Kati-Lyn

Katie has a way of making us laugh and maybe almost cry sometimes at the same time. She always gets into surprising situations. Example: today while we were doing our school work, she was sitting there playing with her stuffed bunny. (Safely within my view but facing the other way) Suddenly we smelled vicks vaporizer, and wouldn't you know it.... she was rubbing it all over her (sick) bunny:) She looked pretty serious about her bunny's need! Emily began to giggle and couldn't stop when she saw this. We have had many moments like this with her.

Her birthday was February 24th and here is how we spent the day with her:

Her day began with Cherios and a banana. She has quite the appetite!

After letting her have a go at breakfat by herself, it was time for a bath. So she played in the tub for a while and we then moved on to her first real haircut.

This is an outfit we gave her for her birthday. She was pretty happy about getting all dressed up.Ofcourse, she spent time with her babies as well again.This is a daily thing.

Her favourite part of the day (maybe) was blowing out the candles and digging into her cake.

Here is also a picture of her now vaporized bunny. I hope the bunny is feeling all better now!

OH , the memories she will bring!

Emily

Emily was very small to begin with, but with her feet all curled up she looked even smaller. We were told before she was born that she had clubbed feet and so after she was born it was no surprise and yet it was. She was absolutely precious and I was amazed at everything about her! She seemed so perfect!

She would not have been able to walk like that though, so within the first week both her legs were put in cast from hip to toe. The first days were very painful for her and often when she cried, I cried.

In this next picture, only one leg was put in a cast that time. The other one had swollen up to much from the first cast and it was too painful for her to have a cast on it.
These were also bonding times. She learned to hold my hand from baby on and my fingers became an addiction to her. To this day she plays with my fingers when I hold her.

Things went very well and within a few months her feet looked close to normal. Now people who don't know, wouldn't even notice a difference.(a clear answer to prayer)

Emily loves to sing. She could carry a tune about as early as she said her first words. (She was an early talker) She gets a bit shy when she is with other people though. Her and Jamie are alike in many ways.

She is still a bit small for her age, and she has expressed her concern to me, before that she wants to grow up not down. She tries to eat well because she wants to grow bigger. She is very sweet!

Anthony

Anthony was a miracle baby. A baby that proved God is able to do anything and people don't have all the answers.

He was a perfectly healthy, strong, chubby baby. He was also VERY content. Cried next to never, was so easily satisfied... even through his teething stage , he didn't have any problems. (other then some ear infections, but even through those , he was surprisingly calm.

To this day, it isn't hard to make him smile. It's a smile that takes over and he can't stop it if he tries. Most mornings, his smile is the first thing we see, and he is usually the first one to say good morning to everyone. (It's hard to beat him to it!) Here is some proof of that from another source then his mom. :)

Not only can he make some funny faces, he also has a way with words! Have you ever heard of a chicken munk? Well, we had one in our garage for a long time. (That is what he called chipmunks)

I am grateful that God has allowed him into my life!

Jamie

On my last post I talked about how each child is unique. So, I thought I would share a little bit about their uniqueness. I will start from our oldest. So today I will do a special post about Jamie.

First of all he would have an older brother as most of you might know. ( His older brother passed away as a baby) They would be 11 months apart. Though he never met his older brother, he has seen pictures and does sometimes wonder what it would be like. He also had a brother after him that passed away and that he remembers.

When Jamie was about 4 years old, he wanted a cloud for Christmas. this was sometime after he had lost his younger brother.He figured that his brothers in heaven probably get to swing on clouds and he wanted one, too. (unique indeed)It was the sweetest thing! One time when we went to our boys' graves, we left flowers there and Jamie decided he wanted to stay there and wait for God to come pick up the flowers for them. He brought many smiles to our faces and still does!

Jamie was born with a unique heart physically and spiritually.

He might seem quiet sometimes, and can be shy, but actually loves being with people .(very talkative) To him age doesn't matter, he has friends of all ages.

I will also have to say he is not a morning person, rather a night owl, if I allow it. (which isn't often)

He is mature for his age in many ways, and is just a kid that brings love and laughter into our home. He is a very protective big brother and has a very special place in many hearts.

(this was at the hospital with his cousins)

He touches lives in unique ways.

Being "MOM"

I have really been seeing how important it is for each of our kids have their own time with me. They are so unique, have different interest, personalities and needs. I want them all to know how much I love them and want to spend time with them. Ofcourse when you Homeschool, they are with you for many things. But, it's more than just teaching them.
Sometimes as parents, it's hard to know what to do in a lot of areas. Along the way come hard decissions to make. God's grace is sufficient and even in our failures He can make something beautiful out of it. That is my prayer, that God will lead our children all the way to the end of the journey, and that he will mold them and keep them. I pray that He will help us be the parents he desires us to be but I can only be a parent .He is their father in heaven who is able to do far beyond what I can do!

Have you been tagged?

I have been tagged by Tina K.The idea is to find your 5Th picture folder and post the 5Th picture.Here is the picture that came up for me. It is a picture of 2 of my nephews. ( Art's sister Mary's boys)

OK so it is now my turn to tag 5 people.

1. Margaret R.

2.Margaret N.

3.Tina W.

4.Missy ( I know you like taking pictures.)

5. Saunya

More January Happenings

We went sledding a few times this month already which was a bit on the cold side but fun. I think kids don't think about the cold as much as adults. (I know... I'm a winter wimp!) We really have had A LOT of snow this winter and it is a beautiful scene!

We also had a pizza day at my parents' house with all the kids. Each person made their own little pizza. This was my sister Lisa's (the one laughing in this next picture)idea and everyone had a blast as you can see!

Everyone concentrating on their own pizza now.

FOCUS MARGARET FOCUS!

(You know Aaron, I wonder are you holding Carson so someone else will make your pizza!?)

The finished products!

Looks good guys! Garnet's must be really good, huh?

The End of that story

Christmas Pictures

This took a while, but as promised here are a few Christmas pics. I had a hard time getting everyone to look at the camera on the family picture and then when I did, some were not smiling at all. (Oh well) It's hard to do when you just set the timer and then run back to your spot.

Anthony's 7th Birthday!

7 years old and learning many new things each day. You are such a blessing to have in our family. God has a special purpose for your life.

Happy Birthday, Anthony!

For Alyssa

Hope you had a very special day though I didn't get to spend it with you this time! May God be your guide through all the days of your life!

Time for an Update

As you can see, I am slow with Blogging now. What might be the reason.... Maybe I have lots of secrets? Ha ha.... No, not me.

Busy... yes, and well this hasn't been a big priority. I do like to write here but there are times it is at the end of my list of things to do and I don't make it to the end of this list and then there are times I really think I should write.

Quite a bit has been going on. My mom-in-law just had heart surgery this week. It went well and I thank God for that. Thank you to those who prayed for her. I could see she was in a lot of pain yesterday. She will need prayers in the months to come. We will need to go over there and help out as much as we can.

Also, our nephew Johnny is finished chemo, for now anyway. I don't really know where things stand with his health now but he looked pretty good yesterday when I saw him. I think he is excited about the fact his hair is beginning to peek through again. He will be turning 13 next month, which will make it a year since his first seizure and then finding out he had a brain tumor.

On a different note... we started our ASL class. I am excited about it! I noticed that learning signs with song makes it easier to memorize the signs. I'm also trying to talk german to the kids more now so they will learn that as well. Who knows maybe knowing different languages will be something God will use in their life yet. I know I'm getting ahead of myself here , but next is spanish. :)

We had a good Christmas. A bit different this year but were blessed. I will post a few pictures of our events yet. Oh and then there was my birthday. I am 31 now!! (unreal) In many ways I still feel like a kid. lol. Honestly, I didn't have a very good day that day. Didn't feel very good and had a sick baby. Jamie really wanted it to be a good day for me and even baked a cake yet. That was very special and thoughtful. He even made me a card and he doesn't even like making cards.

There is my news broadcast :) If you made it to the end of it >consider yourself hugged.

What I'm up to

I am focussing on Seeking Him right now so I won't be blogging much here over the next while.http://seekingoursavior.blogspot.com/

Also busy doing other daily things like homeschooling, cooking cleaning and spending time with our kids and my hubby, making memories . So ya, now you all know I'm still hanging around and wanted to write to say hi.(smiling again) so drop by anytime!

Christmas Thoughts 2

The last post I posted because these were things I was thinking about and I want to do what is good for our own family. This year some of our own traditions had to change because our schedule changed from what we normally did as far as family gatherings go. I want to create warm memories in our own home with our childen that will last a life time as well. Now since we do have to change some of the things we normally do, I am thinking about how I want to do things now. What traditons I want to keep, what things I think are important to our own family and what things are not. Almost feels like it's a new start this year. So all these thoughts are more for us as a family and not me saying drop all your traditions. I don't think that is how God works and He also made us very colorful. I think life would be very boring if we all did everything the exact same way and I'm glad we don't! I find other people's home so neat when you go there and they are unique and have new ideas. Also it is great to walk into a home that is so warm and welcoming.(Christmas time can really bring that about) I think it's up to each individual to decide what is good for your home and a lot will depend on your own circumstances! (Does that make sense?)
I guess what I was saying is let's remember Christ not saying drop all your traditions, and the letter I got in the mail I thought was a good reminder to me. I don't think the letter means we should not have wreaths and candles.(not to me anyway) Candles are light and and light is good and a wreath is round, everlasting like God's everlasting love. I think that I would actually like to put up some things like that . The point was not about those things.

Christmas Thoughts (a letter I received and spoke to me)

" Please stop for a moment and look at this letter. Do you see the beautiful wreath at the top and the candle down at bottom? What do they symbolize to you? Are they part of the warm, inviting feel of the Christmas season? While they may be, I doubt many of us have a clear idea of what , if anything, they symbolize. They are part of the traditions we embrace without really understanding what they mean. But then it’s all about the feeling it produces not their meaning.
Christmas as an event , produces the same feeling regardless of it’s meaning. Even for those of us who understand that this is a celebration of the birth of Jesus, the celebration loses it’s meaning in the shopping, present giving and feasting. We get caught up in the warm fuzzies as well.
December 25th is a celebration of the birth of the Sacraficed Lamb of God. We don’t have a clear understanding of the date Jesus was born but the church has chosen this day to celebrate this event. It’s not the date that’s important, it’s that God has broken through; that he has put His long awaited plan of salvation in motion.
It’s important that a special baby was born, a perfect child born from above. But what’s more important is His purpose in coming. So when you’re out shopping and giving gifts and feasting don’t loose sight of the purpose of the birth we celebrate. In Revelations Jesus is worshipped, not as the perfect baby, but the Lamb of God who died for our sins and, as a result is worthy of our praise.”

I got this off of a letter I received in the mail today from Key Bible Club. It really spoke to me because I had been thinking about ways I wanted to celebrate Christmas and ways I didn’t. (or really what we were doing with “Christmas”?)
Somewhere along the line , it was the church (christians) who decided to celebrate Christ’s birth this way and I think it must have been very meaningful and I want to keep it meaningful. The nativity scene seems to be so much more comfortable to look at then the cross scene. I want to keep the whole picture in mind..