Nana and Poppi got a puppy!

My parents got a new puppy on today. His name is Sampson. He is a 13 week old Akita. He is beautiful. The kids think he is pretty cool and Poppi could not stop smiling! Poppi was like a child at Christmas!

Aunt Marty!!!

My sister, Marcea, came to stay with us tonight. She has a interview with SLU (St. Louis University) in the morning and didn't want to have to wake up super early to make it to the city on time. She stayed with us and we really enjoyed having her. The kids really like it when Aunt Marty plays this airplane game. Will kept trying to sit on her face while playing the game, not sure what that was ab0ut.

Marcea is graduating in May from SIUC with a degree in Healthcare Management and is planning on going to grad school in the fall. She said that her interview with SLU's Healthcare Management grad department went very well. Way to go Marcea!!

Tell her bye-bye

Today while checking out at Target the cashier was googling over Will and he was smiling and laughing at her. It was really cute. He was being so friendly and happy and the cashier was loving every minute of it. When we were getting ready to walk away I said to Will "tell her bye-bye." And he waved!!! This was the first time that he waved good-bye.

We have been working on him to wave since he was about 5 months old. I could not believe that he actually did it. I am so happy that he waved after I asked him too, that means he understands what I am saying!! Of course I had to get emotional about it. I had tears in my eyes and the cashier thought that there was something wrong with me! She gave me the look "got hormones!" Oh well, Will and I had a moment! I am so proud of him.

So I tried getting a picture of him waving (he did it again when we got home!!) but all I could get was him clapping for himself after he did it! Oh well, he is proud of himself too!

Something New!

Since switching over from Will's caringbrige site to our new blog several people have mentioned that they miss getting the emails saying that I have updated the site, well it is back!! I have figured out how to set up the blog where you can subscribe to get email updates. You will see it on the left side of the blog. Just put in your email address and you should be set up. I am sure that we will run into some kinks with me just figuring it out and all but bear with me! I hope that you guys like it!

Follow up appointment today

Will had a renal ultrasound done at the beginning of the month. He has these done every 3 months since his tethered spinal cord surgery to make sure that his kidneys are functioning okay after the surgery. Sometimes nerves can be damaged during the surgery that can compromise the function of the kidneys. All of the ultrasounds have come back normal until this last one. The radiologist stated in the "findings" that there it was "questionable for early detection of medical renal disease". I had no idea what that even meant. Our peditrication had us make an appointment with a kidney specialist, a nephrologist. We had our appointment today. The doctor said that everything was fine and there was no indication that there was anything wrong with how his kidneys are functioning. The doctor said that the radiologist should not have put that on the report, they should have let the doctor make a diagnosis if there is one. What a relief. He said that we should come back in a year and do a follow up ultrasound then.

So they wanted to get a urine sample before we left just to do a work up and make sure that everything was normal. The nurse but a bag on Will when we got there. The bag fits over his penis and testicles and sticks to his skin around that area and catches the urine. I know, my thoughts exactly, yikes! When we were getting ready to leave I checked to see if he had went, no luck. He had not gone in over an hour! So we waited around for about 20 minutes with no luck. So the nurse said that he could just wear the bag home and then put it in a specimen cup and take it to our local lab tomorrow. Great, no big deal. I can handle that.

***WARNING- POOP TALK TO FOLLOW read at your own risk!

We got home, I got busy. He ended up having the bag on for another hour. I went to take it off and you are never going to believe it!!!! He had diarrhea!!! The child never has diarrhea and wouldn't you know this is the one time that he decided to get it! We usually play heck trying to get him to go! Lets just say that I didn't get a urine sample. I am going to have to call them in the morning and see what they want me to do.

Easter Sunday 2008

Here is a picture of the kids with their Easter outfits on.


We went to my Grandma's house (Grammy Abell) where we had a great lunch and then the kids had an egg hunt. Here are some pictures from the hunt.

Will with his egg. He was so happy about it!


Caroline and Cousin Meredith (Meredith's Mom, Kelly in the background) finding eggs in the tree.


Caroline and Meredith going through their loot.

Dying Easter Eggs

Caroline LOVES to dye Easter eggs. The first two years that she did it she cried that when there were no more eggs. This year there was no crying but she had a blast while it lasted.

Here she is loading the cups with her eggs.

Caroline showing off her perfect egg!

Daddy, Will and Caroline showing off all of their eggs.

This is a picture from the first year that Caroline dyed eggs. She was very upset that there were no more eggs! This was taken in 2005.

Caroline and Daddy showing off their eggs in 2006.

Caroline last year in 2007.