World's Greatest Dad

I have to give Justin big props here because he has been such a trooper. He stood outside in the 105 degree heat at Lucy's birthday party and grilled 40 hot dogs and never once complained, even though he was battling a case of appendicitis.. He stayed downstairs and visited with everyone at the party. And this is after he had already been in pain for 3 days. That just goes to show how much he wanted Lucy to love her party and experience it all right there with him. Thanks honey! We both love you so much.

Justin had the surgery last night around 8:15. It went really well and I got to stay in recovery with him. I came home so I would be here in the morning with Lucy. Lucy and I got up this morning and went to visit him. We stayed a couple of hours. Justin napped most of the time. He has been in a lot of pain today. They have had a hard time getting the pain under control. The doctor is guessing that the recovery is even worse since his stomach has been cramped up since last Friday. He was not able to urinate today, so he has to spend the night again tonight. Hopefully he will be coming home in the morning. We miss him. Thanks Katy for watching Lucy for us tonight!! I don't know what I would have done without such awesome friends to help us out. Justin's mom has decided to come in town and will be here tonight. I will be able to stay with Justin at the hospital until he gets released tomorrow, so that is nice. I hope he can get a little rest tonight.

Thanks again for all of the prayers, emails, and comments. We truly appreciate it. Tomorrow is Lucy's birthday. We will be celebrating in a very low key way!!

These are a few pics from the hospital today. She was a little scared of all of the equipment at first, but she opened right up.

Prayer Request

Justin is still really not feeling well. He has a persistent and very painful pain in his abdomen. He went back to the doctor yesterday. They tried to make him go straight to the hospital for more tests and a scan, but he somehow convinced them to set him up an appointment for 7:45 this morning for a cat scan. So, we went this morning, waited forever, watched Justin choke down 2 huge bottles of white yuck, and are currently waiting for a call from his doctor when the results of the scan come in and the rest of his bloodwork. We are hoping to hear something soon.

Please pray that everything is okay and that we get some answers about what is going on. Also pray that Justin gets some relief. This has been going on for 6 days now and he is incredibly uncomortable and exhausted. Thank you.

*UPDATE*. We are at the hospital and waiting to go in to have his appendix removed. We are so thankful that this is the problem and not something more severe. He had bloodwork done on Sunday and they said it wasn't appendicitis. So much for that test being accurate. The scan showed the appendicitis being pretty severe. We are hoping the surgery is just routine with no complications. Thank you all so much for the prayers and emails. They mean so much and justin really appreciates it. Lucy is getting lots of good love and attention from Mandy and Christy. Thanks so much you guys!

***UPDATE***justin just got out of surgery. The doctor said it went perfectly and there were no complications. He is in recovery and I am waiting to go see him. I ran home before surgery to grab justin a few things and put Lucy to bed. She apparently had an absolute blast with Mandy and Christy. Yeah! I didn't want to have to worry about her too. Thanks again for all of the comments and emails. You guys are the best!

Tired!

I am still so tired today. I can't believe how tiring it is to have a 2 year olds birthday party. We didn't even do a lot. It wasn't stressful at all, just exhausting. The house was trashed. My mom really helped me get it clean again today, but it is still a mess because I am not sure where to put all of Lucy's new stuff. I got a crappy nights sleep because Lucy slept with Justin and I last night. I was fine until 4 am, but then she was flopping all over the place. She is back on the blow up mattress in her room and will remain there for a few more nights. Then she is moving to our other bedroom. For some reason, she is TOTALLY freaked out by her crib. I have no idea what happend about a week ago, but she refuses to sleep in her crib any more. That is fine. Just weird.

Justin is still feeling pretty bad. He was a total trooper during the party even though I know he felt awful. We are still not sure what is wrong with him. He did have some bloodwork done that came back normal, so that is good. He just doesn't feel well. I hope he is feeling better by tomorrow.

Her actual birthday is August 1st. We are going to take her to the circus!! Should be lots of fun. I will do a big progress post on the 1st.

Lucy got so many goodies for her birthday. A kitchen, lots of dress up clothes and shoes, baby dolls, clothes, Mr. Potato Head, some Thomas the Train parts, a microphone, lots of Play Doh stuff, several Melissa and Doug wooden food sets, and the list goes on and on. She will be busy playing with this stuff for a long time. She is one lucky little girl. She has more than anyone could ever want or need.

I had the best time getting caught up with Nicki. I felt like we had known one another forever. We could have sat and talked forever while the girls played. Her family was awesome and her kids are so polite and kind and beautiful. I have always admired Nicki as a mom, and it totally shows in her kids how great her and Tony are as parents. I look to her all of the time for parenting advice and she always knows exactly what to say to get me back on track. Nicki and Addy came back over this morning to play and go to breakfast. We took the girls to this low key breakfast place right by our house, so we walked. The girls were playing in the restaurant after a little warming up on Lucy's side. All of the sudden, Lucy gave Addy a hug and I asked if they wanted to sing Ring Around the Rosey, which they proceeded to play together for the next 10 minutes. They were laughing and hugging and melting my heart because they were so precious. Then they were running together and just being sweet. They walked home holding hands!! Killing me with cuteness. My dad had Addy cracking up back at the house. She is such a precious child who lights up the room. She played so sweetly with Lucy and had us all oooohing and awwwing over her cuteness. Thank you so much for making the trip over for Lucy's party. It meant a lot to us and we were more than thrilled to have you all in town. I wish you could have stayed longer. Don't forget to tell Noah how much Lucy loved the singing Dora card.

Here are just a few cute pictures of Lucy cooling off in the pool after dinner tonight.

The Party

Here she is, our birthday Princess. These pictures were actually taken the other day because I knew I would be too busy to get any good ones at the party, and I was very right. My pictures from today were not good, but these are some of my all time favorites. Since I know a lot of people will want to know, her pettiskirt is made by Oopsy Daisy. It is crazy cute!

This could possibly be my favorite picture of all time. This is a little face that only people who know Lucy really really well get to see. It is so rare that I would catch it in a picture.





Dancing Queen







The party was crazy! We had a ton of people over here. I was so so excited to finally meet Nicki and her family in person after knowing her well for a few years now. The girls were so adorable together. I am not going to lie, Lucy was a little overwhelmed by all of the commotion. She was fine and happy, but pretty shy. There were 14 kids and a whole lot of adults. It was 105 degrees. All of the kids played in baby pools and the sprinklers while the adults melted. We had one major mishap - the ice cream cake we had preordered was never actually made. I threw a fit and ended up getting two small, already made cakes for free. But the point is, I wanted our personalized cake. I got over it after pouting for a bit. Lucy could have cared less because she thought the cake was awesome. She got so many fun gifts. They will have to be a post in and of themselves.

I am so exhausted and feel like I have been run over. So, none of these pictures got any editing and I am hoping Nicki got some better ones than I did. I am going to bed. More later.





Melt my heart!! They were running up and down the sidewalk, laughing the whole way.

Miss Addy Mai doing gymnastics in the pool. She and Lucy really really resemble one another. Everyone thought so.

Anna, Lucy, Addy

So pleased with her bicycle that is way too big. It didn't stop her from figuring out how to get it around.

The balloons were her favorite part.

Anna Banana - love this girl.

We set the slide up to go into the pool. It was a big hit.

Where's Lucy??

Tomorrow is the BIG DAY!

The birthday party is tomorrow. The girl is about to pop she is so excited. I mean seriously, I don't know if she can take the suspense any more. I am pretty much ready. I will have to pick up the balloons and cake tomorrow, but for the most part I am ready. Both sets of grandparents got here today and Aunt Cayce. I have never seen Lucy so excited. She could not decide who she wanted to hold her or hug on her so she just ran from person to person. It was precious. There are presents everywhere. The tricycle is all put together and so adorable. I am really excited to see her reaction to everything. YEAH!! I am really excited about a surprise family who will be at the party. You will just have to wait and see who it is tomorrow.

Lucy has been having some sleep issues lately. She is waking up in the middle of the night wide awake and not wanting to go back to sleep. She is actually sleeping on a blow up mattress on her floor right now because she doesn't want in her crib, but we can't deal with that until some time next week when we don't have company in the guest room. This is not fun.

Say a little prayer for Justin because he has not been feeling well at all the past two days. He gets home tomorrow morning and I hope he can make it through the party. It seems to be gastro-intestinal issues. I hope it is not something serious.

Here are a few pictures from this week. We blew everything up for the party this afternoon to make sure it all worked. The bubble machine is amazing. Also, we got to meet Heather and Sarah the other day with Mandy and her kids at the Children's Museum. It was great to meet you guys! I felt like I was in a daze the whole time I was with you from lack of sleep, so sorry about that.

This is such a cool picture to me. So lucky to have caught it like this.



This is from playgroup breakfast the other morning. Every one of these kids were caked in dirt when we left. They are so cute.

Lucy and I always share french toast. Yummy

Using her best manners!

Sarah, Anna, and Lucy. Cuties!

This is so sweet. Lucy would not cooperate so she got kicked out.

Lucy and Sarah racing up the stairs.

Sarah trying to climb over the wall.


Be prepared for a CRAZY amount of birthday pictures. Woooo hooooo!

Baby in There Momma?

I bet I got a bunch of people's excitement up with the title of this post. Ha. Tricked you. Our neighbor and very close friend, Christy, is pregnant. She has a month to go and her belly is big at this point. We see Christy and her husband Steve a lot, so Lucy talks about the baby in her belly with Christy every time. She will tell us that Ava is in her belly and that she is a baby. As an aside, I know Lucy must be so confused because one of her besties is named Ava and I know she wants to know why we keep telling her that Ava is in Christy's stomach. Must be really confusing, but she goes with it. The other day, Lucy and I were in Target, and she patted my belly and said, "Baby Momma Tummy." Wow. I was floored that she would even put such a sentence together but really, I was just shocked. She is tooooooo little to be thinking things like this. She kept patting my stomach and saying baby over and over the entire time we were in the store. I just kept telling her that there was no baby in momma's stomach, only in Christy's. I thought we were done with it, but it has happened several times since. Yikes. Maybe she is trying to tell me to lay off the ice cream and cookies because it LOOKS like there is a baby in there. Ha. I just can't believe that she comprehends enough to now already realize that babies grow in bellies. Is this normal? It makes me laugh now, but some day it is going to be a very very complex conversation about the belly that Lucy grew in and that that belly was not mine. Yikes. I knew it would come up, but so early?!?!?

I know you are tired of seeing pictures of Lucy in front of our house every day with chalk. I am too. But the thing is, after dinner around 7 pm, there is the most amazing lighting out there and it is the only time of the day that we can be out without having a heat stroke. It is still high 90s or even 100 degrees, but the sun is not so intense. So, out we go every night. The chalk keeps her really busy.

I love some of the pictures that I got with the new lens today. The first ones are from a lunch date Lucy and I had with our friends Katy and Ava a this old fashioned pharmacy with a soda fountain. The girls can pull high chairs right up to the bar and they were so pleased with their milkshakes and grilled cheese. I wish I could have gotten a lot more pictures, but the placed was packed and I could not move around at all. We are going to go back at a down time of their day and get some fun ones. The outside pictures were when Christy was out with us, hence all of the big smiles. Lucy loves her some "Tisty" and "Teev". Enjoy. I am getting more comfortable with the lens. Still need lots and lots of work, but made some improvements today. My favorite thing about the lens is the intense catchlights it picks up in Lucy's very dark eyes, which is not an easy task to accomplish. When I get it focused correctly, the sharpness is amazing. Still working on this though.