"Rocked to my Core"

A few weeks ago, I asked for prayer for the Smith family. They lost their baby girl, Audrey Caroline just 2 hours after she was born. A pastor that they are friends with created a video that he used in his service this past weekend. It is about what happens in your life when things do not go the way that you expect or want them to. He calls it "Plan B". The Smith family is the ultimate example of things not going the way that you want them to in life. If you have not, check out the Smith's blog. Click here to check out Pete's blog, he is the pastor of Cross Point Church in Nashville, Tennessee. He is the one who created the video. It is called Rocked to my Core. It is a little long, but worth it to hear their testimony of their recent life events. I think we all hope that there could be a video like this made of us if something tragic happens in our lives.

Our Little Butterfly

Hannah had another soccer game this past weekend. It depends on the day and how she is feeling that day as to whether she "gets in the game" mentally or not. Some days she is aggressive and goes after the ball. The first 2 games she scored a few times each game. After that, she has definitely declined in the scoring arena. She went through a short phase where she just ran around after the little group of girls who were actually kicking the ball. This past game was a lot better in terms of making contact with the ball. It seems that if she gets to kick the ball at least once, she gets all excited and actually tries to get the ball more. If they could just let her get the ball in the beginning of the game then maybe she would go after the ball the whole game. She definitely loves it when she gets to kick at the kick off or gets to kick the ball in after it went out of bounds. I guess she enjoys it when it is only her turn with the ball. We know that this is her 1st time in organized sports so we are not too concerned about how she does. We do want her to have a fun experience and learn what it means to be on a team. She seems to be learning both of those things, however she does ask all the time if they will all get a trophy at the end. If I had only known that she could be bribed with trophies...........

One Refreshing Night Out!

We had planned going out on Friday night for over a month now. It was our good friend Susan's birthday and to top it off, the band she sings in was at Abuelos on the patio. We love going to hear the band and we also love a night out without our precious kids. On Thursday night, we thought that we were going to have to throw out all of our plans, but we were not going down without a fight. Our babysitter called and said that she had a stomach bug. She thought she would be feeling better by Friday night, but we were not taking any chances since we recently went through all that sick stuff. We were left with two choices, cancel or call their great grandma. Jason picked up the phone right after we found out to see if grandma "wanted" to watch them. How could she turn that phrase down? So, we were back on. We love nothing more than spending time as a family, but going on a date is very refreshing for us. The icing on the cake was that because we were going to be so late getting home, the kids stayed the night at their great grandmas house. We figured we all won in this arrangement. Their great grandma had reinforcement help because Jason's mom and his sisters family stopped by. Our kids were winners in their own mind because they have lots and lots of candy and cokes when they are at her house. And we were winners because we had a wonderful night with our friends, no curfew, we were able to sleep in without any additional little bodies in our bed. It was absolutely wonderful.

The Abuelos Crowd

Me, the birthday girl Susan, and Allison

Our Kid Can Jump!

This is what happens when you leave the back door open and you do not have all the children accounted for. It was very quiet outback. My first thought was Luke had opened the sandbox and was getting all sandy before we were about to leave. He had a better idea.....
I have said before that NOTHING stops him from climbing, jumping, or hopping off of anything.

The End of a Lot of things Program

Hannah's end of the year school program was this week. They still have about a month left of school so I am not sure why it was so early, regardless, it was time. She was excited about singing on stage with her class. Jason was not able to make it because he was/is working at an office out of town. His commute is about 40 minutes each way so it was just impossible. Hannah was just excited that mommy was going to record it for him so he could watch it later. We were running late that morning, well every morning, and she was very worried that she would not be able to practice with her class. I reassured her that she knew the songs and that we were not that late where she would not be able to practice. I dropped off the kids at school, ran an errand, and then it was time to head back to school for the program. She was beaming when she walked in the chapel. She is so proud when someone is comes just to see her. They learned sign language to several songs and all of the letters of the alphabet, which they showed to all the parents. She sang and signed almost every word/letter there was. She smiled the whole time too. Times before when she has been on stage she has just mumbled the words, but this time she was blurting it out. She has definitely taken a liking to singing lately. She is very funny when she has a "concert" for us. She can also sing Twinkle Twinkle little Star like no one has ever heard before. It is great (and very funny too). Back to the program.....at the end, they had the director talking about this preschool group leaving and going off to kindergarten. There was that issue again that I thought I could avoid until August. Not so. It made me think again of all the things that were about to change for us. All the things that were about to change for Hannah too. I started to get a little sad but at the same time I was so proud of that beautiful little girl on stage. She just glowed from ear to ear. It was as if I took one look at her and she was all grown up. She had no stage fright, no trouble remembering the words, and no problem smiling like she knew everyone out there in the audience. Even though she is physically one of the smallest little girls there, she had grown up a little in my mind over the preschool year. I remembered back to the first day of preschool and how nervous she was. All that was gone. I know that it will start all over next year, but for now, she was our big girl. She has turned out so precious. Thank you Lord for what you have given us. My heart was overflowing........

The Trips We Take.........

This past week has been one like never before. Luke had an appointment on the 21st at Scottish Rites Hospital so we headed to Dallas early to spend some time with the family. The kids and I left last Wednesday hoping to have a few fun days with their cousins then Jason flew in on Friday to play and go to the appointment on Monday. WOW how things can change quickly. On our way to Dallas, Hannah started complaining that her tummy hurt. I attempted to console her, knowing full well that we had at least 1 1/2 hours left to go. Her brothers quickly chimed in, apparently it was instantly contagious. Pretty soon it turned ugly. What did I do? Why.. I kept driving. Of course we were driving through the only part of the trip that was under construction. Several law abiding citizens felt as though they should slow down when the sign says to do so thus taking us longer than normal. Meanwhile Hannah is crying more intensely. I put in another movie and keep moving! Did I mention that we hear the "my tummy hurts" phrase from at least one of our children when we have about an hour left on a long trip? Yea, they think even though it has never worked for them, that we are going to just let them out of their car seats to drive the rest of the way. I guess I have to give it to them for perseverance. Hannah sad and mad that she did not feel like playing!

We finally make it to my sisters house and everyone is so excited to be out of the car. My nieces and nephews are absolutely wonderful at entertaining my kids! I think everything is well and everyone is miraculously healed, but it is not so. Hannah continues to say her tummy hurts and although she wants to play, she does not. It is now obvious that she does not feel well. We go to bed and battle a fever ALL night. The next day proves even worse. She has fever, diarrhea, and throws up a little. I felt a little overwhelmed because I don't like the throw up stuff. Somehow our kids usually throw up when Jason is home and he takes care of that stuff. Luckily she makes it to the bathroom so that helped mommy! We quarantine her to our room and one specific spot on the couch. Have I mentioned my sister has 5, yes five, kids that are at risk of becoming infected. Friday does not prove any better. She also started complaining of her throat hurting. She is not able to eat or drink so we are headed to my sisters doctor. She determines the culprit is strep throat and we are headed back to my sisters house with the miracle cure, an antibiotic Jason flies in late that night which was a welcomed relief. He could not necessarily help with Hannah (she only lets me do things for her when she is sick) but he was able to help with the things that the boys needed. Hannah would constantly call my name if I walked five steps away from her. The boys are completely opposite. They want only their daddy when they are hurt or sick. It works out well for me! It takes until late Saturday night until Hannah is up and around. Sunday was a wonderful day. She played outside all day and loved it. We allowed her to interact with her cousins too on Sunday. We were amazed at how bad she was. We have not seen her that sick in a long time. Usually we can give her motrin and she is up and around after it kicks in. This time was totally different. Motrin did not touch it. It was bad! It seems as though we had the worse case possible. You see, we had gone to a BBQ at a friends house the weekend before we left. During our time there, one of the toddlers had a loose loose poop. Hannah had been this little girls best little friend that night. Out of all four families that were there, all four were sick by Wednesday too. I am telling you it was BAD.
That smile was a huge blessing. We had not seen it in several days!

My kids absolutely love going to their aunt Teresa's house. The boys spent their whole time asking if they can go on the riding lawn mower or on the go-cart. Their cousins love to play outside so my kids fit right in. They play and play until it is dark. Then they come in a make big messes in the house. It is a lot of fun. Aunt Teresa gives them anything they want. I cannot even count the number of juice boxes the boys drank. It did not matter, aunt Teresa kept passing them out. Aunt Teresa lays down with them for naps (we don't practice this at our house!!!) and lets them watch one cartoon before nap, lets them eat lots of snacks, and takes them to do whatever they ask. We love that they love going there. Most of all, we love that they are completely loved and shown love when they go. Here are some pictures from our trip.
The boys and their aunt TeresaThe kids and Papa driving the go-cart. I don't think his back surgeon would approve but the kids had a lot of fun!
Logan had a blast chasing Papa in in the go-cart
Logan thought it was just as fun to be chased by PapaProbably not the best idea, but again they had fun.Luke loved this little toadLogan liked him tooThe boys had a great time playing outside

I mentioned that the purpose of our trip was to take Luke to Scottish Rites Hospital. Around 12 months old we noticed that his legs were somewhat bowed. We were referred to Scottish Rites last October (2007). They did x-rays and confirmed that his left leg was more extremely bowed than his right. We were told to come back in 6 months to see what had changed. We have learned that a lot of kids have bowed legs, but most straighten up on their own by age two. At our appointment this past Monday we saw that his left leg has in fact strengthened up, but we also saw his right leg has not only straighten up but it has turned inward a little. They told us it is typical during toddler years for some kids to have "knocked knees" but that they want to continue to monitor him to make sure they will straighten up. If in fact they don't they will have to use soft braces or something like that. It is still heart breaking for me. You never want something to be wrong with your child. If something is wrong, you want it to be hidden from other kids as they get older so that they won't make fun of them. Other people say that they don't even notice, but I do. I think that mommies can notice all kinds of things that others would not even give a second look at. Jason is always wonderful to listen to me and my concerns about our kids. Although, there are times he has to gently remind me that I have not attended medical school and that we have to trust the ones who did go. Okay, I know, I have a tendency to be a bit of a hypochondriac when it comes to my kids. Childhood is hard enough as it is without something physically being wrong with you. We try to instill in our kids to be kind to the kids who are different and to not make fun of others, but we realize that not all parents in the school system will teach those values. I remember when we saw the first pediatric orthopedic surgeon here in town early 2007. Well, I have to go back. Originally we were told by the X-ray tech that Luke's legs were different lengths. I did a lot of research on it and it had me in tears for days. Part of it was Luke and Logan are so close in age I did not want there to be an issue with Logan being able to physically do anything he wanted and Luke begin left behind. Jason and I were standing in our kitchen and he said what if the Lord wants to use Luke with this obstacle. Not exactly what a mom wants to hear about her child. I did not want that, I did not want the Lord to use Luke that way. I wanted him to be used in a way that would not emotionally hurt him. I wanted it easy. I still do, but I have changed my tone just a little. All those emotions were premature though. We saw the Dr the week after that and he reassured us that the x-ray tech did not know how to measure correctly and Luke did not have any leg length discrepancies. What a relief that was. However, there are still fears that I have about Luke and all these issues. He does not think twice about any of these adult issues. He runs, jumps, climbs, and gets into everything and anything he wants to. He is determined and will not let much get in his way. Whatever the outcome of all of this, I have no doubt that he will continue to physically do the things that he wants to do. He does not let much stop him. Ultimately I know that the Lord is telling me over and over to trust Him, even with my children. Very, very hard for me to do! I think of Abraham and Isaac a lot when I think of giving my kids over to the Lord. What in the world was Abraham thinking when he was about to sacrifice his little boy? What was his little boy thinking when his father was about to sacrifice him? I know that God is NOT asking any of us to sacrifice our children, but can I give Him the control over every aspect of their lives? I have a hard time with this one. I struggle with allowing the Lord to completely control my life so of course I have a hard time allowing Him to control the things that happen to my 3 kids. All I can do is try again each and everyday. Good thing He gives lots of grace and forgiveness!

Luke and daddy at Scottish Rites. Luke would not let go of his popcorn that he got on the way out.

Kindergarten here we come!

Hannah sitting with the other kindergartners.

On my birthday Hannah had Kindergarten Orientation. She was so excited about going, I am not sure I was as excited. At the beginning of the week we went up to the school to pick up some paperwork to fill out. While we were there Hannah got to meet one of the kindergarten teachers and the principal. She has to be going to the friendliest school around. This will be very helpful for her little personality. She is very quiet in new situations, so it will be great for her to "know" some of the teachers and staff. The orientation was set up wonderful. They had the kids sit in the cafeteria and the 3 kindergarten teachers read them a story. It took a minute to convince Hannah that she could sit with the group of kids, but once she sat down, she did not even look back. After the story they took the kids to the kindergarten rooms and had them do a craft while they talked to the parents. There was one instance when the principal was visiting with the us that I thought I might actually break down, but all I had to do was look across the table. What I saw when I looked across the table was something that I did not want to be. There was a sweet little first time kindergarten mommy sobbing her eyes out! Once I saw her I thought to myself I cannot look like that. She had what some called the "ugly cry". I try not to show my ugly cry to a lot of people and I knew that if I started, I might not be able to control it and I might let these people I had never met see the ugly cry. I pulled it together and listened to what would be expected of myself and our little bitty Hannah. Part of it did not even feel real. Can it be that she is old enough to go to real school? Can it be that she is big enough to be without me all day long five days a week? Is it true that someone else will spend more time with her during her awake hours than I will? The answer is yes to all the above. I think of all these things and cannot believe that this is happening.

When conveying this thought, I had someone ask me why I do not just home school her, at least the 1st year or so. My response is that I WANT HER TO ACTUALLY LEARN. I feel like I could not teach her the things she needs to know nor do I feel as though I could give her the undevoted time she would need to effectively learn. I think that if you are able to home school your kids and fit in everything else, well, you are more organized and talented than I am. I have a hard enough time making sure I actually play with my kids, get the laundry done, pick up the house, and possibly cook dinner. If I had to add a few hours a day to teaching her how to read, spell, do math, and science all on my own, I might succeed, but I am sure I personally would have to neglect something else to achieve it. I feel confident that she is in a great school with great teachers. This is all why we moved to the neighborhood we are in. We searched out the school we wanted, and narrowed our search for houses. It was even weird 2 1/2 years ago thinking about school and such, but thank the Lord we did. All of this is great, but it will probably not make August any easier on us or probably her too.

Hannah and "aunt" Dawn

I forgot to mention that one of our good friends has been a teacher at Hannah's school for a few years. Although there is no blood relation, this family has been by our side for many many years and our kids even call them "aunt" and "uncle" and the kids their "cousins". Poor Hannah even got upset one time because some kids from church argued with her that they were not her "cousins". She knows no different. All this to say, I think this too will be extremely helpful. When you are little and you don't know many people, but you see a familiar face, it can change your day. I feel like I am painting her as this emotionally fragile little girl...she is not, but I just worry about her. You always worry about some other kids being mean to yours and no adult notices. I want her to always be included or be chosen, but I know that she won't, but I still want that for her. Really, I like to be in control of the situations where my children are, meaning I like to make sure that everyone is always fair, especially to my kids. It is a mommy thing, but also it is my thing. I like to protect my kids from anything that could hurt or harm them physically and emotionally. I also want to make sure that my child is not the one hurting or harming anyone physically or emotionally. I want her to be kind and love the kids that others are not nice too. I want her in her little way show them the love of Christ.

All of the above is hard to do when they are not with you. Preschool has been the most time in one week that she has been away from me and her brothers. So to go from two days a week to all day everyday will be an adjustment for everyone. I know it is just a part of growing up. Almost everyone eventually does it and my child will be just fine. So, this summer will be the best summer ever. We are going to take advantage of the last summer before she starts school. (I wish I could say that I will teach the kids to sleep later than 7:45 am, but they won't.) What I mean is that we are going to play play play. We will deal with school issues closer to August and that is that. No need to be sad all summer about this!

The Last Birthday

The kids were so excited to give me all of their well thought out presents!

On Wednesday we celebrated my birthday. My birthday officially ends our families birthday celebrations until next January. It was a great day. The night before Jason took the kids to buy my present. They did so good and did not tell any secrets about their night out. Hannah even thought it was funny to make up something to tell me. Every now and then she would look at me and say, "mom, we got you a coke in an Easter egg". Creative huh? I could not open my presents until Jason got home that day, and I was very surprised that they all kept a secret the whole day. Months ago we gave up "real restaurants" for fast food restaurants because of the sweet children. It was just to the point that it was not worth going out. It either took too long or our kids were too loud. Sometimes it was a combination of both. Well because it was my birthday, we decided that we would brave it and go to Chili's. Usually Jason and I save these restaurants for times when we have someone watching the kids, but I said, we were brave that day. We also threatened them that they would not get ANY birthday cake when they got home if they acted up. IT WORKED! We had a quiet dinner. The kids colored, ate chips, and sometimes just stared at the people around us. We also strategically placed them all apart which helped tremendously. No one could touch each other and therefore no one could gripe at each other taking their stuff. We were very impressed and so I had to share my birthday cake. Many of you know, I love cakes from the wonderful Jennifer Antu, so of course the family surprised me with one. YUMMY! (Danica, this picture is just for you. I will treat you to the biggest Antu cake she will bake when you come back!!!!!!!!!!!!!) You probably would not have wanted this cake though. The kids helped me blow out candles, and I actually felt the spit on my face when they were done. It was a great day. Jason is treating me to a dinner out without the kids this weekend. That will be just as fun! Thanks Jason for everything you did to make it special. You can't tell from this picture, but they were angels at Chili's. This is a little boy who cannot wait for cake. Can you tell its his favorite?

Everyone helped mommy blow out all the candles.

Continued Prayer for the Smiths

Please continue to be in prayer for the Smith family. There precious baby passed away the day she was born. I cannot imagine what the family is going through, however they know that her little body is finally healed from all of her health issues when she was born. While I don't know the pain of losing a child, I know that our Lord does. And while I don't know how they are going to handle the days ahead, I know the God they serve. This must be a difficult time for the parents, as well as the 3 small siblings and they definitely need to be covered in prayer. They have an incredible story. Take a look here if you get a chance.

Soccer Time

Last Fall we made a trip to visit family in Dallas. During our time there, four of the five cousins had games. We attend as many as time and driving allowed. After that trip, Hannah never let us forget how much she loved soccer. She wanted to be just like her cousins and play. We knew that we missed sign-ups for the fall, but told her that in the Spring she could try it out. Well, she did not forget. This is a new adventure for us. We have put her in gymnastics before, but it has always been during the day. Now we have practice once a week and a game on Saturday. We realize this will only be the beginning. Actually this is probably the least busy that we will be for a long time. Before we know it, the boys will each have a sport, as well as Hannah. It has been a lot of fun though. Hannah has now had 2 soccer games this season. The first game, she scored 3 times!!! The second game, she scored once! We have been very proud of her. She gets in there and tries to get the ball most of the time. She thinks that she knows every thing that you need to know about soccer already. She is on the same team as one of her best buddies, our neighbor Ashlyn. They think that they are pretty cute, and they are right. We have some really good girls on our team, so it will be interesting to see how much ball time the girls who have never played before get.

If you like the picture above, check out www.scrapblog.com They have some really neat layouts. I love to scrapbook so this makes me feel like I get to scrapbook, even though reality is I don't have time to right now!

Drive Thru Fun

Last summer Jason built the kids a great playhouse. I had one that my dad built when I was little so he has heard about it since we got married! The kids absolutely love it. Their newest creative play should actually tell me something about our life. A little too much fast food. They have begun to use one of the windows for a pretend drive thru restaurant. They want us to walk up to the window, order food, then they serve it and to make it completely realistic, they want you to pretend to pay them. They are hilarious.

Don't turn your back........

Looks innocent enough right????????? Wrong, it causes this!
And this. At my house, if you walk out of the room you cannot walk back in and expect everything to look the same!

I guess if you help cause the mark, you have to help try to get it off.

Easter Morning

Every time we come in town, we stay with my sister, Teresa, who has five kids! They have plenty of space and LOTS of toys. My kids make theirselves right at home. We started Easter morning off with a frantic rush to make it to church with my dad (45 minutes away from my sisters house). After, we rushed back to cook and have the annual egg hunt, again. I could overwhelm you with more egg hunting pictures, but I am beginning to think they all look the same. Take my word for it, we had a major egg hunt for the kids again. We also had a great brisket, pork loin, and ham. My sister and I love to cook on Holidays. It helps that she has a massive kitchen where you are not bumping into each other the whole time! After all the excitement, we got ready for our 5 1/2 hour trip home. Normally we stay an extra day at Easter, but with Jason's new job, we had to head home. I think we arrived home around midnight. It was worth it, but we are looking forward to going back in 2 weeks for an extended stay! This was the best of um about five pictures. You got to take what you get when you have three little ones. Even a candy bribe did not get everyone looking in the same direction.
Two out of three smiling...I'll take it, even if they are not looking in the same direction while smiling.

Easter Egg Hunt #1

For Easter we made a quick trip to the Dallas area to see LOTS of family in a short amount of time. Saturday was an egg hunt at one of my sisters houses with my mom's side of the family.

Hannah with her favorite little cousin. You would never know that Hannah is 2 years older than she is. They play together pretty well.

Luke had a great time on the swing set.

Grandma Nita arrived bearing gifts for all the grandkids. I think this is a reindeer, however he likes to call it his horse. He has added it to his collection that he sleeps with at night. It makes night time really challenging when we have temporarily lost one of his items that he puts on his crowded bed.

They have the egg hunt down by now.

Some of my moms grandkids. Believe it or not, there are even a few missing!

My mom and my sisters. We were even missing one sister!

Shoes, Sadness, and His Sister!

Apparently I did not clarify to Logan what shoes to get when I told him to get some shoes to go outside. Logan decided that his spiderman boot along with his sister's furry boot would be a good choice.
Fashions change all the time...just ask Logan. A pink flip-flop along with a furry boot are the new look.
All of his fashions were out the window when his sister stole her shoes back.Sadness does not last too long around our house.