Emily's B-day

This year I entered my thirties. Sam decided that would be way to many candles. Below are pictures of my beautiful kids on my wonderful day.

Caleb's birthday 3/27/10

Caleb had a momentous birthday this year. He turned eight. He chose to have a chocolate chip cheesecake, yummy. He got two of his favorite things, Super Mario Galaxy 1 and a Scooby-Doo movie. We also had a fun day at the park.

and then came Freedom

Once we were set free from the hospital we went to the nearby park to wait for our other kids. The hospital stay was so not fun but we had so much fun having some one on one time with our little girl.

This picture says it all. Freedom at last.

Hospital Stay

This years spring break was not so much fun. After finding out about Mantha's brain tumor they had to figure out if the tumor was causing her seizures. Caleb, Charlotte and Lucy stayed the week with Sam's parents, so they had an awesome time. We are lucky enough to live really close to Houston. We went to Texas Children's Hospital where they have an epilepsy clinic. We, Sam, Samantha and I, stayed for a few days in the hospital. She was hooked up to an EEG machine and we were under video monitoring the whole time.

Here she is playing with a doll from cousin Emma. My cousin Alisa lives near Houston so I was able to go spend the night there and she gave us some goody bags to help our stay.


Here is the view from our room


She was a trooper and played the whole time.

cute girls

These pictures are from back in February. Samantha is a two years old and Lucy is six months old.

Best Buds

Daddy and Samanthas b-day

Valentines is extra fun with two b-days. Sam wanted a cheesecake but it wasn't ready until after Samantha went to bed so she got her own cake. She pulled it apart and put it all in a different bowl. She didn't eat a bite. Of course we had Grindstaff Tacos and fluffy jello.

Char's b-day

Char turned six this year. She had a fun party and got to go to dance on her birthday. She had a yummy three layer cake. By the way if you make two cake mixes in a spring form pan it makes a delicious dense cake

Sea World

Each year we get to go to an Anheiser Busch theme park for free due to Sam being Active Duty. This year we didn't make it until December it was also hard because Mantha still had her cast on .

3/4/10

I can't believe it has been 2 months since we put something on the blog. A lot has happened it those months. Charlotte turned six, Samantha turned two and Sam turned thirty-one. Each very exciting. We also just had our 9 year anniversary. Be warned this is me just rambling about the crazy state of our lives

On February 8th Samantha had an MRI done to see if they could figure out why her seizures kept coming back. On the 12th we met with her Neurologist. We found out she has a brain tumor and will have to have surgery. We were referred to the Childrens Hospital in Houston to their epilepsy clinic. We met with some great Dr.s there. She has to have a few more tests to see if they can link her epilepsy, her tumor, and her speech delay.

It is interesting she had her last seizure the end of January. This is the longest she has gone with out having one. It was like she needed to keep having them so they would do more testing to find the tumor. She is back to normal. After breaking her leg in December and having the cast on so long, and also she was having tons of seizures then. During January it was like she was depressed and was in a funk. She is back now, singing jumping around happy as a clam (I don't know why clams are considered happy or even if I just made that up). She is the funnest happiest girl. People keep asking how she is doing and it's she is great besides the epilepsy and brain tumor.

Needless to say since then life has been very crazy. There has been a lot of waiting. Sam and I have been way distracted and almost completely forgot our anniversary. I have gone from being fine to freaked out to depressed and back again. Sam has learned that it isn't always better knowing. It is harder for him as a Dr. because it is his daughter and he actually understands the things they tell us. He has a much better understanding of what is going on and what is going to happen.

Luckily we are in a better state diet wise than we usually are. We were working on being healthier and working out. So no gaining 20 lbs over this. I have found that running, moving doing anything is more theraputic than chocolate. I have also been able to weed out our closets and therfore reduce our clutter. We still have a long way to go but are making progress of getting rid of clutter inside and out.

The funny part about this is we are being a lot more over-protective. We are usually pretty easy going dealing with bumps and bruises but not freaking out. We are a lot more sensitive now. We notice everythings with Samantha. We are watching her, is that a seizure, is she favoring her left hand (they said if she was left handed that could link the tumor with the speech delay).

We have realized why we moved where we did. It was hard to leave our last ward and move here. I have a better support system in this ward than I have ever had. It is also nice to have a lot of family support too. I just wish I could focus better. I have really bad ADHD and fibromyalgia makes it hard to think. Both of those are really bad right now. I have a really hard time focusing on anything or getting anything done. Even with my calling of playing the piano for Relief Society, I generally can play any hymn without any trouble, this Sunday I made tons of mistakes because I couldn't focus and my fingers would not cooperate with my brain.

During a crazy day for me I had to get out of the house so I went to the store. I took Sams car because I was by myself. I turned on the Book of Mormon CD (I can't listen to them in my car because my CD player is broken) Playing was 2 Nephi 4.20 "My God hath been my support; he hath led me through mine afflictions in the wilderness; and he hath preserved me upon the waters of the great deep".
the whole chapter is great but that verse reminded me who I needed to lean on. Samantha is his daughter too, so am I.

The Nutcracker

Charlotte and I had a wonderful girls night going to the Nutcracker. It was so much fun.

We had to look our best of course.





Charlotte in front of the theater. It was taken with my phone so it isn't the best but you can totally see her excitement.

Randam Pictures

Most of these pictures were taken with my phone so they are pretty random

Snuggle time with Grandpa


Samantha hiding in her cupboard, yes it is actually her own kitchen cupboard


Because of Calebs Aspergers we get opportunities to do a lot of things for kids with special needs. Here is Charlotte at a Christmas party a local foundation throw each Christmas. Of course we forgot our camera and this is the only picture we got.



Samantha with some totally stylish glasses


Charlotte, Timmy and Jimmy playing Hullabaloo. We had them over for a play date.


Timmy, Jimmy and Addy with Caleb in the background. The pictures are kind of crazy because they were running around playing the game


Caleb showing me his design for something.

Manthas Cast

Samantha was a really big trooper with this thing. It didn't really slow her down all that much. Caleb and Charlotte were fighting over who got to play with Samantha. Caleb was holding her in his lap, on the floor. Charlotte came and karate chopped him and somehow in their struggle Mantha broke her leg.