The Evans Kiddos

Happy Valentine's Day!!

2012-02-16T12:40:00.000-06:00

We were all set to have a FABULOUS Valentine's Day!! :)

Then, my "heart" cinnamon rolls from Pinterest looked a little more like boobs than hearts! No wonder they never show the after picture on there!! ;)

Super cuties!!

We had class parties and blood sugars behaved. YAY!!

Emma got pizza for her party! :) Her blood sugar cooperated too. Did I mention that I checked her at church the other day. 2 trips to the bathroom and 2 stops at the water fountain = check. 95 after donuts so I think we are good, but I just always worry.

Valentines from Nana. It was raining hearts!! They really wanted "real" umbrellas. Thanks, Nana!!

Brinkley and Bella got Arby's for Valentine's Day!! Thank you for that too, Nana!! Why did this picture turn sideways?!

Lots of stuff...

2012-02-09T17:21:00.001-06:00

We have been keeping busy as usual... A few weeks ago, Emma had a Dance Kiddie Clinic at HarBer High. The Silver Stars are famous for their kicklines... ;)

She was really excited (and maybe a tiny bit nervous, she said). She was a blessed little girl to have so many family members come watch her. Then we all headed to Mama Z's for some dinner!!

The next Monday, we had our JDRF Walk Awards. YAY!! Aiden got his Golden Sneaker so that was very exciting!!

This is just some of the craziness that we deal with around here!! Weirdos!!

Then last Friday, Emma had her first belt testing.

She didn't quite break the board. Here Mr. T is trying to help her out. But she broke it at class the next Monday. :) She still got her new belt, so no worries!!

This her and Aiden's BFF, Ryaln. :)

Her friend from soccer and softball, Natalie came to check it out and support Emma. That was too sweet!!

Emma and Mr. Felix! We love that guy. He is such a rockstar.

Emma and Ella with Mr. T. We are so thankful for the awesome teachers of her classes. They are just amazing! :)

So that's what we have been up to lately...

Emma's Twenty Questions!!

2012-02-05T12:09:00.003-06:00

I borrowed this from Hallie... I'm kind of scared to find out the answers!!

Here are Emma's responses to 20 questions:
1. What is something Mommy always says to you?

"Clean up your room... wait... I love you."

2. What makes Mommy happy?
"When our house is clean."
(OMG, can you tell I have been on a rampage about cleaning?)

3. What makes Mommy sad?
"When we don't listen"
(Soooo true!!)

4. How does Mommy make you laugh?
"Telling us jokes"
5. What was Mommy like as a child?
"good and bad - I don't really know, Nana doesn't tell us"
6. How old is Mommy?
"thirty...wait... thirty four... is that right?"
(No, but close! LOL!)
7. How tall is Mommy?
"an inch and a half"

8. What is Mommy's favorite thing to do?
"shop"
(I do like a bargain!)
9. What does Mommy do when you're not around?
"clean, probably watch tv and take a shower"
(again with the cleaning)

10. If Mommy becomes famous, what will it be for?
"Singing...wait...praying"
(Worst. Singer. Ever!! Hahahaha! But yay for the praying part!)

11. What is Mommy really good at?
"her job"
(Probably not if you ask my boss!! :( I have gotten the "distracted" talk more than once!)

12. What is Mommy not very good at?
"she's not good at snoring, that means you do snore"
(Whatev! Like she is ever up when I am sleeping!!)

13. What does Mommy do for her job?
"have people call you and you answer it and tell them how much to pay for the house"
(kind of!)

14. What is Mommy's favorite food?
"mexican"
(Definitely!)

15. What makes you proud of Mommy?
"when you're happy at us"
(eeek!)

16. If Mommy were a cartoon character, who would she be?
"SpongeBob...say Sponge Lady or a fish"
17. What do you and Mommy do together?
"sleep. cuddle. and sit and watch tv."
(I guess when I'm not screaming at them for not cleaning."

18. How are you and Mommy the same?
"I don't think we are, wait we are both girls. We both like relish."

19. How are you and Mommy different?
"We don't act the same. Mommy cleans, I don't. You don't like Daddy Noodles or Square noodles"
20. How do you know Mommy loves you?
"'cause she's nice."
(when I'm not screaming!)
21. Where is Mommy's favorite place to go?
"Disney"
(Nailed that one!!)

Happy 12th Birthday, Brinkley!

2012-01-15T21:13:00.000-06:00

Our first born baby girl celebrated her 12th birthday on the 9th! She was quite excited about her candles and hamburger patties and of course Gramma (aka Nana) brought her favorite... Arby's Roast Beef sandwiches (aka 5 for 5). It was a great birthday for her! We love that sweet girl!!

Emma's 7th Birthday!

2012-01-15T21:04:00.000-06:00

We had a "HOG" party for her Friday night with the family (actually it was just a Cotton Bowl Party, but she got presents so it counted as a birthday party!)

This year, we went back and forth a lot, but (thanks to Pinterest) we decided on an art party (with a side of rainbows). The Art Location was a great place to have it. There were several girls helping and they were very sweet. :)

All set up!

Happy Birthday to you, cha, cha, cha!

The birthday girl.

My rainbow cake. I have since tried to make another one and found out I was just extremely blessed that that one turned out even half way like the picture! My second one looked more like the Grand Canyon than a rainbow. :(

The kiddos and their masterpieces!

It was a great day and Emma had a great time. She picked Olive Garden for dinner and it was a great end to a great day!

Dear Emma,

At age 7, you are more fun than ever! You are such a sweet girl. You are very creative and work very hard on all of your projects. You get especially upset if Aiden messes one of them up and I have heard you say "Please don't mess it up, I have worked so hard on that!" You are very emotional and dramatic, but you also very reasonable and responsible. You are far more assertive than me and have actually been schooling me on the subject pretty often lately. ;) You LOVE fashion, make up and are getting more into fixing your hair. You still aren't just sold on the day to day grind of school, but you seem to enjoy it when you are there and have been really excited about being an "AR reader" (LOL! Matt always says that and I told him he was saying Accelerated Reader Reader. Ha!) I have also been so proud of your interest in Jesus and loving him more than anything else (you and A tell me all the time that you love Jesus more than me. :) We all love you so much and are so thankful for the sweet girl that you are. Happy Birthday!!

Christmas Day 2011

2012-01-03T17:07:00.000-06:00

Santa came!! REALLY EARLY!

Bella was really excited about the stockings too.

Emma got her BIG bear from Santa. YAY! (You know I LOVE when her bangs are in her eyes like this! NOT!)

Molly! Thank goodness. We were all really sick of Emily crying every night because she didn't have her friend (LOL, that was why Emma decided she wanted Molly instead of Julie Albright). Hopefully Kit won't start crying for Ruthie. ;)

They also got to open their gifts from us. We like to do 3 per kiddo (like the THREE wise men brought THREE gifts) so it didn't take too long. So at 5:30am, we loaded up and headed to Matt's Mema's for Christmas there. The kiddos got bigger bikes. (I love Mema's shopping method - she just gives me money and has me get what I want. So I get the gift of shopping, she gets her shopping done and they get gifts that I know they want! Win-win-win!! Score!)

Aiden got spy stuff from Nanny and Papa (among other things). But he especially LOVED the door alarm. So now when I go put up laundry, the alarm goes off, unless I can find the card key first! Haha! I LOVES it so it is worth the alarm (for the time being anyway.)

Emma got more Barbie accessories! The little washer and dryer are so cute!

And their big presents from Nanny and Papa! The use of my phone has gone down significantly! :)

Papa (hahaha) getting ready to open the trailer for Brandy, Leslie, and my BIG gifts! I got chaise lounge chairs! They are so pretty and handmade!

Later in the evening (after a little nap) we got to go to my Dad and Bev's for some very yummy spaghetti and fettuccine Alfredo. Here's my (CANCER FREE) Dad with his new camera (aka retirement hobby!)

Granny Bev with the kiddos passing out presents.

Aiden doing some post Christmas playing.

Emma with her new Barbie stuff. :)

We had a great Christmas. It just seemed to go so FAST. I know next year my goal will be to really SLOW down and not book so many activities. We seemed to have a lot of talks about Jesus and tried to do some service for others and the kids were even baptized, but I don't feel like I did a very good job of making sure that they knew that Jesus is the Reason for the Season. Granted, they walk around telling me that they love Jesus more than they love me, but still... I hope we can do better next year or maybe even Easter. :)

Christmas Eve!

2012-01-02T14:53:00.001-06:00

We started off the morning with Christmas at Nana's house.

The kids even got to go on a little hunt to find their big presents. :)

After lunch, our family (Karnes side) delivered groceries and presents to a family. It was neat to do that. Later in the evening, we went to my cousin, Kellie's house. Here are the ones who participate in the ugly sweater portion. ;) Actually, my Nana and I made the vests that Kellie and I are wearing when I was little. ;) Good memories.

Cousins. :)

Conner "Tebowing"

No offense, but my Tebow was WAY hotter. ;) I hope Emma marries Tim Tebow. ;) There's just a little age difference.

The family. It feels WAY smaller than it looks. :(

Yeah, this is my Uncle John. He's a superintendant. No really, he is! ;) Hahahaha!! Yo, yo, yo! Word!

Cousins coloring plates. :)

Taffy = fail.

Family picture.

Silly couisns.

Silly girls.

Aiden with his magic reindeer food. ;)

Emma with he magic reindeer food. ;)

They were a little sad about the elves leaving that night, but excited for Santa to come!!

They left him LOTS of food! ;)

The night before Christmas (or a few nights before)

2012-01-02T13:39:00.000-06:00

We did our annual reading of The Night Before Christmas. :) We were excited that Terry, Christy, and Maggie went with us! (How did I not get their picture!?) But we had some yummy Mexican food. We played a little Christmas charades.

Then Brandy read the story.

Then a little more entertainment.

Class Christmas Parties

2012-01-02T13:31:00.000-06:00

Emma's class had a breakfast party. Her teacher is so fun and got lots of fun little activities off pinterest and had several little stations set up for them.

Aiden even let her paint his face! WOW!!

Emma with her stocking.

Aiden's party was after Emma's. He would NOT let me take his picture. Imagine that.

He REALLY wanted pick his own ornament during the ornament exchange. :( But he liked his snowman. :)

Lots of cute kiddos!!

McConnell Christmas Festivities

2012-01-02T13:21:00.000-06:00

We celebrated a week early with the McConnell family since they were spending Christmas in Colorado. :) LOVE their HUGE tree!

They LOVED their presents. Daddy still hasn't figured out the Bumblebee transformer. Ha!

Their Elf, "Elf", needed some medical attention. During church (aforementioned BAPTISM church) Aunt Christy found the sneaky little thing in her purse!! LOL! So we got the giggles during church. Then she touched him! GASP!! Emma and Aiden almost freaked about him losing his magic. We told her that it would be ok. He might just have to go to the North Pole hospital overnight.

He was much better by the next night. And good thing because it was cookie making night! Granny Bev got them started.

YUM!

And Aunt Christy also found these awesome microphones that made their voices sound like elves. I use the term "awesome" loosely. Haha! No really, they were cute and lots of fun!!

Fun times for sure!!

We are the body of Christ!

2012-01-02T13:05:00.000-06:00

On Sunday, the 18th. We officially joined First United Methodist Church and the kiddos were officially baptized! This was a HUGE deal to me, being raised Catholic. Luckily, both my mom and dad brought holy water with them when they were born, but this was a little more official. ;) We have LOVED going to church there. Our Pastor strives to make it like a family and it is! I started out the day super cranky and it was just not going right, but the band was wearing "ugly" Christmas sweaters and they did blue grass and you just couldn't help but smile. Then after the service, they dedicated Christopher's House. It was really special!

Making Memories... Christmas 2011

2012-01-02T12:33:00.000-06:00

Best. Santa. Picture. Ever. Seriously, we have never had a better one!

Aiden was so excited about his "choose" at the Karate party. :) The poor schmucks that got ours... not so much. I tried out this little cutie (if you don't want to follow the link, it is a can with a pull tab that you take off the bottom, clean it out, put the gift and hot glue it back on, then decorate the can and they pull off the tab and viola! A cute way to give cash, gift card, etc. It was a hit at a b'day party a few weeks prior. But at the Karate party... No one knew we brought it, but I happened to be next to the little girl who picked it. Her mom struggled to get it open and then proceeded to run her finger around the edge to get the $10 out. Really? Really! Have you never had canned peaches lady?! She sliced her finger and had to find a napkin to wipe up the blood. Matt and I bolted and rounded up the kiddos. When we finally got out the door, she was STILL applying pressure! I suck. But on a bright note, Aiden was SOOOO excited about his magic set.

So we laid low a few days to make sure we didn't get sued and then we headed to Silver Dollar City. On the Saturday before Christmas. Not the smartest move we ever made. It was PACKED! But we had fun anyway.

The catapillar was the only ride the kids got to ride and we still waited in line for 45 minutes! Crazy! And I was sure someone was going to be flung out of the front of it because they were having MAJOR fights over who got to control the button.

They LOVE cleaning with those vacuums. We need those at home!!

Chip on a Stick! YUM!

Silly mirror!!

Letters to Santa!

There was even a line to get your picture at the Gingerbread Men.

We left right after the tree lighting ceremony. I LOVE that! And then we headed to Lambert's - Home of the Throwed Rolls! Really YUM! And believe it or not, that wait was only 20 minutes! We have ALWAYS waited over an hour there. So great ending to a crazy fun day!

Candy Making Party!!

2011-12-12T00:33:00.000-06:00

Today, we got some girls (and brothers) together and made Christmas CANDY!! We should call this the Pinterest Recipe Party! We just tried a lot of EASY recipes we got from that. Each girl brought 2-3 ingredients and after lunch (and a fashion show), we got to work!

We did LOTS of handwashing! ;)

This BOY was excited about all the candy. I was majorly rage bolusing and kind of over did it. He has really been feeling his lows lately and I am so thankful. But it is just a tiny bit humerous that he is SO dramatic about it. I hardly ever believe him about it just because he is so over the top about it. And prior to the last few weeks, he didn't really seem to feel any different at 37 than he did at 137 or 337. He just wanted to be low so he could get a snack ("is it a snack number?") But this week he has been telling me and its been great! He even seems to catch them in the higher 60s so we can treat it before it is too bad. I just need to make sure that he tells other people too!

Here are the candy makers!!

We had a great time and were so glad they could all come!!

Are you ready kids...

2011-12-11T23:46:00.000-06:00

This doesn't actually go in this post, but I just wanted to remember our first snow of this year! Last week, we had a little snow. Don't laugh, Amy! ;)

But back to our regularly scheduled post.... Aiden was OBSESSED with his birthday this year! He got to celebrate the Sunday before with his birthday dinner at Nanny and Papa's. He picked pancakes and bacon for his special dinner. But anyway, after that he was COUNTING the days until his birthday and his party and he talked about it ALL the time! "How many more days?"

Throw back to the Big Wheels! Fun times!!

Saturday, we FINALLY got to have his birthday party!

Kelp Juice!

The FIVE year old birthday boy!!

Welcome to the Krusty Krab!! Have some Krabby Patties!

They got to go jelly fishing for bubbles!

And make jelly fish.

And have "sea-nut butter and jelly fish" sandwiches.

I got in trouble from the maintenance people for spilling ice on the floor outside our room and not picking it up! :(

We have gone from hiding behind the curtain to hiding behind a net, so I'd say that is progress!

Matt and his mom.

Coleman Pre-K boys!

Swimming was NOT the Bomb-Diggity. It was more like the Titanic. The actual pool that would have been appropriate for 4 and 5 year olds was "closed" due to high bromine levels. Grrrr! So they had to put on life jackets and swim in the sub zero temp lap pool.

But all in all, it was a super fun birthday and we were ok on the numbers so that really rocked!! ;)

Happy 5th Birthday, Aiden James!

2011-12-07T08:40:00.001-06:00

(RSV = Diabetes) = MAJOR Guilt

2011-12-06T13:14:00.000-06:00

I was reading some information that Meri and then Laura posted on facebook and it said this...

"This means that the autoimmune attack is already ongoing for years before the number of beta cells drops below a critical threshold, resulting in clinical diagnosis," he said, noting that 90 percent of beta cells are destroyed in humans before the disease is usually recognized."

So... I think THIS is the moment that I screwed Aiden over for life. I put him in that mist tent with Emma. I took their picture, thinking how cute they were. She just had "allergies" I thought. I didn't think she was contagious.

But the next week, he was hospitalized for RSV (a virus). Guess what killed his pancreas. (a virus) Guess what room we were in. 2211. The same room we were in when he was diagnosed with diabetes.

He is saying, "Way to go mom. You just killed my beta cells."

So this precious little guy will have diabetes for the rest of his life because I wanted to take his picture with Emma in the mist tent. *crying*

I know that "everything happens for a reason" and that God knows the plans he has for us... and all of that, but I have just been consumed lately with "what if" I didn't put him in that tent. I can't dwell on it forever, but I just wanted to throw that out there. *praying for a cure*

Our Elves on the Shelves...Rudolph and Buzz

2011-12-06T09:44:00.002-06:00

On December 1, Buzz and Rudolph "landed" back at the Evans home! First things first because Jesus is the reason for the season. ;)

The next day... they were at the drive-in movie, watching Miracle on 34th Street. (aka the BEST Christmas movie EVER!) Aiden was NOT excited about a Barbie being in the Jeep with Buzz.

Here is my little Elf on the Shelf. Her school had a Christmas Spirit Day and she wanted to be an EOTS. ;)

The next day, we found out that Rudolph is a GIRL! So just ignore the fact that he/she was on a date with Barbie the day before... or don't... we are PC like that. ;)

Obviously, our Rudy (the EOTS formerly known as Rudolph) got her skirt from Santa when she went home that night, BUT they have EOTS skirts at Target! How cool is that!? It is part of the Claus Couture Collection! ;)

Buzz needed a spa day.

Yesterday, they "landed" in Aiden's room and Buzz was fishing for Nemo!

Rudy was riding some horses.

This morning was an EOTS FAIL. I guess they wanted to hang on the curtain rods... This is how I fiound them when I woke up...

But this is what Emma saw when she woke up. She was like "whew! I'm glad it wasn't mine." How sweet. Acutally, she was then really concerned about how we would fix him without him losing his magic.

But no worries, I used my oven mitts so I wouldn't make him lose his magic and just plopped him back up there. ;) Easy Peasy. But he will probably need another spa day soon! ;)

We are excited to see what these characters still have in store for us.

A Very Victorian Christmas in St. Charles

2011-12-03T10:30:00.000-06:00

So... for YEARS my mom has been asking us to go to St. Charles for Christmas. And it is just so hard to fit it in this time of the year, but this year we prioritized and made it happen! It was SOOO worth it!! Thanks, Mom! And my cousin (like a sister), Kellie and 2 of her 3 kiddos went so we had a car full and it was a BLAST!

They have all these characters (THIRTY-THREE) who walk around the little town and you basically ~~hunt~~ chase them down to get their trading cards. But they don't all just hand them out and that is it, some of them you have to WORK for it to get their card! This was Santa Lucia and the back of her card tells about her (she delivered food to the poor and wore a wreath of candles to light her way).

I'm not sure who is dragging who, here! Nana was pretty excited! We crossed the street so many times! I can't tell you how many times I yelled "look both ways!"

And here is the infamous Jack Frost! He was the character we most looked forward to finding! He got on to me for taking his picture before he was ready!

He made Katie Beth shake a strangers hand and she did NOT like Jack Frost after that!

The whole town was decorated so cute! And they had lots of little cute shops. And one very enthusiastic hot chocolate salesman! ;)

Emma the caroler!

The Scandanavian Santa. His goat knocks on your door and Christmas and if you've been good, they give you gifts. If not, they hide in the bushes after they knock and then laugh at you! Haha!

Scottish Santa. He really liked Aiden's name!

Here's our cards! We did get all 33!! I can see 3 of one in this picture so I am missing some of them, but you get the idea!

We searched EVERYWHERE for Ester Lange! She was the town photographer (second row from the bottom on the far left in the red jacket and green scarf). We finally found her lined up for the parade and she took our picture!! You can see it here!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-25T09:36:00.022-06:00

Matt and I decided to cook our own pre-Thanksgiving dinner this year since we go to everyone else's home on the actual day. I enlisted some help from the kiddos! Of course, Aiden helped with the pie!

Emma helped with the stuffing!

They both helped with table decor and place settings. ;)

Here's our Tom Turkey. ;)

On Thanksgiving Day, we head over to Nanny and Papa's early so we can watch the parade and look at Black Friday ads before we go across the street to Matt's Mema's for lunch. Here's Emma at the dessert table.

They had to burn off some energy after lunch.

Then we headed 4 towns over to my Uncle John's for lunch #2. Emma and Katie Beth.

Birthday cake!! :) So pretty!! Thank you, Mom!!

And more playing with cousins!!

Hope you all had a

Very Blessed Thanksgiving!!

Meeting Meri... the San Francisco Treat

2011-11-21T17:57:00.001-06:00

In September, my Dad was diagnosed with stage 2 kidney cancer. It was a miracle that they caught it when they did because it usually does not present symptoms. The surgeon felt confident that she could get it all with surgery and that he would be just fine! So in early November, we transferred our tickets from Miami (where we were going for my cousin's wedding) to San Francisco for my dad's surgery.

On the plane, we were in the BACK row every time! I kind of enjoyed it. The kids REALLY enjoyed being so close to the bathrooms.

First stop after meeting Grandpa and Granny Bev... Bubba Gumps!!

Matt's favorite!! He loves boiled shrimp (pronounced bowled, not boy-eld). ;)

Since my Dad and Bev are moving back in a week (YAY!!) we figured this was our last time to San Fran for a while so we tried to hit a lot of the tourist-y things that we wanted to remember. Fisherman's wharf was one of those.

Friday we were at the hospital bright and early for Dad's surgery, which was performed by a robot! The kids did awesome for the 5+ hour surgery. (it was BLUE Friday, by the way). After he was out of surgery and in recovery, we decided to walk to McD's a mile or so away so we wouldn't have to pay $20 to get the car out of the parking garage. Well, they had told us not to go out around the hospital at night, but they didn't say not to go out in the middle of the day. I literally saw a drug deal go down, and we walked through some places that were slightly not so safe. I have NEVER seen Matt so scared. If it weren't so terrifying, it probably would have been comical. ;) We survived and we will laugh about it someday! Hahaha!

That night after my dad was in his room and zonked out, we went to MY favorite place... Cheesecake Factory in Union Square! That is the neatest place. I finally branched out and got something besides the Ultimate Red Velvet. It was totally worth every. single. carb. ;)

The next day, we got to go to CF again and meet the one and only... Meri!! I was beyond excited to meet her! She was just as real and positive and amazing in real life as she is on her blog. Her boys were quite amazing themselves, as was her hubby. :) We were so excited! It was so nice to get to meet with them and talk to them. Emma, who had expressed her dismay that they were all boys (gasp!) later said, "hey, they were actually kind of fun to play with!"

And guess what... we got to meet Lawton!!

We loved him that much too!

And FINALLY, by the time it was time to leave, Aiden loosened up a little and had some fun!

What an honor to meet Meri and her family. I can honestly say, as with Laura, it was an amazing experience to meet someone who you look to on your computer for support, guidance, tips, same-same and even a little glitter. ;) And then for them to be just as awesome in person, I just can't describe that. It was awesome though! Thanks to Meri and your family for an amazing lunch and letting us meet and get to hang out with you for a little while!

The next day, we checked on my Dad and then we headed WEST (like 5 blocks west) and hit Vista Del Mar. It was so pretty!

Flat Stanley thought it was pretty too!

We drove down a little further and found a more beachy beach, Ocean Beach. Here is Emma and her volcano.

Here is our attempt at our annual beach picture... Take 1...Emma get your dang bangs out of your eyes and stop making gang symbols!

Thank you, Now take 2, Aiden stand by your sister... she doesn't have cooties!

OMG, whatever. That'll work.

Then we finally made it to eat and Aiden was LOW. He was thinking I was crazy for trying to get him to eat sugar out of paper. "That's shooker?"

And Matt HAD to get his Irish Coffee. He has LOVED Buena Vista Cafe since he worked evenings when Emma was born and would watch Samantha Brown on the Travel Channel. So he has a little crush on Samantha Brown and the Mustache Guy who makes the Irish Coffees, I think.

Then we headed around the corner to Ghirardelli. YUM!

We have a picture of Emma here in her stroller from several years ago. ;)

I kept saying look there are War Ships and it sounded weird but it wasn't completely weird but just a little off, but then Matt said they weren't called War Ships, how about Battle Ships and then I figured out I was thinking Worship and that's why it wasn't sounding too weird. How's that for some Swelly Brain thinking?! How's that for an interesting story. P.S. that is Alcatraz behind the "war ships". Is that so cool!?

This was the neatest place ever!! It was a tea party place called Crown and Crumpet! I really wanted to have a tea party there. I know it was just the sign on the wall, but I really wanted to have a tea party with Laura there. ;) And my Nana and Aunt Mary would have LOVED it!!

Here we are getting to SMELL the best SMELL ever... at Boudin. I swear they somehow pump the smell directly from the ovens to the street!

Next up... Aquarium of the Bay. It was pretty neat... Not Sea World, but very cool anyway.

Nemo and Dory.

PATRICK!!

Emma in her fish tank!

Aiden petting the rey. So brave!

There was a very neat Hawaiian exhibit at the aquarium. Very cool!

And the main reason that we were there... I didn't take any pictures of Grandpa, but here was his hospital.

This was the drill everytime we went in... race to the elevators to see who gets to hit the button! Yeah, Matt is racing too. I so love that he is such a big kiddo. ;)

And finally... Never! I repeat... NEVER do this before you get on an airplane!!

Or this will happen! True Story.

So we had a sucky reason to go to San Francisco, but my Dad is doing fantasticly and we got to fit in a lot of awesome meetings and sight seeing!

Goobers

2011-11-12T00:53:00.000-06:00

This little guy is a goober and before you think he up and went all type 2 on us with that belly, let me just tell you that it is dirt. Yep, just tucked in his shirt and then filled it completely up with dirt. I would say "well, that's a boy for you" but Emma did exactly the same thing...first. So there you go. I have a couple of goobers for kids.

Funny things I don't want to forget:
Emma had fallen asleep in the car so Matt carried her in and laid her on the bed. Then he ran back outside to turn the car lights off and Emma busted out laughing on the bed and said "Phew, I had to pretend I was sleeping so he would carry me all the way up those stairs!" Hahahahaha!!! It may have been one of those things that you "had to be there" but it was hilarious!

Then the next night, Emma was in the bathroom and wouldn't let Aiden in. He really wanted in, so in his best Daddy voice (which sounded like a cross between a monster and the Big Bad Wolf) he said "Emma, open the door! This is Daddy!" Now I know that was a "had to be there" moment, but I definitely didn't want to forget it.

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-01T23:35:00.004-05:00

When she finally got her costume, she had to do a little posing. ;)

We kicked off our Halloween week with Aiden's field trip to the Corn Maze ~~and Pumpkin Patch~~. When we got in line to go in, one of the pre-k kids said "that is a pitiful corn maze!" and sadly, I would have to agree! There were NO pumpkins and that is just wrong! And the corn stalks were small and you could see over the whole maze! And to top that off, Aiden was Mr. Anti-social and wouldn't even get in the class picture. So I don't even have proof that he was at the pitiful corn maze.

Except for this. :(

Thursday evening, our JDRF held a Healthy Halloween party which thankfully, due to rain, was held at a church and not the aforementioned pitiful corn maze as originally planned. But... moving on... Emma got to see Sayde, her BFF from D camp!

They had spray hair color! YAY!

The D-kiddos, plus Emma, minus Aiden. And since I am recording for my memories... this is the moment when I diagnosed Aiden with Selective Mutism. I'm not even lying. He totally think he has it. I even called his pediatrician then next day and Matt called our Endo to prove to me that I am crazy. But I still think he does. For the record, Matt thought I was crazy for having my step-mom test Aiden's blood sugar too. (All that said, he has been much better this week, despite not feeling well. So maybe it was "just a phase". We'll see...)

Emma's school party was Friday. They partied all day long! Their class fall party was in the morning and the Mega Party for their school fundraiser was in the afternoon. In the evening, they had their Fall Carnival and then we went straight home for our own Halloween Party! Busy Day for sure!!

Princess Emma and Princess Amelia.

Amelia's mom did some face painting! :)

They played Pass the Pumpkin. ;)

Here is pirate Natalie at our party that evening. She was posing with my candy corn cup cakes (thank you pinterest!)

Bella wasn't so sure about seeing what was in the box! Witches' warts! YUCK! (really they were raisins!)

Emma loved feeling the brains!! Let me just say, that we finally got the time to run down the street and meet our new neighbors and I am so THANKFUL! They are so sweet and fun!! Emma and Alyssa are the same age and even discoved they have the same night gown! And they are so sweet and well mannered! I can just see LOTS more fun in the future!!

Laci brought her bestie, Olivia! They were so cute and I am pretty sure we could have sold about 10 of the skirts that Olivia's mom makes right at the party!!

And I didn't get a picture of it, but that night, Emma had her first sleepover guest!! My cousin Chloe!! So that's jotted down in the record book! Emma loves Chloe so much! They definitely have LOTS in common!

Satruday, during the Razorback football game, Aiden decided to have a yard sale. ;) It was too cute. I even called some of the neighbors to see if I could pay them to come buy his stuff, but no one was home!

Sunday, we went on a hay ride with my sister-in-law's church. The kids had a blast with the cousins and it was a beautiful day!

We had to rush home afterwards and put the finishing touches on our S'more bags for Aiden's class. (Thanks again, pinterest!)

Monday, we made SLIME in Aiden's class (again, Pinterest, I love you). It was so cool and even glowed in the dark!

Finally, it was time to do some Trick or Treating! They got Gyro Bowls at our house. That has been the most coveted item at Walmart lately so it was a good choice!

We headed to Huntsville for some chili dogs and some more trick or treating. Justin was a spy!

They got their usual roll of nickles from Mema. :)

Then we headed back to Springdale to go to Nana's Halloween "carnival". They just LOVE it! Even Matt gets excited about the bean bag game!

And they loved the apple bobbing!

Winning!

We made it back to our neighborhood just in time to see our new friends. When we got to their house, Emma said, "YAY, my new best friend's house!" I so loved that!

So here is our clan (including Sparkley and Batman, the hamsters). Happy Halloween! And notice our answer to all the candy... Matt bought it from them in exchage for a Transformer for Aiden...

And Barbie Princess Charm School for Emma.

They seemed pleased! So that worked for us!!

Happy Halloween!!

Go Cougars!

2011-11-01T22:21:00.001-05:00

Emma participated in a little cheer/dance clinic a few weeks ago and had a blast! Her BFF Ella did the clinic with her and when we got there, we realized we were playing the Jr. High she will attend! Oops! But she still had fun. Here are the silly brothers... they had fun!

Take it to the limit, take it to the top, Southwest fans know Cougars ROCK! ;)

Their dance was to the Shake it Up theme song. Sh, sh, sh shake it up... ;)

Emma was so excited to be a "flyer".

Emma and another one of her BFFs, Natalie (aka Nata-loo) rocking the orange, I must say. ;)

Emma and her friend from soccer, Brooke! Brooke's sister is on the dance team and Brooke is a pro!! :)

Finishing up fall sports

2011-10-17T00:45:00.001-05:00

Last Friday night, we had the end of season soccer party for Emma's soccer team at Chuck E Cheese. Gummi Bears for the Gummi Bears! It was so cute!

Nat-a-loo and Emm-a-loo! Silly girls!

This year they got cute Girlie Girl shirts instead of trophies! YAY!!

Our Girlie Girl soccer players!

When we played the Chili Peppers the next morning, we had a lot of our softball team there so we got a quick picture (after Scarlet's team kicked our bootie!!) Go Cherry Limeades!!

Tuesday, we had Aiden's soccer party! He was so excited for that trophy (and for Fun City!)

A little embarrassed!

More of the Gummi Bears since Emma missed the real soccer pictures (we were at camp).

And one with Coach Brad! I just love this group of girls!!

We also just have a few more t-ball games. Aiden has LOVED it!! He really has a good arm too!

We have really had a blast with fall sports and aren't quite ready for them to be over! But we look forward to seeing all the friends we have made over the winter and getting to start back up in the spring. :)

1st grade field trip - Gentry Zoo

2011-10-17T00:19:00.000-05:00

On October 7, we went on the First Grade field trip to the Gentry Zoo. Aiden had a blast in the petting zoo before the buses even arrived with Emma and her classmates. :) The little pig was so cute. :)

This baby donkey was so cute and soft. And see that pot belly pig in the back, Matt had one just like that from the Gentry Zoo for one semester in college. Maybe that is Tubby! :)

Mr. Peacock was so beautiful!

Aiden and I were fascinated with the kangaroos.

This one had a baby in her pouch! Like for real!!

Mr. Turtle.

When the buses arrived, Aiden and I loaded up on Emma's and went through the drive-thru part of the zoo.

Aiden was super excited about this!!

This camel seriously wanted IN our bus. So funny! And he was FAST too!

LOL! Really? Do you have to advertise it in the LUNCH area?!

Emma and some of her buddies.

So just cover your eyes if you aren't into immature, hilarious things...

LOL!!! So I must be like a third grader because I just couldn't keep it together. LOL, LOL, LOL!!! And the kids didn't even seem to notice. Thank goodness! OMG, LOL!!

See? Yeah, sure honey, they give them a cracker... LOL *blush, giggle, blush*

Phew... moving on... Here is Emma with her class and teacher, Mrs. Berlanga. :)

Feeding the pig.

See?! The baby in it's pouch! So cute!!

Aiden and Walker.

And then we "handsatized" (hand sanitized - per Aiden) and went home! It was a really fun trip and all the kids were really well behaved!

Dallas... We have a problem...

2011-10-05T02:01:00.002-05:00

Actually, we didn't have a problem at all, I just wanted a cute way to say that WE GOT TO MEET THE HOUSTON FAMILY when we went to the Southwest Classic last weekend! I can't tell you how excited I was! Seriously, I probably looked like I was waiting on a first date or something!! Matt and I both were watching out the windows. 'Cause we are just freak-a-zoids like that. ;) But here they came.... Those precious little kids that I have seen so many times on Laura's blog and on facebook. No surprise that Emma E. took right up to them and made her self right at home squished between Emma H. and Sophie. ;)

How amazingly cute is this?! Super Sweet Sophie and Super Nate is smelling the roses. :)

Dr. Super Nate

After American Girl we made a "boy trip" to the play area. I could NOT get a picture of all of them looking towards the camera. Most of my shots look like little blurs. They were playing so hard! No wonder we had a few lows before dinner time. Laura said it too, but it was.... same-same. There is so much that is neat about that. (I mean bad about the same lows, but neat that someone gets it.)

It looks like my Emma is about to push her Emma down, but I think they were really playing. ;) At least I hope they were!! I've gotta keep my eye on that girl!

Super Silly Nate!! He was too cute. Matt really took up to him too and was kind of picking on him like he does with Emma and Aiden and Nate was so cute and played back with him. I am pretty sure that Aiden and Nate are twins except for that. We can't get Aiden to give his coach (or anyone) a high 5 (much less talk to them) but I am pretty sure that we could have had Super Nate for the weekend if Laura would have let us! ;) Matt loved it and later told me, "I think he really liked me!" LOL!

Headed to eat!!

Group Shot - TAKE ONE...

Group shot - take 15. Not really, but I did really have 5 on my camera - all similar to the bootie shot of Aiden above! Haha!

Once again, Emma E. hugged up to Emma H. And wanna know another cool thing... the restaurant had little packages of bend-a-roos for the kids to ~~accessorize Laura's hair~~ play with.

Almost all 5 looking at the camera (don't be fooled, I had to give Aiden a $1 to look and smile - just wanted to make sure you knew that - you know, keepin' it real...).

I mean they really are twins. Aiden has that same shirt even. I just love that!

Why, oh, why do my kids have to be the instigators of all mischief?

Laura and I and our little blonde Super Heroes. :)

Thank you Laura, for taking the time to meet us! You really are such an inspiration to me. You have taken them time to answer all of my random questions, have been there for me in HIGHS and LOWS and I really appreciate it! I am so thankful to have you as a friend in the DOC and now IRL too!! :) Hopefully we can keep up this annual meet up and our kiddos can be great friends too! Thanks girl!!

And as if that wasn't enough excitement for the night...

When we got to the room, we were excited to see what all our American Girl package included at our hotel. Aiden was so excited for room service!

Emma LOVED the AG doll bed and the fun slumber party. (Don't worry we went to the work out room to exercise off all of that pizza consumed immediately after our HUGE supper!)

Cheers!

The next morning we got up bright and early to do some early tailgating before the game.

Whew... then this is where the "problem" comes in... The first half was BRUTAL!! And as if that wasn't enough, they A&M band just royally kicked our tail at half time too. And is it just me or are A&M fans LOUD the whole freakin' game. (No really, I do love all of the traditions that they have and ALL participate in, but I am definitely bringing some Motrin to the game next year!)

But we came out looking much better during the second half and won a VERY EXCITING game. The only other problem was the highly intoxicated couple in front of us who were about to give the kiddos an anatomy/science lesson that they wouldn't soon forget!

But we WON and we followed it up with some Cheesecake Factory! So you add that into the "awschumness" of meeting the Houston's the previous night and it was one fantabulous weekend!!

2011 Walk to Cure Diabetes

2011-09-28T23:46:00.000-05:00

The set up... note to self... set up closer to everything else next time. I was so afraid we would be in the way!

Mike, Shannon and Baby Yunice! Mike and Shannon drove all the way from Iowa to come to the walk! How sweet was that!? We were so touched and thankful.

And here is the Collage de Leigh... after only being in ONE of my hundreds of camp pictures, I changed it up a little... Matt got sick of me saying.. here take my picture with...

Miss Holly and I. Y'all know I am so blessed to live near her. She is my idol and I hope to be JUST like her someday (you know, when I get my head out of my bootie and get my crap together!) ;) Then there is Tracy (aka the Diabetes Dude's MOM!) and me, who came all the way from Boston, I might add to walk with Megan's Mega Stars! That is too sweet! Seriously, I am in awe of everyone's thoughtfulness and selflessness to come all that way to support all of us and our sweet kiddos. Next is Mrs. Karen and I. She was Emma's pre-k teacher and now is Aiden's. We love that girl and are so thankful she and Jason came! Then the BIG group. I was very pleased with our turn-out on our first year. And next, me and my mom. I can't even tell you how thankful I am for her! Good grief, I wouldn't know where to start! Then my Dad and Bev came all the way from California to the walk! WOW!! Seriously, AMAZED! And me and my Aunt Christy. She has been such a support and I am so thankful we were "stepped" into their family. And finally, the Ramsey family plus Big Ella (as opposed to little Ella, also in the pic) they have been there so much for us in the last year!

They had a balloon release with HUGE balloons. I love balloon releases, but darn it, I cry EVERY TIME!

Aiden (and me) on the stage with all the kids with T1.

Matt and his boss, Brent. Small world folks... his wife is the aunt to Ella (Big Ella, aka Emma's BFF since they were 2) and she is also the sister to a lady who I loved when I worked as a real CPA and did auditing.) and we found all this out at one of Ella and Rylan's b'day parties. It was too fun.

The Ramsey's and Alan is quite the boy scout - PREPARED! Little did be know he would be adding 50 pounds of Emma to that stroller halfway through the walk. Bless his heart. ;) Oh and bless Amanda's heart too because she gave Emma her jacket! Good grief! Who was watching that kid!

Ella was so cute! She needed her ladybug rain boots though! "What puddle?"

Mom visiting with my Aunt Trudy and my Aunt Cindy. I am so glad they came! It really did mean a lot to me!

Rylan and Aiden, BFFs since birth, literally.

Mary Claire and Emma. Such cuties!!

The Fab Four playing some games.

LOVE this!! See he does smile and play!! I promise!!

Pi Phi Angels! That was so sweet of Maggie to get her friends to walk too!!

Emma painted JDRF and then painted a little blue flamingo in the corner. :)

Emma and Sayde from camp. Emma was so excited to see her!

It was a GREAT ~~rainy~~, walk!! I can't wait to do it again next year!! :)

fall ball...

2011-09-13T16:36:00.001-05:00

So these first few aren't really about fall ball, but just to show you what kind of shenanigans go on around here on a daily basis... Yep, that is their underware on their heads. All. Of. It.

Weirdos... Anyway... We are in the middle of fall soccer and t-ball and I love it!! Coach Brad is doing a great job with the girls!! They are learning a lot.

Emma is much more into it than in previous years (not to say she is a future Mia Hamm, by any stretch, but she seems to be having a little more fun.) That is... until the referee made them all remove their earrings. Oh the horror!! Gasp!

Gummi Bears for the Gummi Bears!! :)

Aiden has also been really enjoying soccer more. It has been a little harder to get him on the field, but once he is, he is doing great!! And check out those colors!! Diabetes Dude REPRESENT!! ;)

Goal kick!!

Good game...

Goooooooo, Vipers!

But t-ball... He LOVES it!! Granted, he wouldn't put on the hat, and after 30 minutes of trying to get him to put on his jersey, I was about to pull my hair out. But besides that, he really does love playing and practicing!

They are just too cute!!

And of course these cuties were there to cheer on their brothers!

I hope that the season will just get better and better!!

Labor Day Weekend

2011-09-07T22:02:00.001-05:00

Friday we went out to dinner with some friends and the kids did the GIANT Wedgie maker (their term, not mine!)

It seriously looked so fun!!

Then Saturday, the awesomeness continued with some RAZORBACK Football! GO HOGS!! I can't even tell you how excited we were for football to start! Yeah, they don't look excited, but trust me they were!! :)

Thanks to Amanda, Alan, and Ella for a fun tailgate! Our first one!! And let me tell you, you can't go wrong with Chick Fil A and Cookie Company! YUM!! :) It was so good! Then we got to cheer our Hogs on to victory so we marked Saturday down as a BIG success!

Sunday, we went to a couples shower for my cousin, Jacob, and his fiance, Jessica. Emma was sure that since we had already been to a wedding shower for them (the family shower), that this MUST be a baby shower! (First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby in the baby carriage. HAHA!) Matt wasn't so sure about going to a shower, but I assured him that it didn't affect his manhood to go to a couples shower. Especially since they had Margaritas and Cake Balls! ;) He had to be manly and rough Aiden up a bit anyway. ;)

Emma was quite the social butterfly!! It is so hard to believe that it was just a few short years ago that she was hanging on my leg everyday of pre-k. Now she moved her plate away from us to go sit at the cool table (aka Maggie and her college friends)! Then she went up to the hostesses to see if she could help pass out the gifts. She would have NEVER done that a few years ago. So I totally have hope for Aiden. ;)

Jessica's family and the McConnell family (and us! Ha!)

The next day, we carried on our 18+ year tradition of going to the Clothesline Fair, a local craft fair where we get our Christmas ornaments. My mom and I have seriously gone every year and every year, we pass all of the the paid parking lots and drive straight to a parking spot that is ALWAYS miraculously open every year. It really is crazy. We just have our routine. We pretty much only buy our ornaments and maybe a diet coke, but we love it and wouldn't miss it!! Later in the evening Aiden had t-ball and he is LOVING it! He sometimes wants me out on the field, but I can really tell that he is enjoying it!!

This is when he was mad that I wouldn't run the bases with him. ;)

So... that's about it around here. After having something EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT. for the last several weeks, it is nice that we only have things 2 nights this week! YAY for beautiful weather and a break! :)

This one time... at diabetes camp...

2011-08-31T01:47:00.004-05:00

...we arrived and we were so excited!

...we were surrounded by beautiful scenery

...we didn't use our manners as we spat into the pond to "feed" the fish (ewwwww!)

...we saw armadillos at night and one went under our cabin!!

...we didn't feel well at all (she NEVER takes naps!) and had to run home during free time (sacrificing the ropes course and swimming) to get "snot medicine" (allergy medicine)

...we got our face painted when we felt better

...we played mini golf during the rest of free time

...we kicked bootie at mini-golf

...we got a hole in one!!

...we watched others do the blob! (BTW, the little guy in the back is Collin, he is 9.5 and was diagnosed exactly one week before camp. He is such a trooper!! And we loved getting to meet his family!)

...we met fun friends like Taylor Jane (Collin's little sister)

...we did lots of art (Thanks Lowes and Crayola!)

...we won an award for the cleanest cabin and Emma was so proud! She worked really hard to organize our room and took full responsibilty for the win. :)

...we took a family picture to prove that I, actually was in fact, there.

...we met even more friends.

...we played kickball

...we played with S'MORE friends.

... we saw this little pile of AWSCHUMNESS

...we posed with new friends.

...we ATE s'mores!!

...we had a super active day that caught up with us at night. But we were expecting it!

...we got matching pods for our AG, Laney, and Emma because it is Oh So Cool to have diabetes these days! ;)

Hahaha! Matt, I bet you didn't think I would really put that as my title. ;)

Happy Hope Day!!

2011-08-29T15:55:00.002-05:00

August 18, 2011

What a difference a year makes!! We may be having some of the same emotions and we may have started over on the learning curve after starting the pump. But this year, we know we will be ok. We know that we have support and a LARGE community that we can go to for help. We know we have an AWESOME Dr. who really cares about Aiden and will help him live a long, happy, complication-free life. It is a much better feeling.

Our Happy Hope Day, turned into a Happy Hope Weekend. We met the kids and Nanny and Papa at the fair after our date night on Friday night and they played some games...

... and saw some animals.

Then Saturday, we continued our Super Fun Weekend and headed to Branson, Mo. After some outlet shopping, we went with Matt's family to Lamberts (Home of the Throwed Rolls) for some yummy dinner!! :)

And then a wax museum! Haha! Don't you love my playboy bunnies! Haha! :)

And then the house of mirrors...

And then back to the go carts (it started pouring the first time we tried)

And then some ice cream and then mini golf! And I am not even kidding!! It was seriously midnight when we left there. We have NEVER stayed out that late with the kiddos (except when we took Emma to the ER with her seizures.)

The next day we were up early for breakfast and then headed to White Water.

And finally Silver Dollar City. It was really a fun weekend and a good way to celebrate LIVING with diabetes for a year. :)

We had to cool off a little!!

Ahhhh!! ;)

And thank you to Nicole for letting me borrow the phrase "Happy Hope Day!" We loved everything that it was about!!

Aiden's first day of school.

2011-08-28T13:45:00.000-05:00

Aiden's First day of school.

And that is all I got. :(

But I think he is going to have a great year. He actually talked to his teacher! Wooo Hooo!! WE LOVE Mrs. Karen and I know Aiden is really going to have fun there. He has already been talking about his friends there. :)

Emma's First Day of School!!

2011-08-28T13:23:00.002-05:00

Before we started school, we had to get primped up a little. Get the feathers refreshed. (And get one for her AG) ;)

We went to meet her teacher and have an ice cream social the Friday night before.

Her cousin, Chloe is in 3rd grade there. Emma loves hanging out with her when I volunteer there.

We had a girls night out and got mani/pedis with Mary Claire. :)

Then we had some dinner, where Emma completely embarassed me with TERRIBLE manners and I had to wear the disposable flip flops from the salon. Holly and Mary Claire... bless their hearts! ;)

Just because Emma NEVER wears shoes with laces, she didn't really learn to tie her shoes when she should have. Not to mention, she is kind of resistent to my teaching for some reason! So we were determined to learn before we started back. We found some shoes that we had gotten for $5 at Walmart when we had an impromtu family softball game in Huntsville. So we watched some Youtube videos (Getting ready for kindergarten video at the library didn't work "make an X and pullllllll it through") So I let her color each lace different colors and that did the trick. :)

So... Back to school! I swear she wore a different dress the first full 2 weeks of school and she could keep going, but was kind of ready for some shorts for a few days. ;)

Emma LOVES Coach Sprouse and I am so thankful that she stands outstide every day and welcomes all the kids. :) That is a HUGE help in getting her out of the car. And that has been kind of a problem this year. She doesn't really think that she has very many friends in her class because they all speak a different language. I have tried to really tell her that it will be a great opportunity for her to learn different languages, but she isn't sold. And I get it. I do feel a little sorry for her, but we will continue to just "accentuate the positive" (by the way, if you follow that link, you will get to hear Bing Crosby and I just LOVE that song. I used to listen to it -a slightly different version- every morning when I woke up in junior high and it greatly improved my attitude!)

Walking in... Bienvenidos and Yokwei! ;)

Her class. She was kind of done with pictures at that point. And I was the only mom in there snapping away. ;)

But we were glad to get back to a routine and she was thrilled to see her teacher from last year!! :) So it will all be good.

We hope! ;)

Getting Aiden's OmniPod

2011-08-28T12:57:00.000-05:00

As excited as he has been forever about getting his pod, he wasn't so excited on the day.

He just wanted to eat his nuggets and be left alone.

Dr. Maass' nurse, Wanda, helped us get it all set up and did our training (and gave out stickers).

He was kind of ticked when we left. :( But I think he really likes it now.

Dr. Maass is a complete rock star knowing where to start us out, but nonetheless, we have had a roller coaster of numbers since we started and very little sleep. ;) Matt seems to think I have my head up my rear most of the time and instead of proving him wrong, I bolused Aiden twice for dinner one night, leading me to actually state "Aiden sit here and eat these M&Ms! And stop running and playing!!!" I am quite sure the other soccer moms think I am certifiably crazy! And then later in the week, in my valiant effort to continue proving him right, I rear ended a super nice lady in a big truck at a stop sign. :(

But Aiden is doing really well with the pod. He isn't messing with it, but seems to be having kind of bad luck getting a full 3 days out of one. He has hit it on the ladder of the pool and knocked the cannula out. He hit one on the corner of the bed and then finished it off in the pool. Then one night we had several highs and just decided to change early. So we have usually been getting about 2-2.5 days and that has to get better!! We got Bands 4 Life and I really think that will help! Plus they are really sweet and have super cute tissue paper packaging! ;) He calls pod changes "getting a little pinch" and he pretty much freaks out at the sound of the click and the poke. We have tried EMLA, tickling, counting, doing our ABCs, getting a sticker (THANKS Sweetpea!!) after each change. But so far, BY FAR, the best method has just been doing it while he sleeps. So that will be the plan from now on. He is also ONLY wanting to put them on his thighs and I would like to move it around a little. His little thigh are just dotted with little pokes and bruises. I can't decide on the next best place. Back? Bootie? Arm? Tummy?

What a way to start a Hope Day!

2011-08-18T14:06:00.002-05:00

I just left a 15 chapter comment on Amy's blog so I thought, "you know, I'll just go ahead and record this for posterity." But she had this picture on her blog. Just so you know what I am talking about.

OML (Oh, my Lantus! In case you were wondering)!!! That is exactly what my inner self looks like because Matt's outer self has looked just like that the last few days - well a boy version of it!! I seriously thought I could see fumes coming out of his ears last night. Bless our hearts, we haven't slept more than 1.5 -2 hours in a row since we started. And our numbers are crazy ridiculous. So on top of the random craziness of it, Matt seems particularly concerned that I can't get my head out of my @$$ (his words). And to prove that he is absolutely right in his ASSessment, I will just go ahead and admit it. I bolused Aiden twice for dinner last night. Yes, my name is Leigh, and I am certifiably insane and almost killed my son last night. I mean I seriously could have! I made him drink 2 (hot from the car) Juicy Juices and mother birded him m&m's until he FINALLY came back up to 126 (you know, on his way to 320!) I'm not even kidding.

So that was the comment, but I have to also tell this story about last night. You know how we joke parents of CWDs (children with diabetes) chasing their kids and making them eat? Well, last night, in all seriousness, these words actually came out of my mouth. "Aiden stop running and playing, you HAVE to finish your m&m's!!!" I can only imagine what the other soccer moms were thinking! 'Ok, lady. So you want your kid to stop exercising and come eat chocolate. Well no wonder he has diabetes.'

So obviously, we are not quite rocking the pod yet, but we will get there. More Happy Hope Day later!! We have to finish having it!!

"Diabetes sucks, but life is good!" - Stephanie '11

2011-08-17T01:05:00.001-05:00

I wanted to make sure and go ahead and give Stephanie the credit for her quote right there in the title. But really, how true is that!! And we have just really been living it the last few days. Especially the diabetes sucking part.

I am sitting here procrastinating my letter writing, waiting for yet another blood sugar check, and just generally overwhelmed.

The term "roller coaster" (that would actally be a phrase instead of a term, I guess) but the phrase "roller coaster" just doesn't do the last few days justice. I know that I have heard that when you start pumping, that it can be just like being diagnosed again. And I guess that is appropriate since we are doing exactly the same things that we were doing last year at this time when Aiden was dx'd. Just starting soccer, swimming, getting ready for school to start, attending open houses, having Girls Nights Out with some super sweet friends, changing sheets from accidents (due to hours and hours of being HIGH). So it all feels the same. I am overwhelmed, Matt is stressed, Emma is making comments about wishing she had diabetes so she could get more attention (well that, and a pink pump like Mary Claire's) and Aiden is HIGH and LOW with all of the behaviors that go along with that.

His blood sugar has just been crazy. Today for instance:
12:04a - 166
1:04a - 141
3:03a - 144
5:03a - 118
9:04a - 77
11:47a - 97
2:27p - 472
2:35p - 449
3:16p - 360
4:45p - 230
5:30p - 134
7:03p - 45
7:16p - 90
7:56p - 85
9:04p - 186
10:30p - 218
11:30p - 223

See? Roller Coaster!! I mean how are you 472 and 45 in the same afternoon!? I'll come back to that. And did you count? That is 17 blood sugar checks in 24 hours!! We pricked his little fingers 17 times today alone. And the last 4-5 days have been just the same.

But how you get to be 472 at 2:27 is... you go in to return the loaner pdm you got when your pdm crapped out less than 24 hours after you started using it and to have your new pdm (awesomely overnighted by Omni Pod) programmed with all of our rates and ratios and then you inadvertantly don't check all the numbers entered by the nurse in charge of training people to use the OP and neglect to find out that she didn't enter the I:C ratios (1:20 for b'fast and dinner and 1:30 for lunch) and instead re-entered 70 (as in 1 unit of insulin covers 70 carbs) which was the minimum blood sugar for which it would a allow a correction. And then at lunch when you notice that you entered a BG of 97 and it tells you to give a bolus of .6 units for 67 carbs, you just do it and don't think twice about how small of a dose that is. That's how. :(

But this year, I really do know that Life is Good. It is because... I know "this too shall pass" and that we will get where we are tweaking ourselves (as opposed to our endo having to do it via email from Haiti!!) and it will all be ok. I know that I have LOTS of friends and family who "get it" and who have been there done that and I only have those friends because of diabetes. Like Emma said "I'm glad Aiden got diabetes, so I could meet Mary Claire". Well, I can't say that I am glad he got diabetes, but I am darn sure glad that I have met Holly, the Doss family, the Brokmeier family, and that I will get to meet Hallie, Amy, and Laura. And hopefully more!! What great friends, diabetes or not! I know that I have a plethora of information to read and learn from when I am overwhelmed about taking diabetes to school, or 504 plans, or playing sports or writing JDRF letters. I know I have videos to watch about doing pod changes and that will make us smile when we see pod changes on Rufus and flash mobs.

So Life is Good and I know it will even get better (it just better hurry before Matt goes postal and I have to go all honey badger on him!! haha! Just kidding sweetie ;)!)

(I just posted a whole post with no pictures! )

We are PUMPED!

2011-08-11T08:02:00.002-05:00

Like literally, we are really PUMPED. Aiden started on the OmniPod Insulin pump this afternoon. But first let me back up a little... I am WAY behind on family recordkeeping. :) But just for simplicity I am going at it collage style today. ;)

A few weeks ago we had the McConnell Family Reunion. :) Fun times for sure! We were excited to have a wedding shower for Jacob and Jessica (who Emma loves!! They talked a lot about 1st grade and American Girls). And then we just had all of the usual fun that we always do... you know on the party bus and lots of EATING! But let me tell you that even Dr. Maass was impressed with our rockstar blood sugars over the weekend. Thank you, McDonalds for your cute little Smurf toys and your carb counts on each and every item. ;)

Then we had a week of CAMP NANA!! YAY!! The kiddos escaped a week of daycare and got to go to Nana's house every day. And even though they busted through the art projects that were scheduled for the whole week by Monday at 3pm, Nana still had a full slate of fun scheduled for them. :)

Up next was the start of fall soccer and that can only mean one thing for the "Team Formerly Known as the Ladybugs"!!! PAR-TAY!! I didn't get pictures of her practice, but it was on the BIG field and was lots of fun. Aiden wasn't so sure about his practice and wouldn't participate. :( And just for our records that night (although it was AWESOME 83 degree weather) was FULL of suckiness. We were scheduled to meet friends at Cherry Berry for yogurt after practice but both kiddos were NOT being good. AT. ALL. So after repeated warnings of "you will not get any yogurt if you don't behave, etc" we had to go to Cherry Berry and just sit there and not let them have any (which means I didn't get any either!!). And bless our friend's, Amanda and Alan's, hearts. They just had to sit there with their yogurt while Emma threw a FIT (HUGE FIT!!) It was just awful. Darn you, Dr. Lovell and your CONSISTENCY! :(

And finally... OMNIPOD!!! We are officially pumpers and I am so excited, but ironically, I am going to have to cut this post short because I just realized that his PDM's screen is completely whited out. I can kind of see stuff if I hold it at an angle, but something is messed up!! Wanda (our trainer) is going to LOVE us!! ;)

Ok... I am back. We are on PDM number 2 and pod number 2 and we will see if that works better. Apparently there was a PDM malfunction. Ya think? Aiden was like "I hate this place" (Dr. M's office). " Do I have to get a little pinch everytime we come here?" :( It will be better though. I just know it will!! :)

I have been VERY excited about pumping and the flexibility it will allow. The only thing I have really been worried about is the mornings. We honestly must have the DOC rainbows and glitter upon us each and every morning because he is ALWAYS in range inthe morning. Always. I'm not even exagerating. It doesn't matter if he is 300 at 2am. He is just always magically in range in the morning. I really don't want to give that up. But this morning was it 129 so it wasn't too far off. But he still had yesterday's lantus so we will see tomorrow morning.

And one more little thing I don't want to forget. Well I do want to forget it, but I want to be able to look back and remember it and think "aww, that was kind of cute that he said it that way." But Aiden always says that 'he is diabetes'. Not that he HAS diabetes, but he IS diabetes. For example, "When I turn 5 will I still be diabetes?" It makes me so sad. But I know it is just more of an issue of 4 year old vocab than him really thinking that it is all that defines him. So I always just say, yes you HAVE diabetes and move on. Since we also seem to do a LOT of JDRF stuff or even planning SUPER FUN stuff with other families who have kids with diabetes or like watching Ellie's pod video (a million times), he will say "oh, are they diabetes too?" Yes son, they have diabetes too. I can't decide if ineed to go into a big long story about "No they AREN'T diabetes, but they have diabetes, but there are a LOT more things that they are..." But it is just something that is kind of cute, but also so sad to me.

OmniPod, here we come!!!

2011-07-26T23:37:00.000-05:00

So you know Aiden is pretty excited about getting the OmniPod. No, really. He is!

Matt with his demo pod, he just bolused himself with some saline.

We'd like you to meet our OmniPod rep, Brad's foot. Ha! (Notice I made my text small for a funny part like Holly!)

Oh, here he is! He really is a rock star. Why yes, I DO have post it notes with numbers posted on the Roman Numerals on our clock so that Emma could practice telling time, you know, when she was in school 2 months ago. ;) They kind of grew on me. Ha!

Next week, we have our appointment with our awesome endo and we will go from there. We are all approved on our insurance and all set to go.

And let me take this opportunity to tell all the internet what a crap head my husband is!! Just so we could really experience the demo pod he gave himself a nice bolus of 6 units to see if he could feel it and then deactivated his pod. He probably didn't even get the full 6 units. And then, unbeknownst to me, he bolused me 13 units!! My arm was itching so bad and I didn't even know why. I was just thinking... ok this isn't really that bad, but it is kind of uncomfortable. Hmmm... no, this is really uncomfortable. WTH!?! Crap head doesn't even really cover it. It is more like it starts with a D and rhymes with Whoosh Bag. ;) That's what he is (a whoosh bag). ;)

Our visit from the Diabetes Dude!

2011-07-15T01:46:00.002-05:00

We were so very blessed to be a stop on the I Feel Free Tour. And by "be a stop", I mean crash plans that they already had with the Doss family and invite them all over for a good ol' BBQ, which we made the Doss' bring. What great hosts we are! LOL!

We even got to meet the Dancing Danie. Here she is with Megan, Mary Claire, and Emma.

And we got to see her mad dancing SKILZ!

Aiden and Ethan weren't so sure...

But Brian was cool with her!

Koda, Big D and THE Dude!

Swimming!

I think Matt was working on some Macarena lessons. Ha! Just kidding. I have no idea what they were talking about, but it must have been important.

THE Diabetes Dude, Noah, and my little diabetes dude. :)

Watch out Dads!

Ruuuunnnnn!

Emma and Mary Claire, just chillin'.

Ethan and Aiden

All the kiddos!

We were really so thankful to have the Brokmeier, Doss, and Jones families come to visit. What a blessing it is to have families that are so active in educating and advocating for a CURE! And even though we didn't ask to be part of the "club" we are very thankful we are! I hope that we can follow in the footsteps of these great families and be part of finding that CURE. But along the way, it was really just nice to hang with some cool friends going through some of the same things that we are! Even if Brian did make us eat armadillo! (Not really!)

Also I wanted to thank the Brokmeier family for our goodies from the CWD FFL conference! One of our favorites has been the book about Coco (I am linking to Hallie's awesome post about her)! Have you heard about her? She is a new Disney character and she has Type 1! Now you know I love me some Disney, but this makes me love them even more! On their parenting website, they even have a tab for type 1 diabetes now! We HAVE to attend that conference next year. It is happening!

And attention Denise aka 'Mom of Bean'... Girl, your blog hates me! I have tried a million times to comment and it will never let me! So I just wanted to say I love you and your blog and your T1 mom song! (and I just learned that the <3 is not nearly as effective in this font). And are you on facebook? I have friended all the Denises from Alaska I can and I don't think any of them are you. ; )

Happy 4th of July!

2011-07-10T01:44:00.002-05:00

First of all we accomplished our first assignment as a Diabetes Dude Ambassador and we were glad to do it! Tony Cervati is an absolutely inspiring person who founded Type 1 Rider. He was participating in a big race and THIS happened (ready bottom post on Thursday, June 24). He is a hero to us, not only because he has Type 1 and represents everything that we hope Aiden will be, but also to just our family in general, overcoming obstacles to acheive amazing goals! WOW! I am really in awe of him!

Moving on and MUCH less important... But Saturday, we had our second uninvited visitor to our pool (the first was a frog). But this little guy was quite a scared visitor. Especially, after Emma and Aiden tried to make him a pet and notice Brinkley's nose on the top left corner. ;)

Then we had more visitors (not in the pool, luckily!) Emma and Aiden filled up that aquarium with TADPOLES, which hatched mosquitos... in our house! Crap on a stick!

Later that night, we had the Evans family fireworks show. Holy Crap! Now that is just not smart!

Really!?

Ruuuuuuunnnnnnn!!! Smart girl!

Aiden does his sparklers by the books. ;)

He was really excited for the BIG rocket!

Woooooo! Emma obviously takes after Daddy. That girl loves her some fireworks!

We had to cool down with some festive snowcones. :)

Sunday we got to go the lake with our Uncle Terry and Aunt Christy. We thought Aiden was going to tube, but he decided that his foot was really hurting. ;)

Emma was not using any excuses. She was all about the tubing! :)

Aiden almost looks like he was having fun! :)

Blood sugar check... Just to be sure. :)

Monday evening we went to the Annual Coger 4th of July Party! What sweet cousins!

Here's a recap of the last few years...

The view up there is just amazing.

Hard to believe that beautiful little girl can be so mischevious! :)

Like now... for instance. They loved those poppers!

The cousins were all ready for the fireworks to start.

And they were amazing!

And it ain't over 'til Lee Greenwood sings! ;) God Bless the USA!

And Emma came in just under the wire and pulled that tooth so she could get double "holiday pay"! Phew! (We HAD to do something, it was just dangling there FOREVER and as you can see the big tooth was already in behind it!)

Hope you had a Happy 4th too!!

A few more...

2011-06-28T18:00:00.000-05:00

I found a few pictures from Aiden's last game and his soccer party. Go Little Raschals!!

He hit the jackpot with the tickets at his party!

Checking out his pizza!!

Emma and Nana had fun too! :)

Then, we got a second demo pod to try. He was so, so excited and we were too! Our only concern with it is that it came off within one day. Granted he messed with it constantly, but the pod came loose from the sticky part and let me tell you, that part was NOT coming off. We have really started looking into all of our options and we are so ready to be pumpers. I have been becoming more and more frustrated with not being able to keep up with his snacking. The kid is going to have to have 6 shots a day if he doesn't stop snacking how he is. But he is HUNGRY all. the. time. I feel like "I'm hungry" is all I ever hear!

I just feel like such a failure as a pancreas lately. I am pretty sure I would be fired from my Chief Executive Pancreas position if there was anyone else that actually wanted the job. Yep, I would be out for sure! Glad I have a little job security! ;) He's high, high, high, then he's LOW. During the 5-4-3-2-1, I find myself praying, "please God let it be normal," at the same time that Aiden is saying "please be low, please be low" and when I look up he says "juice?" with a hopeful look. I can't decide if that is funny or sad, but either way, I wanted to remember it. ;) Have a great week!!

Busy, busy...

2011-06-23T19:57:00.002-05:00

This week we have had our first week with NOTHING to do! It has been pretty darn nice!! The last few weeks have been VERY busy so it was a welcome change!

We had our LAST soccer game of the season. We are hoping to get to keep Emma's team together so that will be good!!

Aiden also had his last game and he even SCORED a goal!! Go Aiden!! But the other team didn't show up so we were scrimmaging and I had to help coach so no pictures! :(

Emma had her last day of school. So bittersweet. It just brought back so many memories of the first day of school. Her first day picture is in front of the hospital. She was still full of smiles though! What a change in her over the last full year. I can safely say that this time last year, she was still very clingy and pretty shy. This year, not at all!! People were joking last night at the JDRF meeting that she was such a social butterfly! (More on that later!)

This was also the last day. They all got shirts to wear and it was WATER day!! I need to add some pictures from my phone, but suffice it to say, she had FUN!

We had the Ladybugs end of year soccer party. The girls chose necklaces instead of trophies and they are so cute!!

Emma, Savvy, Natalie, and Bella!! Such cuties!!

We had a kick off rally for our 2011 JDRF Walk - Lights, Camera, CURE! We are PUMPED!! We also got our shirts!!

The rally was at Arvest Ballpark during a Naturals game (they are our local minor league team). Our family got asked to play a game on the field. Matt, Aiden (I know!! I couldn't believe it either!!), Chas, Emma, and MaKayla represneted well!! They WON!!

GO Evans/Reynolds family!!

We also got to play with Mary Claire which you know Emma was very excited about!!

Super Aiden's All-Stars!! This is just the beginning!! We are going to recruit A LOT more!!!! So watch out!

We had Emma's last t-ball game. And what a difference from the dirt kicker of a few weeks ago. Not that she is ARod, but much better and I think she had some fun too. :)

Emma and Natalie have become such buddies! :) So have their parents! Ha!! :)

I can't believe I didn't get pictures of VBS last week, but Emma invited her bestie, Ella, and they had a great time! They wore a different color everyday and we were pretty pumped to have the appropriate color dress for each day except yellow! ;) But Friday night they had a pool party and not only did both kiddos kick bootie on the swimming test, they headed straight for the high dive and just jumped right off! Matt and I were pretty proud!! :)

Emma did both the high dive and the slides too, but I guess I didn't get her picture! What is wrong with me!!

She had fun though and was very excited to go to a party that actually started at her bedtime!! ;)

Kindergarten Graduation

2011-06-04T07:49:00.002-05:00

Yeah, I just about lost it too when I saw this on the stage wall. ;) I hope the next 12 years SLOW DOWN!!

After they escorted a few off the stage with trash cans, they were ready to go! Poor kiddos, it was a BIG day for them!! Emma was so excited to graduate, but she also mentioned that she was sad too. Ditto!

She REALLY got into the songs. It was so cute!

We were so very proud of all of her accomplishments... Mighty Math Mind, Razzle Dazzle Reader, 100 sight words, Wow Writer, Awesome Attitude and a Junior Ambassador! Go Emma!!

We are so thankful for her teacher, Mrs. Fulghum and her principal, Mrs. Ferguson.

I love this because Emma loves her counselor, Mrs. Mabry, and this looks like she feels the same way. I just love when other people love my kids! :) She got to spend a lot of time with her with Junior Ambassadors. And both times she was "caught" with Awesome Attitude, she chose to eat lunch with Mrs. Mabry as her reward!

Emma's cheering section! With Nana trying to pry Aiden's head up! He is NOT into pictures lately!

Nanny and Emma (lol and Daddy on the phone in the background, as usual! ha!!)

Family pic, minus Aiden.

Emma and her friend, Diana. They are both such sweet girls!

Congratulations on your Kindergarten Graduation, Emma! We are so proud of you!!

Memorial Day Traditions

2011-06-04T01:46:00.000-05:00

We had a tradition for Memorial Day. My Nana, Mom, sometimes Aunt Mary, the kids and I would always go to the National Cemetary on Memorial Day. We would always meet my uncle John and his family there. We would always run into Nana's sister, Midge and her family. And then we would always, always go eat at Denny's. When my Nana passed away last year, I was really dreading it. We went ahead and followed our tradition and went with Aunt Mary and Uncle John, but it was just not the same. This year, we were blessed with a NEW tradition. :) Our AWESOME Endo wanted to have a run to benefit JDRF Outreach (as opposed to research). The funds from ROCK the Run will go to our local family diabetes camp which is available to ALL local families affected by Type 1 at little to no charge to the families. It really is such an amazing event! Sooo.... this year, we did our cemetary trips on Sunday after church. First to my Granddaddy's at the National Cemetary.

I just can't help but get choked up there every year. We are so blessed to live in a country where so many people are brave enough to fight and die to protect our freedom. :)

Next we mixed it up a little (not) and went to Denny's. :) Then it was to the hard places - Nana and Aunt Mary's. :( Emma was really concerned with the placement of the pink flowers someone left. And it was totally me who left Nana the People covering the Royal Wedding. I know she would love that WAY more than flowers that would just die soon. ;)

We miss them all so much. It is so hard to believe that we lost Nana and both of her sisters within one year! So sad!!

Totally feel the same way, Bud! (He wasn't really crying, Ha! He was hiding from my camera!)

So on to our NEW Memorial Day Tradition...

ROCK the Run! (ROCK = Running for Outreach, a Cure, and Knowledge)

The starting line... It was a pretty good turnout for the first year! And they're off!

Some of us did the one mile fun "run" which was more like a walk. ;)

But lots of people ran!! (Orange shirt in the far left is our AWESOME Endocrineologist, Dr. Maass!)

Here was our group of runners and "runners". I was soooo proud of Matt for running his first 5k and also so proud of our favorite pre-k teacher, Mrs. Karen, because it was her first 5k race too! We are so thankful that she chose Aiden's "cause" to first demonstrate her MAD running SKILZ! She was a rockstar and kicked Matt's bootie!! Alan, Amanda, and Ella were also awesome to get up so early and run the race! They are amazing too!! :) They did so good and would have done even better if it would have occured to me to see if I could watch Ella before the race started! ; )

When Matt was approaching the finish line, the kids were lined up to give him 5 and he grabbed Aiden and crossed the line! Oh, Lordy! The tears were just rolling and rolling! And I looked at his mom and she was wiping her eyes too! :) And I just LOVE that smile!!

I am going to start Couch to 5k and get my bootie in gear for next year's race! I can't wait!! Watch out Dr. Maass, the Evans famliy is going to take you up on your challenge next year!! (He was going to donate a certain amount for everyone that beat him. And just to show you that he practices what he preaches, 4 of his 5 girls won 1st-3rd in their age groups, and the other one just wasn't there because she was home sick or she probably would have too! I so want to be that kind of family! Next year...)

Progress, Honey...

2011-05-30T06:37:00.000-05:00

A little update on our building progress...

Sand, I HATE YOU!!

Granite and backsplash done!

Roof and siding done.

Yay!! A liner and water!! The kids have been swimming pretty much every second that we have been home since it has been filling up. :)

Matt got honey from his own hives this year!! Our first honey! And we got 12 of those!! :)

Swimmy!

2011-05-28T11:26:00.000-05:00

Emma and her fellow kindergartners got to go on a field trip to a local park and to the play Swimmy at the Walton Arts Center. Fun times! :)

Mrs. Fulghum's class.

Emma and Diana.

The girls in her class

Emma and Mrs. Fulghum! She has been a great teacher! We love her to pieces!!

At the castle.

After a picnic lunch, they headed to the WAC and got to see Swimmy!

Go Limeades!

2011-05-28T10:57:00.002-05:00

You know... I think the old saying goes...

When life gives you LIME GREEN softball jerseys, make L I M E A D E S !

Or something like that. ;)

We had a break in the rain and actually got to take t-ball pictures.

We have only gotten to have 1 game due to all the rain. But also due to that rain, we have 5 (as in F-I-V-E)games this week, including 2 double headers! For 6 year olds!?! Seriously?! But really we are excited to get to have some games!

She was all ready to play!

She even looked really ready in the field.

And even backed people up! Go Coach Brad!

My little #2. (hahaha, not that kind of #2... my little girl who has always been the number 2 for every sport. LOL!)

Lefty at bat...

But her favorite thing is definitely running and getting to kick the dirt...

Can you tell?

She concentrates really hard on it. ;)

Gooooo Limeades!!

Aiden had fun too and he is so excited to be able to play next year. :)

More spring soccer and Mother's Day

2011-05-21T17:39:00.001-05:00

On Saturday, May 7 we got to have some soccer (a lot of games have been rained out this season!) But yay for 2 kids out on the field and actually playing! : )

Aiden really does seem to be enjoying it this season. It makes me sad to think of what he was going through last season. He was dx right in the middle of it and I can so see it in his behavior now. : ( But I am so thankful to have had it dx'd before he got too sick and he is so much better this year! : )

On Sunday, we had our annual breakfast at the park with Matt's family. Then we got to go to Mass with my mom and lunch at Burger Life (haha! Where you can pick your own fun! Haha! Story: I told Emma that it was a fun place and you could "pick your own BUN" but she thought I said pick your own FUN. She was slightly disappointed when we figured out the miscommunication, but we all really liked it anyway! :) ) Then we headed back to the park with Matt's family for another picnic and some good ol' family softball. Boys against Girls!

Girls RULE!! And for some reason there are NO pictures of me on Mother's Day! But it was a great day and I got some cute sunglasses and LOTS of hydrangeas and a dogwood! :) I know I put it on facebook, but I also really wanted to express my appreciation to the "new" moms in my life... my D-moms. I seriously could not have gotten through the last 9 months without all of them! What support they have provided! : ) Thank you to all of them and of course my Mom (click here if you want to know how much I love my mom!); Stepmom, Bev; my mother-in-law, Leslie, my IRL BFF Merrilee, and also my Aunt Christy! And for sure lets not forget my awesome Nana and Aunt Mary, I know they are watching over me all the time (probably shaking their head at my kids' dirty fingernails! HA!)!!

Tooth Fairy and Feathers

2011-05-21T17:18:00.000-05:00

Let's see.... where were we... Oh yeah... Emma had a loose tooth and she finally lost it!! YAY!! Just for our record keeping, that was May 5th at about 9pm (thank goodness for Facebook!) And it was a little bit of a dramatic/traumatic ordeal as you can see and it was BLOODY!!

She had to call/text all the grandparents and aunts and uncles! :) Aiden was so excited for her!

He was also excited that she lost the same tooth as he did.

Now she's excited!!

The tooth fairy left her $5 and also left glitter all over her pillow!! : )

The next day, we went with her friend Natalie to Pigtails and Crewcuts and got some feathers. She was VERY excited about that. : )

Pump Envy??

2011-05-03T02:38:00.000-05:00

Saturday night I was ready for Pump Class. At the Gala, I volunteered to watch over the junior ambassadors. We were sequestered to Studio B until it was time for them to do their "thang". And sitting at a table full of medtronic pumpers while they were all talking about their square and dual boluses and estimating carb counts for the pizza that we were served, I was ready to take the plunge! Everyone had received their pumps within 3-6 months of diagnosis. (We are 8.5 months into life with D) I could see all of the benefits of having a pump. Better control,more flexibilty in eating/snacking and being able to dose for smaller amounts, just to name a few. I was just sure when we went to our appointment last week with Aiden, with his little bruised arms and thighs, with him stating that he wanted a pump "hang" for his arm and asking if we could pick some up at the Dr.'s office that Dr. Maass would just say "sure, here ya' go." But instead, he said "I don't think we're ready, lets talk about it after summer." I was so bummed. Why weren't we ready? Are we not techy enough? Can he see my lack of organization and think that I won't be able to handle it? Are Aiden's numbers not good enough? Are we still honeymooning?

But just now after reading Hallie's post about The Scariest Night Ever I am once again scared poopless about them. There are just so many things that can go wrong and maybe there is a reason that our Endo is just so against it (for us, clearly he is not against it for everyone because all of those kids mentioned above are his patients too) for the time being. Maybe we will really just know when the right time will be. Now I just have Numbing Cream Envy. I have got to get me some of that!! ; )

I guess I just had to blog it out... I just read Hallie's post after checking Aiden's BG at 1am and I am just feeling sick. So sick for Sweet Pea and all that she had to go through and her sweet parents and what they had to see. We know how scary seizures can be and to just see your child so out of it and glassed over. It is just terrifying. We are so thankful that angels were with Sweets and her family, that her parents are ROCKSTARS, and that Sweet Pea is just fine now!! Thank you, Jesus!! ; )

And that is all. Sleep Tight!!

2011 JDRF Hope Gala - Adventures in Wonderland

2011-05-02T16:37:00.000-05:00

Saturday night was our Hope Gala. Emma was so excited to get all dressed up! Aiden and I... not so much! ; ) But I was so thankful because my Aunt Christy really hooked me up in the shoes/accessories department! Thanks Aunt Christy!!

Everything about the Alice in Wonderland theme was just AMAZING! Everyone knows I love Disney with a passion, but this just confirmed it. They went all out!

The props were just unbelievable.

And one of the best things about the Gala was getting to meet Miss Mary Claire and her mom. They were so sweet! Emma had so much fun playing with her. : )

Emma was a stand-in Junior Ambassador for Aiden. Here was the other best part of the Gala... During the Fund-a-Cure portion of the Gala, they raised almost $200,000. ALL FOR RESEARCH! Way to go Northwest Arkansas!! There was more for all of the auction items too!

You can barely see, but Aiden did go on stage! I about died I was so shocked!!

He had a pretty good time!

It was definitely an Adventure in Wonderland!

By the way... this was my 200th post! Little did I know when I started this blog all the adventures that we would be having! Ha!!

Happy Easter

2011-05-01T20:21:00.000-05:00

Dying Easter Eggs!

Emma's pink glitter egg! :)

Their finished products.

Hunting eggs in a down pour at Nana's. Yeah, we are hard core with our egg hunts.

Easter baskets.

Aiden was so excited about his Cadbury Egg! All 24 grams of carbs!

Emma was so excited to find the golden egg|!

Miss Bed Head with her new tennis attire. :) Now that we got our tennis skirts, we are so excited to go play!

After church picture. The day was just kind of blah.... It just seems like the day of Jesus' Resurrection should always we bright sunny and cheerful and it was just rainy and wet and cold. We were all just wet and frizzy and Aiden wouldn't wear his Easter outfit , and Emma liked the $1 Target Easter hat better than the ones at Gymboree...grrr! But Jesus rose! So it was a great day nonetheless! :)

These little bundles of deliciousness didn't hurt either! ;)

Hope everyone had a blessed Easter!

It's been a busy week...

2011-04-22T00:01:00.000-05:00

Emma started softball this week... She loves to kick her some dirt.

And take her some breaks...

They poured some cement around the edge of the pool. And Aiden supervised...

We went to the Razorfest Red/White game with some friends...

Emma had to show Ella one of her SIX loose teeth. Finally! :) What is the going rate for the tooth fairy these days, anyway?

We cheered for #74, Brey Cook! He's a local boy who is gonna do big things for the HOGS this year! Go Brey!

Emma found Sooie. :)

LOL!! My football-and-baseball-playing-stud-of-a-cousin was in a Miss West Fork GUY Pageant to raise money for their school's Project Graduation. LOL! Go Tay-licious!

What a ~~HUNK~~ cutie!!

Tay-licious and ~~his~~ her sisters! (And Emma)

We colored Easter Eggs. Five years ago we announced this little guy's impending arrival during the Annual Egg Dying Event at Nanny and Papa's house. :)

Time Flies!!

Hail!! Here's my story about this... The kids and I were on the back porch watching the hail and Aiden got pinged by a little piece that bounced on the porch. Later, we went in because it was time for supper. When I did his blood sugar, he said "Ow! That hurt like hail!" Soooo funny! That boy is cracking me up this week!!

Falling hail = no pool progress! Might have to delay the party a week or so! :(

Today we went on a feild trip with Emma's class to Hobbs State Park. What a great way to kick off Earth Day! She just better keep that snake far, far, away!! I loved that when she asked what you did if you saw a snake, all the kids yelled "kill it". How very ~~redneck~~ southern. :) But I was totally thinking the same thing. ;)

They learned the life cycle of a frog.

And met a toad.

And went on a bird watching hike.

Get a good look, this might be the last picture of Emma with all her baby teeth! :)

Have an awesome Good Friday and a very Happy Easter!!

"Dandy-Lions", Diabetes, and Dog Woods

2011-04-13T16:15:00.001-05:00

For some reason... this "dandy-lion" reminds me a little of diabetes... So our azalea was just going along doing fine and then all of a sudden out of nowhere, this ugly weed just comes up and freakin' takes over everything! WTH!?! It started off small, I didn't even know it was there. Ok, so that is the extent of my deepness and in case you were wondering, I ripped that sucker out of there. :) I wish I could do that with diabetes. Maybe someday. ;)

But on a super happy note, I just love these dogwoods that are just randomly all over our neighborhood. I just wanted to remember that. :)

And this little guy was being so cute but got shy when I pulled out the camera. But he has been going to preschool half days this week and it has been GREAT!!! YAY! I was slightly worried the first day when I picked him up and he was 52, but I just decreased his insulin and viola... he was high! LOL! I bet you thought I was going to say he was right on target, but no... that would be too easy. So a little more tweaking for me to figure out, but my little paper (aka carb ratios and sliding scale) does not factor in stress (he is being brave, but you can tell it stresses him at drop off) or increased activity (I love watching him play before he realizes I am there!) so it is getting jacked up a little. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a nice little formula that actually would take everything that affects D into consideration and then pop out a perfect dose for the situation? But besides that, it is going so much better than I could have ever hoped for!

Emma starts softball practice tonight so I am sure there will be more pictures coming soon!! :) And as for a pool update, we have a metal frame and steps! And Amy, Hallie, and Laura and everyone else in the DOC, OH MY GOSH, you have no idea how much I would love for you to come!! We plan to party all summer!! Make your reservations now! Ha!

Spring Soccer - First Games

2011-04-10T14:36:00.001-05:00

Quick pool update... We have a big ol' hole. And Aiden LOVES watching the dump trucks, backhoes, etc. that have been there working on it. He has been "helping" a lot.

Aiden has been so excited for actual games to start. He asked me everyday if they get to "fight" a team today. So Saturday morning they finally got to fight some teams. :) Ladybugs squared off first. They have a great little team! Even the ones who didn't want to play much last time are getting out there and kicking some bootie. Emma is really good, but tends to be a little on the lazy side. ;) Ha! She likes her breaks, for sure!

Aiden got an action shot of Coach Daddy.

Goooo Ladybugs!

Then it was Aiden's turn to "fight" a team! He did amazing. Last season, he wouldn't even go on the field. He was diagnosed right before our first game last season and you can tell such a difference in how he acts and feels. And Matt and I too. Last season we freaked out about everything from snacks to mid-game blood sugar checks (and he didn't even get out of his chair!). But this time he went out there and played and did amazing and we didn't even freak out at 50 g of carbs for a snack! Yay us! We almost felt, dare I say... NORMAL!! Ha!

Playing hard... tongue out!

Good game, good game, good game...

Gooooo Little Rascals!!

It was a good start to the season. :)

Lately...

2011-04-06T20:33:00.002-05:00

Matt cut down some trees.... then it fell the complete opposite direction that he thought it would and straight toward Aiden and I. Aiden's eye got scratched from the debris. Poor little guy!

This one is gonna get it next. :( I am sad because it has just grown so much since we moved here. But it will be worth it... Because we are getting a pool!! YAY! I am soooo excited. I really think that will be something that will be great for getting lots of exercise this summer. Always a plus. :)

Matt had a big Tyson Biz Quiz competition today. His team was called "Aiden's Heroes". They were in the top 12 teams, but sadly didn't win today. But we are still super proud of him! He studied so hard (much harder than I EVER saw him study in high school or college!) and he knew all of his answers in his section.

And Grandpa took a BIG ol' gulp of this and then we found out it was a "science experience" (aka experiment) that Aiden had put back into the fridge. "It was a soap experience!" Poor Grandpa had a rough day! Talk about cleansing the system! ;)

That's about it. Have a great week!!

Happy 1st Birthday Yunice! Tea Party Time!

2011-04-06T20:03:00.000-05:00

All the girls with the birthday girl!

Me and Emma in our hats

I am loving this shot of Uncle Terry. Aiden took it and it looks so photo journalistic, like it needs to be in a newspaper article :)

Happy Birthday to Yunice!

LOL!! He is so going to hate for this!! ;)

JDRF Open Gym

2011-04-06T19:22:00.001-05:00

First of all, we had to show our FAVORITE Dr's. Some Doctor's Day love!! Dr. Lovell is our most amazing pediatrician. He was there for both births, both of Aiden's hospitalizations, and Emma's tubes. We LOVE Dr. LOVEll. :) And don't even get me started on our awesome Endocrinologist, Dr. Maass! He is awesome!! He is always there for us and all of our questions! We wouldn't know what to do without him!

Then Saturday was our Open Gym fundraiser. It wasn't too successful, financially, but we had a really good time so that is good!

Cousins :)

Zumba!!

Emma giving a shout out to miss Sweet Pea!! Holla!! ;)

Think SPRING

2011-03-31T23:59:00.002-05:00

SPRING Decorations!

I am totally loving the poly mesh ribbon!! And Hobby Lobby 40% off coupons!

SPRING Soccer (practice)!

SPRING Break (art day at the Jones Center, aka Jonas Center)!

And please note Aiden's latest fashion... He ALWAYS wears his pajamas under his clothes. ALWAYS! Sometimes it is ok, like when the pajamas are short sleeved and you can't tell, but sometimes like above and below... not so cool. :) But Emma did the same thing. I know I took her to daycare at least once in a Snow White dress with Spiderman pajamas underneath. :)

SPRING Break mini trips!

To Silver Dollar City (smelling the "stinky trees", aka Bradford Pears)

Chillin' at Silver Dollar City - in 80 degree weather. WooHoo!

To the zoo with Daddy!

Getting ready for Kansas City!

Oh yeah! Cheesecake Factory and I really thought we had our first and last of that 2 weeks before his diagnosis in LA. Thank you, Humalog! :)

SPRING'n for Kanani!

Spending her own money!

Our Kanani hair tutorial. :)

SPRING-a-saurous
I know... that one was a stretch! LOL! I ran out of Spring-y words. :)

I love how he is always so serious about washing them! And let me just go ahead and admit... I have not one single time gotten through the little heart/stuffing ceremony with out getting tears in my eyes! I am not even kidding. Not once. And Matt makes fun of me everytime. That's just a little interesting tidbit. You're welcome. :)

Aiden's dino, Sweetie.

Fritz's Railroad Restaurant. We called our order in on this phone and a train brought us our food and dropped it on a tray that brought it down to our table! Neatest thing ever!!

SPRING Blizzard?! WTH!?!

and finally... SPRING into Action!!

Hope you are having a Happy SPRING so far!!