Jake's End of the Year Program

 Looking for Mama.

 Singing his little heart off. :)

 Jake leads his class on stage for their class song.

 Jake's class.

 My little drama king...not quite sure what he was supposed to be doing here. ;)

 I was doing the crazy "pageant mom" thing trying to get him to smile.

 My big boy!!

 Jake's friend, Brady, wanted to be in a picture.  A lot of little boys around here sport the spiked-do.  Jake calls it "tall hair."  Hahaha!

 I was talking to one of the mom's when I spotted this out of the corner of my eye...my heart melted.

Walker was so proud of his big brother!

Jake's school had their end of the year program the other day. (Walker's class didn't participate since they are so little.)  Jake had been talking about this "end of the year program" for a long time, so I was excited to finally see it all come to fruition.  I'll be honest, I totally expected Jake to get up there and be shy, not sing the songs, and possibly even pick his nose, which is what he's done at past performances.  I was totally shocked, though!  He did perfectly!  He got up there and sang his little heart out, did all the motions, and didn't pick his nose one single time.  He didn't smile, though, as much as I would have liked, but I was still so proud of my big boy.  And Walker was so proud of his big brother, too...he kept yelling, "hey, Jake!!"  Love it.  I couldn't have been more proud of my big boy.

Sorry if there are a ton of pictures; my video camera on my camera stopped working, so I didn't want to miss a beat. :)  Plus, Jake asked that I take "a million pictures" for his Daddy since he couldn't come.  Enjoy!

Wait for it...

Ok, so here is the "crazy blog post" that I promised from my time with Casey Rae.  Does anyone know whose house this is?

Wait for it...

Wait for it...

Wait for it...

This is Casey Anthony's parents' house!  Can you believe her parents' house is like 10 miles from our house?  CRAZY!!  Anyways, it turns out that Casey Rae is almost equally as obsessed with the Casey Anthony saga as she is with Disney World, so I promised her we would do a drive-by.

I'm so not a risk-taker and was scared to death, but I had to do this for my bestie.  Turns out, it wasn't as scary as I thought...Casey Anthony didn't jump out from the bushes and attack us or anything...and the cops didn't arrest us and seize my camera.  In fact, it was just a normal little neighborhood and a normal little house and we were the only crazy people driving by like some annoying paparazzi or something.  Ha!

Crazy times.  Sad situation.  Anything for Casey Rae, but never again.  Don't judge.  She made me. :)

Disney with Casey Rae!!

 The boys with Casey Rae

 Can't get enough of Walker in this hat!

 And the boys can't get enough of their new autograph books!

 Buzz Lightyear

 One week post-op...don't judge.

 Minnie and Mickey!!!!

 Umm...believe it or not, Casey Rae was more excited to see the mice than my boys were!

My little mouse!

Casey Rae, one of my best friends and nurses that I used to work with in Birmingham, came to visit us this last week.  Little did I know, Casey Rae is OBSESSED with Disney, Mickey Mouse, and all things associated with the Mouse.  Needless to say, Disney World was definitely on the agenda despite my "nose-hole surgery" (as she says). ;)  It really wasn't that bad on me...the first time we went to Disney World.  You see, we decided we didn't get quite enough done at Disney World with the kids in tow, so we left the kids with Tyson on Saturday and went to the Magic Kingdom just the two of us.  OMG!!!  We had so much fun!!  I will say this, though, Space Mountain probably wasn't such a great idea one week and 2 days after sinus surgery.  I'm definitely paying for it now, but it was so worth it at the time.

We had so much fun with Casey Rae this past week.  I have one more blog post about our time with Casey Rae...it's probably the craziest one I've ever done, so stay tuned.  Casey Rae brings out the rebel in me sometimes. ;)  

On the Road Again

 Just in case he forgets who he works for...

It's the last week of recruiting for Tyson...hallelujah!

Honestly, recruiting hasn't been that bad this spring.  With me not working on the weekends anymore, it is much more tolerable.  Plus, the first 2 weeks flew by since we had exciting weekend plans (the trip to Tifton and then to the beach) to look forward to.

I'm definitely going to miss Tyson, though, these next few days.  He has taken such good care of me, the boys, the dog, the house, etc this weekend.  I don't know how he gets it all done and still manages to work, but he does.  He is simply amazing.  I am one lucky girl.

And now the countdown to the end of recruiting begins!  Not much longer til vacation!  Woohoo!!

Thank for the beautiful plant, Mary Ann!  That was so sweet of you!  The boys have LOVED smelling it! ;)

Moo-stache

Mama has a "moo-stache," as Jake calls it. ;)

This is what I looked like yesterday when I got home.  Today, I'm much more swollen and bruised- you will definitely not be seeing any pictures of that!  Ha!

I'm doing much better than I thought, which is why I am able to blog.  I'm still in a great deal of pain, but it is tolerable.  I think once you've carried 9 lb babies and had 2 c-sections, you must develop a higher threshold for pain.  That, or I'm super tough, or the surgery really wasn't that painful.  Ha!

The surgeon said the surgery went well and my cyst was the size of a walnut, which is huge considering the size of that space.  Hopefully, I'll start seeing some relief from some of my symptoms now that that thing is gone.  My septoplasty went well...that is by far the most painful part, though.  I've got these splints in my nose that will be pulled Monday, so I'm kind of a sitting duck until then.  Unfortunately, the septoplasty will not alter the appearance of my nose; boo for a would-be free nose job!

My mom is here and is taking good care of the boys and me.  Tyson was able to stay with me during surgery but had to go back to work afterwards and then was sent on the road recruiting for most of the weekend and next week. :(  Like I said, though, my mom is here and is being a rockstar, as always.  I don't know what I'd do without her.  The ENT said I had to be off work (aka mom duties) for a week, so I'm enjoying a little mini-vacation from my bed while my mom takes over. 

Well, that's all for now.  I'm a little loopy as I write this, so please excuse any grammatical errors or just plain nonsense.  Thanks for all of your prayers!   

Mother's Day

Ok, so I know this picture isn't the greatest, but believe it or not, it was the best one we got for Mother's Day.  Tyson and I had stayed out too late the night before and it is written all over my face; Walker was throwing a massive temper-tantrum in the background and refused to be photographed; and Jake was like "will someone please get that kid to be quiet?"  Ha!  Happy Mother's Day to me!  ;)  Just kidding...it was an awesome day and weekend...just a really bad time for a picture.

I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm going to be taking a break from the blog for a little while.  I'm finally having surgery tomorrow to remove the cyst from my sinus cavity, but they are also fixing my deviated septum, my nasal passageways, and a few other things that are causing complications to my eyes and ears.  I really have no idea what to expect....my CT scan looked pretty messed up.  I'm pretty sure, though, I'm going to look like I got hit in the face with a baseball bat.  Ha!  Prayers would be much appreciated!  Thanks!

Downtown Disney

 The T-Rex Cafe

 Buzz and Woody!!...and some creepy guy that purposefully posed for the picture.

 It might not look like it, but that dinosaur was right in Tyson's face and would make a loud squawking sound every 20 minutes...right in his ear.  Tyson loved it.

 Jake told me the other day that when he grows up, he wants to be a paleontologist. :)

Walker, who was over-due for a nap at this time, saying, "my cookie" as Jake reached for it.

Tyson finally rolled back into town from recruiting around 3 am Saturday morning, so we had a slow weekend this past weekend.  We decided to head to Downtown Disney for lunch since we've never been, and it was awesome!!  We went to the T-Rex Cafe to appease my little paleontologist and his little brother, and let me say this, that was by far the coolest place I've ever eaten.  Every 20 minutes or so, there was a "meteor shower," which meant the lights would flicker and the dinosaurs would "come alive."  So, so cool.  The kids LOVED it!  We will definitely be going back!    

Muffins with Mom

Jake's class had "Muffins with Mom" earlier this week to celebrate Mother's Day, and I got to go.  For some reason or another, I've always missed Muffins with Mom when we were in Birmingham, so I wasn't going to miss it again this year.  It was so sweet.  Jake was soooo proud to show off his Mama, which is so unlike him, but I ate up every second of it. :) Love my sweet boy!

Happy Mother's Day!!