St Vincent NICU Picnic

Today after church we went to the annual St Vincent NICU picnic. It's a fun day that the hospital puts on for any kids that have ever been in the NICU at St V's. This is the 10th year and there were over 10,000 families invited this year (thankfully there were not that many people there). It was a great day of food, games, bounce houses, train rides and more.

I don't know if I've ever seen so many bounce houses in one place and JJ did everyone of them....several times.

This is Ali's first pony ride, she hated every minute of it! The things we make our kids do for pictures!:)

JJ was mad that Ali got to ride a bigger horse than he did.

Ali liked the sno cones
But she LOVED the cupcakes!

Here are the kids with their prizes, JJ got a football full of gum and he got Ali a crown, which she was just thrilled to wear (not really!).


It was a really great day and after the last week we all needed it! Thank you to everyone who prayed for us these past few days, we are extremely blessed to have such a great support system!

Happy Day

Well, after an up and down afternoon of not getting results and getting misleading information we finally get a call from the doctor, only to find out that Allison is fine! He said that sometimes with low muscle tone the liver sits a little lower making it appear enlarged. Yes, this information would have been great to know two days ago!!! Funny how they just throw around the word leukemia like it's the flu or something. So anyway, tests were normal and now life can go back to normal. To celebrate tonight we're going to....Red Robin!

No News is Good News??

We are still waiting to hear from the doctor, I swear that doctors do this just because they can! I called this afternoon to see if I could find anything out but had to leave a message and, of course, nobody called me back. I'm to the point now that I just want to know what we're dealing with and move on........the waiting is killing me!! Thank you for all the prayers, if nothing else they seem to have given me some peace. I am certain we will know something tomorrow, if I have to drive to the hospital and run the tests myself, I will not wait all weekend to get the results!

A LONG Day

So today Allison had an appointment at the St Vincent Down's Clinic. It's basically this appointment she has every 6 months where she sees tons of different specialists and therapists and has a million different test run always to tell us the same conclusion, she's perfect!:) Normally this is a 3-4 hour appointment, one she and I both dread going to. Today though looked like it was going to be a short day, only 2 therapists and 2 doctors, so, of course, I start planning on Qdoba for lunch since it looks like we'll be done early. Then the main doctor comes in to do his exam and I notice he's spending a lot of time pushing on Ali's stomach. He says he wants to order some blood work because it feels like Ali's liver is enlarged. Then he starts rattling on about the liver and the spleen and too much blood in her body..........after much prodding and questioning on my part I get him to admit that this is a sign of leukemia. After that I didn't hear much else, we went to have the blood work done and, hopefully, we'll have the results by tomorrow afternoon. We knew there was an increased risk of this with Down's Syndrome but I guess you never want to believe that it could happen to your kid. So please just keep her in your prayers!

Oh, and I didn't even get my Qdoba!:(

Boring Monday

This morning started off the way every Monday morning starts off in our house, 8:15 speech therapy. Ali and I both love starting out the week with speech therapy! (Note extreme sarcasm) After that the kids and I were all a little bored so we decided to do some painting.

I think JJ might be the next Picasso.

After painting we did a little playing in the sand. I was hoping Ali would have changed her mind but, nope, she still thinks sand makes a tasty snack.

This afternoon we decided to check out the new sprinkler park in Zionsville. Mom's Group Ladies, we've got to add this onto the summer schedule next year!

Allison typically isn't much for sprinkler parks but she cried when it was time to leave.

We finished up the day with a trip to Dairy Barn for ice cream and then Walmart and Lowes. So, yep, a pretty boring day!

Barn Raising - Part 1

I have been bugging (some would say nagging, I don't think so) Ryan to build a barn in our backyard for about a year now. Our 3 car garage is so full we can hardly get one vehicle in there. So Ryan came home early and said he had rented a two-man auger to start digging the holes for the barn. Let's just say I had a nice relaxing afternoon planned that did not include digging holes. But being the good sport I am (with minimal complaining) I agreed to help.

That big thing in the background is the auger, there is a good reason they call it a two-MAN auger! And, yes, JJ is using a snow shovel to shovel dirt but he didn't care, he was having a great time.

One hole down, eight more to go. However, this hole was only half as deep as it needed to be.

We have a floor and a wall, I'm a little overwhelmed by how big it looks! Maybe it could double as a guest house?!?

Happy Anniversary

Tonight Ryan and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. To celebrate we decided to get some pot. It had been awhile since we had enjoyed some pot and thought our anniversary was a perfect reason to get do it again. Here are a few pics from the evening.

Yes, we went to the Melting Pot, where else would we get pot?!?

Since I know everyone loves the food shots here was our dessert, best part of the meal!

And, finally, a pic of the happy couple after a great evening! Happy Anniversary, Ryan!