Happy 17th Birthday Lauren!!!

We were able to pull off a surprise birthday party for Lauren this year. I about had a nervous break-down trying to get it all together at the last minute but, it turned out great! Lauren is redoing her room in black/ hot pink so I used this theme for her decorations. It was so much fun!! I love doing this so much....wish I could start some kind of party decorating buisness!


Lauren's favorite cake is carrot cake. It was so yummy but not the easiest thing to decorate! Homeade cream cheese frosting isn't very stiff..... It isn't the most beautiful cake but, it did taste good!

SURPRISE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy 17th!!

Madison, Lauren, Katie, and Tara

These girls were laughing so hard, trying to pose for this picture that they blew all the candles out before we could even take one picture! We had to relight and do it again. :)

Alex loves to open presents so he was right there helping tear into everyone. Each time they opened a gift, he thought he had bought it for her so he would tell her it was from him. Finally he exclaimed in amazement, " Lolo, I can't believe I got all this stuff for you!!!" Gotta love the innocence of 3 year olds!

Little Miss Maddie Snodgrass....look at those killer blue eyes!!

Where oh where did my baby girl go?

Happy Birthday to a bright ray of sunshine in our house!!! Love you Lo!!!

Happy 40th Birthday Troy!! Happy 80th Birthday Dad!!

This past Friday night we had a suprise 40th birthday party for Troy and an 80th party for my dad. They both thought the party was for each other so they were 100% suprised! I had a blast decorating for it! I used my cricut to make the banner and some other cutouts that I decorated with.

Troy and Dad with their cake

The cake turned out awesome....the black icing was a nightmare to eat! :)

Alex was very upset that we forgot to put the candles on before we cut the cake....so he added them in for us!

Our great friend Jason gave the kids rides on his high speed wheelchair...it was the highlight of the kids night!

Alex showing off his icing tounge!

Ben and Luke...not sure what they were doing under the counter!

A little more icing

Lauren giving me her happiest face! :)

Tyler with his silver mop head

Alex was checking out Papa's presents. He was pretty impressed with this tie.

Troy was all smiles opening his birthday presents!

Miss Andrea

Mr Jason and Lauren

Emily and Andrea taking a spin

What a fun evening spent with family and friends!! I think this is one birthday they won't ever forget!

MAY

Alex's favorite toy of all times is a laundry basket! Anytime there is one around, empty or full, he claims it! Of course 2 necessary items are always included: a paci and the one and only green blanky! He will just lay around in it, push it around and generally entertain himself for long periods of time! Very cheap entertainment!!


The month of May is our marathon birthday month! Travis starts it out on the 14th- as you can see this year was the big "9" for him!

Having a fun sleepover with his buddies, Caleb and Gabe.

At the top of Travis' wish list was his very own 24 pack of Mountain Dew...which I might add was consumed very quickly! That smile looks a little scary!!!

Tyler was right behind Travis on the 17th....11 years for him. Tyler is our dare-devil..... I wasn't to excite about this two wheeled unstable "rip stick" but true to Tyler form, he has it down!

Tyler also wanted his own 24 pack of Mountain Dew.....he was smart and hid his.....he still has quite a few cans left!!!

In between birthday's our great friend Jason Eftink invited us to spend a Saturday out on Kentucky Lake in his pontoon boat. It was the most enjoyable Saturday I have had since our last vacation!!! It was a picture perfect day and we enjoyed it to the fullest! Jason had a diving accident when he was only 19 years old and is paralyzed from his upper chest down. He is an inspiring person to be around to say the least! There isn't anything that he won't try to do!~ He operated that boat with amazing skill!~ Thanks Jason for the awsome day!!!

Jason's nephew, Aiden, and Alex became great buddies!

Tyler, Andrea, and Alex fixing to take off on a tube ride.

We ended this good month on the 29th with Luke turning 14! I can't believe how fast the time has flown by!! Luke didn't want a birthday cake.....so we had a yummy choc chip cookie cake!

What a great guy!! Happy 14th Luke!

Well that sums up the month of May........ June will soon follow!

Hi everyone! Thought I would catch up since my last post. To start off Andrea landed in the hospital on a Saturday morning about 2 weeks ago. She woke up wheezing and coughing so since her counts were already extremely low it was a direct trip to stay overnight! She wasn't sad of course since she loves to spend the night.... I'm not sure I could totally agree but, we do end up sp Rending some quality time together so we might as well make the best of it! Troy loves to go up and there and meet new people. To those who know Troy that wouldn't be shocking! He met at least 2 new families who had been recently diagnosed with the same thing as Andrea so we did our best to encourage them.

Here is Andrea in the ER...very impatiently waiting to go up to "her room"



We were soooo excited to get to see Bridgett who we hadn't seen in months!! She was Andrea's nurse for the day and that was great! They both had their Cardinal outfits on so we had to get pictures!!

Andrea and Bridgett

Me and Andrea just laying around! Andrea was really upset that night and wanted me to sleep in bed with her. Does this look like a bed built for two?!!

Andrea loves to go to the playroom and do crafts. She doesn't really appreciate the mask but is willing to put up with it if she can do what she loves to do best....create!

We got to go home on Sunday evening so it was a short stay!

Lauren's 15th Birthday was on the 21st of this month. I am still trying to come to grips with my "baby" being old enough to drive now! She is an awesome daughter and we are so blessed to have her!~ Tyler, Travis and Andrea were in Illinois with Nana visiting cousins so we decided to go out to eat at Texas Roadhouse. The guys of course wanted to make Lauren crawl up on the horse saddle and endure humiliation but, I put my foot down!:)

Alex was totally into the peanuts...shell and all!!

Luke and Ben are looking a little on the bored side here, I think Lauren was opening her presents.

Alex and one of his favorite people...Josh Boardman

The beautiful Birthday girl!

We have had this old dead tree in our front yard and Troy decided it was time for it to come down. Unbeknowns to us there was a mother racoon and her 4 babies living inside. When it fell the mother ran off and one of the babies was hurt really bad. You would have thought that we had just seen one of our family members injured! We tried to help it but it didn't make it. Troy and Luke gave it a decent burial...there were several tears shed and we had to move on. I know you make think we are strange but, I guess we just consider all of God's creation to be just that, God's Creation! My men are all "real men" but I'm very thankful they have tender hearts from the oldest to the youngest! That evening Troy took the mother a plate of food...Grill pork steak, baked potatoe and french bread. He told the kids that he felt really bad and the food would by no means replace what had happened to her baby but, he sure did feel bad!

There it goes! It looks so much better in our fron yard now!

Yesterday was Andrea's scheduled visit to go to St Louis for her monthly IV chemo. I decided to take Emily Boardman and Alissa Jones ( Andrea's cousin ) along for the day! Andrea was so excited to have her best buddies going along. They all spent the night together and were up bright and early, ready to go! Nana and Mammaw came out to stay with the rest of the gang here.

Here are the girls with Nana

Out on the front porch ready to leave.... I know I am biased but aren't they just the cutest things?!!

The girls with Bobby ( Andrea's nurse that she has every time she goes to the Costa Center)

Andrea, Emily and Alissa in front of the hospital.

I have my sisters 3 kiddos with me this week while Troy, Lauren and Luke are in PA at Penn View campus days where Troy is speaking. This means I have 7 kids ages 9 and under...we are having a great time and it especially made my day when Tyler and Jillayne told me today that they were going to fix lunch for everone! I was so proud of them.....they made lunch and even cleaned up their mess!!

Their finished product!

The little "angel" :) Looks like he might have a trick up his sleeve!

That pretty well sums up the last few weeks for us. Andrea got a really bad report as far as her blood counts go yesterday. She pretty much has no immune system right now. This usually lands her in the hospital at least for a few day so we would appreciate prayer that God will keep her safe!! With Troy and our older kids being in PA ( only 16 hours away :) ) , my mom having Bronchitis/Sinuitis/Pneumonia, and me having my sisters kids while they are moving from Illinois to Alabama it isn't an ideal time for this to all be going on!!! But, I am constantly reminded that God always works "all things together for good"!!