Planning A Princess Party

I have always said I would be one of those parents who kept their kids birthdays low key so they don't get too spoiled. I feel I have done that so far, the girls choose what they want to do and we do it but it has never been over the top. My youngest turns 3 in a couple of weeks and today I asked what she wanted, it was simple....a pink princess party. Easy enough right? Easy enough until you start searching for ideas on Pinterest!!!! So many adorable, fun things, how on earth do I choose? She would be fine with it being simple but I want to rock this party!!! I am slowly turning into the mom who throws mega parties, either that or I am bored and need to get out more :) Look how cute this stuff is though!!

Happy Birthday

Today my brother should be celebrating his 36th birthday beside his wife and daughter and instead, the hole that was left years ago still resides and we will celebrate without him yet again.  Cancer is nasty and it sucks.  Cancer didn't care that my brother wanted to be a dad and husband and give them the life our father never gave us.  I know birthdays in heaven have to be better than the birthdays we have here on earth but I still wish he was here to celebrate with.  One more hug, one more I love you and one more joke to get me through the day.  Then again, after that "one more", I am sure I would want more!  Happy Birthday Justin.  I doubt you are reading blogs in heaven but I just don't feel right not wishing you a happy birthday in some way.  I will celebrate you today, I will tell your nieces more stories and keep you here with us in spirit.  I love you!!!!

Is This Thing On?

Wow, let me check out for a bit huh?  As you have read previously, life around here has not been the easiest and I am having to start fresh.  Do I even have to mention how hard that can be?  It really does suck the life straight out of you no matter how happy of a person you are.  And I think my tank is going on empty.  but, I am pushing myself to move on.  Reassessing life can be difficult but I have faith that everything happens for a reason and I will be a better person because of it.  hat being said, life has continued to happen around here.  As much as I have tried to hide in my lonely hole and talk to no one, life has had to continue on.  So, lets catch up a little huh?

A couple weekends ago I was asked to come and help out at an Epilepsy event, to help out at the Danny Did Foundation table.  Danny Did is the amazing foundation that helped us get our Emfit movement monitor.  And not only that, they have been by our side during this new life we live with my oldest.  If you don't know who they are or what they do, please take a moment to stop by their page.  They are an amazing family doing amazing things all in the name of their amazing boy who was taken off this earth too soon.  At this event, I was finally able to meet Cindy and her amazing family face to face.  Cindy has a son named Robert who also has Epilepsy.  He has a dog named Boomer who is always with him and is by far the most amazing dog I have ever met.  And let me say this, when we first got there (after being able to finally hug Cindy), I told her husband Tom that Cass may be a little leery of Boomer, she was attacked by a dog at 3 and has never taken to dogs since.  As I say this, she sits down next to him and he puts his head on her lap.  I don't think they were far form one another the whole day.  Tom looked at me and said "so she doesn't like dogs huh?"  Boomer is a special boy!!!  Not only did I get to help out and spread the word about Epilepsy and SUDEP, I was asked to speak on my personal experience with the Danny Did Foundation.  As I was speaking, I saw some tears and people later thanked me for my words, I am so honored to be able to help in any way I can.  They have done so much for em and my family, I don't feel like any words can ever re-pay what they gave to me!  Here is Cindy, her son Robert, Boomer, Cass and myself, I cannot wait to see them again soon!

The day did not stop there.  After leaving, we were excited because while we were gone, one of our dear friends had come home from Afghanistan.  Sal Vaccaro had been serving for the past several months.  His mom was here and when we got home, we got to give out big hugs, the girls were so excited!!!

We were able to spend some good time with them, we had never met his mother Mary and she was nothing less than a welcomed addition to the family!  My girls loved having here here just as much as I did.  It is always nice to have another woman to talk to!  We even got to take them to some of our favorite spots and we may have convinced Sal to take my girls on this......

Momma doesn't do heights or things that dangle from high places so I stayed on flat land.  Almost a week later, we got to celebrate the birthday of my oldest, she turned 9!!!  How did she grow up so fast?!  I look back to last years post and wonder how one child can grow up so much in one year!!!  She seemed so little then and she still does now, however, she didn't want one single toy this year.  Instead, she wanted clothes, make-up, cd's, gum.......I must admit,spending $1 for gum and getting to mark something off her list seemed way easier than $25 for some toy she will only play with for a small amount of time.  That was indeed good news :)  It is all so very strange though.  And when asked what she wanted to do, she only wanted to have one friend over and to go out and have fun.  So, fun it was.  We took her and a friend down to Downtown Disney and they got to get their hair done.........

By the way, the sweet red head who is doing her make-up, she has Epilepsy.  While Cass was getting her hair done, she keep shaking a little and staring so I kept asking if she was feeling ok.  Obviously, after asking a good 5 times, they asked if something was wrong.  I mentioned she had Epilepsy and I just wanted to make sure she wasn't overwhelmed and possibly having a seizure.  That is when they told me of one of their friends who works there and called her over.  She talked to me for a while, about her journey with Epilepsy, I told her about Cass and she asked if she could help "work on her" and maybe chat.  She basically talked to her about her experience growing up with Epilepsy and how bright her future can be.  And she wasn't the only one employed in that store that has Epilepsy, there was another girl too.  Can I just say how awesome Disney is?!  As much as people don't want to discriminate, ti does happen and to think that someone you hire could possibly have a seizure, it may turn people away.  This place did not, so if you ever happen to go by Downtown Disney, stop by the Disney 365 store, they are pretty amazing people!!!!

After getting all pretty, the girls were hungry and when at Downtown Disney, the coolest place to be is Rainforest Cafe.  Ok, some may concur that it is the coolest however, it is the only place my kids never get bored at.  I actually get to eat my meal because the kids love being there.  And just like last year, the night ended with some fireworks and a nice quiet car ride home since every kid is passed out. 

So as you can see, things may be drastically changing around here and life may be hard, but things keep moving.  I do see the blessings in my life and I feel extremely blessed, and it is in those hard moments that I cling to these times!!!!!  Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, they mean more than you know!!!!

A Proper Birthday Post

I have been feeling guilty for not writing a birthday post for my youngest who just turned 2.  I wouldn't feel guilty normally, it doesn't mean I love her any less, but all of my other girls have had one so she deserves one too, not one riddled with ER visits overshadowing her beautiful day.  I wont be writing her entire birth story, it may be beautiful to me but I am sure you wouldn't mind me skipping the details of my slimy baby and girly parts.  However, I do have to mention how much of a moron I was and how close I was to having her at home.  I had already taken my oldest to school and was home alone with my middle girl and started to feel pain that felt like gas pains.  It felt nothing like labor.  I mentioned to my sister over Facebook (oh technology) how I felt like I was having gas pains every five minutes.  She told me gas was not timeable and to be careful and the next thing I knew, my mom was calling and she was on her way.  And thank God for her, by the time she got down here and picked up my oldest from school, I knew it was labor pains......and the hospital is a good hour away.  Needless to say, she was born within 45 minutes of us getting to the hospital.  Good job mom!!!!  So glad my little gas bubble was born in a hospital!!!
So, to celebrate her 2nd birthday, we ventured down to Sea World.  The girls love this place and it isn't too much to do all in one day.  Not to mention, Elmo is there now and we cannot leave without a giant hug fest.

The next day, on her actual birthday, we had a family party.  yes, the morning did not start out right and yes, it put me way behind schedule and yes, the food was not that great and the cake was embarrassing, but we were together and celebrating the life of my sweet girl and because of that, I say it was perfect.  So, it may be a little late, but Happy Birthday my sweet angel.  you bless us each and every day with your sweet smile and your infectious laugh.  You brighten mommies day when you are right next to her helping with the laundry and I don't think your sisters mind when you help clean their rooms too.  You are practically perfect in every way!!!!

Happy Birthday, how about a trip to the ER?

Yesterday my baby girl turned 2 and a fabulous day of dinner with family and friends had been planned.  We took our annual trip to Sea World the day before so we were excited to be at home eating good food and being around the people we love most.  I was thinking about the day she was born, how she has gone ever so quickly from this

to this

Do I even have to mention that they grow up way too fast?  If you are a mom or a grandma or an aunt, I am pretty sure I do not,  it is crazy how fast time flies!!!!!  As I sat reminiscing and making my list so that I can go to the store and come home and bake the cake and............what the heck is that, who is screaming?  Let me say this, once I heard the death curdling scream, I did not go running in that direction.  My kids have a tendency to fight (I know, only my kids right?) and sometimes while fighting they scream like someone is killing them and the first couple of times I went running and found nothing, I became numb to it.  Now I stroll down the hallway and think of how I can tell them that screaming like that is bad unless you are actually hurt or in trouble in a new way so this time it actually gets through to them.  As I am thinking this, I turn to go into my oldests room, where the source of the scream is still coming from and it is then I see her, her face is covered in blood and her hands sit below her chin and they are dripping blood because they are so full of blood.  I quickly went from "we don't scream like that unless....." to "WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED?!!!"  I quickly got some paper towels and washcloths to clean off her hands and try to see where the blood was pouring from and eventually saw her lip sitting wide open, the kind of split lip where you can see her teeth even though her mouth is closed, it was pretty bad.  I tried calming her down, she was getting really worked up and the last thing I wanted was for her to go into a seizure.  So, we calmed down as much as an 8 year old with a lip wide open can and she told me how her sister had come in the room and threw a sippy cup at her.  And no, not the one you see pictured above, that is my angel child ( I know this statement may change at one time or another), it is her attitude riddled middle sister who thinks throwing things lately is a good way to vent anger.  I knew I had to get my girl to the ER for some stitches so I had to deal with my middle one later.  However, I did have her come in the room to see the damage she had done, hopefully that will stick in her head and she will not get so angry next time.  So, off to the ER we went.  Now, I knew it was bad but I also knew it could look bad but end up with some stitches and be done.  I also know that maybe motherly instincts of "this is pretty bad" sometimes turn out right, and the in this case, the doc agreed with me.  Her lip was not only split, the muscle that runs through there was pretty tore up.  It was not only her lip but also the skin above her lip, it was pretty bad.  So, a plastic surgeon was called and we waited for him to get there.  He said he could put it back together but that we needed to come back throughout the week so he can keep an eye on it.  We still ended up having the party for my youngest, having family and good friends around was good for my girl, however, she was milking it for everyone.  But as I said before, can you blame the girl?!  Today she is eating through a straw and not able to really speak due to the massive swelling and pain.   I am positive it will heal nicely and hopefully she will not have any more stitches to her face.  This makes 22 total in the past 5 years, those are all stories for another time though :)  Happy 2nd birthday my beautiful Hayley, I look forward to spending so many more with you and I promise to have better food and a prettier cake next time, I also plan on no ER visit where I can actually pull that off :)



Birthday Fun

Last week was my birthday, I am officially kicking off the last year in my 20's, my farewell tour if you will.  And because I have super cool and amazing friends, they came down and took me out to dinner over the weekend.  I have been friends with these two amazing girls for almost 14 years now, geez that makes me feel old!!!  So, out to dinner we went and luckily there was a nice little wait to eat and there just so happened to be a wine place across the street that does wine tasting so we were able to have some fun even before dinner began.  It was nice to kick things off.  This year alone one of these lovely ladies will be getting married and hopefully one if not both will be starting their families.  I am so excited for the festivities of this year and hopefully 14 plus more years with these amazing girls!!!!!

Happy Birthday!

Four years have gone by so fast!!!  It seems like only yesterday I was carrying you in my belly and your sister was performing her greatest art works at your expense...or mine.

The day you were born was a beautiful day.  You made your sister a sister for the first time. And at that moment that we held you in our arms, you made our family complete.



I always knew that you would grow up to be a beautiful young girl.  You have amazed me with your adventurous spirit and a love of life.  You are an amazing daughter, wonderful sister and friend.  We love you so very much Kendall!!!!

Non-Zoo Day

Since our little girls birthday is coming up and in the middle of the week, we decided that on Saturday we would take all of the kids to the zoo.  They had been so excited for the whole week.  About 5:45 in the morning, I heard the sounds of my crying baby.  Weird, she normally sleeps until at least 7 if not later, maybe she just woke up for a bit but would lay back down to sleep.  That was soon followed by sounds of puking.  Yep, time to get up.  I walked into her room and my sweet faced baby was sitting in her bed with her bottom lip stuck out and was not too happy to be getting sick.  After bed sheets and numerous blankets and snugglies were in the wash and one sweet baby was all cleaned from her bath, we sat on the couch to try to calm down.  Our thinking was that she would be better within a couple of hours.  Our middle one had the same thing happen last week and after 4 hours, she was up running around and able to hold down food just fine.  However, almost 6 hours later she was still not fine.  So, the zoo was out and our older two were not happy.  I knew I still wanted to take them somewhere so daddy volunteered to stay home with the sick baby while I got to take the other two out.  However, because I am weird and not able to stand on my own, I whined that I didn't want to go alone.  That I wanted to have some sort of company....adult company.  So, one call to my mom and within a couple of hours, we had met her at a nice little outdoor shopping center that had a Dave and Busters.  If you have never been, it is a huge gaming place with food and all kinds of things to spend money on.  So, that's exactly what we did.  We spent our money and played some games.  One walked out with a new necklace and bracelet and the other a wallet.  I know for a fact it would have been cheaper to buy those in a store versus spend a ton of money and "win" them.  We walked around for a bit looking at all of the different stores.  The girls loved spending time with Grandma!

After a while we left one shopping area to go to another one, ha.  We drove just a few miles down the road to Downtown Disney.  I really love going there.  I guess if you cant actually go to Disneyland, this is the next best place.  We met my Maemaw, Aunt, Uncle and Cousin and all had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe.  It was super yummy and great company!  Even though there wasn't a zoo involved and my poor baby didn't get to partake in any festivities, it was still a great day!

Birthday Celebration #1

Yesterday we were planning on going to the zoo to celebrate our middle ones 4th birthday (we didn't actually make it, more on that later).  My mom was planning on going with us but when I was little she had a horrible car accident, she is lucky to be alive, and ever since her knee (she has had numerous major surgeries on it) and feet bother her, especially when walking around a lot or up a lot of hills.  He feet and knee had been acting up so she wasn't going to be able to go, so we decided that on Friday night, she would come over for dinner and cupcakes to celebrate our girls special day.  I made my yummy pizza's and some regular pepperoni because that's what the birthday girl wanted (even though her birthday isn't for a couple of more days, she still gets her special meals of course).  Her royal highness also declared that she would like strawberry cupcakes with pink icing and a cherry on top.  I didn't want to do box cake for the cupcakes so I thought I would venture out and make my own from scratch.  I looked online for recipes and found the recipe for Sprinkles Strawberry Cupcakes.  I also had a lot of "help" making them....or I guess cleaning up after.

The cupcakes were pretty good.  I think I was expecting more of a strawberry flavor and was in the mood for strawberries so I was a little let down that it was only a hint.  I think though, that if you don't process the berries so much and leave them somewhat chunky as well, it might taste better.  But they turned out good non the less.

The recipe I had been using for icing recently wasn't exactly what I wanted so I thought I would try a new recipe for that as well.  So, after watching Georgetown Cupcakes on TLC, I thought I would give their icing a try.  It was good too and made my cupcakes pretty.  Of course I didn't get the perfect swirl they use in their shop but I am ok with that.  And just a caution, the icing is super super sweet.  Like whoa holy moly sweet.  But, I guess since the cake isn't so sweet, it balances it out.

The color ended up getting even more pink, almost like a deep hot pink when it sat in the fridge for a bit.  And my girl was super excited to blow out her candles (days before her birthday) and have a cherry on top, just like she asked  demanded.  And she was even more excited when grandma gave her this.....

It has been in the house ever since.  Which of course means that Hayley needed her car inside too, which meant Cass needed hers inside too.  I think the day could also be called, give mom a heart attack and freak out clean mode day :)  Stay tuned for our lovely adventures on our non-zoo Saturday.....