Dragon Tooth...RIP

Today was the day that we have been waiting for since October of 2006 which culminated from events that took place in October 2005. Yes, the "dragon tooth" we thought would never be removed, finally has. The sedation procedure went pretty much as before with Gavin's (part 1)trip for cavities (part 2). However, as this was our 2nd and last attempt before having to calling the big guns (anesthesiologist). So, we had to bring her in 2 hours before we were even to see the dentist to make sure her sedation drink would take full effect. Reese, right after being weighed (28lbs!) and awaiting her "juice"! Good spirits, this looks promising!Reese chose the "Blue Clues juice" with bubble gum pink flavor. We sat in the waiting room watching Shrek 2 and waited and waited. Reese scored a Blue's Clues sticker for her "job well done" drinking her "juice". It appears the good spirits may be leaving the office at this point. With Shrek 2 over and Little Mermaid playing, Reese is set for a nice sedated ride. Let's hope it lasts right?Still waiting.....until our name was finally called at 9:47am. Here is where we will take a moment of silence for Reese forever after. I will not get into too much detail, as it is hard for me to even retell. Basically, Reese went to crazy town and on her way she happened to think thissea horse was trying to do her harm! There are no pictures to the following scenario, as I was alone and Reese stayed in my arms...and legs for the remainder of our visit. After about 30 minutes of trying to get her under control, we took the restraint route. I laid in the chair with Reese on top of me with "pink nose" (like Gavin's orange) administering the laughing gas goodness to the both of us. I had my legs wrapped around her lower body in what seemed like a Suzanne Summers Thigh Master commercial that never ended, my arms in a bear hug that was cutting off my own circulation and felt like they were falling off (that could have been the gas workings), a dental assistant holding the "pink nose", one holding her mid body, one holding her head, another prying and holding her mouth open and the dentist doing her magic. Once we got her steady, the dentist was in and out in what seemed like maybe a minute. She was FAST and she was GOOD. Of course, Reese refused all gauze and the liking getting even near her mouth afterwards and was therefore drooling blood from her mouth. Yes, all mothers in the main room grabbed their children as a real life horror pic was playing right before their eyes. I ended up stripping down Reese to her undies to salvage what was left of her clothes. Wish I could have done the same to mine! We got out of the car and she was finally able to rest and I tried to clean her up a bit, however, she would have much to do with anyone near her mouth. Don't blame her! The next picture is not for the faint of heart:Yes, that is blood spewing from her mouth. And that is a pretty cleaned up shot. Now why may you ask that we would put our daughter through so much for just a dead tooth? Unfortunately, it had become much more than that. It is abscessing and causing enamel damage to her permanent tooth. We didn't want her to have a permanent front tooth come in with holes all in it and fall apart.

I was pretty sure upon leaving the dentist and driving home (crying...I was pretty shaken up by putting her through such) she would never be able to see the dentist again. Major trauma had taken place. I obviously have more to learn about my intrepid daughter! She is always up on top after a fall. She told me just a few minutes ago she would like to go to the dentist again to get her teeth cleaned! Good, b.c she has an appointment on the 6th of August! Hope she makes it!Reese has had a love affair with her dragon tooth. She warmed up to anyone that gave a shout out to her green tooth! Here she is admiring her tooth in its "treasure chest".
Here is the best shot I could get of Reese flashing us her new toothless smile. I'm sure I will get more in the days to come.
Alas, Dragon Tooth is laid to rest in its "treasure chest" that we find fitting for a coffin. RIP Dragon Tooth...RIP!

Shear Beauty

Well, Caden's hair was getting a tad too long up on top for my liking and I wanted to put a stop to it before it turned into "Gavin Baby Hair"! Where the hair on top is really long and due to cowlicks it all falls down the middle of his head. Just give it a curl and it's Superman hair! Anyway, not a cute look!"Gavin Baby Hair"

(Gavin at age 6-9 months)

Say what mommy?

(Caden on his way to "Gavin Baby Hair" at 9 months)

So, last night I had Christopher give him a trim in the bathroom sink. Believe it or not, I didn't get a single picture! I know, hard to fathom.

I do have some remnant hair pieces I saved near the sink for "baby's 1st hair cut" purposes. I'll just add that to the 3 storage boxes I have in my closet with memorabilia from all 3 of my children's childhood that I promise myself one day I will organize and scrapbook....

Caden's new look! Yeah, he's pretty excited about it!

Now he just wants to be left alone to play with Spiderman ball and friends. Nice trim job, no?

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Gavin also needed a much overdo trim. However, he goes to the "professionals" at Cool Cuts 4 Kids where he gets to play video games while his hair gets cut! Very fun!

Friday Night Pizza Night

Every Friday night is pizza in our house. Pizza is really a food that we can never tyre of. However, we aren't big fans of most of the traditional chain pizza joints, we are more of a make yer own pizza delight! Not only do we get exactly what we want, get it more healthy and less greasy, but we also have lots of fun making it together as a family. Here is a little sequence with Reese and her pizza night delight! Ok, mommy, ready to get cookin'!

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Agh, this is so much excitement, I just can't take it anymore! Here's my crazy sass monkey face!

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One more time for those that weren't able to check out the full grandeur of my crazy face!

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Ok, now we can get the pizza makin' business on again!

For the record, Reese and Gavin like their pizza without sauce and cheese only please. Reese will take pepperoni on occasion. Christopher and I like it always with some type of sauce (we switch it up sometimes) and mostly turkey bacon or bbq chicken along with much veggies. Occasionally, when Christopher and I are feeling a little ravenous, we will make calzones for ourselves and let the kids make a small pizza. This has been a Friday night tradition in our house for quite a while (over a year or two) and I do not see any end in sight. Yummy! What are some of your homemade pizza favorites?

Swimming Season

This week marks the end of the first week of swimming lessons for Gavin and Reese. Let me just say, they have quite interesting. If you remember last season Reese was a fish in water. She would jump and dive into the pool and never once give thought to putting her face in water or being submerged. Gavin on the other hand had his reservations, but would still enjoy "swimming" around in the pool with his floaties on. This season has proved a 180 degree turn around on the two. Here's why (I believe):

First day of swimming lessons Reese has taken an interest in one of the helpers to her class. (see girl in pic below) Reese followed her swimming aid to the toy box at the end of the 2ft rope line (again see pic below) and quickly lost her footing as the pool drops to 3ft abruptly at the rope. I see her struggling, and think to myself...catch yourself Reese, pull your head up from under the water. I start to notice that she is NOT coming back up and her instructor is with 2 other kids, the aid has her back to Reese and the "lifeguard" on duty was looking up at the sky! I start to yell, "uh, my daughter is drowning!" No one says or does anything. I yell again, "MY DAUGHTER IS DROWNING at the rope!" Then everyone starts to realize that Reese has now started to sink to the bottom. The aid pulls her up out of the water (by this time I am at the pool side preparing to jump in with Caden in my arms) and Reese comes out with the widest eyes I have ever seen. I get teary still today just thinking about the pure terror I saw on her face and read through her eyes. The lifeguard then blows the whistle and Reese is laid on her side coughing up water! She's ALIVE! Praise the Almighty! Long story cut really short, Gavin sees the commotion from his class, freaks out and demands to be put in Reese's class b.c, "I need to stay right by Reese so I can save her life...I'm her brother!" So, cute. I couldn't resist and I knew I could count on Gavin to watch her. He has always been protective of his younger sister. Reese, bless her heart, after I held her for about 5 minutes she wanted to get back into the water. This was good so she wouldn't be scarred for life right? Well, she isn't back to 100% and wouldn't put her head in the water for the last 2 days, but today, she overcame this fear and went under to get a toy stick from the bottom of the pool. Everyone clapped and shouted praise for her! She relished just a bit in her new victory. Let's pray that she will come to remember her fish like skills and become one with the water once again. Here is Gavin and Reese practicing their crawl stroke. (Notice toy box has been removed from the rope line!)

Gavin and Reese practicing their kicking under water.

Reese and Gavin working on their back float...still need some work there.


I love these last two shots of Gavin b.c he is such a silly nut cake and always makes me laugh. Here he is playing follow the leader.

Gavin has a CD with stories that are read and one is the story of the Ginger Bread Man. He loves the phrase "Run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!" Now, look at this picture and that is exactly what he is saying as he was running around the pool from his instructor. Oh, it was so funny! I got that one on video as well.

Gavin will now dive for water sticks on the bottom of the pool and keep his head under water. Big improvement for him! We are really proud of his progress. I need to get them both in another session before the summer is over.

Summertime Toys

Towards the end of last years summer (think late Oct. / Nov.) my parents sent the kids this shaved ice machine. We packed it away waiting for this years heat to hit us. It is still quite comfortable (90+) but not yet the tripe digits! Thanks to all the rain we have had lately the humidity has been a beast. Gavin couldn't take it any longer and had to bust it out! Here are the results!

Caden helped himself to a whole box of Nilla Wafers! Mr. Chew didn't earn his name or weight on baby food alone! Silly boy! Thanks for the great "cool" toy Pa Haslam!

Ode to Father C. S. Lloyd

Father's Day at Our House!
The kids and I spent some time making Christopher a little Father's Day holiday cheer! We made a picture collage of the children's pictures they picked out from the past year. We used these pictures as a backdrop and added a letter to each picture to spell out "Happy Father's Day" and then attached it to some ribbon for hanging. It will be hung in his office for him to admire all year. Then, the kids made cards from leftover pictures and Christmas Buttons from last Christmas. I liked these cards captured each childs personality. Gavin was silly and put buttons all over his face and such, Reese just had to have her best little girlfriend Madison in her card and Caden of course has a picture of him chewing up toys...classic "Mr. Chew", our new nickname for him! Lastly, we can not forget the candy man necklace Gavin lovingly made for Christopher which has become an annual event. However, this year, Gavin asked if he could make one himself because, "I'm going to be growing up to be a daddy one day, so can't I have one too?" How could I deny such cuteness! We made him one this morning. Here are a few close ups.

"Happy Father's Day"

Gavin's CardCaden's CardReese's Card

Candy man necklace a little more visible. We love our Daddy! Of course, I think he is a fabulous Daddy as well! Mamma mia, he is tasty looking too! ;0)

Dadfest 2007

Saturday June 16th, 2007 was Dadfest 2007! I had been training for this 5K for the last few months and was pumped to be doing it for my Father, David and also my Grandfather, Charles who we also placed a donation in his name. The race benefits Urology: Research & Education Foundation. My Grandfather is currently fighting Prostrate Cancer. It was to be a fun family day. There was a Kid’s 50 Yard Dash that both Gavin and Reese were registered for (the kids LOVE racing now!) and Caden was to participate in the Dad and Baby Diaper Dash! Of course food, entertainment and bouncy house bliss for the children. This was not to be however. Early Saturday morning we woke up and got loaded up into the car only to be greeted with torrential storms. We pressed forward on to the race up in Frisco thinking they may postpone the race until the weather subsides. No such luck. As we arrived, the Kids Dash was just finishing up and before we could park our car people were running all over the place as if a natural disaster was upon us. The race had already started and women and children were taking for cover. I resigned to taking the race to IHOP! You were with me the whole way there dad and grandpa and I love you both! Happy Father’s day to my Daddy! I love you! Look forward to running the 10K next year to make up for this year!

Oklahoma City National Memorial

On April 19, 1995, a truck filled with explosives planted by a domestic terrorist exploded outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, tearing upward through the 10-story building and destroying one of its structural columns. The building was sliced in half: its front section collapsed layer on layer, and shattered glass covered entire sections of the city, leaving 168 dead, more than 700 injured, and over 12 city blocks worth of buildings damaged. In a moment, American history was changed forever.

While in Oklahoma City this past weekend we took the opportunity to visit the Oklahoma City National Memorial. It was probably the most emotional Memorial we have been a part of. The memorial’s deep symbolism compels you to … Reflect. Respect. Remember.

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Steam Train Excursion

Yesterday the kids and I packed our bags for the day and headed out to East Texas to take a ride on the Texas State Railroad. We stopped off in Tyler on our way down to pick up some cousins Russell, Carter and Clark and mom Cori and Granna Cristi and had them come along for the ride. The train ride was a stream train excursion that traveled from the State Parks of Rusk to Palestine, Texas. We boarded at the Rusk depot. Both ends of the line have Victorian-style train stations. The trip took 1.5 hours to reach the Palestine station. Once there we had about 1.5 hours to enjoy our lunch, let the kids throw pine cones at each other, and pick up some souvenirs from the train store. There is also a short nature hike there, but with 7 kids 5 and under....that just wasn't happenin'! We then re-boarded for the return trip home. In all, it was a 50-mile round-trip excursion and took about 4.5 hours! The kids had a blast! Reese is already asking when we can do it again. Here are some pictures from our trip. (Hey, I could have quite a few more! I'm slowly weaning myself back! Baby steps!)

Our steam engine was an antique diesel locomotive 1947 RS-2 ALCO.

Waiting for the train so we can board to Palestine!

Reese can't wait to give our tickets to be punched from the Conductor.

Reese has second thoughts about the Conductor putting his arm around her. Check out that nasty look!

Gavin having a good time.

Sour Reese, Hungry Caden and I...are we there yet?

Lunch time!!

"Gavin, please don't hit each other with sticks and pine cones!"

Oh, well! They had fun and got nice and dirty!

Waiting to re-board back to Rusk!

Carter, Russell and Gavin picked up a Train Whistle from Granna in the shop! It sounds quite authentic and Mommy and Daddy just LOVE it!! :0)

And Reese picked up a baby train bear from her Granna! Caden got a smaller version, but I don't have a picture on him with it. He was too busy eating it!