Puzzle

Nellie has been doing puzzles for as long as I can remember.  At 2 and 3 she was doing 25 piece puzzles and at 4 doing 50, 5 doing 100.  She has mostly been doing 100 piece ones since then.  For Christmas she got this 500 piece Noah's Ark puzzle (http://www.dowdlefolkart.com/products/56-noahs-ark-puzzles.aspx)  Just this summer she decided to start it.  She has been working on it for over a month and is this far already.  She won't let anyone help her and actually gets mad if you try to help.  Puzzles are really the only thing she will sit for a long time and do.  This one will be one that we glue and put on the wall.  She impresses me every day with what she can do.

Turning 2 :)

 Today, July 31st, is Owen's 2nd Birthday.  We had a party for him yesterday at the splash pad.  It was so fun and great weather!  This is how it went:

Music note cupcakes to go with the guitar cupcake cake.

Cupcake cake made by mom, frosted by Corina and mom.  Couldn't have done it that good on my own ;)

The mastermind with the birthday boy

Singing Happy Birthday to himself...so cute

YUMMY!!!

Some of the friends...wouldn't be a party without them!

After his party we came home and started on my Aunts cake.  Corina  taught me how to do a rose and this was my very first ever rose.  Pretty good if you ask me!

Cake for my Aunts 65th.  I baked,  Corina decorated all!! She is awesome!

The girls gift to Owen was a train set.  He hasn't stopped playing with it.  Thanks Eliza for the idea!! :)

??Wondering??

I wonder if I post these just for me or if anyone really looks at them.  Just this one time if you look on here leave me a message so that I know if I should keep it up.  Thanks :)

Summer So Far ~

So far this summer we have just been swimming and spending lots of time outside...when it's sunny.  I'm just going to put the pix and explain as I go. Enjoy! 

Nellie and Samantha both have only ever had one swimming lesson and this summer they are both doing great!! Samantha loves it way more than Nellie though...

...as you can tell ;)  This is where Nellie likes to be.

Among the many things Owen is learning how to do, he has figured out how to open nail polish.  This is a whole bottle of white that I had to remove with half a bottle of acetone!

The girls' school had a fair so we went.  There were hardly any people there so it was great!  Free everything except for $5 helmets.  This is Owen's fish.

Popsicle

Butterfly

On the back of a fire truck. 

I think Owen would be ok being a fireman. He LOVED it!!

Samantha in  the Waste Management truck.

Hopefully the last time Nellie and Owen sit in the back of a cop car!

Fed Ex

Owen driving the Fed Ex truck

Rebel

I guess I should blog about Patrick. :)

The first few years of our marriage Patrick didn't do to well in the driving department.  He got in lots of accidents and got a ticket.  Long story short we both agreed that maybe a scooter was the better vehicle for him.

Since he's had the scooter...a few years...he's become a MUCH better driver.  He is more aware of everything around him.  I even feel a little bit better letting him drive the car.  

Although the scooter has treated him very well, it is a bit slow.  He holds up traffic a lot and it takes him longer to get to work.  For his birthday he got lots of $$$ and decided he wanted to take the motorcycle course.  I told him ok as long as it meant he was just getting a bigger scooter.  As you can see that was not the case!!  He passed and of course loved the motorcycle feel.  He finally convinced me to let him get a bike.  The first few days I was very worried, but the couple weeks he's had it he's showed me that he is very careful.  He loves keeping up with traffic now too. :)

~Enjoy~

First ride on the bike

I have to park the car weird now so he has a place to put it...we so need to get out of apartments!!

Bodies

Our bodies are wonderful things.  But when things happen and you don't have any control over what your body is doing it is a VERY scary thing.  

For about 7 months now I have had panic disorder.  It's something I've never had before and it just came on one day.  I was at the store by myself and all of a sudden I felt like I was going to pass out.  My heart was racing, I was sweating like crazy, I was shaky and everything was blurry. I honestly thought I was having a heart attack.  I dropped everything and went to the car.  I called Patrick and he had to talk me all the way home.  When I got home I was bawling and went right to my bed.  I felt dizzy and I didn't know what was going on.  Finally, I fell asleep.  The next morning I was still feeling weird so I went to Urgent Care.  They also thought it was a heart thing and did tons of blood work and an EKG.  Of course everything was normal. (that made me feel even worse!)  So for the next 2 weeks I still felt very funny and went to an ENT doc thinking it was vertigo...it wasn't.  I finally went to my regular doc and told him everything that was going on. He immediately said it was panic disorder.  Ok, what does that mean?  He said it is something that comes on for now reason, has no logic to it and can go away just as fast as it came.  He put me on a medication that I was to take only when I felt the panic coming or if I knew I was going to be somewhere that triggered it.  I mostly found it to happen when I was around large groups of people...store, church, park.  Up until 2 weeks ago it has been working pretty well.  

I started getting very tired.  I couldn't hardly go anywhere without feeling like I was just going to pass out.  At church I had to sit in the foyer because my heart was beating so bad I could hardly move.  The only place I felt ok was at home laying down.  Samantha got strep and so I took her to Urgent Care and had them check me too.  They did more blood work and said they would call me in 2-3 days.  Well, the next morning they called and said my thyroid level was elevated and to make an appointment with my regular doc.  This morning was the appointment and this is what I found out.  My panic has gotten so bad that it is now anxiety.  I have been feeling so tired because I've been anxious every day!  After hearing all of this it totally makes sense!  Having the attacks are so hard on my body.  I now have to take meds every day.  I'll try it for 2 weeks and report back to my doc.  He is very confident that everything I am experiencing is related to the anxiety.  At this point he isn't that worried about my thyroid but says he'll check it again in 3 months.  I am just so greatfull that we have docs to figure things out.  I have been so worried that something more serious was wrong.  Yes, anxiety is serious but is very treatable.  

I'm happy to know that I will be back to normal soon and be able to do more things.  This has really halted all my fun plans and activities with my kids.  I feel like I can't go anywhere without feeling like I'm going to die.  As my doc said, if you've never had it, you'll never get/understand it.  This isn't something people normally talk about.  I want to get it out there so everyone can know what is going on.  I don't expect anyone to fully understand what it's like to have it.  I just needed to vent.  I'm glad we figured it out now so hopefully we can have a great summer with friends and family!!  

Samantha's 6!!

 I really can't believe it's been 6 years!  

Samantha is:

creative

patient

loving

kind to everyone

always willing to try something new

good with babies

an animal lover

and an overall great kid!

She wanted to have her party at Grandma and Papa's house, again, so we did.  She had a great time! Thanks for all of you that came, froze, brought gifts, and played.

She got lots of new clothes.  She has been literally growing like a weed.  She puts on a pair of pants in the morning and I have to have her change 2-3 times because they don't fit!  Her and Nellie are wearing the same size now.  Her are some fun pix of her party :)

I love this girls so much!  I can't imagine our family without her.  I love watching her grow and learn everyday.