Mustache Mania

Henry turned 2 on Monday and Tucker turned 6 on Tuesday. I have much to report on and lots of pictures. But for the time being I can only manage one post without completely neglecting my children. A little while back I saw these adorable mustache suckers on a friend's blog when she had her Mr. Man Party. I knew I had to have them. So last night we had a B* family get together. And for this post I will grace you with the mustache pics.

Papa Stan (with a bitten mustache)

Aunt Sarah, Hanky, and Charlotte

Ted and Lauren

She's a walker (and 10 months old)!

Well, Paisley my darling, you turned 10 months old on the 19th and you are all grown up. It's been about two weeks now since you've been walking and you're already a pro. You are a little duck waddling all over this house. You can walk, pause, turn yourself around and come right back to me! You can pause to bend down and pick up a toy. You love it when we clap for you. You are always wearing that newly toothy grin or a silly face. We can't get enough of you. You are such an easy and pleasant little girl, so content to chase around your brothers and sister. You follow suit when your siblings run to greet Daddy when he gets home, it is quite endearing. You never fail to bring a smile to the faces of all you encounter. You have beautiful eyes that strangers often comment on. Your hair has gotten quite light and you are turning into such a blondie. You bring such delight to our family and my life. I love you so much.
~Mommy

Swimming Saturday

It was nice to have such a relaxing day with Trent. The whole family went swimming together. That's pretty rare since we usually go while Trent is at work and at least one kid is asleep.

The 2 oldest kids have been in swim lessons and Charlotte has gained so much confidence and was really excited to practice more with us. Tucker was showing us his new skills, freestyle and back stroke with side breathing. Love it.

Paisley was doing the greatest faces, as usual!

Friday night concert

Friday night was the Jewel concert. Lindy and I went together. It was her birthday present to me. I loved it! It was a different venue than I am used to. Most of the concerts I have been to I was standing while watching. This was indoors, and dark with everyone in seats. It is always fun to watch the strange people in the crowd. An Ashley Somebody opened the show. She was young and had a beautiful voice. She actually sounded similar to Jewel, only more country. One complaint I had about the location was that there was no screen showing the performers faces, so even though we had pretty good seats it was hard to see Jewel and her expressions. Jewel was amazing of course. She was very funny as well. She told funny stories before many of her songs. It was a great night with my girl Lindy! Thank you Lobster face!

That's not my mole. It's my scab. Sexy, right?

Missing

A few things are gone around here that I'm sure won't be missed too much. First off, I am finally starting to lose some weight. 10 pounds are gone and hopefully more will go missing soon. I am eating less and trying to be consistent with my working out.

Another thing I've had for much longer is gone now. You see, I've had this mole on my face for as long as I can remember. It's the one between my nose and my lip that I actually used to like a lot. I thought it was cute and added interest to my face. But the last couple of years it has been growing into wicked stepmother mole territory, which I was not so fond of. It was especially hard as my sister referred to it as a witch's wart and to have one of my primary children tell me quite loudly and matter of factly, " Sister P* you have a really big mole on your face." Okay, ouch.

Anyway, I went in to the dermatologist yesterday just to have it looked at and talk about possibly removing it and the cost and all that. When they said they could do it right then if I wanted, I decided to just go for it and avoid another co-pay. It was weird. So now I will have a scab for a couple weeks and then we will just see how it scars. So, goodbye mole.

Lake Powell '09

Well, it's time for our wrap up of our annual Lake Powell trip. *Warning* picture overload. .

Henry loved jumping into the water, from the boat and even off little cliffs.

Paisley with the wind in her hair!

Henry swingin himself in the boat.

Driving dump trucks.

Not being pregnant was pretty exciting. I even got to wakeboard a few times. I never did manage to get up on the air chair though.

Charlotte and her favorite cousin Ashlyn. I caught them walking around holding hands, cute!

Handsome Daddy and Paisley.

Charlotte playing with Paisley in the "fort".

Henry's turn.

Paisley was cracking everyone up doing her sniffy face all day.


Henry could usually be found sitting on a quad or "m-m-motorcycle." Even this one in the trailer.

. Henry liked to do this face when he saw the camera.

Tucker loved swimming, paddling the red kayak (which I managed to not get a picture of), riding the tube, and "belly boarding" (riding on his belly on the knee board behind the boat) He loved playing with his cousin Elisabeth and wanted to do everything with her.

Trent spent time on the dirt bike and the air chair (I didn't get a lot of pictures that I should have). He took us all on rides on the tube as well.It was a wonderful trip and all the kids did great and enjoyed themselves the whole time! We love getting so much time with Daddy and all our P* family and cousins!

The Fourth

Paisley was patriotic in her red and stripes. We had some shopping to do before we left to Lake Powell, so Paisley and I hit a couple of stores. Then we got home, made potato salad and headed to Bart and Dusti's in Queen Creek for swimming BBQing and fireworks. it was great!

Food Allergies

A couple of weeks ago Henry got his blood drawn to retest for his allergies. We got the results back yesterday and we're very happy! Henry's tested negative for wheat, peanut, and other nut allergies! His egg allergy has almost disappeared, the doctor recommended not to give him plain eggs, but said that cooked in foods it was fine. His milk allergy remains, which we will retest in one more year. But for now we are so happy! Say hello to a whole new food world Henry, you're going to love it!

Here he is today eating a peanut butter sandwich! I hope this means no more grabbing crusts off the top of the trash and sneaking away to a corner to eat it:)

On the other hand, now we have Paisley. Yesterday I gave her some of my scrambled eggs. This led to her breaking out in hives and vomiting several times. I also suspect that the eczema on her face may be related to a wheat allergy (it started showing up around the time I introduced cheerios). I plan to just watch her carefully until her first birthday when I will probably have her tested as well. I guess it's a waiting game then.

A friend of a friend

This family needs help and I wanted to spread the word.

***FEDERAL EMPLOYEES- PLEASE DONATE LEAVE TO RYAN HESS***

My name is Margie Hess, my husband Ryan was diagnosed on June 12, 2009 with a rare and aggressive form of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Since this is an aggressive form of T-Cell Lymphoma, his doctor has put him on an aggressive chemo regimen that will result in him being unable to work for the next 4-6 months and possibly longer. At the time of diagnosis he was finishing up his 1st year as a Podiatry Resident at the V.A. in Tucson, AZ. Ryan is a devoted husband and father of two children, Hallie (5) and Max (2). By the end of this month (June 2009), Ryan will use up the last of his vacation and sick leave and will have to go on unpaid leave. Ryan is the sole provider for our family; I stay at home with both the kids. Without him working we have no income. I need to stay home to help care for him, so I cannot get a job right now, either. As difficult as it is for our family to have to ask for help, we have realized that we must do so at this time. We were told that any federal employee (ie: military, Border Patrol, DEA, FB I, Dept of Justice, EPA etc. EXCEPT Post Office employees) can donate vacation time to be used as sick leave for another Federal employee. We would be so thankful for any number of extra paid days we can accumulate. Thank you so much.



How can you help if you ARE a Federal Employee?



Go to your HR department and request to donate leave to Ryan Hess who works for the VA. (Your HR person will know the form that needs to be filled out- each Federal agency has their own form to donate leave)



Once filled out and signed, the HR person will then need to fax or e-mail the form to:



OLIVIA McCLURE - Benefits Specialist (TUCSON V.A.)



Phone #: (520) 792-1450 x 6076



Fax # : (520) 629-1849



E-Mail : olivia.mcclure@va.gov







ALSO, for those who are federal employees, please print out this message and post it in break/lunch rooms to help get the word out as well as emailing it to co-workers!







How to help if you are NOT a Federal Employee:



PASS this along to ANYONE and EVERYONE that you know and then ask them to pass the message along. Post it on blogs, Facebook…whatever you can think of.



Thanks again everyone- this will help SO much!



GO TEAM RYAN HESS!



(E-mail teamryanhess@gmail.com to receive updates or to send a message