5 Years!

To celebrate our 5th Wedding Anniversary, we went on a mini-vacation back in October to Savannah, Georgia. We stayed in a hotel right in the middle of the historic district and had an absolute blast! As soon as we got into town we went on a 2 hour bicycle tour. We were so lucky to be the only customers on the 4pm tour! We were able to see most of the area and get a good feel for how we wanted to spend our next two days in Savannah. 

We spent our time there eating yummy foods, drinking yummy drinks, exploring the town and we even got a few educational things in! I kept thinking that my mother would be so proud!! 

Thanks to my sister Liz and her hubby Pat for keeping our children so that we could get away. Its hard to believe, but after 2 nights away, I was ready to get back home to the craziness of our everyday life. 

I am ever so thankful to have such a wonderful husband to spend this life with! He is my perfect match. 

Our View

Here's a beautiful sunrise from our back patio back in November. I just LOVE our view!!

My New Cocktail

Came across this on Pinterest...
J and I have been drinking this before bed every evening for about a week now and have truly noticed some good results! The major positive being our skin!!!

Here's the recipe:
2 TBSP of apple cider vinegar
2 TBSP honey
1 cup of water
Cinnamon to taste

First night was hard to swallow- nowim beginning to like the taste- and of course the benefits are amazing!

Finally Lost It!

And by lost it, we mean literally. As soon as he came home from school today he was anxiously looking for me. He said, "Mom, I lost my tooth today!" So of course I said, "Where is it?" He told me that it was on the playground. It fell out and him and his friends couldn't find it. He was the last kid in his class to lose a tooth. We have been waiting and waiting for this day!!!!
We decided that it would be ok to write the tooth fairy a letter explaining what happened. We hope she still comes!!!

2013

I have several resolutions for this year, some I will share and others I wish to keep to myself. I thought that this little instant message that I sent Justin several minutes ago summed up a big one-

This is the year of organization, cleaning out, getting rid of stuff we dont need! AND MAKING OUR HOME BEAUTIFUL!!! Just like the Family that lives in it!

We were blessed this Holiday season to spend lots of time with our Family! 

Looking back on 2012 I realize that it was a year of learning. We learned that Clarke did have an answer to her illnesses! We are ever so thankful that her surgery went well and she has fully recovered and is a thriving little 3 year old! We have also learned a lot about ourselves and how to function as a family of five! Every single day I am reminded by a sweet smile or a little tantrum how wonderful life is and how my dreams as a young 20 something are becoming REALITY!!!! I cannot wait to see what this year brings to us!

Family Hike

We decided to spend our "Black" Friday in the Great Outdoors on a Family hike and picnic. The weather was absolutely perfect. We found this awesome greenway in Fort Mill, SC, only about 20 minutes from our house.

The park is huge! It has a nice pretty lake, and great trails for a families to hike. Lars enjoyed the backpack and Clarke was able to walk the entire way. (She has always been able to walk for miles and miles though!)

We were able to see some ducks and some horses! They have horse trails at this park as well. So that was neat for the kids!

After our hike we had a nice picnic on a quilt near the lake. There was so much to see and the entire family really enjoyed it!

We are so thankful for these times that we get to spend together as a family!!

This week....

Its a Sunday night and I should be at work! However I am stuck at home with pink eye. I've never had it before, and its such a nuisance! I should be at work right now!!!!

Anyways- 

Last Thursday afternoon I got a text message asking if I knew anyone who wanted an 8week old house trained full bred black lab. J and I had been talking of getting another dog, because he has always wanted a bigger dog to play with and take on walks, etc. We had decided that we should wait until next Spring or so.....until......we found out that this dog would be going to the pound that day if she was not able to find a home. So, I asked J about it, and he said she sounds perfect! 

So, without seeing a picture or knowing too much else about her, we were on our way to pick her up. We didn't really tell the kids what we were doing in case the whole deal turned out to be a flop. We got there and "Cammy" greeted us at the door with her then owner, Michelle. She invited us in, told us that she had recently (2 days ago) been diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer and wasn't going to be able to take care of the dog. She really wanted her to go to a nice family and we seemed like a perfect match. 

Well, along with her new home, she acquired a new name.... LUCY. And it fits her perfectly! 

The kids love her, Kaya is tolerating her, and she has come to fit right in to our family. As far as the house training thing goes, well, lets just say she needs a little work in that department! I didn't think that it could be possible to be fully trained at 8 weeks!

Lucy's first trip to Freedom Park

The BOYS helping Daddy with yard work. 

All 3 kids happily playing outside! 

The weather is finally turning nice! Great evenings on the patio and playing outdoors! We love it!

Clarke's Surgery

We had to arrive at the hospital at 5:30 am!! Here is Daddy reading to Clarke while we are waiting to get checked in. She was so happy!

Here is she when she got to the pre-op holding area, her and Big Baby.

Once she put on her gown, they let her color on her sheets! (I didn't know that was allowed!!)

Here she is the next morning. Daddy brought her a StarBucks because she was supposed to be drinking so we could get out of the hospital!!! (She took one tiny sip).

And even though she wasn't really drinking, Dr. Perez let her go anyways (probably because he knew that I could take care of her at home!)

Here is the "sick spot" at home. She spent several days recovering on the couch. It was good to be home though! 

So, after several UTIs, one causing pyelonephritis (actually probably 2), we went to see a pediatric urologist and did some tests, including a VCUG and found out that Clarke had (hopefully we can speak of it as in the past) vesicoureteral reflux. This is when after you urinate, some urine is retained and refluxes back to your kidneys. She had it on both sides. This is what was causing the infections. Hers was so bad that she had less than a 30 % chance of getting rid of it without intervention. So when she was diagnosed, he put her on a prophylactic antibiotic and gave us several options for intervention. One being stay on the antibiotic for a year and see if it goes away (not an option in my book). Two being open surgery to reimplant her ureters. Three being a less invasive procedure called Deflux. This was a tough decision. The Deflux procedure would be outpatient, done through a catheter and you were fine the next day. However, the success rate was only 80%. It is also a newer procedure and not a lot of long term effect research has been done. The open surgery was 96-99% effective. We chose that. 

She has a what Perez calls "bikini cut" incision that is healing wonderfully. One month later there is still one steri strip on and she does NOT want you to remove it! Funny! She had a followup appointment with Dr. Perez last week. He did a renal ultasound to check on things. He said everything looks great and there is no blockage (one of the possible complications). We will not actually know if she still has reflux unless she has another VCUG done. That is more invasive and is not necessary unless she has multiple UTIs or a kidney infection. Her urine culture came back negative so we were able to stop the antibiotic!!! yay!!! 4 months of an antibiotic was not to my liking! 

So now we are working on potty training all over again! She is doing great!!

Lars' First Haircut

Yes, this firetruck looks like fun! And, YES, I really need a haircut mom!!!

The hair stylist was able to get the little cape on him for about 10 seconds. He ripped it off (like he does his bibs) and she put it back on. Then he boo-hooed!!!

I was so worried that he was going to do that the entire time. As soon as I told the lady it was ok to cut with the cape off, he calmed down. But he wouldn't smile at all. He kept such a serious look on his face the entire time!

It was too funny!

And here is his moral support....the girl who LOVED her first haircut! (see that smile? thanks to the lollipop!)

The Eddy Familx (no, that's not a typo)

Just spent a week at Oak Island, NC with the entire Eddy clan! What a blast to have everyone together and no agenda other than looking at the waves crash! Already looking forward to Beach Trip 2013!

(more pics of the rest of the crew to come very soon!)

August 10- RING

Here is my beautiful ring! Can't believe its been almost 5 years! 

August 9- MESSY

Here is my Messy. Before Christmas this will be a clean organized desk. It has to be!! One thought is to rip the whole thing out and not have a desk there. Then I wouldn't have a mess there!!! Haha