Ashley the princess
Corinne the sweet pea and Annika the frog (no idea where the frog costume came from- so if it's yours and you want it back speak up...)
Annika saying 'wibbet, wibbet'
Megan the cowgirl and her horse (she refused to wear the hat and boots and scarf- whatever)
All four with Steve
Corinne is 5 months old today!! This is her newest trick- sitting up unasissted!
First of all we have furniture!! YAY! Our living room couches and the chaise chair that's going in our bedroom arrived on Tuesday. WAHOO!! Here are the pictures:
Ashley can now ride her bike without training wheels. She's enjoying her newfound freedom. I'm enjoying the cul-de-sac...
Here's a cute picture of Megan and Annika riding bikes too. They like to start at the top of the driveway and ride down as fast as they can and wait for Steve or I to stop them at the bottom before they go into the street. You'll notice Megan's feet aren't even down so she can attempt to stop herself. No fear I'm telling you!
I made cupcakes for the trunk-or-treat cake walk and for Ashley's school Halloween party this week too. Here's the pictures:
my graveyard (these were so fun!)
The great pumpkin:
Happy Halloween!
So that last post I wrote a while ago and it apparently didn't post but saved it as a draft.... interesting. Here is an email from my mom regarding the MRI:
Everyone,
Just to let you know what is going on here. Bob had another MRI this week. The results are not so good. It shows two tumors growing again. One is size 17x18x18mm, and the other is 2.4x1.7x2.2 cm.
The radiologist compared this MRI to one taken in Aug 2002( they typed 2005) so I called to correct that since he didn't have one this year. He'll do another report comparing this one to the last one which was Nov. 2004. We'll see what that report says, but I'm sure the two new tumors will still be there on the report.
Please remember us in your prayers He is taking some herbal nutrition now that is making him feel wonderful. He's stopped using a walker altogether, and has a lot more energy. He walks back and forth in the house 20-30 times for exercise daily, and we work at the Humanitarian Center at DI 3 times a week for 2 hours each time. He couldn't do that a few months ago.
I'm boring. Really. My family (mom, dad, Becca and Angela) came to visit for UEA (long weekend) this weekend. I have nothing 'fun' to do. At all. My idea of a good time is shopping by myself, or going to the EQ social (um, yeah, we did that). I guess a good time involves good food (just ask my hips) so we are BBQing ribs and chicken tonight. But other then that life just goes on around here. Kids still have to eat and nap on time or we're in trouble- which severely cuts into 'play' time. So how are we living it up? They just got back from the park- while I stayed home with Megan who got put down for a nap because she was to beastly to have fun. We may hit Fallas Paradas (cheap mexican clothing store) for the rest of our fun afternoon. Of course Dad wants to go look for some obscure item at Walmart- which is his idea of a good time. Now we don't live close enough to walk anymore- which is a good thing since that means he won't try.
Anyway, people frequently ask how he's doing- so here's an update. He's doing great. Really, really great actually. This time last year we were told that the tumor (he has brain cancer if you didn't know) was growing and there was nothing more that they could do, that we'd have a few weeks up to a few months left. Honestly I was relieved. He was in such pain and was miserable, seemed like it'd be kinder to let go and let him die and have peace. But once again (well, I think this is the third or fourth time) he's surprised us all. Last Thanksgiving he could hardly walk, was in a wheelchair most of the time. He didn't make much sense when he talked and slept a lot. He was also grumpy. He couldn't sleep in a bed because his back hurt too much and when they came to see us they'd even bring the chair for him to sleep in.
Now he's not even using the walker. He's on almost no steriods, no pain pills (I think) and is awake most of the day. He's still struggling with words. It seems that if he just talks he's fine, but the harder he trys to think of a name for an object the more the word eludes him. His mood is terrific. He's not lost his sense of humor and there are times when humor-wise I can catch a glimpse of the 'old' Dad. Story: Hannah told me the other day when she was down for dinner they were having egg rolls. Dad was trying to convince Hannah that egg rolls were really made of cat. Hannah (going along with it) says, 'really? So do you like them?' Dad just looks at her deadpan and says, 'meow'. That is 'old dad'.
Of course there are lots of physical changes, but the mental changes are probably harder now. He's convinced that he's grown 4 new teeth and that those teeth have messed up his mouth. (He's always had an overbite, but apparently now it's bothering him). His best friend is a denstist. He's told him it's impossible, but Dad insists that these are new teeth and they need to be pulled. Of course the dentist refuses. But don't try and tell him that it didn't happen, he'll get very offended and upset.
Anyway, Dad is good. It'll be interesting to see what the future has in store for him. He's going for another MRI on Monday. I don't think that he's had one for a year now.
My Mom is amazing. She is the definition of unconditional love.
YAY! We have our new house! Moving is a pain, but I'm feeling mostly unpacked. Not quite settled yet since we've still got a lot of furniture that we've bought and are waiting for it to arrive and furniture we plan on buying and haven't yet. Can I just say that furniture shopping with four children 6 and under is a form of torture???
I also forgot to take a picture of the front of the house. Sorry. You'll have to wait until my camera is fixed since I used Katie's while she was here and she emailed me the pictures. I'll start downstairs and work my way up... the best tour I can give.
Here is the living room and dining room. One big area. We figure this way we can arrange it how we need, and as that need changes then we can change the room.
We've ordered living room couches and were told 4-6 weeks. We're on week two. I'm ready for a place to sit.
Here is my large pantry which I'm enjoying. It's nice to have a spot to put my broom and mop. It's also nice that it has a knob on it so I can 'lock' the kids out.
View #1 of the kitchen. I really like my island. I want to put a 'kiddie table' in the breakfast nook area to confine messes to one area not in the immediate view of the front door, well, at least for breakfast, snacks and lunch.
Two things I love, my Corian countertops with the seamless sink and my tile backsplash.
View two of the kitchen. I'm not sure where to put my garbage can. Seems in an unconveinent spot where it is now, but if I put it on the end then it blocks the path when I've got the dishwasher open. I'm not a fan of trashcans in closets or under sinks, mostly because I'm lazy. 
Office/craft room- still in a state of unpacking.
Guest bathroom. There is a stall shower behind the door.
Under the stairs storage. LOVE IT!! I'm going to get shelves built in for food storage. It continues around the corner as well.
My stairs. With a missing railing. See that funny looking spot? That's where my genious customer service dude painted over some patch work with flat paint. That's another post though. I requested a new customer service dude.
Apparently this is the only picture I took of Megan and Corinne's room. But we did these closet organizers in every closet. So nice!
Ashley's room. Sorta messy and we need to take the bassinet out. Continue to the next post.
Here are Ashley and Lily in the loft/play room. We're going to have an entertainment until built into this little nook for the tv and stuff. But we haven't gotten to that yet. We've ordered a couch that should be here sometime in November. Apparently we have good taste and are 75 on the waiting list for it... until then we lay on lots of pillows (see them in the corner)?
This is my laundry room. I 
Down the hall is Annika's room. She seems to sleep better in a room by herself. She's also enjoying her toddler bed.
The girls bathroom. Very exciting. 
The masterbedroom. It's a bit bigger then our other one- which is nice. We're also having a bedroom set made by this same guy. Yay!
This is my huge linen closet in the bathroom. I love it. I also love my shower curtain.
Here is a shot of my huge countertop. We had two sinks in our other master bath and only ever used one, so we opted to just have the extended vanity and I'm REALLY enjoying it.
Anyway, that's the tour.
