Bama Time

 I pick right back up where I left off with us in Bama back in June.  When we have the cousins together... of course we have to get the bath pics :) As my mom was getting all her treatments, walking the hallway was a part of her daily routine. On the good days at least, so it was always a good sign to see her walking. Joss liked to walk with her, and chat the whole time. I could hear him coming down the hallway just chatting away. Anyone that has spent time with this sweet boy KNOWS he can talk. Sometimes I honestly get worried about him not knowing when to stop talking because I see on an almost daily basis from some other kids how incredibly obnoxious that can be and it seems to be worse when they are older and really know better. I love his little chit chat, but I also want to teach him that there is a time and place to be calm and quiet. Needless to say, it is still a work in progress!

 We had a pretty rainy couple of weeks while we were in Alabama this summer. And on a whole, it was pretty mild as far as the heat was concerned. When the sun came out, we spent as much time in the water, out at the playground, riding our bikes, riding the gator... anything to get us outside and away from the tv. 

Below we have us playing a game of Pine Cone Bowling. We zoomed our cars down the slide to see how many pine cones we could knock over. This game lasted for quite some time actually. 

 Back at the hospital, it was a little more challenging to find activities indoors to keep us busy, but we found a few fun games. One of our 'Go-To Games' was Ninjas or Stealth Mode. I would say Stealth Mode whenever we entered a hallway that we needed to use more caution and keep the volume down. They seemed to understand that, and if I made it into a game instead of just asking them to be quiet, it worked way better. Ninjas was more diverse...we could do a lot with this game. We would find big lobbies that have different colored tiles and sneak our way through the room using the tiles as stepping stones and trying to avoid the cracks and 'x colored' tiles. Or we would do various challenges and take turns being the leader. 

Xander was having fun playing Ninjas with them this particular day, above, where they are hanging on the railing. I will say, my kids aren't allowed to just rip and run all over the place and terrorize other people. However, in open hallways big lobbies, and carpeted ramps that are off in a nice little corner, I tried to be a little less strict on them and it definitely helped. I did have to break down and buy a new stroller while I was over there. I flew over with a single one that I borrowed from Dallas' parents because I thought Joss would want to be the 'big' boy and walk in the airport. If Emit was riding, he couldn't understand why he had to walk. It took me about 3 days trying to walk from the parking garage all the way through the hospital until I got me a little double stroller. It saved my life!! That walk went from totally stressful and hectic to an almost enjoyable little exercise time for mommy. Thanks to my cousin, Anthony & his wife Allison, they gave us some money to help cover expenses and just as a way to help (like many others did). The first thing I bought with this was the stroller. I got every penny worth out of it :) and still am!

Bev sent me one of their old iPhone's to use with my US cell plan. I was so excited to get a nice phone. I have a very, very basic cell in Exuma that I barely even need, so I felt like I was living it up with a new phone to play with. Lots of fun pictures with that to send back to Daddy while we were apart. 

My mom got to leave the hospital in between some treatments. I was very nervous about the boys and I being there and being too much energy while she needed so desperately to rest and relax. I tried to keep them and their noise outside, but the rain was fighting that pretty hard. I would have just taken them outside in the rain, but for these little island babies it was a little on the chilly side for that. 

My cousin, Misty, had a big 4th of July celebration at her place that we got to go to. It was a fun time to run some of their energy down. Above you see: Jake, Ava, Dalton, Joss, Tatum & Emit--- this crew had a lot of fun this summer. 

This whale brought hours of fun!

 This week that my mom was home was the worst one in my book. She was miserable and dad and I had no clue what to do to help her. Everything just seemed to be kicking her butt this week. She's a 'tough ole bird' though and hung in there. She fought with everything she had and was able to improve when she got back in the hospital.  

"Just keep bloggin', just keep bloggin', just keep bloggin', bloggin', bloggin'" {to the Finding Nemo tune}  :)