no more ear infections!

sweet babygirl had her tubes put in bright and early on friday morning. we had to wait for a while before anything happened, but once they took her in, it was a breeze.
after waiting in the main waiting room, then in the pre-op room, then in the surgical hallway, we finally got to meet with the anesthesiologist and ENT. the sweet surgical nurses gave Lexi a beanie baby fish, which she loooooooved. when it was finally time for the procedure to begin, a nurse came out into the hallway and got Lexi from us. Lexi gladly went to the nurse, telling her "hi" over and over. we expected her to be a bit uneasy about all the new faces, but as the nurse took her through the doors to head to the operating room, our baby girl said "HI!" to every person she passed. it was quite adorable. just nine minutes after the nurse had taken little babe from us, our ENT came into the hallway, where scott and i were still waiting, to tell us that the surgery had gone just fine. he suctioned quite a bit of fluid out of her middle ear and got the tubes in without a problem. he also said that she was doing well with the anesthesia, which was good to hear.
we then went into the main waiting room and waited for Lexi to wake up (in recovery 1) so that we could go be with her in recovery 2. it was only about 10 minutes until they paged us and we got to go upstairs to the recovery area. we waited in there for about 3 minutes and then we heard a pathetic little cry moving closer to us. sure enough, it was our girl, quite unhappy to say the least. a male nurse (murse? ha) brought her to us and her face lit up, "mama! daddy!". she was able to drink for the first time in about 13 hours so she was really happy about that. we then snuggled for the next half hour or so and then we were released. after a good meal and a long nap, she was back to normal- like nothing had even happened. she now acts like she feels better than she has in a lonnng time.

all comfy in her PJs, waiting for her name to be called to go into surgery

in her little hospital gown, playing with daddy's hat

after surgery. she chugged that whole cup of juice in about a minute and a half. she wouldn't let go of the cup or her new fish (which she calls "fiff" or "shish").

grumpy girl

she wouldn't let me move out of the chair i was in after i took this picture. she wanted me in sight at all times.

all is well now. hopefully she won't get any more ear infections!
in other news, our girl is finally walking!!!! it only took her 14 1/2 months, but she finally got it. she's just taking a few steps so far, but in no time at all, i know she will be able to walk across a room with no problems. she THINKS she can walk that far. she really does try, but she ends up falling after about the fifth or sixth step.
Lincoln is doing great. nothing new i can think of- but great nonetheless. he is such a great big brother. he spent the night with Nana so that she could take him to school the morning of Lexi's surgery. when he finally got to see her that evening, he was SO happy to see her (and vice versa!). the first thing he said to her was, "Lexi, you wanna play with me? we can share my blocks!". he then proceeded to build several things just for her because he knows how much she loves to take them apart. so sweet.
our world is busy, but a little boring these days. i'm scraping things together for blog entries, so bear with me :)

Happy Thoughts

Tomorrow, probably before a lot of you are even out of your pajamas, THIS precious little thing:

will be having surgery to have tubes put in her ears. She's had one ear infection per month for the last EIGHT months! It will be so nice to have a baby girl who is well more often than she is sick (instead of the other way around)!
She should be in and out of surgery between the hours of 7am and 8am- so if you're awake, please think some happy thoughts and say a little prayer for Miss Lexi.

quick update

lincoln is still loving school. he really loves getting to go every day and (so far) hasn't had any problems with it. i'm still enjoying getting a couple of hours every day to myself!
scott and i took lincoln to the fair one night. scott's parents kept lexi for us so that we would be able to enjoy our short time there a little more easily. we ate lots of delicious food, went to the petting zoo, and lincoln rode lots of rides (mostly by himself, but he rode this one - the "tornado"- with his daddy):

the guys at the Army National Guard booth told scott that they'd give him a free t-shirt and football if he'd ride the mechanical bull, so he did. it was his first time to ever do so, and he stayed on for a good 20 seconds.

babygirl loves tomatoes.

Lexi girl is having to have tubes put in her ears in a couple of weeks. she has had 7 ear infections in 7 months. no good! i will be glad to have the surgery over with and have a healthier little girl! i'm sure she'll enjoy not being in pain anymore and actually being able to hear clearly!
life is good with us. busy, as always. i'm trying to blog as often as i get the opportunity but this is really a crazy time of year! but hey- 2 so far in sepetember isn't too shabby!

trying to get it all together

so, normally, i would've posted this on lincoln's 5th birthday (august 24) but since we were without a computer from august 22 til sept 1, that was kind of impossible. and normally, i would post a picture of lincoln as a newborn (and possibly one from every bday party he's had), but my old pics are all on my old, broken computer. FEAR NOT- we will be able to get MOST of our old files off of our old computer (which needs a new hard drive), but it's going to cost a pretty penny to have done so we're in no huge hurry.
instead, i will post pictures from lincoln's super-fun birthday party. i made the cake, cupcakes, and the pinata. we rented a 15'x24' waterslide and the kids had a great time!

i don't know if you can tell that it's raining in this pic. it was a random, beautiful rain shower in the middle of the party. no thunder or lightning- and the sun was shining the entire time! the kids were wet anyway so it didn't bother anyone.

lincoln's blowing out his FIVE candles. on top of the cupcakes are whoppers that i "carved" to look like death stars. yes, i made it all (icing and all) from scratch. ok, i lied, i used a box cake mix on the cupcakes but made them differently than the instructions say- so i oughta get at least 1/2 credit for them being "from scratch".

he was SOOO excited about this card!

i decorated a painting extension pole to look like a lightsaber to hit the pinata. the pinata looked good, but wasn't quite strong enough. lincoln was the only one who got to hit it. in my crafty-pinata-making defense, he has a great swing and hit it REALLY HARD twice before it broke :)

scott and i played on the slide with lincoln and julia after all the guests had gone. there is NO evidence of that, however.

Sugar (Scott's mom) and my silly Lexi.

Lincoln enjoyed playing with some of his new toys after the party was over.

here's my boy on his first day of KINDERGARTEN. it also happened to be his actual birthday. we took a giant decorated cookie for him to share with his class and he really enjoyed that. (this girl was trying to hide under the table while i was taking pics but it looks like she's leaning on lincoln's shoulder.)

sooo sad

I have new posts for lincoln's bday party, pictures of him from birth till age 5, and his first day of kindergarten. Here's where I disappoint: I cannot post anything! Our computer is on the fritz and we're trying to make a decision about what we're going to do. We could likely loe EVERYTHING that's on it, o we have been stuck when it comes to deciding what to do. Anyway, I'm posting this from my BlackBerry and it's annoying.
Just so ya know, I have not forgotten about my blog, but my comp is just plain screwed.

a little bit at a time

that's my motto. that's how i'm going to get back into blogging.
those of you who know me closely know what a crappy summer this has been for our extended family. blogging has definitely taken a backseat to everything else.
here are a few fun new facts.
Lincoln facts:
Lincoln read an entire book by himself tonight. it's called "Catch Me, Catch Me!" and it's about Thomas the Tank Engine. the only word that he really had trouble with was "bridge", and that's a dang confusing word!
he starts kindergarten next monday!!!! it's not like a huge deal oh-my-gosh-my-boy-is-starting-school type of thing though. this will be his first year in kindergarten. since he has a late summer birthday, he will go to private K this yr and will start public school next yr. this WILL be the first time he will be doing something full-time. i'm sure at first i will love all the quality time with miss Lexi, but after a while i know i will miss my boy. he will love it though.
he had his 5 yr checkup today (6 days early) and is in the 80th percentile for height and the 90th for weight. it's the way he's been since he was a baby! he weighs 50 lbs and is 44 inches tall! where did my baby boy go!!??
Lexi facts:
Lex has FINALLY cut two more teeth. aftet being one-toothed for almost two whole months, she will (finally) obviously have three teeth within a couple of weeks. they just broke the gum today, so it's not obvious that they're coming in unless you really look closely.
her new favorite word is "kitty" (sometimes it sounds like "kitty" but more often it's "ditty") accompanied by her quite cute "meow" (nya!).
she called me mama for the first time two days ago! i've always been able to get her to say the word "mama", but she never responded when asked where mommy was or who mommy was. when scott and i got back into town from a weekend away, i picked her up, she looked at me and said, "mama". i was a pretty happy mommy.
she has realized that screaming when she doesn't get what she wants gets some kind of reaction, so she does it ALL THE TIME! in the car, when she's not getting attention, she just SCREEEAMS. when i put her down in her high chair just long enough to go to the kitchen and get her food, screaming begins. ohhhhh my girl has got some 'tude.
she is not in ANY hurry to walk and that's just fine with me.

Lincoln's 5th bday party is this weekend. i can't wait to post pics from it because i have really gone all-out. i made a pinata, am making cake, cupcakes, and frosting from scratch with cute decorations to boot; and have a pretty fun-filled afternoon planned. i still can't believe i'll have a 5-yr-old. seriously- 5 is the age when there is no longer any question if a child is still a baby or actually a "kid". i have a "kid".

enough is enough... and this is enough... for tonight at least. i know i need to post a bunch of pictures but cut me a little slack- at least i posted something!

tsk, tsk... bad blogger.

so it's been almost a month since i've blogged. forgive me, friends. i will try to update with pictures of the kids and their latest antics soon. today, i'm blogging about my husband. tomorrow is his 30th birthday.

this is his birthday car from me. click on the image for full view.