Sunny backyard fun for the fish

Alli started Lighthouse Olympics this week and is out of the house until 3 each day so the boys

are so excited when she finally gets home that they want to play, play, play with her.

I LOVE days like these, watching the three little fish run around giggling together!!!

Eli, as usual, did his own thing most of the time . . . 

I think he was a pirate setting his anchor for his ship!!!

Luke was happy to run around and swing, lucky for him (and me!) big sis LOVES to push him.

She really is such a great big sister . . . to Luke, still working on her relationship with Eli.

Then again, Luke is still little enough that he doesn't argue with her too much ;-)

And Luke adores his big sis so much.

Watching them snuggle and giggle was too cute!!!!

For his birthday, Eli was given a dinosaur bone kit so we've spent lots of time trying to dig out bones

and all three of the kiddos love doing it, including Luke.  Definitely supervised play but so fun!

Takes lots of time to gently remove the bones so here's hoping we do it by Christmas ;-)

Another fabulous Summer day . . . I'm going to miss these once school starts again.

“A great many people, and more all the time, live their entire lives without ever once sleeping out under the stars.” ~ Alan S. Kesselheim

I am pleased to say, that our big fish are no longer part of that crew!!!

On Saturday, G became the coolest dad in the world {according to our children}

when he announced to Alli and Eli that the three of them would be going camping that night.

We only have one tent, weren't ready to try it with Luke AND had no idea how it go

SO we set up our tent at Fisher Campground {i.e. our backyard}

BEST campground in these here parts ;-)

First step was setting up the tent . . . 

Eli was all over that one, trying so hard to help however he could!

Alli on the other hand, decided she would test out the air mattress ~ great for flopping and jumps.

We haven't been camping since we lived in Massachusetts {pre-Alli} so it was like a time capsule

opening up our camping bins ~ brought back lots of great and funny memories!!!

Once the tent was set up, the kiddos couldn't wait to get out the sleeping bags and play in the tent.

Watching how excited all three of them were was a hoot!

It really was a very cool campground . . . it was private, had soft grass, a bounce house, a playground; a sandbox, a water table, a gas grill AND a clean bathroom with hot water!!! :-)

Lots of fun was spent playing and lounging around our "campsite" Saturday afternoon and evening!

This campground even included hiking!

As you can see, one little guy wasn't too happy that he wasn't included in the hike.

Oh well, he settled for swinging on the playground :-)

After dinner, the kiddos cleaned up, got in PJs and hunkered down to roast marshmallows for some

"gooey" s'mores.  Eli was so cute and referred to the roasting of marshmallows as "roasty toasties."

Once we finished our s'mores, I went inside with Luke 

while the three campers headed into their tent for games, stories and sleeping.

G said they did great!!!

Alli zonked pretty quickly but Eli was having too much fun with the flashlight :-)

Still, they were all asleep by 9:30 and G had to wake them at 8 a.m. 

to come inside so we could get ready for church.

The first camp out was a HUGE success and the kiddos are begging to do it again . . . at the beach!

Where's Lukey???

Enjoying a super fun new tubby game!!!

The Boys' {New} Room

From the moment we found out we were expecting another boy,

we had so many ideas for the "boys' bedroom" and couldn't wait for the day they would be together.

Today we moved Lukey's big boy bed into Eli's room.

Eli was so excited and kept telling Lukey "you're moving in!"

So that is not exactly true, Luke is still in the crib in the playroom, but we needed to set up the room

now as my folks gave us the other bed since they got bunk beds for the kids at their house.

Luke definitely is not ready to give up the crib yet, but it will be fun to let him explore his new bed :-)

We are thrilled with how the room turned out for the boys!!!

Zoo Day!!!

We are trying to really make use of our zoo membership this summer so the kiddos and I have ventured to the zoo by ourselves twice in the past couple of weeks.  

When there are no summer camps, we've tried to make Wednesday "Zoo Day".

Today, I remembered the camera and was able to capture some of our fun :-)

I decided to be a really cool mom today and made a $15 donation so we could get colorful monkeys.

We are the proud new owners of Hallibott (blue), Zoe (pink) and Zoobers (green),

gotta love the names they came up with {I may have influenced Lukey!}

Luke was especially impressed with Zoobers and wore or snuggled him the whole trip!

Incidentally, I decided to be brave and left the carrier and the stroller in the car, letting Luke proclaim his 

"BIG BOY" status ~ he was so HAPPY and it was nice to not wear or push anyone!!!

Alli and Eli's highlight of the day was finally getting to ride a camel (it was sick last time)

I thought Eli would be nervous but he thought it was great and Alli was the nervous one :-)

Both really enjoyed it and wanted to ride it again as soon as they were off!

Another highlight was the playground.

They had so much fun playing, running around and watching the meerkats.

Alli showed off her own monkey skills!

After playing and seeing all of the animals, we sat down at the theater to eat lunch and wait for the show.

All of us really enjoyed seeing the animals in Captain Adventure vs. Dr. Do Nothing.

Even Lukey sat on captivated on my lap for the 45 minute show ~ he was a big fan of Dog Wonder!

Such a fun day!!!

Fun "Home" Day

After our busy weekend, we needed a down day.

In the morning, the kiddos had a blast staying in their PJs and painting.

Alli painted about 15 masterpieces, Eli wrote his name without any help, and

Lukey painted his first masterpiece with a lot of yellow!!!

Alli and Eli also painted their large rocks that they dug out of the ground.

After getting really messy, they got cleaned up and the boys went down for naps 

while Alli went to play with a neighborhood buddy.

Alli was still off playing when the boys woke up so the three of us played in the bounce house.

It was a very fun and relaxing day, we need more of these!

Vacation Bible School {Times TWO!}

This year, we decided to do VBS at Chapel Hill since all three munchkins could participate 

so long as I volunteered, and Eli really wanted to do it.

The theme was Kingdom Rock

All three kiddos had a blast ~ Mommy too!

I was one of the Imagination Station leaders and I had so much fun with the experiments

that taught the children how to "Trust God"

All four of us were bummed when it was over but we've had fun listening the music at home.

I was shocked when Alli told us she wanted to do VBS at our new church as well, 

but wasn't about to say no so last week, Alli went for her second week of VBS :-)

The theme this time was ATHENS and she learned all about Paul's journey.

Once again, Alli had a wonderful time! 

She loved being with her neighborhood buddies and meeting new friends.

Alli LOVES music so today after church, she asked one of the music leaders if she could

order a CD of the music from VBS, they were so sweet and just gave her an extra one.

Needless to say, it was immediately added to our VBS playlist and we've been listening to it all day :-)

I think we are done with VBS for the year but it was a fun summer for it!!!

Ouch!!!

This evening, our sweet, sassy little Eli learned the hard way that 

you shouldn't try to squish a bee in your sand bucket :*(

Hysterical screams, body shakes and a swollen finger told the story.

Luckily, baking soda and water paste, followed by ice did the trick and soon Eli said,

"Hey Daddy, my finger feels all better now"

Tough lesson but the finger is fine now.

Eli's Pirate Party

This was the first year Eli requested a "friend" party and he insisted on a Pirate party :-)

Mommy made the invitations and Daddy was in charge of the Pirate flags and Treasure Hunt!

Our birthday boy had THE BEST time!!!!

He had six of his buddies there {Cooper, Jackson, Marcus, Ava, Evi, and Kinzie} plus the big girls and little siblings.  It is safe to say that all of the pirate crews had an AWESOME time!!!

The treasure hunt was fun for everyone and I think G had as much fun as the kiddos!

It began by giving Eli and his buddies their pirate buckets with their maps, eye patches and  head sashes {that G talked me into making ~ they didn't turn out too bad!}

The big girls {Alli's crew: Emma, Alaina, Lizzy and Taylor} 

had the job of tossing cannon balls {water balloons} at anyone who dared to enter Croc Swamp.

These girls took their job very seriously and had tons of fun!!!

First step of the treasure hunt, after getting on their pirate gear, was collecting 5 sea shells and then heading to the "Jolly Roger" which they had to "heave ho" into the raging sea ;-)

G was having so much fun leading the little pirates through the sea!

Next, the pirate crew had to "walk the plank"

Funny story about the "plank" ~ we found this piece of driftwood a couple weeks ago and Eli referred to it as a plank, giving us the fun idea of using it for his party.  We tied it up to keep it on our beach and our kiddos have been having a blast playing on it out there, so we knew it would be a hit at the party!

After everyone in the crew walked the plank, they had to find the buried treasure, marked with an X.

Captain Eli took them right to it ;-)

G actually buried the treasure chest and set out little shovels. 

Eli's crew had so much fun digging for the treasure for a good 15 minutes before Alli's crew

began hovering.  You could just hear the big girls' thoughts: "step aside, we got this"

but they did a great job of letting Eli's crew get the treasure out on their own.

Of course, everyone, big and little, had fun grabbing treasure out of the chest.

There were ring pops, gold dablooms, chocolate coins, necklaces, and beach balls for all.

After the treasure hunt, the kiddos had fun playing on the beach and in the water.

G took folks out in the boat to explore while I stayed on the beach and gave rides in the Jolly Roger.

Eventually, Eli was ready to eat cake and open presents.

The cake was supposed to be in the shape of a pirate ship, but it broke so the night before the party,

we quickly made another cake and just decorated it with the skull and crossbones, which Eli referred to as 

"the coolest cake ever!"  I LOVE his joy!!!

The party was a HUGE success and our sweet boy was so happy to have his buddies there with him!

We could not have asked for a better day for our little Pirate!

Luke's Health Issues {Take Two}

After his appendicitis and hospital stay in Mary Bridge in April, we assumed Luke was in the clear.

We could not have been more wrong.

After my heart surgery in January and Luke's appendectomy, 

people kept teasing us that these things always come in threes and warning us to be careful.

We figured the worst that would happen is Eli breaking a bone.

We never dreamed we would wind up back at Mary Bridge with Luke, but that is exactly what happened.

On Sunday, May 19th Luke started getting fussy and running a low fever.

Alli stayed home from school the following Monday because she too had a fever, so we didn't think too much of Luke's fever even as it persisted, despite Alli's going away.

By Thursday, Luke's fever was sticking around and he was becoming increasingly upset, 

but it was when he started shaking and shivering that I decided to call his pediatrician.

Dr. D felt that he should get labs and sent us to MB urgent care so I packed up all three kids and off we went.  Thankfully, G met us there and took the bigs home.

Luke's fever was still nearly 104 despite meds so urgent care gave him more.

The doctor who examined him felt he needed a CT scan of his tummy and sent us to the ER,

with instructions to not make any stops along the way.

By the time we got to MB, Luke's fever was coming down and he was quite playful.

In fact, I called G and told him I thought Luke was fine and we would be home soon.

When the doc came in, Luke was running around giggling and I said I thought we should leave.

She agreed that he looked okay but insisted on doing and ultrasound given his recent surgery.

He was fine during the ultrasound and flirted with the tech (same one from his appendix visit).

As we got back to the room, I asked the doc if she was going to spring us as I was sure he was fine.

Oh Boy, clearly my Mommy Radar was malfunctioning . . . the ultrasound showed intussusception,

the same thing it showed with his appendicitis.

Soon, the nurse came in to give him some Versad so they could perform an air enema to attempt to correct the bowel ~ it was horrible and looked so uncomfortable AND did NOT work despite four attempts.

We got back to the ER and met with a surgeon who decided to admit Luke and watch him through the night, in hopes of it correcting itself or trying the air enema again in the morning if he was doing okay.

Luke is a very entertaining "high" person and quite happy and giggly, not at all sleepy!

He finally fell asleep in the crib around 2:30am

only to wake up less than an hour later screaming in pain.

The surgeon came with us for another ultrasound and decided to perform surgery immediately.

At 4am, I handed my baby over for surgery for the second time in his short life.

Then I waited, by myself, in the huge surgery waiting room.

The surgery was to be laprascopic and expected to be 30-40 minutes.

A little before 5am, the phone in the waiting room started ringing so I answered it, good thing I did,

it was the OR calling to let me know there were complications and they had to convert to open surgery.

It turned out he had an internal hernia that was constricting his bowel, 

and if unfixed, would have caused the tissue to die.

I didn't hear anything until the surgeon came to the waiting room around 7:30am.

He never had intussusception, but she too noticed the thickening of the bowel where he was thought to have it and decided to investigate, she found a large mass and resected a portion of his bowel and had it sent to pathology.  At the time, she believed it to be a polyp (possibly cancerous).

Right after she left, two women (a mother and daughter) showed up in the waiting room.

I truly believe God sent them at the perfect time.  I was all alone, reeling from the news and these two women encouraged me and prayed for our sweet Luke.

Unlike with his appendectomy, I did not go to recovery but received a call telling me to return to his room.

He wasn't there when I arrived and I admit, that terrified me.

Finally, the recovery nurses brought him to his room and he was out from all the pain meds.

He had an NG tube in his nose to remove waste from his stomach, an IV, heart monitor, pulse ox monitor,

so many tubes and wires coming out of this sweet little guy.

My heart was breaking.
He woke up for a bit in the afternoon and tried watching GiggleBellies on the iPad

but was just so uncomfortable :(  Morphine needed, which helped him to sleep.

Luke spent most of the day snoozing, allowing Mommy to catch a cat nap, while Daddy kept watch.
G had to go back to the bigs in the evening so he missed Lukey finally being alert enough to snuggle.

It was like Heaven to be able to hold him again!
That night was tough but we had a wonderful nurse and the morphine and Tordol provided Luke some relief.

Recovery took much longer than expected, and we were in the hospital for 9 days.
Luke required four IV pokes and eventually received a PICC line to receive nutrition.
He truly was the perfect little patient, and all of his nurses adored him.
A couple days before we were released, his pathology came back and while it wasn't a polyp or cancer,
it was indicative of an aggressive form of Crohn's disease so GI got involved and started him on and IV antibiotic known to lower inflammation and it appeared to be working a bit.
Luke was finally released from the hospital on Saturday, June 1st in the late afternoon.
On Monday, I had to take him for blood work, that was an ordeal in itself but he was such a trooper.
The blood work was done by 10 a.m. and at noon, I got a call from his GI doc that his results were so concerning we needed to go back to Mary Bridge immediately and they would possibly readmit him.
I admit that I lost it a bit at that one, we hadn't even been home for two full days.
So back we went.  Luckily, the doctors agreed to let him go home so long as he continued to take his meds.
We had to go for periodic blood tests and see the docs the next week.
Fortunately, while his blood work wasn't improving, it also wasn't worsening.
When I went in for the follow up with GI, we learned that the Prometheus blood test was certain that he had Crohn's disease and I had to meet with a social worker to discuss next steps to raising a child with a chronic illness.  However, the doc wouldn't give the diagnosis until after the colonoscopy and endoscopy.

Finally, on July 8th, we went in for the tests and GOT NO ANSWERS :(
Luke was pretty pleasant before the tests and playing in the waiting room.

The nurses wanted to know if he was always such a happy boy!
I have to say that I got a glimpse into what my baby may be like intoxicated and it was a hoot :-)

The doc saw patchy inflammation (indicative of Crohn's) and bleeding in his stomach BUT
of the 24 biopsies, 22 were perfect and 2 were questionable so still no diagnosis but also won't rule it out.
Doc says that he is likely in remission so he will continue to see and monitor him every 3 months.

Luke is now on Zantac to attempt to help with the bleeding in his tummy.
Usually he seems fine but there are times when he is clearly hurting and it is so hard to not be able to help.
We continue to pray that God will completely heal our baby boy.

Alli just lost tooth #6

I'm a big boy mama!!!

What I'm fairly certain Luke was yelling at me during his breakfast tantrum :-)

Turns out he wants to sit in a big boy chair NOT the high chair {sigh}

Our baby is growing up WAY.TOO.FAST!!!