Harry the Hippo

We got a new addition to the Ark...meet Harry the Hippo.

He is just a climbing addition, with some educational information inside him...(come see for yourself if you are curious.)

Bee enjoying ice cream at Hoss's. We went there for supper with Grandma Linda.

Boo and her ice cream.

Grandma's visit

Mary dressed for our evening out...we went to Hoss's for supper. (Grandma's pick)

Grandma trying to get a picture of Mary...while Sarah offered her assistance.

Grandma and Mary

And the girls loved it when Grandma gave them some ice cream money...Stern's is open ( a soft serve ice cream business right next door to our house)

Thanks for visiting us Grandma.

Easter at Urso's

The Urso's got together the week after Easter. It was so nice to have it later, versus having all the running on Easter weekend.
The girls had just received these Tinkerbell things from Sue (she found them on Easter clearance and thought of the girls) and they just had to wear at Grandma and Pap's.
Here Mary is heading downstairs to our room at the Urso hotel.

Sarah with her costume on.

I felt bad I didn't get any more pictures, but kind of have an excuse. We ended up spending a bit of the evening in the emergency room at the all too familiar Jefferson Hospital. You see, we were sitting in the living room watching old family video's, Sarah ran in and Jude happened to run his fingers through her hair. He felt something, so chased her down. We checked her, and to my absolute disgust thought she had possibly a tick. We tried to get it out, but couldn't get the whole thing, so decided to run her to the ER. Sure enough it was a tick. They said it could be left alone and would eventually work its way out, or they could remove it. I cringed at the thought of bringing my baby girl home with legs hanging out of her head, (which is what she had) so I opted to get it out. She was doing great until they put the numbing med on her. It was horrific, so they finally came in and between Jude, myself and two other nurses/physician assistants they got it removed and we were on our way out. No blood, some tylenol to calm and take away her pain, and we were on our way home...to the Urso hotel where she slept the night away, and seems to have no recollection of the extra pain that her mommy put her through by having the tick removed. Not sure where she picked up the tick, but we are thankful it was what they call a wood tick...not a deer tick. (deer ticks are the ones that can carry the Lymes disease) We still have kept a careful eye on her "boo boo" but it has healed completly with no signs of a red circle (which is what we were to watch for) Needless to say from here out when we have a busy day outside we will do our best to have "tick" checks when we return indoors. Although they let us know that she could have picked it up from pretty much anywhere at any time.

I guess you could say it will be an Easter we won't be forgetting any time soon.
Holidays at the Urso's don't have the best track record for our family...I had to visit the hospital one Halloween because of a choking incident and had to have my esophagus expanded through a scope.

And for the record...all of these "issues" actually started at home, we just didn't run into trouble until we were there. The girls didn't even get to be outside at the Urso's, so we do know she didn't pick it up there. Actually guessing she picked it up the day before when she was out working in the yard with folks from the Church (and daddy). But who knows! (and my choking incident started at the Church...from what other than a good ol' hotdog. )

Easter flowers

Just a few shots of our flowers from Easter. We order flowers through the Church, they adorn the sanctuary for Easter and then we get to enjoy our flowers at home.

They were beautiful!!

Tiff

Tiffany, one of our teens from the Church that is like a third daughter, recently went to her military ball. She is on JrROTC at the high school. She got another friend from the Church to escort her. They looked so nice!

And I loved her hair

She is such a sweet girl, and helps us out SO much with our girls. They LOVE her!!

Random

This time of year, these are Mary's favorite flower. She picks millions of them...and I do mean millions!

And these are MY favorite. Nancy gave me a bunch of them from her yard last year, and they didn't bloom for me (of course...they wouldn't bloom the first year). I am not so good at gardening, so wasn't sure if they would ever bloom for me...but to my surprise, they did!! Yipee!!! Now I just wish I had more of them.

We have lots of flowers for around our house, so pictures of those will be coming.

Outdoor fun

The other day we went outside for a bit. It was a tad chilly, but the girls enjoyed playing in the yard.

They were making their very own little club there by the tree.

"Say Cheese!"