One of My Favorite Days of the Year

Yesterday was one of my favorite days of the year.  Why?  It's because I get to celebrate the life of the man the Lord brought into my life 10+ years ago!!!

Yep, it was B's birthday!!!  We started the day by getting Little Miss P up early and we all (Miss P, Ms. C, Gamma, & me) ran in and surprised him and jumped on the bed and woke him up singing Happy Birthday and gave him lots of fun presents!!  Miss P was awesome!  She was so excited!!!!

After we opened presents, we moved to the kitchen where Gamma had made special treats that she knows B likes!  So, we all sat down and had breakfast together!!  Then, we moved to the living room where we just hung out as a family and watched our new little ballerina!!

She danced for us for quite a while and then rolled around on the floor with her puppy!!!  It was definitely a fun morning.

However, the best part of the day, if you ask B, is dinner!  The man loves his Pappasito's.  However, since wifey-poo isn't a huge fan, he doesn't get it nearly as often as he would like--which is daily!!!  He does have a new chips & salsa eating buddy, though!  Yes, you see it in the pic below!  Miss P LOVES chips & salsa!  She actually loves the salsa more.  She would prefer a spoon and salsa, but we make her throw a few chips in there.

Salsa by the spoonful!!!

Salsa eating champions!!!!

This was the face she made each time they came to change out the chips.  She did not want to lose any chips.

Apparently, the birthday sombrero was stolen from Pappasito's, but it's a tradition that every birthday picture we have of Miss P or B they are wearing the sombrero.  So, when we called to make the reservations, we begged the manager to find a sombrero!!!!

The birthday boy!!!!!

"Why are you putting the chip bowl on your head, Daddy?"

Miss P blew out the candle for Daddy!!!!!

 Family pics!!!

Aunt J & Grammy Bear also had dinner with us!  It was so fun to have them there, too!

Miss P loves her snuggles with Aunt J!!!!

As we left the restaurant, they gave Miss P a balloon.  You can see the fun that was had once we arrived home with the balloon.

Happy Birthday to the man that fulfills the Ephesians 5 call on a husband so well!!!!  Though it was his birthday, I feel that I am the one that received the greatest gift!!!

20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
21 Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
Ephesians 5:20-29

Update

Thanks to many of you that have faithfully checked in on us and have been asking for an update to the Foxhole.

A couple weeks back, we celebrated  Princess' birthday!  Although she was not feeling her best, we did have a nice week celebrating her.  Through our best attempts to celebrate, we did have more appointments with multiple docs trying to address a lot of the secondary symptoms that Princess is experiencing.  Through the course of doing her lab work, her results came back that she is severely anemic and her iron counts are devastatingly low.  This might explain some of the secondary symptoms.  Additionally, the docs have also advised that truly the only option remaining for Princess at this time to address her seizures will have to be the chemotherapy/immuno-suppression.  However, due to the lab results, her anemia has to be addressed.

This past week was more of the same, new appointment, new doctor, similar results...

Frustrating as it was, Princess was and is, still battling through her days having multiple seizures per day. While the seizures themselves seem to be more debilitating, she is incredible!  Her tenacity to get through each day and make the most of each moment is something that is to be admired.  We were able to get to the hospital on Thursday this past week to begin doing an Iron infusion.  Literally, iron is supposed to be infused into the vein so that Princess can hopefully begin producing "good blood" and jump-start her body to then hopefully reduce/eliminate some of the secondary symptoms.  Thereafter, we'll hopefully be able to begin addressing the use of chemo for the seizures.  While as simple as this may sound, unfortunately, Thursday's trip to the infusion center did not go well as through literally 6 separate attempts and blown veins, a horrible seizure, we left not able to receive the iron and were very frustrated by the overall experience and overall lack of care.  It truly was a very disappointing experience that we are still trying to wrap our minds around.

So overall, the last few weeks have been exhausting with more doc appointments, more unknowns and new challenges.  BUT, we are grateful for your continued prayers, friendship, and support.  While God is carrying us, you are walking alongside sharing in our burdens and our life.  Thank you!

Note that we did have some fun moments this past week and will post pictures later of a very fun Halloween!  Old Cars!  Wolves...

Another One Bites the Dust...

As if we don't already have enough fun around our house, our fridge decided to stop working yesterday!  We noticed that it didn't feel super cold when we were getting Miss P's breakfast and so we changed the setting to "make it colder."  It seemed to get better. 

Since Tuesday was such a rough day with seizures and we had to get a rescue injection to stop them, we didn't have a birthday meal.  So, Mom, B, and Miss C took me to lunch yesterday.  We picked P up from school and came home to a fridge that wasn't cold.  Yikes!!!

B had to jump into Mr. Repairman mode!  He worked so hard to get it fixed.  Then, Miss P woke up from her nap and wanted to help!!

Is it fixed yet, Daddy?

"Please, no cameras, we are working."

"Wow, Daddy, fan condenser motors are really cool."

"Oh no.  This means we might not be able to fix it tonight."

"I'll just rest here, Daddy, while you fix everything."

"before you get up, I need you to do a few push-ups for me, sir."

"1, 2, ..."

"10!!!  Good job, Daddy"

So, we are hoping to get the fridge fixed today.  Please pray that it's not something major!  We have a repair company that is trying to work us in for the day!!

All that work in the kitchen really wore the boys out and so they had some good snuggles to follow!

It's Someone's Birthday...

SURPRISE!!!

Please send a special wish to my wife for life, PRINCESS!!!

Whoo-hoo!  We get to celebrate her today. And not just celebrate, but honor her.

A wife of noble character who can find?
    She is worth far more than rubies.   -Proverbs 31:10


Happy Birthday to you, my Princess!  You are absolutely incredible and inspire me each day.  Thanks for teaching me how to love, all the while, allowing me to show my love and admiration for you.  It is an honor to LOVE you as Christ loved the church and to be that example to so many.  You are so deserving of much more and I look forward to many more days that we get to celebrate YOU!!!!

Happy YOU day my Princess and my LOVE.

Your Prince

Big Girl Bed

Wow!  Our girl is growing up so quickly.  Not only is she going to college soon, but she got a big girl bed tonight!!!  We've been saving since Miss P was born and looking for quite a while for the "perfect" bed.  We still can't find exactly what we're looking for...however, my cousin, S, shared her daughter's bed with us.  Miss P was SOOOO excited!!!

Helping Daddy carry everything inside!!!

Finding the right spot for the bed!

Helping Daddy put it in place.

While B was getting the bed put together in her room, he put the trundle in the entry.

The trundle was so exciting!

Let's get cozy!!

Ahhhhh!!!

Being a big girl is fun!!!

Goodnight!!

Shhhh...the baby is pretend sleeping!

She thought this was so cool!!!!

Now, she gets to sit in her new, big girl bed!!!  Wow!!!

Wish you could have seen her running all over the house screaming, "big girl bed!"  She was so excited!

Pretending to be asleep!!!

In her PJs ready for bed...closing her eyes to pose for the picture!

Someone is excited!!!

She said, "look at my tongue!!"

"See my teeth!"

Wish you all could have seen the excitement this evening as she ran through the house dancing and talking about getting to sleep in a "big girl bed!!!!"  Please pray that it is an easy transition and she stays in bed and is safe!!