Sisters, Sisters there were never such devoted sisters!

 

This past weekend I was given an amazing gift!!! I was able to spend the whole weekend with ALL FOUR of my awesome sisters! We have not been all together since my wedding five years ago! That is way to long in my opinion! My gracious sister Melissa let us all come crash her house in Vegas. I brought all of my babes, my oldest sister brought her baby, and we enjoyed some time with Melissa's brood. Thank goodness for our wonderful cousin B for coming to baby sit so sister craziness could ensue! We spent SO much time laughing! We are a hilarious group if I do say so myself. I have to say I stopped to think a few time throughout the weekend and I am so amazed by my beautiful family! All four of my sisters are awesome! We ALL get along, we ALL have the same beliefs and passion for our Faith, we ALL love our babies so much, it all just amazes me! Seems quite out of the ordinary to me!

 

Carolyn. My beautiful amazing sister! The most calm mother of NINE I have ever met! I admire your wisdom and faith so very much! You never judge and are always so kind and compassionate in your advice giving! Plus you are an awesome chef! So beautiful inside and out!

 

Melissa. A-MAZ-ING! You rock my friend! You crack me up on an hourly basis. My over the phone therapist for all things from babies to husbands to how to get any stain out of any article of clothing! You are such an awesome, kind, empathetic, generous, and beautiful woman and mother! You truly are my mama bear and sister at the same time! Plus you taught me every thing I know ;)

 

Erin. My Maid-of-Honor. You bring joy to my heart! You are so kind and always so positive! You never have anything bad or negative to say about anyone, always looking for the good! I admire that so very much about you! I also LOVE laughing with you! Nobody laughs as hard or true as you do and it is always contagious and fantastic!

 

Kathryn. I stole your spot as the baby. You weren't happy about it than, but I am pretty happy about it now! You are a creative person! I LOVE that about you! Always finding beauty in what other people think of as garbage, I am amazed every time! You have wit and humor in your soul. You are always there for some venting and/or laughter and/or over the phone wine date with me and I am so appreciative of that!

 

Me. I would not be me if it weren't for my sisters! I have spent my life watching, listening, learning, how to be a woman/mother/wife/friend/sister from all of you! I will never be able to thank you enough or express quite how I feel about the 4 of you women! I am constantly blown away by all of your selfless attitudes & generous hearts and by your strong commitments to your marriages, children, vocations, and faith. I am so very blessed!

 

CHEERS to sisterhood!

 

 

ok ok enough with mushy sentiment.... We laughed SO much! We shared in so much delicious food, drinks, conversations, and laughter! I know I said that already, but man I love to laugh and I especially LOVE to laugh with my sisters! I mean who wouldn't want to laugh with someone who knows them inside and out, them ladies my blood!

 



Attempting a group photo.



not sure what's going on here...



Kathryn is so shy



me, being bossy, Carolyn..... the dwarf?



Kathryn you can't be front and center ALL the time!



Still trying for the right shot

There's a sad sort of clanging from the clock in the hall and the bells on the steeple too......

 

WE DID IT!!!

 

From Taboo, to garage saling, to fantastic fancy dinners out, gambling, Mass, every minute was enjoyable! It is such a blessing to have built in friends! And built in body guards..... trust me, you do NOT want to mess with me or my sisters! We love each oher and we do not let eachother get hurt without putting up a fight!  Seriously don't mess with us :)

Don't worry Carolyn it goes full circle, we got your back too!

 

We are sisters, we are wives, we are friends, we are mothers (29 kids between us and counting!) and I couldn't ask for better role models in my life!

Our honorary sister B

sister=built in friends, cousins=build in buddies!

I love you all and all your babies!! An extra shout out to Grandmother & Pa and all my kick booty brothers-in-law for letting us all be together! I really hope we can make this an annual thing!

 

 

 

 

 



My baby is 1!

Little Himmy, Tim, Tim-timiny, Wally, Walt, Muppet baby, Timothy- YOU ARE ONE YEAR OLD!  I just cannot believe it! Time has flown by! You are so very loved by everyone in our family. You constantly hand out smiles and wave and giggle. Such a joyful spirit you have! You absolutely return all the love you get. You smile from the moment you wake up until I lay you in your crib with a bottle at night. Still napping a good 2 hours during the day and for the most part sleeping soundly through the night. You are excellent whenever we go out in public, quite the little observer. You eat EVERYTHING and a lot of it! You have taken a few steps here and there, but aren't quite a full blown walker yet. I SWEAR the other day you said, "let it go" because everyone around you is always singing it. Aunt Louie heard it too so I am not going crazy! Definitely with each baby time goes quicker and quicker!! Really learning to savor the special little moments!

Just hours after you were born! You were snuggly and adorable from the very beginning!

Besties :)

Crazy sweet boys

Grandma Janine went to dinner with us the night before your actual birthday and we had a great time! You ate a ton! As usual! Grandma than gave you a St Francis cartoon, a super awesome book called The Three Trees, and this airplane that is LOVED by you and coveted by your big brother Georgie!

You woke up the other day with your pj pants around your neck like you were going sailing. It made me laugh!

On your birthday morning we made chocolate chip pancakes and sang you Happy Birthday and you were all smiles! Throughout the day Auntie Janet, Grandmother & Pa, and a bunch of cousins called to also sing you Happy Birthday and every time you giggled and applauded their musical talents :)

 

 

Throughout the day I mentally relived the day you were born..... Such a difficult, painful, beautiful, LONG, and amazing day! I was so so pleased when you finally made your appearance and you have been brightening my days ever since!

I love you SO MUCH!!

Love,

Mama

 

 

 



What we've been up to.......

So I haven't posted anything in a while, but for good reason! As of tomorrow I will be 3 weeks post op! Doctors were able to clip one of (the largest) aneurysm successfully! Unfortuanetly the smaller one couldn't be clipped and will have to just be monitored via angeograms and MRIs until they can either clip it or fill it with the platinum coils. Oh well! I was very bummed upon waking up and finding that out, but doctors informed me that this should in no way impede my abilities to naturally deliver babies in the future and that more pregnancies are safe! That alone answers my prayers!

It was such a strange experience! Went in early in the morning on January 28, 2014 and waited, did all the IVs and vitals and all that fun stuff and Kev and I just sat an waited..... so nerve wracking! I was terrified I was going to die so I wrote Kevin and all you kiddos cards just in case! Now that I didn't need them I put them away and will give them to you at some point I am sure!

We laughed and made jokes up until the moment they wheeled me away! Heck I think we were joking around with the anesthesiologist as they wheeled me away! I am a firm believer in laughing to avoid crying and/or stress! I don't know why I thought washing and straightening my hair pre-op would be worth it! My hair was so full of gunk and I couldn't wash it for a while anyway and I looked great :(

8 hours and 68 staples later I was out. Unfortunately during recovery I ended up contracting an eye infection and my eyes swelled up so huge I couldn't open them for 3 days...... The meds made me extremely nauseous and vomiting with staples and a shunt in your skull =NO FUN!

 

I thought a lot about the crowning of thorns during this whole ordeal and I think from now on that mystery of the rosary will hold a special place in my heart! Also I know so many women say that child birth is the worst pain in the whole world....... I have now experience that and this and I disagree! I would naturally deliver a dozen babies med free rather than do this again! A LOT of pain and no sweet baby to go home with......... No thanks!

 

I remained in the hospital for 9 days due to the infection and my heart ached for my sweet babies who weren't able to visit at all!

 

I continued to look so great :/

 

Rocking that double chin woo woo!(I was swollen I promise I am not that chubby!) Thanks for taking all of these super flattering pictures Kevin!

I am glad we have some pictures though to look back on and remember this all. Finally the docs came in and said if I felt up to it, the infection was under control, and I could try and go home! I have never been happier! I was so so happy to have my babies in my arms again! To be back in my own bed! To have no more IVs and midnight heparin shots! To not hear other patients and machines beeping all night long! Especially because one of the side effects of all this is that I have a super heightened sensitivity to sounds/light/ and smells...... not a good thing to have while in a hospital! Unfortunately the day we got home, everyone decided to get the stomach flu.... barf everywhere! All three babies, myself, and a nauseous dad & grandmother.... Let me tell you, barfing with staples in your head is a whole new unpleasant experience! A few days after getting home the unit upstairs sprung a leak and flooded our closet.... all my closed drenched and a hole in the drywall.... so Here we are a week after brain surgery, throwing up everywhere and Daddy is ripping carpet out because I am stressing about mold.... When it rains it pours I guess! Despite all that, healing with you guys around is so much more pleasant (barf and all) and your love and cuddles and kisses really help speed things along! I want to be better FOR YOU! You guys keep me focused on getting back to normal!

Still couldn't open my right eye.... Timmy didn't mind

mmhmm so cute :/

Love & smiles make everything better!

Georgie you are so sweet. You always ask about my "owies" and insist on kissing me tons in order to make the owies better! Such a sweet little guy you are!

What it all boils down to is our help! We could NOT have made it through all this without the over abundance of help, genrousity, selflessness, and love we have been shown this last month! Grandmother stayed with us for 3 weeks and because of her Daddy was able to stay in the hospital with me the whole time so I didn't have to be alone! Grandma came over a ton to help. Aunt Janet and Bridget were contantly on call and kept babies busy and loved! Also our friends set up dinners for over a month! We got beautiful cards and flowers and it really was just so beautiful all the love and kindness!! SO ridiculously blessed!

dog with a deathwish

Aunt Erin and fam came from AZ to visit!

If I do a super to the side part I can actually hide my big bald stripe pretty well! So glad doc decided not to completely shave the right side of my head!

 

I still do not feel 100%, the nausea and migraines are still frequent, but I am so glad to be home, so glad to be working past all this, and so glad to be alive and with my family!!! Thank you Jesus for helping us pull through and for surrounding us with so much love and support! I continue to surrender myself to you as we make it through the rest of this! Help me remember to offer up the aches and pains so they don't go to waste! I am so blessed and I hope I don't lose sight of the perspective I have right now!

Love,

Mama