State Fair of Texas!

We went to the fair the last week it was open. It was a little muggy and warm toward the end but at least it wasn't the torrential downpour that it was last year! We didn't eat as much as we thought we would. I thought the boys had fun. I felt bad for Caleb because he was pretty much in his stroller the whole time and he wanted out! On our way home Ethan said, "Don't take me back to that place. It's no fun. There are no bouncy houses." Fine with me! Next year he can stay with Nana and Papa and Mondo and I will go alone!

He loved this part. When we first walked in there was a little race track for kids to ride around in the battery operated cars. Ethan ran straight to Lightening McQueen. He was so cute driving it around and poor little Caleb wanted so bad to do it too but he was too little. :-(


What a little stud muffin! He was watching Ethan drive wishing he could do it too. Maybe next year buddy. (See Monkey's head behind Caleb? He went to the fair with us too.)

This was the best I could do with both of them. Caleb was not participating in the photo op. But Ethan was cute in his new drum shirt.

Caleb loved the "choo choo"! I actually cropped Mondo out of this picture. He was standing a few feet away because they were pretty high off the ground.

Caleb was making us too nervous so we took him off!

Chowing on a yummy corny dog! That's one of my only reasons to go to the fair!

Ethan chose pizza. Go figure.

We went into one of the car shows and there were a ton of little cars to buy. Caleb got super excited and started lining up all the cars on his stroller. He threw a big fit when I put them all back up and didn't buy any. Mean mommy!

They LOVED climbing in and out of all the cars.

Ethan wanted to sit in this chair because it looked like a tiger.

This was the best I could do. They wouldn't both look at the same time. There were so many things to see around them!

Out of all the yummy fair food, Ethan wanted popcorn.

Ethan wanted to drive the bumper cars...but he thought they were just cars that you could drive around. When they started running into each other he started looking paniced. It was really sad! The worker had to take him out and hand him to us before the ride was over. Poor little guy.

I have never seen a kangaroo in the pouch! I thought it was cool. Looks like she needs to kick him out...he's too big to be in there! See his feet hanging out of the top?

Caleb liked looking at all of the animals. He wasn't too into feeding them.

Ethan has always been an animal lover. He really enjoyed the petting zoo.

They had little shovels to pour the food in. Pretty smart so you don't lose any tiny fingers!

Cheese! As usual, Ethan had to hold onto Caleb so he wouldn't run away!

We walked past these Nintendo car games when we first got there but there were too many people on them. The WHOLE day all we heard was that he wanted to go drive the cars. He finally got to right before we left. He was so excited and didn't want to leave.

Caleb, on the other hand, was ready to go!

Can't Break That Spirit

It has been one week today from Ethan's freak injury. He is doing 100% better. He's learning to live with a full arm cast. He went to school yesterday for an hour and a half...with Mommy. He would've done fine alone but I was too nervous to send him by himself. It was his Halloween party so I didn't want him to miss it. But, that is another post. We go back to the doctor on Friday morning to get his arm re-xrayed to make sure the pins are holding where they should. If all goes well, he'll get his cast closed up and re-casted. He'll have it on for 3-4 more weeks. :-( But, it's hard to keep this 4 year old down! He won't wear his sling. I told him his right shoulder is going to be huge and super strong by the time the cast comes off! He's already running and jumping around the house. I found him standing on the couch yesterday and he said, "I'm just kidding. I'm not going to jump." But he totally was going to if I didn't catch him. Geez...what am I going to do with him?!

This pic if from Uncle Abel's phone.

Here he is being his silly self again. He put his cup on his head and told me to take a picture.

He woke up with a sore shoulder and had to ice it down.

This picture makes me sad. This was from Thursday night. We had to prop him up with couch pillows. He's learning to eat with his left hand. Unfortunantly all he wants is pasta which is one of the worst things to eat with your non-dominant hand! I had to finish feeding him because he got too frustrated. :-(

He's learning to sleep in weird positions.

Thanks for coming to visit me Uncle Abel!

My parents got him walkie talkies. He LOVES them. It was the key in getting him off of the couch. He always wants to play "hide and seek walkie talkers". When he talks on them he gets this deep, serious voice. So cute!! Thanks Nana and Papa!

The Laundry Basket Drama

It was Wednesday night. Mondo was working late and the kids and I had just finished eating dinner. I was cleaning the kitchen and the kids were happily playing with an empty laundry basket. It was turned upside down and they were standing on it and running and jumping over it. Seemed harmless enough. I did not see Ethan fall. He started crying a normal "I just bonked my head" cry and I walked over to check on him. When he sat up the lower part of arm was dangling and his elbow was pushed over to the side. He then started screaming and rolling on it. I ran all over the house to find the phone...it was in the kitchen right where I had been. I called Mondo and told him I thought Ethan had dislocated his arm and he needed to come home NOW. Then I called my mom and told her to come get Caleb. She was there within 3 minutes. I threw some shorts and shoes on Ethan and grabbed his favorite blanket and stuffed animal. Mondo got home, took one look at him, and scooped him up and ran to the car.

We went to Cook Children's...in the POURING rain. It felt like an eternity before we got there. We parked right in front of the ER. Mondo got Ethan out of the car and told the guy at the front to park it anywhere. When we got inside we never even sat down. The nurse at the front desk took one look at his arm and said "Oh my gosh! Get a room now!" That's when I really started to panic. His elbow was getting purple and swollen. When we got to the room he was totally covered with nurses. Before I knew it his arm was in a splint and he had an IV (which was WAY less traumatic than when they tried to do it at Children's last year). They rolled in a computer so I could answer questions about insurance, etc without having to leave him. He got morphine and toradol about 20 minutes after we got there. That really helped. A few minutes after he got those he looked down at his hospital gown and said, "These are not my pj's." It gave us a much needed laugh.

High on morphine. :-)

He had xrays which confirmed their suspicions: supracondylar fracture of the humerus. Or in regular words: he broke the ball part off of the long bone in his upper right arm. Like, completely off. They weren't even touching. So the next thing I know they are talking about sending him to surgery to pin it all back together and he'd have to stay overnight. My mind was spinning. I came in thinking it was a simple dislocation and we'd be home in an hour.

We went upstairs for surgery about 2 hours after we got to the ER. My emotions hit me hard when the anesthesiologist was explaining how he would have to put in a breathing tube and all the complications that could go along with that. I started bawling. Mondo had to sign the consents. They gave Ethan something to help him relax right before they wheeled him off. His eyes started closing and he gave me a big, dopey smile. It was so hard to watch them wheel him away but at least he wasn't screaming. He was probably asleep before he even got the the OR. The surgery took about 30 minutes but we didn't get to see him until he was completely awake which was about 2 hours total from when he went to the OR. The surgeon said it was really bad. He had a hematoma and ripped muscle. I'm thinking this was from when he was rolling around on the floor at home.

Those three lines are the pins now permanantly in his arm.

He came out of recovery smiling and holding a rainbow popscicle. He also had a bat beany baby that they gave him in recovery. The nurses said how cute and sweet he was. That was good to hear. We got him settled in his room and he went to sleep. The nurse came in every 2 hours to check his fingers to make sure he could move them, had good blood flow, and to make sure they weren't too swollen. His cast has a cut from top to bottom on the front and back to allow for swelling. Mondo slept on the twin size couch/bed and I slept with Ethan. There really wasn't much sleeping going on. The nurse had to open the cut on his cast twice because his fingers were swelling and tingling.

This was right when we got to his room after surgery. He was still knocked out.

Practicing web shooting even with the IV in his hand!

We watched a lot of movies, toured the activity room on his floor, played Chutes and Ladders, and enjoyed a visit from Brandon, Levi, and Will Morris. We were discharged around 11am. Ethan was bummed that he didn't get to stay and eat the lunch he had ordered: red spaghetti, salad, a breadstick, chocolate pudding, and a Dr. Pepper. Of course, Nana saved the day. She made him exactly what he had ordered at the hospital. We stopped by her house on the way home to grab some lunch...and grab poor Caleb since we abandoned him the night before. He sad a great time with Nana and Papa. She went from no babysitting since her surgery to an all nighter!

This was a small shot of the activity room. See the big screen in the back with the recliners? (All of the hospital pics were taken with my phone.)

At Nana's straight from the hospital. Not feeling too hot.

That's all for this post...I think it's long enough. I'll post some updates on another post.

They Call Me a Fireman...

Well, we had quite a bit of excitement last Sunday night. Mondo and I were getting ready to go out to dinner. I was playing with the kids in the playroom and started smelling smoke but I thought it was just someone's fireplace. About that same time Mondo's mom came in and said our neighbor's house was on fire. We grabbed the kids (in their pj's) and ran to the car.

We drove two streets over and saw HUGE flames shooting out of the house. We both thought it was Jeffrey and Kristy's house and paniced. Mondo flew out of the car and ran toward the house. A fireman stopped him and told him he couldn't go any further but Mondo ran past him yelling, "That's my buddy's house!" It was like something out of a movie! I had to move the car out of the way of the fire trucks and then we all got out and ran down the street. It was then that I realized that it wasn't their house...and that I had no shoes on. There was one house between Kristy's house and the one that was burning. So scary! It looked like the house was going to burn to the ground.

We stayed about 20 minutes until the smoke was getting too thick. There was smoke surrounding our house...two streets over. We had to change the kids pj's because they were so smokey. We went back a few hours later to check it out. The fire was out and the house was still standing to my suprise. The back of it was pretty much gone and the roof was caved in. There were still about 8 fire trucks and 5 police cars there.

I later found out that the family was renting the house and they didn't have renter's insurance. They have a 4 month old baby boy. On Saturday night I was going to send an email to church and tell them that I had a bunch of baby stuff to give away. I guess God made me forget to send it so I could give these people some stuff. I haven't made contact with them yet to find out what they really need but I just feel so bad for them!

Here's the story behind the picture: Me and the kids walked down to the "firehouse" (as Ethan calls it) on Monday to check it out. There was still a fire truck there and a police car. They were cleaning up and checking out the damage. When we were walking back to our house, a fireman stopped us and called Ethan over to him and let him turn the hose off and on and spray the street. It was so cool! I was lucky to have my phone handy and snapped that picture.

Oktoberfest 2009

It was another great year at Oktoberfest in Southlake. We met up with Mike and Traci so the kids had fun playing together. The weather was quite a change from last year when we were sweating to death. This year it was freezing! There were lots of things for the kids to do like bounce houses, sand art, a climbing wall, etc. There were a couple of different bands playing throughout the night. Caleb did awesome. We let him go in the bounce houses even though he was a bit too small. I had to go in some of them and help him up the ladders. He also got out of the stroller and danced in front of the band. There is a cute video at the bottom of that. It was nice to be outside in the cold drinking hot chocolate! I love the fall!

Best buddies, Ethan and Colton. Ethan always looks to tiny next to him!

This was the perfect bouncy thing for Caleb. It was actually for jousting with bigger kids but all of the little kids were in it this time.

Ethan had fun in it too.

This was one that was a little too big for Caleb so I had to go in it with him. Joy. It has a little obstacle course inside with a big slide at the end.

That's Caleb. He flew down so fast! He always turns around and goes down on his stomach. He thinks he's so big!

Colton and Ethan chowing down on some hotdogs.

Yummy corny dog!

They rode a little train together and they were so cute! The don't look like they were having fun but they were. I couldn't get a picture of them both looking and smiling.

It was getting pretty cold by this time so Caleb had to put his hood on.

Ethan and Colton rode a little helicopter ride. Caleb was screaming because he wanted to get on it but he was too little. Poor thing.

Here they are inside the helicopter.

Getting on his rock climbing gear!

See the little tiny guy way up high on the left? That's Ethan! He almost made it to the top then said, "Ok, I'm done now. Get me down."

This is the boys dancing right before we left.

More dancing....

Weekend with Daddy

I was so proud of Mondo a few weekends ago when he took the boys out to some fun outings while I slept. On Saturday they went to Main Street Days in Grapevine. It's a little outside carnival that Grapevine puts on every year. On Sunday he took them to Going Bonkers. I was so stunned that he took them to these two hard places to do with only one parent and two rowdy boys. He said they had a great time and were well behaved. I'm glad that they didn't spend the weekend sitting around the house but I was sad that I had to sleep through fun family time! Oh well, goes with working every weekend I guess. :-) But...way to go Mondo!

Here they are on the way to Main Street Days. Look at Caleb pointing, he's ready to go!

Daddy was smart enough to take the double stroller. Caleb is chugging juice as usual. It was really hot that day.

The story about this slide makes me really sad. Mondo couldn't go up with Ethan to help him lay the mat down to slide on it because he had to stay at the bottom with Caleb. So, Ethan flipped and flopped the mat and couldn't get it to lay straight. He ended up holding it and scooting down the slide. Apparantly you don't go fast if you're not on the mat. Mondo took a video of it and I almost cried because I felt so bad for him.

Poor Caleb didn't get to ride this because the people said he was too small. Ethan could've held him!

Buckling himself into the helicopter.

There he goes...all alone. :-(

What? We're going to Going Bonkers?!

He looks SO BIG in this picture! I love it!

Ethan looking at Daddy through the net.

Caleb climbing by himself.

I'm so proud of you Mondo!