Grandparent's Day

Have I told you how wonderful my kids school is, lately? I feel so blessed every time that I am up at the school. One of the things they do each year is to celebrate and honor the children's grandparents with a special program, class visits and refreshments, not to mention some special gifts. My kids were looking forward to this day for weeks and all 4 grandparents were able to come! We are so thankful that they took the time (Grandad and Poppy...off work) to be here. Here are a few pictures of Ashtyn and Josiah showing their grandparents their classrooms.

Grandparent's Day: Poppy and Grana

Grandparent's Day: Grandad and Bebe

Josiah's Thanksgiving Feast

I had so much fun going to Josiah's Thanksgiving Feast at school! He is having such a great year! He loves school and all of his friends. The last couple of years I was worried at how dis-interested he was in school and any type of learning. People kept telling me that one day it would just click for him. This is his year! He is so pleasant on school mornings, even when I have to wake him up early. He really does like going to school! YAY! I hope that he keeps this attitude about school for many, many more years!

Ashtyn and her mini company

Ashtyn's dance class has been keeping us busy. There seems to be something every week this month. I forgot to bring the camera Friday night when they performed at "Ring in the Holidays", so here are a couple of pics from her last 2 performances. I really need to video these and post them for you. These girls are way too cute!

Eisley 7 months!

Ashtyn's 7th Birthday

We celebrated Ashtyn's birthday by inviting all the girls in her class to come after school to a cooking party at Grana's house. The girls played outside, stamped chef hats, played games, made their own pizzas and decorated their very own little cake to take home. They had lots and lots of fun. Let me just say that I feel so blessed that Ashtyn is surrounded daily with such sweet, mannerly girl friends! But, by the time it was over, I remembered why I had her party last year at "Pump it Up"! Thanks Grana and Poppy for letting us come over and completely take over your home!

 Girls designing their chef hat

      How many 1st graders can fit in a hammock?

Making pizzas!



"CHEERS to Ashtyn!"

Ashtyn's 7th Birthday

The chefs decorating thier on 4 1/2" cakes!



Ashtyn received her very 1st American Girl doll from Grandad and BeBe



They also brought Eisley something...isn't this cute!?!

when you know that they are too quiet...

okay, this picture doesn't do it justice. i found the boys in their room playing very nicely during the afternoon, but as i turned to walk out of their room there it was...markers, in all colors, all over the wall! i immediately gave them each a rag to start cleaning it up. it all came off, except the yellow, which isn't too bad. i had to stop and remind myself, just laugh about it and get a picture to remember it by. i really wish i had a picture from the time they decided to dump out all of the fruity pebbles in the playroom window and tap dance to the crackling noise that it made! or there is the time that they colored on their bunk beds with permanent markers, or...well, i could go on! the point is you've gotta love boys! you never know what their little minds will think of next. (as you can tell from the picture, i think they must have enjoyed cleaning it up as much as the did making the mess!)

Anybody every wondered how much 1/4 of a cow is?

Just in case you did, this is it. We split a cow with 3 other families (mom/dad, brande/rob and gina/chris) and this is how much we got. Thanks to our cousin Shane at Hamilton's meat market in Weatherford we got a great price on all "natural" meat. Brent and I have decided to become more watchful and aware of what the kids, and ourselves, are eating. It is amazing how unaware most people are of what is in their food. Well, I'm sure that is enough about that! But, I am excited to have all this beef in my freezer!

God is so faithful!

"...pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much." James 5:16

I have thanked God for each of you that have been praying for Josiah. We are blessed to have so many wonderful friends that have gone to the Lord on our behalf. Praise God that Josiah's tests today came back normal. The nurse's words were "keep doing what you are doing and we will see you next week". We will keep going back weekly, but I am confident that he has already been completely healed by the ultimate Healer!

pray with us

finally it's the weekend. we made it through another week. 3 dr. visits last week, down to 2 this week and it looks like 2 more next week... and so it continues. all i can think is that God does not want me to have any opportunity to forget how much i need Him daily in my life of chaos. He has actually been teaching me about being silent and listening for Him, so for that i am extremely thankful and blessed. i have much more to learn, but it is always great to feel His presence. 

at our last 2 visits, josiah has had some protein in his urine. 2 possibilities are that his kidneys are not completely doing their job (which can be an effect from the HSP) or that he is just really active and doesn't drink enough to stay hydrated. we found out that about 20 out of 100,000 kids get HSP and 50% have some form of kidney problems. also, that it reoccurs within the first 4 months for 25% of them. our dr. is allowing us a few more days to try to getting him to drink lots of water to see if that fixes the problem. if not he has to have more blood work done. i am praying that we will not have to take any more blood, because i don't want to put josiah through that if i don't have to. the anticipation of the needle is probably worse than the actual procedure, but neither one is fun for a 5 year old boy. i am also praying that when we go back on tuesday that the test will come back completely normal. i would be most thankful for your prayers for him. be expecting a praise report on tuesday!

Eisley is 6 months old!

Eisley is such a happy girl and a wonderful addition to our family! Where have the last 6 months gone? These days she enjoys playing with her toys, putting EVERYTHING in her mouth, and eating oatmeal and squash! She is getting good at sitting up by herself and she also gets up on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth. I'm sure it won't be too much longer before she is crawling. It looks like she is going to beat Isaiah, he didn't crawl until he was 9 months old! Ay her Dr. appt. she weighed 14 lbs. 5 oz. (10-25 %); and was 25 1/4 inches (25-50 %).

Time for an Update

I know it has been a long time, over a month, since my last post. Things in our house stay extremely busy, as I'm sure they do in yours too. This past month has been full of Dr. Appointments! We have taken Eisley, Josiah and Isaiah in for their well checks. We took Isaiah to a kids ENT, due to his large tonsils and sleep issues. By the way, they are recommending that we do a sleep study on him. The 3 big kids went to see Dr. Mac, our pediatric dentist. Boy have dentists changed. The kids can't wait to go back again, they had so much fun! Of course, thanks to the bill, I'm definitely in no hurry! Then yesterday we spent half the day at the Dr. office and the ER at Cook's Children's Hospital with Josiah.

Sunday night his left foot was hurting him and Brent noticed him limping and that his foot was swollen. The next day it was a looked a little better, but later that afternoon, he told Grana that his foot was hurting, but it was the other foot and it was swollen, too. No injuries, no bites, just swelling for no known reason. He got to the point that it hurt him to walk or even just to stand up on his feet. The poor baby was actually crawling around to get the things he wanted.

Turns out, after ruling out every other possibility, that he has HSP or Henoch-Schonlein Purpura. It is a disease caused by inflammation of the blood vessels. We are thankful that this is something that clears up on its own, although they said it could take 3-6 weeks. The Dr. said that it it is probably just how his body reacted to a viral infection. We will be going back to the Dr. weekly for the next month to keep a check on him. They need to watch his kidneys to make sure there are no complications.

Then next week Isaiah has an appt. with the pediatric dermatologist and Eisley has her 6 month well visit! And at the end of the week the big 3 are getting their flu mist. And Ashtyn has her opthamologist appt., hopefully that will be it for a while! I'm praying for good health!

On top of all this we have started cloth diapering Eisley. There are lots of great reasons to make the switch, but if it wasn't for her delicate skin and how it was reacting to the disposable diapers (I tried several different brands) I would not have even thought about it. I'll keep you posted how it goes, but so far I really like them and we haven't had any skin problems!

Isn't God good, it just so happened that Josiah's cousin Micah was at Cook's Children's Hospital that morning getting his cast off! They had fun playing games while we waited!
See what cute cloth diapers they make now! These are called Fuzzi-Bunz!
                                             Eisley's first food...rice cereal!

Isaiah and Eisley's 1st day at "Grana's school"

I am so thankful for my mom! She has been such a big help to me over the past 5 months. She has joyfully kept all the kids for me one day a week all summer, so that I could continue to work part time. And this week she started keeping Isaiah and Eisley 2 days a week while I work and while Ashtyn and Josiah are in school. She offers to help me all the time which is such a blessing, because I hate to ask. Isaiah has been looking forward to this week, for him and Eisley to go to Grana's, since before Eisley was born. He was so exciting Monday morning when I brought him to her house. She had out homemade playdough, with letter cookie cutters, all waiting for him. She also had out cars and trucks to play with, puzzles and even had a story picked out for the day. Being the 3rd of 4 kids, and rarely getting all the attention, I know that this time with Grana is very special to him. He and Eisley, both had a great day!

Ashtyn and Josiah's 1st day of school

Ashtyn and Josiah both loved school! Ashtyn is in 1st grade. It will be different for her this year because we have heard that they have lots of homework and no rest time! Josiah is in Pre-K 3 days a week. When I picked them up I asked Josiah if he had fun and he said" Yes, I'm ready to go back NOW!" This is big for Josiah to want to go back! I'll keep you posted on how he does on his second day (Wednesday). Here are a few pictures that I got of them.

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We're all ready to go, with our reflective backpacks






Isaiah's ready to go to Grana's house!










Ashtyn at her BIG desk, full of books!





Josiah with "Dude", their pet turtle that he got to help feed.






This is a picture I got as I was peaking in through the window, before I left.

Sunday

The girls in mommy and daddy's bed








Ashtyn almost ready for church, all dressed up. We are trying to fit in wearing those white shoes before summer is over and she outgrows them:)














Eisley in front of the TV, waiting for the rest of us to get ready








Josiah in his new classroom with Freddy the Frog










Ashtyn in her 1st grade classroom with Mrs. Hedgpeth








What a busy and exciting day we had...
1. Ashtyn's first night to ever sleep in sponge rollers (can you believe I waited 6yrs!?!)
2. Went to church and heard a great message from our awesome new pastor
3. Came home and had lunch
4. Went back to church aka the kids school for Open House and Meet the Teacher
5. Came home fixed dinner
6. Got ready for bed early...tomorrow is the 1st day of school!!!

Saturday

the weather was wonderful this weekend. after staying inside these past hot days, we finally were able to enjoy playing outside. the kids had a blast playing soccer with their daddy in the back yard (that doesn't have green grass even after watering every day!) i used to love getting out of the house and going places together, but these days hangin out at home is my absolute favorite. while the boys got out to go get "back to school" haicuts, ashtyn and I had our first ever yahtzee marathon! Being at home with my sweet family, enjoying the cooler weather and watching the olympics made saturday a great day!

Hot Wheels

The boys are so sweet to their baby sister. I love to listen and watch them interacting with her. They speak so softly to her and she loves for them to make their silly faces for her. Here they are teaching her about their favorite things in life!

4 months (at the end of July)

Just wanted to share that our baby is 4 months old, well actually almost 5 months, now. At her 4 month check up she weighed 12 lbs. and 9 oz. which put her in the 25 % for weight; 24 1/2 inches long, which is 50% range for length. By the way, she loves her Bumbo! What a great invention!

Sweet baby

Isn't this just the sweetest diaper cover ever? Thanks again to my friend Angie, who gave it to us!