April

As I was searching for resources to help me better explain Ellis’ PANS condition to her friend’s parents, I came across these amazing handouts. I shared them with Ellis and she immediately wanted to share them with all of her friends. She posted them on a 5th grade group chat she’s a part of and they complained it was too long for them to read, so she recorded a video of her reading it to them, lol. I LOVE how she wants to advocate for herself so her friends can better understand her. This preteen age is so challenging on top of all the other stuff she’s dealing with too. I pray her friends continue to give her grace, patience, and compassion, although it seems to be getting tougher and tougher the older she gets. Through sending these handouts to her friends parents though, I was connected with a local mom whose son also has PANS. I call her my “Angel on Earth”. Her name is Nanci, and she has provided me with an abundance of resources. I can’t put into words how much comfort and hope she has brought me. Talking to someone who gets it has been so so helpful for me. This condition not only effects poor Ellis, but the whole family, and I pray we can all find healing.

Nancy and Joe were asked to cater a huge event at the local community college where Pat Green was performing! Adam and I helped set the booth up for them while they prepared the food, and then stayed to help serve the food!

They knocked it out of the park and people were coming back for seconds and even thirds!

Love the banner Shep’s team had made for the dugout!

Look at our stud front and center!

Ellis was able to rejoin choir even though she missed half the school year. I took her and her bestie, Camryn to their concert at the high school!

The concert was a combination of multiple elementary school choirs, with over 300 kids!

I was so proud of Ellis and grateful she was able to participate in this!

Great job girls!

Ice cream treat as a reward!

Meanwhile, Adam was at The Masters AGAIN! His first day he got to play golf on this historic course…

He went to the Masters with co workers this year, but he still got to go and have a ball on the company dime!

I surprised the boys and took them to Six Flags for our annual “skip school day”! Ellis was supposed to go too, but that crazy girl decided she wanted to go to school instead.

The weather was perfection and the place was practically empty!

Front Row Joe’s on the Texas Giant!

Back Row now on the Texas Titan!

Silly boys always wrestling still…

Skip days are the best days!

Pandamonium

Mr. Freeze

Superman Tower of Terror

Old timey cars to close out the perfect day!

I suspect Ellis wanted to go to school because her birthday party was Saturday and she wanted to be with all of her friends! After six flags I spent all evening getting everything ready for her party….

She opted for Crave cookies instead of a cake this year!

She wanted a painting, trampoline, water slide party at the house, and thankfully the weather cooperated!

The pre party crew filming videos to get ready…

Silly girls!

Meredith, Camryn, Ellis, and Grace

Ellis invited her entire group chat to the party, including the boys, and this is how they all showed up!

All the girls!

This waterslide was a hit and entertained them for hours and hours!

A few of the boys! This age is so cute with all the little crushes, lol

Of course Ellis had to force poor Oreo to go down the slide with her…

Pizza time!

Cake time for our big 11 year old!

Loudest song ever!

Painting time!

They each drew a name and had to draw a pic of the person whose name they drew. Some did a good job and some not so much, lol…

Gift time!

Such a fun, easy, and drama free party that ended at 7:30, and everyone actually left on time!

Cute pic of Shep with his select team!

Shep’s killing at pitching on his rec team too! He’s playing up with a bunch of 4th graders, and no one ever believes us that he’s only 9! I got video of his 3 up 3 down strike out inning

We’ve reached a new level where I’m now dropping Brooks off to go to the movies with his friends!

My mom texted this picture to my sisters and I, and I wanted to save it and document it in my blog of all my living aunts and uncles on my dad’s side. This phase of life where everyone is getting older is tough and I sure do miss family and those that are no longer with us. That sure is a good looking family if I do say so myself!

Good Friday I took all the kids and we met a ton of friends at the movies to see the Christian movie “The King of Kings”. I somehow only took a pic of Shep with his friends, but I swear Ellis and Brooks were there too. We actually had two full rows all to ourselves, and it was the perfect way to spend Good Friday!

That evening I went to my friend Breea’s crawfish boil, and it was so yummy! I miss going to crawfish boils every year. It’s only the second one I’ve been to in the 10 years we’ve lived in Dallas.

The next day we headed up to the lake to spend the rest of the Easter Weekend with Adam’s side of the family! We had all the dogs there this year!

They’re making me dizzy!

Confetti eggs!

Aunt Kelly created this with Ellis and it was absolutely beautiful!

And then Lesley and I created this together inside!

Shep was helping Daddy grill the burgers for dinner!

After dinner we had a little birthday celebration for Ellis…

Then it was time for the Easter Bunny to put the baskets together after the kids went to sleep!

Checking to see if the bunny left some eggs! Unfortunately it rained, so the bunny had to hide the eggs inside….

Easter baskets sure have gotten expensive, lol…

Egg hunt time…

Our little bunnies still humor us!

Matching Baseball 101 trending shorts for these cuties!

Christian is the “dog whisperer”!

All dressed up and ready for church! The beautiful sun came out! I sure do love this family of ours!

Best bonus sisters in all the world!

Cutest church on a hill! Love, love, love this Easter tradition of ours!

Beautiful ladies!

Waiting for the service to start you gotta take selfies to document all of us looking so fancy!

Awwww!!

Stroems!

Grandma with all of her blessings!

The whole Dimmick clan (minus Pawpaw, who we will hopefully get up to the lake one of these years)!

I 💛 Texas!

The day after Easter was Ellis’ actual birthday! I had donuts waiting for her in the morning before school!

I cannot believe we have an 11 year old almost middle schooler! Such a challenging age and stage, but to say we’re proud of this girl and her strength and resilience would be a complete understatement! God has GREAT plans for this one…mark my words!

I seriously thought I had her fooled, but nothing gets by this smarty pants…

One last birthday song for the birthday girl!

Well here’s one more, and the best one by far!!

The next day Brooks had his sixth grade band concert!

Percussion is the best!

It amazes me that most of these kids learned how to read music for the first time and are now fully playing these instruments!

Mr. Carroll, all of these boys 4th grade teacher (except Shep, who’s only a third grader and the tallest one, lol) came out to support them at their game! Mr. Carroll was Brooks’ 5th grade teacher and will hopefully be Shep’s teacher next year! He’s from Houston and a huge ASTROS fan, so we love him!

Ellis had her very last 5th grade Wilmeth choir concert for the year!

They did so good! I was a little emotional, and just so happy she’s able to do stuff like this again!

Her clapping off beat was cracking me up…

The choir teacher is retiring this year. I’m so sad Shep won’t get to experience the amazing choir program with her, but hopefully he’ll still want to do it.

Ellis and all her friends after the concert…

Beautiful 5th grade girls!

Why do they have to grow up??

My high school and college bestie, Amy, moved to Birmingham, Alabama and a few of us went to visit her for a “girls trip” in her little slice of paradise!

She took us to this fun little brewery that had an outdoor cover band performing on Friday night!

Not pictured was the very “dark” bar we went to after the concert, lol. We definitely got some funny looks and felt very unwelcome, but we still had fun and made the most of it! I mean, when in Alabama…

Amy lives on this gorgeous golf course where all the houses are tucked away in the rolling hills with massive yards and no fences. The greenery and undulation is breathtaking. She has this amazing screened in back porch (I forgot to take a pic of), and you feel like you’re in a tree house!

We walked through the hills of her neighborhood and my calves were on fire!

After our walk we had lunch and went shopping at the cutest little boutiques. Then she took us to Vulcan Park that overlooks all of downtown Birmingham…

We climbed 10 stories to the top of that statue! Hello quads! After that we were wiped out and just went back to the house, ordered pizza, and played games. Laughing until we cried and our abs were sore. I guess when Amy is in charge of the entertainment, you’re going to be sore, lol!

Our last day we woke up early and went on a hike on this pristine trail right near her house!

I mean you HAVE to do the “dirty dancing” scene when you see a log connecting one side of the creek to the other. I legit almost fell, lol…

So many cool rock formations!

After our hike we rewarded ourselves with a little pool time at a fancy hotel before our spa appointment.

A butterfly came to say hi!

Finally, spa time where we each got a relaxation massage to cap off our trip! Girls trips really are good for the soul. I didn’t realize how much I needed this little getaway with friends where we laughed, cried, exercised, ate good food, did some retail therapy, and even relaxed! It was so good to see Amy! Birmingham is seriously gorgeous!

I want to document and save this sweet text I got from Brooks while I was away. Gosh I’m so lucky!

I will leave you with this PERFECT representation of all 3 kids…

Crazy Shep has somehow gotten himself stuck in the seatbelt, and little stinker Ellis of course pulls out her phone to record and laugh at him, while sweet and caring big brother Brooks climbs in the back seat to help him, lol