Sleep Over (1 of 2 New Posts)

My cousin's little girl, Melody, came over for a sleepover this past weekend. She and Isabella play so nicely together. They had a blast. We made "fish" cupcakes for Father's Day. The girls did a great job! While the cupcakes baked we worked on the decoration.

They separated M&M's by color.

Lily watched

Then they put gummy fruit slices on toothpicks for the tails.

Mel told me this was the first time she spread icing on the top of a cupcake. She was a natural.

And presto!

"Fish" Cupcakes!

***

On Father's Day Morning, Lily and Raymond decided that sleeping on Daddy was the best gift of all. Who doesn't want snuggles on Father's Day?

Until Next Time!

Lots of Love,

Hershey Ronald McDonald House (2 of 2 New Updates)

Raymond, Isabella, Lily and I stayed at the Ronald McDonald House in Hershey last week. Raymond was having a procedure done early Wednesday morning to check the integrity of his Nissen. He did very well during the procedure. It probably didn't hurt that there were three very young, very pretty nurses making a fuss over him : )

The one bad thing about the Ronald McDonald House in Hershey is that there are no dead bolts on the doors like in the Philadelphia House. I immediately had to barricade the door so Raymond would not escape. He's fast and sneaky. Haha!

There was a really neat play area at the hospital where we were waiting.It was all hand painted and the ceiling lights were covered with stained glass. Pretty cool!After the procedure, we went back to the Ronald McDonald House to wait for Raymond's next appointment later in the day. We played in the playroom for awhile.

Lily tried desperately to stay awake and watch the fun. She quickly lost that battle. The windows in the playroom were open and we could smell the chocolate from the chocolate factory. Isabella was very happy about that!

The day after Raymond's procedure, his doctor called us with the results. Thankfully the Nissen did not come unraveled. We were really dreading the thought that it had. So they came to the conclusion that Raymond has just outgrown his dose of reflux medication. Then the doctor said but...no buts...they are never followed by good news.

While looking at the study results the doctor found gallstones. I know what you're thinking, "How does a 2 1/2 year old who doesn't eat anything by mouth get gallstones?" That's exactly what I thought too. So now it looks as though Raymond will have to have his gallbladder and appendix removed. We went for an ultrasound at the hospital today to look more closely at the area and it's surroundings. Hopefully we'll get a call tomorrow about that. Raymond was NOT a happy camper for the ultrasound. I, along with two other nurses, had to hold him down while the other nurse preformed the ultrasound. He screamed the entire time. He does not like being held against his will - but then who does? Afterwards we snuggles awhile and that helped. Nothing like a little love from Mama to comfort you!

Until Next Time!

Lots of Love,

Princess Inspired!

Before we left for West Virginia the other week, Isabella wanted to watch the Disney movie The Princess and the Frog. She has seen it before and likes the music. Inspired, we decided to make New Orleans style Beignets. They are Tiana's specialty in the movie.

So we rolled...

and cut...

and covered them in powdered sugar!

Yum! To celebrate the occasion, Isabella wore her Tiana nightgown. How fitting!

Until Next Time!

Lots of Love,

OCP

Do you use coupons? Do you get a Sunday paper with coupon inserts? Then listen up because you might be interested in this program.

OCP is a program that allows you to send your expired coupons oversees to our troops and their families. Many military families benefit from this program since military wives/husbands cannot work because they do not know the language where their spouse is stationed. On military bases, families are allowed to use coupons up to 6 month past the printed expiration date. So coupons that you would normally throw away would benefit these families by saving them a few extra dollars at checkout. Your first step is adopting a base. I adopted a Marine base in Iwakuni, Japan. If you are interested click on the OCP logo above to read more.

Until Next Time!

Lots of Love,

A Visit with Friends (1 of 2 New Posts)

We went to visit my friend Nikki and her family after Raymond's G.I. appointment on Friday. Raymond was happy to see Evan but I'm not sure if he felt the same way. Evan seemed to prefer to play with Isabella. He's used to being around big kids. Even so, Raymond didn't give up! He was going to play with Evan if it took all night! (and it kind of did)

Evan will be two on July 10th.

Isabella helped Nikki's mom pick strawberries from outback. So fun!

Lily was crying which made Lizzy curious. She had to stick her snoot in there to make sure everything was okay!

Evan was babbling to Lily while she was in her seat. He wanted to pick her up so bad! Luckily the seat has straps! I thought it was so sweet.


Until Next Time!
Lots of Love,

Weekend in WV (2 of 2 New Posts)

We went to West Virginia fr the weekend to visit with my brother and his family. We had lots of fun as usual! On the way there, Raymond was trying to give himself a breathing treatment in the car! He used his feet and grabbed it out of his bag.

(No, he can't actually spray it himself.)

While we were on a walk we discovered a large pile of shale and Chris quickly started to look through it for fossils. The kids helped and were so excited every time we found one. There were a lot of shell fossils in the pile.

Lily just watched and looked cute!

The main reason for our trip was to watch Alexander play baseball. He did such a GREAT job! Hopefully he will be able to get his Aunt Erica and Uncle Chris tickets to his MLB games one day : )


Raymond always enjoys playing music with Aunt Lori (a.k.a. his girlfriend - he just loves her!)

Raymond played Pablo to death - literally. When we left poor Pablo no longer worked. New batteries didn't even help. R.I.P. Pablo. You were loved while you lasted.
Grandma was there too!

Thanks for a fun weekend Deverter Family!

Until Next Time!

Lots of Love,

Let's Catch Up!

Hello Everyone!

It's been awhile since I've last posted something. Our computer was infected with a virus and we didn't have a working computer. My step-father was thankfully able to fix it.

We have had a lot of things going on over these past few weeks. I'll start by telling you about Raymond's procedure. Raymond had his bronchoscopy and echocardiogram done at Hershey about 2 weeks ago. When they put Raymond under he stopped breathing. To make a very long story short we could have lost the little guy. It was scary and we are so thankful that he pulled through it and is still smiling!

My dad has umpired high school baseball for 31 years. He recently had a game close to our house so we went to see him in action. It was Isabella's first baseball game (technically it was Raymond and Lily's first game too). You might be surprised to find out that Isabella's favorite part was the concession stand. She loves soft pretzels with mustard! If you see Isabella, ask her about the lady's finger nails at the concession stand. It's much funnier coming from her!

Isabella's school is officially over. She was sad at first but now she seems okay with the idea. She still sees all her friends almost every week. All the mom's decided to get together every Thursday at the park so the kids can see each other throughout the summer. To celebrate the end of the school year, Isabella's preschool had a picnic. It turned out to be a really nice day (despite the news report of pending rain) and all the kids seemed to have a lot of fun. Chris took Raymond to his oncology appointment so I could go to the picnic with Isabella and Lily.

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit us for the Memorial Day weekend. This was the first time that Grandpa got to meet Lily. He was very excited and she greeted him with a BIG smile.

We have a family membership to the Reading Museum and thought it would be a fun place to take Grandma and Grandpa.

The Art Room

Isabella and I made this drum in the Native American section of the museum

Outside the museum are beautiful gardens. We walked around and enjoyed the gorgeous weather.

I told Isabella to imitate the tree.

Since it was such a nice day, we saw a lot of wedding parties having pictures taken and a lot of kids getting pictures taken before prom. Isabella saw this group of girls and couldn't take her eyes off of them. She sweetly asked if they would take a picture with them. The girls were flattered and graciously said yes.

It's not very often we're all in a picture together!

Isabella and Daddy were finding all sorts of neat things!
Isabella was very excited to show me the snake she and Daddy found.


On Sunday we went to Longs Park for a family picnic. Isabella got to spend some time with her best friend Mel!

Grandpa can't get enough of his grandkids!

My cousin Angie, Mel and Lily

***
Than on Monday (Memorial Day) Pappy came for a visit...

and brought Winston...

Raymond was ecstatic...

Winston was curious...

and not used to the tubes.


***

We've been trying to spend as much time outside as possible. It's hard with Raymond because the heat really effects him. Swimming is always fun!



Raymond got a break from his oxygen tubing.

Isabella has been taking very good care of her garden.

Isabella and I molded and painted four stepping stones for out front (even though you can't see the paint in the picture).

We've been discovering new things!

There's more for me to tell you so stay connected and check back soon! I'll be posting more over the next few days. In the meantime, here are a few miscellaneous pictures for you.

My sweet little thumb sucker! I think it's so cute!!!

Daddy's not the only one who likes fish!

They love doing EVERYTHING together!

Until Next Time,

Lots of Love!