an awesome thing it was to speak with him and know that he's doing well. What a relief. He will be in the hospital for about 5 days, while there they will biopsy the tumor to determine if it is benign or malignant. Lets pray it is benign!

Thank you all again for your thoughts and prayers. I know God has heard them all and the support has meant a lot to me and our family!

Shocking News:Update!

UPDATE: My Dad will be having surgery on Wednesday, Sept. 15th at Northwestern in Chicago. I was SO glad to fly home and see him before the surgery and am hoping to fly home again next weekend to see him in the hospital. My sister, Kasey, posted on her blog more details about everything, if you want to read it go to her blog here. Thank you all for the continued prayers.

__________

I don't even know where to being this post. My Dad was diagnosed with a brain tumor on Friday and may be having brain surgery to remove the tumor this coming Friday (either this Friday or next). To say that I am completely devastated would be an understatement! I am flying home with Emmersyn this afternoon so I can see him before the surgery and to spend some time with him. I can't wait for Emmesyn to meet him, too!

I normally wouldn't post family "stuff" on my blog, but in doing so I am hoping that people will join together and PRAY for him. I know our God is a healing God and I truly believe He can do anything. I'm not sure I've prayed this much ever and I'm hoping you all will join with me. I am so sad that my Dad has to go through all of this, but he is strong and is a fighter! Please pray for him, for me and for the rest of our family!

My 3 Little Loves!

When I took this picture of Emmersyn at 6 weeks...
it made me think of this picture of Lincoln at 6 weeks...

then for good measure here's also a picture of Riley at 6 weeks, that way she's not left out :)...

Swagbucks: Start Searching!!

Have you all heard of Swagbucks? I know I've mentioned it to some of my friends that read my blog, but if you haven't heard of it it's AWESOME! This is definitely not a plug for Swagbucks, I just can't contain my excitement! I signed up for it in March of this year (6 months ago) and have already earned $275.00 in Amazon gift cards (and I've used many of the the gift cards, so I KNOW its a legit site)!! I'm saving up to use most of them for Riley's birthday and Christmas (plus I'm sure I'll earn more before then!) Anyways, other than using coupons this is another way I "earn" money! Just thought I'd pass on the info and help you save $$ too :)! Here's a little information about it:

You sign up HERE, download the toolbar, and use the Swagbucks toolbar or homepage to search (instead of using Google or yahoo, etc.) for anything you normally would search the Internet for! Once you start searching you can "win" Swagbucks randomly and your points will start adding up. Plus, you can also earn 1 swagbuck daily by heading over to "Special Offers" section. Just go to Swagbucks Homepage, click on "Ways To Earn", in the top left, then click on Special Offers and click on "View Our No Obligation Offers and WIN Swag Bucks" on the right. Once you get to this page, it will state "Welcome to Swagbucks Special Offers. Sign up for the free money-saving offers you like, feel free to skip the rest, and find a special Swag Code reward at the end". Then, skip ALL the offers by clicking the skip button or the See Next Offer button beneath the advertisement. After about 4-7 pages of clicking you'll earn 1 Swag Buck.

Additionally, you can earn Swagbucks for doing the "Trusted Surveys"! All you have to do is click on the Trusted Surveys link at the top of the page under "Ways to Earn" where you will also earn 1 Swagbuck and have the opportunity to do surveys for HIGH value Swagbucks. Plus, you can also answer the daily "poll of the day" to score 1 swagbuck! You can do all 3 of these things daily to earn swagbucks. (Also if you have the toolbar you get 1 swagbuck just for signing in).

And finally, if you really want to rack up your swagbucks quickly, then go to the "Special Offers" section and click on "Sign Up For Limited Time Offers And Earn Swagbucks". There are SO many special offers you can sign up for and receive swagbucks. Most of them are free (I ONLY do the free ones) and just require your name, email, etc.

Also, it only takes 450 Swagbucks to earn a $5 Amazon Gift Card (you can also redeem your Swagbucks for MANY other gift cards or items if you want)! If you have any questions I'll answer then in the comments section and if you want to sign up go HERE and start winning FREE MONEY--it costs nothing and you'll get 30 bucks just for signing up!!