BB7

Ornery. Funny. Insightful. Messy. Dirty. Loud. Cuddly. Sweet. All that and more. Seven years of 100% frogs and snails and puppy dog tails. 

The birthday celebration started Friday with a Chick-fil-A lunch at school and brownie bites for his classmates.

Party day Lijee requested we tape the door when he got up, which is something we sometimes do at our house.

He also requested donuts for breakfast. 

He and his big brother got to play video games while waiting for party time.

My little boy wanted a Star Wars party with laser tag, so a Star Wars party with laser tag it was.

Then it was back to our house for a lot of yelling and weapons. 

 Brothers.

 I love this little birthday boy.

 It was one of the first nice days we had a quite a while, so we had a pizza picnic outside.

Time for some BB7 cookie cake!

The actual birthday was on Sunday. It started with some family reading and screens in bed while waiting for Daddy to bring home birthday breakfast from McDonalds', per Elijah's request.

This boy loves his Legos. When he opens them he sits down and finishes it all by himself in one setting.

 Grannie and Grandad joined us for birthday lunch with Ben & Jerry's ice cream for his birthday treat.

 48"

 7 years old

 Momma's heart is full of love for this little Birthday Boy.

When Chuey Became Chewy

 I briefly described our New Years's Eve incident with Chuey and the neighbor's dog. Here is more detail.

Poor little Chu-Chu. She couldn't stop shivering.  It was very cold outside, but I think she was still kinda in shock and definitely in pain. There was a tiny little spot on her hip that I thought was bothering her, so I didn't move her leg on purpose. She was just sitting on the couch, shivering. Somehow, about 6 hours after the incident, I found this hole.

The weird thing is, it did not bleed. Ever. She wasn't licking it either. So I was hoping maybe it was only a flesh wound. I texted the picture to my friend whose husband is a vet and they suggested I take her in right away, and they knew of a 24/7 clinic. It just so happened it was close to our house.

I was going in for what I thought was  stitches. The doctor took her back to take an MRI (or maybe x-ray, I can't remember at this point). He said he could see through the hole and into her stomach. They would have to do exploratory surgery to make sure her intestines were not punctured, as well. During surgery they actually took the intestines out of her body and studied them, then poked them all back in there. I kid you not, her incision wound is almost as big as my c-section wound. But I'm much bigger than her. The best-case scenario played out. Her intestines were fine; the doctor said often times they are injured even if there is not a puncture wound. We knew he wound went through her stomach at least. I think the doctor was expecting the worst. Whew! Thank you, Lord.

This is how we found her when we went to visit the next day.

This was the original booboo.

This is the surgery site.

 

 Bless her little heart. I don't even know if she knew we were there. She was pretty out of it.

When she came home she perked up a bit.

This is how she spent the first 4 days. 

She didn't want to drink either. I had to bring the bowl to her. She peed once in 36 hours.

I was beginning to worry. Magically, on the 5th day, she turned a corner. She was becoming herself again. She was walking, her tail was wagging, her ears were up, and she wanted to be with us. 

Her booboo was looking better, too.

After 12 days we got the stitches out and the cone off. A perk of being a quadruped surgeon as opposed to a biped surgeon is that you don't have to worry about keeping the scarring to a minimum.

 The incision site looks a little rough. This way when the next big dog comes along, wanting to attack her, she can just tell them to stop and check this out, and then tell them they should have seen the other guy.

 Frito Pie was so kind for those two weeks. She knew something was up, she just wasn't sure exactly what it was. But she was gentle and gave Chuey her space. This is the day the cone came off. They never sit side by side like this on the same pillow.

 And finally--snuggling up real close without the cone of shame!

Just two weeks after surgery we went out for a little jog around the cul-de-sac. Pretty amazing. I was definitely not up for a little run 15 days after my c-sections. Chuey is quite a champ!

It's The Final Countdown

5th Annual Hourly NYE Envelope Countdown

This New Year's it was frigid outside and the roads were a little slick so we played it pretty low-key. DanFam5 celebrated here at home with just us. Regardless, it was a fun ending to 2017. Well, mostly. More about that later.

noon - drink upside down
Zekers was the first to jump on Daddy's pull up bar to drink.

 Daddy also did the pull up bar. Daisy chose to do a handstand.

 I drank backwards on the couch. Little Chuey did not miss the opportunity to crawl up on me.

Frito was in on the excitement, as well.

 1:00 - outside obstacle course (in the sleet at 25 degrees)

Daddy is laying down the ground rules.

 Lijee's off to the basketball goal!

 Daisy is crawling through the box.

 Zekers heading down the driveway on the scooter.

Hot chocolate was needed after we came in. You can see the boys barely had any clothes on, it was very cold out there.
2:00 - dessert 'treat'y (play on Cupcake Wars)

So the Daisers loves to watch Cupcake Wars. We decided to make a positive play on that with Dessert "Treat"ies, and walk some dessert to our neighbors. A kind and thoughtful way to start the New Year, right? These boys played a little game whilst it was cooking.

Finally ready! Each kid took a small plate of caramel brownies, still hot from the oven. We would later learn these were some darn expensive brownies...

 The boys are way far ahead. Frito and Chuey are walking with me.

 Here we are, knocking on the door.

 It was at the next house where disaster struck. It was all so fast, but when the neighbors opened the door, their German Shepherd raced out and pounced Chuey like Frito on a cat. I heard screams coming from my mouth and out of the corner of my eye I saw the father tackle their dog. The kids said I was playing tug-of-war with the big dog as it had Chuey in her jaws and I was trying to pull her away with the leash. It all happened very quickly. There was no blood. I knew she was shook up--we all were. When we got home I saw a tiny bloody spot on her hind leg that was already scabbing over. She was holding that leg real close to her, so I let it be. She was very lathargic, but that was understandable. I mean, she had just cheated death.

3:00 - FaceTime a friend

We were having a hard time getting friends to answer their phone. At least we got ahold of Gramma and Grampa, though. There was some Elvisopoloy going on during the down time, and I was snuggling Chuey.

 4:00 - scavenger hunt

 

 Daisy was the first to complete the photo scavenger hunt, but they were all pretty creative with their shots.

5:00 - order pizza
This was a treat, as we rarely get to order pizza.

6:00 - card game

Can you guess what we chose to play?

 That's right--SPOONS.

 7:00 - Brr Bounce

Last year we did a Polar Plunge. Since we didn't have a pool at our house, we settled for a Brrrr Bounce instead. They broke the thin layer of ice on the trampoline as they bounced for 20 seconds. I was quite happy to be the photographer on this one. *Momma don't do cold.

8:00 - hide-n-Zeke

We turned off the lights, got out our new head lamps, and we were good to go!

We had been loving on our ChuChu all night.

It was at this point that I moved her leg a little more and found the gash. Here it was, 8:30 pm on New Year's Eve. What the heck was I supposed to do with a little doggy and a big laceration? I was thinking it might get infected if I waited until Tuesday when the regular vet was open. We found a vet open 24/7 that happened to be close by. 

 
Here is where the evening took a sinister turn. I will add details in a later post. But the big story is that I had to leave Chuey there to get emergency surgery. Poor little puppy.

9:00 - compliment each other

I missed the reading of these. But we had some very sweet things written about each other. Sweet things like Daisy always follows her passion, Zeke is kind spirited and protective, Lijee is funny and imaginative, Daddy does things for others and is fun, Chuey is loving, Frito is adventurous, and I do what's best for others. That's just a few things we shared. This one was my favorite activity of the day.

10:00 - talent show

I was at the vet during this. I would have sang "How Much Is That Doggy In The Window" with Chuey, but my phone was dead.

11:00 - screens

Somewhere during this hour was when I got home. The Pops was asleep but the kids followed the envelope directions and were on screens.

midnight -Happy New Year!
Daisy finally got to FaceTime her friend. We rang in the New Year with Lilly and Hudson May on the phone with us.

Happy New Year! May 2018 draw you closer to the Lord as you enjoy your many blessings!