"No Scabies"...."Yes Tanning", what?!

Well, some of you read about my recent situation with scabies here (or so they thought) several weeks ago. Today, almost 6 weeks after all these bumps (also known as papular squamous eruptions) first showed up I still have them! So today, after a trip to the dermatologist, we almost have a diagnosis, and its NOT SCABIES, never was! Yay!! Which really helps explain some questions like why none of my family members ever got it since its such a contagious illness.

Anyway, after showing the dermatologist all my spots (which is oh so humbling, based on where some of the spots are) he just shook his head..."this is NOT scabies!" "You are either dealing with pityriasis rosea or psoriasis, and I'm hoping its pityriasis rosea."

Well that diagnosis wasn't all that new to hear because I'd had another Doctor say that he thought it was pityriasis rosea as well, and I'm praying that's the case, because it will go away in 3-4 months (really?!), but if its psoriasis, then it will begin a life long process of dealing with that illness.

For now, they have me on a very potent steroid ointment that has to be put on all the hundreds of spots twice daily...that'll be fun! "Hey Adam, can't reach those, could you help me please?!"---Really?! Ughh! I'm also taking an antibiotic just to see if it might help too. Oh, and here's the crazy part, Dr. Kincanon looked at me and said "and you need to start tanning." What? Yes, my dermatologist just told me to go and do exactly what they usually say NOT to do! He said that my spots need exposure to light. So he said to go and get a package of 30 or so tans, and see if that helps. Haven't tanned since college, I do have to say that I am looking forward to the few moments of relaxation...the warmth, music and quiet...it'll be awesome! Now, I just have to figure out when I'm gonna fit that in to an already packed schedule, ya know, WITHOUT the kids, might have to be late at night!!

So here goes...gonna try and get rid of these spots! It's just truly NEVER a dull moment here!!

Super Hero Party

Lawson turned 4 this month and his only request was a Super Hero party, at first he wanted Ironman then it was Batman, so we just did it all, including Spiderman and Superman too! I had such fun planning this party and I think he had a really great time too!!

This was the cute invitation that I used. I ordered it and all the printables from here at Etsy.


This was my table-scape. I wrapped diaper boxes in red and blue paper and cut out black card stock for the "windows" and used a few of the kids toys to pull it all together. I tried my hand at making Spiderman and Batman themed sugar cookies, they turned out pretty cute and quite tasty too I might add! We had marshmallow pops, pretzel sticks, cupcakes, "kryptonite" punch and water. I forgot to get a picture with the "kryptonite" punch (lime sherbert with Sprite), but it was delicious!







The kids started off by making a Super Hero mask...




Then we headed out to the back for a Super Hero Obstacle Course to rescue Spiderman. They started off hopping through 6 hoola hoops, next they went "leaping over buildings", then they got to use their "super" strength to lift the heavy weight (which happened to be 2 styrofoam balls stuck to a dowel rod then spray painted black), and finally they rescued Spiderman after climbing through the spiderweb under our deck. The kids had a good time with this for sure!





A big "Thank You" to Uncle Joseph, Poppy, G-Dad and Adam for helping the kids!

Next it was time to sing Happy Birthday and eat, everything went quick, so I'm guessing it was tasty! Emerson totally blew out the candle for Lawson so we had to relight it for him to blow out!


We had a lot of fun and Lawson had a blast!





Emerson loved the food, I'm pretty sure he at least ate 2 of everything, if not more!


Here's two of my Super Hero's!


And here's our two littlest Supermen...


I asked Lawson afterward what was his favorite part of the party and his answer was "everything"..."it was all sooooo fun!" I love that kid! He's super enthusiastic and I love that about him! I wish you could've heard him open up each gift, with each one he would say "I have been wanting one of these my WHOLE life" or "this is awesome, I've always wanted one of these!" It was pretty cute, it's obvious that he's a "chip off the ole block"!


Thanks to everyone who came and helped us celebrate Lawson! He is a sweet little guy and we are oh so grateful God chose to place him in our family four years ago!! What fun it was to celebrate him with some of our friends and family! The kids got to take home a 3D Spiderman puzzle and a Super Hero bracelet that said "kapow" and "wham".

Grilling At The Park...

We met my parents out at Pinnacle Mountain State Park and enjoyed grilling and playing outside. The kids had a blast, and to be honest it was nice to change up the normal routine of cooking in the kitchen.




The kids enjoyed just throwing sticks and rocks into the creek while Emerson sat where he normally does (at the table eating everything he could get his hands on.)








We enjoyed our amores (with a little guacamole on the side).



Walking the trail was fun too, we got to see deer running in the field...





I absolutely love this time of year...the green sprigs of grass start to come up and the pops of Spring start budding; its so refreshing and really just delightful!

Wye Mountain

Today I got to do something I've never done before, I took the kids up to Wye Mountain. Though it was a bit chilly it turned out to be beautiful!!


We definitely made a memory!! This was the best group shot I got (not so great with Lawson's eyes shut and Ava Jane looking down)!


Lawson didn't want to cooperate too well...it's hard to get four kids to look at the camera all at the same time.


Oh my sweet boys, how I love them!



With all the kids, there were moments of lots of whining and fussing, but for the most part the kids enjoyed running through the field chasing one another, picking flowers and having a picnic.





We are enjoying Spring Break, its going by way to fast!!

Big D - Weekend Get Away

This past weekend was SO.MUCH.FUN! Our Community Group from church started planning this trip a couple months back and I am so thankful we did! It was such a blast to do a road trip together. Its something I had been looking forward to for weeks and I'm really sort of bummed that its come and gone so quickly!

Now leaving town with five of six couples and getting fourteen kids situated with grandparents/sitters is quite the feat, and it didn't come without some hardships or changes of plans! To start it all off the Helmick's started throwing up on Thursday night, and that totally knocked them out for the weekend (turned out they had both the stomach bug and strep throat!) We really missed them! Then Friday morning arrived and I walked into Emerson's room to find he too had thrown up AGAIN! I cleaned him up, started a load of laundry while Adam checked with his parents about still keeping the kids cause we are beginning to wonder if he is allergic to something since his episodes have been so random and sporadic. So after I found out that they indeed still wanted to take the kids I threw myself into high gear trying to get everything packed and ready. That's when I heard "crash" only to find an entire new bottle with 94 loads worth of detergent dumped all over my floor...lovely!


And about that same time I got this picture text from the Koss'...their tags were expired! Wonderful!!


Satan was doing his darndest to keep us frustrated, but we finally made it out of town!

Road trippin' with friends is the best. We took our suburban so the five hour road trip really went by pretty quick cause we just talked the entire way. When we arrived we checked into the hotel, freshened up a bit then headed to dinner at Paradise Cafe.

Matt loves the m&m sugar cookies that they make and just seeing him tote around his little "lunchbox" container of cookies was quite entertaining!


We watched the Mavs play the Cavaliers, and it turned out to be quite a good game. Then we enjoyed desserts/snacks before heading back to the hotel.






Saturday morning we ate breakfast at one of my all time favorite restaurants, La Madeline's, it NEVER disappoints! Then we took off for a little shopping! We put a small dent in Ikea's humongous inventory, it was such fun but overwhelming too!





After making a quick stop for drinks and snacks we hit up Sam Moon, the store with oh so many accessories, and we all walked away with several new pieces to perk up our wardrobes! North Park Mall was our next destination and we enjoyed browsing through Jack and Jill, Hannah Anderson, the Lego store and others...there is just NEVER enough time!


There were reservations for dinner at Houston's so we had to hurry back to change and get ready, we were all running a bit late, (cause the guys had gone to see a movie). Dinner was good, I had the filet and Adam had Red Fish.


Since we had eaten an early dinner we had plenty of time to spend doing whatever we wanted, so we chose to go bowling. This was by far the nicest bowling alley I'd ever been to! Here's Adam stretching while we waited for our lanes to open up...


The girls in their dresses and bowling shoes...


We had so much fun the first round that we had to play twice (Adam and I won both rounds...and its not because of me!)







From there we picked up dessert at BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse, if you've never had their "pazookie" you should definitely try it! It's a personal pan sized chocolate chip cookie with vanilla bean icecream on top, it.is.delish! We enjoyed our tastey treat atop the roof on the 30th floor of our hotel; there was a beautiful view of the city!


There was a pool and hot tub on the roof and my silly husband asked Carol's crazy husband to "do him a favor"...to sit in this handicapped hoist and let him lower John down into the hot tub...It was by far the funniest moment on the roof. After all, to get to the roof top you had to climb 3 flights of stairs, I'm still wondering how a truly handicapped person would even be able to get to the roof top to use one of the TWO hoists that they had next to the hot tub...still don't understand that!






It was getting late but we weren't ready to call it a night so we decided to find a table and played Phase 10 for a while, we only made it to phase 4 before we said good night, but it was after midnight when we wrapped it all up.

Who knows what this face was for, and since Carol captured it so clearly I decided to post it because according to my husband I am "the woman with a 1,000 faces" and clearly this is one of them!


Sunday morning came way to early, none of us was ready to head back to reality...we'd honestly just had so much fun being together! We made one last stop in Dallas at The Original Pancake House and enjoyed a delicious breakfast together.



As I think back on the past days and nights with these friends God has so graciously placed in my life, I'm just filled with thankfulness! Thankful to have true friends, thankful to have people to live life with, thankful for iron to sharpen and encourage me in the hard moments and people to simply just have fun with! Let's plan another trip again soon!