Our Busy Week

I like to call this a busy season for our family. As June comes around we have graduations, parties, birthdays, weddings, and so so much going on at the church. We are very busy from June until right after camp in August, I need to remember to slow down and catch my breath! Here are some pictures of our busy week, remember our week started with our hospital stay...

Here is Joshua playing outside at my in laws house on Sunday afternoon. We celebrated my nephew, Landon's 3rd birthday on Sunday with cupcakes and presents. Thank you Amy for letting me make cupcakes!

Landon doesn't look too excited to enjoy his cupcake

All the boys, ( except for baby Matthew who is out of town!)

Saturday we took the youth group on a trip to the Ocean. It was a beautiful Day on the coast, we all got a little too much sun!

Baby Joshua...

Every year we go down there on the same weekend that they are having a big festival. The sandcastle building contest is fun to go see. Noah liked going around and seeing all of the creations

Noah rode around on our friend Andy's shoulders

and Joshua rode on Micah's shoulders

Noah in the sun

Joshua in the sand

Friday I helped a dear friend out by watching her kids for a few hours... my kids LOVE to play at their house, so really it is a fun time to be with their kids! Noah had fun riding on a little "motorcycle" as he calls it

Love this picture. My beautiful BOY!

Also on Friday we had a special Lunch celebration with the girls in my core group at church. I love these girls and any chance we get to be together is a blessing to me!

My Dad

I mentioned a long time ago that I found a bunch of pictures and e mails from my Dad from years ago... well I have been saving this post for Fathers Day, I am so excited to share these with you all! My Dad served in the United States Air Force for over twenty years, during the end of that time frame he spent almost a year serving in Iraq. These emails were from that time when he was at war, they are so precious to me, I plan on putting them into a scrapbook so I can have them forever. When I read them I am moved to tears as i remember what I felt and went through in that time, I had just gotten married and the very next week my Dad was shipped out, I was so afraid for him, and missed him terribly. Isn't it sad that it takes fear of losing something or someone before we truly cherish what we have? My Dad is definitely my hero. He is such a servant. He serves his family with everything he has, he loves us more than life itself. There is not a day that I doubt that he would do anything for me or my brothers or my step mom. His strength is amazing. He is what I call a gentle giant... the most kind and loving man, wrapped up in a huge muscular intimidating package. I love him so much. Happy Fathers Day to my Daddy.

Here he is at a Starbucks in Iraq. He sent me this because at the time I worked there.
My younger brother Kody made this for my dad, it is a "flat Kody" the kids in his class made these and sent them to troops to have with them. I have several pictures of my Dad with " flat Kody" This one is particularly neat because it is taken in front of one of Saddam Hussein's Chandelier's in one of his palaces. Cool huh?

More flat Kody

My Dad is the third from the left in the back row.

I am so thankful for our US Military, and their service to our country, and am proud to be called the daughter of Joe Palmer

Fathers Day Softball

Every year our church has a softball game on fathers day. It is usually kids versus adults, but every year we have younger and younger kids, it has become very unfair so they mix the teams up. I cant wait for next year when Noah will be able to play! Here are some pictures of our special day! Of course I didn't get any of the most special and amazing daddy, sorry Micah, we love and appreciate you more than you know. God has truly blessed me with you, you are an amazing husband and a loving father to our children. I love you so very much!

Joshua with a dirty face!
This one is going in a frame in my house. Love this!

Noah with his friends, the Farley kids

Noah with his pringles!

Joshua watching the game!

Happy Father's Day!

More hospital stay

Well we made it through our hospital stay, the only bad thing really was that I got a nasty cold! I think I was already coming down with it before we were admitted though, so I guess that wouldn't be the hospital's fault! Noah's EEG went very well. The doctor got the information he needed in just a day and a half, instead of the two so we were even able to go home early. Going home early was a good thing, when the tech started to take off all of Noah's " rainbow strings" as we called them, we found that his skin had broken down and there was big open sores under two of the metal things, my poor guy, no wonder he was screaming! We are thinking that the abrasive cleanser that they put on those spots was too rough for him. The doctor was very happy with Noah's results and would like to keep Noah on this dosage of his medicine. His EEG revealed that he had a few episodes, but nothing of concern, so the medicine is effectively preventing seizures. I was a little confused when our doctor said he would like to keep him on his current medication, at our last appointment he had said that he would like to change his medication to a much newer drug with fewer side effects, but he explained that he is doing very well on this one and the most important thing is that we are preventing seizures. I trust this doctor, so for now I will just watch Noah, I will say that this new dosage has been good, I haven't seen any of the manic behavior that I was seeing, and the sleep problems have gotten a little better. Here are a few pictures from our hospital stay.

Micah and Joshua came to visit during the day, Joshua found this little walker toy and went crazy! We walked up and down the halls for a good hour the first night! He will walking by himself very soon.
When we got into our room the nurse pointed out that this was Noah's quilt to keep! He also had a special pillowcase to keep, it had "kickin balls" on it. ( that is what Noah calls soccer balls) Noah loves this quilt and his pillowcase, I am so thankful as a mother for a place that cares about my son.

Noah was so excited here! So nice to see a happy face! Daddy and Joshua brought him a special gift, a new car! He got a new Mater tow truck and was so excited.

Another picture of our view. What a beautiful day to be stuck inside! Oh well, at least we had a window!

As promised here are some pictures. Joshua was grabbing at the computer when I was trying to upload these and hit some button that made it all funky! Oh well!

Hospital stay...

Here we are, finally Noah is having his 2 day EEG done at Swedish hospital. I was sick to my stomach all night, couldn't sleep well, then when I finally got into my deep sleep Joshua woke up, 45 minutes before the alarm. Aah such is life! I am so physically and emotionally exhausted that I think last night seemed much worse than it was. As i shared earlier my brother got married this weekend, that combined with our normal church activities and our fathers day softball game has definitely worn me out! We got here at 8:30 this morning, ( our check in time was 9am, we were just a bit early) but they got us in right away. Our room is just perfect, on the 9th floor with a great view of downtown Seattle. Actually I have never been to this side of town before, maybe after we leave here in a few days we can explore a little. I am hoping that the worst part is over for my little guy, He screamed the entire time that the tech was putting the dozens of wires on his head, seriously, the entire time. In all it was about an hour long process... now we are just in entertainment mode. i brought all of Noah's favorite toys ( except his Mr. Potato Head which we lost at my brothers wedding. I am dreading telling Noah, its his favorite) I went to the dollar store and bought a few " presents" for him, he has already opened them and is having a great time playing with the off brand play doh, surprise, it is holding up very well! Micah and Joshua are here with us too but they will be going home tonight. I am praying that Joshua has a good night with Micah, I am never really away from him at night. I will post some pictures of my precious boy a little later! Thank you all for our prayers, I can definitely feel them. The holy spirit has been such a comfort today, and HE put a song in my heart that is ministering to me... "Glory in the Highest" This is one of my favorites lately, I am reminded that my God is so much bigger than this, and yet he still cares about my seemingly trivial worries.

Mr and Mrs Armbruster

Brendan and Angela are married!!!!! Yesterday my brother and his fiance finally got married! I say finally because they both thought they had a long engagement... I suppose a year seems long... ours was a 14 month engagement. It was the perfect day! Originally the ceremony was going to be at the Everett Arboretum, it is a beautiful location, unfortunately... the weather didn't cooperate. Luckily the location for the reception was beautiful, and a bonus, warm and dry! Here are some pictures I have taken this weekend at some of the different events that have taken place. Enjoy!

Me and my hubby at the rehearsal dinner

Sweet Joshua

... and Noah

My mom and step dad

Brendan's step mother and my mom

Brendan's Dad

The happy couple...

Angela's grandmother ( seriously an awesome lady) with my mom

Angela's parents, and oldest brother

parents of the bride

Had to get a family pic! This is my moms side of the family, I only have one uncle and three cousins who couldn't make it. I honestly cant remember the last time we were all together... My lovely grandparents are celebrating 50 years of marriage this summer...

My mom dancing with Pop

I wish I could have gotten a pic of our family with the bride and groom in it, but they were a little busy... here is my brother's Dad's family

pretty cake...

Mom and Brendan at rehearsal...

Brendan's Dad and stepmother at rehearsal

Groomsmen...

It was a perfect wedding, the vows were beautiful, and we all had a great time,

I am so happy for these two and am thrilled to now be able to call Angela my sister!