Broken Camera Woes!

Jack had his first baseball game - actually a double header - on Sunday! Jack played great. Dan, as an assistant coach, got to pitch a game and Nick and Luke, well, loved the dirt! Since we were at the park until about 8 - ah, it was SO feeling like summer, we didn't get a chance to watch the Amazing Race - our typical Sunday night family bonding time! So tonight, on Wednesday, we are sitting here watching the show and I find myself in my "usual" position at the computer, but with minimal pictures as our camera is broken...what is a novice blogger to do??? With that said, here are just a few cute pictures we took when Henry was visiting our house for the first time!

Here are the boys....Jack, Nick, Dan, Steve, Henry and Luke!
And here are the girls (and, well, Henry!) - me, Kristin, Jackie!

How did THAT happen?

Catchy title for a not so interesting post! Basically, I celebrated my 33rd birthday (hence the title!) last Monday and the fam all got together over at Jackie and Steve's on Sunday. Dan surprised me with this great RUNNING SHOE cake, from none other than Peggy Brown! Not sure that I have made this too public, but I have taken up running. I completed my first 5K a few weeks ago and I have another one coming up next Saturday! Anyhow, here is the great cake - of which I had none...nothing like the cake itself being a huge visual for NOT eating it!!!
Me with my three boys! Notice Luke's crazy big shirt? Yep, he wet through his diaper during his nap, through EVERYTHING, so we had to borrow something from Aunt Jackie! Too bad Henry isn't big enough that we can borrow clothes from him! :)
Dan and the boys got me an AMAZING necklace with the three boys' names and birth dates on one of three silver coins, ranging in sizes from biggest (Jack) to smallest (Luke). Thanks to my fashionista friend, Jennifer, for letting me steal her look and thanks to ETSY, a great website for offering such cool homemade items!!! Jenn also got me a great gem to hang on the necklace and Dan added a cross! What a look! Here Jack and Nick help me open the gifts...
...while Luke was sleeping!
Talk about sleeping, here is another sleeping baby....HENRY, with Papa!
A great, (RESTFUL!) day, spent with family was just what I needed! Bryan, Allie and Alyssa - we missed you guys! Can't wait to visit you all soon!!! :)

Another Reason To Celebrate!

Last year was a very eventful one in our lives, not that every year hasn't proven to have its ups and downs, but in one week in March 2008, Aunt Jackie had surgery to remove melanoma from her neck and just two days later, Luke had his cochlear implant surgery. While March was a very trying month for us, we certainly celebrated in April, as Luke's "turn on" date was April 17th (and Jackie's test results were good!) I had said then that all I wanted for my birthday (April 20) was a son that could hear and a sister who was cancer free and thankfully God provided me with both!

As April came around once again this year, we knew we had to celebrate! So, on Friday night - April 17th we had a very small get together, mainly with our signing group (Nana, Papa, Aunt Jackie, Uncle Steve, Aunt Joy, Uncle Gene, Gigi and Kristin) to celebrate Luke's one year of hearing!

Many wore their beautiful orange shirts from Luke's turn on party last year!!!
Luke's current LOVE is Barney, so how better to celebrate hearing than with the annoying purple dinosaur himself (whom Luke likely wouldn't love so much if he couldn't hear him!) I opted for a quick and easy Mexican fiesta (thanks to Jackie and Steve for bringing over their quesadilla maker!) Everyone enjoyed it - even the boys! Here is Luke munching on a cheese quesadilla! Notice Dunkin's nose in the bottom of the picture?? He loves them too!
Since the night was so nice (and it wasn't raining!!!) we hung outside for a bit! The boys even got to enjoy their new bubbles from Easter! Talk about an action shot! Here is Nana blowing the bubbles and Luke going to pop it! (Great pic, Dan!)
After dinner and bubbles, we of course had to eat some Peggy Brown cake! It was too cute. Luke sat down and started singing "Happy Birthday!" We changed the words a bit to, "Happy Hearing Day!" and even had a candle on top!
It was then time for presents. We got Luke 2 Barney DVDs (for the drive to NY!) and Kristin (thanks SO MUCH!) got Luke like 30 Barney VHS tapes that she had from her daughter, Maddie! Needless to say, I think we now seriously own all Barney movies imaginable!!! Wanna rock out to the purple and green dino - just stop by our house as you'll likely find one playing almost every waking hour of the day!
In all seriousness, as I've said before, Dan and I obviously weren't prepared for any of our boys' deafness and we certainly weren't prepared for how well Luke would be doing just one year post implant! Thanks to all for your continued support of Luke's signing and speech! We couldn't be doing any of this without you!

Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3...

Every three months, we travel to Children's hospital to have Luke's cochlear implant map checked as well as to participate in a study for Advanced Bionics implants. We are happy to do so, but know that it will always be a long visit. Today was no different, except for the fact that Luke was actually participating and really doing a great job!!! Since the whole process isn't so stressful for us anymore (we are no longer thinking, "can he hear that" as his speech and language skills are developing so nicely!) I decided to bring my camera!!!

Here Dan and Luke are playing in the waiting room...of course Big Penguin accompanied us (but notice NO BINKIE!)
Our first stop on the marathon visit was to the booth to check Luke's implant. He responded to speech at 25 dB so he is right where he should be (although we went in about 2 hours later and he did SO much better...they think he had warmed up on the second go round, but that was just to check his hearing aid, so they couldn't count any responses for the implant!) Anyhow, they turned everything up just a bit on his implant AND his hearing aid!

Daddy and Luke pose for a picture after all the official testing was done. Luke typically sits on one of our laps (mine today!) but when we went in the second time to check the hearing aid, he actually sat on the chair by himself and I stood outside with the other audiologist who runs all the computers! What a big boy we have!!!
Once the booth testing was done, we headed into the cochlear implant office for a major testing session. Since the SLP for the team is on a maternity leave, Ruth, the researcher had the task of giving all the tests! Luke honestly sat in this chair all by himself, without complaint and FOCUSED for about an hour and a half!

Here he is pointing to pictures of "washing," "running," and "eating" and he got them all right - a 3 year old task! :)
Another portion of the testing was listening and repeating words he heard Ruth say! Some of the words were obviously words he didn't know..."CHINA" and others were words he definitely knew, "more, hello, daddy." He rocked this task too! He was so cute, he would hold a little bead against his cheek, Ruth would provide the stimulus word and Luke would say the word and put it on the pegs!!! I was amazed as some of my 5 year olds can't sit this long for a task, and he is only 2, people!!!
After all the testing in the office, as I mentioned above, we headed back into the booth to check his hearing aid. All is well there too, so no change in his hearing (yeah!). The last thing on the team's "to do" list today was to make a new earmold for his hearing aid. This involves putting a substance into Luke's ear that is like a pink silly puddy, waiting for it to harden and then pulling it out and voila, instant ear mold impression. Then, for the first time, the audiologist, Jericha asks if we want Luke to pick out his ear mold..."sure" I say, until he picks out a silver, sparkly one! "WHAT?" Since Luke won't remember what he picked (or at least won't object!) we quickly asked Jericha to choose another one similar to that one, but a bit more "masculine" and so we ended up deciding on a clear earmold with red, white and blue stars floating inside it! We figured this would be good with Memorial Day and July 4th on the horizon!!!

Here Luke smiles at Jericha as we are waiting for the pink puddy to dry in his ear!
Because today's appointment was at 2, we kept him home from CID as that class runs from 9 - 12 and always wipes him out - definitely a good decision on our part as this testing session was really a long one and involved his complete and total focus - which he provided! We aren't due back until July! I can't wait to see all the progress he will make in the coming months!!!

That Bunny Keeps Giving and Giving and...

Nana and Papa were visiting with Bryan, Allie and Alyssa over Easter (we missed them all!) and had given me some goodies that the bunny had dropped off at their house before they left. With all the excitement from yesterday I totally forgot to give the boys their stuff! On the way back from Memphis today, Nana and Papa stopped by our house to pick up their dog, Brewster, so I figured it would be a great time for the boys to look at their baskets!

Here Jack happily poses with his Pokemon cards, already in the sleeves for his album! Thanks, bunny!
Nick's passion is definitely for Power Rangers! That Easter bunny must have known that as Nick received this green Power Ranger!
Luke loves the outdoors, so the bunny brought him tons of sand toys and a cool Elmo puzzle!
While the three boys loved everything they received from the Easter Bunny at Nana and Papa's house, I think Dan (well, and the three boys!) enjoyed what they brought back from Memphis the most...Dunkin Donuts and, the best part is that they actually had Vanilla Creams - his favorite donut ever! The next time we get that again will likely be our trip to the east coast in June, unless we make the trip to Memphis in the coming months!!!

Here's HOPPING You Have a Happy Easter!

After we looked through our baskets and had breakfast, we headed to church for a packed house! What an awesome sight that was. We were sitting pretty close to one another (I honestly had to put Luke on my lap for us to fit!) but it is good to see so many people in church!

After church, we ran home, packed the car with Easter dinner delish and headed to my Aunt Joyce's and Uncle Gene's house! As soon as we got there Aunt Joyce grabbed Luke and he, of course, wanted to something to eat! 2 bananas later, he was happy!
We were waiting for Aunt Jackie and Uncle Steve to arrive before we ate and the boys were tired of waiting, so I headed outside with them! Joyce and Gene live out in the country so the boys are certainly free to run and run and run!!!
While we were outside we played a little "Where are you Mr. Fox" - a great game that Jackie, PE teacher extraordinaire taught us! The boys looked so cute holding hands!
The boys will also pose for pictures now, with little complaints! I can't wait for our trip to New York this summer!!! :) (Hopefully minus the Binky!)
Since it was getting a bit breezy outside we headed in to take a family photo! Thanks to my cousin, Laura, for snapping this one! I think it turned out pretty good! At least we are all looking at the camera!
Once Jackie, Steve and Henry arrived it was time to "kiss baby!" Luke LOVES his baby cousin and wants to spend all his time kissing him! It is too cute! He even told Jack to "kiss baby" in this picture!
We then headed down to eat! We had a great meal full of ham (ugh!), turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, broccoli rice casserole, veggie tray, relish tray, deviled eggs and our fave, pink fluff! The boys all had two helpings of potatoes and corn (gotta love starch!) Once we were all full it was time to wash dishes, but someone had to hold Henry!

Here Aunt Joy is with her newest Great nephew, Henry and my cousin, Laura and her fiance, Paul!
Once the dishes were done we decided to check outside to see if the bunny had hid any eggs for the boys! Sure enough, he had!

Here Luke is picking up an egg! The third egg hunt was definitely the charm as he was running around finding eggs like a pro!
Nick was running and trying to show Dan his egg that he found! Nothing like multitasking at the age of 4!
And of course, Jack had a bag full of eggs!!! After 6 years of egg hunting he can spot them anywhere!!!
Since I had the camera around my neck at my disposal I opted to take a few pics that I don't get much! Ones of me! Here I am with Jackie!
And here I am with Dan!
After all the fun festivities it was time to relax with...a beer! Thanks, Uncle Gene!
And what goes better with beer than some delicious Peggy Brown cake! Here's HOPPING You Have a Happy Easter! Sorry it is sideways and sorry it has a slit in it. I forgot to get a picture of it, of course until after I had already sliced it!

Thanks, Easter Bunny!

My three sons are so much like me, well at least when it comes to weird things/people coming into your house at night while you are sleeping! I swear, I was probably the only girl who was scared of Santa and the Easter Bunny and let's not even talk about the tooth fairy. No way was my lost tooth going under my pillow...I happily put it on the kitchen table! Honestly, I wouldn't even get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve or the Saturday before Easter!!! Turns out my three are the same way! They are super happy to accept anything left for them, but want nothing to do with the fact that they are walking around their house!

The Easter bunny did visit our house last night and Jack happily announced this morning, "This is the best Easter ever!" The bunny knows that the boys won't eat much candy, so he left them each a chocolate bunny and since Jack likes Peeps, he included some of those in his basket for special treats in his school lunch! Jack received the movie, "Bedtime Stories" which will be great for our trip out east and the Crayola 3D Color Explosion!
Nick was excited to receive the movie, "Bolt" and the Playdough ice cream maker set!
The bunny brought Luke some Elmo legos (for 2 year olds!) and Ice Age the Meltdown!
Dan had to go round at the hospital this a.m. so it was just the boys and I for a while! I was busy making breakfast and the boys, well, were busy drawing! Thanks bunny, for a nice, quiet morning!

No Plain Ole WHITE eggs here!!!

Yesterday after our egg hunt, we decided to dye some eggs...three dozen to be exact! I had purchased two sets of egg dye kits, one that was all about tattoos for Jack and Nick and a Sesame Street kit for Luke! Maddie and Kristin had stopped over to drop off some goodies for the boys, so we convinced them to stay for the fun! (And the extra sets of hands were definitely a help!)

Luke and Kristin worked diligently on their eggs. Luke loved dropping the egg in the dye and stirring it with the spoon; luckily only a few spills were made!
Nick, of course, utilized his favorite color - blue, for the majority of his eggs!
Jack was probably the most creative of the bunch, using the "magic" crayon to write on his eggs and working very patiently with the tattoos to place them in just the right spot on his colorful eggs! Here, he shows off his work!
Dan got in on the fun too and made an egg dedicated to his favorite team! Go Yanks!
Here is our egg making crew - minus Kristin - who snapped this pic...
Voila! Our beautiful eggs....notice some missing! Boiling three dozen eggs is harder than it sounds and a few (well, six!) were lost!
Happy Easter, all!

Hunt for eggs and find a BUNNY???

What would an Easter be without our town's annual Easter egg hunt? This year, since Nana and Papa are visiting with Bryan, Allie and Alyssa, and Jackie and Steve just had Hank, Dan and I had to brave it ourselves. It is times like this though that having 3 children in different age groups is tough, as Nick at age 4, had to run in the 5 - 6 group because I had Luke in the 0 - 2 group and Dan had Jack in the 5 - 6 group. Luckily Nick was a trouper and did great!

Here the three boys are standing with Dan. One thing is greatly different than in the past...the sun was actually out!!! :)
Even though Luke had practice hunting eggs yesterday at school, he wasn't too interested in doing so today. He was happy to say, "eggs in basket!" but didn't want to do so! Here I am pointing out an egg for Luke to pick up! He looks really interested, eh???
Once Jack and Nick were done with their race they came over. Luke got much more into it then...
Mommy and her three boys with their eggs!
Luke was lucky enough to find (with Mommy's help!) a "prize" egg. We got to bring it up to the little depot in the park and he received this HUGE blue bunny!
Thanks to the Lions Club for putting on a very nice, well run, hunt! We'll be sure to be back next year!