if a pictures tells a thousand stories....

Thank you for all the prayers, calls, emails, texts, and notes on facebook today...I was amazed to see all the messages we acquired today! Charli won't be making a trip back to Children's for a year...thank you God! Lots of pictures to tell lots of stories, enjoy!

double the pleasure, double the trouble, double the work!

i love the way he looks at her!!

now, if only we could find a way to keep them in here when they are climbing the walls!

step 1 - put on mom's shoes

step 2 - walk with mom's shoes

step 3 - fall out of mom's shoes!

love, love, love when they find something they can enjoy together!!

...and not fight over it!

Charli's first thing to grab as soon as we get to grandmas!!

and our dear Harper!! This is my old doll, Diana Marie. I wanted Charli to love her and take her home...she said no, but was glad to offer to take grandma's football outfit. So, I gave her to Harper who gave her lots of love!! Wouldn't he make a fine big brother ;-)

Coloring like such a big girl! She also colored using "paint" on grandma's computer. Makes her seem so grown up when she starts to play the computer!

it just makes sense to put a color in there, it is the perfect fit!!

Harper and grandpa worked through coloring together!

harper thought it was soo funny when grandpa would try to keep him from crawling on the table, eating colors, or putting them in his ear!

super-star!

Charli's first drink of pop...

...and she was not impressed!!

getting ready to have her finger poke. She was giving her 'tuff smile'

What a difference a year makes!

being OH SO strong! She was concentrating so hard to watch them get the blood out!

and was so brave while they were doing it! "she is 4 ya know"

Before we went got into the hospital she was so nervous, we think she made herself sick...how sad. She was brave and got to go pick out a toy from toys-r-us. She was SET on a big BUZZ who would talk and shoot lasers....

then we get there, and she fell in love with BATMAN!! I love this because I remember my brother having basically the same thing for HEMAN!!

wow, who is this big girl here? She looks about 3 years older?! I don't like it!! oh so pretty....

Oh, and we can't forget these!! Charli picked out these matching pj's! I was so impressed that she could be talked into purple for herself!! There is room to make progress!!! ;-)

Monday

Tomorrow is the day we go down for scans.

There aren't a lot of words to describe tomorrow. Tonight when a friend asked I told her "most people don't need need to go to the doctor on a regular basis to find out their child is okay, so having to do that kind of sucks but I do appreciate that we have the opportunity to do it." And, in another conversation I realized that Charli has not had a "well-baby" check-up since she was 6-months old. This isn't because we are bad parents who neglect her health, but rather because she has met with her oncologist on such a regular schedule that we have not had to. This is our reality.

So, tonight when I go to bed in a few minutes I will relive all the moments recently that I took for granted, all the times I raised my voice instead of offered hugs, all the moments I didn't realize how great life is, and all the moments I would have died to live the life we have now. The great part is, this IS our life -- all I dreamed of and more 4 years ago, I have.

Tomorrow we will wake up and make the journey to the hospital to draw blood, visit with the doctor, and wait for the news we expect, which is that she is doing great. We know she is, and we know that is what we will hear.

But tonight just before I fall asleep for the night, my mind will play the worst case scenario in my head, tears will fall down my face, and before I start to panic I will remember that Charli WILL be fine and that fear is normal. Well, normal for us anyway.

sweet dreams...

spring has sprung!

We had a few great days before spring...once spring hit things have gone downhill!! It is much easier to handle when you know it is short term. The snow we got early this morning is so beautiful!

Harper is a hat man. Each morning he will go for a hat and tugs that puppy down low...so low you can't see his eyes! And that is the way he rolls until I take if off!! If he needs to see above he will crank his head up before he will adjust his hat!! He has three favorite now, and none john deere!

Charli looks so pretty! Harper looks so cheesy - this is his new face, hard to find a picture of him where he doesn't look like this!

we had to break out the meds at our house again!! Harper has never really gotten over his cough, but it has only bothered him at night. This week it came back and he shared with Charli. We have had more sickness this winter than ever!


the view from our backyard!

so pretty!

we all know that before we can correct our children from doing wrong we must first take their picture!

its sooooo funny to stand on top of chairs when no one is looking! he will just giggle and giggle to himself! I turned around to see this, and had to laugh. The look on his face was priceless! not to mention, the only way this child will learn is to "learn the hard way" this has already been determined and proven!!

Charli did not feel so hot Thursday afternoon. I got a call around 3:30 saying she was crying in pain, and that is not typical of Charli - at all. She can tolerate pain really well and tends to mope around when she isn't feeling well rather than cry. I suggested giving her a drink and seeing how she felt after a little food. But, less than ten minutes later I got another call saying she was not in good shape. I took off to pick her up and couldn't believe my eyes and ears!! Charli was in rare form, I have never-ever seen her in so much pain! I decided to take her into Urgent Care later, because I knew she would never make until morning. She has a bad ear infection, which probably would not have ended in rupture - but he said it was super soar. The picture above is of Charli after I sat her on the counter so I could fill up a glass of water! She laid down and was shaking in pain - I couldn't believe it! She was like I had never seen her before!!

A few hours after the call she was acting and feeling much better. I am not sure if it was a little fresh air, or just mom-love, but something made her feel a little better before bed (pretty sure it was mom-love). Glad to report she is back to normal today! YAY!

Charli found time to relax...a sign she was not feeling normal!!

and after awhile she even had energy to play with her brother! It was hard to believe it was the same child!!

oh.my.gosh. you can literally see the back of this throat! I am sure he has inherited his big mouth from his father.

I am not sure what this is about, but thought the photo captions could go on, and on, and on!!

one lucky little girl!! Charli made an elaborate car path with her cards, blocks, boxes...pretty much everything in her room!!

this has been in Charli's room for a long time! but I saw it the other day and thought to myself...what amazing words to be surrounded with!!

working hard on her project!

Charli had a sucker from the dr. and was holding onto the wrapper, when I took it to put in my pocket she replied "no mom don't, I want to keep that for my collection"! Great, a hoarder!!

Have a great weekend ya'll!!!

spring brings good things!!!!

This spring weather has been good to our family, we have had so many great days together with all the sunshine...I almost feel like I might jinx it if I say it out loud!!

After our fun day with Charli on Friday Chad and I had a "date"! We went out to eat and saw a movie...I am working on my list from several weeks ago :-)

Saturday was a little bit of everything - but Sunday was probably the topper for the weekend. We had the Relay For Life breakfast in Humphrey this morning. After Sunday School Chad brought the kids there. Charli sat like such a big girl at the table where raffles were. Harper, of course, was not going to sit still so he spent a lot of time being chased outside. He did make it in doors and had a great time with about 4-5 other kids who were dancing to some music! There was a girl about 4-months older than him, you could tell she had older siblings (!!), and she would just walk around "roaring" to Harper! At first Harper just gave her a funny look, then they started going back and forth!! You could also tell she has had to defend herself because anytime Harper got close she would swat at him! It was too funny to watch, I think I could have sat for hours!! They were cute!!

After naps today we tried to pack as much fun in as we could! We did a bike ride, a walk, and some fun with shaving cream thanks to Jen! (sorry we didn't come to Rising to bring you a pop instead!!) We took off for the shop where we rode 4-wheelers for hours!! It was great. If I could snap my fingers we would be living out there tomorrow...the kids are in their prime when they get to play, Chad can manage some work in, and I get to watch it all happen!! Ahhh, the dream.

Enjoy the pictures!

I will admit that at first this was too messy of an idea for Charli. For being a "boy" she has some really girly qualities I told her :-)

this one, on the other hand, had no problem making as big of a mess as he could!

Charli jumped right in after a minute of seeing Harper have all the fun!

they were having a great time and got busted by dad walking in on the fun!! Chad had a hard time with this activity, Mr. Clean and all ;-)

had.a.blast!

I was envisioning streaks of white up and down my walls and windows!! But, he behaved!

it was about 'now' that I realized none of our hoses were hooked up outside to clean our table off! oops!! ahh, details!

we got all cleaned up, we were ready to put new clothes on...and this is what I turn around to find! thank you for doing this before i changed your clothes ;-)

jackpot!! Harper likes to sit up and help, he just discovered the *junk* drawer!!

after movie night Charli was acting silly - pretending she was sleeping. We said that we were going to put her in Wynston and Kaspers bed...she didn't budge so we did it!! I think her faking it relaxed her so much that she went straight to bed that night! I am pretty sure if we left her there she would have fallen asleep!