Random Pictures

Two little boys hard at work for mommy!

Andrew's vegetable garden; finally done!!!!

Two cute little boys!

Easter baskets!

Momo and Daddy on zoo day!

All Grown Up!

MMMM...blue frosting!

Joseph and Nevaeh going for a ride....he likes the older women!

Shy boy during his happy birthday song!

The Cake.

Who doesn't love a Thomas Cake?!

Our baby boy is all grown up! That's how it seems anyway.... This weekend we had a small get-together for Mo's second birthday. I can't believe he is two already! We were lucky to have some great weather and everyone seemed to have a good time! Mo's checkup went well on Monday and the doctor has no concerns for him! Tomorrow he gets his day out with Mommy and Daddy and we're heading to the zoo. One of our traditions is now to get a day out with Mommy and Daddy and no siblings for birthdays. We should be able to get some good pictures at the zoo. Then next week we will get official 2 year pictures taken. We've been keeping busy here; we've started our nanny search and have been busy going back and forth to Columbus to see Uncle John. And of course getting ready for Elizabeth has taken up a lot of our time. The daddy will be building our raised garden soon (hopefully this weekend!) and then we will begin planting our vegetable garden. I can't believe it's almost time to plant already! We are hoping to really get the boys involved in planting and harvesting our veggies this year. We think it is something they will really enjoy! We have started the process applying at preschools for Andrew to start in the fall. The program we want is highly selective so we are crossing our fingers! It is an integrated program with small class sizes with half of the class "normal" and the other half disabled. It is a great learning environment and children who are in these programs generally do very well. There are only a couple of classes though and they are tough to get into so we have applied for a backup. Who ever would have thought we would be going through so much for preschool! I feel like we are applying to colleges! We hope everyone is doing well! Hugs and kisses! We'll try to keep you all updated!

The Mom

***we should have some more and better birthday pictures when everyone forwards what they have to me! I was a little busy and missed a lot of shots!

Air Force Museum

Today Daddy and I went to the U.S. Air Force Museum. It has to be one of my favorite places to go. We saw old airplanes, airplanes that crashed and have boo-boos, airplanes with guns, and the Shark Airplane! Daddy took some pictures so everyone can see how cool the planes are.

Andrew & Mommy--OOPS!!! Wrong Strawberry B*tch!!!

This is Bockscar. It was the Nagasaki bomber.

Look Papa! Me and Ronald Regan!!! Ike is cool too!!!

Is that a thermonuclear explosion or am I just that hot?

Sorry Goose, but it's time to buzz the tower.

COSI

The entrance to the frog exhibit

Boys in the moon

Inside the spacecraft

Last weekend was mommy's weekend to work so we had a boys day out. Daddy took us to Cosi in Columbus. We had so much fun spending the day just being boys.

In an update about Elizabeth....mommy tried to start working on her nursery updates and has now turned a simple update into a full construction project. A very larg hole has appeared in her wall and she will be receiving a new door. Mommy is not very happy. She says she wanted to have this room done by now and not have it be like when Mo was born and Aunt Jen was finishing Andrew's room while mommy was on the operating table! It should be interesting to see how long this takes!

On a more positive note, we are all VERY excited for spring. Our 65 degree day last week planted the bug. Mommy has started thinking about all of our outdoor projects and looking forward to all of Kettering's park and rec updates. We are getting huge updates to our water park, rec center and neighborhood parks. It is all very exciting. We'll update with pictures of our park as it gets going. We are big park people so all of this is very exciting to us! Check it out at

www.ketteringoh.org/newweb/about/BondLevyRenewal.php

Hope everyone is having lots of fun!

Hugs and Kisses!

Andrew and Mo

It's a Girl!

Upside down picture b/c mommy doesn't know what she is doing! This is snack time at Bounce U during our break between bouncing rooms!

This is one of the many contraptions at Bounce U (upside down picture again) you have to scale to the top and then go down a giant slide!

A little unsteady, but tons of fun!

More bouncing equipment!

Mo loves his dogs!

Holy cow everyone; mommy is having a girl! She truly never believed this would happen. Mommy always had a perfect plan in mind of raising 4-5 BOYS who would one day go golfing with daddy while mommy would go shopping. She had dreams of never having to pay for a wedding, and only having to cover the rehearsal dinner and open bar! Mommy likes being Queen Bee and being adored by all of her men! This has thrown a serious wrench in mommy's plans. Suddenly pink things are appearing in our house. Talk of baby dolls and barbie fill the air. We must tell you, it's a bit unsettling. Boys are the only thing we know in this house! What are we going to do with a girl! Daddy is VERY EXCITED. We are hoping he has some kind of clue as to what to do with this girl. We'll have to wait and see.

Yesterday Mommy took us to the coolest place! It is called Bounce U! So much fun we can barely describe it. 2 rooms full of inflatable bouncing equipment to completely wear us out! Mommysays it was the best $8 she's ever spent! It was kind of hard for her to take pictures with everything going on, so if you go to their website you'll get a better idea! http://www.bounceu.com/

We hope everyone is doing well. We are keeping busy getting ready for Elizabeth's arrival, moving bedrooms, getting rid of all the old and bringing in the new!
Hugs and Kisses!

Andrew and Mo

The Timeline

We've been a little busy; here's our timeline to give you a bit of an idea....
12/19 annual Christmas dinner with Chris, Matt, Danielle, Leslie and Angie
12/20 drive to Archbold for Christmas with the Simon clan (horrible weather)
12/21 drive back to Dayton in snow, freezing rain and 40mph winds
12/22 mommy works
12/23 mommy works (horrible weather, every major highway in Dayton is closed d/t freezing rain), was supposed to be off work at 5 but didn't leave till 11 b/c of good 'ol mother nature
12/24 drive 9 long, long hours to Baltimore
12/25 Christmas Day; too many presents couldn't even see the floor of my parent's house!
12/26 daddy's birthday; mommy went outlet shopping with jen and grandma (it's a tradition), i love micheal kors! also got great new bamboo jammies for d-day! ebola virsu begins to take over mommy's body
12/27 drive 9 even longer hours home to dayton, ebola starts working on daddy
12/28 mommy admitted to hospital for cardiac workup! yippee, also day of Snowden family Christmas, at mommy's house!
12/29 mommy discharged from hospital to follow up with cardiologist next week, finally real food but no appetite d/t ebola virus stronghold, sucks a lot cuz daddy got all of mommy's favorites from DLM
12/30 mommy alone with boys for the first time in a week, forgot how tiring they are, daddy home from work early d/t severity of ebola
12/31 mommy's first day back to work, ebola and heart make it difficult, exhausting, wished home 2 hours early, yippee! sleeping by 10pm
1/1 first day mommy can breathe through both nostrils simultaneously, winning the fight against ebola! made mistake of trying to shop for furniture for basement play room, exhausted again, decide sudacare shower soothers are the greatest invention ever and we would not survive without them, sudacare may have created ebola to boost sales......

Sick, Sick, Sick

The best picture we could get at our annual outing at Oak Openings. Pretty bad, we know.

Joseph on Halloween. He screamed bloody murder when we tried to put on his costume, obviously he won and wore his jammies to greet trick or treaters.

This is the first year Andrew picked out his own costume and he chose to be a race car driver. Stunning. We were trying for Star Wars but he wanted nothing to do with it.

Well, the last three weeks have been a whirlwind of sickness in our house. We've taken the last 3 weeks and passed around the most awful cold. As of right now Mommy is the only one left with it. She has had it the longest and quite a bit more severe than everyone else. Better than us boys being worse off! We've been keeping busy enjoying our Indian summer and now we're getting ready for the Holidays! Mom is feeling very festive this year so it should be a good one! We hope you are all doing well!!! Enjoy the pictures!

Love Ya!

Andrew and Joseph

Great Quotes, You can't make this stuff up

"Poops are fun and stinky" Andrew Snowden
"I like farts, farts are fun" Andrew Snowden
"My peepee is big" Andrew Snowden

Can't wait to hear what comes out of Mo's mouth!

We're still alive!

For all of you out there that think we've disappeared, we're back! Just a little tidbit for tonight but mom will put in the full update sometime soon. We've had a busy summer with the kitchen and hurricane ike. We went and got our pumpkins today so you get fun pictures of all of that!

Love Ya!

Andrew and Joseph

More pictures!

Swimming with papa; sticking out the Simon tongue!
We're on our way to the ball game!!! Go Orioles!
Our little Ham!
After the big win! With an excited looking Uncle James in the background!
All 7 boys out to lunch!

We're Back!!!

Three candles and an ice cream cake covered in sprinkles!
Chillin' with uncle Chris!
The Big 3!!!
Little boys love cupcakes!
Water lovin' boys!

Sorry we've been gone so long. Things have been pretty hectic since we started our kitchen remodel. Mommy is sooooo ready to be done! Thanks for all the birthday wishes! We don't have too much to say today, but I'm making mommy post lots of pictures for you all while Mo is sleeping!!!! Hope you're all having a great summer!
Love Ya!
Andrew

A quick add on!

Mo's hospital room was right down the hall from the oncology wing. Seeing those poor children with cancer reminded us to tell everyone to register with the national bone marrow donor registry. Right now they are sending out their registration kits for free. Just go to their website, http://www.marrow.org/ it doesn't even take 5 minutes!!!! I got my kit in the mail about 3 days after I registered on the website and it took less than 5 minutes to complete! They especially need people from varied ethnic backgrounds.
Just imagine if it was your child who had cancer and bone marrow could possibly save their life. Wouldn't you want everyone possible to be registered?!
The Mom

Like a very bad dream....

The mommy didn't get to shower or do her hair, do not fault her for this. All of the cords hanging off of the little boy are his IV, his heart monitor and pulse ox.
Who every thought a bottom sticking out of a hospital gown could be this cute!


Today we get a little story...


Once upon a time (Friday), a little boy woke up happy as can be. This little boy (Mo) woke up as he usually does in the morning, smiling and talking, excited to meet a new day. It was this boy's mom's first of 4 days off in a row. Much was planned for the weekend. They had some shopping to do, lots of cooking, a bbq, finalizing plans for a new kitchen, the boy's dad had a tee time for golf....big, big plans for the days off. But...the little boy began to not feel so well. After breakfast he became grumpy and was inconsolable. He reluctantly went down for his nap. When he woke up from his nap his crib was full of vomit. He had woken up and vomited in 3 different places in his crib and then layed down and went back to sleep. Apparently not long before he woke b/c the stench was fresh (in case you don't know it is a very foul smell). There was vomit in his hair and all over his clothes. So the boy got a bath in the middle of the day. The boy was not happy about the bath, that is how the mom knew something was wrong b/c the boy always loves a bath. The boy's mom thought he might just have the stomach bug that was going around so she decided to keep an eye on him and call the doctor in the morning if things hadn't improved. The boy's dad came home from work early and they hunkered down for a long afternoon of vomit and sleep and vomit and sleep. The poor boy didn't even have the energy to cry. And he only wanted his mom (the mommy likes that feeling) and nothing to do with his dad. So the dad took over the big brother and the mom dealt with vomit and a sleeping baby boy. After trying fluids a couple of times the boy was able to keep down a couple of sips of pedialyte before bed and the mommy and dad were very relieved and thought the worst must be over. Then they went to bed. The next morning the dad tried to let the mom sleep in and got up with the boy. But moments later a very concerned daddy woke the mom to look at the little boys diaper and there was blood in it. Not a good sign, the mommy and daddy both know this. The boy had woken in a good mood and daddy had thought that everything was golden, but he soon became lethargic again (while mommy was walking down the stairs). Then mommy looked in the boy's crib at the vomit the daddy saw when he got the boy up. And there was more blood. An ever worse sign. so the mommy brushed her teeth and threw some clothes on and drove very quickly, but very safely to Dayton Children's Hospital. Once there an xray was done and it showed that the boy had and intususseption (the mommy is not sure exactly how that is spelled, sorry). Basically the boys intestines were telescoping into each other and creating a very bad situation. The daddy found out later that this could have killed the little boy in just 3 days if it hadn't been found. That really scared the daddy. The doctor told the mommy and daddy there was one thing they could try and if it worked the little boy would not have to go to emergency surgery. The mommy and daddy desperately wanted to avoid surgery. So the interventional radiologist (a very nice and very inteligent woman who deserves every penny of the probably half a million dollars she makes yearly) gave the little boy and air enema under flouroscopy (the mommy is afraid of what that bill will look like). And thankfullly (hallelujia, praise Jesus, thank you God), it worked to un-telescope the little boys intestines and he did not have to go to surgery. He did have to stay in the hospital overnight to make sure his intestines stayed where they were supposed to. Then, he finally got to go home. The mommy and daddy are so releived to have the little boy home, safe and sound. And can now just pretend it was all just a very bad dream.


The End.

Mother's Day, From the Mom!

Well, as we all know yesterday was Mother's day. I hope everyone called their mom! The weather was pretty nast here, rain and thunderstorms all day. Scott and the boys were not supposed to get me any gifts since I'm getting a kitchen, but they didn't listen! My day started with breakfast in bed, yum! For my gift we went and had our family pictures taken (something I have been talking about since Joseph was born!) The pictures turned out great!!! Probably the best ones we've ever taken. They would have been a lot better if my hair had cooperated! We'll get them posted soon! Then we went out to lunch and shopped around the mall a bit. I almost bought some jewelry but refrained myself until I can find exactly what I want. I don't want to settle for a piece that I just like. After we got home I got the best present every! Both of the boys took a 2 hour nap, AT THE SAME TIME!!!!! Then a trip to the gym and takeout for dinner. All in all, quite a good day! Today we're going for Andrew's piano lesson. Hopefully it goes as well as last week! We're hoping we'll get our piano this week, just have to get in synch with movers and such.
Hope everyone had a great day! We'll keep everyone updated on all of our project progress!
The mom!

***We're thinking of you Mimi!

Note from the mom!

Today was Andrew's first piano lesson! Miss Linda is his teacher, she lives right down the road and has been teaching piano for a long time. She has great experience in teaching young children! We went today for a trial lesson, to see if Andrew was ready yet. I was a little worried that she would think he is just too young. But, the lesson went well, Andrew enjoyed himself and surprised us a few times. Miss Linda says she would be happy to take him on as a student! I was sooo glad she thought that he did well and was ready to start. She had told us from the beginning that she would be straight forward and let us know if he was not yet ready. But she was very impressed!! Yeah! We're hoping this will help to reign him in a little bit with his wild tendencies! After his lesson we took advantage of the Momo free time and got Andrew's hair cut. He now has a faux-hawk. Too cute! What a big day for my little boy!
Final word came from the bank today for our kitchen remodel, we will sign our home equity loan papers on Thursday and finally get all of this work started. Right now we're in the process of trying to find a contractor and make some actual decisions. We'll be so glad when this is all done! We're hoping to keep our costs down by doing as much work ourselves as possible. We'll see how well that works......
Yesterday we finished off our raised beds with the new landscaping stone. What an amazing difference it makes! It was a lot of hard work but we were so glad we did it! The next day body aches could be done without though.......
On to the next project(s).
Hope everyone is doing well. We are looking forward to a great summer and lots of fun!
The Mom

Little Boys Updated

Hello everyone!! I'm sure you've all been missing us! We've been keeping mom busy testing her patience....you know, all the things little boys do! We've been working hard on our yard for the past couple of weeks! Mommy started planting early, but she couldn't resist!! Thankfully no frost or freeze so far! We'll be safe on May 15!! We put in a shade garden under the magnolia tree. A new sun garden went in on the side of the house. Our new herb and strawberry garden is currently in progress. Mommy dug it all out, but the plants still need to go into the ground. Mommy says maybe we won't put them in at all b/c they are doing soooo well in their little containers! We also started filling in our already existing flower beds and have started switching everything out to landscaping stone! This is the year for our yard!!! We'll post pictures soon! We have had a lot of fun playing in the dirt and making mud with the hoses! We've been blessed with beautiful weather so far, just a couple of cold days!!! It's been great.
Right now mommy is talking to contractors to remodel the kitchen!!!!! We were hoping to wait till next year, but we can't put it off any longer! We're very excited, but it is a pain! We'll update when we have some finalized decisions. As of right now all mommy says is that we are gutting the kitchen. Whatever that means!
Mommy is posting some pictures of our recent trip to the zoo! What fun we had!!
Hope everyone is doing well!!! We'll chat at ya later!
Love Ya!
Andrew and Joseph
***We're thinking of you Mimi! We hoping you're feeling "better". Call us if you need anything!

Better Late than Never!

Mo on his new tractor!!!!!
Quality time with the pups....
Birthday boy!!!!
Chuck E Cheese!!!!!
Brotherly love, Andrew feeding Mo his birthday cake.
Mo turned one!! Yeah for MoMo!!! We had a great time at Chuck E Cheese. Mom says it should show us how much she loves us that she took us there! We had a great time playing and seeing everyone. Mo was still a litle under the weather, but did well. We also got our pictures taken and went to see Uncle John on his visit to Columbus. We had quite a busy week!! We hope everyone is doing well!!!
Love Ya!
Andrew and Joseph

you can see our pics at searphotos.com login kimberly.simon@sbcglobal.net password mouthers

Clarification from The Mom

Maybe we weren't clear. We're not pregnant!!!!!!! And even if we were we would not EVER have a girl. We think someone we know is pregnant, but have not been told yet. That's all we meant, nothing more to read into that one!
Also, we like Aunt Amy's birthday ideas, much potential there.
Love Ya!
The Mom