The good and the bad

The bad: My dad had a heart attack.

The good: My brother, sister-in-law and niece came to visit.

While I wish it didn't take a heart attack to get them to come out here, (and they were already coming for a visit over memorial day) we do not get to see them nearly enough. What was really great about this visit is that my Dad had no idea that they were coming. I picked them up at the airport Saturday morning and drove to my parents house. Chris had told my Dad that I needed to go run an errand so I would be a little late :) I came in and gave my Dad a hug. Then we let Pauline, my niece, go up and say hi. The look was priceless. I also can't believe that Cameron didn't spill the beans for the 30 minutes he was there waiting for us (He was sooooo excited!) The funny thing is, that my Dad was talking to Pauline the day before and he flat out asked her when she was coming for a visit. My brother said he was in the background going "say 'soon.' "

So when my Dad needed to rest this weekend, we all got to go out and have some fun. Here are some pictures.

Visiting our Grandma. She was surprised too!At a playground!Counting during hide & seek. Kasey had to get in the action too!
The kids had a lot of fun at Safari Sam's in Sherwood!They also climbed the trees at my parent's house. It was a nice weekend and we can't wait to see them in 3 weeks. Seeing them this often is unheard of. It gets expensive to get back and forth from DC, but I will have seen then 4 times in one year!

My Dad

On Tuesday evening my Dad had a heart attack. Luckily, he is okay. It has been a tough week and an eye opening week. My Dad went to Home Depot on Tuesday afternoon and started having problems. He went out of to his car and sat there for a while and realized it wasn't going away so he DROVE himself to the hospital (yes, I already yelled at him for driving himself instead of calling for help). The nurse told us he was in really bad shape when he got there, but they were able to put a stint (not sure if it is spelled right) in to open the artery. He has minimal damage to his heart. I can only hope that this will open his eyes to to take care of himself. I am concerned that he doesn't realize how bad this could have been and if he doesn't change his habits that it will happen again. As of now, he may get out of the hospital on Friday, his birthday. I wish I could make him understand how scared I was when I heard he was in the hospital. My Dad drives me crazy, but I love him and I want him to be around to see my kids have kids. So Dad, if you read this, take care of yourself, please.

One last thing, thank you to all of you who have taken/offered to take my kids so that I can be with my Dad. It means the world to me.

Happy Birthday Kasey!!!

One year ago, you came into our lives. It was a long nine months to wait to meet you, but you were well worth the wait.

Over the past year you have showed us that you love to cuddle with your Mom and for the first few months no one else would do.

Now, you love your brother and want to do everything that he does.
You are a complete dare devil, loving to be thrown in the air and playing on slides.
You love the water. Every time we are upstairs the first place you head is to the bathroom and try to get into the tub. You could spend all day in the water.
You insist on helping Dad with the dishes since you are such a big boy.
You love to get into everything and always keep your Mom & Dad moving to keep you out of trouble. You have been an absolute joy in our lives and we love you so much!

Here are some pictures from celebrating your birthday with both sets of Grandparents. Needless to say you loved the cake! We haven't given Kasey his presents yet so we will post more after we celebrate tonight!

Happy Birthday Kasey! We can't imagine our lives without you!

Our Little Helper

Cameron loves to help us with projects around the house. He has been very busy the last two weeks. First he had to help Chris paint our new railing for our front steps.
Then he helped Chris change the oil in the car. He now is trying to convince Chris that the oil in the car is dirty every other day so that he can change it again.

He then made a chef's hat in preschool. Of course he had to find out what chef's do so ...we made cookies and he helped.

Needless to say he is a good little helper!

Sometimes kids are just sweet!

At 4:00 today, I was sitting at my computer reading about what is going on in the world, when Cameron walks up:

"Can I have a hug please, Mom?
"Sure" I give him a big hug and a kiss.
"Mom you are cold....oh I know I can get you a blanket" off he runs to the couch to get me one.

He is so perceptive sometimes. Truth is I was reading the Internet and thinking how I was so cold a hot chocolate and snuggling under a blanket sounded good. So I was off to the kitchen with my blanket wrapped around my shoulders to make my hot chocolate. Cameron comes up to me in the kitchen:

"Mom can we cuddle under the blanket please?"
"Of course we can sweety!"

I love moments like this!

Twilight... in St Helens?!

Does everyone realize that the movie for Twilight is being filmed partly in St Helens? It was in the Saturday Chronicle. They will be filming down on 1st and 6th streets. It did not say which stars would be there if any, but starting in the 8th they will be in town. They said they would only need about 6 days to shoot the exterior shots here and they may not be consecutive. I think it is nice that a book that so many of us like is being made into a movie here in our little town!