Happy 4th of July

We hope you enjoyed a fantastic long holiday weekend!


it's sparkler time



We started our weekend out by having the Zweitzig clan over for dinner and fun.  We had 6 (yes, count them) little girls 6 years and under.  Angela, Sarah, Leah, Elyse, Rebecca, and baby Hannah had a great time.  It was nice to catch up with Carrie and Dan while the kids played.  They loved when I brought out the sparklers... what a great time with friends!!

Then on sunday, we headed to Perkasie to visit our friends the Dietls.  The girls played with Jacob and got to experience what an "all boy" house would be like - lots of cars and trucks, very light on the pink and purple stuff!!  But we had another great dinner, then the kiddos played in the pool and ran around till they were all tired...

Then we could officialy say "happy 4th of July".  Sort of last minute we decided to head to the Lower Southampton Parade.  Sadly we have lived in this area for 9 years and have NEVER been to a local parade, so we figured why not.  It was a great experience.  We sat in the "performance area", so all the bands, karate groups, and mummers all performed infront of us.  We even saw some friends we knew in the parade. 

south philly string band

We then went home for a bit of "down time" before we headed out for the 4th of July pool party and fireworks.  We went to Rose and Walts house, the kids were in the pool for what seems to be hours, and eventually turned VERY pruney!!  Then it was fireworks time.  Walt rolled his huge wagon full of fireworks to the end of the road (in the retention basin) and then the fun began.  We all sat on the hill and watched the spectacular display.  They could rival the townships fireworks... so it was really cool.  Then as our display was ending, the townships took over, almost seemlessly.  We watched the rest of the show and then headed home. 

It was a fantastic holiday... and now we needed a few days to "recover" from all of our fun...

Happy Independence Day America!!!

2011 CHOP Fetal Family Reuion

We look forward to this HUGE celebration for our "stars" each year.  This was the 15th annual, and we have been to 5 of them (Angela was still in the NICU while the first one took place...).  Each year each fetal diagnosis child is a "star for the day".  The hospital provides the fun, the food, and a time to get together with the doctors, surgeons, and friends that have been made over the years.  This year was no exception!!

The girls ate, bounced, got their faces painted, enjoyed rides, played games, won prizes, and showed off their beautiful smiles to everyone who saw them!!



our family picture at the reunion



the mummers



yeah phillies



the "stars board"... parents sent in pictures of the children... angela is in the CDH area (red) and is laying on her stomach

Make over party...

What girl woudn't love to have her hair done, nails, and make up...

Angela enjoyed an evening of "pampering" at Cassidy's 6th birthday party.  Each child got their hair styled (their choice of style, and color if the wanted), chose their nail colors, and chose their make up...  it was sooo cute.  They played games, ate pizza and of course celebrated a fun birthday for Cassidy.

even some of the parents got to have some fun



Kindergarten Swim Party

Splish Splash... what a bash!!  On June 25th the AM Kindergarten class all got together at the Dolphin Swim Club for a day of fun in the sun.  The kids LOVED the water slides, diving boards, and all the yummy foods that the parents all brought.  They dined on pizza under the trees and cupcakes by the pool - what a great day!!!

It's camp and VBS time...

Angela's last day of the school was on June 17th... and after a weekend of fun at home, it was time for St. Mary's camp to get started on the 20th.  Angela was sooo excited to go since this was her first camp experience.  The first week was "zoo week", then they have beach week, then princess and pirate week, then cooking week, then "anything goes week".  Elyse will be going two days a week starting in July... so she is very excited also. 

The girls also started Vacation Bible School with their friends for a week.  It is from 7pm till 8:30pm for 5 days and they have been having a blast.  They come home with some great stories about what they have learned and how much they can't wait to go back the next day.  They'll be sad once thursday comes along and they are done for this year!!

Happy 8th birthday Jake and Oscar - meow!

Our cute little furballs are now officially 8 years old.  I still remember the day I said "Scott, can we get a cat?"  After checking on "petfinder.com" I called him and said "actually can we get two - they are too cute, brothers... how could he say no?"   We then found out they were in maryland, so we made the trip.  Before too long we realized they were the cutest little kittens we had ever seen.  We met "Oscar and Andy" for the first time.  Oscar seemed to "fit" Oscar, but Andy was then changed to "Jake"...  and then the fun started.  We brought them home and our home has never been the same since!  We love our furry duo... happy birthday boys!!

early summer fun...

The summer is just beginning... and so is the fun!!

decline push up time

it may be chilly but we love it anyway!

yummm... roasting marshmallows

Happy Father's Day!

pop pop and his girls

Anyone can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a daddy!

We are Warriors... grrrrr

We have done MANY different kinds of races, and now we can check "warrior dash" off our list.  We participated in the Warrior Dash in the poconos this past weekend, and it was a GREAT experience.  It is a 3.5 mile run through a paintball site (Skirmish - near Jim Thorpe) while doing all kinds of obsticles - climbing over piles of junk cars, jumping over open fire pits, swimming through lakes, climbing over 2 story walls, crawling through tubes, trying to avoid the razor wire, and best of all, diving head first into mud.   Over 15,000 people participated and everyone was VERY muddy at the end.  We went home with ALOT of mud and great memories!!  Can't wait to do it again next year!


post race



last obsticle - you had to "swim" through the mud and make sure you were low enough to avoid the razor wire...



post race refreshments





the girls enjoying our hats



Lets go Phillies Lets Go!

the reedell clan

We were lucky enough to get to a fantastic phillies game on June 15th at 1pm.  This was a rescheduled game, and since Angela was out of school early that day, we headed down to the game.  The weather was perfect and the Phillies pulled off a fantastic win against the Florida Marlins.  The girls even got to dance after Jimmy Rollins smashed a hit into the stands giving the Phils the lead.  It was a great day to spend with the family at Citizens Bank Park!



beautiful day at the ballpark



mommy and angela



out baseball fans



daddy and elyse





dancing after the home run



Congrats to Angela - now offiicially a first grader!

We are pleased to announce that Angela did a FANTASTIC job in kindergarten this year.  She was always "on target" each marking period, and this last one she scored "exceeded expectations" in every subject.  She is now reading totally unassisted, and is just learning soo much every day.  She loved having Miss Laughlin this year.  Angela made MANY friends and is very much looking forward to first grade. 

We are soo proud of you Miss Angela!!

Angela made this for Miss Laughlin as a thank you for being such a great teacher!

Happy (belated) 6th Birthday Angela! (june 13th)

Wow... 6 years have flown by!  Hard to believe that Miss Angela is now 6 big years old.  She has come a LONG way and we couldn't be more proud.  She has just "graduated" to first grade, can now ride a bike without training wheels, reads constantly, and is just a fantastic young lady - growing up before our very eyes.  You would NEVER know what she went through when she started out life just by looking at her today.  So, happy birthday kiddo - we love you more than you could ever know!!

The Reedell Family Royal Gala...

The Reedell Kingdom invites you to celebrate the birthdays of princesses Angela and Elyse... and boy did we!!

Usually we have two parties... one for the girls "friends" during the week after school is over, and one with "friends and family" inbetween the girls' birthday.  This year, I just coudln't schedule two parties (with the unknown of my mom's treatments), so we turned it into one HUGE party.  We had over 75 people here, and thank goodness the day was perfect!  Angela and Elyse had around 40 little friends playing in the backyard (and the mud that still exists is proof)... what a day!!  And believe it or not, I did not snap one picture - I was too busy keeping the party going.  But I guarantee you, it was fun had by all!  Thank you to everyone who made their birthday's sooo special!! 

this is a picture of them blowing out their candles on their princess cake (many of the kiddos were still busy on the trampoline, swingset or slip n slide... craziness I tell ya!) - thanks to Cathy for this one!!

just can't stay away from Fox Chase...

After getting the results from mom's scan on friday, she was admitted again to Fox Chase Hospital on thursday, June 2nd.  She has had some difficult GI distress and the doctors wanted to be able to keep a much closer eye on her in the hospital... so she is now there.  Her spirits are ok, and we are hoping that they can "figure out" what is going on and get her on the path to recovery" so we can ALL figure out what the next step will be! 

And of course her little "nurses" always bring a smile to her face, no matter what she is feeling like...

Mom's Scan Results are in...

After 6 weeks of treatment and then three weeks of "recovery time" we finally got some answers about mom's follow-up catscan.  She had the scan done on tuesday and on friday we met with Dr. Igor about the results.  Dr. Igor told us that the tumor had shrunk, but was still in a too difficult location to discuss surgery.  So we are now on a one month break to enable mom to get her strength back, gain some weight, and with any luck feel MUCH more human than she has for the last few months.  We will be going back to Fox Chase at the end of June to discuss chemotherapy session #2 and what it will involve.  So, please keep those prayers coming, and we will keep you updated when we know more!

Mom on Good Morning America

A few weeks ago I video taped my mom "ringing the bell" at the conclusion of her radition treatments.  It was such a happy occasion, I wanted to "share" it with the world.  I e-mailed abc's Good Morning America with my video for their "3 words" segment.  Amazingly within 1 week, my mom was on national tv....

here is the link to watch the whole clip - she is in the middle ringing her bell!!
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=13603726

Enjoy!

Scan day is set...

Finally after all the weeks of treatments then a few of waiting, finally my mom has her catscan scheduled for tuesday, May 24th.   We are also happy to report that mom is feeling better and we hope this will continues to improve.  We do have an appointment down at Fox Chase on friday, and with "any luck" we might get some info from the recent scan.

So, please keep those prayers coming and we will update when we get more info!!