End of the year stuff

So as always at the end of the year, mainly in May the girls have alot of programs and events to attend that are always too adorable for words and as expected I enjoy EVERY minute of them! I think it gets better every single year because each year they are one year older and you can really start to see their true talent and personality through all of their activities and such. These pictures below go from most recent to earlier in the month and tried my hardest to get the best pictures of them but as we all know capturing kids under 5 is really not the easiest thing in life to do. If I am able to find a video of their dance recital I will definitely post it on here because it is just too precious not to share! Hope you enjoy the pictures from their May events.


Claire doing her ballerina stance for a picture during intermission at the recital

Elizabeth with my mom's glasses on being silly during intermission at the recital

Smart Baby Elizabeth...such a cutie!!

Claire receiving her gymnastics medal after performing on the floor and balance beam, so cute to watch them be awarded their own medals, they were SO PROUD!

Maggie getting her gymnastics medal, this girl loves her gymnastics class and is actually getting pretty good at all the different tricks they are all starting to do!

Maggie after she did a cartwheel off of the balance beam, we were all WAY PROUD of her!

Claire doing her balance beam act, she was so serious and cute while she did everything!

Elizabeth & I after Claire's end of the year preschool program...not sure why she is pouting but she has been pouting on command alot lately, I guess it is just a phase!

Claire's 3 year old class performing their fruit of the spirit songs...each row wore either green, yellow, or red shirts with painted fruit on them. It is always so cute to hear them sing all about Jesus and all the songs they learn at school.

Here is another picture, basically the same as the one above, just unfortunately with random people's heads in the picture. It was really hard to get a picture close enough where you could actually see Claire really well since I didn't go sit on the floor while they are singing haha.

Graduation Weekend

A couple of weeks ago one of my closest cousins graduated from ACU so we had some family in town to see her graduate and celebrate with lunch afterwards. Unfortunately the only thing I got pictures of was the after celebration which sucks a little but I suppose I will live. It has been a great four years to have Rachel here in Abilene while she has been going to school here at ACU and she definitely will be missed. Luckily we will be seeing quite a bit of Rachel even though she won't be living here in Abilene anymore because her fiance isn't graduating until December so I know she will be here visiting him, but also here in a couple weeks we have Hannah(her sister's) wedding down in Beaumont and then this coming up March Rachel is getting married which means lots of family time in the next several months. But here are a few pictures from our last official lunch celebration with Rachel here with us in Abilene.


The only thing that kinda put a damper on that fun weekend filled with fun graduation celebration was that I had another seizure that afternoon while all of us girls-mom, jenna, rachel, and monica were on our way to one of our favorite little antique stores. So we went home to try and get me all settled after having a seizure in Rachel's car on the way to this antique store. So after all this happened Jake & I spend the rest of the weekend at my parents house so someone could make sure I was ok while I was recovering from the seizure, especially while Jake had to work some that weekend. I will do a whole other post soon on my most recent neurologist appointment and all the current updates on my condition.



Rachel & Christopher

Rachel, Christopher, & Bailey (Rachel's fiance)

Dad opening Rachel's "thank you" gift- a three in one picture frame, all pictures of my dad & Rachel. It was such a sweet going away gift, I think it made my dad tear up a little bit.

Another Jimmy & Rachel picture

Rachel & My mom

Wedding Day

Back at the beginning of May we celebrated the Josh (Jake's brother) & Dani's big wedding day here in Abilene, it was a fun day for all. They had the ceremony and reception here at the local Hilton Hotel in their banquet room, it was a small, but intimate celebration of their marriage. Both Jake & I were in the wedding me as a bridesmaid and Jake as the best man so that would be why I have zero pictures from the ceremony and their photographer is still working on his pictures. So everything I have is from the reception that followed, we had a delicious dinner and drinks, toasts from the best man and maid of honor, cake, lots of socializing and dancing to fun music. Although it was a stressful couple of days before the wedding everything came together like it most always does at weddings and everyone was happy especially the newlyweds, who were all that really mattered on that day.


Sammy devouring the left over wedding cake

Josh Hopkins having his fair share of wedding cake

Sammy & Josh Hopkins enjoying the left over wedding cake all to themselves

more fun dancing at the reception

Apparently they were just a little bit thirsty

Tea & Water...anyone need a drink?

Josh & Dani feeding each other their wedding cake

reception dance time

Mr. & Mrs. Joshua Nassar's first dance as a married couple

LOVE this picture of Jake & his Aunt Sally hugging each other after Jake had given his best man toast to the new couple, he always has a way to make the crowd cry!

Jake & his brother hugging after Jake's best man toast

Jake giving his best man toast

Such a great picture of Jake & his Aunt Sally at the reception :)

the newly married couple enjoying their dinner at the reception

Sandi (Jake's mom) and her best friend Cindy at the reception

Andrea and I at the reception...miss this girl so much!!

Greg & Josh Hopkins fixing their plates in the buffet line at the reception

Jeff Paxton having some punch

Greg, Josh Hopkins, & I fixing our plates in the buffet line at the reception

Jeff Paxton modeling for the camera

Stephen & Andrea Rogers at the reception

Dani's bridal bouquet

one of the bridesmaids bouquets

another picture of Dani's bridal bouquet

the wedding cake

the top half of the centerpieces that were on every guest table at the reception

the guest table centerpieces at the reception using white hydrangeas, gold ting ting, orange/pink rose petals and rose heads along with green and white roses

a cute arrangement outside by the guest sign in book with orange, green, and white roses with a little bit of gold ting ting

The candy bar with favor boxes with their initial on them for all the guests to take home a box of candy

Wedding Week

Back at the beginning of May Jake's brother, Josh and his fiance Dani got married here in Abilene so we had Jake's Aunt Sally all the way from Boston, Massachusetts and his Nanny from Norfolk, Virginia. We were very blessed to have gotten to spend an entire week with family in preperation for the wedding that weekend. Jake & I absolutely loved having family staying with us, I always love being a hostess especially to family! Other than doing things to get ready for the wedding that weekend we also got to alot of really fun things with Jake's family that we never get to see since we are all so far away from each other. As you can tell in the pictures below we all had alot of fun playing Xbox Kinect, eating, laughing, talking and catching up since the last time we saw them was our wedding last March 2010 so alot had happened since then. Since Jake was able to have most of the week off from work he got to spend alot of time with his family which we both really enjoyed. Later in the week was when the stress began to set in for everyone, more on that later.



Jake of course winning whatever game we were playing on xbox kinect

Aunt Sally vs. Jake at xbox kinect

Josh & Dani (the now newlyweds) in this picture soon to be husband and wife

crazy lately

This will be one of a few posts about what has been going on lately because it has been CRAZY! So for starters over Easter weekend we had a huge hailstorm which damaged both of our cars, but more on our new Camry that we had owned for maybe two weeks at the time, so sad :( So other than a lovely big hailstorm on Easter it was a very enjoyable weekend spent with family. We had such an awesome Easter church service at our church and spent lunch with at parents house and hung out there for the afternoon, then later having dinner with Jake's family. There aren't alot of pictures from Easter weekend but I did catch a few.



Big Duke & my dad on Easter Sunday

the twins-a.k.a. Dad & Christopher

Duke & Dad playing :)

update on medical stuff

So aside from having a full week of vacation being able to spend with Jake's family for the preperation and celebration of Josh (Jake's brother) & Dani's wedding this past weekend we had some more medical stuff going on with me that I thought I would update about. After a week full of hanging out with the family, getting everything ready for the wedding, we all were absolutely exhausted on sunday. But we started out Sunday with a nice family breakfast at the Hilton Hotel where the wedding took place and where alot of the guests were staying at. After having breakfast we finished cleaning and taking all our wedding supplies out of the ceremony/reception room and headed home to hang out and relax for the afternoon.



Soon after sitting down to relax with the family Jake & I noticed I was starting to have some staring spells (small epileptic seizures) and Jake thought it would be a good idea for me to lay down and rest for awhile since it was also taking me quite awhile to respond to any questions or remarks being geared towards me. So I remember him telling me I needed to lay down and rest for awhile and then telling me I was having some brain fogs a.k.a. small epileptic seizures but remember nothing beyond that. According to Jake he turned to look at me and my pupils had dilated huge and soon after I started to fall over when he caught me so that I didn't hit my head on anything. After that happened my eyes were rolling back in my head, my body was very tense and going through convulsions, when I also was biting my tongue very hard. Soon after someone who was there called the paramedics and I was soon loaded up in the ambulance and taken to Henderick Emergency Room where I was met by Jake, my parents, and Talmadge(my boss, who also just happens to be a neurosurgeon at that particular hospital.)



While at the hospital I was seen by the ER doctor, Dr. Higgins, my new neurologist Dr. Landfield, along with Dr. Talmadge Trammell. I was given an iv of a high dose of Keppra (my anti-seizure medication) and also given a few blood tests to verify that everything else involved was ok. Since my last seizure was just about a month ago everyone seems to be pretty concerned since I had a pretty bad one on sunday even though I was the anti-seizure medication so we are weaning me off of the Keppra that I am currently on and switching to something different called Lamictel which will hopefully work better. The reason this particular seizure on Sunday seemed so much worse to me was because I couldn't remember what day it was, that it was even a holiday at all, I was much much more out of it than I was last month when I had my other seizures, and also took alot longer and alot more effort to process and especially respond to comments, remarks, and questions made towards me. I don't remember anything from right before the seizure happened, when the paramedics came, when the seizure was going on, and not a whole after it all happened.


I went to my diabetes doctor today to make sure there was nothing going on with my blood sugar numbers or medicines that may have caused the seizure on sunday but he said all is good and that he feels good about the medication I am on for my blood sugar numbers. My doctor did take away another medicine that he added last week, glymeperide that was making my blood sugar too low like in the 50s. I am also on 4 pills of Folic Acid once a day from my neurologist. I am scheduled to see my neurologist the week after next on the 24th. For now I think I should be all set with medications unless something else happens, which I am hoping doesn't happen.



I do know that this is going to be a very low key week with no work except friday night, lots of resting, and now some of my family coming in town this weekend for my cousin rachel's graduation.


Later this week I promise to update the blog with a big wedding week post full of lots of pictures...