Adi's Birthday

Adi's life has not been the easiest but it sure has been full of adventure.  The night of the 13th Scott and I had a few minutes before bed to just talk about how much this little girl has changed our lives.  We can't believe how lucky we are to be blessed with such wonderful daughters.

Weeks before Adi's birthday we would ask her what she wanted to do and then would throw out some options.  About a week before her big day she decided on the "jumping house."  Grandma and Grandpa Nelson's gift was providing the jumping house for the party.  I looked all over to find a place where there were bouncy houses and looked into possibly renting one for the day. Finally plans were set and we were going to Fun Zone with some friends and then we were going to go to a near by park for cake and ice cream.  The weather was perfect the weekend before her big day so we hoped it would continue.
Every morning she'd ask, "jumping house today, friends today?"  Then she'd ask many more times throughout the day.  A couple of days before Adi's b-day the heat and humidity came back in full force so we decided to move the ice cream and cake to our house.

The day finally arrived and as expected Adi asked "jumping house today, friends today?" to which we were excited to say yes.  The day was amazing.  We decorated, Miss Wanda came with so many presents and balloons which she loved, then off to Fun Zone we went.  When we got there there was a notice on the door that the place had been closed because of safety issues.  When I had called less than a week before there was an automated recording which just hung up on you once it was over.  I never thought it would mean the place was closed.  We took our party to Chuck E Cheese and the kids loved it.  

Adi recieved many fun gifts and Ayzie made out with some too.  The girls have loved playing with their new toys and we are so grateful to good friends who were so patient with us. 

While no one was watching Adi had eaten
all the sausage/pepperoni off half a pizza

Ellah and Eli

Ayzie and Trenton

Lindsay

 The last gifts of the day were from Grandma and Grandpa Whitaker and the Hirschi's.  It had these awesome skirts, stuffed animals to help with sleep, and a wonderful DVD of their cousins dancing (which the girls enjoyed dancing along with).  What a fun day!  Thank you to everyone who made this day so fun!

Meet Wallace Saturday 9/10

We had the opportunity to dog sit for the Murray’s while they went to the Birmingham temple.  Wallace was a sad dog for the first part of the morning so when he would whimper or whine Ayzie would console him by giving him many hugs and kisses.  She would repeatedly say “no cry Wallace.”  We took Wallace on a couple of walks where Ayzie and Adi would take turns helping mommy hold the leash.  Wallace was such a great dog... it was a treat for us to have him in our home. 

We had to leave Wallace for a little while to go to Sherri’s and Jason’s farewell breakfast at the beach.  It was the perfect morning for it.  I got permission from Aaron to steal Megan for a strategic food shopping trip.  Followed by a night of collage football.  The girls wanted to end the night by giving Wallace one last walk before his family got home.  

Ayzie was just so cute with Wallace I just might consider getting a dog one day.... not in the near future but someday. ;)  

Kinghorn's dog Maverick

I also added some pics from Thursday's activity.  We practiced spreading pudding and then used our fingers to draw in it.

Minnie Mouse

Az has a new bff-- Minnie Mouse.  The first two nights sleeping with Minnie she slept in her bed all night.  Lately she has been climbing into our bed after 6am which is much better than 2am.  Gotta love Minnie ;)  Thanks Rachel and Bobby!!!

A day of disasters or a day of great blessings????? (Thurs Sept 1st)

We had an apt at the sleep study clinic in Birmingham at 9am so I drove up the night before in an Alamo rental with my two kiddos.  We stayed at a Hyatt a few blocks from the hospital so we could easily get to our apt on time in the morning. 

It was ten mins to 9 and I was circling around the parking structure looking for a parking spot behind five cars doing the same thing.  I said a little prayer and almost immediately after a car started pulling out right in front of me that the other cars wouldn’t be able to get because they had already past it.  Coincidence?

Dr. David Lozano is one amazing sleep specialist/pulmonologist and I have really enjoyed having him as Adi’s doc.  He mentioned he thought Adi’s tonsils were to big and wanted us to see an ENT for a second opinion.  He also said her ferritin iron was low and wanted to see if putting her on a supplement would help her sleep better.  

We left the hospital at 10:30am which would put us arriving home a little after 2pm.  I was excited to get home and it was a treat to think it would be so much earlier than I had anticipated.

We got on the fwy and made it to Clanton AL (180 miles from home or 3.5 hrs) where a white work truck was directly in front of me. Next thing I see is a remnant of a tire being shot at our car from under the rear passenger side tire.  Next thing I feel is the car get hit and little pieces of the windshield all over me.  The glass completely spidered but luckily there was a little area I could look out to still be able to drive.  My initial reaction was to get the trucks license plate numbers.  A car decided to cut me off before i could so I called Scott for advice on what i needed to do.  Apparently all he could understand from what I was cry saying was “we almost died, we almost died” so it took him a second to make sense of my ramblings and tell me to get to the side of the fwy and not chase the truck.    

Pulling off to the side of a fwy didn’t seem like an option for me with my kids in the car.  I had flash backs of the time I left Jennie’s car on the side of the fwy and returning found the car was towed because some lady who had worked all night had completely totaled it.  I couldn’t take that chance with my kids so I drove another 3 miles to a rest stop.

I called the roadside assistance and any other numbers I had on the Alamo paperwork and just kept getting busy signals.  I’m going to condense this part of the story- I called Scott and he called roadside assistance and got the agent to call me.  She assured me we would have a car and a tow truck there shortly (it’s about 11:15am).  At 12:45 I get a call from the tow guy saying Enterprise (who by the way owns Alamo) wouldn’t release a car without me being present so they wanted me to ride back in the tow truck with my children not in car seats (because they wouldn’t fit) to drive on the fwy I just had gotten in an accident on, 40 min North (the wrong way).  I told the guy that wasn’t going to happen and hung up.  I called the roadside assistance number back and was reassured I would have a car at my location by 1:16pm.  Blessing---- Scott had a class at 12:45 when he told Capt Mathews what was happening he insisted he leave and make up the class the next day.  Scott’s classes are all in a secured bldg where phones aren’t allowed.  By this point I had called roadside assistance again and was told Enterprise in Alabaster would not be releasing a car to me and there was nothing they could do for me so I called Scott and he drove 3.5 hours to come rescue his family from the 96 degree weather in the middle of no where.  The tow truck arrived at around 2pm to pick up the rental which Adi didn’t approve of.  She yelled, “no car, no car, leave car, leave car” and then started crying almost as if she knew we were stranded.  I called several more times to see if anyone at Roadside asst could help get me a car but never got one. On a happy note the squirrels, blocks, car seats, grass, and water made our time at the rest stop one to remember. At one point a trucker came over to tell me “those girls are so lucky to have a wonderful mom do all this for them. Great picnic.”  I just thought to myself if only he knew this wasn’t by choice. Scott finally got to us at about 4:45pm.  Adi and Ayzie were elated to see their Dad.  They screamed and ran all the way to greet him.

Except for some dehydration, sore neck, and headache we are all ok and in the end that is all that matters.   

By the time Scott got to us the ants had found a
 lifetime supplies of crumbs in the car seats