More pics

Diamond creek. It was so warm and so hot there today, with no wind...it is our absolutely favorite place to go. The kids were standing on a rock while the tide blasted them with water. They originally got me to join in until I got completely soaked!

Our little pilot. These are from her birthday where uncle Corey and aunt Linda took her to a special birthday breakfast. She got to fly the plane on the way home.

4th of July

Our 4th of July was lots of fun. We started out at our church carnival, complete with a dunk tank, bounce house and a cake walk..which netted us 4 cakes! The kids wanted to keep going, but enough was enough ;) Later we went to the parade, which is always fun. The kids came prepared for the candy that was thrown by bringing extra large bags to carry all their 'loot' in. Lauren got to ride in the back of a police car, complete with the prisoner jumpsuit and a mugshot picture of her. I will post those as soon as I get the copies. Now the kids are all sugared out...here's hoping they crash and actually sleep tonight! Okay....here are a couple of Lauren's pictures. She and Abbey got dunked in the dunk tank!

Mia's surgery

Well we had a little bit of a scary experience while we were in Anchorage. Mia went to a pediatric urologist for some bladder issues she has been having for the past 2 years. The doctor needed to get a better look at what was happening, so Mia had to undergo a cystoscopy to get a good look at her bladder, kidneys and everything else in there. It was very scary for me, because she had to be under general anesthesia and scary for her because she had to have an IV. Nonetheless, we were both excited to get to the bottom of this problem. The doctor discovered that she has malformed ureters and that some of her urine is flowing back into the kidneys. She has to go back to Anchorage for a Cystogram, which is a special type of imaging with contrast dye that looks at how things flow, to give them a better idea of what is happening and how to best treat it. She will have to be sedated for this too, but not general anesthesia, which is a relief. After that we will have more information on how to treat it, which could possibly be surgery.
She was excellent during her surgery and the placement of her IV. I was pretty impressed because they didn't place it after she had been lightly sedated. I took some pictures, but will have to post them later. She was so tiny she had to wear a toddler gown, which was actually too big!

Locks of Love

Mia just donated 10" of hair to locks-of-love. This is the second time she has donated and plans to continue doing this every time her hair is long enough. She does this in memory of a family friend who died of ovarian cancer, who Mia was horrified to find had lost all of her beautiful dark hair. Since then she has decided to continually grow her hair out to help make wigs for those who lose their own hair from illnesses. To find out more about this, please visit www.locksoflove.org

It's been a while.....

Well it's certainly been a while since I've posted and so much has been going on! I'll have to summarize now and put most of the pictures on later, as I'm still waiting for most of them.

So we've been very busy gearing up for Barth's fundraiser (see http://www.barthandpam.blogspot.com/ for information on how to help and what we've done so far). His fundraisers were both huge successes and Barth is planning to go to Seattle for continued treatment. We all had a good time working on that, the whole family got involved. Mia even made $105 for Barth from a bake sale!

Cory has applied with Fairbanks Police Department and has finished with all of the testing, so we are waiting on pins and needles to find out about that. It will be nice to be around family again, even if it does get -50!

June was a very busy month for our household...first we had Gabe's birthday (he turned 6, see previous posting on that). Next was my birthday, where I turned 29 or as Cory likes to call it "almost 30"! Then came Father's Day, which was spent in Fairbanks by Cory and the kids, as I had to stay behind and work :( They had a good time and Cory loves the new BBQ! Last was Lauren's birthday. She turned 11 (I can't believe it) and we celebrated her actual birthday at a wedding...Shahli (my aunt, who is actually younger than me) got married on the 27th, so we were at the wedding. Lauren and Mia stayed the night with my aunt and uncle, who the next morning took her to breakfast in Talkeetna. Did I mention they flew her there? They live in Eagle River and my uncle has a plane and a pilots license, so off they went. On the way back Lauren even got to fly the plane! I'll have to post pictures of that when I get them. Here are some from the wedding:

Bride and bridesmaid. Isn't she beautiful?!

Lauren striking her 'Model' pose:)

Tooth #2

I realized I forgot to blog this and felt it was absolutely necessary. I also don't have any pictures, but I will post his toothless grin soon!
So, soon after he lost the other tooth, we realized the one next to it was also very loose and ready any day. While at worship practice at our church on Thursday night, Gabe decided he was ready for it to come out. Mostly because the church recently acquired the worlds most gigantic gumball machine and Pastor Greg offered Gabe some free gumballs if he lost his tooth. Gabe was all for it and Pastor and I begged for the opportunity to be the 'puller'...(of course I won that;)
Now, lets all take a minute to reflect on the quirks of Gabe in regards to pain, blood and panic-leading-to-vomit. Now that we all have the mental picture in mind.....I knew that I had to get it on the first try, or chaos would ensue. Unfortunately for me, Gabe's mouth was working against me. Both of the bottom teeth had grown in alread, so there wasn't much room for a grip. Taking deep breaths, praying under my breath and holding tightly to the paper towel, I pulled....to no avail. The tooth was still in there. I had failed. Soon after this the hysterics began. Not only did it hurt, but there was now blood and total panic on Gabe's part. The tooth was halfway hanging out, so there was no going back; however, no amount of gumballs could calm Gabe down enough to allow anyone hear the tooth. Tears, blood and near-vomit came on. I begged and pleaded in my most soothing voice and began promising him more gumballs than he could possibly eat. I offered to let Pastor have a shot, naming him a Pro-tooth-puller. Gabe shot me an 'I'm-not-falling-for-that glance and continued with his tears/bleeding and almost vomit. I finally got him calmed down enough to allow one more chance at 'the pull'. I wiped the sweat from my brown, said a quick prayer and got a tight grip. He gave it a good slow yank (since Gabe had began pulling away, which was very unhelpful). He yelled and cried and bled, but I got that sucker out. It took a while for him to realize it was done and it took even longer for him to calm down after the blood came. Once we cleaned him up, he cleaned us all out of quarters and bought himself tons of gumballs, which he chewed, swallowed and followed with the next. No doubt between this and the bribing with gum from his potty training, he has a wad of gum the size of venus in the pit of his stomach. :)

Gabe turned 6!!!

My baby has just turned 6 years old! Today was his 'special forces' army-themed birthday party. It was a huge success! He had lots of friends, lots of sun and lots of cake :)

Gabe is taking the first whack at the tank pinata.

Gabe with his buddies Zach and Ridge. They are having much more fun than it appears ;)

Scooping the cotton balls blindfolded. They found out it was much harder than it looked!

Dropping clothespins into the jar.

Blowing out his candles.....all 6 of them!

The table.

Gabey with his mama!

Opening gifts. Isn't he cute ;)

Running with the eggs... Remarkably none of the eggs broke!