Outdoorsy gal

Nine is fine!

April 18 was Rebecca's 9th birthday. I can't believe she is 9 already! We celebrated with a Barbie party, complete with Barbie! The girls had mini-makeovers (hair, nails, eyeshadow, blush, & lipgloss) and played some cute party games. Rebecca had a great time. She just loves all things girly!

Rebecca after her makeover and waiting for nails to dry.

Decorating a picture frame.

Listening to Barbie read a story. When Barbie finished a page, the girls took turns unwrapping a little box layer by layer. At the end, there were rings inside for each girl.

Time for the birthday song and cake!

Pure joy!

Lots of gifts!

Daisy Camp

On April 16 we went with Rebecca's Daisy troop to Camp Anderel for an overnight "camp-out." We made pizzas, "fire" salads, s'mores for dinner and were treated to crepes for breakfast. The girls made lots of fun crafts...bracelets, sit-upons, tie-dye t-shirts. We sang songs around a camp fire, had a pillow fight, slept in bunk beds, and went on a nature hike.


We even celebrated Rebecca's birthday with a giant cookie cake.

A day in the life

Ear surgery

Rebecca underwent a tympanoplasty on April 9th. Due to chronic untreated ear infections as an infant and young child, she had tubes placed shortly after we got her. When the tubes came out, a large hole in her right eardrum remained. This eardrum was pretty scarred prior to tubes, so it was not surprising to the ENT that this happened. She had about half her eardrum on that side and thus had half her hearing as well. Since language acquisition is still her biggest struggle, we knew that the repair had to be done. The surgeon took a graft of tissue (fascia overlying the masseter muscle just behind her ear) to close the hole. He also cleaned out a lot of scar tissue and inflammation in her mastoid bone. This was a delicate surgery, so it took around 1.5 hours to do. She did great, but did have some nausea and vomiting afterwards, so we were at the hospital pretty much all day. She had to refrain from any strenuous physical activity for about 3 weeks; that's really hard for her. I caught her on the trampoline the day after surgery! She will have her hearing checked in a few months.

Here she is at home after the long day at the hospital. She carried her kitty with her to the hospital. She and I spent the prior afternoon birthday shopping. We went to Build-a-Bear and she picked out the Kitty (that she named "China"). Of course, China had to have a Hannah Montana outfit! :)

The bandage is pretty dramatic, huh? Luckily she got to take it off the next morning.

Easter Sunday

Wow, am I already up to Easter Sunday and it's only May? ha ha
What a beautiful day! We were blessed to be with our church family and enjoyed an uplifting worship service. We were then able to spend the afternoon with Billy's grandmother, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Too bad egg hunting isn't a useful life skill, because our kids would have that one down!

Me and the kids.





Henry with cousin Devin, comparing their loot.

Another egg hunt and tee ball opening day

On Saturday, April 3, after a rainy morning which totally messed up the baseball opening ceremonies, we went to Mom's for the annual egg hunt. It's always something to have all the kids together--there's so many of them!

Here they are, all eleven of them, age 8 and under.

Since I never feel like Ellen gets her share of pictures, here's another of her.

Rebecca had to make sure that there was a prize in each egg. If it was empty, she would just put it back. :)



After a big lunch and big egg hunt, we came back to our house for a shrimp boil with my dad, step-mom, and Billy's dad. Rusty cooked some mean shrimp!
We then got ready for the boys' first tee ball game of the season. Here are Henry, Walker, and William. Go, Blue Jays!

Ellen entertains herself with PawPaw's glasses during the game.

At least we won the first one! Wins will prove to be a bit elusive for the Blue Jays...