I kicked off the first weekend in June getting together with girlfriends from college for a night of fun!
That very same weekend, Lily got sick (boil with potential staph infection), and had to be hospitalized at TCH. They put her on IV Antibiotics and kept her for several days. After her release, her pediatrician had to lance/drain her boil in his office. Poor baby girl.
By the middle of June, everyone was well so we spent 2 weeks at the beach. We actually purchased a beach lot a few weeks later - so we MAY be future beach home owners. We'll see.
By early July, Harry had what was supposed to be minor heart surgery.....but it was more complicated than they thought, and the 45 minute surgery ended up lasting almost 5 hours. Photo below - pre surgery.
We went home the day after surgery, and within 24 hours, Harry was feeling horrible! We returned to the ER and found out that he had a blood clot in his lung. So, he was admitted for a few more days. He had to take blood thinners for 3 months after the visit just to be safe.
He's starting to feel better here!
As soon as we were convinced Harry was OK, the kids and I traveled to California for a 2 week visit with my sister.
We did all kinds of fun things while we were there. My sister's family took the boys on their very first camp out - with tents, campfires, and everything. I stayed at the house with Lily. We spent tons of time outside because the weather was so nice! My sister has a park about 1/3 of a mile from her house, and we usually walk there daily. We also visited the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz and a place in San Jose with rides and a zoo. The picture below captures the boys' first time to play in the Pacific Ocean. That water is freezing!!!
We spent a day in San Francisco, and the boys and Lily had fun with their cousins. We all walked 1/2 way across the Golden Gate Bridge because Benjamin was in awe (because of the movie "Monsters vs. Aliens" which has some scenes on the bridge :-).
A few days after we returned from California, we had Timothy's tonsils removed. We have been begging for this surgery for over a year, and we were so happy to finally have it completed! The ENT said that his tonsils were really bad and had already developed scar tissue behind them - something you don't see in kids this small - usually only in teenagers and adults. It wasn't an easy 2 weeks, but we made it through and as of January 2012, Timothy hasn't been sick since! Sometimes, "Mother Knows Best!"
One of the worst parts was that Timothy refused to eat for 2 full weeks. He dropped close to 5 pounds and got terribly skinny. (All is well now.)
Very soon after Timothy's surgery, Lily got sick (again). She had another boil, running high fever. She was admitted to TCH again, and this time, they lanced and drained the boil in the hospital - so they had to knock her out. It was tough to see our baby girl so limp, but we were happy to get the infection out of her. She was on IV Antibiotics (again) for a couple of days before her release.
Once she started feeling better, it was hard to keep a happy girl confined!
Soon after Lily was released, Benjamin started Kindergarten! Below, is a picture of his first day of school! I can't believe my baby boy is getting soooo big!
Here, is a picture of Benjamin in his classroom looking at books. He LOVES books!
Just a couple of weeks after Benjamin started school, we decided to put our house for sale (because Harry had started a new job on the far west side of Houston and had a 2+ hour commute home each day.) Of course, this meant getting up at 5:00 AM every day just to make sure the house was spotless before I left the house with 3 kids each morning before 8:00am! We had tons of showings (over 25 in 4 weeks) so we were constantly leaving the house and heading to the park. It was rough, but we got through it.
We purchased our new home in Katy, closing in early October and moving October 21st.
Other happenings.....
October 8th - Lily turned ONE! I can't believe my baby girl is already a year old!
October 21st - We moved into our new house. (We are still unpacking!)
October 24th - Benjamin and Timothy both started new schools!
November 15th - We closed on our house in Kingwood.
November 16th - I turned 39.......and holding.......
November 15th Harry left for Brazil.....on a 10 day business trip.
December 16th - Lily diagnosed with RSV. Breathing treatments for 2 weeks.
December 17th - Christmas weekend celebration (I hosted) with my aunt, uncle, and cousins.
December 20th - Timothy turned 4 years old.
December 24th - Christmas Celebration with just us, my parents, grandmother, and cousin, Tony
December 25th - Santa made a visit and left a play structure for the kiddos
December 26th - Christmas with my sister's family in California after a morning of travel.
December 29th - Harry and I spent a night in Carmel recharging. :-)
December 30th - My dad's birthday and celebration in California.
December 31st - NYE - and visit with my cousin Tim, visiting from Seattle.
January 2nd - Travel back to Texas.
Well....now I know why I haven't blogged! Ha! More to come soon!
I have no idea why I'm just now seeing this post, but welcome back to Blog Land, haha! When I read through your 2011 I was thinking to myself, goodness gracious, what a crazy year!! Let's hope the crazy chaos of 2011 is behind us and that 2012 will be much calmer and much less stressful!!
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