Thanksgiving 2009: Newport Aquarium

What a day!  More beautiful weather--enough to take a beautiful (and long) drive down the coast to one of our favorite aquariums!

Up close with the rays and a few small sharks!

Our youngest not phased by the crab!

I love how The Big Guy Lowe loves his boys.

Cute cousins!

Looking though the glass floors at the sharks swimming by!

Big Boys/Brothers having fun together!

Our oldest in the antique dive helmet.

Our middle son following his brother with the help of Uncle Brett.  What was that you said?  H1N1?  :)

Laura, Brett, baby Sophia, Gunnison, Conner, Cannon, Grace.

The Lowe family!

All the Lowe cousins!!

I don't think we returned until about 10 PM that night, but what a great day we had!

Thanksgiving 2009: The Oregon Coast and answered prayers

Thanksgiving this year was celebrated in true Northwest style at the Oregon coast!

We were excited to have all the Lowe family out for the holiday!  We had a wonderful time and can't wait until we can all do it again--and that's saying something!!

Before heading to our condos at the beach, we enjoyed family pictures, OMSI, Apizza Scholl's, our church's primary program (the sunday school kids all have parts and sing) and a trip to Costco to prepare for the upcoming week.  You can imagine how full that shopping cart was!

Even before that though, Grammie Lowe made sure all the grandkids had matching hats.  Cute boys!

Finally, it was time to head to the beach.  Now, the Oregon coast is known for it's wet, cold, windy weather, so we tried to prepare our boys for that before we left.  Wouldn't you know it, the weather was amazing!  In fact, we found out it was an answer to a prayer.  As The Big Guy Lowe and I were exclaiming about the incredible weather, our oldest son spoke up.  He excitedly said "Heavenly Father answered my prayer!".  We looked at our son as he continued saying "When you guys said that it was going to be rainy, I went to my room and said a prayer and asked Heavenly Father if we could please have nice weather at the beach.  We are having nice weather!".  The Big Guy Lowe and I gratefully agreed with our son that Heavenly Father had heard and answered his prayer, and that He will always hear our prayers.  It was a completely unexpected teaching/learning moment for our son--one that he helped prepare for.  Thanksgiving was wonderful for me at that moment.  Love you so much son.

Thanks for your great photography skills Aunt Christina!!  A few of my favorite shots.

Our youngest right in line with daddy.

Our middle son's treasures.

Family silhouette.

Oldest son running free.

Mommy and youngest son finding shells.

The Big Guy Lowe's batting practice.

I feel such satisfaction reminiscing over that day...

Thanksgiving Party

This year we had many fun things happening around Thanksgiving.  Before all our family came from out of town we were able to go to our oldest son's school where all the first grade classes were gathering together for a huge presentation and party.

I made some of my favorite sugar cookie with glace' icing--they taste delicious and are beautiful too!  Yea!! 

The best was each of the classes singing a Thanksgiving song all dressed in costumes they had made themselves.  Unfortunately, I forgot my good camera but caught some quick shots with my phone.

We then headed into his classroom to eat the bounty brought by parents!  Our oldest son sitting by one of his good friends, Logan.

Happy almost Thanksgiving!

Miracle Meal

Maybe this is a common thing in your home, but unfortunately, it's not common here.

Homemade chicken noodle soup and rolls. 

Everything homemade (hmmm, okay, other than raising the chicken and making my own noodles--everything else, right from my kitchen!). 

That's not the miracle though.  The miracle happened when I served the soup.

Everyone *loved* it!

No complaining...at all!  Really!

I think this is what heaven must be like--everyone sitting at the dinner table, eating and enjoying food, saying thank you and being happy.

I can't even express how happy I felt.

Relief

I considered taking a picture of The Big Guy Lowe and I walking into the Kearney Breast Center today, but just couldn't do it.  If someone could have looked into my heart and known the fear I had at that moment, they would have understood why.  It was just something I wasn't capable of doing.  Today wasn't the first time I have taken this kind of walk.  That happened when I was 23 years old...and there have been other times between then and now.

As we walked to the elevator I kept telling myself that I have made it through all the past scares.  Benign tumors have become something of a favorite past time my body has taken up--without requesting my   permission.  A few months ago I noticed changes and pain.  There had never been pain before.  I shared what I was experiencing with The Big Guy Lowe and we decided to wait and see how things progressed.  The pain left, but then returned.  This time The Big Guy Lowe wasn't about to let me wait any longer before seeing my doctor.  It's interesting how quickly you can be seen by a doctor and then have a mammogram and ultrasound scheduled when there is motivation--on the doctor's part.  This past week has been an ongoing challenge of keeping a brave face on--to help try to keep myself calm, and to help those 'in the know' around me calm too.  I really didn't have any major feelings of foreboding, in fact, for the most part I actually did feel calm.  It was just those few times that I found myself wiping tears from my cheeks as fear crept in.

Once we arrived at the center, I could at least focus on filling out paper work.  We were then asked to sit as someone would be right out to get me.  The Big Guy Lowe tried distracting me by pointing out recipes in Good Housekeeping,  but unfortunately, I wasn't really interested.  Finally, I was asked to head back for the mammogram.  At that point I was told that The Big Guy Lowe would not be able to accompany me to that because of radiation.  I stood up, gave him a kiss, and followed the nurse as my eyes welled up with tears.  Man!  I was just one scared little girl!

Without going into details, the mammogram was successful and I was amazed at the pictures they were able to get.  Finally, The Big Guy Lowe was invited to join me for the ultrasound.  I specifically wasn't paying attending to what the technician was doing, but my sweetie was able to watch everything that was happening as she measured two seperate areas.  He told me later, that was when he started getting nervous.  It probably was a good thing that I couldn't see him from the position I was in!  She then completed that test and went to let the radiologist know we were finished.  Less than a minute later, she was back with the radiologist.  At that point, The Big Guy Lowe and I saw eachother and we were both nervous.  He later told me that he had determined if we were going to have to go through surgery/treatment, that he was going to suggest that I have a plastic surgeon present.  As soon as one thing was taken out, something else would be put in!  I just laughed. 

It's good to laugh.

Gratefully, there was good news.  Yes, some new things were found, but they follow my very productive "creating" history.  I was given all the cautions of what I should do if things were to "change" again, but overall, the doctor, technician, The Big Guy Lowe and I were all happy with the results!  In fact, after all the medical stuff was over, the doctor and The Big Guy Lowe had quite a discussion about New York, lacrosse, and other areas of life.  Go figure! I go there to get my measly little boobs looked at, squished, and gooped up--and my husband leaves with a new friend!  :)

We're grateful for today's outcome.  I know I will have to make that walk again at some future date, but until then I will focus on the blessings I have today.  I love my three boys.  I love my husband.  We have many blessings and are blessed with the challenges we do have.  I'm grateful...and so relieved.

Happy birthday to The Lowe Girl!

This year my birthday landed on a Sunday.  The Big Guy Lowe is currently serving on the High Council for church and had a speaking assignment in another ward that morning, my parents were at a reunion/vacation in Las Vegas and St. George, and I was trying to prepare myself for a not-so-exciting birthday.  Isn't it nice when things turn out so much better than expected?  That was the theme for my day.  I'll explain...

First, as I woke up that morning, my oldest son had made me a birthday card--all by himself! 

This was the first year that one of my children took it upon themselves to do something for me for my birthday (without the prompting of another adult).  I was so excited and felt so loved!  I especially love the party I'm having on the inside of the card.  If you look carefully, you can see that all of our family members are present at the party--the Big Guy Lowe is the head without hair (lol) and each of the other boys are represented too--by head only.  I guess I'll be the only one dancing there! 

We didn't have much time for a birthday breakfast then, as the Big Guy Lowe had to be at the church by 8:40am, but I had planned ahead to help this day have greater potential for being enjoyable!  Jamyn, one of our favorite babysitters (sorry boys, I mean kid-sitters) was able to come over and watch the boys so that I could go and be supportive of the Big Guy Lowe as he spoke in a new ward.  It was a very nice meeting, while being very different from what I usually experience on most Sundays.  I was able to sit quietly, without interruption and listen to the speakers (the Big Guy Lowe did a great job on his talk), and I was able to quietly contemplate the blessings that I possess because of our Savior's teachings and sacrifice.  While I did enjoy the calm and interruption-free meeting, I found myself lonely for my boys.  This stage in my life might be one where our weekly Sacrament meeting is riddled with trying to help our boys be quiet, reverent, somewhat contained, not fighting, not making too much of a mess and all of that, but it is still the stage our family is in, in our lives.  I found that the greatest lesson I learned during that quiet and yes, enjoyably reverent meeting was that I am happy with the stage I am at in my life.  I love our family so much and need to recognize the blessings of where we are, instead of letting myself get to the point of being frazzled because my boys are acting their age.  We'll keep working on reverence in church, but I'm going to try to do it with more of a smile in my heart--enjoying the process.  (Please remind me of this epiphany if I get that frazzled look again though!)  :)

After this early meeting we returned home to happy kids.  The Big Guy Lowe and I made our favorite eggs benedict with hash and thoroughly enjoyed our late breakfast.  All the boys took naps and the adults did too, well, kind of.

Finally, 1:00pm came around and it was time for our church to meet.  We had good meetings and I was especially appreciative of the blessing of being a wife and mother.  Amid life's trials, things are good.  I am grateful.

For dinner we had decided on a skirt steak with one of my favorite marinades.  We had our homemade baked fries and a salad.  My mother-in-law, Ilene was there as was my good friend Tami.  For dessert we had an icecream cake that Ilene picked up--so good!  I actually do have one picture of the cake because the Big Guy Lowe took a picture with his phone, but he hasn't emailed it to me yet, so we'll just have to wait to see the candles blown out!

He emailed them!!  Here they are!!

See!  I actually did have a yummy cake and the boys helped blow the candles out--we were all happy!

It had been a very satisfying day.  I felt happy and loved and extremely grateful for the blessings and challenges that are ours.  The evening was just about over, when Ilene pulled out her gift.  She handed it to me saying something about a kitchen appliance that she thought that I might already have, so I began opening the gift in a somewhat confused and distracted state.  Then, when the box was unwrapped, I almost couldn't contain myself!!  For some time now I have been wanting a nicer camera.  I have found the great limitations that my camera had as I have been working on taking pictures more often.  My dream was to someday get a digital SLR that would allow me greater freedom in my picture taking as well as greater ability.  As I looked down, that was sitting in front of me!  I almost couldn't speak because of my shock!  Tears welled up in my eyes as I looked at Ilene knowing she had learned about something that was important to me and wanted to be a part of that.  She succeeded!!  After a brief moment of disbelief and confusion (this was not a kitchen appliance!!), my excitement took over!!!!!!!!! 

As a family, we spent the next hour taking everything out of the box, and watching the instructional dvd as it taught about this fabulous camera!  The boys caught our excitement and eagerly wanted to take pictures with the new camera.  I nicely, but firmly, explained about the new camera being a camera that only mommies and daddies could use--so they would be able to take pictures with it when they had kids of their own!  While they were a bit confused, the point was taken!

So now, I am the excited and grateful owner of the Nikon D3000 with the AF-S DX VR Zoom 18-55mm lens and the AF-S DX VR Zoom 55-200mm lens!  YAHOO!!!!

Thank you so much Ilene.  Your thoughtfullness is so appreciated and your clever ability to keep this a COMPLETE SURPRISE was thoroughly enjoyed!!

Overall, my birthday this year was wonderful.  I have much to be grateful for and a family that I love as much as they love me.  Yes, it was a happy birthday.  Thank you everyone!

Next time I'll look sooner...

I've discovered that I'm the kind of mom that tends to 'play down' events that often bring discomfort and even some tears to the lives of my kids.  Example--I wait a bit after my kids fall on the ground, to see if they can handle the situation and work through it.  When cuts and bruises happen I let the boys know that Heavenly Father made our bodies to get better, so even though there might be a scrape, they will be okay.  You know, that kind of thing.  Well, a week ago today, this plan kind of back-fired on me!

Our oldest son came home from school and casually mentioned that he itched on his legs.  I continued what I was doing and just reminded him to rub the itch instead of scratching.  All seemed well.  I can recall back now that there were a few additional times that he mentioned this 'itching', but nothing seemed strained or concerned in his voice, so there was no real investigation...until just before bed-time. 

Here it comes, can you sense it?

Dinner is over and things are being cleaned up for the night when my son begins to cry as he says "my ankle hurts so bad--I can't move it".  Okay, at this point there are enough cautionary ques that I walked over to him and asked him to show me where he hurt.  He proceeded to pull up his pant leg and show me his right ankle--which at this point was so swollen and red that I couldn't even see the signs of the bone underneath!  I then noticed other bright red welts, of varying sizes on his leg.  The request for him to remove his pants came with the further discovery of yet more of these extremely itchy welts.  Off came the shirt revealing more on his trunk and arms.  For whatever reason, his upper neck and face were spared!  At this time of night our doctor's office was closed, so I tried to keep things calm and proceeded getting everyone ready for bed.  I got out the Benadryl--at least I could try to bring some relief to that awful itching that he couldn't seem to stop.  The good thing about all of this was he didn't have any other symptoms.  No fever, no breathing difficulties, the welts (hives) didn't form any kind of blister or head on them, there was just the appearance of some sort of allergic reaction.  While I was stumped as to their cause and pretty concerned, I didn't feel the need to rush off to the hospital.  A short time later, the Big Guy Lowe returned home from a late meeting.  After explaining everything to him we decided to get our son out of bed (where he was calmly sleeping) so we could both take a good look.  Gratefully, the Benadryl was working and I could tell that some of the swelling in his ankle had already started to go away.   He was given a blessing and we put him back to bed.

The next few days we were in contact with our doctors as we tried to figure out what had caused such a strong reaction.  I went into the school to talk with our son's teacher, scoured our home for anything new, and interrogated our kids about everything they had eaten...but we couldn't find a cause!

Gratefully, by Sunday our son was doing much better!  Hardly any hives left and the itching was almost gone!  While I hope our son never has to experience that again, it did get us out of Saturday soccer games in the pouring rain. :)  In retrospect, I wish I would have investigated my son's mentions of itching sooner than I did.  In the future, I'll try to do so, but for the most part I'm a firm believer in playing things down.  Oh well, all's well that ends well?  That's what we think at least!

A good day at Physical Therapy

Every other week we have a PT appointment for our youngest son as we strive to improve his gross motor skills and strengthen his legs, feet and associated joints.  Honestly, these have been pretty hard for me on more of an emotional level than I would like to admit.  We are SO happy with our little guy's progress!  He is walking, squating down and getting up without assistance, taking steps on uneven ground, running--and so much more!  For a while though, it has seemed that our appts weren't acknowledgements of his progress, but just pointing out areas he was lacking in.  While I believe our physical therapist was doing her best at focusing on areas that we could improve in, I would often leave those appts discouraged and full of concern.

The past two sessions have been different though.  I have brought our middle son, and he has been a big helper!  It seems our youngest likes playing with his brothers!  Imagine that!! :)  Previously, I had been told not to bring siblings, but two weeks ago I didn't have a babysitter, so like it or not we were going to have a visitor.  It ended up being wonderful!!  Our PT agreed and has been very happy with the progress that has been made.

I took pictures yesterday of some of the fun things the boys were doing.  I couldn't take too many though, because I am a part of this therapy.  The PT has our son do the activities, and then teaches me how to do the activities at home.  These are the pictures I did get...lots of squatting down, picking up objects of varying weights and sizes, traveling over uneven ground and steps, and then throwing the objects in different containers.  He is also showing the ability to begin balancing on one foot as he steps up/down, stomps on a stomp rocket, and kicks a ball while walking.  It was such a good day!

This is my favorite picture as it shows how happy our little guy was.  I was almost in tears when I saw how much he was doing and how much fun he was having doing it.  *Sigh* (of gratitude)

It always helps to see progress.  Good Job little man!  We love you so much!!

Halloween Fun--Part 5 Trick or Treating!!!

Our costumes were ready.  The weather was cooperating yet another night!!  (That's saying A LOT in the NW as there have been years of torrential rains on previous Halloween nights!)  Grammy Lowe was passing out candy and our friend Tammy was attempting to do homework (we didn't really let her do homework on Halloween though!  She was having too much fun with Ilene and the trick or treaters!!).  We had the makings of a great night!

We headed out the front door.  Our oldest was Boba fett, our middle son was Jengo fett, and our youngest was none other than Darth Vader (from last year--we recycled it, I guess you can call us green!)

It was so fun having all the boys in costume and excited about being out.  Our youngest was amazed at the costumes.  You could almost hear his thoughts wondering what was going on!

Unfortunately, The Big Guy Lowe and I didn't dress up.  Call us party poopers, because we were!  Last year we all were in costume!

Unfortunately this is the closest shot we had of our family--yep, I'm taking it!

We had to go to Sue and Gary's house!  Whether they like it or not, we share as much of our family fun with them.  Maybe Sue isn't always thrilled having the boys bring their bug discoveries over, but she never lets on and that keeps the boys coming!  Thanks for being such great friends and neighbors!

The last house we went to was our own.  So fun to go out, and so good to be home again! 

Happy Halloween everyone!

Halloween Fun--Part 4 The Neighborhood Halloween Party!

This has been a year of many firsts for me, and helping plan our neighborhood party was just another part of my learning experiences!  It was great getting to know a few more of my neighbors--Jen and Dawn are both great ladies, with enough fun sass to share!!

This halloween party was going to have alot going on; a cake walk, more games, a bounce house with a slide, a haunted house, a pot luck dinner, costume contest--lots of fun!  The part I was most excited about was the cake walk.  I decided I was going to have a lot of fun getting ready for that event and my kids supported me in that decision!

I baked for a few weeks prior to the party, wrapping then freezing the goodies.  The plan was to take them out the day before and have a mammoth day of decorating.  Crazy you say, maybe, but I called in reinforcements and my mom came over to help!  Have I mentioned how much I love my mom?  She is not only talented in many areas, but she's fun to be with too.  I know I don't have any daughters, but I hope my boys might feel something of that for me someday...probably not though--they're boys!! :)

Just a few examples of what we turned out that day...

I also made my favorite carmel pretzel logs--truly, they are the best I have ever tasted because the carmel recipe is so good.  If you are interested let me know and I will get the recipe to you!!  SO GOOD!!!

The day of the party we were concerned about the weather.  Our bounce house wouldn't be able to be used if it was raining, and the company we were renting from called that morning to give us the chance to cancel due to rain.  We held off and were rewarded!  As someone said, "It's a halloween miracle!"--we were extremely grateful!

Setting up for food with Sue and Shaggy.  You can't go wrong when Scooby doo is around!

Bounce house fun--a real kid-pleaser!  Check out All Pro Inflatables as they were great to rent from!

Adults and kids came in costume!

We had many winners in the costume contest.

Overall the party was a success!  The weather ended up being mild and dry making it perfect for an outdoor party.  Even the clean up was relatively painless as many people stayed to help.  The best part was the kids having fun.  Our oldest thought it was great that he could run around with his friends and not always have a parent right with him--growing up a bit, I think.  We'll see what happens next year!