Candy is recovering well from surgery and getting stronger every day! She even gets to go for short walks now (to the kitchen)! xo

Meet the two new puppies, Gunner and Gracie, that will force motivate her to be up and around in the next few weeks. xo

Ashley and Bobby are settled in their first place and have even pounded in a few nails! Home sweet home!

Our Little 'Licky Lizard'

I thought I would put a few updated pics up since Tanner now has all of his stitches out. His current nickname is "Licky Lizard" because he has EVERYTHING is his mouth lately. He is always biting, licking, or sucking on something. His new favorite though... an empty plastic water bottle. We have a million lying around the house just for his amusement!

ciao mondo bello

just a few pictures... the trip report is too long to type out, but these are some of my favorite pictures.  sorry for the lack of order - i tried.  apparently blogger does not like to do what i say.

clayton and alexia and i on a bridge in florence... alexia and clayton just had the most amazing sandwiches they have ever eaten... you can just see the satisfaction in their eyes.

this is laocoon and his sons - a really old marble statue that is now housed in the vatican museum.  i was really excited to stumble upon this because i was always liked it when studying art in school.  (this might have been my favorite part of the vatican... i was underwhelmed by the sistine chapel, but excited to see this!)

on our way to florence, we stopped for a few hours in assisi.  i loved it.  assisi was exactly what italy was in my head - small town with cute old italians in tiny little shops.  quiet, stone streets with narrow roads and tiny little cars.  and pretty views of countryside.  

florence was lovely.  this was a bridge that the shops are built outside the bridge, hanging over the water.  also seemed classic italian - and made the top 25 in our florence travel book... 

i was VERY excited to see the pantheon.  everyone told me i would be disappointed, but i was not.  this was one of my favorite studies in art history, and it was exactly how i imagined it.  (i took about 25 pictures in front of this, and was totally the embarrassing tourist.  i think if they made a foam hat pantheon... i would have bought one.)

this was in the roman forum.  i know, it is not an ancient column, but i thought it was a pretty rose bush.  tom was a pretty good sport and didnt complain about my need to take a picture in front of everything.... (though he doesnt look thrilled this time).  who knows, this could have been a very pivotal rose bush in ancient rome.

clayton and i at the roman forum.  this is the more classic picture...  i was amazed at how many columns there were, just sort of lying around!

the boys and i in front of the colosseum.  this was a trip highlight - i felt prepped by modern marvels (thanks todd) and was impressed to be there.  this would have been amazing to see in real time.  tom is hoping for some sort of an eternal tivo that we can just review the tapes in heaven... we will probably need to watch this one a couple of times.

just a pretty shot of rome.  we did a lot of walking, and a lot of searching for the perfect roman background...

while waiting for the train from florence to rome... i made everyone tell me (again) how small my backpack was and what a great packer i was.  just for proof, we took a picture.  i knew mom and dad would be proud.  (i know, i have a backpack now... i am so granola.)

this was day one in rome... we were so excited to be there!  no one slept on the plane...!  (jet lag set in half-way through dinner... tom and clayton fell asleep! turns out alexia and i are captivating company.)

this was one of the silliest things i have ever seen or been a part of.  we were at these gardens in rome, and saw people biking around on these little carts.  we thought it looked fun, but really it was just hard.  it was hardest on tom and clayton because alexia and i got laughter weakness and could not pedal.  i really was trying, but it felt as ridiculous as it looks.  AND, my steering wheel was fake.  i kept forgetting though, and was trying to drive.  i think everyone considers this a high and low of the trip... there was laughing and yelling.

assisi was so beautiful.  we took a bus to the top of the hill (mostly) and walked the rest.  by the time we got here, we were exhausted (and grateful we were light packers).  we asked some strangers to take our picture, and were so happy with how this turned out.  we might have finally asked the only italian that could take a well positioned picture.  

also in assisi - all of the buildings were so pretty.  i like this picture because clayton's arms look like eagle wings swooping over alexia and i's humps.

Marathon Mama!

Chris did it! She ran the entire Cowtown Marathon in 4:07 hours - wow! Especially because she thought it would take 5 hours! We were all moved to tears!
They are on the right side - Chris in a blue jacket and Launa has #92 on. Andy and I just happened upon them in our search for a different location! Serendipities all day!

Andy and I were in charge of the kiddos - hence the yanked-out-of-bed look. They were absolute troopers getting in and out of the truck/stroller to be the Official Traveling Motivators.

The Finish Line Greeters! We are all so proud of Chris! xo

Dancing with the Stars

I don't know how to rotate a video, so you'll have to turn your head sideways ... but it's worthy of a krinked neck!

We had an early birthday date to see Elmo Grows Up at the Nokia Center. It was true joy to laugh to the point of tears watching Haley Mae enjoy herself. Lucky we had this little trench in front of us because she was moved out of her seat to dance. Our neighbors around assured us she has a future in dance!

What's a field trip without pink cotton candy? We were thinking of you Ashley! xo

By a series of mishaps, we had front row seats and Haley was quite a celebrity with the cast! She got several high fives, winks, waves and pats on the head! I think they all knew it was her birthday soon!


All good days end in ice-cream!

Ginger Bell is growing!

She's so lanky and all paws! Daisy and Roxy are already yielding to the young one! She's a sweet puppy and just wants to be friends in a gregarious way!

February Park Days

Happy the sun shines in Texas and we get to enjoy some lazy park days!


Cash was perfectly content to chill in the swing while the world spun around him. He is like the rest of the boys - loves to be outside!

Daddy's Office Helper

Tanner is such a good office assistant to dad.

He is always there to make sure things are where they need to be.

Progress Report... A+

Todd and I wanted to give everyone a photographed progress report on how Tanner has done this past week...



This picture was taken the morning of his surgery. He woke up EXTREMELY happy, which confirmed the fact that he was being entertained by angels that day. The nurses kept commenting on what a good boy he was.



This picture was taken the day after surgery. He looks pretty beat up and sore, but he kept showing off his swollen smile... especially to Daddy.



We took this picture on Friday. His lip has looked better each day and by this time his swelling had gone down. He also got fairly used to his arm braces. When we take them off for play time he doesn't try to put toys or hands in his mouth.



This was from this morning... Again, he woke up so happy and we had fun being the paparazzi taking pictures of him. His clothing attire is provided - an oversize T-shirt that says "Cooks Childrens Hospital" on the front and fluffy white socks. The anesthesiologist threated to take Tanner because he was being so cute. And Dr Schuster stated he was ready for Hollywood.



Ah, back at home. His lip is a little red and probably will be for a few months according to the Dr. But we are so happy to have the stitches out, especially Tanner because you could tell they were itchy! He has a few dissolvable stitches left in his lip that will be gone shortly.

ONLY TWO MORE WEEKS OF CUP FEEDING & ARM BRACES. HALLELUJAH!

Thank you for your prayers for our little buddy. We have felt Heavenly Father's arms wrapped around Tanner this past week.