Toothless Lizzy

Tonight Lizzy lost her 2nd front tooth.  She lost the first one while we were in Disney.  She is so excited, but has been worried she will sound "funny".  Tonight she was just excited!

I continue to be amazed at how Lizzy just pulls out her own teeth.  Tonight I had to help her a bit, but my boys had a much harder time losing their teeth.  She is so brave.  And I think she is adorable "toothless".  Love you Lizzy Joy!

My Sister

In December, my sister Annie came and stayed for a few days with our family.  The kids had a lot of fun with her. And the girls may or may not have wondered about her "Bon Jour" mustache sweater! In fact,after we had been in Disney World for a few days, Lizzy looked at me and out of the blue, in total seriousness said, "I have seen 8 other girls wearing mustache shirts since we have been here."  I think she thought that Annie was the only one!  Hehe!  Love it.  

In this picture, we were about to head out and have a "sister's date".  :-)

Love you Annie, thanks for coming to visit!

Then and Now

Lizzy at 18 months...

Lizzy at 7...

Someone has always liked being fancy and has always had her own style!  :-)

Mickey Puppet Show

Daniel has been very sick the past 24 hours.  I think some sort of nasty virus.  This morning he was really lethargic and not wanting to get out of bed (after being up for most of the night) so Lizzy and Abby thought it would be a good idea to do a puppet show for him.  :)  And within moments, the boys joined their efforts...

 They sang.  They made up a script.  They had Daniel doing his "fake" laugh for them.  It was really, really sweet.  Moments like these make up for all of the moments that I am helping them work through something, or reprimanding the bickering, or going crazy with the tattling...moments like these make all of that a very distant memory...at least for the moment.  And I treasure these moments up in my heart.

Daniel seems to be doing much better tonight, so hopefully we will both get some sleep!

Uh-Oh!

Guess who was caught playing with the toilet paper again?

 He looks pretty guilty in the picture above doesn't he?  It could be  that we have "talked" about this before. :) 

All of my kids have gone through this phase, although it seems to be sticking around longer with Daniel.  If his hands are wet, I immediately ask the kids if the door to the bathroom is open.  With 4 big brothers and sisters, there is no guarantee that the water he plays in has been flushed...Seriously...so gross.  We sometimes call him our little "menace", meaning it in the best possible way!!  :)

And yes, our main floor bathroom is covered in palm trees and monkeys.  I am hoping to say good-bye to them sometime in 2013.  :-)

"My Drew Drew"

Long ago, my dear friend and wonderful neighbor Suzanne started calling our Drew, "Drew Drew".  It has stuck and he would even tell you that he still likes it.  My Drew Drew is getting so old.  In two short months he will be 12.  Tears came just thinking about it.  He has always had such a great and infectious smile.  Laugh too.  So tonight I am posting a picture of him at 10 months...

 And 10 1/2 years...

Love this boy.  He has blessed our home for sure.  Thank you Lord for Drew.

Sisters!

So thankful they have each other.   

Clothes Quilts

My mother-in-law is a fabulous quilter.  One of my favorite things that she does for our family is to make quilts out of pieces from some of the clothes the kids have outgrown.  A few weeks ago we received this one...

...it is made up of Daniel's clothes age 1-2.  LOVE it.  And I am so thankful to have these.  I love doing laundry.  I love shopping for kids clothes.  I love dressing my kids.  And so these quilts are filled with clothes and memories that are dear to me and always will be.  It is a "scrap"book of sorts.  :)

If you read this, would you please pray for my mother-in-law?  She is having triple by-pass heart surgery next week.  Thank you!  And thank you Marge for these awesome quilts! They are very near and dear to my heart.

Frozen

Daniel loves to be outside.  I take him out as much as I can, but he is just not to the age where I am comfortable with him playing outside without me.  So we have to really watch him if a door is opened, because he is quick and silent and loves to "escape".  

In early December we had our first blast of cold air.  I think the temperature was in the mid 20's.  And there was a small dusting of snow where it was shaded.   At this time, this was the first snow we had seen and sometimes that is all that we get, so the girls had gotten dressed up to take a picture and "play" with the snow.  (Lizzy did end up collecting enough to make a small snowball!)

 

I had left the front door open as I was taking this picture and within moments there was Daniel ready to make his escape.  Except instead of running out the door like he normally did, he stopped cold in his tracks as soon as he felt the cold air.  And then he just stood, frozen in the doorway...

I guess 29 was just too cold for this Texas boy!  ;-)

I Like Socks!

The past week or so Daniel has a new found love for socks.  Since he has figured out how to put them on , we see him multiple times throughout the day with someone else's sock on and usually just one.  :) Last night I dumped a huge basket of clean socks on the floor of the living room (I had a lot of matching to do!)  and Daniel had fun being in the middle of them all.  I snapped a few pictures of the various socks he put on...

He is so much fun!  And a stinker too...he tried to undo most everything I did in matching and folding!  And when I would reprimand him he would play with my hair and kiss my head and then try and make me laugh.  He is a smart boy I tell you, smart boy.  ;-)

Sleepover!

Last night the girls had a fun sleepover with sweet friends, while the boys were away at a sleepover of their own!  :-)

Movie time...

Funny faces

All tucked in (In a giant bed Brent made for the 4 of them!)...

 

We had Cinderella, Rapunzel, Ariel and Belle show up for some Fruit Loops and Apple Jacks!

Thank you Lord for fun times with sweet friends.

My Three Sons

The Gift of LIFE

 Today is the March for Life in our community.  I did not know about it until this morning or I would have made plans to walk, but I have some friends that I know will be participating.  12 hours after I found out that I was pregnant with Lizzy (although obviously I did not yet know it was her), I found out that I also had appendicitis. And so I had emergency surgery.  I am so thankful for the help that I received from the surgeon who took care of me, but I will never forget how he kept saying to me "Should you choose to continue this pregnancy..." and  then telling me about some of the hardships/risks.  It had never even crossed my mind NOT to continue the  pregnancy and I finally told him adamently, "I WILL be continuing the pregnancy, so just do what you need to do to take of us both."

The recovery was REALLY hard.  I was super sick with morning sickness and was in so much pain from where they had opened my up, but I refused to take any pain medication because I knew that all of the baby's body was being formed in those early weeks.  I did not want to risk being more comfortable to possibly cause harm to the unborn baby growing inside.  I know this was maybe extreme, but I made up my mind and stuck to it.  And for a few weeks I was depressed.  I was annoyed when people called to check on me.  I was sick of the pain.  I was frustrated and mad and hating that I couldn't just take care of everything myself.   I am so thankful that I had friends that still called, prayed, brought food, wrote cards, came over and encouraged me when I did not give them much back.

  

After I made it through the first 15 weeks, the nausea subsided and I had recovered from the pain of the surgery.  One thing that my body never fully recovered from was fluid retention.  I had so. much. fluid. So Dr. Brown decided this was reason enough to have Lizzy make her grand entrance a little bit early.  She was born at 36 weeks, but still a strong 7lbs. 12oz.  And she was ready!  

One of the most encouraging moments when I was struggling after the appendectomy surgery came after Dr. Brown came to check on me one morning.  He asked how I was doing and I threw my toast down and started crying and said, "Not very good."  I do not remember what else I said, but I know I caught him off guard.  He did not really say much before he left, but about an hour later an ultrasound technician came into the room with her machine.   She did an ultrasound and I saw little Lizzy, so very, very tiny and there was just a flicker inside this 1/2inch image.  Her little heartbeat.  I noticed it was picking up at 60-70 beats/minute and I told the lady my concern for it being so slow.  And she said, "Oh no, do not worry I think we are seeing the heart when it has just began to beat." I cannot even tell you how this lifted my spirits!  To think that I saw Lizzy's heart just as it began to beat.  What a gift!

When she was 18 months old, Lizzy was asked to be a part of a fashion show for the "Women's Pregnancy Center" in Grand Forks, ND.  One of the ways they try and help the women who come to see them is by giving them an ultrasound.  So they can see the life growing inside them.  Such an incredible gift and an incredible organization.  When I look back, it seems so fitting that Lizzy, who loves life and has such a heart for the fatherless, would be chosen to be a part of their show.  She is wearing the outfit they chose for her in this picture...

What is a life worth?  

It still bothers me how matter of factly that surgeon said, "If you choose to continue this pregnancy."    God chose her before the foundation of the world, for good works.  (Ephesians 2:10) God formed her inward parts and wove her together.  She is fearfully and wonderfully made.  Her frame was never hidden from Him.  And His eyes saw her unformed substance.  And God wrote in His book how many days she would live. (From Psalm 139:13-16) And grace upon grace, God chose me to be her mommy.  

 I have many friends who have been blessed to become a mommy through adoption, by another woman choosing to continue their pregnancy.  May we have hearts of compassion.   May we love people with the love of Jesus, so that we may encourage them with the wonderful truth that each and every person is made in the image of God and share with them God has a plan and a purpose for each life.  Places like the "Women's Pregnancy Center" in Grand Forks, ND do a good job of this.  And I am hoping that the march here today enables many establishments and organizations around north Texas to continue in helping woman and families in this way.  And of course I am hoping it inspires a belief in LIFE for many people.

Here is our Lizzy, now nearly 8 years later.  She is full of love and life and such a gift to our family.

Thank you Lord for protecting Lizzy so many years ago.  Thank you for protecting me.  Thank you for her precious life and thank you for that flicker of life you used to encourage this mommy's heart so long ago.  

Great Wolf Lodge...(with a flashback)

This past December we were able to take the kids back to the Great Wolf Lodge for an overnight and a day of swimming.  The first night we spent hanging out as a family, watching it snow indoors, drinking hot chocolate, eating dinner and playing games.  Then Brent and Daniel headed home to sleep. The next day our friend (and nurse) came to our home to hang out with Daniel so that Brent and I could swim Together with our 4 big kids.  It had been 3 years since we had done this.  Daniel can never swim, because of his central heart line so Brent and I have become pros at tag-teaming swimming activities so that everyone can still do what they love.  It was a very special treat to be able to do something for the 4 oldest kiddos, as  they thought it was great to have us both swimming.  And I hardly knew what to do with the fact that I ended up having alone time in the hot tub.  What a luxury!!  :-)

The first time we ever visited the Great Wolf Lodge, Sammy posed like this...

So for fun we had him do it again this time, now almost 5 years later...

The whole Gang...

Indoor Snow!

Yummy Hot Chocolate!

It was great time!  And so fun to see the delight of our kids having mom and dad swim together with them.  I do wish that Daniel could join us, but I KNOW that he had a fun day with Rachel as well!  :)

Memory

My girls love to play memory.  Especially my littlest girl.  I think she would play all. day. long.  if she could find a family member willing to lose 12 times a day!  :)  She is REALLY good at that game.  Really good.

Snow Day!

Yesterday we woke up to snow on the ground here again!  It was gone by the afternoon, but the kids played in the fluffy white covering for most of the morning.  Daniel only lasted about 10 minutes, but it  worth the 20 minutes it took to get him dressed to be able to get some pictures with all the kids together...

They all had fun, but have each told me they are ready for it to warn up and stay warm.  :)  I couldn't agree more!

Back to School

Yesterday we headed back to school after a 3 week break. I was pleasantly surprised at how we just slipped right back into our routine without too much trouble.  Our classroom still has the animal theme, as we are studying "Land Animals of the 6th Day" throughout this school year.

I posted these pictures again, because I wanted them in my 2013 "A Picture A Day", since we spend a large part of each weekday up here.  :-)