FABULOUS news!!!

For all of you who didn't know, my sister, Jackie (above, wearing her "physician approved" hat and applying her sunscreen), was diagnosed with melanoma in March of this year. She had surgery 10 days after her diagnosis to remove about a 1 inch area from her neck where the cancerous mole had previously been removed. She had a myriad of tests following the surgery, one in which found a small tumor on her lung. She was told to return today for a follow up CT scan and THE TUMOR IS GONE!!!! YEAH!!! I'm so excited for you Jackie! A long 4 months are over! I must add that you handled everything better than I could ever done! I am so proud of you and now can't wait for you and Steve to announce that you are having your twins you have always wanted!!!

Love ya, Sis!!!

The dreaded ride...

So I convinced Nick to ride this "big kid" ride, my one son who is a bit more timid when it comes to ANYTHING new. I reassured him countless times that it is SO much fun. After waiting in line for about 10 minutes or so, we were up. We got onto the "Midnight Run" and buckled in...then away we went and so to began the tears and screams. Unfortunately in my attempt to calm him down I got sick - sick like I just finished a fifth of tequila! WOW! I couldn't even walk right when I got off the ride! Dan mentioned that if you look really carefully at the picture, you'll see that my face is green!!! UGH!
The rest of the day we spent playing in Holidog's Fun Town! There were rides perfect for all three boys and it had the biggest playground I've ever seen!

Here Jack, Aunt Jackie and Nick get ready to ride the Liberty Launch. Minutes after this picture was taken, Nick again started screaming. Thanks to the Holiday World employee who stopped the ride immediately and let Nick get off!
Jack and Dad loved the kiddie roller coaster! On later rides, Jack even put his hands in the air!
Aunt Jackie and Luke enjoy the cars on the Doggone Trail! Luke loved pushing the buttons to hear the horn beep and the engine roar!
The "little log ride" as I called it, was the boys' favorite ride! Notice Luke's cochlear implant and hearing aid were removed, just in case he fell in the water! You also can't see, Aunt Jackie, Daddy and myself standing close by just in case Luke was ready to jump out of the canoe!
Skee ball was probably the boys' favorite game to play! Jack had a phenomenal score of 360. Too bad there isn't skee ball in the Olympics!
After the long two days, only 1 boy was standing (and he was out as soon as we hit the car!)

HO HO HO HOLIDAY WORLD!

We weren't quite ready to visit the "Mouse" yet, so we opted for a much closer (the 3 hours FLEW by!), cheaper, and lower key version! And, surprisingly it paid off - we had an absolute BLAST!

Here we are after having just arrived to Holiday World, located in the middle of nowhere - Santa Claus, IN! We were blessed with fabulous weather and 3 happy boys from the time we got there at 9:30 a.m. until we finished our last skee ball game when the park closed at 8:30 p.m!

Nick conquered his fear and after some swaying from Aunt Jackie actually sat on Santa's lap along with Big Brother Jack. Luke had none of it and screamed when Santa even looked his way! We have 6 months to work on Luke before he is required to see "The Big Man in Red" again! As I am sitting here attempting to combine our 3 days of fun into 1 blog post, I concede I am completely unable to do so. In order to keep you all wanting more, I leave you like any good news cast does prior to their commercial break and ask if anyone can guess why Luke is sitting in his stroller and asking "What's wrong with Mommy?" Tune in for the unexpected answer!!! Sorry for the crazy picture placement and all this underlined junk....I'm definitely a novice blogger!!!

You gotta start somewhere....

Okay, so I have been reading TONS of different blogs, some written by friends and family, but most written by complete strangers regarding hearing loss/deafness, weight loss and my latest find - some gossipy junk about Aunt Jodi from Jon and Kate Plus 8!

I don't quite know why I chose now to begin this logged journey of our lives, specifically our 3 active little boys, but as my title states, "You gotta start somewhere!" I guess now is a great time with the whole fam (plus Aunt Jackie!) embarking on a trip to Holiday World and with all the changes happening in our life with Luke and his cochlear implant and the fact that he is now the poster child for St. Louis Children's Hospital (more to come on that later!)

Hopefully this will serve its purpose and bridge the long gaps between Christmas pictures that we send to all our our friends stretched out from coast to coast! If anything it will at least be a quick glimpse into our LOUD, hectic, and loving lives! Enjoy!