Pictures from the party

Party Pictures!!!

Two of my T-Birds!!! They looked so darn cute in their white T's!The Pink Lady! Her poodle skirt cover up was speciality made for her!

Team Luckey racing their car across the finish line!!!
The Cake!!! This design was taken from the napkin. The cake lady is amazing
My dear husband cooking! Note his apron - he was wearing that because anybody that knows Brett knows that he can't wear a white shirt without getting something on him. Cheesy face was an extra!

The party is over

Phew........30 kids is A LOT of kids! Karly had her 7th birthday party today and we had a blast. She has so many friends between school and dance and daycare that we had lots of kids but everyone got along fabulous and they had so much fun! Her Grease / 50's theme turned out so darn cute. We had the pink ladies, the t-birds and lots of 50's music to dance to. Then we did hula hoop contests, bubble gum blowing contest and a race car competition. The race car was the best. As the adults got involved. We used straws and had to blow our matchbox across the finish line. We had a beautiful day (sunny and very warm). She got lots of great gifts and I don't even think one duplicate. I have pictures to post but am to tired tonight. Still can't believe she is 7! They grow to quick.

Karly's Birthday

Happy Birthday Karly! Can't believe she turned 7 today. Seems like yesterday my sister called me in North Carolina and tole me she was pregnant. I was so excited that I probably screamed. That's when I new we had to be closer to family. Not that we weren't close to family in NC (and we do miss them) but I needed to be around my niece. We moved to NY 1 month before she was born and I've been around for everything ever since. As I've watched Karly grow and mature over the years I am watching a bright young lady develop. She's your typical 7 year old though - she's lost almost all of her baby teeth, is sassy, loves her cousins, athletic, a huge help taking care of her brother, never forgets to kiss me by, thoughtful, ....... I am very proud of her and am looking forward to watching her develop into a tween, and then a teenager and before I know it we'll be having a graduation party.

We went up tonight for dinner and cake. Well cheese cake (her favorite and mine too) and brownies. Tanya made brownies for her nephews because Dylan expressed his dis-like with the cheese cake. :) We gave her present tonight - she's big into Hannah Montana. Her party is Saturday and I think there are about 28 kids coming! OMG! I think I'll need a drink by the end. She's having a 50's theme party - after the movie Grease (another favorite). She's got a pink poodle skirt to wear, the boys are all wearing T-Bird shirts, we will have bubble blowing contest, hula hoop contests..........I'll updated after Sat.

Happy Birthday Karly!

Her new Hannah Montana dolls!

She's 7! So hard to believe she's not a little girl anymore.

The 4th, Family, Friends and Fun!

Hope everyone had a Happy 4th of July! We did! As I mentioned we went to Cubatown and had great weather and great company. We got home around 1ish and Dylan was in the pool about 10 minutes later. He was itching to get swimming. The kid swam ALL WEEKEND LONG! And then crashed at night. On the 4th we went to a Holden family picnic at Aunt Joyce's. Always a good time and good food. The kids had fun and you guessed it Dylan swam some more. He really loved the fact that he could 'jump in' these pools and say "cannon ball " as he is going under. It was nice to see some family we haven't seen in a little bit. We left there late and headed to Olean to see the fireworks. It was just the 5 of us, so we went to the mall and sat on the bank and watched from a far. Actually it's not that far and you could still hear every boom (which Cody hated). It was actually nice too because this is the same place that Brett has watched almost all of his fireworks as a child. So he thought it was fun to take his kids to the same place.



Tyler riding the trike at Aunt J's.Cody really loved sitting in these high back chairs.My 4th of July boys! One pretty firework going off!
Saturday Brett went golfing with his Dad. The boys were up and at'em and in the pool. I did make them wait till almost lunch time so the water could warm up. After that - it was pool all day. We had so much fun. Sat. night we met up with some friends. We went to the Fry's and hung out with Brian and Gina and Mike G. It was so nice to see them as we haven't seen them in a long time and they too have twins so know our life very well.


My swimming boys!!!
We ended our holiday weekend at my Mom's house - you guess it - swimming some more. Plus we got to see the Smith's as they are back from vacation. They brought up a hermit crab and the boys have named him "Lightning".

Now it's back to the grind tomorrow. But I'm looking forward to it - two weeks till Vegas!

Video of Dylan jumping in the pool! He is my fish!

4th of July weekend!

At the last minute we have decided to pack up and head to Cuba for the weekend. Brett's dad is home and it's his birthday this weekend and the boys are itching to get back there for some fun outside. Dylan already has plans to jump off Grandma's deck into the pool. He'll probably live in the pool this weekend. Hopefully we have nice weather. It will be nice too to see other family as well.

So I ran around tonight like a chicken with her head cut off going to a few stores to pay some bills - in the pouring rain with 3 kids! Yeah, that was fun. The boys had a blast and thought it was super cool. I didn't mind - it's just water. Thankfully there are still some nice people in this world. I had to go to Fashion Bug. Didn't even browse! There was one person at the register and 2 people in line. The boys love this store - clothes heaven and they think they should go in and out of every rack around. My stress level rises 1000 times when we enter. Then Dylan figured out his shoe is wet enough to squeak it. All I had to do was pay the bill and thankfully this lady standing there said "you can go ahead of me". That was just so nice. I mean she only had like 2 things but I really appreciated that. She said she was a school teacher and knows what it's like. Then into Walmart we went. Had to get a couple things to take home - so we cash out and this guy behind me was practically crawling up my butt. So I was rushing and the boys were begging for my mountain dew and OMG......so I forgot a bag. Thankfully a manager came by at the same time and she followed us out to the parking lot and gave it to me. I would of been ticked off had I left it behind.

So we got home and did packing. Almost done! This is probably the best listening Dylan has done in a long time. He's even asked to help. We need to travel more. Cody is even agreeing to hair cuts in the morning. Anybody seen my kids???? LOL. Have a safe and happy 4th!

Cody's Team Evaluation

Today has been an extremely long day. We were up bright and early and heading to Syracuse for Cody's team evaluation. Appointment was at 9:30 - had to be there 15 minutes before to register. Not sure what good any of that did as we didn't get home until 3! Thank goodness we ate some breakfast and convinced Cody to eat something because he would of been starving.

Let's see - this is how the day broke down:

We first were seen by a dental assistant who took a mold of Cody's mouth. He did fantastic considering it did not look comfortable at all. He started to cry a little but Brett and I talked him through it and he held up. He did great!

Then he was weighed. The kid only weighs 40lbs. He gained 1 pound since January. I only wish I could figure out how he does it. 1 pound in 6 months - UGH! Then they took a bunch of x-rays - panoramic and another. The equipment though doesn't go down far enough for his age so they brought in re-enforcements (a chair). Surprisingly he did wonderful again and stood perfectly still while this x-ray machine was going around his head. I think most kids would of wanted to follow it but he did great.

Next we met with the geneticist. I didn't really need to but whatever. Like it's been said before, Cody's cleft appears to be isolated and not part of any syndrome. He said if we were to have more children (which I quickly assured him that was not happening) then they would follow us closer. (Which they did with Tyler). He said when/if Cody father's a child they have a 3-5% chance of having a baby with a cleft. Dylan and Tyler have about a 1-2% chance. We know now though that it's obviously in a gene somewhere for Cody to have this so the boys will grow up knowing they need to always be prepared. It could skip them and not happen to their grandchild. What's hard is because we know nothing of Brett's family history and if a cleft runs in his family.

Then came audiology. It appears that Cody has a lot of wax built up. At first glance he was super concerned. Then he did the hearing test and Cody passed with flying colors. So the wax is not affecting his hearing. Which is great. At this point in the day as I had already teared up a few other times (watching him get those x-rays) I realized that he is actually becoming the patient. Gone are the days that we had to sit with him on our lap while he is "not happy" and letting everyone know it. Brett and I just 'stood back' and watched as he listened to the doctors and followed direction. What a great feeling.

Second to last we met with speech. Eileen conducted a couple quick 'tests' with him that he did quickly and perfect. She is a great lady that at first I never knew how to take her. Almost like you had to win her approval. She complemented me and Tish on a great job well done for following through with Cody and his speech. The rest of the short visit with her was spent discussing a few other families and what Lucky Smiles provides to so many others. While there they gave out 2 of our brochures and she told me that we provide a better service to families than they can. So I thought that was super nice of her and I really do appreciate all of their efforts to help spread the word. Eileen also wants Cody to come back up to see their photographer as they would like to use him in their clinic brochure. So we will see.

And last but not least.....we met with Dr. Tatum. He peaked in his mouth, ears, up his nose - made a couple notes to his students that were watching but that was about it. He showed Cody his mold of his teeth which Cody thought was pretty cool. He was concerned about the wax in his ears until he saw that he is hearing fine and then he said we could just watch it. He wants us to talk with our dentist about putting a device on Cody bottom teeth to help correct his cross bite. He feels that this would solve the cross bite issue and prevent us from having to have the jaw surgery later when Cody is a teenager. So I will make some calls and see. If she doesn't then we are going to Syracuse to see their dentist for the device. He feels it is something we should pursue.

Cody was a trooper and I am super proud of him. I will of course follow this up with our written report we get.

A gut instinct

Not sure where along the road to motherhood we pick this up. I am talking about a mother's gut instinct for her child. I guess we always have a gut feeling about things but maybe it takes being a mom to act upon it. Mine has seemed to kick into over drive and when I get a "feeling" I can only sit on it so long before I have to act on it. Guess also not being afraid any more of the medical world helps. Some won't act on them as they are afraid for what might come. I didn't have a choice - I got thrown into the medical world 4 1/2 years ago when Cody made his presence.

My gut didn't prove me wrong when I insisted on taking Tyler to an ENT. Everyone else wanted to say he wasn't talking because he was the third child and his brothers were talking for him. While that could of been some what right - it wasn't 100% - the poor kid had fluid on the ears and couldn't hear well. So my gut was right.

Well my gut didn't steer me wrong again. Cody has been complaining a lot that he is tired. He does this regardless of having a nap or not. He'll be tired a few hours after getting up in the morning. Just didn't seem right from a 4 year old. I thought maybe is had to deal with his diet. He is a very picky eater and I thought maybe he wasn't getting all the nutrients he should be. With our trip to the team on Wed., I made an appointment with the pediatrician to talk. We both agreed to take some blood and see what was up. The results came back today. It appears that Cody's thyroid is over-active or hyper. Which is weird according to the doctor because of my original complaint (being to tired) would point to hypo (under active). So he wants to repeat the blood test in 4-6 weeks targeting the thyroid gland and run more test on that. Depending on how that turns out we will be referred to an Endocrinologist. So I will be very interested to see what Dr. Tatum says this week. I can't find the direct link between the thyroid and a cleft but some articles were pointing to that. So I don't know. Guess the down side to being "right" is now I have something else to worry about.

But you know it does feel good to be right. And I hope that doesn't come across wrong. It's just there are a few people in my family (won't say names) that thought the whole blood test was "stupid" and didn't need to be done. Almost as if I was making this up. So while the child in my would love to call and say "nah,nah I told you".....the adult in me won't! But perhaps maybe they will learn not to question me. As I have said before - when it comes to my kids - my gut hasn't proved me wrong yet!!

Cody was a trooper though for the blood test. The doctor prescribed a numbing cream and after a little bribing from Daddy he put it on and did great while they took his blood. Like I said, we go see the team on Wednesday and will also see the whole team of orthodontist too. I am getting very anxious about this appointment as I do with them all. I have no idea what to expect - nor do I know what will come in the next year. We have been so quite for the past 2 and he's entering the age for the next phase. Time will tell! I just hate waiting. I'm not a very patient person. Somethings I just have to be.

In other news - we had a super good weekend. Saturday, my mom, the boys and I went to Syracuse for a couple of hours to attend a run benefiting the children's hospital. It was a small event but everyone had a great time. Brett had the whole weekend off so we spent the night at my sister's as they are in OC visiting my brother. We got to have quality pool time and had a bom fire Sat. night. Dylan is a little fish! He LOVES the water. He does great with his arm floats and loves to jump in and go under. Then we was lying on the float and I played "shark" and came and knocked him over. He loved it. He really does remind me of myself when I was little. My parents couldn't get me out of the water until my hands and feet were are crinkled. He's going to love the super warm pools in Vegas!!!