California Trip: Post #2 – Disney Day 1

I love Disneyland. If you read the last post you probably figured that I was exaggerating about a lot of pictures. Here is Disney on our first day and we did a lot of other stuff, other than Disneyland. I still have a lot more posts to go.

California Trip: Post #1 - Jedi training

Today was interesting. We took Derek to the emergency room because, after being kicked in the eye, he was crying blood. It kind of freaked me out but luckily everything is OK. The sad thing is the ER Doc. remembered Amy. It’s not a good thing when you are known in the ER.

We've just returned from a vacation to California. I needed to attend E3 (a conference for work) so we took a couple of extra days and made it into a family vacation. We took a lot of pictures; maybe too many. However, I’m still going to post a bunch. I will break them up into a bunch of smaller posts. Here is post number one. . .

Never A Dull Moment

So this is the post to catch up on the last couple weeks of our life. We are heading for change - Brandon's weekly Motor Class (a weekly class with other kids to work on gross motor skills) that he started when the boys started Kindergarten is over for the summer. It makes me a little sad. I love this class. I love the other kids in the class and all of their amazing moms and I love the therapists that run the play group. None of them are the ones who come out to our home to work with Brandon and I feel pretty lucky to have access to so many great therapists who are really, really good at what they do. Anyway, Here are a few pics from the last day of class.

Brandon loves the singing time and its fun for me to have something that we do every week. Its a good way to notice some of his congnitive development.

Playing on the ramp in class is one of his favorites. (he isn't always naked in class - he just got done playing in whipped cream and pudding!)

Brandon going down the slide into the ball pit. Its his new favorite thing to do.

Here are all the moms and kids that were there the last day of class.

Tomorrow is Blake and Derek's last day of kindergarten. Hard to believe! Maybe I will post some pics - we'll see. I can't believe how fast they are growing up.

This weekend we spread 6 cubic feet of mulch/bark all over the old faded bark in our yard. It was quite a project and we were all outside quite a bit. On Monday while we were in the back working, Katelyn fell down and split open her lip right on what is left of the hemangeoma. It bled a lot and made me really nervous becuase of the location. But our pediatrician was on call and I was able to hunt down the dermatologist who follows Katelyn's lip. We are so lucky to have such great doctors taking care of our family. Although it was pretty deep and warranted stiches under normal circumstances, the docs agreed that she shouldn't have them becuase of the location and because scarring isn't a big concern. Plastic surgery is definitely in our future (we have our consultation in a few weeks).

Then on Tuesday Derek fell off of the fence behind home plate at his t-ball practice and broke his arm/wrist. He has a buckle fracture and we go tomorrow, right after school gets out, to have it casted. Hopefully it won't be for too long and maybe waterproof?? The beginning of summer is such a lousy time to do have a cast!

We had even more drama a few weeks ago now. It all started with a baby sparrow. It wormed its way into our dryer vent and all the way to the interior of the vent (in the laundryeoom located at the center of our house). It scratched at the vent and we mangaged to get it out. There was a lot of love and concern for this baby bird and many hours of nuturing and caring, but that's all I'm going to say about the bird. We left it in a hanging plant and it was gone within 24 hours. We hope it figured out how to fly away, but who knows. Anyway, Brent had to pull the washer and dryer out to get to the bird. When he put it back, the water drain got bumped loose but we didn't notice. The next time we did laundry it flooded the laundry room. It made a mess but we cleaned it up and figured everything was OK.

While watching TV a couple of hours later, the smoke alarm/ co2 detector on the upstairs level started going off. We disconected it and stuffed it the automan to muffle the erratic beeping. A short time later the smoke alarm in the basement apartment started going off followed shortly by the smoke detector on the main level going off. We couldn't ignore all three so we called the emergency line and asked what we should do. At around midnight we woke up all of our kids and our entire family and the renters went to the front yard to wait for the fire department. It didn't take long until several of the nieghbors came to see what was going on.

They went into the house and checked the co2 levels and it all seemed normal. We all felt fine and nothing seemed wrong. A few minuets later a fireman came out with the alarm from the basement. It was filled with water. Evidently all of the alarms are connected together and the water was the cause. Because it had been several hours earlier and it all starter upstairs. We never expected the flood to be the problem. We felt pretty silly. I blame the bird.

First Haircuts

Today Brandon and Katelyn got thier first haircut. Brandon desperately needed it. Brent was threatening a mini corvette to go with his mullet. Katelyn just got her scraggly first hairs straightened out. Here are the before and after shots (Brandon's really don't do him justice - he looks so grown up!):

Cute video and Mother's Day

Here are some pictures we took on Mother's Day...

A neighbor's dog decided to join us. The kids love animals.

Brandon was excited until he got a little too close.

Katelyn wanted to put this flower (weed) in her hair.

Brandon wanted to try it too.

Even Blake thought it was pretty funny.

Amy took the kids to the park to feed the ducks.

Derek with the boy's friend Saylor

The boys with thier friend Brinley


I'm so glad when Daddy comes home... Somehow I pitctured climbing on his knee differently.

Sitting on the front porch.

The kids had other ideas.

I know that I'm biased but this is one cute video...

Family Duck Post

Blake: I really wanted to blog about these ducks. These ducks are really, really cute and they are so cute I would love to snuggle with them.

Derek: We found them on the canal. They had like 10 babies. They only had a mom, but they maybe have a dad.

Mom: We went on a nice Sunday walk today along the canal and spotted this adorable little family of ducks. Unfortunately the cell phone camera doesn't do much, but they were still so cute and the boys were really anxious to put the picture on the blog.

Mother's Day Hilarity

Here is a funny questionnaire from my good friend Teresa's blog. So funny what a 5 year old will say. I think its pretty funny that Blake thinks I am 13 inches tall, love playing at Chuck E Cheese and my favorite thing to eat is Mac & Cheese! There are some really sweet ones too though.


1.What is something mom always says to you?
Derek: “Put the trash bag in because I’m so good at it.
Blake: “Clean up your room”

2. What makes mom happy?
Derek: When I make my bed without being asked.
Blake: When our room is clean.

3. What makes mom sad?
Derek: When we hurt each other.
Blake: When we don’t get to go the Aquarium.

4. What does your mom do to make you laugh?
Derek: So much things, I can’t even think of one thing.
Blake: tickle me

5. What did your mom like as a child?
Derek: I think puppies
Blake: Chuck E Cheese

6. How old is your mom?
Derek: I don’t know. I never asked
Blake: 14

7. How tall is your mom?
Derek: um….20
Blake: 13 inches

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Derek: Watch us do gymnastics
Blake Play at Chuck E Cheese

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
Derek: Mostly clean I think and stuff like that.
Blake: Mostly clean or play with the babies

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
Derek: gymnastics
Blake: a rockstar show

11. What is your mom really good at?
Derek: I can’t think of anything
Blake: swimming

12. What is your mom not very good at?
Derek: nothing
Blake: Changing diapers

13. What does your mom do for her job?
Derek: I don’t think she even has a job.
Blake: Take care of us every single day.

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
Derek: eggs
Blake: macaroni and cheese

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
Derek: that she’s so nice
Blake; just that she’s my mom

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Derek: Wonder Woman
Blake; Zorro

17. What do you and your mom do together?
Derek: tickle
Blake: play video games

18. How are you and your mom the same?
Derek: eyes
Blake: we have the same color of skin

19. How are you and your mom different?
Derek: hair
Blake: my mom has more shirts than me

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
Derek: I just know. Cause she tells me a lot
Blake: Because she told me.

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
Derek: his hair
Blake he kisses her

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Derek: Church
Blake: PF Changs