Happy Earth Day

Katie's little tree!

My little piggy

Relay for Life

Months of fundraising came to a close for our local Realy for Life event that raised money for the American Cancer Society. This event was amazing. I met amazing people and heard amazing stories. I have been raising money with my Wylie Moms group for our Relay for Life team. We did all kinds of fundraisers and we, as a team of 15, were able to raise $7100.00 for the fight against cancer! We were so excited about the relay, our theme was "Pretty in Pink/80's theme", we had our campsite decked out with VHS and cassette tapes, and even some New Kids on the Block oversized buttons!! The relay was much more emotional than I had prepared myself for, I have been fortunate with cancer in that it hasn't affected my life as much as many of those I was in the company of. The event kicked off at 7 and we walked a couple of laps as a team. The goal is to have someone walking from your team for the entire 12 hours. Well as Mother Nature would decide, the relay would have to closedown at midnight due to the fierce lightning and storms moving in our direction. I only walked 7.25 miles (I had 13 as my goal) during the 4 and a half hours, that leaves me confident that I could have crushed my goal had the event been able to go on as planned. I did run two of those miles though. I was so dissapointed that I was unable to exerience the event in it's entirety but know that I will definitely be a part of it again next year. Oh and did I mention we went to Ihop afterwards and I got in my bed about 3:15AM? Even though I planned on being up all night, once we left the relay I suddenly ran out of all my energy....I think I am getting old.....

Rub-a-dub dub

Three kids in a tub!

Ballpit

We pulled out the Ballpit that Katie got when she turned was about one. Chase LOVED it, he thought it was so much fun to waller around in them!

Sports Saturday

Inverted order, but hey you guys are getting used to that right? So here is Tball, this is actually the third event of the day. Katie hitting, you can see the ball in flight:Katie was really just holding her hat from the wind, but I can think of a few more funny captions that I like to use :) :

This was at the park after Austin's baseball game, just hanging around:

On the park:

Austin is in a I DISLIKE PICTURES!!phase:

After the game:

Here comes the big one! :

Here are a couple from Kate's soccer game where she scored her first goal of the season, wooohooo!!!!

Katie getting in the action:

So bottom line is that I am never going to have a Saturday without sports again in my life :)

Sweet Cas

Here is my sweet Castle who had a very rough week here. It all started with the sick kids, well just Austin and Chase I suppose. Chase woke up in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, 2:55 to be exact. Me and Stan were both in their with him, and then I heard Cas come out of our room and go outside. I went to get more meds for Chase in the kitchen, and Cas came in from outside with all the signs that he just had a seizure. No need to explain them, but after 21 of them, I can smell when he has had one let alone all the physical signs. So I had to get him all cleaned up while Stan worked with Chase. It takes Castle about an hour or two to finish his post seizure phase, where I have to follow him around and stay with him because they can get really hurt for many reasons. So at 430 or so I get back in bed. Still restless sleep because Castle couldn't sit still really. Then at 6 in the morning, I was awoken to the feeling of him having another seizure. He was curled up right next to my head when it happened. I screamed for Stan to help (last time he fell off our bed, bounced off his stepstool and then landed on the floor.) So this was a pretty bad one, and pretty close to the last one he had. This time I just stayed up for the day, not only did I have to follow him around again, but he had peed all over the sheets during it. Of course all the kids then start to wake up. Well long story short, at 11, he had his most violent seizure yet. Chase was napping and me and Austin were watching TV in the adjacent room. He fell over so violently that he sent the coupe car flying into the front door and scared me enough for me to go make sure he was okay. Obviously he was not, this was a very hard one for me to watch and try to calm him out of. I really thought this was going to be the one that took my buddy from me. It was so long and violent, and his eyes were just blank with nothing left. It did finally end and I immediately called a new vet and got him to an animal hospital. These cluster seizures are very commonly fatal to a dog, especially so close together where the post seizure phase is not complete before the next one begins. They immediately began meds with him and ordered all kinds of tests. Everything came back clean so he is being diagnosed with genetic epilepsy. The meds have been hard. He is super sleepy, droggy, nervous, anxious, skiddish, is unable to jump up on anything, can barely get in and out of his dog door without stumbling, is trying to eat everything in sight (hunger and thirst are major side effects). It continues to break my heart, but if I never see him go through a seizure again, everything will be okay. Here he is snoozing away on my pillow....

Green Wave

Austin is playing his third season of Blastball, this year with a new team that has a neighbor of ours and a classmate of Austin. He is very excited that there are no girls on his team, as this is his first team without Katelyn. He is super excited about it and asks all the time if he has baseball that day. Here are some pics from his first game:

Easter Sunday

So this was not quite the Easter we were expecting. We went to bed last night thinking everything was just peachy, then about midnight last night Austin woke up with a fever of 102. Ugh. And as I write this, 18 hours later we still have that same fever. We did managed to dress him in his modified Easter outfit and go hunt eggs. But the pictures don't show how yuck he felt.
A mediocre family pic: An attempt inside:

Austin showing his eggs to Aunt She She:

Katie hunting eggs:

Chase the Easter bunny:

Chase waking up after church:

At church today, the kids got to set butterflies free to symbolize the resurection. I had purchased two, Katie was able to set hers free at church and then they brought Austin's home so that myself and him could take part in it. (Me and Austin stayed home since he was sick). Here is a pic setting the butterfly free:

Dallas Blooms

OK, pics are inverted order so I apologize in advance. We took the kiddos out to the very crowded and very beautiful Dallas Arboretum on this fine Easter weekend. We took as many pics as we could but we also just let the kids all take off their socks and shoes and just run and waller through the grass. Here are lots of pics (sorry to you nonfamily type who think there are too many!)
Chase was flicking at the flowers trying to figure out what they were: Austin annoyed at the picture taking. He was in a bad mood all day, when he came down with a high fever later that night, it all made sense:

Me and my babies:

Katie:

Chase standing by himself and stuffing pretzels in his mouth:

Smelling the flowers:

Chase's turn:

In heaven wallering in the grass:

Family:

Another one:

Daddy's bunnies:

Me and little man:

Siblings:

Again with daddy:

Chase:

Helping Chase walk:

Playing tag:

Pretty girl: