After a long day at of Doctors and hospitals.
I know most of you know what is going on already, since it is mainly family that reads our blog, but this is about what is going on in our life, so here is what is going on: A few weeks ago Jason noticed a small lump on Aiden's right shoulder. He had not told us about a fall or any sort of injury to his shoulder, so we wondered about it. We agreed to watch it and call the Dr. if we saw a change. A few days later, it seemed to be bigger and had changed in color. I made an appointment with the Dr. the next morning. We saw our Dr., who looked at it then called in another Dr. They left to talk about it and were gone for about a half hour. When our Dr. came back in he informed me that after consulting with other Dr.'s on the phone, they were sending us to have an urgent MRI of Aiden's shoulder. Believing that the lump on his shoulder was some sort of tumor or cyst. Just hearing the words "urgent" scared me to death. The Dr. also told me to get a hold of my husband and find someone to come take care of the other children. So, I called Jason and he immediately came and met me at the Dr.'s office. A neighbor came to get Kyle and a friend came to watch Ryleigh at the hospital for us. After taking blood and putting an IV (very traumatic) in so they could do a contrast with the MRI, they sent us to the hospital. I will never forget seeing Aiden laying in that "tunnel" having an MRI. Both Jason and I went in with him and stood right beside him, holding on to his leg. They expected to have to put him under, but he did so well they were able to do it without putting him to sleep. He just laid there, at times looking around (holding tightly onto a "sticky hand" they gave him at the Dr.) but, mostly just keeping his eyes shut and seeming very relaxed. (For regular readers of the blog, I know you find this very hard to believe!) At one point they brought him out to put the dye through his IV and I asked him what he was thinking about, he said he was pretending he was in a space ship and thinking about aliens. :) We were told to wait and our Dr. would call us. We received a call from the Dr. and were told that they were encouraged by the MRI's but were sending us to see a cancer specialist in Savannah the next day. No need to tell you what our night was like. We had our appointment in Savannah and her diagnosis was she thought it was some sort of hematoma, from trauma, but she referred us to a pediatric surgeon, saying she usually would have seen us after we would have seen the surgeon. We saw him today and he disagreed with her diagnosis, saying it is some sort of cyst. Bottom line, nobody seems to know what it is and they are taking it out. Aiden will have surgery Friday morning and they will take out whatever it is, send it away for biopsy and we should have the results 48 hours from surgery. So it has been a stressful few days. Our friends and neighbors have been great, helping out with Kyle and Ryleigh while we have been going from Dr. to Dr. The Marines have been awesome, proving to be our "family" since we don't have any near. If anything, this week has only brought closer to home what we already knew, that nothing is more important than family. We will update sometime this weekend. Thanks for your prayers!
Ryleigh is 9 months old today! Her favorite things right now are: pulling up to furniture, giving high 5's, saying "Dada", putting everything in her mouth, Daddy, Mommy and her brothers . She does not like: baby food, sitting still for any length of time, Mommy checking her mouth for small objects or Mommy walking out of the room. :)
The biggest excitement last week was a snake in our yard. I wasn't sure what kind it was, it was really long and there are a lot of poisonous ones around here. So our neighbor came over and we killed it. Aiden was all boy and picked it up with this little stick right afterwards. It ended up being just a black snake, but better safe than sorry.
The next day he was catching lizards. If he ever brings any reptiles into this house, he will be very sorry. But at least he can catch them for me now when they get in the house.
We had mulch delivered yesterday. A lot of it. I was outside from 10-5:30, raking and moving mulch around. The boys thought it was great, they used it as a ramp, a place to hide golf balls, to jump in, and to just generally make a mess. You should have seen all the mulch in Kyle's boots when I took them off last night.
Before kids, a job like this would not have been fun, but I wouldn't have called it hard. Now, I would classify it as hard. A flare prayer before kids probably was, "Please don't let there be any traffic on the way to work." Now, my flare prayers are more like "Please don't let anyone be seriously wounded or bleed too much while I am in the shower." I try really hard everyday to tell myself that this stage in our life is short, and they will not all be little forever. I don't want to wish these years away. But, days like yesterday make that difficult!! :) 
This is a new game, it is called "Ryleigh Simon Says". They follow Ryleigh around and do everything she does.
Thanks to everyone for your comments! We love hearing from everybody, especially old friends that we have not had contact with in a long time. If you are looking at our blog and have never left us a comment, take a minute and leave one. It is nice to know who is looking at our life. :)
Last year, we had to take turns keeping Kyle off the soccer field, he wanted to play so bad. Now he can play and he wasn't so sure about it. He wanted Jason or myself right by him the whole time. Hopefully he will warm up to it by next week. This year they are on the "Crickets". They have not gotten their official shirts yet.
Look at that tongue! :)
Kyle loves his rain boots!
A few days ago we had to go to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription for Kyle. I dread going there because the waiting room is really small, it is always crowded and the wait is always long. We were sitting waiting our turn in a packed waiting room. The boys were being good, but as usual talking loud. I can not seem to get them to understand the difference between indoor and outdoor voices. Then out of the blue Aiden says in his outdoor voice "Mom, I am really sorry I called you fat the other day." Suddenly it seems really quiet in the room. I say "It's OK Aiden." Then he goes on "But, it is just that your body is kind of....." I cut him off here quickly thinking it is hard to tell what would come out of his mouth. I succeed in distracting him so that he does not say anymore and pray our number is called soon. Thankfully I do not have a low self esteem or I might have felt bad! Just moments later a commercial comes on the TV for maxi pads. I wasn't watching it, I was trying to distract Kyle from getting into something. But I look up when Aiden, again loudly, says "Mom, what are those things?" I look up, see the commercial and stifle a laugh. I look around and see heads coming up over newspapers and books. An older lady across from us is looking at me like "How are you going to answer that one in a room full of people?" I don't say anything right away, trying to think what to say. So thinking I didn't hear him, he loudly repeats the question. "MOM!! What are those things and WHAT do they do to you?" People are openly laughing now and I just say "I'll tell you about it when you get older Aiden." Aiden says "OH! You find out when you are older." A minute later our number is called and since we were in the back corner of the crowded room, I get up walk out with my brood trailing behind. Kids definitely keep you humble. :)
He then asked for some tape and put his signs all over his bedroom door and one on his bathroom door. At least all the girls are smiling in his pictures! :)
I asked him where everyone was going to go to the bathroom if his was off limits. He said they could all use mine, then he drew this sign, with an arrow, pointing the way to my bathroom. :)
On our honeymoon, 
At the Del Mar State Fair 1999
In our apartment
Camp 
San Diego Wild Animal Park
Another beach picture, not sure when 
Getting ready for a bonfire at the beach, right down from our apartment
Hawaii May 2001
At a friends wedding, June 2001
Summer 03 - Jason surprised me at 
Fall 2004, a family of four
December 2005 - another baby on the way!
Fall 2006
What most of our family photos look like, someone crying, someones eyes closed, someone 
Our family today!
As the years go by I found less and less pictures of Jason and I together and mostly of just the kids or one of us with the kids! 
