August - Girl's Night Out

*DINNER - Old Chicago*

Meg and I split a YUMTASTIC chicken salad... and had mozzarella sticks... SOOOO GOOD!!! We were STUFFED, but it was soooooo worth it!

Silara & Jenelle

Meg, Me and Mara

*DILLY DALLYING AT THE MALL*

I got yelled at in Claire's for taking this picture of Mara... SAY WHAT?!?!

Relaxing in the hallway furniture... aaahhh...

*DESSERT - Village Inn*

Silly girls...

The Girls - Silara, Mara, Me, Meg, Krista & Jenelle

Jazz hands! I love Jenelle's face in this picture! HA!

Belly Bumpin' Babes

The Foot Flower! WOW... I need some sun and a new polish job!! Yowza!

I WANT girl's nights... I NEED girl's nights... I LOVE girl's nights...

15 & 16 JUNE - Iowa City Hospital Visits

Monday, June 15, 2009 - University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics - Visit with the Pediatric Gastroenterologist and Pediatric Swallow.

Since Jaren has troubles eating certain textures and hardly eats a thing, we finally made the decision to see a specialist for his problems. We wanted to make sure that there was nothing wrong with his esophagus.

Jaren sitting in this little chair in order to get some X-rays.

Ed and Jaren waiting for the Pediatric Swallow.

The nurse blew bubbles to pass the time while we waited.

Jaren trying to blow some bubbles. He loved it!

This is the seat they put Jaren in for the Pediatric Swallow. He didn't like it at first, but when he saw his x-ray on screen he was enthralled and stopped crying. They mixed together some various foods with different textures to see how well he could swallow them. They couldn't believe how well he did, especially since he couldn't have anything to eat for a long time.

Here's the monitor that I watched from behind a wall. It was sooooooo weird seeing him actually chew and swallow things and how it traveled down to his stomach!

Here's a tiny video of what I saw. I was taping it and then I thought...

"I wonder if I could get in trouble for videotaping this..." so I stopped.

This is what Jaren saw on a screen in the room he was in as well. It was wild to see!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009 - UIHC - Children's Hospital - Center for Disabilities and Development - Food Study

Today we met with a Behavioral Psychologist and Speech Pathologist to see what we could find out about Jaren and his eating. We brought food he eats and food we'd like him to eat. We fed him while they watched in another room on a monitor. They told us it was most likely behavioral and to start swiping the food against Jaren's lips to make him at least taste the food. Ed doesn't buy it. I'm at a loss for what to do...

In the waiting room there was a child sized sectional sofa that was soooo cute. Jaren had to take a break and try it out!

After his tests, it was lunch time, so we ventured to Los Portales, a mexican restaurant in Iowa City and man was it delicious!!! We'll have to hit it again sometime when we are down there! I love this picture! Jaren is my crazy monkey!

Instead of stuffing the napkin into his shirt, he just holds it under his chin! What a funny boy!

JUNE - Live at 9 - Checker and the Bluetones

Tonight after I babysat Bella, Meg asked if I would like to join her and her family for a night of music, food and dancing!!! The weather was GORGEOUS for it! The band played strictly oldies music which I LOVED and the kids loved dancing to! I was just dying laughing! We just brought some chairs and blankets and parked it for the evening! We got some yummy food to share while listening to the music and being entertained by Ollie and Eden. Jaren danced a little bit, but not much. Meg and I stood in line forever to get a tenderloin sandwich and I am NOT lying when I say that it was as big as the paper plate we were given!!! It was really good!!! :O) I had such a fun time with Meg and my family! What a wonderful evening!!! It didn't even cost a cent to get into... but the food made up for that! We'll definitely have to do that again this summer!

Ollie and Eden shakin' their groove thang!

"Really, mom... REALLY?!?"

Taking a break...

Papa and Bear

Oliver and Eden groovin' to "Brown Eyed Girl"

Cookie Makin' Time!

MEASURING...

MIXING...

SCOOPING... and finally... BAKING!!!

Look at that ooey, gooey, chocolatey goodness!!!

Oh... so tasty!

The girls really enjoyed making homemade chocolate chip cookies! I have to say, I would take a homemade one over a store bought one... ANY DAY! The house smelled so good for the rest of the night!!! And... if anyone was wondering... the smell lasted... the COOKIES didn't...

Rudy's Tacos

I love the atmosphere at Rudy's Tacos with the marionettes hanging from the ceiling, the masks on the wall and the bright colors that they chose for the place!

Corn Balls... oh... so... goooooood! A little bit of corny goodness!

I love the angle of this picture of Ollie. You can see the hot pepper lights and marionettes in the background. Of course, Ollie is always making silly faces!

Eden hugging Grandma. What is with the look on Eden's face?!

Jaren, me and my yummy Chicken Taco Salad.

I found a grill for Ed! It's a pink pig grill! How funny!

The kids only had school until noon and mom and I were out running errands with Jaren, so we picked them up and went to eat at Rudy's! Thanks Mom!

It's NATIONAL GREASY GOODNESS MONTH!

Well tonight we decided to celebrate National Pizza Month by getting some Papa Murphy's Take and Bake Pizza. My favorite is the De-Lite with pineapple! Ed got some nastiness with mushrooms all over the joint... BLECH! I do love pizza, although I can't eat much of it anymore due to my gallbladder being removed. It sure was good though! Thank you OCTOBER!!! For some reason, this pizza makes children's eyes bug out! :)

Burnin' Ring of Fire

We had a fun time relaxing by the fire and making S'mores with the Gillespies on Friday night. It was the virgin voyage for our new fire pit! I love eating charred marshmallows! I guess I'm just not patient enough to sit and wait until it's nice and brown. I just get it in there, catch it on fire and enjoy! I know that the kiddies had fun, too! Eden said, "You're the best Mom in the deep blue sea! You always do fun stuff with us... Great stuff!"