Welcome Home, Uncle J.J!

Justin arrived home today at 2:30pm after a long 7 months of being deployed to Iraq and was it a homecoming! To say that Heather was happy to see him is the the understatement of the year.

Here are the kids waiting for his return with the sign that Heather and I made:


Vivi with her daddy's sign:


JJ with the long-awaited reunion with his beautiful daughter:


A family together, again:


I love the last picture the most. I'm just not sure Heather will enjoy having people see her like that. *insert paranoid look*

Swimming with Miss ViVi...

Heather and Miss Olivia are here and we went to Nana and Papa's today after swimming lessons to have fun instead of work our tails off on the strokes. Vivi loved the kiddie pool and the kids didn't mind being in there instead of in the big pool which they have all graduated to.

I'm going to post a pic of me and the kids but I feel the need to defend myself. I am not wearing a bikini. That is my arm covering my midsection holding Olivia up. I just didn't want you all to think I was wearing a bikini with my pooch hanging out.



As an important aside...Justin comes home on Thursday. We all can not wait to see him and are so glad that he is back on American soil.<3

Back in Practice

So, I took LC to the doctor yesterday to have her sutures removed only to have him tell me that it was a day or two too soon. He said that they could either come out tonight or tomorrow morning and that I could do it myself if I felt comfortable enough with it. Normally, I am comfortable with stuff like this. Heck two of my kids were given all there vaccinations by me. But this, I was hesitant about because it has to do with sharp instruments near my precious baby girl's face which is kind of what caused this circumstance in the first place. However, with the cost of gas being what it is and the fact that the doctor's office is 45 minutes away, I decided to go ahead and do it myself.

I gave LC the choice as to whether she wanted the sutures removed tonight or tomorrow and she at first said, "tomorrow." But then changed her mind and wanted to "do it now, Mommy. Go get the scissors." So, I did. We went into my bedroom which has the best light, grabbed the tweezers and scissors and cut those suckers out.

Can I brag about how good of a patient my little girl is for a minute? I saw a lot of peds patients in my day of working in a Family Practice office and I don't think I have ever come into contact with a patient as calm and laid back about a procedure being performed as LC is. Even the night of the stitches...she just laid there--papoosed and everything--and just let the PA and RN's do their jobs with nary a wimper. She did the same for me tonight. She just laid there and giggled when I looked at her as I was grasping the stitch and the minute I said don't laugh, she straightened her lips out and laid still. 4 times she did this with every stitch being cut...just let me do my job and trusted me completely.

I will admit, here and now, that I have applied for some jobs at a couple of local hospitals. At first it was out of necessity because of the economy and the state of my husband's business, and now, I realize that I have missed nursing and caring for patients and hope to get back into it, soon.

I have my daughter to thank for that revelation, although I know no other patient will ever come close to being as perfect as she was.<3

Sprinkler Fun...

Well, since swimming is out until the stitches are removed, we broke out the old sprinkler. It was LC's first time in it and she loved it and really hammed it up for the camera.

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y NIGHT!

S-S-S-Saturday Niiiiight!

Ahhh, what a fun song. Too bad my-and especially LC's-- Saturday night pretty much stunk due to having to take my sweet baby girl to the ER for some stitches to her upper lip. *sigh* I have no idea what really happened as a 3 year old isn't a very reliable source and her older brother is just as traumatized as she is since he caused it.:( All I know is that I got home from church and was making dinner while Henry and LC chased each other, laughing and having fun. Next thing I know, Lauren is sobbing and bleeding and has a gash on her upper lip. She says that Henry swung a toy at her and hit her, Henry says that she was trying to keep her from taking it from him and he accidentally hit her. Either way, LC has four stitches to show for it.

She handled it wonderfully, though. The only part she got upset over was me having to hold a cotton ball over her lip for 20 minutes for the Lidocaine to take effect. No shots needed, thankfully, which was what I was dreading. Good God, do I love modern medicine.

Here is the beautiful girl with the war wound to add some character:

Long Weekend...

Well, the 4th was a very enjoyable weekend. We went to the parade on Friday and then cooked out in the gorgeous weather we finally had and sorted out the three full bags of candy the kids collected. They get more candy at the parade then they do at Halloween. The kids love it, though.

Here's some pics:





For this week, I plan on taking the kids to see Wall E tomorrow when it is supposed to be rainy. I was going to take them this past weekend but couldn't justify it with the nice weather. The boys also start 6 weeks of swim lessons on Thursday, so, that will break up our days quite nicely. LC will be taking the Summer off and start up with them, again, in the Fall. She's very happy about that.

In other news, Aunt Heather called us to let us know she will be coming in for a visit at the end of the month so not only do we have a countdown to Disney, we have a countdown to when Vivi, the rockstar, will be here. I'm just hoping the time flies quickly.