Coffee Mugs and Wine Glasses

Clearwater Beach

noreply@blogger.com (Christen) — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 13:33:00 +0000

After our days at Disney and Hollywood Studios, we packed up and headed to Clearwater Beach. It was a two hour drive, and I was so happy we could get a little beach time in. My parents went with us to Clearwater. The kids loved having their Meme and Papaw join us!

Emmy and Maddox love being in the water. All they need is a boogie board and someone to push them with the wave!

Beach baseball was a big hit!

We got to sneak away for some relaxing beach time : )

We stayed at the Sheraton Sand Key Resort, which was a short walk to the beach. It was perfect for our stay there with enough food choices, you never needed to leave.

Maddox is my early riser, so we would go have breakfast at the pool each morning. Such a sweet time.

The kids loved swimming in the pool and sharing a strawberry sand pail!

Maddox was smart to get in a short nap while the rest of us got ready to go eat each evening.

We even found an O'Keefe's restaurant in Clearwater! The food was great, and we thought it was a pretty cool place!

Towards the end of our trip, we visited Clearwater Beach Marina. Clearwater Marina is the home of dolphins Winter and Hope!

This was one of the sets from the movie.

We had an amazing trip! One that we will always remember and be able to look back on sharing great memories!

Universal Studios

noreply@blogger.com (Christen) — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 12:42:00 +0000

After Disney World, we spent a day at Universal Studios. Most of the rides were too big for the kids, so we went mostly for the Marvel characters.

They were not to sure about this villain.

Maddox was so excited to meet Spider-Man! He was so nice and friendly. He talked to them about helping with the villains outside, and they took it seriously. : )

We were able to ride the Spider-Man ride, and it was probably the best ride we rode our whole trip!

Brandon rode the Hulk ride, which was way too much for the rest of us!

They had a Dr. Seuss land the kids loved.

It started to rain, so we headed to their CityWalk and ate at Margaritaville.

We spent the rest of the day at Give Kids The World!

Give Kids The World

noreply@blogger.com (Christen) — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 01:48:00 +0000

While we were in Orlando, we stayed at Give Kids The World.

Give Kids The World is a 70 acre, non-profit resort. It is set-up to cater wish families and especially the children. Each family stays in a villa (2 bedroom townhouse), and there are lots of entertaining things to do around the resort. You also get to eat for FREE while you stay there.

We had a greeter from Give Kids The World meet us at the airport and get us set-up with our rental car.

This was our villa for the week!

The kids loved the merry go round, arcade room, and mini-golf.

We all loved the ice cream parlor! Ice cream any time you want!!

Emmy LOVED the La-Ti-Da Spa : )

They also have some special things they do for the wish child and siblings.

Each child gets to decorate a star that they hang in the Castle of Miracles. A fairy receives the star and places it on the ceiling, and Maddox got a take-home certificate showing where his star was placed. It was all very magical for the kids.

They both got to make pillows with a magic owl and make wishes in a wishing well. Maddox was adorable making his wishes. He closed his eyes and concentrated so hard on each wish.

Give Kids The World was a magical place, and we are extremely thankful for our stay there.

Disney World Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Christen) — Thu, 18 Jun 2015 20:55:00 +0000

We spent the next 2 days at Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, and Epcot. Neither of these had as many attractions as Magic Kingdom, so it was easy to spend smaller amounts of time at each.

At Hollywood Studios we loved Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, Toy Story Mania, DIsney Junior-Live on Stage, and the Indiana Jones show.

Maddox wasn't tall enough to ride Tower of Terror or Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. Emmy decided to ride both, but wasn't really a fan of either.

Frozen Lemonade saved us from the heat.

Toy Story Mania was such a fun ride!

The Disney Junior show was really cute. They both LOVED it!

We were escorted to the front row for the Indiana Jones show. Maddox thought it was all very cool! The cast members were really nice. We even got a picture with them!

After the show, we were off to Animal Kingdom.

We went straight to the Safari ride. I was very impressed with this attraction. We got to see lots of animals and all were very close.

Maddox didn't make it to the end, but Emmy made sure I took lots of pictures of the animals he missed.

We ended up heading back to Give Kids The World after this. We didn't end up going to the Lion King or Nemo show. Saved something for next time. : )

Emmy was nice and let Maddox sleep on her.

The next morning we were up bright and early for Epcot. I really liked Epcot, but it is definitely for an older crowd. We all loved Test Track, Misson: SPACE, The Seas with Nemo & Friends, and Turtle Talk with Crush.

After the rides, we had a late breakfast at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall. This was a character meal with princesses. Emmy loved it, and Maddox liked it more that I expected. They talked to him about being a pirate, and he just ate it up.

I loved how personable all of the characters were. They did a great job taking on the personality of the princess they were portraying.

And that concludes our Disney World part of the vacation!! We had a BLAST and were very thankful for all of the special treatment we got!

Magic Kingdom

noreply@blogger.com (Christen) — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 14:52:00 +0000

Our first day at Disney was spent at Magic Kingdom. We got up bright and early to watch the opening parade.

The kids enjoyed the show, but were hot and more than ready to get inside.

We went straight to meet some characters!

Give Kids The World gives families a genie pass to use for rides. It is not designed to work for character meets, but is does! This pass was AMAZING!! It got us in fast pass lines for everything and Disney staff walked us to the front of the line for all characters we wanted to meet! This saved us tons of time!

Next, we were headed to some rides! We were able to do all of the rides with the genie pass and bypass all of the lines!!

This was on Space Mountain. I love Maddox's face!

Maddox:

Favorite ride

Splash Mountain

Emmy:

Favorite ride

Splash Mountain

and

Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor

Maddox was a little hesitant to go on the bigger rides, but ended up loving them.

We did a quick service lunch before it got too busy, and were off to ride more rides! We ended up leaving late afternoon feeling very accomplished. We made our way back to Magic Kingdom for another half day to meet more characters and ride a couple rides again.

We all LOVED Magic Kingdom! It was our favorite park. A HUGE THANK YOU to Give Kids The World and Make-A-Wish for making us feel so special!

Off to Disney World

noreply@blogger.com (Christen) — Tue, 16 Jun 2015 23:32:00 +0000

We just got back from an amazing trip to Disney World and Clearwater Beach. We had too much fun for one post, so I'm going to break it down into many!

First up- Plane Ride

We took off to Orlando from Dallas on a 1:00 flight. We had a busy morning with dropping Rosie off at doggie boarding, last pieces of packing, and getting ready. We were all excited to get going!

We got to the airport with plenty of time to eat

and watch the planes.

This was the kids first time on a plane. The plane ride wasn't long so I wasn't too worried about keeping them busy.

Maddox would look out the window and say, "You know I'm afraid of heights".

Which no, I didn't know that.

But luckily, he wasn't too scared and was fine as long as he kept busy.

They did pretty good on the way there (different story on the way home).

Since we were traveling with Make-A-Wish, we got to meet the pilots and they even let Emmy and Maddox play with all of the buttons! They LOVED it!

The way home the kids had a "been there, done that" kinda vibe goin on! They did great at the airport (considering Brandon insisted on getting there HOURS early), but the plane ride was a little too boring for their taste. ; )

Please notice, Brandon had the brilliant idea of me sitting between the kids and him on the other side of the aisle....

Why is he the one with the headphones?!?

"Maddox, please leave them alone"

"Maddox, please leave them alone."

This is what I call "the mom tray". Somehow, every one's drinks ended up on my tray. And yes, that was my beer. I get dizzy, nauseous, and nervous on planes. I thought, maybe a beer would help.

It didn't.

I have to say, I prefer car trips over plane trips. You don't have to worry that your child is bothering someone else, you can take your child to potty in a much larger space,

and (most importantly) your not 35,000 feet in the air.

Post Ross Procedure

noreply@blogger.com (Christen) — Tue, 14 Apr 2015 02:18:00 +0000

We are now 4 months post Ross and doing great. It's amazing how fast Maddox recovered.

Immediately following the procedure, we had a few minor set backs. Maddox ended up having a reaction to the steri-strips causing a rash all over his chest. Putting on ointment and taking a steroid only seemed to make it worse, so we ended up just waiting it out. Ice was the only thing that seemed to help.

Our take-home medicine was a daily ordeal. They gave it to us in pill form because he was spitting out the liquid at the hospital. We put it in pudding or yogurt but he refused to just swallow it and slowly moved it around until it was down. We were extremely thankful when we were cleared of all medicine.

I ended up only calling the on-call doctor 2 times, which is a small victory for me. Once for the rash and weight loss and the other for a low-grade fever. Both ended up being nothing of concern.

After just about 3 weeks, he was back to normal. We kept him home for 7 weeks, and by then he was ready to get back to playing with other kids.

At less than 2 months post Ross, we went to Great Wolf Lodge. We had such a great time. Maddox felt good enough to play hard and we all had a blast.

Our last cardiologist appointment went very well. He is healing and cleared for all activity. I only hope it is years before we have to have another operation.

At this point, you would never know Maddox had any surgery at all. He is a typical boy-full of energy and not afraid of anything.

He's always wanted to play baseball and we started this spring season after the all clear from his cardiologist. He is loving it. He is very serious and wants to practice all the time. We love watching him play. It is all very entertaining at this age : ).

Maddox's Ross Procedure

noreply@blogger.com (Christen) — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 13:14:00 +0000

As we packed for the hospital, it brought on a strange feeling. The last time I'd done this was when I had Maddox. There is a leery feeling associated with packing for something that brings a nervous anticipation instead of an eager excitement.

Our day started very early with having to be at the hospital at 6am. We woke Maddox up as we were heading out. He didn't ask about food or drinks, which I was worried would be a problem.

After checking in, we only had to wait a couple minutes before heading back.

They got him settled in the holding room and then gave him the silly juice (liquid Valium). At that time, we got to talk to the anesthesiologist. He was very comforting and helped to put all of us at ease. Maddox was still very nervous, and they decided to give him a little more time for the medicine to sink in. We watched some of Sandlot on thier DVD player, and then it was time for Maddox to go back. The medicine still wasn't really working as much as it should have and he was hesitant to leave. The anesthesiolosist picked him up and carried him back, and Maddox waved to us as he went back.

They wait to do all of the IV's when he is asleep, which I am very thankful for. No pokes until he was under anesthesia.

And then the waiting began. The surgery lasted 6 hours, and the nurse practitioner gave us updates every hour. We were told when he was put on and taken off the heart lung machine. This was one of my biggest concerns, as it can bring many complications. Our Cardiologist came by towards the end and let us know the surgeon was done with his work and that everything looked good. The surgeon came out and talked to us after he was finished. He said everything went as planned, and he was pleased with the outcome. Maddox had a very diseased Aortic Valve, and now he had a new healthy one. They were also able to put a good size Pulmonary Valve in.

About 15 minutes later, they wheeled him from surgery into ICU. We were able to see him long enough to give him a quick kiss as they wheeled him to ICU. I was prepared to see him hooked up to machines and have a beathing tube in. I'd went through the image over and over in my mind, but it was still hard to see. Once they took him to ICU, it took a couple hours to get him all set up. They ended up coming to get me after about an hour and a half becuase he was starting to wake up and needed comforting. I immediately asked to lay in the bed with him and spent most of the next 3 days in that spot.

The first night was pretty hard. He woke up every 30 minutes crying and wanting a drink. They could only give him very little, which didn't help soothe him. We tried the bed and the rocking chair. He was hooked up to so many machines, it was hard to move him much.

The next morning, they started weening him off all of the pain medications. They removed his catheter and wanted him up and going to the bathroom. He wasn't too happy to have to be getting up, but he did. He started to be a little more coherent but still slept most of the day. When he did wake up, he was upset and wanted to drink. They did let him have more to drink, but all liquids were closely monitored and he was only allowed so much. He also got up and walked around the unit 3 seperate times. He got treasure box or a popsicle each time he finished. He was never happy about the walking, and it was pretty much just us forcing him each time.

Due to the medications, He doesn't remember anything from day one or two. He had a drainage tube coming from his chest and his right arm had an arterial line. He was very upset about both of these, but now he has no memory of either.

As for me, I stayed in survival mode. I spent most of my time with Maddox in his bed tending to him. I got very little sleep and barely noticed. The severity of the situation kept me on high alert and gave me energy I shouldn't of had.

We spent 3 days in the CHSU working to get Maddox better. Each day another cord or tube came off, and he was beginning to heal.

Maddox and Emmy were both wanting to see eachother, but Emmy was not allowed back in his room. We facetimed her every night, and they met at the waiting room door to see eachother. It was the sweetest thing to witness thier close relationship.

After only 3 days, we were headed to the step down unit.

We had a goal of being discharged the next day, and I was hesitantly excited. I wanted to go home, but also liked the idea of being so closely monitored.

The night went well, and we were on schedule to be released!

We met Emmy in the pediatric library while they got our discharge paperwork and last labs/x-rays in order.

Before leaving, the doctor came and talked to us. She went over how to care for the incision at home and the importance of his post-op meds. Taking his medicine became a big production and some was getting spit out. Some fluid in his lungs was showing on the x-rays, and we had to be diligent about his diuretics at home.

Early afternoon we were headed home!

We are now at home and getting a little better each day. Maddox is still not eating much and looks so tiny. We are working on small frequent snacks. Today is the first day he's wanted to be up and moving around, and I am hoping his appetite will be slowly increasing as well.

We are grateful this experience had a positive outcome and feel blessed to be home for Christmas.

Pre-Op Appointment

noreply@blogger.com (Christen) — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 13:10:00 +0000

Maddox had his Pre-Op appointment on December 17th. We were able to get all paperwork done, take blood, x-rays, and meet with the child life specialist.

They had a mock operating room that Maddox got to play around in. He was very unsure about the whole visit but the truck and doctor playing helped him feel more at ease.

He also got his Beads of Courage.

These beads are given to pediatric heart and cancer patients. They already filled out the beads they anticipated he would be getting while at the hospital. Any time we have anything else done (blood taken, echocardiogram, or something more serious) we can add a bead. I love all the details they think about in helping children go through this process.

After pre-op we went and ate lunch and spent the rest of the day playing and getting ready for surgery tomorrow.

Surgery Details

noreply@blogger.com (Christen) — Sun, 16 Nov 2014 15:17:00 +0000

We had our surgery consultation Thursday, so we decided to tell Maddox and Emmy about the operation on Wednesday. We were going to be taking a tour of the surgery unit, so we thought this was a good time to tell them. I read Franklin Goes to the Hospital on Tuesday just to introduce the topic to Maddox in a positive way. I didn't tell him anything about him having a surgery until the next day. He knows he has a special heart, so we told him the doctor was going to fix some things and make them work better in his special heart. I think he understood it as best as a 4 year old can. He wanted to know why his heart was special but not Emmy's, and was I going to be there the whole time. I reassured him I wouldn't be leaving. He wanted to know how I would sleep there. I told him there was a bed for me right next to him. After we told him, I read him some children's hospital books.

The Surgery Book: For Kids was by far the best one. It takes you through the whole process from a child's point of view. It introduces hospital terminology and eases fears at the same time. Maddox liked reading the books and kept saying, "Hey, that's what I'm going to do."

We will continue to talk about everything, pretend play, and read books to reassure him.

Thursday afternoon, we had our surgery consultation with Dr. Mendeloff. We brought Emmy and Maddox, but Uncle Chris played with them in the lobby while we talked to the surgeon. Chris being there was such a big help! We would not have been able to have a successful consultation without him. As soon as we got to Dr. Mendeloff's office, he started explaining the surgery process. He was very informative. Most of my questions were answered as he explained the procedure. He showed us a mechanical and pig valve and explained the differences in the two. He then started explaining the Ross Procedure and why it was the better choice for someone Maddox's age.

He drew this picture to explain the Ross Procedure. He went over how he does it, what to expect afterward, and some of the potential complications.

How the surgery is done: The anthestisiologist will spend about an hour getting Maddox to sleep and set-up for the surgery. Maddox will be opened up along his chest. The breast bone will be cut to get to the heart. Dr. Mendeloff will put Maddox on a heart lunge machine so the blood can bypass the heart and puts the heart to "sleep" for the repairs. He then will take out the Aortic Valve. This is the valve drawn above that is not working efficiently. He will take out the Pulmonary Valve and put it where the Aortic Valve was. He sews this in and makes two holes for the for the Coronary Arteries that are connected to the Aortic Valve. When this step is complete, he attaches a donor tissue valve to the Pulmonary Valve's place. The chest is closed up, and they do an echocardiogram to ensure the heart is working properly. Obviously, the surgery is very complex, and I'm sure I've left out some details. This is the basics of what will happen. Dr. Mendeloff's part of the surgery is around 4 hours. The total surgery time should be around 8 hours.

What to expect afterward: He will go straight to the Congenital Heart Surgery Unit(ICU). This facility is designed to specifically care for these types of surgeries. He will be there for 2-3 days. He will spend the first 24 hours mostly asleep. He will have a drainage tube at the bottom of his chest for a couple of days. After the first 24 hours, he will become more alert and start to have some liquids. I'm guessing during this time he will be very groggy and uncomfortable. He will be hooked up to many things, so it will be scary for him and hard for him to move. They did say a physical therapist will come in to help him start moving around. After the first 48 hours, he will start walking around and should feel better. There is a couch that pulls out into a bed in his room that I will sleep in. The showers are on a different floor, so I'll have to figure that out once I get there. About day 4, he should move to the pediatric unit. This room can take more visitors, he will get to wear his own clothes, and he will be prompted to play with the toys they have. We should be going home around day 5-7. Once we are home, he shouldn't be on any pain meds aside from Motrin. His discomfort should be minimal and will be from the broken breast bone. It will take the breast bone 6-8 weeks to heal completely. His only restrictions will be no climbing, wrestling, or picking up below the arms. All of these are to allow the breast bone to heal. The doctor said kids are good about restricting themselves and usually won't do things that are uncomfortable. He said we will probably be most surprised with how active he is once we get home, to not expect him to just be laying around. He wants us to let him act like a normal kid.

His scar will basically be from the top to the bottom of the chest. The surgeon needs ample room to complete this surgery.

Potential Complications- With this type of surgery, there are many things that could happen and multiple "what if" scenarios. The surgeon talked about a few, but I was thankful he didn't go into a lot of detail with these. I can't spend my time focusing on this. We will figure it out as we go if a complication arises.

The negative to this procedure: He will have to have another surgery to replace this pulmonary valve once he outgrows it. The timing on that can't be predicted. A good guess would be anywhere from 5-10 years. He will be closely monitored by our cardiologist and any problems will be detected through a echocardiogram.

I was very thankful Dr. Mendeloff was so thorough. I had a long list of questions, and he answered almost all of them without me having to ask. He was very supportive and helpful. I feel comfortable and thankful he will be our surgeon. I did ask him how many Ross Procedures he had done. This is not a common surgery for children and not many surgeons do it. I was worried the number would be below 10, and we would be finding another surgeon. He said he's done 100-150, which made me feel much better.

Now we have about 5 weeks to play hard, give lots of hugs and kisses, and reassure Maddox up until the surgery.

Update on Maddox's Heart

noreply@blogger.com (Christen) — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 18:05:00 +0000

The time has come for Maddox to have his first heart surgery. We had a routine visit last week with our Cardiologist where we found out he would need an aortic valve replacement. We knew this day was coming, but I thought we had at least another year. The doctor reccomended replacing his aortic valve because of the regurgitation from the balloon put in at birth. This procedure was necessary but caused a leaky valve and that is enlarging the heart and causing it to work too hard. The procedure he will have is called The Ross Procedure. The surgeon will replace the aortic valve with the pulmonary valve and replace the pulmonary valve with a donor tissue valve. The surgery will be around 5 hours. He will be in ICU for a couple of days and then move into a standard room. We hope to be in the hospital for no more than 5-7 days. We meet with the surgeon in a couple of weeks to find out more and tour the Congenital Heart Surgery Unit at Medical City Children's Hospital where he will have his surgery.

I've spent many hours this past week reading everything I can about his procedure and surgeon. I'm trying to focus on the preparation instead of my worries. I know he has to have the procedure, so I'm going to go into it knowledgeable and prepare him as best I can. He doesn't know yet, but we've ordered books that will hopefully help us explain it to him.

I'm not too thrilled with it being around Christmas, but I will make sure he knows he will be extra spoiled this year.

Maddox is 4 years old!

noreply@blogger.com (Christen) — Sun, 31 Aug 2014 20:20:00 +0000

Maddox turned 4 on August 11th. We don't have his check-up for a few more weeks, but he is about 48 pounds. He wears 4t tops and bottoms and a size 11 shoe.

He is definetly "all boy". He loves to wrestle, be a superhero, play fight, run, jump, and climb. He is constantly hurting himself, and gets right back up to do it again!

He has such a sweet heart. He loves to hug and kiss. If he thinks he's hurt you or your feelings, he kisses you until your better.

He started Pre-k last week. He never wants to go and gets upset each morning when I have to leave : (. Thankfully, he's always happy when I pick him up and says he's had a great day. I think it's just from coming off of the summer and being with me so much. They didn't go to any kind of camps this summer and were with me EVERY day, so it's been hard for him to adjust. He just loves his momma : ). I'm the only one that can do pretty much anything for him. Daddy and Emmy both try to help, but no one can do it quite like mommy.

Sleep has pretty much been an issue since he got a big boy bed. He SCREAMS unless I am laying beside him and hold his hand. We are trying to wean him off of that now. So hopefully he's sleeping on his own soon.

He is full of questions! When all is quiet and he's trying to go to sleep the questions come out. We will be silently laying down and then he will randomly ask a question like one of these:

How is food in my stomach? How does it fit? How does it get there?

How does water get in a water tower?

What are icicles? How do they get places?

Will sharks bite a jet ski?

When their is a baby in your tummy, how do they eat?

I know God doesn't pick everything, some things just happen like me wanting to watch My Big Big Friend.

If I can't give him a really good answer and he still doesn't understand, he gets very upset with me.

I love that he is so inquisitive!

It does sometimes cause a problem though. If we are out and about he almost always finds something he needs to ask someone, and it's never just one question. He wants to know why girls are laying out at the pool, why their bathing suit looks like a bra, why the zoo helper is feeding the giraffe lettuce, how he's going to get him the lettuce, and on and on and on EVERYWHERE we go. Most people are nice and answer all of his questions. : )

We had a cardiologist appoint in April and his heart condition had pretty much stayed the same. We did find out he will have his first Aortic Valve Replacement using the Ross Procedure in the next couple years. He said it wouldn't be an emergency situation and we will get to plan it out in advance together. I have tried to research it some, and it just makes me more nervous. I'm definitely not ready for it yet, but I'm sure I'll never be.

Happy 4th Birthday Maddox! We love you to the moon and back!

Beach Bums

noreply@blogger.com (Christen) — Sat, 16 Aug 2014 02:10:00 +0000

We had such a great time during our vacation at the beach. I wasn't sure how the kids would do with getting in the water, but they loved it. Maddox was a little unsure at first, and had to hold one of our hands. But after about 10 minutes, he was ready to get in. We couldn't get him out after that. He didn't want to play in the sand or do anything else. He just wanted to be in the ocean. Emmy liked to do both. She spent most of her time in the water, but liked to play in the sand too.

We went to the beach with family and stayed at a beautiful condo. We were on the 15th floor and had an amazing view from all rooms of the condo.

Nighttime crab hunting was one of our favorite things to do. We brought flashlights and fiercely hunted. Emmy loved to find and pick up the small crabs. I liked to watch : ).

We even hunted crabs/fish/shrimp/snails during the day.

She caught a snail and threw it back in.

The kids loved riding the waves on the boards!

We celebrated Maddox's 4th birthday with cupcakes and put put!

We spent most of our time at the beach, but did spend a couple hours at the resort pool. It was beautiful and had servers bringing drinks : ).

We had such a great time at the beach!

First Road Trip

noreply@blogger.com (Christen) — Fri, 15 Aug 2014 00:35:00 +0000

We went on our first road trip this past week. We spent 11 hours each way driving to Pensicola, Florida. I read blog posts and tried to prepare myself for anything we would need. The kids are not fans of the car and don't normally do great for a 30 minute drive, so I was worried. Surprisingly, they did really well. We had few outbursts and everyone stayed pretty content most of the way.

We left Texas at 7am. I wanted to leave when the kids were already well rested. I knew there was a good chance Emmy wouldn't sleep at all, so I wasn't going to wake her up for all of us to endure "no sleep Emmy" all confined in a small space for hours and hours. Once she woke up, we hit the road! We were all excited to be heading to the beach!

I found some good road trip ideas on various blogs. We had fun playing I Spy, doing workbooks/coloring books, making foil and pipe cleaner sculptures, and coloring on the windows. They enjoyed playing it all, but the biggest hit was the iPad. We connected it to our phone hotspot and the car Bluetooth to have a nice Netflix set up. My speakers were hijacked, but well worth it for happy travelers!

There was no shortage of very long, very high bridges(all over water) to drive over.

We drove over one bridge in Lousiana for what felt like hours. We decided to google it and found out we were driving on the second longest bridge in America! The Atchafalaya Basin Bridge is 18.2 miles long and all over water! The whole time I could only think about the bridge collapsing and falling in to the mouth of a crocodile.

And experiences like that are why driving is clearly better than flying. : )

We decided to stop and eat at Chilis on the way there to let the kids get out of the car for a bit, and boy was that a mistake! These pictures are deceiving...hahaha

After being there 45 minutes, we finally got our cold food. Needless to say, we left without eating and had one very grumpy traveler( hint- it wasn't me or the kids). O did I mention I may have also accidentally spilt water on the Mr while trying to help with a misbehaving kindergartener? The only smiling was for a brief moment in those pictures. Haha!

We had a lot of snacks packed so we ate those and headed to Biloxi, Mississippi. We broke the trip up on the drive there and stopped for the night in Biloxi.

We woke up the next morning bright and early for the 2 hour drive to Pensicola. After eating lunch we went straight to the beach!

The drive home was less eventful. We made the trip straight home in about 11 hours. Everyone (okay maybe just me) was too tired for games so we broke every screen time rule in the book and watched Netflix most of the way.

Overall, the first road trip was a success. I may actually do it again!

Arboretum

noreply@blogger.com (Christen) — Mon, 04 Aug 2014 21:46:00 +0000

We've spent a few days this summer at the Dallas Arboretum Children's Garden. There are so many fun things for the kids to do. They recently added the children's garden, and it makes the arboretum a much more exciting place to go!

A trolley(large golf cart) takes you back and forth between the children's garden and main part. The kids love riding it, and I love not having to walk the mile each way!

There are lots of good learning opportunities!

Every day in August is Dollar Day. Admission, hotdogs, and drinks for $1!

So much fun!

Lake House

noreply@blogger.com (Christen) — Fri, 11 Jul 2014 12:32:00 +0000

Brandon's aunt has a lake house on Cedar Creek Lake, and we got to spend a weekend there for a nice getaway. We all had so much fun! The pictures speak for themselves : )

What a great weekend!

4th of July

noreply@blogger.com (Christen) — Sun, 06 Jul 2014 13:45:00 +0000

We spent our Fourth of July at Grandpa's house. He lives in an area where fireworks are permitted, and they take full advantage : ) They got tons of fireworks that everyone enjoyed blowing up! Maddox was a little timid at first, but then he wanted to be right in the middle of the action.

We had some not so good excitement before we got started with fireworks. Maddox was running and jumping on bean bags then lost his balance and hit the corner of the wall. He immediately started screaming and his head started bleeding. We all rushed around him to assess the cut. We got him calmed down and it stopped bleeding pretty quickly. We asked some friends in the medical field about stiches and decided he probably didn't need them. We got it closed and secure with a steri-strip. I have had to redo the strips since and must say I am pretty proud of myself! Shockingly, I didn't freak out during the incident and have been able to easily doctor him up with the bad aids. This is huge for me : )

My little man all banged up.

Looking better

Now for the hard part, trying to keep him from hitting his head before this has a chance to heal. I can't get him to rest at all!

Happy Anniversary

noreply@blogger.com (Christen) — Fri, 27 Jun 2014 14:24:00 +0000

Today is our 7th anniversary. We've experienced so many different things during these 7 years, and I feel lucky to have been able to share in these experiences with my husband. Even through life's curve balls, we are able to stay close in our relationship. I love the life and family we've created. Here's a look back at the last 7 years!

Here's to many many more!

Zoo and Park and Dance OH MY!

noreply@blogger.com (Christen) — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 20:27:00 +0000

We went to the zoo last week with friends.

We hadn't been to the zoo in a while, so we were all excited to go. Unfortunately, I don't have the best track record of being prepared in these situations. You'd think I'd have this down by now, but somehow I just don't. I always forget something essential either leaving us in a frenzy distraught without our missing necessity or spending an extra $1,000 on something like sunscreen : ). For this little outing I was determined to be prepared. Emmy helped me prepare the night before and the trip was such a success with our well thought out planning.

It wasn't too hot, so walking around was manageable. The kids loved riding and walking up to each animal.

We tried to eat outside but got attacked by flies. Eating indoors was much more comfortable!

After the zoo, Emmy had her first dance class. It's a combo class with only a few girls. She loves it. She tries so hard to imitate the teacher and wants to keep practicing at home. They have a one way mirror/window we can watch through. I love getting to spy on her in this new element.

We went to Klyde Warren Park this Tuesday. And this is where my lack of planning edges it's way back in so gloriously.

We got to the park around 10:00 and it was already unbearably hot. It took me about 5 minutes to realize I didn't bring sunscreen. I was hopeful there would be shade and maybe we could play the majority of our time under a tree. No such luck. The only shaded area was about 10ft long shading a few tables, and we had no plans to eat in the near future. At this time, Maddox started to get nervous because I had also forgotten his hat. And since I've done such a fabulous job telling him he HAS to have sunscreen or a hat on when he is outside, he wasn't buying my declaration that he would be fine just this once. So we ended up sweating through the first hour only to realize I'd forgotten something else. Bathing suits! Who knew there would be countless spray areas for them to run through. So I did what any flawed mother would, let them get wet with the only pair of clothes they had. I did attempt to kindly ask them to try not to get soaked, but that was not successful. One of our friends came to play and shared her sunscreen with us. Thank goodness! So it ended up working out and the kids had a great time.

Out and About

noreply@blogger.com (Christen) — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 12:46:00 +0000

We spend most of our summer days at the pool. It's a great way to deal with the Texas heat and both kids love it.

Emmy LOVES the water. She has become a great swimmer and would swim all day every day if we let her. I'm impressed with how well she can swim. Swim team might be in her future : ). We have been spending a lot of time at our pool and she is always eager to do whatever the big kids are doing.

We do try to get out of the pool some. We tried bowling a few days ago. Maddox loved it, but Emmy wasn't too interested because she wasn't winning.

So far our summer is going great! Emmy and Maddox are even getting along really well. They have started to really play together much better and depend on each other for entertainment and company throughout the day. It is such a blessing to witness.

Daddy Dates

noreply@blogger.com (Christen) — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 12:43:00 +0000

Sleep has been a constant issue for the last five years! We can never seem to have both kids going to sleep at a decent time, by themselves, and sleeping in their room all night. They seem to take turns. One gives us hope and a glimpse in to sleep normalcy, while the other torments the household sleep cycle. I decided to try a treasure box. They get to pick from the treasure box if they go to sleep on their own and stay in their bed all night. I realize bribery isn't a good parenting tool and they should learn good sleep habits without a reward, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

I filled the treasure box( a leftover Easter basket) with all kinds of goodies. There are items from sticky hands and sunglasses to dates with Daddy/Mommy coupons. This has been a huge hit with Emmy. She's went to sleep on her own and stayed in her bed since we started! She has gotten many picks from the treasure box by now but has yet to pick Date with Mommy. Date with Daddy, on the other hand, is a favorite. I asked her why she never picks me and she said she always gets to do stuff with me. Haha well.... Ok I'll let her have that one. And now that it is summer we are always all three together and Daddy gets left out while he's at work. Poor Maddox rarely gets to pick from treasure box. He is too scared to fall asleep by himself and says he doesn't care about treasure box. A perfect example of how they are never quite on the same sleep page. And this picture is a glowing example of how sleeping with a three year old is always so sweet and comfy. : )

Here are some Date with Daddy pictures.

I love they get to spend this time together. She is such a Daddy's girl.

While they are on their date, I let Maddox choose what we are going to do at home.

He wanted to cuddle in my bed and play the iPad. We were playing a game and he was very excited each time he won.

He is such a mess! If I could only figure out how to get him to sleep....

Days In

noreply@blogger.com (Christen) — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 01:16:00 +0000

Our first day of summer was spent playing inside away from the rain. We planned on going swimming, but it was freezing (well the Texas summer version of freezing) outside.

We ended up staying busy around the house, which is not my favorite thing. I like to be out and about, but I guess I have the rest of the summer for that.

Maddox loves to play anything associated with a ball. He keeps himself pretty busy with basketball, baseball, and the occasional car smashing.

Emmy loves playing school. She is either Maddox's teacher or uses her stuffed animals as students.

And even with staying in all day, we still

end with an ice pack.

And to close with a funny quote:

Mommy-"Wow this Spider-Man show is old. It was made right before I was born. 1981."

Emmy-"Dinosaurs time?"

Bahahaha : )

The Fault in Our Stars

noreply@blogger.com (Christen) — Sun, 08 Jun 2014 13:10:00 +0000

I went with my mom to see The Fault in Our Stars on Saturday. I'd loved the book and was eager to go see the movie. We went to Alamo Draft house, and they had a fun themed menu for the occasion.

I've read and loved all of John Green books. Their categorized as YA, but

I think they are easily read by adults. His books have a theme of intelligent,

thought provoking teenagers pondering some of life's most significant issues.

Pool Time

noreply@blogger.com (Christen) — Sun, 08 Jun 2014 12:12:00 +0000

Pool days are back in full swing! We love spending our Sundays at the pool. Emmy has become quite the swimmer, and Maddox is no longer scared of the water.

Summer Break is Here

noreply@blogger.com (Christen) — Sun, 08 Jun 2014 12:00:00 +0000

It is officially summer for us! We had a great morning kicking off summer

reading with the public library. They had games, dogs, a petting zoo,

and a fire truck. The kids loved it! I even saw a few of my school kiddos there.

A great way to get kids ready to read this summer!