Nanny's Easter Party!!

This was the 11th Annual Easter Party and the only moment I was able to get my kids to sit long enough for a family photo!! This is my FAVORITE holiday. I love everything about Easter.

In turn my kids love Easter!! Emery enjoyed playing with the girls and loved making bubbles.

I never saw Emmet almost the entire day. He had so much fun with cousins that he never stopped to eat. I finally had to make him drink some water!

What a beautiful day!

Teensy Tea Party

It's been a fun Hawkins tradition to have a "teensy" tea party around Easter. Emery has been anticipating this tea party for a few weeks. She woke up this morning and new exactly what she wanted to wear and how she wanted me to do her hair!

Emmet has out grown the fun of the tea party so the "big" boys headed to the movies. This was about all I could get out of him! He was excited to see the dragon movie!

Nanny went all out this year and the weather was beautiful. I'm thankful to have a little girl to enjoy this party with!!

Welcome Spring

I'm so proud of my flower garden in my backyard. I've acquired a green thumb and with the beautiful weather it's been fun working in the yard. I don't enjoy the weeds, but Emmet is great at picking them roots and all.

Soccer

I try to be the good mom and put Emmet into sports. I'm trying to expose him to all sports so he can see what he likes. What I'm learning is he gets bored easily and he's really good at rallying his team, but lacks aggression. He is aggressive in so many other areas it's funny to me that he doesn't just get in there and kick the ball. Oh well...he's still young. It was still good for him.

Emery is so good about watching Emmet and cheering him on. Hopefully soon she'll feel comfortable playing on a sports team. I think she is very athletic and would love to play soccer if she could get over the initial timidness.

It's Out!!

The magnet ordeal is finally over!! Emery and I headed for the Phoenix Children's Hospital at 7am yesterday. I had never been there, but we had a great experience. Our doctors were wonderful. Emery had one last x-ray and the technicians allowed us to view it right away. They were teasing her calling her "magnetic girl"! There was a great play area that she enjoyed with other patients while I spoke with the doctors. There was a question whether or not the magnet was in the small intestine, but we went ahead with the procedure anyway. Emery was rolled on a "princess" bed. Everyone who walked by her waved and called her "princess". She thought she was so special. The only hard part was when they put the mask on Emery to put her to sleep she started to cry. Once she was asleep I gave her a kiss and left the room. I got a little teary because it reminded me so much of Sam. Everything looked, smelled and felt so similar. No one likes to see their child scared. Fortunately, the doctor came out 10 minutes later holding the magnet. He had pictures of the magnet in her stomach. The magnet was next to the opening to her small intestine and twice the size of the hole. It would never had passed. The doctor had a little trouble getting the magnet out and he kept asking how did she swallow it and not choke. That is the miracle!! The anesthesiologist even came out giving me a hug telling me how great she did. They all knew Sam had died so they were very kind. Thirty minutes later I was with Emery. She was groggy, but not crying! The nurse told me all of the side effects to expect: vomiting, sleepy, coughing, a little blood in her stool. Well, she has done so well she had a friend over yesterday evening. In fact I think it made her hyper!! Thank goodness for great people who are willing to spend years in school so this could go so smoothly. The magnet was beginning to adhere to her stomach and as you can see was rusting. If I had never known she swallowed it she would have gotten quite sick and had health problems for a long time. Thank goodness she said something!

She Swallowed a Magnet

My sweet four year old swallowed a magnet three weeks ago while my mom was watching her. Who would have guessed she would have taken a magnet off of the fridge and swallowed that before the thousands of small toy pieces laying around the house. Emery actually freaked out and told my mom, "grandma can this be our secret!"

I then began my daily hunt for the magnet. To spare you the details, I have been on poop duty for three weeks. I carry rubber gloves where ever I go. It's not as gross as it sounds. I have stuck around while she's at other people's home or at pre-school just in case she poops. I haven't wanted anyone else to do the job!

She had an x-ray taken two weeks ago and the magnet was in her tummy. It's 2.3 cm. She had an x-ray yesterday and it's still there. Emery has even been on a medicine to help push the magnet through. But to no avail, we're assuming it's just too big to move on.

I went and picked up the films from the first x-ray and you can see the magnet very clearly. In fact Emery took the x-ray to pre-school today to show her friends.

I was told today that next Friday Emery will have an outpatient procedure to extract the magnet. She'll have it done at the Phoenix Children's Hospital where they are use to taking foreign objects out of children. All I can do is laugh. Seriously, there is rarely a dull moment in my life, possibly this is a blessing to keep me busy and to help time fly. I just can't believe it's almost been a year since Emmet was in the hospital and obviously Sam spent many, many days there. What is it with my family!!

Disneyland!!

It's been a fun tradition every so many years to go to Disneyland with the entire Hawkins clan!! We have always gone the week of Sam's birthday. He shared it with his mom and niece! I will admit I was quite stressed getting ready for this vacation, but once we were on the road we had a GREAT time. Here are a few highlights.

We rode in a 15 passenger van. I was hesitant about that, but my kids played with cousins and I got to watch TV on my itouch. Emery had the itouch for awhile and thought she was such a big girl!

We stayed in a hotel with an outdoor pool. My kids loved swimming with their cousins.

This was our first morning at Disneyland waiting for the park to open. We had three day passes which was awesome. I never felt rushed and I actually experienced other fun features of the park because we were able to ride on all the rides we wanted to as many times as we wanted!!


Emery was in heaven hanging out with cousins, but especially Gid. She doesn't see him often and they were so cute together. We used the buddy system a lot and they were buddies, holding hands and riding rides together. They are two peas in a pod. I especially loved listening in on their conversations.

My kids this time got really into meeting all of the Disney characters. Emery especially wanted her picture taken with anyone she could find. So here are a few of my favorites. I especially loved the one with the kids in front of Eyore. It was a family joke when Sam was growing up that he was a lot like Eyore.






Our last day at Disneyland we went to the Bippidy Boppidy Boutique were Emery was turned into a beautiful princess. She chose the up do and Emmet tagged along. When we walked in Emmet was asked if he wanted to be made into a knight or prince? He vehemently said no. A few moments later he said I'd like to be a knight. He hopped up on the chair and he had a great time. Emery was quiet and stoic taking it all in and Emmet was talking the "fairy godmother in training's" ear off!! She couldn't stop laughing at what he was saying. I was sitting with Emery so I couldn't hear their conversation, but it was hilarious that he wanted to join in on the fun. He is soooo much like his dad that way.

Here is the before picture!

I wasn't quite sure where this was going!

She is being careful not to mess her nail polish up and loving the make-up! I loved that there was a story behind every product used on her. The nail polish was made from strawberries grown by Tinkerbell. The ring she was given was mined by the twelve dwarfs!

Oh was she happy with the outcome! It felt good to make her so happy. I can be so practical that I don't do fun stuff. I'm glad I splurged on this for her!!


Emmet definitely had some crazy hair. He was dubbed a knight and he may not admit it, but he loved it!

Their favorite ride was the new Toy Story ride in California Adventure. They loved it! As you can tell from the picture. It was 3-D requiring us to wear glasses. I Love this picture.


We had a wonderful time being with family and playing at Disneyland. I was a little teary eyed on Sam's birthday. He would have been 32 and that still seems so young. I'm thankful we had something fun to focus on that day!!