Hanging with G, B, and Oscar

Isn't this supposed to be the other way around? Haha!

After Ginelle took Oscar home, Mary, Kelsey, Tashon, and I went for a visit. We brought some delicious doughnuts to share and G was very happy about that. They were wonderful!
When we first got there, Belen had just woke up from her nap and wasn't quite ready to socialize. She also seemed like she's still kind of adjusting to the addition of the new baby. After a while though, she was very excited to see everybody and was excited about the baby too. I think it helped when she realized we were there to see her too, and not just the baby. Ah, sibling jealousy.

B and Tashon love giving each other hugs.

Riding on B's bike together.

They loved playing and jumping around on her musical mat. They had a blast.

Cool big sister with the big sunglasses.

And of course, Taters wanted to try them on too.

Oscar is such a good little sleeper. We is so sweet!

Dad's surgery

My dad had his surgery today at Abbott Northwestern. He had a neck dissection to remove a cancerous tumor. The surgery went well. It took about 7 hours and went as expected. They cut open the neck from back by his ear down to his chin and up the lip, then removed that half of the jaw too. They then cut out all the tumor and part of the tonsil where the cancer started last time. They sent that to pathology to make sure they got all of it then the plastic surgeon came in and removed skin grafts from his forearm and thigh to fill in the tissue that they removed. They put the jaw back on and then stitched him all up. He is in the ICU for the next couple of days. He has a trach and a feeding tube so his throat can rest. He is alert and in some pain, but they're keeping up on the pain meds. He isn't able to talk right now, so we got him a whiteboard to write stuff down. He will probably be in the hospital for up to 10 days, depending on how his recovery goes. He may go home with the feeding tube if he can get the trach out and is stable before the 10 days. We're going to just play it day by day and see how he's doing. All your thoughts and prayers are greatly appreciated.

Daisy's haircut and a new kitchen

Last week we took Daisy out to Hudson to get her a haircut. While she was getting that done, we enjoyed some delicious Cold Stone Creamery ice cream.

Here's my sweet little baby! Doesn't she look so cute? She looks like a pretty little girl.

I think she was leaning over to give me a nice lick.

Leila was trying to get in on the action, or maybe she was coming to drink
Daisy's water. Who knows.

Little skinny thing.

Laying with daddy.

This is my favorite! It looks like she's thinking "stop taking my picture, lady!"

She's not puking here, she's eating a treat. I just didn't capture it very well.

On our last weekend off, we went to Valleyfair during the day and then went out to dinner at Cheesecake Factory. I didn't get any pictures except this one at the end of the night.

So for those of you who didn't know, my kitchen has had a bit of a makeover. Lizzi painted the walls and ceiling and then just last week, we painted all the cupboards. I still want to get some new appliances and stuff before the whole makeover is complete, but here's a sneak peek.

Before pics:

And after:

Just a few more finishing touches, some curtains and new appliances, and that's one room we can check off our makeover to-do list. Woohoo!

The Cancer is back

Recently my dad went in to have a PET scan done and they found another spot in the base of his mouth. He had a biopsy done on July 13 that showed cancer. We went to see the ENT surgeon last week and he said that surgery is the only option right now because he already had chemo and radiation and he had such a strong reaction to the radiation last time. They want to do surgery and just get in there and try to get it all. They'll do a neck dissection. Drs. Biel and Barth will be performing the surgery. They have to cut open from back by the ear all the way down to his chin, then up to the lip and then they have to actually remove the jaw so they can get at the tumor. They'll remove it and send to pathology to make sure they got it all. Once they know they got it all, they'll fill in the tissue with a skin graft from his arm then replace the jaw and close it up. A plastic surgeon will be helping with the surgery, so it should look pretty good after it heals. He'll have to have a trach and a feeding tube while he's in the hospital, but those should both be out before he goes home. We're expecting a hospital stay of 8-10 days and a recovery time of 3-4 weeks at the least, depending on how the surgery goes. It is going to be an all day surgery, at least 7 hours. We are all obviously very nervous about the surgery, but these doctors do this surgery a lot and feel very confident that they will be able to get all the cancer.
The surgery is scheduled for July 31st, early in the morning at Abbott. Please, everyone just keep my dad in your prayers that he'll have a good surgery and a quick recovery.

4th of July Weekend

We had an awesome 4th of July weekend! We started off by going to Valley Fair on Friday with Dan and Mel and Danny. We were going to go to the Taste of MN after that but decided to stay at VF all day instead. It was so much fun, even though the weather was just okay.

The water park was great!

The day at VF was great, but then Dan was accosted by the police in the customer service office. Yea, so he got a call from a very nervous sounding girl from customer service asking him to come to the office. We had all bought season passes, so we assumed it was something about that. Well, we walk into the office, and there's a Shakopee Police officer there for him. The customer service people were accusing Dan of using a stolen credit card to purchase his season pass. Who does that?! The cop asked Dan which card he used, he pulled out the card and handed him the receipt and of course they didn't match! Nice. Anyways, long story short, the cop knew the whole thing was BS, Dan just didn't want to go to jail because we had the river the next day. So they ended up letting him go, because noone could actually figure out what had happened and the best part, the cop asked the manager if they check ID's and he said NO! Haha! Well, the cop called Dan back later and explained that upon further investigation, they discovered that the lady at the desk tried swiping his card, but it wouldn't take, so she manually entered the numbers...incorrectly! So she entered the number of a stolen credit card! So moral of the story here is that VF employees are d-bags, and Dan got a free season pass. Well done Valley Fair!

So anyways, after all the drama, we went home to pack up our stuff for the river. We hit up Perkins then headed out to Somerset.


All ready to go down the Apple River, with squirt guns loaded.

So most of these pics from the river are slightly foggy, but it's okay, because that's how most of the people remember it anyways.

At one of the pit stops, Dan took a bit of a tumble over a very large rock. Now, being that he had his drink in one hand and his super soaker full of shots in the other, he of course couldn't brace himself, so instead he just faceplanted into the river. He laid there for about 30 seconds trying to figure out how he was going go get up without losing any booze. Some guy actually thought he had passed out. Well, then a kind girl grabbed his drink for him and he was able to stand up. Thank goodness for the kindness of strangers.

Yes, we had a boombox on the Apple River. It was awesome! Until it died and we had to chuck it into the woods. Boo!

Playing tippy cup.

Sad Panda! This is what Dan's leg looked like after his fall.

Yea, someone actually brought their dog down the river.

Everyone made it down the river (with a few cuts and bruises, and a little bit of drama). But we all made it nonetheless. We went back to the house to grill out.

Delicious!

We also went to DQ that night because we didn't feel like making s'mores.


On Sunday, we got up, cleaned up the house and then decided it would be an awesome idea to go back to Valley Fair. We hit up Perkins again for a quick lunch, then went back to VF. This time we pretty much just went to the water park. It was such a beautiful day. We actually should have just went back down the Apple River, but we had fun at VF too.


We went on the lazy river like 4 times.






After the lazy river we went on the hurricane falls twice and the second time down, Mel hurt her neck.

Now Mel is the sad panda.

We decided that was enough for that day, so we got some soft serve and left.

Of course, when we got home we had to go get the pictures developed. Luckily, they let us do one-hour. So we just dinked around Target for an hour.

The boys were hungry.

We finished off the weekend with some more grilling at our house, then we watched a movie (Fired Up! Great movie) then we finally had our s'mores we were waiting all weekend to eat.
What a great weekend!