I'm still alive...

I kind of dropped off of the face of the Earth for a while. Alexis ended up having surgery on her elbow and it was like having a baby again. Even though it was her left arm, I had to help her to eat for a while, and I had to take her to the bathroom every time. (She couldn't get on and off the toilet by herself, couldn't balance once she was up there, couldn't wipe, and couldn't wash her hand.) I also had to help her get dressed. It was not fun trying to find clothes that I could fit over the huge cast. For a while she wore a tank top and a shawl. We just took a blanket with us everywhere to keep her warm.

For Christmas, Santa had already gotten her a scooter, so he had to scramble at the last minute to find something else. (He didn't think it would be very nice to give her something that she would not be able to use for a long time.)

She only had the cast on for three weeks. They had to put pins in to hold her elbow in place. The pins were sticking out of the skin, so they had to remove them before they got infected. After that she was in a sling for another three weeks. We have to take her in for x-rays every couple of months for a year to make sure the elbow stays in the right place. The way it broke, it went through her growth plate and if they had not fixed it, her arm would have either stopped growing or would have retarded growth.

Right now both Emily and Dustin are in baseball, so that is keeping me busy. It's kind of a pain on school nights.

For Spring Break we went to Portland, Oregon for my niece Amy's wedding. She is the oldest granddaughter (of my parents) and the first to get married. Alexis was the flower girl. Since I am smart and organized, I forgot my camera at the house we were staying in. All I have is a picture of her in the dress when I tried it on her.

I am hoping to be able to get some pictures from the bride and groom once they are settled in. We had a good time seeing the sights. The kids traveled well, which was very nice. This is the first time they have ever been in the car for more than three hours. I take them to the beach, to the mountains, and to L.A. and that is about it. They watched a lot of movies and played with the DS's. It kept them nicely busy.

On the way home we hit a huge snow storm over Mt. Shasta. There were a lot of people driving badly and sliding off of the road. We were scared that someone was going to slide into us, but decided to keep going. They closed the road right after we got over it. It took us an extra three hours to get over the summit. Here are a few pictures of it.

It was beautiful. If we were the only cars on the road it would have been okay. We just got really stressed about the other drivers.

Today was Alexis' last day of preschool. She got out early because her teacher (unexpectedly) got pregnant at the beginning of the school year. She has to have her babies by c-section, and they just bumped her date up to the Monday after next, so she decided she wanted a week off to prepare her self and her house. At the last minute (literally after school started today) she decided to have a little graduation. So once again, no camera. I took a few pictures after we got home.



They made cute little hats and diplomas.
And a few days ago they made these cute hand print stepping stones. We got to bring them home today. She had a great time in preschool and learned a lot. She is more than ready for kindergarten. Thanks Miss Michelle!

We recently made some blankets for Project Linus and donated them for Disney's "give a day, get a day" so up next an (almost) free Disney trip!