Cheap fun!

With 100 degree weather this past weekend... it was hard to go wrong with water fun! The kids had a blast with an overpriced blow-up pool that took Glenn and I way too much time to blow up!






They had a blast! I even took a dip! :)

An overdue update!

To be quite honest, I have been having a hard time with keeping up with my blog. Life has been pretty full...

Daniel did amazing with his surgery in April. He had no regrowth of the cholesteatoma! The surgeon was able to rebuild his inner ear bones. We still do not know how well he will be able to hear at this point. He will have a audiology exam in a couple months to determine the level of hearing in the ear. The only real concern the doctor seemed to have was that Daniel has mucous in his ear. His ear does not drain properly. This will probably cause some hearing problems, because the treatment for this problem is to put tubes in... Daniel is not a candidate for tubes... due to his cholesteatoma...sooo... we shall see!

Naomi saw her surgeon today, and she is schedueled to have surgery on July 2nd. She will be having a lip revision and a new set of tubes placed in her ears. The doctor feels that he can improve her ability to use her upper lip, while also improving the look of the scar that she has. Right now, she has difficulty making her lips into a "o" and this should help her with speech!

I am really looking forward to summer... hopefully some more free and easy time. We have planned our first camping trip with the kids in June! I are really looking forward to that! We are trying to focus on simplifying our lives... funny how as soon as we started to do that in January... it seemed that anything that could happen to complicate our lives...has happened. So here I am, in the middle of May, getting through it all...one day at a time! These precious kids keep Glenn and I laughing and constantly chasing after one of them!


Last time we played with shaving cream... it was inside the house, on a rainy day... OUTSIDE is so much more fun! It ended up everywhere... and we just hosed it all off! :)



This is Daniel doing his impression of the Atlantis launch from Monday! He was quite impressed with the Space Shuttle launch!

Wanna ride?

Daniel is having his surgery this Friday at UC Davis. His surgeon will be opening his ear back up to see if there is any regrowth of his cholesteatoma. If it is clean inside, he will reconstruct Daniel's inner ear bones that were removed last October. If the cholesteatoma has come back, he will clean it up again and close him up and we will have to wait another 6 months to try the reconstruction.

Daniel is a trooper... he loves all the medical stuff... quizes his doctors and has them laughing every time we see them! We are eager to get this behind us so Daniel can begin to hear again in his left ear! If you think of us on Friday, could you say a little prayer for my sweet boy?

Feeling refreshed!

Happy Easter! We spent our Easter Sunday in Sonoma, with family! It was a beautiful day! We also spent the week before Easter back home with my parents... but I didn't pick up my camera one time! I will have to swipe some pictures from my mom of the fun we had!






It is good to be back on my blog! :) We have lots going on here! I will slowly try to update!

Taking a break...

Today is Ash Wednesday. I have been reflecting on what I will be "giving up" for lent... My mom always told me, part of giving up something for Lent, is to not go all "public" about what you are sacrificing and why... So without going into all the details, and as part of what I am doing, I will be taking a break from the "bloggy" world for the next 40 days. Some of you, my bloggy friends are going through some very BIG times! I will be sure to check in on you! My hope is that the next 40 days will be a time of great growth...

(almost) "Wordless Wednesday..."

Naomi, so little and so strong,  at 16 months old... in China.

Naomi a little over one year later!

She really does leave me speechless....

She is amazing! So, I am changing the song on my playlist... back to the song we have on our travel journal... "Amazing" by Janelle. Listen to the words of the song... they are beautiful, as is our Naomi!

I knew I couldn't post this with out any words! :)

Rainy day fun...

We had an "indoor" car wash! 

Warm water, dish soap and as many Hot Wheels as Daniel and Naomi could grab! 

Daniel thought the turkey baster was cool!

The more bubbles... the better! Actually... the further the bubbles flew... the better! :)

Broccoli...

This is Naomi's "Don't even think about touching my broccoli!" look.

And you better believe... she will eat, quite impressively, I might add, every last bite! :)

...even if it takes two hands to get it in!

...and a fancy head dip...

She goes absolutely nuts over broccoli! She would choose to eat it over just about anything! Gotta love a healthy and animated eater!

Happy LOVE Day!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love, Snow White & Darth Vader

Serious,messy,fun!

What started out as a good idea... a can of shaving cream,a cookie sheet, some tractors and a friend over to play... turned into a GREAT idea!! How can you NOT have fun doing this...

The kids had a blast! The shaving cream lasted IN the cookie sheet for about 30 seconds!

Daniel, at one point, was going to try to climb ON the table... that is where I had to draw the line! :)