Recovering

On Monday Noah had his tonsils and adenoids removed. I know this is considered a "routine" procedure, but there's nothing routine about sending your child off to surgery. I've heard this can be life-changing, so I was hoping we'd made the right decision. When our doctor came to talk to us after the surgery, he told us Noah's adenoids had been blocking about 90% of the back of his airway and that his tonsils were extremely large for a child his age. I felt so relieved to know that we had indeed made the right decision. They kept Noah in the hospital overnight for observation, and he chose to have his Daddy stay with him. I felt a little guilty about going home Monday night, but I figured I've logged enough night-time hours with both boys that it was OK for me to sit this one out. Between the IV alarm going off and both of them sleeping in a twin bed, they didn't get much sleep on Monday night.

Today is Wednesday. Noah had a rough morning, but he perked up around 10:30 and actually ate a good bit of lunch. The most amazing part is listening to him breathe out of his nose. The breathing will only get better as the swelling goes down, another indication that this was the best decision for him. So, we'll muddle through the next couple days as best we can and will look forward to a new and improved Noah in the days to come.

My boys

Headed off to Home Depot to build something with their Daddy.

Fun run

About a month ago Luke told me he wanted to participate in a 1-mile fun run that his teachers talked about in P.E. I was really surprised he wanted to do it. Luke is not usually a fan of anything that takes effort and energy to do, but since he wanted to, I signed us up. It was pretty chilly the morning of the race, but we bundled up and headed out at 7:15.

Warming up before our big race!

Luke is also not a fan of being cold.

He asked SEVERAl times how much longer we had to go. The whole thing only took about 20 minutes, but you would have thought we were running a marathon.

Finished at last!

Sing, sing out loud

Say what?

I think I've shared recently that Noah's vocabulary has increased exponentially in the past couple of months. He is talking and talking and talking and talking. It's hard for me to believe that I was ever worried about his speech. So, here are a few recent conversation snippets:

-"Guess what Mommy? I love you!" (This melts my heart every time he says it.)
-"I love my Mommy." (The heart-melting goes with this one, too.)
-"Mommy my friend." (More heart-melting.)
-More often than not when you ask him to do something like brush his teeth or put his shoes on, he'll say, "I already did" whether or not he actually has. As Gary said, we're going to have to watch this one. But I love that he uses the word "already".
-When Luke did something for Noah a couple of weeks ago, he said, "I 'preciate that, Bubba."

There are many more, but this gives you a glimpse into everyday life around here.

First grade

My baby is in first grade! He was so excited when he

woke up Monday morning. He has a

wonderful teacher who is sweet and kind, and I know it's going to be a great year for him.

Birthday bash

I recently celebrated my 37th birthday, and two of my sweet friends threw me a party. The theme was "Hollywood Glamour", and the invitation said to dress as your favorite movie star. To be honest, I wasn't all that excited about dressing up at first. I thought and thought about it and finally decided not to dress up. But then, while searching for costumes online one last time, I came across the idea to dress as Britney Spears. Not the cute "Hit Me Baby One More Time" Britney, the trashy, walking in gas station bathrooms barefooted Britney. I was sold. I already had most of the things I needed (I'm still not sure if this is a good thing), and was able to find the rest pretty easily. I am so glad I decided to dress up because it was a hoot! There were lots of other great costumes, too, and I think everyone had a good time (I know I did!)

Miley, Britney, & Sandra Dee

Tori Spelling, the Playboy Bunny, Miley, Britney, Angelina, & Sandra Dee with Hef
Phil Mickelson (Gary's sad attempt at dressing up), Brad Pitt, Hef, Billy Ray, Joaquin Phoenix, and Dean McDermott (Tori Spelling's hubby)

Look how cute my cake is!

Noah sings the ABC's

It's been too long

I had no idea it had been almost two months since I've posted anything new. Yesterday it was my 10th anniversary, and now we're 3 weeks away from starting another school year. We went on vacation for two weeks (and had a great time), and now we're living the lazy days of summer. Life is chugging along.

I sometimes think about giving up this blog. I won't, though, because of my most faithful reader, my Nana. I know there are 1 or 2 others out there who stop by to read it from time to time, but my Nana loves it too much for me to stop altogether. When I get this far behind, it's sometimes overwhelming for me to get caught up, so I think I'll just start with the most recent past.

Luke turned 6 last Thursday. 6? 6! I just can't believe it. He'll be in first grade this year. We have taken our first foray into the world of hand-held video games with the Nintendo DSi. He LOVES it. I must admit I've played a few times, but I think kids his age are born with a natural ability to figure out video games. He's a whiz, and I'm quite the novice. His other newest passion is chess. Again, he's a whiz and I'm whatever is below novice status. He beat me today in ten minutes flat. Geez, that kid is smart.

Noah is 2 1/2. Boy, is he ever! He started asking, "Why?" last week, and I thought to myself, "Really? Really? Are we there already?" He is still such a hoot and is talking up a storm. Yesterday at lunch he said, "Mommy, I want more pretzels and more oranges." Just as clear as day. It's good.

Just so no one forgets how absolutely adorable my boys are . . .

Our first decade

Today is our 10th anniversary. It's hard to believe it's been 10 years since we got married! About 30 minutes from right now I was getting ready to walk down the aisle to start the rest of my life. I'm thankful to have such a wonderful husband who is loving and kind and has turned out to be a fantastic father (not that I ever had any doubts!)

Here are a few pictures from June 12, 1999.

Hannah was 4 and Katie & Lauren were almost 7. They're so little here and are such pretty, grown-up girls now.

A pre-church miracle!

You'd think it would be easy to leave at 9:15 for church when we're all up by about 7:00, but for some reason we're usually rushing to get out the door. Today we were actually ready a little early, so I took the opportunity to take a few pictures.