Birthday wrap up!

My parents came down for the weekend and brought a pitching machine and a tea set to our versatile six year old! She loves both. We played hard, ate well and laughed a lot. It was good.

Lauren breezed in between social engagements with encouraging comments like, "Makenna, since you have only one leg feeling growing pains, wouldn't it be cool if only one leg grew and you had to walk lop sided for the rest of your life?" Can you just feel the love?

Greg investigated her life size Justin Beiber cut outs and noted Justin is wearing lipstick! Lauren all too quickly responded that he was wearing chap stick. He inquired as to how she knew that and she laughed as she said, "because it's mine"! Poor Greg. He just quietly walked out of the room sorry he had said anything!

Ty found a hard hat in our closet and came out wearing it. After a few minutes, Greg put it on and told Kate it was his. Kate exclaimed, "YOU WERE A WORKER MAN??"! For just a brief moment, he was cool because he actually worked! You see, the only cool UPS workers are the ones who bring packages to our door. The rest don't count when you are six. So having a glimpse of Daddy doing something other than boring safety stuff elevated him to someone even more important in her eyes.

On Kate's birthday we had cake, realizing of course that we had already eaten cake balls but it was still raining and I have a sugar addiction when I am cooped up inside.....anyway, check out our little man's chocolate goatee!

Tonight is DATE NIGHT!!!! My parents gave Greg a gift card for dinner and we will stop in at the Home Depot...we do a crazy date night around here! I can't explain our need to stop in the Home Depot every time we get to get out without the kids, but it always seems to happen that way! We don't get out without them much so I suppose it is an excuse to price repairs and improvements without distractions? I don't even care. I am looking forward to holding hands with my worker man and completing a few sentences too.

Have a great week friends!

camera time

Colby's parents asked me to take some six month photos of their little guy. I was honored.

But Ty was a bit jealous and had to be in the photos too.....

Welcome to the toddler years! Does that face not say it all?

Kate is 6!

Daddy surprised Kate with birthday donuts this morning. She's been asking for them since Lauren's birthday last November.....she's persistent! She has requested macaroni and cheese for dinner, but not the kind I make...nope, she wants the stuff out of a box! Okay, but I am adding tilapia and asparagus to her request so I can eat too! The other day she asked me what birthday she would be allowed to do whatever she wants and I told her the 21st! She was not impressed by my answer. We replaced her twin doll stroller and updated her webkinz account. She was pleased with her gifts, especially the twinkle toe shoes from Grandma Carol......they are as colorful and sparkly as our Katebug. Happy birthday sweet girl.

Celebrating Kate

Greg's family drove down for a few hours today to help kick off Kate's birthday week. Lizzie was a treat as always and Kate enjoyed her gifts and birthday money. We had to head out to Target as soon as everyone left! She loves shopping.....I blame teenage sisters. She chose cake pops rather than a traditional cake or cupcakes this year.

Grandma looked high and low for Twinkle Toes shoes. Kate is thrilled. Grandpa is trying to tighten them up a bit to help them fit better as they run a little big. I hope that means we will get more wear out of them!

Saying good bye is never easy....

Uncle Brad playing with Kate.....she loves it!

Poor little Lizzie was told she has to let Kate open her own packages. Lizzie is next....three in June.

The cake pops were good but I think they need a little tweaking next time. I'm pleased with my first attempt though.

Jennifer and Shelby took Kate out for a play date yesterday and gave her some fun art supplies for her birthday.

Her first drawing in her new sketch book.....can you see her news? It is her first loose tooth and she is pretty excited.

It's been a week.....

Erin had a staph infection all over her face. It is healing well now thanks to the awesome support of our friend Robyn who happens to be a pediatrician. We avoided one doctor appointment and she made a house call! Love her! Anyway, Erin couldn't go to the doctor once we realized what we were dealing with because she had mandatory state wide testing in the beginning of the week and couldn't miss school. Once we got through that, she was sent home anyway with tightness in her chest, extreme fatigue and upset stomach. A battery of tests have been run and we've not uncovered the cause of her symptoms. It has literally been one thing after another.

Colby turned six months old and is trying to crawl. Things will really be busy once he figures that out! He is always moving and smiling.

Baby feet are beautiful!

I love this....Colby and Ty holding hands while watching Mickey

Ty is as busy as ever.......

Unless he has an important phone call to make to Pa-Pa.

He is always the first to prepare to pray every night for dinner but after every prayer, he hits me! This has gone on for weeks. I seriously want to know how long I will be repeating "hands are not for hitting"! Anyway, after praying the other night, he smacked my arm and very firmly said, "Pa-pa, Ma-ma, Kate". It finally occurred to me to he wanted to run through our bedtime "God bless" list! All this time I was thinking what is it going to take for him to figure out he is not allowed to hit me and he has been wondering just how long it was going to take me to figure out how to pray with him! 

Our Kate is turning 6 next week! And she has discovered a loose tooth! It's her first and she is very excited.

We wrapped up our school year. I can honestly say I wish it had been our public school year rather than our home school year. It's been a season of unnecessary challenges. Common sense is lacking across the board and I am dreading adding another student to the roster in the fall. Praying. And counting down the days until May 31 when Erin will finish her sophomore year.

The internet is bad......

but not for the reasons you may think! I spent a few days last week in a sweet tooth recipe seeking mode and ran across so many tempting treats! Today we started our day with praline french toast.....oh man! But, it meant I broke my "not cook" answer to Greg's Mother's Day inquiry. AND...my wise Mother-in-Law shared with me that she takes her birthday off too! Whoa! Where in the heck has that little piece of information been the last 17 years? As she suggested, "not cook" is now on the calendar for my birthday too! Whether or not I stick to it remains to be seen!

After breakfast, I took the older three girls out shopping and successfully updated my jeans and a couple of tee shirts! It wasn't even painful! The girls are calling them "hot momma jeans" so I think I've done well??? Let's just say gaining the approval of teenagers is not an easy task and they are asking to borrow them (ummm...no!)

This afternoon we put up the newest trampoline and joked it probably meant we'd be relocated or something!

Clean up detail included the use of the truck.....and little man loves the truck!

Ty woke up with a cold sore this morning. Disappointed doesn't cover it. He's completed two full months of daily medication which is supposed to be preventing these outbreaks. We'll speak with the doctor tomorrow. We have four more months to go but I was not prepared to see outbreaks during treatment. But, is it just me or is he about the cutest thing even with that ugly thing on his face? Speaking of cute....

Katebug and her bugs......she is just so colorful! She handmade my Mother's Day card and it said she loves me but I love UPS. Interesting perspective! Let's just say I appreciate UPS paying my husband so we can pay the bills. "Love" would be a stretch! 

And this girl.....signed her card, "From the kid who loves you the most. What time are we going shopping?"

I am blessed to have all these wonderful people calling me mom.

Email from Theresa.....

Aren't these the cutest?

And in my sister's words:

Both boys started ball games this week. Mason is enjoying wee-ball now that he understands that it's okay if his teammates catch the ball instead of him. He was worried that if he didn't catch them all he wouldn't get a trophy. For Mason, it's all about the trophy. Brennen has 1 for basketball and he doesn't have any. Brennen is really getting into T-ball as well and loves having daddy as a coach (well...most of the time). They had their first game yesterday and Brennen hit a single and a double in their 2 inning game. He plays 1st base and had 2 outs, which they say is good for t-ball. They won the game so they are officially "undefeated". Go Gambrell's !!

"Hey Baby!"

My son addressed me this way tonight! He's cute. Have mercy.

Ty and Cameron working on an escape route! Cameron's newly found mobility keeps me busy...as if I already wasn't!

It's been a week with mixed news and long days. First, the fun news......we found out we will be having another niece! Greg's brother and his wife are expecting another little girl the end of September! Lizzie, their first little one has decided she likes the names Jesus and Hello Kitty! It looks like Hello Kitty has more promise now!

Secondly, my grandma was admitted to start her laser knife procedure on Tuesday only to have the radiologist declare that he isn't comfortable proceeding because it is his opinion that my grandma has been fighting pneumonia and not cancer all along. I honestly can't wrap my head around it. After x-rays, cat scans and level four cat scans with two doctors and a phone consultation with an oncologist, how on earth was she told "terminal cancer", then told, "oops, we gave you the wrong report, your cancer isn't that bad" and now be told, "you don't have cancer after all"! I pray this guy knows what the heck he's talking about but I am afraid by waiting his recommended two months for a follow-up scan, cancer could be spreading. I don't want games played with my grandma's health. She deserves the best.

Little man is "riding" a bike now!

This is the distance he "rode" and Kate loved demonstrating her ride down hill for the camera. She is such a backward, shy child!


After standing us up yesterday, the insurance adjuster arrived today to evaluate the damage to our house from a few weeks ago. We won't get the report for a few more weeks. Greg was able to patch things well enough to stop immediate leaking so we will wait to see if it is worthwhile to file a claim or have it repaired on our own.
Remember Jeff? Our fridge repair man from last Spring?? Well, we had him back and he immediately delivered the bad news, "the freezer cannot be repaired" so we are quickly shopping for a replacement as our beef order is scheduled to arrive next week. That little investment just grew!

So, with all the "fun" news and cooler rainy weather, my baking mood has resurfaced. This does not go well with my loss of a walking partner this week! Anne, I need you back! Anyway, I've made homemade graham crackers, hamburger buns, our regular bread and no bake cookies so far this week! YIKES! It was all so good! I may have to start talking to that darn Wii Fit again. We had a falling out a few months ago and I've not spoken to it since! I'm mature like that.

Wordless Wednesday

"A little Monkey Business"

Our friends, Jennifer and Shelby gave us complimentary tickets to see Junie B. Jones, A Little Monkey Business at the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts. It was pretty cute and since Kate LOVES those chapter books and our friends, the day was a success.

I heard Shelby telling Kate that when she grows up, she wants to have one baby girl. Kate responded, "well, if you wanted a boy, I'd just give you Ty".

I was shocked to see all the water in downtown Louisville though.....this was part of the parking garage behind the theatre. We saw multiple businesses under water as well as exit ramps still closed because they were also still flooded....crazy stuff.

Along the planters, you can barely see the fence that typically sets well above the river's edge.

We woke to a dry attic but broken freezer. "Apparently", to quote Junie B. Jones, we are back in our if we touch it, we will break it phase. Good times.