More This and That

Time to do a this and that post! I do this when I have a lot of pictures but not a lot of any one event. So here goes...

We went to see the play Fancy Nancy. It's based on the books which are Anna's favorites! They dressed up fancy.

We ended our school year on May 15th. It helps when you start in July! For our end of the the year field trip we went to the Aquarium. All year we have been studying different ocean animals and we saw many of them in person! Or do you say in animal?!

The rays are always a favorite of Mia.

We went to a pirate birthday for a girl in our coop.

We also went to the Jefco Action Center with our homeschool group. Here we all separated donated produce into bins to put into their store where needy families can come and shop for free. We also separated lots of school supplies. It was a very good experience for all of us.

On Memorial weekend we had plans. Both our neighborhood pool and country club pool were having Opening Day parties. It was all planned...we were going to have so much fun...and then it happened, that thing that is happening here over and over and over. RAIN!!! Does it not know we don't need any more here! California is calling!!

So we decided to do something to stay dry. We went to Cave of the Winds.

And as we were driving there we wondered what we would do for the rest of the weekend. Then Dan said why don't you fly to California and look at that house in Palm Desert I like. Really???? Just hope on a plane on a holiday weekend? Of course I did. I'm such a good wife. And we bought a house. But not that one. All because of a little rain. But boy was it sunny there and I can't wait to get out of here in February and hang out at our new house.

Obviously not that many people travel on Saturday night of Memorial Day weekend.

And that is this...and that.

A Taste of What's to Come

The weekend before last we had a big crew at the house. Greg was in Denver on business so little Paige made her first flight out here to see us.

Becky, Arek, Maks and Oliver hung out a lot at the house too.

It was a little taste of what's to come next weekend when all 15 of us will be in the house.

Beth and I gave Becky a surprise baby "sprinkle" on Sunday.

It's the time of year for marshmallow roasts and sticky fingers!

This is one of my new favorite pictures.

What else did we do while they were here? This about says it all! Both babies have eating/gaining weight issues so there is a lot of pumping and feeding going on!

Life is never dull around here.

More New Pets

I have so much blogging to catch up on. My track pad on my computer was acting very funky for awhile and just kept getting worse. Luckily Dan always buys me Applecare. Not that I need it. I don't drop my laptops, my kids don't throw cups of water on them and, well, we now have a puppy who doesn't like to chew on things like cords. So Applecare not only replaced my track pad, but also replaced the back and front cover, the cover over the keyboard, and the keyboard itself. It looks like a brand new computer! And now I can blog! I hate to blog with the iPad app and so I just waited till now.

Besides a new pet puppy we had some other pets for a short while. They started out like this when they came in the mail. They are the tiny black things in this container.

They grew faster than anything I have ever seen. No time-lapsed photography needed!

Then they started to transform.

And so we had five new fun pets for a few days.

After three days we let them go to live the rest of their two-week lives.

Charlie is Home!

It's been a week since we went to pick up the newest member of the family. Little Charlie is doing really well. He even let's us sleep from 10:00 until 5:30 every day. We have heard that isn't always the case with puppies so we are grateful!

The guy below I don't really know. He is this stranger that appeared in the house last week and is quite the dog lover. There used to be a guy living here that barely tolerated a dog brushing up against him. It's a good thing that guy moved out!

Charlie does not lack for attention! We have to rescue set him in his pen quite a often to get a break from all that craziness love.

At Free Reading every afternoon Charlie takes his nap in a special place.

Oh my does Charlie love his pink dog. He seems to think it's one of the brothers or sisters he left behind. He plays with it like it's another dog. He drags it into the pen and sleeps on it like he slept with his siblings in one big pile.

The first Quite Time he was home the main activity was watching Charlie sleep. Yes, Mia spends most of her Quite Time these days reading. She loves to read!

Thanks to Beth and Greg's advice we have already started training and he is doing very well. We love him!

Cinco de Mayo

On the day Becky had the baby we had plans to go to the Cinco de Mayo festival downtown. So we just added Maks to our group.

The girls danced to a mariachi/horn band. Maks didn't want to go out on the dance floor.

Our favorite part of the festival was the taco eating contest. The kids got front row seats!

After we got home and put the kids to bed I got to see my little grandson being born!

Surgery #7

The Tuesday before last Anna had another surgery. Her last two surgeries (adenoidectomy and tonsillectomy) were in preparation for this one. It is called a pharangyeal flap. Basically, part of the back of the throat is cut and flapped upward to be part of the palate. Most kids with complete cleft palates do not have long enough palates for good speech and this surgery extends their palates. It is a little bit frightening, truth be told.

She actually likes the idea of surgery each time, the attention, the popcicles. She does not remember the pain. I think this time may be different.

They tie her tongue to her cheek with a string to keep her airway open and so she had to have splints on her arms in recovery to keep her from pulling on the string. Once she was awake they cut the string and took off the splints.

She has had a crying period in the afternoon of every surgery. I think it is the anesthesia wearing off. But this surgery was coupled with difficult breathing due to swelling so she was also scared. They gave her morphine to calm her down. She had to have her oxygen levels monitored the first twenty four hours.

The next day she was in better spirits.

At home her breathing was so loud when she slept it was scary. She would whimper and try to get comfortable and I was worried that she was not getting enough air. I slept with her the first 8 days. But gradually, her breathing has improved. She seems less irritable and more rested in the mornings. We will not know for awhile whether her surgery was a complete success. Her speech is definitely better but she will have to be watched for sleep apnea for a whole year.

Mr. Oliver Jan

Last Saturday we got a surprise phone call. Becky's water broke! She went into labor 3 1/2 weeks early...again. I guess Oliver is already trying to be just like his older brother!

Little Oliver Jan (pronounced yon) is a tiny little guy, 5 pounds 8 ounces, but 19 1/2 inches long!

He has a bilateral cleft lip and palate for which Becky and Arek were prepared through ultrasounds. Of course, we know a lot about this special need already and it is such a small part of who they are. There were some other concerns on the ultrasounds but those are not turning out to be anything. Thank you, God!

Oliver is doing very well and already gaining back his weight. He drinks from a special bottle which contains milk Becky has pumped.

Welcome to the family our tiniest little grandchild!