Elizabeth's Birthday Celebration

We had a great time celebrating Elizabeth's birthday. Considering it was the "last" birthday of her "Childhood" I decided to do some favorite children's games and we ended up having a great time!! We played these cheesy little 3 in a row games. (Grandpa Bruce and Grandma Sharon came over for the evening.)We also played blow up the balloon and sit on it and pop it, (simple, cheesy, but hilarious when you get Grandparents involved!). Eyn and I both got to use a chair since we're still recovering from surgery!Go Grandma Sharon!!

(When Grandpa Bruce was popping his balloon I was laughing so hard I didn't get any pictures! Hopefully Darin's recording of it will come out good. He said the camera was shaking from his laughing so hard he doesn't know what it will look like!) That balloon is nearly as big as Amberly!

We went outside and fulfilled one of Elizabeth's Childhood requests and had a pinata.

(It's not as easy as it looks!) (She was taking out all her "boy" frustrations on the pinata.)

Sweet rewards!Opening presents is always fun, especially when it comes to tormenting Elizabeth. She has been begging us for more than a year to add texting to her phone but I have always refused to have it added. Well, Darin and I finally relented and for one of her gifts she got texting added to her phone. (Early this afternoon she had already sent 47 messages! That's just wrong!!) Notice the "TEXT" on the floor in front of her. She was quite excited.

One tradition we have with birthdays is that the first bite of cake is just taking a big bite out of it. They don't have to do it if they don't want to, but it always brings a lot of laughs. Yummy!! Elizabeth seemed to be really happy and had a great day. I guess her birthday continued today as she has gone back to San Antonio again with some friends from our ward to go to Sea World for the next few days. (She's always the lucky one!!)

Happy 17th Birthday Elizabeth!!

My little girl is celebrating her 17th birthday today. It's always hard to believe how quickly they grow up. I get emotional as a write about Elizabeth. She came into the world wanting to come when she was ready and not a second sooner. She's always been very strong willed and determined to do it her way. She stands up for what she believes in and lives her life that way. She's not afraid to be different than the world. She knows who she is and I admire her so much for it. She looks for those who "stand in need" and is always there to lift them up. She is still our princess even at 17! (She has been wearing a princess crown all day today!) She is so incredibly talented! She's beautiful inside and out. How grateful we are that she is a part of our family. As I think about the fact that she is a senior in high school now it makes me incredibly sad. I cannot imagine life in our home without her. I treasure my little girl and know that she will do great things with her future!

Bahama Mama

Last night I just had to get out for a while. So, Darin Amberly and I took Elizabeth to Young Women at the church and went over to an awesome place called Bahama Mama's. They have wonderful sno-cones. They are so light and fluffy and yummy!! It was nice just sitting outside for a little while and enjoying them. This little shack has been in the same location for years and they are always busy during the summer.

Surgery Success / July 4th Celebration

I'm happy to say that my surgery is over and appears to have been successful. After nearly 3 months of insurance nightmares it's such a relief to have it over with. It has been a rough week, but I'm so happy to have it behind me. Darin has been incredible this week. After I came home from the hospital things were going well when I started to get nauseous. I couldn't get past it. It was horrible! I couldn't keep anything down all day and night Friday. Darin was exhausted because he was up with me most of the night. We spoke to the doctor in the middle of the night and he suggested going to the ER and getting blood work done and finding out what was going on. Friday night in an ER just didn't appeal to either of us. Finally early Saturday it came to Darin to try some anti-nausea medicine I had taken before. He started giving it to me every 10 minutes and It worked!! I was finally able to drink fluids and keep them down and then he fed me small bits of bread. Miracle! With the nausea gone a lot of the pain stopped. I'm still struggling with comforts of sleeping, but that's getting better too. YEA!!

Eyn had his surgery on Monday. I have never been on the waiting end of a surgery. It was hard watching them wheel him away to surgery. We luckily only had to wait about 1 1/2 hours to talk to the doctor again. His doctor is incredible! I feel really blessed to have him. Eyn came out of surgery groggy and looking so incredibly sad. It broke our hearts! He hurt and I hated that! We were able to bring him home early Monday afternoon. He has his arm wrapped straight and tight with a splint in it. He will get it taken off on Friday and then he will start rehab. I know that will be tough, but he can do it!!
Were both kind of a pathetic sight!
The past few months have been really tough with all the problems with our insurance, but Darin and I can't help but wonder if we were suppose to go through these problems so that the changes could be put in place so that when this happened to Eyn that he would have the doctor he has. It's amazing how things happen and work out for the best for everyone. I know that our prayers have definitely been answered and we are stronger and better because of them.



July 4th Celebration



On July 4th I was incredibly sick, but we had children who still wanted to enjoy the fun. One of the great things about living where we do is that you can do "all" fireworks. It is always so incredibly loud outside on the fourth of July and also on New Years Eve. But it's so much fun!! They had been asking all day long about fireworks but I felt so bad Darin couldn't leave me. We had a few left over from New Years in the garage so we were just going to let them do those. But luckily, that evening some friends of ours called and asked what they could do to help us and Darin said PLEASE get our children some fireworks. They were more than happy to pick some up and bring them over. We were saved! So, while I was laying on the couch miserable they all went outside and had some fun for a little while. I was more than happy laying on the couch listening to the popping outside and the barking of our dog going crazy from them!! Here are a few pictures of their fun night.