Sunday Party

Our friends' daughter Maddison turned 5 today!!!  So we spent the majority of the afternoon enjoying her birthday party.......the girls had a blast.....as always at Maddie's house.

Here is the Birthday Girl

Here is a good pic of all the girls right as everyone got there

She opened her presents first.......here are the girls listening to a book that Maddie's Gpa and Gma got for her.  The book has their voices recorded on it.  So she gets to hear them read it to her.   Soooo precious!

I made Maddison a pillow for her room.  Her & Kennedy both have rooms decorated in butterflies.  We also gave her a cute bracelet w/ her name on it.  No pic of that though :(

Emery getting in on the present opening!

Then it was on to singing Happy Birthday and Cupcakes!

Then out to the pool for some wild fun

Happy Birthday Maddison!!!!!!

Graduation!

Kennedy graduated preschool on Monday the 16th.........for the 3rd time!!! This was her 3rd year of preschool so therefore it was her 3rd and final graduation.  She will be off to kindergarten in August........we'll talk about that another time. Not real sure what i think about that.  It's a little hard to swallow right now.  They are all growing too fast.

She will miss her teach Miss Dana soooo much.  Words can not describe to you how wonderful this woman is with children.  She has taught Kennedy sooo much.  It is amaaaazing.  She is even starting to do a little reading now!

Here are some collages of pics from graduation.  You can click on the collage to enlarge the pics to see them a little closer.

My parents and Grandma Marilyn were even able to make it!!! It was a long trip for Dad and I think it pooped him out but it was sooo good to have them there.  Dana's parents made it as well!!  Having everyone there really made for the perfect evening for our graduate.

Graduation wouldn't be complete w/o some grub afterwards.  Mexican was on the menu. Make your own tacos and burritos w/ all the fixin's!  And the favorite course of the evening..........SMORES!!!!

That Friday was her last day of school.  Here she is on her last day!!!!

HAPPY MONDAY =)

Wedding Weekend

Last weekend I had the privilege of being a bridesmaid in a friend's wedding.  I have been doing her hair for sometime now and her husband has worked with mine for almost 4 yrs.

I also did her hair, two of the bridesmaid's and mine for the wedding.

Here are a few of the pics I got

She wore zebra print heels under her dress!

You should have seen the bride's room at the church we got ready in.  It literally looked like an explosion......of makeup, clothes, hair stuff, bras........you name it, it was in there

I don't have any photos from the actual wedding seeing as how I was in it.  But here are some from the reception.

Daddy & Gentry busting their moves. Gentry was literally on the dance floor the whole night. I think this is our party girl........yikes!!!

Dana's Service advisor attended the wedding and was nice enough to snap this shot of us. You can see Emery's little head in the corner.  She's getting some hair!  Yea!!! Not so much on the sides though....still.

Garter!!!!

Bouquet Toss!!!

Congrats Alex and Lori!!! Hope you are having fun on your honeymoon!!!

Our Day From Down Under

Our Day Sucked
There's really no other way to put it
Miss Emery has been sick now since last week
Temperature since last Friday.
Took her to the doc Sunday.......Mother's Day
Got Meds........second round.......different antibiotic than the first
Temp disappeared for a short time and thought meds were working
HA! That's what ya get when you think........just don't do it

Wakes up this morning and temp is 102 degrees again....Gggrrr
Screaming......lots of screaming......won't stop screaming
My Poor Baby.........I know something is wrong......really wrong
Head to Immediate care @ Dr's office before they open
She gets to see her regular PCP.  Yea!!!

Long story short....she thinks she has Meningitis and tells us to go straight to St. Francis hospital to have a spinal tap done and they will be waiting for us when we get there
-Kennedy is at preschool and goes home with a friend.........thank you Shari and Jill :) We love you
-Gentry is with Emery and I
-Dana meets us there
-Get checked in to E.R. asap
-NO WAITING
-Attending Dr. says he would like to avoid spinal tap and eliminate some other things first

*They think she has a bad Urinary Tract Infection and extract urine.......comes back clean

*Worried about pneumonia and do chest x-ray.......comes back clear

*Worried about RSV and extract sinus fluid........comes back negative

*Do blood work.......takes 24 hrs so don't know anything yet

*Has "RAGING" ear infection as the Dr. puts it

*Decide not to do spinal tap b/c its major and Dr. isn't certain she has it

*Has a HUGE dose of some crazy antibiotic and fluids through I.V.

*Get sent home with new medicine

*Strict instructions to return to E.R. if she becomes lethargic

*Go see PCP again tomorrow

Basically we were told she was definitely sick.......but with what we don't know
Could be a bad virus
We are just hoping and praying she gets better soon
This is not our Sweet Little Emery and we want her back...healthy and happy

The pics are off of my phone so sorry for the poor quality

Sooo Behind

I am so behind on blogging

But I think you can understand

So here's a mumble jumble post

lots from the past few weeks

 We made a trip to visit Dad post surgery in St. Louis

The quilt at the foot of his bed was made by some wonderful ladies at the Methodist church back home. It's a prayer quilt.

He was able to come home friday!!! Yeaaaa!!!

However he is very weak.  It is going to be a slow process.  But he'll get there.

His pathology report came back. 8 of the 40 lymph nodes had cancerous cells in them.  So he will be doing chemo in Kansas City sometime in the near future.

He feels pretty crummy to say the least. He said it feels like he's been shot in the stomach about 5 times. Nausea is his biggest battle at the moment. Which of course comes with trying to introduce food again.  So keep up the prayers everyone.  You've been doing great so far.

The girls also made a trip to the dentist!

It was Gentry's first time!!!!! She did fairly well.  She actually laid on me in the chair.  As long as she was on me she was fine.

The girls love spending time with their Daddy out back in his shop.  Gentry told us she got her driver's license and that she is ready to drive Dad's old Trans Am. Watch Out!!!

And of course Mother's Day........

Always a big hype, but usually ends up being just like any other day.  I spent part of it in the dr.'s office with this one......ear infection........Ghhasssp!! Big surprise.  She's had a temp since Friday night and provided me with a full night of screaming last night. Hoping the meds will make tonight much easier.

Here we are watering the flower beds since it was in the 90's here today. The girls even swam in their pool out back for a good portion of the after noon.  CRAZY!

And yes

I am very aware that i need to get some sun on that skin

I am a bridesmaid in a wedding next weekend

My dress is hot pink and black.  It's going to look really great with that skin.......

Poor people

Dad Today!

Things are going well here in St. Louis. Dad is able to get up & walk the halls. They are wanting him to do it at least ten times per day. He was getting to drink an ounce of water per hour. But today they took all liquids away due to him being distended. He no longer has the tube that went up his nose and into his stomach. He has been able to get a lot more rest with out that irritating him. He also was able to get his catheter out! Belching and " the other " are what he is working on now. The belching provides him lots of relief from all of the gasious build up which at points causes him lots of pain. He had a hard time last night breathing b/c of it. Compared to the day after surgery though he is improving by leaps and bounds. He is in good spirits as well. The staples are a sight.....to say the least. He was cut from his sternum to way " down south "!

The camera somehow managed to be the one thing that was left behind. I've been taking pics with my phone & once I figure out how to load them onto my mom's iPad here I will post them.

Dad is extremely blessed through this whole thing. After his surgery was over Thursday the surgeon explained that they almost weren't able to go forth with it because they discovered his tumor had began to wrap itself around some major arteries. They decided to go forth and a had a team of vascular surgeons on standby. The whole thing took 8 hours. Dr. Strosberg was very happy with the outcome. He feels he was able to get all of the tumor but won't be able to guarantee that a cell wasn't left behind til the pathology report comes back. It should take around a week for that.

They said the pancreas is about the size of a small fish and they cut it's head off! They also removed his gallbladder, part of his liver and part of his stomach.

God had a plan for my dad last thursday....no doubt! My parents got here to check him in for surgery ( which was originally scheduled for May 11th but bumped up do to a cancellation....we thought!) & found out that the scheduler had made a big mistake and the other surgery had not been cancelled. It was a gallbladder surgery and the patient was a local. So Dad was able to be taken instead due to it being such a major surgery and having traveled a much longer distance. Had he not had the surgery til the original date scheduled he may not have been blessed with such a positive outcome.

So we are feeling so very positive this week. Thank you all for your wonderful thoughts and prayers. Keep them coming! My dad also has a caring bridge website if you would like to check it out.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/LarryThomas71