Happy, Happy Birthday!

Yesterday we BEAUTIFULLY executed a surprise birthday party for my mother-in-law, Peggy. She happens to be not only my husband's mom, but one of my best friends, and I am truly thankful that God gave me not only an awesome husband but an AWESOME family to marry into. We (Sara, my sister-in-law) and I tossed ideas around for a couple of weeks while they were visiting Norway - and decided we'd have this planned by the time they returned. They got back on Tuesday and we appeared very non-chalant about Peggy's birthday - it was Wednesday. We had lunch and supper with her, there might have been a piece of cake, we sang to her, nothing OVERLY exciting.

On the 4th we "lumped" her birthday in with the celebrations - there was, again, a cake - which we ended up getting into before anybody sang or celebrated . . . All of this in an attempt to, no, not break her spirit, but throw her off our trail in HOPES of surprising her. Well, you tell me - does she look surprised to you??

Tom did a WONDERFUL job of making her think it was a nice evening for the two of them. They went on what was SUPPOSED to be a romantic carriage ride (it was SUPER hot and lucky for them I had only booked them on a 20 minute ride instead of the 40 minute one!) - and then they brought her into the restaurant where we had arrived during their ride. She was a LITTLE confused at first - we did SO enjoy our surprise. :)

They brought a beautiful truffle plate out (in lieu of cake) when we were finished eating, and Peggy graciously shared it with all of us. (Truth be told, I would have scarfed the WHOLE thing down myself if it had been MY birthday party!)

Then we headed outside for FIREWORKS. We told her that we'd gone ALL out in planning this party but I'm pretty sure she wasn't fooled. Perhaps it was the droves of people that joined us out on the Ritz Carlton's pool area to watch "her" firework show, as if they had been notified of it ahead of time??Oh and of course, I needed to play around with silouettes just a LEETLE bit . . . it was a beautiful fountain!

And then Peggy kindly took this of Matthew and I in front of the same fountain. :) I believe we were ALSO going for a romantic-type theme?? :) Happy Birthday Peggy, we love you and I hope last night was really special for ya!

Happy Independence Day!

OK so I am about 12 minutes late in wishing those of you in blog-land a very Happy 4th of July - sorry! But I figured I'd wait until I had something to share along with the whole sentimental "I'm so thankful to live in this country" thing ya know? Seriously though - I am. Sure, we are far from perfect but we are SO incredibly blessed and the vast majority of us don't even realize it . . . SO - Happy Independence Day and thank you to all of those who serve our country. :)

We had a nice "slowish" day. Matthew's family came over this morning for an impromptu breakfast which he (Matthew) pulled of beautifully. It started out with red, white and blue pancakes (which were a hit!) and turned into some pan toast, eggs, bacon . . . I think there were bagels and then of course coffee . . . and if you weren't invited I'm sorry - it really WAS last minute. He was pretty much done with our few pancakes when I kindly invited MORE people to come and then he held it off in the oven warming while they came and he made more food. :)

Hmm...Oh and then I took another nap. (this is now two days in a row that I have fallen asleep with Micah and Ella - they are both not well and so we're cuddling at nap time . . . which apparently means Mommy sleeps for 3 hours TOO in the middle of the day.) Don't get me wrong - I will NEVER complain about having had a nap. BUT, it does mean I'm up all hours of the night because I can't sleep - last night was 3am . . . it's already 12:16 now, we'll see how long I last tonight. :)

So then we went over to my parent's house with everybody we know - HA! (except for a few people who shall remain nameless but YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE.) I have pictures ready to post in order to make you jealous! We had ALMOST as much fun as we normally do (hence those who didn't come being missed!) - and we did NOT get rained on this year - which definately was a plus! The fireworks were good - I get bored after about 3 minutes and wait impatiently for the "big bang ending"- that's my favorite part. :) Micah stayed inside during the fireworks because they scare him - and Grampy Tim stayed with him because, well, he likes the air conditioning and prefers to watch his fireworks from the TV (the Washington show was better than Sanford's, go figure!)

Here are some pictures from today - enjoy!

In order to make "you" jealous - you know who you are!! Here "we" are trying desperately to have fun without ya! :DSo here are Alex and Ella - Sara (my sister in law) took these - aren't they so cute together? :)

And Micah, you rock dude! :)

Makes me SMILE

Here are some things that make me smile. We ordered these for my father-in-law for Father's Day - and they finally came the other day! They are for his office and I hope that he really enjoys the kids grinning at him every day he sees them. :) And THESE are some items that I have been stalking at Dillards for MONTHS. Waiting and waiting for a sale. I walked past them last week and lo-and-behold . . . they were more than 1/2 off! Hallelujah! These became MINE. Notice they are VERY similar in color to my logo and branding . . . in design as well. Of COURSE they will be displayed beautifully (someday?) in my office. I'm thinking on some shelves, holding some coffee . . . maybe paperclips, business cards and SD cards?? :) Oh and flowers . . . don't forget the pretty vase. :) Ahh......it takes SO very little to make me smile. OH and THIS makes me smile too. :D And by t
he way, the song you're hearing (bubbly) is "our" favorite song - Micah's, Ella's and mine. :) We all sing it at the top of our lungs together. :)

UPDATE on today :)

SO.....we're back. :) The doctor watched Ella run up and down the hall, saw her strange gait, looked at her uneven (but cute) bum . . . he even felt the clicking in her hips. So he ordered an x-ray which took about 30 seconds and in less than five minutes, we saw her cute little bones! (It's a digital x-ray - how COOL is that??) He said that she looks GREAT.

Her hips are right where they're supposed to be, her growth plates look great - nothing is wrong. YAY! However, he made sure we knew that it was good to make SURE, because the problems she has (tripping and the gait) could sometimes mean something worse. Her problem is, and I'm being as technical as the doctor was . . .

. . . she runs like a girl. :) HA!! Seriously though - apparently the phrase, "you run like a girl" directly relates to a sort of 'paddle-run' that is very common in girls. Hence the somewhat derrogatory terminology. :) BUT, Ella truthfully runs like a girl. Which is good - because she will inform you at LEAST 10 times a day that she is a GIRL. 10 years ago the doctor would have put her in a special shoe or leg brace, but they've since realized that the shoes and braces weren't actually curing the kids - time was. :) They either grow out of it or can be trained to run differently later on.

SO - to those of you who knew the appointment was coming and prayed - THANKS! To those who aren't even reading this until now - Thank God with us that it's something that she will most likely outgrow, and if she doesn't, simple training and practice can help her with the gait!

Today . . .

Has finally come. We're taking Ella to the pediatric orthopedic doctor here in one of the big children's hospitals. When she was born her hips were displaced and we did some non-invasive stuff to help it. (She wore two diapers at the same time for months - it was really cute when she had such a big "bottom")!

Anyway, at one year we did some x-rays and everything came back great - so we haven't given it much thought. (Well, not true, but the doctors said all was well so we just forgot our worries.) I finally talked to Ella's pediatrician this last time around because she trips and falls ALL the time with her right leg. When she runs you can see the right leg flailing around to the side with each step - no wonder she trips. :) Both hips pop in and out when you move them . . . so the pedicatrician agreed it was maybe a good idea to give her hips a closer look.

Fastforward to today: I'm not that concerned - I kind of expect the doctor to take one look at Ella and say, "Why are you here? There's nothign wrong with her, she's just a kid and she runs wierd!" So that's what we're praying for - overprotective mama. :) BUT, on the off chance that it isn't just "overprotective mama" and "she's just runs wierd" we're going to get it checked out.

So if you think of it, pray for us this morning. That if there IS something wrong with her hips that the doctors will finally see it and we can try to fix it now, rather than 15 years from now when it would be MUCH more traumatizing for her. And mostly, that I really AM just an overprotective mama. :)

Thanks all! :D