Party Time

We had a quiet (or as quiet as it can be with 8 kids!) party tonight to celebrate Phoenix's 1st Birthday! We had Larry's Pizza, Cake and Ice Cream and Swimming. Genevieve and Audrey (Paula's nieces) even got to come! They are so sweet and always love to play with all of the babies we have around here!

Happy Birthday Phoenix Logan Tripp!

Happy Birthday Baby Boy! You are 1 Year Old Today! You are such a sweet baby boy, you LOVE to be held and even when you are playing you prefer for Mommy to sit near you while you play. You are a very silly baby and love to laugh and make others happy. You love your sisters; Veronika treats you like a baby doll and always watches out for you. Violet loves you and is sweet to you but she also hurts you sometimes. You and Violet have recently started fighting and you get very upset at her if she bothers you or your toys. You crawl and pull-up and want to get into EVERYTHING! You cruise along the furniture and we expect you to walk in the next few weeks. You love to eat, but only certain foods! You love to feed yourself goldfish, yogurt melts, advacado and fruit. You still let Mommy or Daddy feed you some things like yogurt and oatmeal but you prefer to feed yourself. You don't sleep through the night, we recently started putting you in your own bed at night but since you had surgery you are back in our bed full-time; Mommy even has to lay down with you to get you to take a nap again! I look forward to watching you grow and develop as you start your next year! I love you SO much "Angel Bear"!

Sweet Boy!

What a week! On Thursday, July 8th, Phoenix had surgery to repair Hypospadias and a mild curvature due to the Hypospadias. As we were preparing for surgery the Anesthesiologist came in and asked if he had any complications with his Spina Bifida?! Apparently during his X-ray back in May (he had this done with a couple of other tests to prepare for the surgery) they saw that he had Spina Bifida Occulta. Click HERE for more info on Spina Bifida Occulta.

We have noticed some things about Phoenix but when I read more about SBO things started to fall into place. Many of you have noticed his poor posture due to a curvature in his spine, he also has an unusual mole where the curvature starts. He has a tendency to vomit easily (which many of you have witnessed!), is often constipated, and his eyes have a tendency to become lazy when he is tired. His gagging and lazy eyes have progressively improved with time so we are hoping that he will eventually grow out of them completely.

At the very least (which we are hoping and praying for) Phoenix will need to wear a brace and do some Physical Therapy to improve his posture. As he is older we will find if he is going to have any Neurological problems...bladder and bowel control, leg pain, etc. This we DO KNOW...Phoenix has continually reached all of his milestones; he crawls, pulls up, walks along the furniture and it getting ready to walk very soon. He is so sweet, he babbles, claps, kisses, plays peek-a-boo, and laughs...ALOT! Right now we are overwhelmed but we know how blessed we are...so many people would love for their children to do the things that Phoenix is already doing! Please keep us in your prayers, right now our focus is making sure Phoenix is fully recovered from his surgery and then we will start the process of referrals and specialists. I leave you with this:

Mostly Pictures

Sweet boy is doing remarkably well after his surgery! He will have his catheter in for a week so we have to keep him pretty tame. Honestly, the hardest part for me is not being able to carry him on my hip! He acts like normal...he just gets tired easily!

We celebrated Veronika's 8th birthday on July 3 at Dodi and Poppa's. She chose a "WonderWoman" theme which complimented the 4th of July quite well!

Sunday we spent the day at The McIntyre's lake house on Lake Norrel. Violet did great, I was really concerned because she is such an anxious little thing but she even went on a Sea-Doo ride with her Daddy!

Happy 8th Birthday!

Veronika's 8th Birthday was Tuesday so I am a little late posting this!

Happy (late) Birthday Veronika! I can't believe how much you have grown, matured, and blossomed in these past 4 years. You are an amazing young lady...you are smart, funny, soft-hearted and so compassionate! You are a wonderful big sissy...you love entertaining and caring for Violet and Phoenix and they adore you! You are a wonderful student and you especially enjoy reading. You love playing your guitar and dancing and you are really quite good. You are an amazing daughter, grand-daughter, niece, sister and cousin. I love you!

100th Post/ Happy Father's Day

As I was writing this I noticed that it is my 100th Post! And it also happens to be Father's Day...well actually yesterday was Father's Day. It is 12:30am, Sunday night/Monday morning and Steve and Violet just got back from a run to Wal-Mart for a "papi" (paci). Yes, he took her to Wal-Mart at Midnight because she couldn't comprehend that "papi went bye-bye." So, Happy Father's Day to an Amazing Daddy! One that will go out at midnight to make his little girl happy! I love you!

Pharoahs

The Arkansas Arts Center is hosting "The World of the Pharoahs." It opened last September and we have been meaning to go all year. We were unsure of taking the two younger ones and thankfully Dodi volunteered to watch them while Steve, Veronika, and I went to the exhibit today. Honestly, I am not that interested in history but it was quite interesting to me to learn about Egyptian society and culture. They were quite civilized, they created beautiful works of art and "normal" household items. Veronika did so well, she had lots of questions and did a great job reading all of the placards. We got to see lots of artifacts as well as a mummified kitten, and two mummified humans. The best part of the day was getting to spend some time with just Veronika. If you have time in the next week and a half it is a nice,air-conditional and educational way to spend an afternoon!

Summer Pics

Veronika is a fantastic swimmer! I can't believe she will be 8 in just a few weeks!

My emotional/behavioral "Mini-Me."

Beautiful Baby Boy! He is his Daddy made over!

Watermelon Time! Bottom Pic (L to R): Jackson, Evie, Tucker, Phoenix, Veronika, Violet

Summertime...

Even though our day-to-day schedule doesn't change much between the school year and summer the atmosphere changes...we spend a large amount of our time in Mom and Dad's pool, Veronika is with us for a full week at a time and life in general just SLOOOOWS down. This was our first "real" weekend of summer and I feel like I need a break already! Seriously though, I am really looking foward to what this summer will bring because, quite frankly, I am just SO THANKFUL to not be pregnant this summer!

Saturday we had a family day and took Phoenix to his first movie, we saw Shrek Forever After 3-D.
It was a great movie and Veronika loved it. The babies did pretty good but it will be awhile before we try that again:)

I have a few goals for this summer:
1) SLEEP: Phoenix is doing great at night, he goes down easily around 9pm and wakes up to eat between 4:30 or 5:30am then sleeps until 7:30 or 8am. However, he is REALLY struggling at naptime. I know that if we keep working he will learn eventually!

2) POTTY: Violet is really into using the potty but because of the SLEEP issues above I have been hesitant to really get down to business. I am really expecting it to go smoothly because she has completely been initiating it. I am planning on going to panties in a couple of weeks but keeping her in diapers at naptime and nighttime.

3) READ: Veronika is an avid reader and I have always loved reading but since the babies came along that has definitely taken a back seat. I think reading fosters success in every area of life so I am hoping that Veronika and I can have some time set aside to read each day while the babies nap. Each summer we sign Veronika up for the Summer Reading Program at the Central Arkansas Library and she has already read ATLEAST 5 chapter books in the past three weeks plus she listens to books on CD at night. I hope Violet and Phoenix love to read as much as their big sissy!

Our May In Pictures

May has flown by and with only 1 week left until June I thought I would share our month in pictures.


Phoenix wore himself out playing! He is 10 months old now and such a happy baby!


We played outside ALOT! A couple of hours during the day and all evening long!


Paula turned 30! We had a small surprise birthday party for her at Amanda's house.


Veronika graduated from AWANA Sparks and will be moving up to TNT next year. She received the Sparky Award for completing all 3 books. We are so proud of you Baby Girl!


Violet was in Pre-Cubbies and they performed at the Closing Ceremonies. Mom taught this class and Amanda, Paula, and I helped.

Our Beginning

Over on Kelly's Korner they are doing SUYL: How You Met Your Husband. I realized that not too many people know our "how we met story" and thought it might be interesting to share.
Steve and Veronika briefly visited the Little Rock Missionary Baptist Student Fellowship (MBSF) in the Fall of 2003. Sometime in the next month or two I started visiting/regularly attending the same MBSF...but we never crossed paths. In the Spring of 2005 I started student teaching at David O. Dodd Elementary, just a few miles from the Missionary Baptist Seminary on Stagecoach Road. A father that attended the seminary and attended Marlow MBC mentioned that he thought I should meet a friend of his, a divorced guy with a little girl...but nothing ever came of it. In January of 2006 I joined Match.com and ran across a guy and "winked" at him. I don't necessarily remember what first caught my eye but I do remember what caught my attention. He (Steve) said that he had been a preacher but was divorced and the churches of his denomination didn't allow divorced men to be preachers. "How odd," I thought. Missionary Baptists are about the only denomination that teach that and it was not a common thing to run into a Missionary Baptist guy just by chance. We continued talking by email and phone for a week or two, then on March 3, 2006 we had our first face-to-face date. We didn't date long, we were married on November 17, 2006. Looking back we would've dated a little longer, but with all we have been through I truly believe that he is the one that God was preparing for me...we just had to wait on HIS timing.

Spring 2006

Spring 2010

Happy 2nd Birthday Baby Girl!

Violet's 2nd Birthday is this Wednesday, April 14. We have a crazy week ahead of us so I am posting this a little early...

You and Sissy on the night you were born 4/14/08

You are a true Daddy's girl 4/11/10

To My Sweet Baby Violet,

Two years ago my world changed…YOU changed my world! After 30 hours of labor and 2 more hours of pushing I heard Aunt Paula say, “Look down and see your baby.” That moment changed everything, there was life before you and there is life with you. Loving you taught me what true unconditional love is. Loving you allowed me to love Veronika as my own…something I never really knew how to do before you. Loving you taught me to love your Daddy more; there is not a Daddy in the world who is more devoted, involved, and in love with his children. Loving you taught me to love God and Jesus more, I now realize what a sacrifice it was for God to send His precious Jesus into our world to die for our sins. Loving you taught me to love others, everyone means the world to somebody.

There was only one big change in our lives this past year…we welcomed Phoenix into our family! Nothing brings me more joy than listening to you, Phoenix (Bubba or Buddy), and Veronika (Sissy or Ka-Ka) laughing and playing together.

God has given me everything I ever prayed for and more in your Daddy, Veronika, you and Phoenix. There will come a day in your life when you will know what you mean to me…someday, when you are holding your precious new baby…then you will know just how much I love you!

Love,
Mommy

Today you are 2! You wear 2T Clothes and size 6 Shoes. You are not potty-trained and I don’t think you will be for awhile. You act like you want to use the potty but refuse to sit on it…you want it on your terms. You don’t like messes or being dirty and you pick up toys that your brother is still playing with…you are a lot like your mommy! You are a real Daddy’s girl, when you wake up in the morning you ask me, “Daddy work? Daddy money?” because we tell you that Daddy has to go to work to make money so we can have food, clothes, and toys. You are a little momma and you are very thoughtful and loving, but you can also be a bit of a bully. You love your pacifier and we just don’t have the heart to make you give it up yet. You sleep with your baby and two crochet blankets. Every night you listen to your Disney Lullaby CD and watch your Ocean “show” while you go to sleep. You sleep for 11 or 12 hours at night and take a 2 hour nap every day. Your favorite foods are String Cheese, Cutie Oranges, and Pop-Tarts. You love to watch Sesame Street and Barney and you LOVE playing outside.
Evie is your best friend, you two fight like you are sisters but love each other like it too. Your other friends are Rylie, Lily, Abby and Tinsley. You love playing with your sister, brother, Jackson and Tucker and Evie! You change everyday and you never cease to amaze me. I can’t wait to see what your 3rd year brings!

No Training Wheels!

Aunt Paula had the great idea of teaching Jackson to ride without training wheels by starting on a smaller bike, so...after just a few tries Veronika was off!

Violet's 2nd Birthday Party

Today we celebrated Violet Anne's 2nd Birthday! It is hard to believe that this Wednesday will be two years since this little girl entered our world. I can't really imagine life before her but I can't believe how fast the past two years have flown by. We celebrated with a birthday at The WonderPlace, one of Violet's favorite places to play. We all had a blast playing in the play area, playing with play-doh, and eating cupcakes!

Violet recieved this trampoline enclosure from Poppa and Dodi.

My 2 Year Old Birthday Girl!

 

Party Time!

Phoenix is our little waterbug!

Evie

The "Big Kids" Table: Graci, Veronika, Emma and Jackson

The "Baby" Table: Violet, Tucker, Evie, Lily and Abby

Jackson

Tucker and Puppy

My Big Boy

Our Easter

Easter 2010 was a little unusual for us...the Wednesday before Easter Violet came down with a stomach virus, Friday morning Phoenix woke up with fever and an ear infection. Saturday seemed normal until I came down with the dreaded stomach bug Saturday evening. This was the first Easter that I every remember not being in church, we spent the day just relaxing and recouping from a week of blah. Thankfully we were able to celebrate with my family the previous Friday with dinner and an Easter Egg Hunt. Sadly, my children have not been able to be photographed in their beautiful new Easter outfits yet so look for those next week as well as pictures from Violet's 2nd Birthday Party!!

Under Construction

I am playing around with my blog! Please excuse all the changes!

Spotlight on Veronika

Veronika has always really done well in school but this year, 2nd Grade, she has REALLY blossomed! She is an especially talented artist and writer. The first picture is a free-draw that she did in art class. The second is based on the Eric Carle book, "A House for Hermit Crab."




What follows is a writing that she did last week on her favorite place to eat:

My family's favorite place to go is Lary's Pizza. It is a pizza buffet place. I eat all kind's of pizza. And they have dessert pizza too. After we get done eating we get some dollars put them in the token machine and we play all kinds of games. And after were done playing any games we get tickets. After where done playing games we go too the prize tabile and they count how many tickets we got then we get to pick out some prizes. then we leave. I say thank you to the people who made the pizza. then we leave. If you ever want to go. It is in east end.
THE END!