Things have been a little crazy around here. Lize continues to heal. She will be excited Friday to be able to feed herself soft foods and to NOT have to wear her splints. Even though she's drooling buckets, her speech has improved . She's learned to blow bubbles and how to blow her nose! Zach had his final band concert for 7th grade, Will concert is tomorrow. Sofi continues to get taller, smarter and sassier everyday. James is 100% back to normal or as normal as he ever was (haha).

Lize Update...

Lize had her surgery -palette repair and expanders put into her ears for draining the fluid from inside her ears to help her hearing - yesterday (Thursday)and it took longer than expected and she had some complications with breathing. After a lot of prayer and God's healing touch, she was able to get her breathing back in line - thank you prayer warriors. Thursday was a very rough day for her but by Friday afternoon, she was doing much better. She will be coming home tomorrow and we can't wait to have her and Dawn back home with the rest of the family.

While we wait....

Today, is Lize's surgery. As I type, she is 2 1/2 hours into her surgery and they have placed the expanders in her ears and began the palette portion of the surgery. Lize was quite the trooper heading into the day and we'll keep everyone posted.

Here's some pictures from yesterday, which was a paperwork / prep day at the hospital and this morning just before she was taken off to surgery. Lize thought if she would hide in the closet or drive away, she could escape the hospital....

Easter

Thank God for a beautiful Easter weekend. The girls and Will had so much fun hunting for eggs and other activities planned for the day (we took the family to a church outing - Thank you Mr. Neal and Ms. Jeanne). It was amazing to see how fast all the kids could pick-up 10,000 eggs. Being the typical "teen", Easter egg hunting was not in the cards (at least outside the home) for Mr. Zach but he didn't have any problem with eating the cotton candy. My mom was able to enjoy the day with the kids and will be here for the week. Of course we had our own egg hunt on Easter morning. Here's some pictures for you to enjoy...

We were invited to the Grow's home for Easter dinner and had a GREAT time visiting with them. Vicki let the girls help make dessert (see the pics below). The other little girl in the pictures below is Faith. As those who follow our blog know, Faith was adopted by the Grows at the same time Lize was.

Still Cold Outside, But Warm Inside The Waterpark...

Well, the calendar indicates that it's Spring but the weather doesn't feel like it. This past weekend, we took the kids to a local indoor water park and they had a great time. Here's some pictures of the day and one additional picture of Sofi with her new favorite hat - - mine too:

Lize has her first surgery next Thursday so please keep her in your prayers.

What a week........ (GO ND!!)

This week turned out to go as planned with a few pleasant surprises. My brother is a HUGE Kentucky fan and after their win on Monday night in the NIT tourney, he called me to advise that they would be playing Notre Dame at Notre Dame's home court in the quarter-final round of the NIT. A few calls later and my brother and his son along with me and my two sons had tickets for the Wednesday game.

The biggest event of that night wasnt' the game itself but rather the time I was able to spend with my boys, my brother and nephew (it didn't hurt that Notre Dame won the game is on to the NIT Semi-finals ----GO IRISH!) Here's some pictures of us on Notre Dame's campus and at the game:

We finished our week up with a night out with some friends including a Chris Tomlin concert on Friday in Chicago. I may have been billed as a concert but it was a great time of worship and I would suggest anyone who likes his music to certainly go and see him live...rather powerful.

Well, that brings to close another week here in beautiful Wisconsin. Oh by the way, we had a wonderful Spring Snow Shower last night as we were driving home from Chicago. I can't wait until we can enjoy our 3 - 4 weeks of summer.....ha ha

A day of fun in Chicago....and an update on Lize's surgery schedule

Yesterday, I (James) took the kids down to Chicago for a fun day in the big city. As most of you already know, our family loves Chicago and we take many trips per year there. This was our second trip so far this year (my first alone with the kids). We had a great time and enjoyed The Field Museum and walking around.

Below, you will find some photos of our day but before you look I wanted to let everyone know that Lize's surgery has been scheduled for April 16th. We're so excited and I'll keep everyone posted as the day gets closer. Here's the photos (Sue the T-Rex was everyone's favorite):

Yes, we're crazy.....but

Isn't she cute? Yes, I'm a true sucker. Dawn and the kids beat me into submission and I crumbled to the pressure and said yes that we could get this cute Cockapoo (1/2 Cocker Spaniel and 1/2 Toy Poodle). They say they'll take care of "poo" in the yard but we'll see. Any way, here's some pictures of her. Her name is Molly, she's 8 months old and shouldn't get much bigger what she is now.

GOOD NEWS and Just when we thought it was safe...

GOOD NEWS FIRST - Lize was accepted at Shriner's Chicago for the repair of her palette. We visited this hospital before she got home and knew that this was the best location for her treatment. She is scheduled for her surgery on May 28th (but we're on a "quick call list" if some other person was to cancel a surgery for some reason).


Well, we got fooled again. After a few days of high 30's and one day in the 50's, old man winter has reminded us that it's only late February and he's not leaving anytime soon. Last night we were the lucky winner of another 6 inches of snow.. Yeah, NOT. If this year is anything like last year, we'll be having snow around into late May.


Here's some recent pictures for your enjoyment (Lize on the coach at Shriner's Chicago, the girls at a local gymnastics gym and photos from a trip to one of area Children's Museums.

Updated photos......

Well, it's still very cold here and I thought it would be nice to post a few other pictures of the family and all the kids. We're all doing fine and anixously awaiting warmer weather to arrive (should be another 2 1/2 - 3 months). We've had Lize with us for 3 months now and in that time she has grown almost 3 inches and put on 4 pounds.

OUR LITTLE LADIES.....

We recently had pictures taken of the girls and "we think" they did a great job in capturing the girls' attitude and beauty but you be the judge:

Trust me, picking these few out of over 70 shots was no easy task for me. We have family photos to be posted later but I just had to get these on the blog.