Cochlear Implant!

My dad, the weekend before his surgery...happy and ready!




















Well my Daddy had his cochlear implant (the surgery portion) done last Thursday. The surgery was successful, praise God! He is doing well and feeling well. Here is a pic of his surgery site (incision) the day after:





















And this is a picture of the face he made at me after I took a picture of his incision...he is still as goofy as ever!



















I love my Daddy, he is so fun! He goes in to receive his speech processor (the outside portion of the procedure that allows the implanted portion to interpret the sound) on August 4th. The whole family is going with my Dad to his appointment. My mom only after asking us all to go, told us she didn't ask the doctor if that many people could be there, but we all want to be there to see if he will be able to hear us when we talk to him. I am anxious to see how all this cochlear implant stuff works. Please continue to be in prayer for my Dad, because it can be a long process for him to relearn to hear sounds in a different way. We have been told that the cochlear implant is more of a computerized version of hearing than natural (obviously). Please pray that he does not get frustrated during this process. I think he will do great so that is the attitude I am going to stick with...I mean, what else can you think of a man who makes faces like in the picture above?? You think he is going to let a little discouragement get him down? I THINK NOT! Plus we will all be there cheering him on. I will let you know what happens when we get there.







Now here are a couple of pics of Chris and I (we rarely have pics together anymore, and especially never when we are dressed up) after we went to a wedding last Saturday night. Chris HAD to have this hat...Dick Tracy style (we went all over the mall and other stores outside just to get him this before we went to the wedding). And yes, for those of you who did not know, I married a fashion diva, in the most male and manly sense of the term.

4th of July Weekend

Well our fun weekend began with a yummy dinner at Mark Dean's BBQ for Chris' birthday with Chris' family and Eric, Kathy and the girls. It was SO yummy and I think Chris' family agreed. Apparently their chicken fried steak is one of the best...but I don't eat that out, so I wouldn't know.

















































Chris' parents and Joe stayed the night that night and the guys (Chris, Ron, & Joe) got up the next morning early to play golf. Which gave Teresa and I the perfect opportunity to be crafty and make some cards. We had a ton of fun doing so. The guys enjoyed their golf as well. We had Chicken Express for lunch followed by a not-traditional birthday cake for Chris...I am so ghetto and I didn't have candles to put on his cake so he had to blow out a yankee candle...sheesh. Then Chris' family left and the little girlies came.

















We had Mia and Jules from Friday afternoon until Sunday evening. They are so much fun I tell ya...here is a brief (as I can be) synopsis of what we did.


Friday: Julesie was asleep when they got her and mom put her on our guest bed and Chris went to nap with her. Mia and I went to Joann's before they closed to get some stuff to be crafty with and Mia picked out some beads and candy for our fun evening we had planned. When we got back Chris was panicking because Jules had teeteed during her nap and it soaked through her clothes, a set of sheets, a blanket, two comforters and onto the futon below. Chris didn't know what to do. Good thing Mia and I had just arrived. We stripped her and the bed. Performed a quick wipe-down bath, put new clothes and panties on and grumbled under my breath at my mom for not putting her in pull ups during her nap. Then we met Aunt Laci and cousin Atlee at Rosa's for dinner. The girls were super excited that they got to ride in our BIG car (aka Chris' truck). Mia was so impressed that she got to see out of ALL the windows and easily. Apparently riding in the truck makes them crazy though...I have pictures to prove it, see?









































After we finished eating we headed up to the Dam (on Eagle Mountain Lake) to watch the fireworks. The girls were so hyped up I got some funny pictures.



Jules with a crazed look while holding her pop ice, Mia with a mouth full of M&M's and Me looking pasty and double-chinned.

































































The beautiful 4th of July sunset over Eagle Mountain Lake.














FIREWORKS!!







































SATURDAY: (Chris' actual birthday) Jules and I were the first ones up and we made pancakes for Chris' birthday breakfast. After breakfast the girls snuggled with Chris in the recliner and watched cartoons while I got ready.





















Chris went to work and the girls and I hung out at the house, made Uncle Chris some cards for his birthday and then we went to get Spencer groomed. The girls REALLY wanted to sleep with Spencer for some reason and I told them that they could only after he was cleaned. We went to PetSmart dropped off Spencer and spent about 45 minutes in the store shopping for treats for Spencer and looking at all the various animals within the store. Mia thought I should buy them a gerbil, a dog, a cat, a fish, and a frog...this girl LOVES animals and does not understand why I did not want to buy her all of these things to keep at my house. I sweetly explained that Spencer was enough for me. Jules got upset when we were heading out to the car...I think it was because we were leaving Spencer and she couldn't look at the animals any more or something. This quickly progressed into full on sobs and hyperventilating saying "I WANT MY MO-MA-HEE, I WANT MY DAH-AH-DEE!!" over and over again for about 10 minutes...I was driving to the next location and had NO IDEA how to handle this...really I just wanted to cry with her because she was making me sad, but I knew this would not help. Mia was attempting to be soothing, as was I, by saying "It's ok Julesie, it's ok." Finally, I got her calmed down by convincing her that we were going to go to Lowe's to see Uncle Chris and pick out some flowers for us to plant in the front flower bed and that she was going to get her own gardening gloves. Finally this method worked and she forgot she was crying and proceed through Lowe's saying "TIS!! (what she calls Chris) TIS!! Where ARE you??" It was so cute. The girls were excited to help me pick out flowers and to get their very own gardening gloves. We planted flowers later that night after it cooled off.














































Sleeping with Spencer lasted about a whole 15 minutes which is about the time that he decided that Jules' head was the perfect location for him to chew his new toy. Stinkin' dog!! Scaring my Julesie like that! She already goes from loving/laughing at him to being completely terrified of him and this didn't help the situation.
















SUNDAY: The girls and I got up and went to church...Chris had to work again. We met Chris for lunch at Red, Hot & Blue and then went on a shopping expedition to find them some eye masks...Mia had been wearing Chris' (yes Chris') eye mask to bed the past two nights and had decided that I needed to get her some of her very own. We went to 5 different stores that day to find the blessed eye masks, or as Jules called them her "eye patch". Finally CVS was the store and they were super excited and we bought the last two they had. Jules took a nap when we got home and Mia and I made them both a bracelet out of the beads Mia had picked out on Friday.

I just love those girls and have SO much fun being their Aunt Lexi!!

My Wonderful Husband

So we also celebrated Chris' birthday with my family on Sunday this past week. My husband is now the same age as me again. Ha! All of the girls just HAD to play football with their Uncle Chris...it was so cute! And then there is one video I liked of Jules dancing to the music birthday card that my mom and dad got for Chris.

Beautiful Girls

Three beautiful little girls...

Atlee Sway

So there has been quite a bit happen since my last post, but we are going to skip straight to Atlee turning THREE! We had a mini birthday party at Laci & Atlee's apartment on her actual birthday and here are a few things from that...Atlee likes to sing happy birthday to herself, but of course I couldn't get that on video. Here are a couple of good ones anyways.


This video I would like to call the BOOTY SHAKE...you will know what I mean after you watch it.

This one is of us singing happy birthday (again) and you kind of get to see Atlee singing it to herself...she was so funny!

Here are some pictures from her actual "Princess Party"

Birthday's Galore

This is how my week went...Work, work, work, work, party, work, party, party, party.


Not kidding!




Party #1 - Miss Mattie Lynn turns seven! Here is a pic of the crazy girl...unfortunately my batteries died in my camera and I didn't get but like 4 pictures the whole night. STINK!








Mattie is my *adopted* niece. She calls Chris and I, Uncle and Aunt...she is actually Connie's official niece but we claim her as well. She fits right in with our crazy family. I wish I had more pictures though, because we played with play dough, which you can see, but we also put fake fingernails on the girls and then gave them little pedicures including soaking and scrubbing their little feet before painting their toes. It was a fun evening.






Party #2 - Misti turns 30!! Not an official party, just a gathering of the family, but fun nonetheless! We surprised Misti with a cake and the kiddos made posters with Mawmaw. Misti was excited and we had a great time. The first thing Taylor asked Misti after saying surprise, was "Can we have cake?!" She had been dying to eat it the whole night!

Now here is a video that actually proves that my family is the worst at singing happy birthday, but Chris' family is quite good...it is almost sickening really...j/k. Take a listen.

Party #3 - Titan turns 6!! Now this was an entertaining party! Water balloons, water guns, tug of war, etc. All things boy for sure! I was unprepared when I first started getting shot with water guns, I had to arm myself pretty quick! Titan is one lucky little man who obviously has parents who love him dearly...you will see what I mean when you see what he got from them below!

Party #4 - Jules turns 3!! She is the cutest! So lucky to be her aunt! Her party was super girly and precious. We had it at the park and her theme was Strawberry shortcake. For this one I HAD to make sure to have back up batteries. I have PLENTY of pics from this party. We played at the park, bubbles, face painting, etc. Fun, Fun!