A Birthday Season

We LOVE "Birthday Seasons" at our house. River kicked off his season a few days before his birthday, with a dinner party with Uncle Jeremy and Grandma Santa Claus, who also share January B-Days.

On his actual birthday, he woke up to a heart attacked bedroom and a yummy breakfast,

Complete with strawberry milk in the "Goody Gumdrops" cup,

And a crying sister on the side!

Jared took him to Krispy Kreme to get donuts to share with his class at school. Yum!

A few days after his birthday, in conclusion of the "season", River got to go on a special date with JUST Mom and Dad (thanks to Gma and Papa for watching the other kid-o's). When he came down in a white shirt and tie for the special occasion, I just about melted on the spot. What a cutie-pie!

We went out to dinner...

And then to see... TWILIGHT! He was SOOO excited. Since the movie has been out for over 2 months, I thought it would be fine to get to the theater right as the previews started. I was wrong. It was packed. Only the front row had 3 seats together. When I asked River if he was sad to sit in the front row, he said, "No! ALL my life I've always wanted to sit on the front row!" I smiled and said, "Alright, I guess this is the night that all your wildest dreams come true!" He sat in my lap for the first 3/4 of the movie, Jared's for the last 1/4. He was a doll and we had so much fun.

We love you, our little Monkey-Man! Happy Birthday!

Answered Prayers

When Dr. Spetzler, the brain surgeon, told Rhea-Rhea that he felt she would have a very successful surgery she said:
"Oh, I know! Seriously, I have the BEST luck ever... well... except for the brain tumor!"

Answered Prayers, you say?? Surgery, you say??
Yes! Read on.

Rhea-Lynn met with the brain surgeon, Dr. Robert Spetzler Wednesday afternoon. He reviewed her MRI's and said:

1. It is definitely a "low-grade tumor".
(low-grade = better than high-grade)

2. It is almost certainty NOT malignant (cancerous) right now... but it could turn malignant or grow at any time in the future. Rather than take a chance, he wants to remove it.

3. It is NOT an emergency procedure, but does need to be done.

4. The surgery is called a "Tumor Resection". There is no functioning brain tissue within the tumor, but the tumor is located in an area of her brain that is surrounded by functioning brain tissue. When he operates, he will remove as much of the tumor as he can without getting too close to the functioning brain tissue surrounding it to risk causing damage.

She is scheduled to have the surgery Monday morning (as in THIS Monday Morning... February 2) at 7 AM. The surgery is at Barrow Medical Institute, which is located in St. Joseph's Hospital. It will be a 4-6 hour operation. She will be in ICU for 1-2 days with another 3-5 days in the hospital following the surgery. No flowers or visitors (except immediate family) are permitted in the ICU. She will need to take off 4-6 weeks of work for recovery. After her surgery a pathologist will determine what type of tumor it is (benign, malignant). From there, Dr. Spetzler will decide on what care/treatments to do. Oh, he also said that IF they treat it with radiation, it's not the type that causes hair loss. (R-R was REAL happy to hear that)

Dr. Spetzler is very confident that she is going to be JUST FINE. Rhea-Rhea is SOO EXCITED... pumped out of her mind, actually. She just wants to "ditch it"! She would have gone under the knife tonight, if it were up to her. The secretary that scheduled the surgery was cracking up. She said she had never seen someone so excited for brain surgery!

It really is a miracle that she was able to get in so soon. Dr. Spetzler is world renowned and has a very busy schedule. The fact that he is wanting, and available, to operate, even though he doesn't consider it an "emergency", are proof to me that Heavenly Father is listening to our prayers and taking care of Rhea-Rhea. The last few weeks have been difficult... sitting around... worrying... trying not to worry... trying to be busy... trying to sleep.... and so on and so forth. Rhea-Lynn is a strong girl and for her, facing surgery is actually easier than facing more waiting. Ya know?

Keep up the prayers. They work!

I Hope You Don't Mind

I hope you don't mind
That I put down in words
How wonderful life is
Now YOU'RE in the world!

It's true! SEVEN years ago this sexy beast (aka: River) joined our family!

First he was a little brother,

Then he was a big brother.

Deja Vu...

Deja Who?
(Lucky River got to be a big brother 3 times in 3 years)

Whether he's UNDER-MAN (I mean Spiderman),

Or a MUMMY,

He's always our LITTLE ANGEL (sometimes more literally than others).

Mr. Monkey-Man is a lover of:
COWBOY ATTIRE (boots and shorts never go out of style, right?),

WATERMELON and BATHS (sometimes both at the same time),

CHOCOLATE,

ANIMALS... of both the LIVE...

And STUFFED variety,

SNOW,

SAND,

And pretty much ANYTHING OUTSIDE ('cept playing out back by himself... never a fan of that).

His very favorite outfits have always centered around
UNDERPANTS! (We'll start to get worried if he STILL wants to hang out in cowboy boots and undies when he's a teenager)

Oh, ya! Smooch it up! We love you Tick-Tock-Tiver! Happy 7 years of living every moment of life to the fullest!

Mama-Sita

Happy, Happy Birthday to this pretty Mama-Sita-O-Mine!

We LOVE you, MUCHO!
(the mes-kin in me came out in this post)

Crazy Socks

Gotta love "Crazy Socks Day" at school!

We'll see if they keep them like this all day, or if they cave under peer pressure and un-tuck their pants from their socks.

Let It Snow

In honor of our annual "We Love River And It's ALMOST His Birthday" trip to the cabin (I'm guessing he's wishing for a pet here... not gonna happen),
I shall sing a song:

Ahem!
Oh the weather outside is frightful,

But the fire...

And the snow coke...

And the brownies are so delightful...

(writing "I am kind to my sister" sentences... NOT so delightful)

And since there's no place

To go,

Let It Snow,

Let It Snow,

Let It Snow!

The End. Of the song.
Technically... not a single flake of snow actually fell from the sky during our stay at the cabin. But that's okay, we (as in Jared and the kids) had tons of fun in the snow that was laying around on the ground screaming, "PLAY WITH ME!"
Having a Dad that grew up in Alaska, is a definite asset...

When designing,

And building a Snow Fort.

P.S. Here is Heaven's cute new "Purple! My favorite color!" boots BEFORE we set one too close to the space heater to dry.

Can you guess which one got a little too hot? Poop.

P.P.S. Secret caught "Fruit-Roll-Up-Itis" on the drive home.

P.P.P.S. Only 9 more days until 2 important things happen:
1. River turns 7.
2. Rhea-Rhea has her appointment with the brain surgeon.
I think it's going to be a GOOD DAY. January 28.
Don't forget... prayers... angels... send them our way!

Calling All Angels...

This is my beautiful, baby sister, Rhea-Rhea. It is a well known fact that Rhea-Rhea IS an ANGEL. All who know her will agree.
100% Angel. 100% Fact.

We just found out there is a tumor in her brain.
She was in a car accident a few weeks ago. She felt fine, but started having headaches. She decided to schedule an MRI to see if her spinal damage (from a previous wake boarding injury) was worse. Well, it was. She has a herniated disc in her neck. This will need surgery in the future. However, the doctor said the spinal damage is secondary to the (surprise) tumor they found in her brain.

This is what we know:
*The tumor is "likely" a low-grade glioma (this is the technician's best guess).
*It is located in the left lateral frontal lobe cortex (translation: left side of her brain, toward the front).
*It is 2.5 cm.
*She has an appointment on January 28th with Dr. Robert Spetzler, a world-renowned neurosurgeon, who specializes in brain tumors. He is the director and chair of Neurological Surgery at the Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph's Hospital. Yes, she's in good hands.
*She has a long road of treatments (that will most likely involve radiation to shrink the tumor) and recovery ahead of her.

This is what we don't know:
*Whether or not the tumor is cancerous.
*What her treatment and recovery will look like (a lot depends on what is determined by the specialist).

This is what we need:
YOUR PRAYERS!
YOUR FAITH!
YOUR POSITIVE ENERGY!
YOUR LOVE!
And how 'bout loaning us YOUR ANGELS for a while?

Rhea-Rhea is amazing. She can already see the blessing of the car accident in allowing the doctor to find the tumor. She has a strong testimony of the power of prayer and healing. She KNOWS that Heavenly Father is a God of miracles. She is literally surrounded by so many angels (I can feel them), both earthly and heavenly. For this we are grateful.

Thank-you for joining your prayers, love and faith with the prayers, love and faith of my family in behalf of my baby sister.
I will update this post as we find out more information.
Love. Love. Love. That's what this life is really all about. Thanks for sharing yours with us.

I Kissed A Girl

THE only time it's okay to sing the lyrics to this song and mean it....

I Kissed A Girl


And I Liked It


The Taste Of Her Cherry Chapstick (or "Mommy Meep-Mop")


I Kissed A Girl


Just To Try It


Hope My Boyfriend Don't Mind It!


The only other time it's acceptable to sing this song is when you are at a party where everyone is singing karaoke, and this so happens to be the only song you (for some reason) know the lyrics to. Then, and only then, by all means, grab a microphone and a group of girls to sing it with.
Got it?