Wynnie laughing with Ben

Introducing Mr. Chuckles!

Enjoying our 1st sail as soon as we arrived to hotel from airport

Here's another fun little video.  Ben put on Chris's shoes and was stomping around... Wynnie thought it was the funniest thing on the planet.

The babies started summer school last week in The Colony.  They are happy to be around their old friends from school and are expanding their social circle by meeting new teachers.  Last week was the first week of the summer that Ben and Alex didn't go to any camps so they finally enjoyed a lazy week of summer of looking for playmates, asking if they can play video games, and claiming boredom until creativity strikes and they are on to their next adventure.

Last week Chris and I escaped to St Lucia for 5 days to enjoy some much needed together time and some nice sunshine.  Our highlights included taking 2 catamaran sails, visiting the grand Piton mountains, snorkeling, paddle boarding, spa treatments and lots of great food and drinks.  We stayed at an all-inclusive so it was very nice to get as many spa treatments, snacks and drinks as we wanted without worrying about a budget.  Chris celebrated his birthday by smoking a big fat cuban cigar so I think he had fun.  The only downside was when I showed Ben and Alex the picture of Chris smoking, they freaked (Red Ribbon week at school has indoctrinated them VERY well about the dangers of smoking and drinking).   We had a blast and it was nice to come home refreshed and ready to enjoy the 2nd half of the summer with the 4 boys.

Luna started puberty this week and it's been "interesting" explaining it to Ben and Alex.  Ben keeps on saying she is gonna "poop out her babies".  It's been a hoot!

Dori talking up a storm

I love this video of Dori talking with me while Wynnie plays in the background.   Dori is quite a ham these days... loves to get a reaction out of people.  Here's also a video of both Dori and Wynnie playing.  Poor Wynnie gets stuck in the background while Dori manages to work the camera.  :)

Nice article written about our family


http://allenpub.com/article/castle-hills-life/its-not-the-years-in-life-but-the-life-in-the-years/

Spring Picture Update

On May 5th my sweet friend and Phi Mu sister Jennifer came all the way from Louisiana to help sponsor our 1st annual MPS Society Charity Bootcamp.  yay for Cayenne Marketing

Jennifer Reid, my personal trainer and brainchild/master planner of the bootcamp, kept the families energized. 

The highlight event in the bootcamp was our obstacle course.  Adults burned lots of calories and the kids had a blast

This girl is my hero!  She did every station in our bootcamp with a smile on her face (and YES, a prosthetic leg).  If she can workout, ANYONE can

We took a family trip to Florida to take the boys to Disney and Universal Studios.  With only 1 free day I was able to visit Cary for an afternoon.  Seeing her reminds me so much of why she was my mom's best friend.  Christy is her granddaughter, pictured left. 

Wynnie was not happy being given Mickey ears, but I couldn't help it 

This is us within only a couple of hours after landing... we were so excited 

Magic Kingdom...where dreams come true.

Viktoria took this picture of us after we ate at the German beer hall at Epcot.  LOVED IT

Doesn't Wynnie look like a Minion? 

Great pic of Chris, Ben, Alex and Viktoria at Animal Kingdom.

Viktoria and I at the school district's special needs swim party.  Dori and Wynnie grew tired of all the bikinis within 30 minutes.

By how angelic they look, you'd think they've never seen a timeout or spankin' in their life  :)

Today was Ben, Alex, Dorian and Wynn's first day of Summer.  yaaahooooo! School is out and lots of fun times are planned ahead.  We got started in on the fun earlier this spring when we took the boys, babies and Viktoria to Disney.  We had to go during the school year while the weather is still comfortable in Florida since the babies get overheated quite easily.  The babies amazed us at how laid back and happy they were from the moment we boarded our flight, all throughout the parks and restaurants, and all the way back to Dallas.  They were champs!  We truly believe they knew they were on vacation.  Ben and Alex were nuts over how fun everything was at our hotel, the Disney parks and Universal Studios.  Even Chris, who had never been to Disney, was enjoying all the attractions. We were blessed to have Viktoria go with us to help us with the babies.  

Two days after we returned from Disney my dear friend and trainer Jennifer Reid (owner of LiveWire Fitness) and all her trainers led over 150 people (young and old!) in an outdoor bootcamp to benefit the National MPS Society.  We had a DJ, a bounce house, a fire truck, face painters, goodie bags and raffle items for the participants.  Jen worked SO HARD to put this bootcamp together, I am so grateful of her motivating energy and selfless friendship.  She rocks.  Speaking of awesome "jens'... my sorority sister Jennifer LaPierre drove all the way from Louisiana with her husband and 2 kids to sponsor and participate in our bootcamp.  It's truly a blessing to be friends with women that inspire me to be a better woman myself.  I was overjoyed to see the enthusiasm and fun everyone was having at our bootcamp.  Thank you all who participated and donated that day.

Ben and Alex did their 1st Communion Sacrament last month.  They were the only kids in the group that kept on running to the bathroom throughout the mass.  They were able to "hold it" for the actual ceremony thank goodness.  They looked so handsome...  We are so proud of them.

Dorian and Wynn had their end of year swim party and enjoyed all the hoopla that came along with it.  Due to the overpopulation of our neighborhood - they are shipping off all the special needs kids out of our elementary school and moving them to another elementary school 10 minutes away.  I'll be sad that all 4 boys will no longer be in the same school, but at least we have this year's yearbook as our nice reminder of when they were all under the same roof.  :)  

The babies saw their new cardiologist last week.  Our old cardiologist no longer accepts our insurance so we were referred by our pulmonologist to Dr Lemler at Childrens in Dallas.  He found that Dorian has cardiac myopathy and his left ventricle is enlarged.  Myopathy is basically when the heart muscle is not able to function as well as it should because the muscle is either enlarged, thickened or stiff.  How is it "fixed"?  Heart transplant.  Are we considering putting Dori through a heart transplant?  No.  It wouldn't change his underlying ML2 problems ... heart transplants are highly invasive and would require months of hospitalization and testing for him -- no need to put him through that when it won't improve his quality of life.  So what does it mean that he has myopathy?   Not much... just that he'll be closely watched by his new cardiologist on a more frequent basis and that his meds have been bumped up.  If you ask Dori what he thinks about this?  He'll just say HI and sing you a song.  

As for Wynnie, he heart is fine.  No significant changes from his last set of echo's and EKG's so his meds are kept the same.  He got new hearing aids and is enjoying wearing them, but one of them broke last week so I need to take them to the hearing aid place to get them fixed. 

Chris and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary a couple of days ago.  We will be celebrating by going to St Lucia next month.  yay! (without kids)  Double yay!! 

I had a very nice Mother's Day.  I was treated to breakfast at iHop.  CHris worked in the yard for a long time with the boys... so much so that Ben said "I can't wait til Father's Day!!  That's when mami will have to do everything!".  The boys made me cards at school that really warmed my heart.  Alex's  said  that I was as pretty as the Virgin Mary (in the past he has said I'm the world's 2nd best mom... 2nd to the Virgin Mary), and Ben's card said that I love him very much and that he likes it when I make my funny faces at him.  Well with 4 boys I'm certainly no virgin (ha ha), nor should I be compared the the Virgin Mother Mary... but Chris, the boys and the babies surely made me feel very special on that special day.  

Summer is in full swing so Ben and Alex will be busy with camps all through the month of June.  We expect to host lots of fun sleep overs, swim parties and play dates in the near future... so we're stocking up the fridge with ice-cream sandwiches, bottled waters and gatorades.  When will you come to join us?  We wish you all a happy start to your summer season and hope to see you soon.