Cruzy's Eye Surgery

Cruz was such a trooper this morning for his eye surgery. We ended up having to wait for quite a while and Cruzy just snuggled, watched TV and entertained us with his antics the whole time. The surgery went well and he's currently sleeping in his own bed. The success of the surgery won't be determined for a couple weeks still.

The hardest part of this whole ordeal (for me) was that Cruz was so trusting of us, the nurses and the doctors and my heart just broke when he walked back with the nurse. He was smiling and chatting, totally unaware of what awaited him. I so wish that we had been able to go with him as I know his happy little face probably turned to panic when he saw the big scary operating room. I'm sure I'm thinking into this more than Cruz is but I'm truly thankful that the surgery is over and that he appears to be doing well. Thank you for all your prayers and texts. 

Chess Tournament

Rowan has been playing chess quite a bit through out the school year. One of the dads in his class comes every Thursday morning and plays with the kids and then Rowan has been doing Chess lessons after school. There have been opportunities for him to attend several chess competitions over the past weeks. He's done a great job and placed 12th in his division last week. 

Roger, Grandma, Cruz, Cora and I did quite a bit of waiting while Rowan played and then in between matches. Roger liked to peek through a window to watch Rowan play. He could tell if he was winning or losing based on his moves. That stressed me out too much so I stayed away. :)

Cruz and Grandma stayed busy with a ball.

In between matches the kids were able to play on the playground. Rowan is playing in the State tournament this weekend. He is playing individually and also with a team of other kindergarteners from his school. Win or lose, we are so proud of Rowan.

After the tournament we went to a cool little place that had a mini bowling alley just the kids' size.

Coco- 19 months

Cora summed up in 5 words:

fiesty

curls

cheesy

dolls

jewelry

He is Risen!

I love Easter. What a happy joyous day. I love experiencing Jesus' journey on the cross on Friday and the excitement to run to church on Easter and hear the good news! It's so fun to share that joy with the kids as they get older. We got to celebrate with Grandma this year too. It was such a fun day.

Our day started with our typical resurrection roll breakfast. This year Rog made cross shaped bacon too. I decided that Cora's hair made for fun pictures so I didn't brush it when she got up. ;)

Next we let the kids dig into their Easter baskets. Cora loved her swim goggles and bubbles, Cruz liked his squirt gun and Rowan preferred the math workbook.

We got all dressed up and went to church at 11:00. Cora's dress is my favorite. I love the colors, fluttery sleeves and most of all, the cross/son embroidery. The boys looked adorable in their bow ties too. 

When we got home from church the kids did their Easter egg hunts. Cora went first and then the boys.

The boys dug in to find the empty egg first. Our reminder that we celebrate because of the empty cross and the empty grave. 

We finished off the day with grilled salmon, asparagus and Grandma's pretzel jello for dinner. 

Happy Easter! 

Butterfly Wonderland

Grandma was in town and we had the perfect Easter weekend adventure- a visit to Butterfly Wonderland.

Grandma got us annual passes for Christmas.

We watched a cool 3D butterfly video and then headed into the extremely humid butterfly observation area.

Butterflies were everywhere! The kids loved trying to spot the ones that were hiding.

See the one whizzing past Row's foot?

One even landed on Grandma's purse!

Coco loved pointing them out.

She didn't love when they whizzed past her face.

On her tip toes!!!

Cruz Update

I have so much fun stuff to blog about and catch up on but I just thought I'd update on what's going on with Mr. Cruz. First of all, he and I did his first Kiwi Crate box that came in the mail and we had a blast making a car, city and setting up a road. Please ignore my dirty floors. ;) We can't wait for the next box to arrive. 

You may have noticed that Cruz hasn't been wearing his glasses lately and that was requested by his opthamologist. His glasses did a great job correcting the eye that turns in but his eyes did not adjust to them as his dr. had hoped. Close up, his glasses help him see great but far away they do not. When he was tested at the office his eyes were 20/80 with his glasses and 20/30 without. Obviously he can't wear the glasses to straighten his eye at the expense of being unable to see into the distance.

The next step is eye muscle surgery which Cruz is tentatively scheduled for on April 29th. It is an out patient procedure that will cut and reattach the muscle in his eye to straighten it. It's a fairly easy procedure with a fairly short recovery time.

I'm mostly nervous for Cruz. He freaks out about going to the dentist so I'm sure all the unknown and scary things that are going to happen to him will be hard on his fearful little heart. Please pray that Rog and I are making the right decision for him and pray that he is overwhelmed by peace on the day of his procedure. Ideally, this is the best option because his eye will be straight, his vision will be better and he won't have to have the added responsibility of glasses.