The Cooper Empire

CHD Awareness - Day 1

2012-02-07T12:46:00.000-08:00

Today is the first day of Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week! Look for lots of posts about CHD's this week and help us spread the word to raise awareness!!

7 FAQ’s

•

1.What is a congenital heart defect? CHD’s are structural problems with the heart present at birth. They result when a mishap occurs during heart development soon after conception and often before the mother is aware she is pregnant. Defects range in severity from simple to problems, such as “holes” between chambers of the heart, to very severe malformations, such as complete absence of one or more chambers or valves.

2.Who is at risk to have a child with a congenital heart defect? Anyone can have a child with a congenital heart defect. Out of 1000 births, 8 babies will have some form of CHD, most of which are mild. If you or other family members have already had a baby with a heart defect, your risk of having a baby with heart disease may be higher.

3.How many people in the United States have a congenital heart defect? Estimates suggest that about 1,000,000 Americans have a congenital heart defect. Approximately 35,000 babies are born with a defect each year.

4.Why do congenital heart defects occur? Most of the time we do not know. Although the reason defects occur is presumed to be genetic, only a few genes have been discovered that have been linked to the presence of heart defects. Rarely the ingestion of some drugs and the occurrence of some infections during pregnancy can cause defects.

5.How can I tell if my baby or child has a congenital heart defect? Severe heart disease generally becomes evident during the first few months after birth. Some babies are blue or have very low blood pressure shortly after birth. Other defects cause breathing difficulties, feeding problems, or poor weight gain. Minor defects rarely cause symptoms. While most heart murmurs in children are normal, some may be due to defects.

6.How serious is the problem? CHD’s are the most common birth defect and are the number one cause of death from birth defects during the first year of life. Nearly twice as many children die from CHD in the United States each year as die from all forms of childhood cancers combined. (author's note....Can you believe this statistic?? Another fact is that 5 times the amount of money spent on CHD research is spent on childhood cancer research!!) Over 91,000 life years are lost each year in the US due to congenital heart disease. Charges for care exceed 2.2 billion dollars, for inpatient surgery alone.

7.Are things improving? Definitely. Overall mortality has significantly declined over the past few decades. For example, in the 1960s and 1970s the risk of dying following congenital heart surgery was about 30% and today it is around 5%.

One of the things that I feel VERY strongly about is raising awareness about CHD's. They are everywhere. It is amazing how many people I have met and when they find out about Gracie....they know someone who had a CHD or had a CHD themselves. Why do you not hear about CHD's the way that you hear about other childhood diseases??

Do your part to help raise awareness!!

Catching Up!!

2012-01-27T10:02:00.000-08:00

Some of you are my FB friends and have seen things that have been posted. I figured it was time to actually get an update together on all things Cooper!

Bennett got his cast off 3 weeks ago. Yea! However, he is still on complete restriction. Ugh! He feels perfectly fine so this is proving to be quite the challenge with him. He came running in the living room this week and did a handstand and a cartwheel before I could stop him. I am guessing that means that his arm doesn’t bother him a bit anymore. He is becoming quite the 7-year old. He is starting to get a little attitude! He has had to move his color at school a couple of times so last night resulted in him having to write 25 sentences…and it didn’t really phase him. I am hoping once he gets clearance to go to recess and play soccer again that he will have an outlet for his energy. He literally can’t sit still and I think a lot of it is due to the fact that he just can’t release it right now. Craig took him back to the dermatologist last week. His wart isn’t getting any better and we discovered that he has sweaty palms. This is causing the wart to be slow in the removal process. We got a prescription for a compounded cream and it is already making a difference! And, they told us that we might have to eventually treat the sweaty palms…..

Maggie is still such a sweetheart. Her 4-month (AHHHH! How can she possibly be that old already??) was Wednesday. She weighed 13.4 pounds (45%tile). I can’t remember what her height was but she was in the 75%tile. She is my tallest kiddo!! She has consistently been tall. She had her first bite of cereal last night and didn’t know what to think. Most of it came back out of her mouth! She is laid back and such a smiley girl. She is so close to rolling over….that darn arm just gets in her way!

And then we have Grace….as some of you know, we have been battling sickness since the beginning of December. She has had fever off and on, the elevated heart rate, and low sat levels. No one could really pinpoint what was going on with her. Lungs sound clear, x-rays look fine, etc. Last week was a rough week with her being sick. She started running fever on Saturday night. We went to the doctor last Monday and got diagnosed with “the crud”. She still had fever on Tuesday and it finally broke on Wednesday morning. She seemed to be feeling better. This week brought more of the same. She woke up on Monday looking very blue. We made an appointment with Dr. Prestidge on Monday. Her sats were in the high 60’s when we got there. He gave her steroids and breathing treatments. He wanted to see her back so we went back to Dallas on Wednesday. Her sats were in the low 80’s. Dr. P said he wanted to contact the pulmonologist and bounce things off of him. In talking with him and Dr. Thomas (cardio) we think there is something going on with the transfer of gases in her lungs. Last night, she threw up 3 times and then started running 102 fever again. It is so sad to see her like that. So, we went back to the pediatrician today. (That is the 3rd time this week!!) Dr. P was out, but we talked to him on the phone. Dr. F didn’t really have any explanations to the fever – because she had no fever once they got to the office! Her sats were 80 and Craig said she was bouncing off the walls. The plan is to get into the pulmonologist early next week to see what is going on with her lungs. We are glad that we are finally getting some leads on what to check because it has been very frustrating not knowing what is going on with her.

Whew. That should catch everyone back up! We would appreciate any prayers and positive thoughts that we can find out exactly what is going on with our girl.

2 Weeks.....

2011-06-13T13:05:00.001-07:00

We just got back from a pre-op check up with our pediatrician. Gracie weighed in at 27 pounds (shoes and clothes). We haven't seen Dr. P since she had the flu in February. He walked in, looked at her, and said, "This is the best I have ever seen her look!" I agree - makes it harder to take her to the hospital. He thumbed through her charts and said, "Man, this kid has come a long way, hasn't she?" Ears, throat, lungs, etc all looked great. He said that he wanted to come by the hospital to check in on her.

So, here we go.... 2 weeks from tomorrow. Ugh. My stomach is getting more and more nervous. We have our heart cath next week to measure all of her pressures in her heart.

Start saying those prayers!

Kindergarten Graduation

2011-06-02T17:10:00.000-07:00

My son is officially a first grader! I am a little sad, because he is getting so big. Here are some pictures and videos from his ceremony.

Minute to Win It

2011-06-02T17:00:00.000-07:00

Bennett and Grace love to watch the show Minute to Win It. It is one of their favorite shows. Bennett - my creative child - loves to create games and try to "win." (He also created a Wipeout course....but that is a whole different story....)

Here is the course and their "completion" of it....

A Conversation with Grace

2011-06-02T16:55:00.000-07:00

A night time conversation with Grace...

Fun in the Mud

2011-06-02T16:50:00.000-07:00

We went to the farm for Craig's birthday. (This is Craig's parent house) They have a couple of hundred acres. It rained all weekend. Bennett, my little water bug, was very encouraged by D-Daddy to go check out the mud pit. You can see what happened.....

Healthy heart!

2011-04-11T13:31:00.000-07:00

We got some terrific news on Wednesday!! Baby Cooper has a 4-chambered heart!!! We saw the ECHO tech at Dr. Thomas' office. It was still a little early to check, but we could see everything except the pulmonary artery clearly. However, Dr. Thomas said that based on the blood flow through the ductal arch that it looks as if there are no problems!! Hooray!! We will set another appointment in a month just to look at the pulmonary artery to be sure. It will also be time for the sonogram at the OB/GYN office so we will get to see baby lots next month!!

Bennett and Gracie are getting more and more excited. B wants to feel the baby moving. Hopefully baby will cooperate at some point before it is born.

We have all been relatively healthy...with the exception of pink eye that Gracie caught....gave to Craig....who in turn gave it to Bennett.....who had a terrible case! Grace and Craig's eye cleared up so quickly, but B's has really hung around.

Our friend, Karen aka Jozzy, came to visit us the last weekend of March. She was running the half marathon. The kids were beside themselves to see her....which turned to pure estatic glee when we pulled into the parking lot of Great Wolf Lodge to spend the night! They ask to go there all of the time. We got a gift card 2 Christmas's ago and we have been saving it. Lots of time at the water park....Gracie must have gone down the blue slide 976 times. She would get cold....we would take her to the hot tub to warm up....and then she would be off to the slide again. B's highlight was defeating the dragon playing MagiQuest. He had a wand and had to solve several puzzles to collect all of the runes. Then, we headed down to become a Master Magi and defeat the dragon. Homeboy was all kinds of proud of himself.

We are all still doing well. Times are tough in education right now, but thankfully I have a job for next year. Kids are doing well in school. Craig is staying busy with work. Everybody feels good.

B has been in soccer overdrive. He plays on a rec team. He got invited to join a club team with his kindergarten teacher. So we have soccer camp on Monday, practice on Weds for rec, practice on Fridays (that last from 1-1 1/2 hours) for club, and games on Saturday. He says he loves it! Every other night, he and Daddy play soccer in the house. (grrr)

Lu is still loving dance! It is her favorite activity. She is going to be a princess in her recital so she is pumped about that.

Only 2 more months before we begin all the heart stuff again. Ugh. Pulmonology appointment in mid-May. Heart appt in early June. Heart cath on June 22. Pre-op on June 27. Big surgery day is June 28. She tells us all the time that she "is going to be able to run fast after she gets her heart fixed." She definitely gets tired and out of breath easily. She has started showing anyone who will look her zipper. And she loved the fact that Nana had 2 zippers on her knees! (she had double knee replacement) She even showed her zipper to the nurse at the hospital!

Thanks for checking in on us. Drop a line to let us know that you were here!

Big News

2011-03-02T13:27:00.000-08:00

Surprise, surprise.....the Cooper Empire is expanding by one.

Once we got over the shock, we are quickly getting excited about the prospect that we are going to have a new baby at our house. We went to the doctor in February and saw the little alien's heartbeat. I was not quite as far along as I initially thought. I am due October 2. I go back to the doctor next week and hopefully we will get to hear the heartbeat chugging along.

Dr. Thomas and his office just ordered a fancy, schmancy new machine. They will take a peek at the little one's heart sometime past my 12 week mark.

I already have a little belly popped out - but just look fatter than I already did.

Bennett and Gracie are so excited!!! B wants a brother. He wants to name him Thor or Steve (Steve being Captain America's real name) G wants a sister named Foofa (from Yo Gabba Gabba) or Cinderella.

Here is how we told people....

And the little alien.....

My boy

2011-03-02T13:08:00.000-08:00

My boy is growing up....sigh. He had his Valentine Cotillion at school a couple of weeks ago. Just look at how handsome he is.....

Super Heroes Gone Wrong

2011-03-02T13:03:00.000-08:00

Picture this......

B comes home complaining of kids at school. Grandpa asks him why he doesn't use his super-hero moves on these kids. B jumped out of the chair and proceeds to make super-hero sounds and show off his super incredible super-hero moves....which include kicking. At which point he kicked the wall..... and then he yells and goes to grab his foot......and bangs his head on the table.....

It's tough being a super hero!!

CHD Awareness Week - Day 3

2011-02-09T08:17:00.001-08:00

7 BITS OF ADVICE FOR CHD PARENTS
1. Ask for help. This was a hard one for me and Craig. It is hard to ask people to help you, but necessary.

2. Accept help that is offered. This was even harder for both of us. People want to help and it is okay to take them up on the offer.

3. Join a support group. You have to do this when you are ready. Some are ready before others.

4. Ask questions! Ask lots and lots of questions. Make sure that you understand what is happening with your child.

5. Speak up! You know your child best. Sometimes you have to follow your gut and speak up.

6. Appreciate your doctors, nurses, etc. They are taking good care of your kids.

7. Appreciate each and every day with your little one. Some parents are not as lucky and don't get to have their kids with them. Even when Gracie is driving me nuts, I really try to remember this.

More CHD fun tomorrow!!

CHD Awareness Week - Day 2

2011-02-08T16:14:00.000-08:00

7 WAYS YOU CAN HELP!

1. Donate blood!! This is so important. All of our kiddos receive blood during their surgeries. If you want your donation to be directly credited to Gracie, contact me and I will give you our account info. If not, come out to Medical City on February 12. Our support group is having a blood drive from 10-4.

2. Donate money to your favorite cause. Amazing Little Hearts is finally a non-profit. Contact me for info on how to donate.

3. Support a group. If you don't want to donate money, donate some of your time to a group. Offer to help them.

4. Become an organ donor!! I am on....and everyone in my family knows it.

5. Find a cause that is important to you. For me, it is CHD Awareness. Find your passion.

6. Educate people about CHD.

7. Support a family. Just be a shoulder to lean on with they need someone to be there for them.

CHD Awareness Week - Day 1

2011-02-07T08:16:00.000-08:00

Today is the first day of Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week! Look for lots of posts about CHD's this week and help us spread the word to raise awareness!!

7 FAQ’s

1. What is a congenital heart defect? CHD’s are structural problems with the heart present at birth. They result when a mishap occurs during heart development soon after conception and often before the mother is aware she is pregnant. Defects range in severity from simple to problems, such as “holes” between chambers of the heart, to very severe malformations, such as complete absence of one or more chambers or valves.

2. Who is at risk to have a child with a congenital heart defect? Anyone can have a child with a congenital heart defect. Out of 1000 births, 8 babies will have some form of CHD, most of which are mild. If you or other family members have already had a baby with a heart defect, your risk of having a baby with heart disease may be higher.

3. How many people in the United States have a congenital heart defect? Estimates suggest that about 1,000,000 Americans have a congenital heart defect. Approximately 35,000 babies are born with a defect each year.

4. Why do congenital heart defects occur? Most of the time we do not know. Although the reason defects occur is presumed to be genetic, only a few genes have been discovered that have been linked to the presence of heart defects. Rarely the ingestion of some drugs and the occurrence of some infections during pregnancy can cause defects.

5. How can I tell if my baby or child has a congenital heart defect? Severe heart disease generally becomes evident during the first few months after birth. Some babies are blue or have very low blood pressure shortly after birth. Other defects cause breathing difficulties, feeding problems, or poor weight gain. Minor defects rarely cause symptoms. While most heart murmurs in children are normal, some may be due to defects.

6. How serious is the problem? CHD’s are the most common birth defect and are the number one cause of death from birth defects during the first year of life. Nearly twice as many children die from CHD in the United States each year as die from all forms of childhood cancers combined. (author's note....Can you believe this statistic?? Another fact is that 5 times the amount of money spent on CHD research is spent on childhood cancer research!!) Over 91,000 life years are lost each year in the US due to congenital heart disease. Charges for care exceed 2.2 billion dollars, for inpatient surgery alone.

7. Are things improving? Definitely. Overall mortality has significantly declined over the past few decades. For example, in the 1960s and 1970s the risk of dying following congenital heart surgery was about 30% and today it is around 5%.

One of the things that I feel VERY strongly about is raising awareness about CHD's. They are everywhere. It is amazing how many people I have met and when they find out about Gracie....they know someone who had a CHD or had a CHD themselves. Why do you not hear about CHD's the way that you hear about other childhood diseases??

Do your part to help raise awareness!!

Snow Day!!

2011-02-01T12:39:00.000-08:00

This crazy Texas weather!! We were wearing short sleeves this weekend. It was beautiful outside. Today the temp has been in the low 20's. There is snow and ice on the ground. Since we don't really know how to handle it, everything is pretty much shut down! The kids have been begging to go outside all morning.

And some videos for your entertainment.....

Bike Riders

2011-02-01T12:28:00.000-08:00

So, the boy has been super scared to try riding a bike with no training wheels. We are mean parents who were determined that our kid was going to know how to ride a bike. Mommy, the more patient parent, worked with him this past weekend.

We present to you.....the bike rider!!

And, not to be outdone by the attention that her brother was getting..... She insisted that I video her too. She is funny because she doesn't weigh enough to really get the bike moving. She gets stuck quite a bit which causes me to have to do a lot of pushing.

Sick, sick, sick

2011-01-27T07:26:00.000-08:00

Doesn't my poor baby look like she has been on a 4-day bender??

It has been a LONG week. Gracie started running fever Sunday evening. The poor thing was burning up!! It was so sad. We went to see Dr. Prestidge on Monday afternoon. He said that her left ear looked a little dull and red so he gave her an antibiotic in case the ear was causing the fever. She weighed 24.6 fully clothed and her sats were around 82. He heard her cough and said "well, it definitely sounds like she has a virus."

Monday night, Bennett started running fever. He has a horrible cough. Needless to say, no one in the Cooper household was getting much sleep. Grandpa and Nana were off work on Tuesday so they were able to keep the kids for me - which was a huge help because I am quickly running out of days that I can take off. B's fever broke pretty early on but you could tell that he still didn't feel good.

Wednesday brought more of the same. Grace was still running fever. Grandpa got to use another one of his days off to keep a cutie pie! (However, I don't think that he was too sad to get some one-on-one with her!! She is in a pretty snuggly mood.) In fact, when I got to his house to pick her up, they were "resting" in the recliner together!

I talked to Dr. Prestidge yesterday morning and told him that I found out that the flu had been going like wildfire through the kids school. He told me to bring her by and he would run a flu test on her. Lo and behold....it was positive. No wonder the poor baby isn't feeling good!! So, even though it has been 4 days, he put her on Tamiflu because "this is Gracie we are talking about." Yes, she had a flu shot. But, she is just so susecptible to things. He felt like that was what Bennett was fighting off with his fever. Of course, Daddy hasn't gotten a flu shot yet! So, he gets to take some Tamiflu too! Bennett's cough still sounds horrible and he is so pale. But, he is hanging in there and going to school. The girl is with her D-Daddy for the next two days...and I am pretty sure that he would have taken B in a heartbeat....especially since he told me several times that he would.

A couple of funny things that have come out of her mouth lately....

"Mommy, Bennett hit me and I had heart surgery." (milk it sister. Homegirl is going to do her best to get out of PE!!)

"Mommy, after today is it going to be tomorrow?"

"Look Daddy! (pointing to her chest) This is where I lost my heart." Daddy tells her that she still has a heart. "No, I have a zipper now!"

We would appreciate prayers for quick healing. And, that Daddy doesn't get sick.

PS - February 7-14 is CHD Awareness Week. We are having a blood drive on February 12 at Medical City Hospital. Details to come soon......

Smarty Pants

2011-01-19T10:42:00.001-08:00

Bennett - in all of his infinite wisdom - decided that he and Gracie were going to race while getting dressed this morning. Daddy gave Grace a little hand to help her speed the process along. Mommy asks the girl how many ponytails that she wants today. The girl answers one. Bennett - upon seeing that he is now losing the getting dressed race - says "Don't you want two ponytails? That would look so cute!" And, of course she wants 2 ponytails because she does everything her brother says.

And Bennett wins the race.....

That kid is always thinking.....

The Girl

2011-01-10T12:25:00.000-08:00

Homegirl has some serious morning hair!!

Poor baby got her mommy's curly hair. But, it isn't long enough to do anything with. But, that smile melts my heart!!

One funny from her from this weekend..... Bennett was told no about something. He proceeded to throw a fit and cry. (ahhh....I love being a parent) He was told to stop being a crybaby. Lu responds "I am not a crybaby! I have a happy spirit!"

Man, I love that kid.....

Snow

2011-01-10T12:22:00.000-08:00

Poor Bennett.....he was so excited about the possibility of snow. He must have looked out the window 100 times yesterday. Finally, some huge flakes started falling down from the sky. He was so excited to get all of his snow clothes on and go outside! He scraped the snow from the top of the cars so he could throw snowballs.

We got the shaft and nothing stuck on the ground. Many of the cities north of us didn't have school today because of the amount of snow/ice on the ground.

I still think that they are pretty darn cute.....snow clothes and all.

Star of the Week

2011-01-04T08:00:00.000-08:00

Miss Grace is the Star of the Week at school this week. She is SO excited. She has probably told me a million times "I am the stawr of the week, Mommy."

She was supposed to take a posted to school yesterday...but being the mom of the year that I am...I forgot. In my defense, I didn't take them to school while we were out on break. So, we whipped up her poster last night. She was so excited to show all of her pictures to Miss Niecey this morning.

She gets to bring something special every day to share with her class. Yesterday was movie day. Can you guess what movie she picked?? That's right...Yo Gabba Gabba! Today she took a book to share. It is a book that she got for Christmas. The main characters name is Gracie and she dreams of being a famous dancer. It has hologram pictures that change when you move the book around. It shows hula dancing, tap dancing, Rockettes, etc. It is very cute.

I wanted to share her poster on the blog because I thought it turned out pretty darn cute!!

Love,
Jennifer

Catching Up

2010-12-30T16:05:00.000-08:00

As usual....I haven't updated this site in forever. It is so hard to keep both sites going. I keep saying that I am just going to use one or the other, but both have features that I like. I just need to do better about actually getting on here and writing.

However, I don't think that many people actually read this site so....

The video up there is my baby girl's first dance recital. Of course, I think that she is pretty stinking adorable. She did so good...especially since she is by far the youngest one in her class. I was definitely a proud mama.

Bennett had a musical theater production, but it is a little over 6 minutes long so I won't put you through watching that. I just made all of the family do that! :) He loves that class, but gets a little silly when we are allowed to watch.

We had a terrific Christmas. All of us got very spoiled. The kids were very excited about their presents. Bennett was totally into the WHOLE Christmas thing this year.

He did have a solo in his school show. He did a great job. His teachers do the MOST amazing job when it comes to putting on a show. It was terrific!

We had our appointment with Dr. Thomas yesterday. You can read the whole update at www.caringbridge.org/visit/gracecooper but basically we are scheduled to have surgery on June 28. Ugh. It is never easy to hand your kiddo over....even when you know that it is the best thing for her.

Grace had her customary holiday sickness over Christmas. It never fails. We missed bringing the Christmas meal up to the hospital because she woke up with fever...again. Ugh. We went to see the doc. They tested for strep and flu...both were negative....so it was a viral thing...surprise, surprise. She is just now getting to where she is feeling better.

I am looking forward to seeing what the new year has in store for us!!

Love,
Jennifer

Florida Vacation

2010-08-11T14:16:00.000-07:00

I am late getting this posted, but we were able to go Florida to stay with Misty for a week at the end of July. Neither one of the kids had ever seen the ocean and Bennett instantly fell in love with it.

Look at how crazy her hair got in the humidity. Aunt Misty kept calling her "Curly Girly"

Bennett loved covering himself in sand!!

Bennett was a swimming machine. He swam like this every single time we were in the water...which was every single day!

Bennett, Grace, and my niece Sloan building sand castles.

I had to include this picture of my niece, Landry. Look at those thighs!! Aren't they yummy??

One of the favorite past times was building sand castles.

This was the first time that Landry had been to the beach when she was big enough to get down and play......she spent all of her time eating sand.

There is NO telling what he was doing here.

I don't know why....but I LOVE this picture. There is just something about it that gets me.

Look at this skinny minny!! This is a 6-12 month bathing suit...and she will be 3 in 3 weeks.

I have no idea why this is the only picture of Sloan that I have that actually shows her face.

My little water-loving fish.

Bennett really loved looking for shells. On our last day there, we took him and my niece, Abbie, to a place called Shell Island. (The little girls got to stay with a babysitter.) We had to take a shuttle out there and then it docks and you have to walk about 10 minutes through the hot sand to the other side of the island. But, the reward is amazing. The shells were beautiful and we brought back 18 sand dollars.....those are the ones that survived. We broke our fair share too. We applied and reapplied sunscreen, but snorkeling for almost 4 hours left the back of my legs SUPER red. I could barely walk for the next couple of days. It was bad.

The highlight for the trip for Bennett was going on the pirate ship! He had a blast. It was a "real" pirate ship with pirates onboard. The kids got to sword fight, water gun fight, and look for treasure...which they then heave-hoed up out of the ocean. It was well worth every penny for my pirate loving boy.

Can't you just see the excitement in his eyes??

The captain said that dolphins love Bob Marley.....

This is how Gracie spent the majority of the ride....until I just held her hands down by her side and made her get used to the noise. (Mommy is so mean!)

Pirate Princess....

Loving the water gun fight

Bennett thought this sign was hysterical!

Picking out pirate treasure from the bottom of the ocean

Pirate Bennett and Bones

And....this is where Bennett got a little too close to the pirate sword....

Okay....maybe not....Bennett wanted a brush to brush his hair while he was in the bath tub. I told him no since we were trying to hurry. So, he decided to brush his hair with Mommy's razor. (yes, we have had a talk about NOT touching Mommy's things....)

Not the best video but my boy looks so cute here! He is in the green shirt and khaki shorts with the bandana on his head.

As you can tell, we had a terrific time. We are very thankful that Uncle Jimmy let us crash his house for a week.

In other news, we sold our house and we are moving next weekend. We are just going to a small rent house for a year and then we will build again. I go back to work on Monday and I am not looking forward to dropping the kids off at school. They have been with me all summer and Gracie is not going to be happy when I leave without her to go to work.

Can you believe that my baby is going to be 3 in 3 weeks?? Where has the time gone??

Vacation Wrap-Up

2010-07-13T12:41:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun on our first family road trip!! We left about 4:00 on Wednesday afternoon and made it all the way to Tucumcari, NM. We taught Bennett how to pull his arm to get a truck to honk his horn at him along the way and he thought that was great.

Thursday morning, we hit the road early. Our goal was to make it to the Petrified National Forest and Painted Desert for a picnic lunch.

Bennett is very into Spider-Man right now so be prepared to see this pose quite frequently!

The kids did so great in the car. I was so proud of them. AND....my little Gracie made it all the way to Vegas and kept her pull-up completely dry!!! That is pretty impressive. Bennett was super-duper excited about crossing over the Hoover Dam...mainly because that is where Megatron is hidden.

We finally pulled into Vegas where we were super excited to reunite with our friends, the Rollers. We had pizza and called it a night.

We slept in a little Friday morning and then headed to the best Disney outlet ever! I was able to snag Gracie a SUPER cute Minnie Mouse bathing suit for $5.99. Then, it was off to Circus Circus. We had so much fun....and we got to be a part of Isaac riding his first ever ride!!

Yes, Eli looks super excited because his lion was broken. Bennett was very excited because he was riding the "dragon horse." Isaac was doing his happy dance because he LOVED it. We rode tons of rides and had a great time!!!

Friday afternoon, we went back to Kathy's house and swam....after we stopped and I had my first In-N-Out Burger. It was yummy!! Daddy was a great sport and swam with all the kids because I was super tired and I was visiting with Kathy. Then, Chris was a good sport and kept all the kids while all of the adults went on date night to The Cheesecake Factory. We were going to go to the movies or to the strip, but honestly....we were all too tired to do anything so we went home and went to bed!

Saturday morning started at the Strip again. We drove by the Fabulous Las Vegas sign. (I have never seen it!) We went to the lion habitat inside MGM studios. They had just fed the lions so they were very active. Then, we walked down past all the "characters" (and they were some scary ones...) to M&M World. We got to the 2nd floor and everyone was filling up their bags of candy when I looked at Craig. He was holding Gracie out at arms length and Kathy was trying not to laugh. Why? Because my darling little angel daughter was peeing all over the floor of M&M World! The employees were SO SO SO nice. I can't say enough nice things about them. We headed back to Kathy's house for more swimming. My kids are little fish so they were in hog heaven to be in the pool so much. The Roller's had to go to Eli's baptism so we hung at their house since we didn't take any nice clothes with us. We had dinner and then decided to take Bennett to see the strip at night. Wow....talk about some good people watching for me!! I was loving it!! We started at the fountains at the Bellagio. Then, we made our way down to the Mirage to see the Volcano erupt. Bennett loved it at first....but that quickly turned to sheer terror. He literally thought that the volcano was going to erupt all over us and freaked out!

Bennett and Eli before the volcano freak out!

Then, we walked back through the Forum shops at Cesar's Palace. We had promised the kids ice cream. We saw a little gelato stand. We went up and each ordered one. Our bill was FORTY DOLLARS!!!! FOR ICE CREAM!!!! $7.95 a piece for a small gelato? Hello?? Are you freaking kidding me?? I thought Craig was going to stroke out. (and those of you who know Craig know exactly was I am talking about!) Bennett and Eli didn't want to finish theirs and Craig looked at them like they were crazy. He looked at me and said, "Don't they realize that stuff is golden?" Bennett was so tired....this is what happened on the way home.

Sunday morning brought....you guessed it.....more swimming. Seriously, I think my kids are going to grow gills. They love to be in the water. We went to have mexican food for lunch at Chevy's - yummy. And, then Kathy and I enjoyed watching Gracie shop in her craft room. It was pretty hysterical. And, after being in Vegas for a couple of days...this is what my daughter turned into.....

Playboy bunny? All of this outfit is courtesy of Kathy's craft room.

Craig and I tossed around leaving on Sunday evening but we ultimately decided to stay and I am so happy that we did. All of the boys went and bought fireworks and we had a great little show out in the cul-de-sac. Bennett had a blast!!

And this is what Grace thought about the fireworks. She quickly went inside the house where she stayed by herself.

And what did Isaac think?

We left bright and early on Monday morning and headed for the Grand Canyon. I was so so so very excited about this because I have never been there!! Craig had originally thought that we wouldn't have enough time to go there, but it worked out!

No children were harmed in the filming of this video....although Bennett did almost give Craig a heart attack from sitting on the edge of that rock.

We had a nice picnic lunch in the Grand Canyon and made it all the way to Albuquerque to spend the night.

Tuesday was spent all day driving. We stopped for lunch at Cheddars in Amarillo. About 3 pm, I got hit with the stomach bug. No fun at all when you are on a road trip. We made it home about 7:15 and this is what we saw.

Two kids READY to get out of their car seats!!

Bennett woke up with the stomach bug on Wednesday. He woke me up at 6:30 by throwing up all over me. He then spent the morning with it coming out both ends. Grace spent Thursday morning in such a state of lethargy that I was on my way to the ER via orders from Dr. Thomas when she just all of a sudden snapped out of it. But, she finished out her night by....throwing up all over me. Nice. Welcome home.

But, the best part of our trip? Seeing these two beautiful, heart friends loving Yo Gabba Gabba together.

Guess where I am going??

2010-06-22T13:16:00.000-07:00

One more week!! That's it!! Guess where I am going next Wednesday???

I am so excited! Daddy, the kids, and I are taking a road trip to visit the fabulous Rollers. Eli and Bennett can talk each others ears off and give us mama's a break!

We have made a list of the FREE things to do while we are there. I am actually looking forward to the drive. (I think that I might be crazy...) I love looking at "stuff" and this is a great opportunity.

Gracie goes to the cardiologist on Thursday so I have the creeping feeling in my gut. I know that she is doing fine and dandy, but the flutters still find a way to sneak in.

We have enjoyed our summer so far. The kids have done great about sleeping in which has been a pleasant change. Of course, they are staying up later too.

Pics from Vegas to follow.......