Mom's 50th Birthday Party

My cousin, Victoria, whom my husband thinks is an older version of Lakin... does any one else see it???
Lakin, leaving the park

Alexis and memaw's new pet, Molly
mom's sister, Mindy and her husband Bruce

her kind of ugly cake...hey, I tried!

mom, cutting her cake...( I guess you could have figured that out)

Don't you all LOVE Eric's glasses?? And look... jami has on NO makeup!!!!!!

not sure what she's doing here......

memaw, sharing her hand with Emma
Aleyah and Josh walking Molly

mom, after just seeing Vicky
Vicky, mom and Emma

Well...... she's made it...50. That means I'M getting old! My darling siblings and I had a surprise birthday party for our mom on Sunday at the park in Avon. I really think we pulled off the surprise part, she really didn't seem to know anything about it. The turn out was pretty bad, though. For everyone who didn't show...... poo poo on you! ( it's the nicest way of putting it) We had lots of food ( and lots of food leftover), and it all turned out pretty good. The chicken was really yummy ( but of course, it was prepared by yours truly), the fruit bowl was pretty( and mom got lots of fruit to bring home!), the potato salad got rave reviews, like always ( thanks Harry!), and all of the other things I slaved over(;), turned out well. I think the best part for mom was Vicky. The three of us put our heads ( and our Internet) together and were able to find a couple of old friends of mom's. Only one of them was able to make it, but that's okay. I think I heard one of them say it's been over 30 years since they had seen each other! It took mom a minute to realize who she was, but she figured it out, and it was fun! Mom said she just saw some strange woman holding Emma, and was trying to figure out who it was. What a surprise! They exchanged numbers and are going to stay in touch:) So it wasn't a complete loss! I wasn't able to get very many pictures:(, my youngest child decided she was going to have a screaming fit for most of the party, but here are a few. Happy birthday mom, we love you!! I am truly blessed to have one of the best mom's ever! You never fail to go above and beyond to make sure we are happy. Not to mention you are by far the best memaw ever! We love you soooooooo much and can never truly re-pay everything that you do for us... just know that you are appreciated and loved. Now, for a lighter note.... I just wanted to tell everyone about Lakin's little stripper moment at the park before the party. The girls were playing while we were waiting, and all of the sudden Lakin comes down the slide and stands up. I notice that she's doing her "potty dance", her legs crossed, her bootie out, sort of bouncing up and down. So I grab her hand and say " come on, hurry!", well, we didn't hurry fast enough. I look down and my feet are being splashed...yes..Lakin pee. Right there in the recycled tire bedding. I tell her to stop her pee( which is one of her new favorite skills) and we hobble to the bathroom, dripping a trail the whole way. We make it to the toilet, but not ON the toilet. She just finishes, right there on the floor in front of the potty. Fun. So now we are wet and stinky. We strip her in the bathroom and of course there are no paper towels, saving trees and all that, so I put her dress ( the extra one I brought) on her and we go and get some paper towels that we had brought for the party. After wiping her down, she thinks she's going to go right back and play. Well... mommy doesn't have any extra panties. Duh!! I had the foresight to call Vern and ask him to bring some, just in case, but of course he wasn't there yet. Lakin wasn't having anything to do with waiting to play until daddy got there, so she takes off right up the stairs and down the slide....oops!! She managed to fall ( after giving everyone a, if I must say, very cute rear shot, going up the ladder), and of course she has the legs fully spread..HELLO!! If you could have seen some of the other parents faces! Trying to look as if they didn't care, or it wasn't that funny, or embarrassing! They definitely didn't look at me! So I had to refuse to let her play any longer, and she moped, and pouted. Poor Lakin. However, we were saved by Dawson. I remembered that I had his suitcase in the car, so I got her a pair of his undies ( good thing he's so small!) and put them on her. The day was saved! I now have extra panties in my car and the diaper bag, which if I was a good mom, I would of already had. Hey, I suppose it happens to the best of us! Enjoy the pictures and the rest of your day!

Alexis

Aleyah

Lakin
Lakin

Aleyah

Lakin

Aleyah

Alexis

Hendricks County Fair

dawson, going into the something Shack
Me and Dawson on the crazy spinning ride

Lakin in her truck

Gavin, Lakin & Dawson in the spinning bears

Drive, Gavin, Drive....
He always poses...like mother like son???

ummm...whatcha lookin at Gav???

Lakin, just cruisin'

So, I'm back..... After leaving the hospital Saturday, we picked up McDonald's and headed back to mom's to feed the kiddies before going to the fair. Of course, Dawson is the only one that eats, but no real surprise. We head to the fair, park pretty close, buy bracelets, and start the night off by riding in boats. Well, the kids do, anyway. The kids rode all of the kiddie rides at least 4 times each, and amazingly, no tantrums, meltdowns, whineniness..yet. Then Dawson and I went off to ride the big rides. This age thing and spinning rides, just doesn't go well together. My stomach just isn't what it used to be. But, I survived and managed not to vomit all over any unsuspecting fellow riders. How bad would that suck? To be hit by fly-back puke while riding a ride, he-he. However, there was a boy who wasn't so lucky, and threw up twice while we were waiting to ride the ride that he was currently not really enjoying... sissy! (J/K, I feel ya brother!) Of course, the carnies idea of cleaning was to sponge up the puke with a black towel..yum!! That was it.. no bleach, Lysol, hand sanitizer... nothing. Gross, huh? We made sure to steer clear of that particular seat, but it makes you wonder..... anyway, that crazy kid ( Dawson, not pukey), just couldn't get enough of this spinning thing! " Go faster, faster, faster...this is awesome!", pretty much is what I heard, along with uncontrollable laughter. For one, my arms couldn't spin any faster, and my stomach couldn't handle it. Poor me:( two of the rides he was DYING to ride he wasn't tall enough for, so that sucks, maybe next year. Lakin tried the kiddie roller coaster and she was hooked! She couldn't get enough. I have a feeling she'll be riding the big rides before her brother is! My stomach better get tough fast, I guess. Anyway, I didn't get a bunch of pictures, but here are a few of the ones I did get, enjoy! Oh yeah, stupid foriegn girl burnt my funnel cake, dang-it!Gavin on the boats

Doesn't Emma look like she's having a blast?

Say cheese!

look, his legs are to long... funny

Ava update

not the best picture of me, but hey, they can't all be perfect:)

Did everyone have a good weekend? Mine was busy, but not to bad. I have three different events to blog about, thought I would just go in order of my weekend. First: Saturday afternoon, Vern and I took the kids to mom's and then we (and Dawson) went to the hospital to see Ava. Dawson was SO excited to see his baby sister for the first time! Unfortunately, the nurse came out and said that Dawson didn't have a 2nd chicken pox shot, and since he was over 6, he had to have it to go into the NICU. That sucks! He was SOOO... disappointed. This 2nd chicken pox shot is something neither of us had ever heard of, and obviously, isn't something that's required for school, since neither of the boys have had it. I asked mom about it, and she said it's something relatively new, and that it's not required, but recommended. But I guess the NICU can't take any chances, those are some little immune systems! So anyway, I got to hold AVA ( sing-song voice)!! and to correct my last update, they removed her chest tube, not her feeding tube. The little yellow tube in her nose is her feeding tube, which out of all of the little wires running off of her, is the only really vital, "you have to be careful", one. She is doing great!! She smelled new, like I knew she would.. I just wanted to bottle up the scent and take it home and put it on Emma! She stayed awake almost the whole time I held her ( she loves me already!). And her cry! So pitiful and funny at the same time! It wasn't even really a cry ( well, not compared to my children's lungs), more of a little uh-uh, waa-waa...to cute! It will get louder, probably already is by now, she was all hoarse, but it's still funny. I only held her for a little while, but Jami wanted to visit with Dawson for a little while. She got the hiccups right before I put her down, and she didn't like that at all! Basically she's doing really, really good! They put her in a crib yesterday, and she got to wear clothes! Jami got pictures, but I don't have any:( I'll let you guys know anything new!

Emma Grace

I just wanted to put these pictures of Emma up..... aren't they cute???? I think they are anyway. I tried to get her smiling, but in most of them she's doing her new favorite thing... chewing on her hands. She pretty much ALWAYS has her hands in her mouth, but she's got a couple of little teeth trying to push through her bottom gums already! She's handling it pretty well, but time will tell how that goes. Two days ago, I was worried because she wasn't really making any noise and wasn't holding up her head while on her belly. Well, since then, she's pretty much been constantly doing little oohh's and aahh's... so cute!! I can't get enough:) She's also TRYING to hold her head up for a few seconds. She does a lot of bobbing, but she's getting it. She's still not batting at toys, but I bet she'll be sitting up on her own really soon. She's doing SO well with that. She'll also probably be scooting with her head across the floor before she's able to actaully lift her head while on her belly:) Mom got her two little wrist rattles, and she's really into trying to look at them. That actually takes a lot of effort for my three month old! She hasn't figured out yet how to move her hand into position so she can see it yet, but if you do it for her, she really like them!! When her hands find her mouth, I think it's by accident. She doesn't have that whole " brain to arm thing" going yet. She'll figure it out soon! Anyway, enjoy the pictures! I'll have many more from the fair tomorrow, I'm sure!

snuck this picture of Marley in... he's cute too!

baby Ava

Well it's been awhile since I've updated everyone on Ava's condition, so I'll try to do it now. There are so many things every day, that I'm just going to touch on the basics. Basically she's been doing really well, a lot better than they anticipated. She's just moving right along in the " get better" wagon! Last Saturday night, she had a pretty scary episode while they were suctioning her out. Her heart rate dropped major, but they were able to get it all taken care of and everything turned out okay. I think it may have had something to do with the pain meds. she was on, but they switched her to a morphine drip. Until today, everything was moving right along! They took her off her ventilator ( which I can't wait to see, I haven't seen her whole face!), and she is doing really well without it. They were able to put her on her belly, and she tolerated it really well, which is a major improvement from before where even moving her head hurt her. They started feeding her through a stomach tube, so they aren't able to hold her, they don't want to dis-lodge the tube, but I think they were feeding her 5ml. over 12 hours, but now are up to 7ml.'s in 12 hours? I could be wrong on that. That really isn't very much at all, 5ml. is like a 1/4 of an oz. remember that's over a 12 hour period. Poor baby! Anyway, she seemed to be doing well with that, too. They did a dye test today, which is where they have her drink the dye so it shows up in a scan, to see if any of it was getting in her lungs. Unfortunately, it showed that there was some, but there is some getting to her stomach, too, so that's good. The nurse said she coughed a lot of it up, which is also good. Basically, it's like when we take a drink and it goes down the wrong tube, just with babies, it's a bigger deal to get in their lungs. They had said that if the scan didn't show anything, they would be able to hold her and I think they were going to try the bottle, but since it showed some in her lungs, I'm not sure what will happen,now. Jami will call me later after she talks to the doctor. Lets see, the "syndrome doctor" as Jami calls him, is going to check her over a Little better, but doesn't think she has any kind of actual syndrome. It's just one of those random things that, unfortunately, happened to Ava. The geneticist also assured them that it's not something that they have to worry about happening to another baby, if they get pregnant again. It's nothing hereditary. Like I said, a rare and random occurrence. Poor Ava, again! But it looks like Jami may have caught onto my baby bug, cause she's talkin like she doesn't feel done, either! We will have two more little pre-made BFF! Maybe this time they'll be boys ( I doubt it:)). Jami's doing okay, but she's in a great amount of pain. I am SO glad I haven't had to go through a C-section! Her boobs are hurtin now, too, so that sucks. She's swollen just about everywhere, even her ankles, excuse me cankles, so that sucks even more. Poor, poor Jami:( I feel for her on the cankles! Anyway, after i talk to her, I'll try to re-update everyone. Pray for little Ava!

A day at the zoo

Memaw, Lakin & Spongebob


Dawson & Spongebob
Lakin & Memaw, falling down in the desert

Lakin and a meercat..look close, you can kind of see how it's sitting like a human. All he needs is a beer,T.V. and remote
Gavin in the desertLakin, chasing some sort of lizard

RRRRRRR.........

Gavin on the carasoul

ooohh.. here comes a shark!
Dawson, following the 2 finger rules

she got it!

Lakin and Dawson REACH>>>>>

here fishy, fishy, fishy..... Gavin touching the SHARK!!!
dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah.... ( the jaws theme)
go ahead Lakin, touch it!

Oh, the Indianapolis Zoo..... Today was actually the perfect day for a trip to the zoo. The weather was wonderful! However, I think that every other person currently in central Indiana, had similar feelings. I knew that it would be busy, but this was ridiculous! Every camp group, church, YMCA, large Mexican clusters, etc... were there today. Big brothers and Big Sisters, wonderful idea, but not as a bus load to the zoo. I thought that was like a one-on-one thing? And I have nothing, NOTHING, against people of color ( that's politically correct, right?), but when you get, like, two bus loads of kids between the ages of 8-14, supervised by more kids between the ages of 14-17...... OMG!!! Ever want to see what happens when you push a whole bunch of kids into the lions cage??? I mean seriously. How much sense does it make to let kids be in charge of other kids? Not one adult with the whole group. There was actually one group with two girls as the leaders, walking in front, each sharing an ear piece to a MP3 player. Umm, does anyone see the problem with this? All they cared about was the music, not about the little gangsters(J/K) running around behind them. That, of course, was just one of the many large groups joining us for a fun day of animal sight seeing. There was also a camp David? Didn't realize they existed, Jewish, maybe? The little boys had those little hat things on their heads, that's Jewish, right? Anyway, there were a lot of them, too, but they at least were well behaved and led by adults. At least someone ( other than me) has some sense. So we start off at the oceans, but quickly detour because the line was a tad crazy. Head to the Sea Lions and Seals, which I really enjoy, but who weren't making any noise. That's okay, I did it for them. I really do a great impression. The kids enjoyed it, they are to young to be embarrassed by me yet, someday:) Then on to the Walruses. or Walrus. I think last year there were two, but maybe they just fused together to make one giant one. This thing was a monster!! The glass was pretty dirty and the beast wasn't really interested in swimming. Then the workers lured him away so they could clean the glass. You would think they would do that after 5:00? We walked through the aquarium, you know, the part where the dolphins can swim over you?, but there was a show starting, so there were no little fishies. Then we found a potty and watched some monkeys. Then of course we had to buy tickets for the new Spongebob 4-D ride. Oh, yeah, no regular 3-D for us! and the roller coaster, and the pony rides, and the carousel... We all did the Spongebob thing, which was pretty neat ( I don't think mom and Lakin liked it much, it was pretty jerky), Gavin was cracking up the whole time. I looked over at one point, and Lakin was just slipping right out of the seat. Oops!! Memaw was really into the flying, runaway pickle. Mommy saved the day! I suppose the drop wouldn't have been to awful, but not fun for Lakin, I'm sure. I guess that's why under 38" has to be sitting with an adult. ( which she was, just not with super observant mommy). Then off to the rollar coaster for me and Dawson, which was " totally awesome", in Dawson's words. Then we were off in search of giraffes, hoping to feed them, but being 30 minutes to early ( we missed our dolphin show, BTW, Lakin didn't want to go). On to the Hippos, which we got a nice rear view of, then more Zebras ( did I forget to mention zebras earlier?) , the pink bottom monkeys ( which Gavin really enjoys), the elephants ( which I think are boring), the sleeping kangaroos, and the bird cage, where all of the kids got to feed the birds and mom got pooped on. They really liked that ( the feeding, not the pooping).

By this time, Gavin was VERY antsy about the gift shop....Lakin had already picked out what she wanted at one of the little booths, but I convinced Gavin to wait until we got to the gift shop. Lakin got her "noculars", which she decided one day last week that she " really needed". ( Binoculars, by the way) It also came with a "spy glass" which she is going use to watch the airplanes at memaws. Somewhere before all of this, we went into the desserts, which was REALLY crowded with before mentioned thugs ( j/k again). So it was really hard to actually see anything. The snakes were a hit for Gavin, though by this time Lakin had to potty, so we sort of rushed through them. Speaking of potty... the bathrooms there could use a little work. I thinksomeone miised the toilet entirely and just peed right on the floor in front of it, instead. This of course is the stall that I get. So here I am, trying to hold up my pant legs so they don't get infested with stranger urine, change Maxi Pads cousin, Panty Liner, and kind of sort of hold myself off the seat ( which failed, I would rather save my pants). Then,there is no toilet paper. Of course there isn't. So it's the shake, clench, shake method today. Anyway, enough about my bathroom break, just trying to hit all the stops:) After the bird cage, I believe we went over to the petting area, but that line was REALLY long, too. ( good, it always smells real bad in there). On to the carousel, then to get something cold to drink along with some candy bars for all the kids ( after waiting in line behind behind all of our pals from the hood j/k, again). Then came the forests, which included the tiger, more monkeys, bald eagle, the new koala exhibit ( let me tell you, THAT was exciting..(yawn) ) , and then out of the forest. We ( well, I) wanted to go back through the oceans since we vetoed it before, and this time it was perfect. Hardley anyone was there. Note to self: always visit Oceans at end of trip. We went straight to the shark petting pool, which is a favorite of mine. The boys stuck their hands right in and started touching, the sharks were being very friendly. It's almost like they WANTED to be touched. Lakin was hesitant at first, but after that first touch, she was hooked! The anoncer said they were closing in 20 minutes, so we had to drag Lakin, who was suddenly wearing pants with bricks in them, away from the sharks ( but she did get a shirt that said " I touched a shark at Indianapolis Zoo"). Then it was on to the gift shop and then to the car. It was a pretty good zoo trip, I think. The kids acted like they enjoyed the animals more this year ( except for Dawson who informed us every 10 minutes he was tired of walking), so we spent more time at each area, actually LOOKING at the animals. Anyway, here are the pictures ( well some, I took about 200! but deleated quite a few), enjoy our trip to the zoo. I'm sure you would all have rather been there than at work, he-he!

Aren't the Lemurs C-U-T-E!!!!Dawson, looking at something in the desertCarasoul time!!I forgot to mention earlier that we fed the ducks for about an hour. Not exagerating. We could have saved a lot of money and went to a lake and fed the ducks for free! These ducks are pretty comfortable around humans though, they were eating right out of the kids' hands! The turtle even took food right from mom's fingers. Of course, we had to go and buy crackers just for them , but they had fun with it. Next time I know to just go find a pond with some hungry duckes in it!DawsonLakin, duck watching

Lakin, Dawson, and Gavin