hum-de-dum

Andy volunteered to chaperon Zoo day for A.J.'s kindergarten class. Actually, I volunteered him, but he was a great sport. It was just A.J. and a boy in his class named Shane. They had a great time. A.J. is still a cutie pie. Even with all his front teeth missing.

Ben was being really loving towards Micah during breakfast one morning. I had to get a picture of them holding hands.

Cutie pie #2

Cutie pie #3

My full life....

A tooth pulling, potty training, boogie dancing, baby food spitting, toe painting good time.


A.J. lost tooth #4. He was very happy about this.

Ben is wearing big boy under ware now! Current status: The last pair lasted about 4 hours, we are doing well! Much better than expected.

This is Ben's tee tee dance. Much cuter in person. Look at how long his hair is getting!

Baby girl loves sweet potatoes, and carrots, and peaches. I guess its an orange thing.

This is one of the things we did during spring break. A lot of fun. We also made many trips to the park, went fishing, played in the mud a couple times. Mostly just stayed outside!

Here is A.J.'s support for Ben.

Love you all,

Me

Busted Muffins

Ben would not stay in bed! I probably put him back in bed 20 times, at least. I went to check on him and finally found him hiding right here. Pretty clever.

After I put him back in bed once more, I went to the kitchen where my banana muffins were cooling. Yes, I should have known! We have a squirrel. His name is Ben.

wake-up call

http://www.blindchildren.org/edu_dev/3_5_3.html
This is a link to Blind Kids' resource center

Friday morning we went to the Dr. for a release. A.j. has the wiggles and is itching for some running, jumping, climbing fun. We thought he would be able to go back to being a "normal kid" after this appointment. A.j.'s elbow is not healing as quickly as it should. 6 more weeks of idle A.J. This breaks my heart for a 6 year old athletic boy. He said, " I wish I didn't have this arm. I just wish I weren't A.J." So of course I talked to him about some kids being born without arms and how lucky he is to have this opportunity to learn about himself and capabilities he didn't know he had. Where does this stuff come from? I realized that while sitting in the waiting room, there was a 4-5 year old blind boy. He came in with his Mom's hand in one hand and a pole in the other. Feeling his way around, his mom put his hand on the padded chair next to hers and said "Stay right here for a moment." The boy started feeling the chair and then just put his head down on the seat until his mommy was ready. I looked at Micah who looked back at me and smiled. I looked at Ben who was on the floor playing with an airplane. I looked at A.J. who was watching 101 Dalmatians on the T.V. to the right. I said a little prayer of thanks and wondered what my life might be like if each one of my children were blind. How fortunate we are!

We went to the evening service last night since it was just me and the kids. Usually they have cookies but this time they didn't. I thought I would never hear the end of it. During service our Pastor asked for anyone who had lost there job to please stand up and come to the front of the room. Our congregation prayed for these families. Then Toby (our Pastor) proceeded to say that We had received the largest offering ever the Sunday before, and God had put it on his heart to give some of this money to people who needed it. Each one of those families got some money to take home with them. I was weeping by the end of it. I went to get the boys from their classes and A.J. started in with the cookie thing again. I firmly grabbed his shoulder and asked him to wait to discuss this until we got in the car. I explained to him that the kids walking next to him didn't have dinner. Their parents lost their job and didn't have money for groceries, and here he was complaining about cookies. That got his attention. He said we could go home and get some of our groceries, and take it to them. Sweet. I can't help but feel like God prepares me for these situations. So even though there might not be a manual for raising my kids, God is right there walking us through it step by step. I pray that he continues to open my eyes, and keep me awake for the things I need to be aware of.

I don't get to take as many pictures of A.J. these days. I usually snap a shot here or there when he is at school. We might have to go on a shoot one day soon. Just him and I. I love this face.

I also love this hand. Dimples, MMMM.

Since A.J. taught Ben how to eat oreos, anything sandwhiched together is eaten in this manner. I think we got a handle on the pbj 's though.

I love this face, too.

A glimps into the future.

Happy? Valentines

Valentine's Eve I planned on making this stuffed pepper dinner that we love. I cut open the third pepper (recipe calls for 4) and found this little guy. Needless to say, all 4 peppers went into the trash!

I think we ended up having something lame like sandwiches or cereal?

My little sunshine woke-up at 3:30 am crying, until 7:30. I got her to the Dr. around 9 to find she had a double ear infection and chest congestion. She was visibly sick. When the Dr. looked in her ear he couldn't even see anything so they had to do a wash. That broke my heart! I got home to my sweet husband who had a bouquet of roses and day lilies waiting and sent us both back to bed. Micah and I both took a three hour nap. Andy cleaned the house for me and took care of anything else.

Micah is doing better having been on antibiotic(sp?) which I really don't like but couldn't stand seeing her in so much pain and discomfort. And I haven't had more than 4 hrs of sleep in 3 solid weeks. Antibiotics suppress the immune system and my worry was about doing this in the middle of Flu season. Guess what? A.J. came home from school with a fever of 102. I am done with illnesses!! I keep telling myself that this will all benefit them in the future.

On a better note, Ben can spell his name!

random

These are some infant cloth shoes that I made. They stay on better than any baby shoes, ANY! I made the white pair for Micah and the colorful pair for the upcoming Cecilia (Is and Michelle's baby)

This is an outfit Sandy gave Micah. This is a great picture. She has been sick and not her normal happy self. Its nice to remember that there is a happy baby in there.

We went to a sock hop at the elementary. Ben had so much fun running around with all the big kids.

A.J. took a friend with him. These boys always have so much fun and bring out the silly side of each other.


PS-Aj got his cast off this morning! HHHh.........