William's 5 year old questionnaire

 What is your favorite color? green

Who is your favorite friend? James & Coen

What is your favorite snack? cheese balls

What do you like to do with Reese? to jump on her and for her to fart but she bes mean

What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? salami & pickles & water and some broccoli trees and some Cheetos 

What is your favorite drink? fruit beer 

What is your favorite thing to do outside? play volleyball with a lot of balls on the trampoline 

What is your favorite sport? Football

What do you want to be when you grow up? Knuckles from Sonic

What is your favorite animal? cows and lions but not tigers and kitty cats

What is your favorite book? space ship books

What do you like to do with Mommy? lay down in the bed and watch a show 

Then he said this unprompted 🖤And I like to do something with daddy, I like to hug him

What is your favorite song? jingle bells & I like it I love it

What is your favorite thing to eat for dinner? Spaghetti 

What do you take with you when you go to bed? Pippy

What is your favorite holiday? Easter 

What makes you happy? poop on the potty (that makes me happy too if you'd ever do it)

What makes you sad? when I throw up but I just want to go to Bluey

What do you think about before bed? that I want to wake up and play with my toys

What is your favorite thing to do with Ella? To play with her but she always bes mean 

What is your favorite thing to do as a family? go to the beach

Such a great loss 🖤

I wrote this entry in early December but it looks like I failed to publish it until now. So the timing of it is a bit off but it needs to be out there and I don't have the energy to edit all of it to fit the timing.

It looks like the last time I updated the blog was following Reese's 11th birthday. My sister, Chelsea, had my blog printed for my 40th birthday and it is one of the best gifts I have ever received. It tells our family story from the time we found out we were pregnant until Reeses 11th birthday. 

This blog has been so special to me as a way to document special things for our family and I hope the kids cherish being able to look back one day, I already do. I haven't kept up with the blog well in way over a year for good reason. We lost Neal after a battle with melanoma on April 7th. It has been the saddest year of my life. Losing him has been excruciatingly painful and watching 3 children, who I love more than life, have to deal with the pain and confusion of losing the very best father is the worst.

I have documented most of the cancer journey and terrible loss on my social media accounts. I want to continue on with this blog as it brings so much joy and I want to have documentation of the kids favorites on their birthdays and major events and vacations. So, a lot has been missed here but we will continue on. I hope to post a new entry soon to document our trip to Disney back in October. Whew, this was a hard one to write but I've had hopes and plans of picking this back up for a while now. We continue on.🖤🖤🖤

Ella's 11th birthday party

This year we celebrated Ella's birthday about 2 weeks early with a swim party at the house. She had a soccer tournament, church retreat and a Disney trip in October so scheduling was a challenge, but we got it in. These girls seemed to have a blast and it made me so thankful for the pool and space to play. My sister and family were so helpful and I am thankful for the extra help. Chelsea came through with another great balloon arch. 

She requested a homemade strawberry cake with vanilla icing. She used one of my pots and some fake flowers to decorate it herself and it was adorable. 

William had a few meltdowns when he wasn't the center of attention with all the girls but mostly he had a blast. This boy loves hanging with all the girls.

 

Ella's 11 year old questionairre

What is your favorite color? yellow

Who is your favorite friend? Caroline

What is your favorite snack? jello

What do you like to do with Reese? make videos 

What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? sushi

What is your favorite drink? sprite

What is your favorite thing to do outside? play soccer and gaga ball with friends

What is your favorite sport? soccer

What do you want to be when you grow up? teacher

What is your favorite animal? chickens

What is your favorite book? Moo

What do you like to do with Mommy? watching shows, New Girl

What is your favorite song? Sunday best

What is your favorite thing to eat for dinner? buttered noodles

What do you take with you when you go to bed? eye mask/book

What is your favorite holiday? Halloween

What makes you happy? playing with William

What makes you sad? when I think about Dad's death

What do you think about before bed? depends on the day, yesterday pirates

What is your favorite thing to do with William? play "we ran a red light" with our scooters

What is your favorite thing to do as a family? watch a movie

Disney 2022

Several years ago, pre- William, we took the girls to Disney. We only did Magic Kingdom for a day then went on a Disney cruise. Magic Kingdom was a lot, Neal and I didn't love it (didn't hate it either) and felt like that minus the princess magic the girls had just about as much fun going to Silver Dollar City. We absolutely loved everything about the cruise. When we told people this they said it was because we didn't do it the "right" way. Apparently it was necessary to stay on site for a week and plan rest days in between park days to really enjoy it. We decided we would try that at some point when William was to the right age but we for sure wanted to do another cruise at some point as well. 

I decided that we all needed some magic added this year and that William was at a great age for Disney and the girls were still at ages to enjoy it too. So I booked it through a travel agent friend and she was fantastic at getting all of the details ironed out beautifully (for free too!...but Disney costs billions of dollars so I know it's baked in somewhere). I needed to know that I was capable of vacationing as a single parent without it being a disaster.

We really did have a great time and made so many great memories that I will forever cherish. William rode several really scary rides, including Guardians of the Galaxy and Tower of Terror, and thought they were the absolute best. We really enjoyed being able to travel by skyliner, boat and monorail. We had many enjoyable meals and character sightings. It was overall a great trip.

Sadly, on day 5 we all came down with Covid. It was my first time to have it, Williams too. William was only slightly run down and only ran fever once. The girls and I were pretty run down and consistently ran fever. We spent our time in bed watching William's shows, droning on phones and watching Astros World Series games (we went on the win the World Series!!). The kids were troopers. The girls were so helpful. Air travel while sick was not enjoyable. We didn't know we had covid until we got home and tested. The girls tested negative but I tested positive and we all had the same symptoms that started around the same time, so I assume we all had it. I didn't test William. All in all the trip was a success and I am glad to know I can handle all that was thrown at me on my own (with 3 kids that were so amazing). I don't think we will do Disney parks again. We may go back to Orlando one day to do Disney Springs and Universal though. We definitely have hopes to Disney Cruise again one day!

Ella's birthday was the day we traveled home. I scheduled a later flight so she could sleep in and planned to let her pick our breakfast spot. But the poor girl had to eat take out and fight fever while traveling all day on her birthday. She handled it well and I probably owe her a day at some point. I love her a lot and need to do a separate post about her birthday party and the questionnaire now that I think about it, it's not too late to get that captured. 

 

Reese’s 11th surprise party

Since Reese broke her arm she’s been down about having a birthday party since her abilities are limited. So we decided to throw her a surprise party at Shoguns. We invited several of her friends and family and did our best  to keep it quiet. I still can’t believe it but we pulled it off and surprised her good. She was so shocked and seemed to feel really loved...which was the goal 💜. 

We dropped all of the friends off after the party. We got out so the besties could have a swing and we could meet the new puppy at the George’s house. 

Opening presents after her party and shower. She got so many great gifts. 



Donuts on her actual birthday morning!! 

Reese requested to make her birthday cake on her actual birthday, the day after the party. So she made a red velvet cake and cream cheese whipping cream icing. I let her make all the colors and use the piping bags, which I don’t normally do because it’s such a mess and we have a small space. She did a great job and it was delicious. 

We ended the surprise party night by finding that Simon had hurt his paw pretty badly. He saw the vet the next day and he most likely was bitten, maybe by a rat he was trying to catch 😵. He got to snuggle in bed since he was hurt 💙💙. 

Reese’s 11 year old questionnaire

What is your favorite color? Light purple & coral

Who is your favorite friend? Carly, Madelyn & Lyla

What is your favorite snack? Pretzels

What do you like to do with Ella? Film videos or jump on the trampoline

What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Whataburger 

What is your favorite drink? Lemonade

What is your favorite thing to do outside? Jump on the trampoline

What is your favorite sport? Volleyball 

What do you want to be when you grow up? A vet or a volleyball coach

What is your favorite animal? A sheep

What is your favorite book? Almost Home

What do you like to to do with Daddy? Watch Gilmore Girls

What do you like to do with Mommy? Sleep in her bed 

What is your favorite song? Drivers license by Olivia Rodriga 

What is your favorite thing to eat for dinner? Shrimp tacos

What do you take with you when you go to bed? Lyla, brown blankie, purple blankie and my soft pillow

What is your favorite holiday? Easter

What makes you happy? Playing volleyball & art

What makes you sad? When Ella us mean to me

What do you think about before bed? About the scary person under my bed

What is your favorite thing to do with William? Roopidoo or crazy tackle play, making him laugh

What is your favorite thing to do as a family? Bike rides