Getting The Hang Of This....

walking thing. I fall just about every 2.5 seconds but i get right up and go again. Nobody can stop me now, watch out world here i come!

Changing The Crib

We were a bit overdue from dropping the crib all the way down but finally got it done this afternoon. Ethan was having a good ol time crawling up in the crib while daddy was trying to work. We then tried to get some video and pictures of Ethan's first steps and finally got some video, the one picture we caught is this one of him just standing up. He is getting the hang of it, he takes about 4 very wobbly steps and then falls down. We put some shoes on him today and it was hilarious watching him try to take a step in them, He got mad at them really fast and wanted them off.

Tiblow Days Parade

Each year our church makes a float for the Tiblow Days parade, and this year Johnny took over the responsibility. So for the last few weeks he has spent a lot of time building a miniature Elm Grove (the original chapel that has now been added on to). We got up bright (well not so bright, actually raining) and early to go out and get the "church" loaded up and get the balloons on the trailer. It stopped raining before the parade, thank goodness!! We had around 25 people walk with the float, hand out tracts, invitations, and throw lots of candy. It was a very hot walk but was fun! Our float won a trophy for "outstanding entry".

Big Black Bug

I'm in the shower this morning and hear Avery start screaming and come running into the bathroom "mommy there is a huge black spider in my room". She slammed the door and hopped into the sink and kept her eye on the bottom of the door in case it came in after her. :) I figured i would stop and get a picture since there was no way she was getting out of the sink until she knew the bug was dead. Mommy saved the day and got the big "spider" (cricket)! She wasnt satisfied until she checked the paper towel and saw that he was dead. Silly girl, i wonder where she get's it???

Ethan Took A Step!

No picture of it of course because we only got him to do it 2 times then he was DONE! Trey takes him by one hand and walks all over the house with him so he is getting lot's of practice. He has been doing great for me taking a nap in the morning when we get home from taking Trey to school and then taking another one after we take Avery to school. One of my worries this yr was his nap schedule with going to school three times a day but it's working out nicely. I do have to wake him from his afternoon nap because he isn't quite done by the time i have to go, and then he is fussy sitting in his carseat while we wait in the line for 20 minutes to get the kids but other than that it's been great. He is making this new silly face, the one he's making in his high chair, he knows it makes mommy giggle and then he giggles. He is so much fun! The toy that he is sitting in until today he get's in and then yells for us to get him out but... i caught him on camera today figuring out how to get out on his own :) Now if he can just figure out how to get off the treadmill that he crawls up on at least 25 times a day!

A Kindergarten Parable

Avery brought this poem home from school on her first day of Kindergarten...

Once upon a time there was a little boy named Jack who was about to climb his very first beanstalk. He had a fresh haircut and a brand-new book bag. Even though his friends in the neighborhood had climbed this same beanstalk almost every day last year, this was Jack's first day and he was a little nervous. So was his mother.

Early in the morning she brought him to the foot of the beanstalk. She talked encouragingly to Jack about all the fun he would have that day and how nice his giant would be. She reassured him that she would be back to pick him up at the end of the day.

For a moment they stood together, silently holding hands, gazing up at the beanstalk. To Jack it seemed much bigger than it had when his mother had pointed it out on the way to the store last week. His mother thought it looked big, too. She swallowed. Maybe she should have held Jack out a year...

Jack's mother straightened his shirt one last time, patted his shoulder and smiled down at him. She promised to stay and wave while he started climbing. Jack didn't say a word.

He walked forward, grabbed a low-growing stem and slowly pulled himself up to the first leaf. He balanced there for a moment and then climbed more eagerly to the second leaf, then to the third and soon he had vanished into a high tangle of leaves and stems with never a backward glance at his mother.

She stood alone at the bottom of the beanstalk, gazing up at the spot where Jack had disappeared. There was no rustle, no movement, no sound to indicate that he was anywhere inside.

"Sometimes," she thought, "it's harder to be the one who waves good-bye than it is to be the one who climbs the beanstalk." She wondered how Jack would do. Would he miss her? How would he behave? Did his giant understand that little boys sometimes acted silly when they felt unsure?

She fought down an urge to spring up the stalk after Jack and maybe duck behind a bean to take a peek at how he was doing. "I'd better not. What if he saw me?" She knew Jack was really old enough to handle this on his own. She reminded herself that, after all this was thought to be an excellent beanstalk and that everyone said his giant was not only kind but had outstanding qualifications.

"It's not so much that I'm worried about him," she thought, rubbing the back of her neck. "It's just that he's growing up and I'm going to miss him."

Jack's mother turned to leave. "Jack's going to have lots of bigger beanstalks to climb in his life," she told herself. "Today's the day he starts practicing for them... And today's the day I start practicing something too: cheering him on and waving good-bye."

- Author Unknown

This is for you too Julie, as you send Owen off to kindergarten tommorow.

Aye' Mate'

My little pirate in his ship floating on the "Front Porch Sea".

Avery's First Day Of Kindergarten

Avery's first day of kindergarten was on Thursday. She goes to afternoon kindergarten so has to be there at 12:30. We got there a little early and took some pictures. The picture of her and the little girl is Emma from the family i said we met at the social. Avery was NOT nervous, went right in and sat down and started drawing, she waved goodbyeto me and i probably would have cried the whole way out if i didn't have my sweet little Ethan to carry out knowing i would have some needed one-on one time with him. Avery LOVED her first day! On Friday she started asking how much longer till time to go to school at 9:00 so it was a long morning of waiting. She was dissapointed that she didn't have school today and can't wait till Monday.

Trey's First Day Of Second Grade

Trey's first day of 2nd grade was supposed to be a half day on Wed. but... on Monday night after meet the teacher night whe we got home he started complaining that his tummy hurt, i found him in his bed sleeping and he was burning up with almost 105 fever and then started the night with a bang by puking all over his bedroom floor and continuing to puke almost every hr of the rest of the night. I took him in the next day and once again he had strep throat. Sooo he got on antibiotic but not quick enough to have been on it long enough to go to school on Wed. On Thursday he woke up and said " Ok i'm nervous now mommy" but he was also excited. We got to school early to take all his stuff. He had a substitute teacher his first day because his teacher's daughter was puking, so finally on Friday he got to have his first day with his teacher. He loved his first day! He said some of the girls helped him know what to do and where to put stuff. He said"it's weird having girls in my class, but they are nice" (he had a class of 6 boys last yr) Mommy worried all day that he was doing ok but i felt a little better when i took Avery to kindergarten that day after lunch he was at recess and i saw him running around with some boys so i knew he had made some friends :) . He is adjusting very well and is excited to go to school so that makes me very happy!

Meet The Teacher Night

I'm having to play catch up on my blog so i will start with last Monday. Meet the teacher and visit the kids classroom at school Night. We were walking around the halls completely lost in this new big school but finally found both the kids classrooms and met both of their teachers who both seemed really nice. They then had a social in the gym and had all the grades at diffferent tables so that you could meet others in your class. Avery and i went to the kindergarten table and Daddy and Trey went to the second grade tables. The first people Avery and i sat down beside and started talking to ended up being a Christian family that had also transferred to this school and have been praying that they would meet other Christians. What an answer to prayer becasue we have been praying the same thing! The girls both go to afternoon kindergarten but are in seperate classes. They live not far from us and we have even talked about carpooling once the kids get comfortable. It's just so awesome how God works! We are both going to search out a moms prayer group that we wonder if they may have. Trey met a couple of second graders but only one that would be in his class. This size of school will be a huge change for Trey but i think he is going to handle it just fine! I went away that night with peace about where the kids would be attending school.

I Would Go Nuts...

Without my computer! Our computer crashed about a week ago, but many thanks to Damon he has us back up and running!! The only things we are missing is pictures becasue he is still working on getting that reinstalled. I figured i would post just so everyone didn't think we fell off the face of the earth. I tried to email some of you that have sent me emails but something isn't working just right with that, so that is why i haven't replied to you. We are still alive and i will post more as soon as i can post some pictures...

Farmstead

We got together with the Trey's good friend Seth and his family (from Berean) and went to the Deana Rose Farmstead on Thursday. We wanted to do one last fun outing this summer before both boys got underway with school. There was a lot added since we have been to the farmstead last. Their is an old schoolhouse and a guy in their telling about school in the "olden days" it was neat. (also a nice break in the air-conditioning!) The kids fed the goats and then Avery also got to bottlefeed some baby goats. Let's just say i have no idea how i got that picture of her calmly standing there feeding them, because she screamed most of the time and ran around trying to get away from the goats...not that i can blame her, i took one of the bottles and about got malled by the goats myself :) Finally after both of us danced around the goat pen awhile the guy asked if we would like to feed them from the outside...brilliant idea, why hadn't i thought of that!! Is it that obvious we are both scared of these BABY goats?? :) Anyway we had a fun time spending some time with friends!

Making Some Music

Trey helped keep Ethan entertained today while mommy cleaned the church.... He is at a tough age to have with me while i clean because i have to worry about the stairs, and because he likes to chase the vacuum sweeper and get right in front of it or come right behind it and sit down so i do alot of moving him while vacuuming. And trying to mop.... i take him and set him in another room and then run back and mop fast! :) I was having Trey do some chores for me today becasue they have certain jobs that they do at the church to earn a little money but quickly Trey's chore turned into keeping Ethan entertained...

Playing Doctor

Avery likes to play doctor. Watch out if she ever wants you to be the patient, i was the patient for her after baby "ladybug" . She was going to give me a shot and told me "it will only hurt a second" she stabbed me with one of those refillable pencils (yikes) i guess i better check out her utensils before i'm her patient again! :)

Happy Little Guy

I am loving this age (almost 10 months). He is so much fun! Before and after his bath i let him crawl around naked for awhile and he loves it :) He acts like "you just try and catch me" He is happy most all of the time. He is starting to like walking while holding your fingers. I'm sure it won't be too terribly long and he will be taking those first steps...

Avery's Audiology Appointment

At Avery's kindergarten physical she had failed the hearing test in one ear so they referred her to have her hearing checked. Today was her appt at Children's Mercy. We found out her left ear is fine but she has "severe high decibal hearing loss in her right ear". The way they described it for instance was the high decibal for "shoe" would be the "sh" so she hears the "ue" but it could be "glue" for all she knew. That was just an example they used to help explain the decibals to me. This explains why she thinks we say something completely different than what we actually say sometimes. In the car when we listen to music, or watching tv she ALWAYS says i can't hear it, even when we have it fairly loud so i asked about that today and they said "it's becasue she really is having trouble hearing it, she hears the bass, but has trouble hearing the rest". SOO at this point they said our actions would be...inform her teachers so that she can be put at the front of the classroom, around any loud noises have her wear earplugs to preserve the hearing she does have in that ear. We are to schedule her with an ENT Dr for a consultation, and have her hearing retested in 6 months. If it stays right where it is at today they said she would probably be fine without a hearing aid in that ear, but if her hearing drops at all to any lower decibal they would probably want to put a hearing aid on that ear. They asked about the other two kids, and want to retest Ethan because he failed his first test and they were unable to get a good reading on the retest, so we will be doing that in the near future as well.

Our Weekend Camping Trip

We went camping this weekend with Phil and Julie and their kid's and Greg and Susan and their kid's. June and her kid's came up for the day Saturday. It was a nice HOT weekend!! We borrowed a boat from some friends so did some tubing with the kids and the guys skied some. Greg was so nice to let me and Ethan and Avery sleep in the air conditioned camper. After the first night i would have been ready to take Ethan home if i had been in a tent. He was up most of the night on and off and somehow got one of his bottles in bed unscrewed while it was full so soaked his bed and blankets. He laid on top of me most of the night. It was a LONG night (but not as long as the night last summer that i tried to camp in the heat with him IN my belly, the night i swore i would never camp again...) Other than the first night though he did awesome. He crawled around and was a happy boy. Trey and Avery had alot of fun too playing with their cousins. The outdoors is very hard on Avery's skin because of the exzema but she is a trooper! I was very happy to get the kids in the bathtub tonight and know that they were going to STAY clean!:) It was a fun weekend...

Camping

Some more camping pics...

Silly Kids At Play

I got the little tike bike down out of the attic and Trey and Avery are having more fun with it than Ethan. Trey pushes him around on it every now and then. I love watching the kids be creative. They are always dressing up and make believing something. Most of the time Avery doesn't want her picture taken when she is playing dress up but she let me today as long as i didn't show anybody:) SSSHHHH... Seeing what she has on usually cracks me up... the times it doesn't crack me up is when she puts on regular outfits and changes one after another and throws what she takes off in the hamper. On a regular day at home she will change probably five times. We are still working on this...

We Have A New Ride!!!

Yes we got a new (well new to us) van. Johnny's brother fixes windshields at car dealerships and called Johnny today because he saw a van that we should check out. Johnny swung out and looked at it and the guy said it was going to go fast, so tonight we had a babysitter come over and watch the kids so that we could take our van (just in case). As we were driving out there Johnny prayed that we would make a good decision and that we wouldn't buy it just because we were so hot:) :) Our air conditioner went out on our van several weeks ago, that being the reason we were sweating like crazy. We have been packing the family into Johnny's truck which has been very crowded! Our van had almost 200,000 miles on it and had seen better days. This is a 2000 Ford Windstar and had one owner and has 42,000 miles. It was owned buy an older lady and the inside is in excellent condition, practically brand new!! As an added bonus the air conditioning works like a million bucks!:) They gave us more than we expected out of our lovely green van (i must say i was not sad to say goodbye!) Trey's comment was "did you win the million bucks mommy?" he's been trying to get me to buy this yogurt when we grocery shop that says you can enter to win a million bucks. He thought for sure we must have one since we had a new van:). The Lord has blessed us today and answered two of our prayers that we have been praying about. It has been a good day!!