Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy 4th Birthday!

Happy Birthday Little Mister! What a miracle you are from this little one in the NICU to the kind, wonderful boy you are today. You make me smile and laugh so much each day. I am so proud of the boy you are!!!
It hard to remember just how little you were...

4yrs old and I wonder what the next year will bring for you.

I love to watch you ponder the world around you, think things trough and ask those questions that we have to google just because I don't know the answers.

Happy birthday bubby we Love you!

1st haircut

A hair cut was long over due...

sitting in a pink race car and watching Elmo she was content...



after the hair cut we went to see cousin Ammy.

sunny days

I love warm sunny fall days! One day of rain and I already miss the nice weekend weather. Here are some pictures from last week and some from playing in the yard on Saturday.


Little mister found a worm and asked to keep it. don't worry I learned my lesson from pumpkin :)

Daddy throwing leaves on the kids.

the story of pumpkin

As promised here is the story of pumpkin...
We went to the farm with some friends back in the last week of September. While we were there Little Mister picked out "pumpkin". Pumpkin became his little buddy he slept with in bed with him, sat at the table with him, even played toys with him. I know what you are thinking I should have seen trouble down the road but no I just thought it was sweet or that we needed some more play dates with people not pumpkins :)
Well I noticed last week that pumpkin was starting to look different in color and Little mister was not really playing with him much anymore so it was time to get rid of it. I told Little Mister on Thursday night that is was time to get rid of pumpkin that it was starting to decay (yes he knows what that means yea for PBS) so we needed to put him in the yard debris bin so he could decay and his seeds would make new pumpkins. Don't judge me it's not the first little lie I would tell in this adventure. Little Mister was fine with that and he asked me to take a picture of him and pumpkin so he could remember him.

Pumpkin's happy face...

I thought all was well he was off to bed no tears or anything. The next day we spent the whole day with cousin Ammy and had so much fun. That night after he went to bed little Mister came out crying saying he missed pumpkin and wanted to tell him goodbye. So we headed outside in the cold to say goodbye. I am sure the neighbors thought it was odd to see me holding my boy over the trash can as he is crying and saying goodbye. He calmed down went to back bed and no less then 2min later he came out crying again saying he was afraid pumpkin would be scared in a new place. So we headed back outside to tell pumpkin to not be scared that God would be with him. As Little Mister and I headed back inside he turned to me crying well sobbing is more like it asking me if pumpkin would ever learn to walk again. Finally it clicked this was not about pumpkin anymore. We talked and snuggled, cried and rocked in the rocking chair for about an hour. When I had answered all the many questions the best I could we snuggled and I waited for more questions. When were all talked out we put on a movie got our stuffed animals out including my very special daddy bear(I made it with my mom and sisters a week after my dad passed away from cancer). All snuggled in on the couch he finally fell asleep.

The next morning he told nana all about how sad he was and how mom let him use her bear. Nana thought it was time for him and little miss to have their very own Papa bears so they could have something to snuggle when they felt sad.









What a fun adventure they had picking out there bears and picking out clothes, Little Misters Bear is wearing a shirt that says I love my Grandpa. Little Miss bear we found out later was created by a little girl who had Cancer and when you purchase him a dollar of the proceeds go to children's cancer research. The kids love the bears and little mister sleeps with his papa bear every night. Much wiser chose then a pumpkin :)

ikea photo adventure

I took the kids, my sis Melissa and my camera out on friday to Ikea. Three reasons really, one I wanted to get some 18m and 4yr pictures of the kids and just practice, two shopping and three a stop to visit Ammy on the way home. So The kids did good and I never could have done it without my littlest sis helping watch for cars and keeping Little Miss close by. I learned some things along the way like the morning sun as nice as it is to have, I didn't always see how it was blinding parts of my pictures. Oh well I am just learning and having fun trying it all. So I thought I would share some of the many pictures I took. Any friendly critics are welcome:)












Thank you aunt sissa for all your help!!!



I have pictures all about our day with Ammy but that will have to be next time as it involves so much more. It including a tale of one sad boy and his beloved pumpkin.

birthday shout out

Happy Birthday Uncle T. We love you lots!

Happy Half Birthday....

-Then
Today-

What a blessing you are little miss you have added so many things to our lives! Besides sleepless nights :) you are a joy and we treasure your spunk and smiles. You have grown up so much and learning so many new things. I love the way you and your brother are playing together and how protective of each other you are. I love your snuggles and the way you say mama, Daddy and bubby. You bring such joy and laughter to our lives Happy half Birthday!
Yesterday Little Miss started her half birthday with pancakes and a gift that Little Mister picked out all by himself.

He even helped her open her brand new Snow white doll. Yes it is the same doll cousin Ammy has, I think that is why Little Mister picked it out.

Getting lots of snuggles and Half birthday hugs from daddy while holding "whi Barbie"

We love our local firemen...

Thought I would over the next few days fill you in on our happenings at home the last month between hospital visits. Last I left you before our world was turned upside down we had just gone to the pumpkin patch...

Which meant we had pumpkins to carve. Before...

Yes they are in there PJ's we carved our pumpkins in the morning before daddy had to go to work. Flexible is our word around home now :) (If only I could be flexible like elastic girl the things I could get done)

Did I mention I only had two pumpkins to clean out as Aunt Sissa helped me clean out two the night before. Which was nice as I was left to carve three out of the four by myself. The kids liked taking the stuff out and that was pretty much it. Well Little Mister liked to instruct me on just how to do the Starwars pumpkins and kept reminding me to not mess it up :)

here are the finished pumpkins. Not a great picture and you would think with the amount of time I spend outside that night I would of tried for more...

you are probably wondering about the title and how does it fit with these pictures well I am somewhat embarrassed to tell this story but I am hoping it might help someone else. You see As I lit the candles Little Miss was too cold and wanted to stay inside. Little Mister watched from the door way. As I snapped the above picture Little mister comes out shuting the door behind him. The locked door! So lucky for me I was on the phone with Brian at the time however he was all the way in Troutdale, The other extra keys? one at OHSU with mel and one in Willsonville with mom and dad G. What is a mom to do, well I called our friendly fireman from church Mr. Scott to see what do to. No answer , so I call my friend Kim to find out where and how to get a hold of Mr Scott. Sorry again Kim for being so rushed and rude :)
Mr Scott calmly tells a very upset me to call 911, then I proceed to ask will it cost me, how will they get in, is this really an emergency? His response so calm and kind was to remind me that no you pay taxes for firemen to do there job and yes I have 18m old locked in a house alone that is an emergency. Less then 10 min later 3 very nice fire men let me in to my house where I could hug my little miss who was standing at the door with a pacifier in her mouth, Ammy horse in her arms, and big tears in her eyes where I think she had been waiting for the 20mins we were outside. Little Mister got a cool glow stick and even reminded me to pray in the middle of the chaos. As the firemen left one kindly said to me "Miss we recommend mom's go out the garage door they don't get shut and locked behind you" Thank you to all the friendly firemen lesson learned.

I have moved all the post of Ammy to Beth's site and will keep updating the blog from there. The reason for the change is we set up this blog as a way to record our family events and keep friends updated on our family adventures. I am positive you will find pictures and updates here on Ammy but I will mostly be talking about our family adventures here. If you click on the Site named Ammy and Beth you will find updates there. thank you for your understanding and If you have any questions please let me know.
Little Mister asked 1st thing this morning if we could go see Ammy. After convincing him to go to church first then Ammy's we were off for the day. The kids had so much fun with the cousins today. Plus added bonus Miss Hillary took them on lots of walks. You rock Miss Hillary.
While in the Children's garden Little Miss stopped long enough for me to snap this picture before she was off running again.

While at the hospital I saw this tree and loved all the colors. I made Colin go stand by it before we got inside so I could get a quick picture. can believe just how old he is getting?

We all enjoyed a fun afternoon with family and seeing Ammy smile and laugh always cheers us up. LIttle Mister and I then were of to Praise club at church where he found out he will be a sheep for the christmas program. Now that will be fun to get pictures of.
Thanks again for your understanding in the blog switch for Ammy. Feel free to stop by and check up on us anytime :)

room change

Ammy has changed rooms she is now in room 3540 you can take elevator A to get there. The visiting hours are still the same.
Mon-Fri 4pm-8:30pm Sat 2pm-8:30 pm and sunday all day. Ammy spent the day after PT hanging out with visitors and practice her checkers skills.

Sorry for no update yesterday. Will you forgive me if I give you some more pictures?
Ammy is really liking Emmanuel, Thank you for your prayers. She was doing do much stuff yesterday. She is sat up on her own. moved over in bed, rolled over, getting good at rolling around in her wheel chair and even learned to play checkers (thanks tutu Barb) She is happy here and is doing really well so far. Here are a few pictures as promised.

Playing one of her many checker games of the night in a really cool room called the starlight room. I am sure there will be more pictures from this room in the weeks to come.

Talking to her Cousin about her day. yes they do have matching pants what can say some things may never change, Little Miss loves anything her "IM" loves.

Will try to update later about how the weekend is going. They got to sleep in this morning and both were very happy about that.

Big move

Well Ammy has now official moved to Emmanuel children's hospital in the rehabilitation center. Both of them are nervous and anxious but know this is the best place for her right now. Aunt Melissa is being a huge help in getting them settled and being with Ammy while Beth is going thru paperwork, meeting people, and trying to process all the info given to her. My good friend Jen P. works there and is on her way to welcome them and bring her great big smile.
Ammy will be doing intensive PT and OT therapy or as Beth calls it boot camp. This means visiting hours are very strict here. Ammy can have visitors mon-friday 4pm to 8:30 pm, Saturday 2pm to 8:30pm, Sunday all day. unfortunately it can change day to day depending on if Ammy chooses to be part of any of the events offered. I will try to let you know here or a note on her door. She is in room 3536 elevator B
The neurologist spoke with Beth today and her spinal tap came back clean. THey also gave some information on the treatment plan for the cancer. Disclaimer here this may not answer your questions just create more but this the info we have. Because of the fact that radiation stays in your system and the harm it can do to your body the doctors have to weigh the effects of the cancer with the effects of the radiation. The have decided because this is such a slow growing type of cancer they would like to monitor it through MRI's and then maybe due surgery to remove some if needed. The surgery would not be like this last one at all. The effects and things happening now are due to the cancer in her spine not the surgery alone. keep in mind she went into surgery not being able to walk or use her arms. From my understanding they will do another MRI in about a month, then every three months and then we will see from there. To sum it up wait and see is what we got. So for now we pray and focus on PT and OT thus the need for "boot camp".
Sorry if this left you with more questions then answers but that is all we got :)
I will be up there on Monday so I will try to post more pictures then to show the kinds of things she will be doing.

today at ohsu

Spent the day with Ammy while Beth got some paperwork, laundry and a dentist visit done. We had so much fun together! Miss Ammy is deffinatly getting her spunk back. When I told her I brought my camera she wanted me to take some pictures of her making funny faces.
Her favorite funny face picture...

Her favorite smile picture and mine too...

The fun of being at the hospital and having your aunt with you is she lets you eat things like donuts...
Truth be told I was so happy to watch her feed her self I let her have most the things she asked for :)

Just when we finished playing her new favorite game feed the kitty. (a great game by the way, rolling dice, picking up pieces, and not to long for her) Ammy got a Sticker book in the mail and we had so much fun doing it together. She did most of it herself. She liked making up a story with where she put each one. We played with it for almost an hour before we were interrupted for PT.

She was ok with the stander today because she got to play BINGO. Anyone who wants to play can from there room or in one of the playrooms. You turn the TV to a designated station and watch them call out the numbers. When you get a Bingo you call the playroom they are in and the announce your name on the TV. they play till every one wins. Ammy won twice.

Once the game is over the prize cart comes around and you get to pick a prize. Ammy won 2x so she got two prizes. She picked a cinderella doll and a snow white doll. We played with them for so long. My favorite thing she said was Belle could not come to the ball because she was busy doing laundry.

my goodbye smile