I once read that there are two kinds of picture-takers: 1. people who take pictures of the really important events, like birthdays, graduations, vacations, and 2. people who take pictures everything and nothing in particular. Considering I have no pictures of the graduation or the baptism we drove 8 hours to see, I now know which type of picture-taker I am. (And I have learned that my husband is neither #1 or #2, does that go for all men?)

In my defense, the camera was buried and hidden somewhere in our plethora of  suitcases most of the weekend. Heather's graduation was beautiful, but you'll have to use your imagination. I'd like to think that her choice of majors, elementary ed/ special education, was influenced in a tiny way by a sweet little Ukrainian girl with special needs pictured below. Heather, we look forward to seeing what you will do with your life. I know you will make Jesus proud.

And Jeremy, we are so proud of your decision to follow the Lord and submit to His desires for your life as evidenced by water baptism. I found it particularly special that you chose to be baptized in Grandma's pool surrounded by family. Thank you for letting us be a part of that wonderful moment and being an example to my kids. We are so proud of you.

And now for 2 of the insignificant photos of the weekend.....Ava's first swim....

This is the baby bed that Papaw slept in so many years ago, as well as all of his kids and grandkids, (minus Ava. But at least she got to sit in it just for the photo.) We had a great time. Thanks for having us Grandma and Papaw!

Baby got rhythm?

Is it just my imagination, or is this girl trying to dance? Observe the arms.....looks like she is a future rap dancer.

Summer fun

Thank goodness for whoever invented the stroller seatbelt!

Tomboys in dresses

Fun with sidewalk chalk, we just have to learn we don't eat it

My multitalented daughter, knitting! Thanks for the lessons, Oma!

We are enjoying Opa and Oma, and Uncle Joel too!

Remember a few weeks ago I wrote about these precious sisters in Haiti and the food shortage that they were experiencing in their area...Well I am grieved today to report that one of the little girls, Micah, has died of malnutrition, and her twin is in the hospital fighting for her life.

Please pray for her surviving twin, Mariah, and for their big sister Lilliana who surely understands enough to be suffering the loss of one sister and worried for the well being of the other. Please pray for the Petersons, the adoptive family who loved this child dearly but never got to hold her. Not only are they grieving the loss of one child they never met, but also struggling with the knowledge that the other is probably hurting and they are unable to comfort her. I can only imagine the pain they are experiencing knowing that Micah died without ever knowing the love of an earthly mother and father. I know there is comfort in the assurance that Micah is with her Heavenly Father for eternity.

Beautiful Micah...Jesus is now wiping those sad tears away

May 20

Last night we celebrated 13 years of wedded bliss. I can honestly say I have the best husband, I wouldn't want any other! Happy Anniversary honey. I don't even mind that you've been using my toothbrush!

Slowly but surely

The biggest obstacle we are dealing with right now in Ava's developmental progress is her ongoing sensory issues. While she truly is doing so well, she still does not like the feel of her hands touching the floor and her body weight bearing down on her arms. Until she is totally comfortable with it, she'll continue to crawl on her elbows, not the "prettiest" crawl, but it gets her where she needs to go. Still, I am amazed that she sees what she wants, and understands how to get to it. Considering a few months ago, she didn't notice the toys that were in front of her. Well, I decided to post some of the 'not so pretty' pictures of therapy so you can get an idea of what a chore it is for kids with sensory issues to achieve normal developmental milestones. Observe her hands and the wince on her face as the therapist attempts to get her to bear weight on her hands. Again, she has come so far, but still have a long ways to go. She is bearing some weight on her feet, another major feat for having such low muscle tone. Yay, Ava!

Another milestone...Ava has started putting toys in her mouth and chewing on them. I gave her a cracker to see what she would do, and.....she put it in her mouth and bit it. I am so pleased. She is still getting most of her nutrition via bottle, but she can hold it herself now (big progress) and she is able to eat applesauce, and baby food with a spoon on a fairly regular basis.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Nanny is 93!

The birthday girl...



Nanny is 93. If I was to be honest, all she would really like for her birthday is to go home and be with Jesus and Grandpa who died about 7 years ago. She prays every night, "Lord if you don't need me in the morning, please don't bother waking me up.".....I guess the Lord still needs you Nanny.

It's always fun to hang out with cousins, second cousins, first cousins once removed, first cousins twice removed, uncles, aunts....etc. This is second cousin Stanley.

Second cousin Kirsten

More cousins and uncles

First cousin Sebastian

First cousin Evi, second cousins Adrianna, Elise, Taylor and Ashlyen

And here are only a handful of Nanny's grandchildren and great grandchildren, Ava being the most recent addition. Nanny was an only child growing up, and made up her mind that she was going to have a whole bunch of kids and grandkids to make up for it. Here is a small piece of her dream come true.....


And Ava's two favorites.....first cousin once-removed, Dalene...


And second cousin Eli. Show her how to pull up, Eli. And teach her to say "mama".

"Summer's Here" Neighborhood snowcone party

Ava got her first taste of snowcone and she hated it! Much too cold!


Somebody felt left out......

Last Day of School!

Does this mean I have to save this shirt forever now?


Congratulations Liesel! First place in the spelling bee! I sure love that girl....


More beautiful artwork to display.....

A Granny cake for Nanny

My mom and I had fun decorating this cake for my grandmother who turned 93 today! Let's hope it's still in one piece by the time the party starts at 6:00. Jill, I took this picture just for you!

We had a "girls night out" Saturday night with Oma, Aunt Marlita and the girls.....we went out for sushi. I forgot my camera, again, but I stole this picture from my sister's blog. One of the questions asked was, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Evi said she wants to be a horseback rider. Liesel wants to be a veterinarian. And Hope wants to be.........."a grown-up". 

Big girl!

Nobody could have known how proud I was this morning to take Ava to her NEW classroom at church......the crawlers room!!!!

They loved her! They went on and on about how well she did in there, how happy she was, and how she enjoyed watching the other kids and listening to music. I am so proud of that girl.

(Next classroom.....the walkers' room).......

Bear with me

Thanks to those who told me about Pyzam. Uh-oh. This could become a bad habit, changing blog layouts. It's like changing wallpaper, but so much easier!

Bear with me while I try to figure out which one I like. When I told John what I had discovered, he said, "Uh-Oh." He knows me so well.

A special thanks to Karah, for putting together a header with photos for me. Thanks Karah!

Blog trivia

Did you know you can put your favorite blogs on a "google reader" and it checks your blogs for you so that you don't have to? Pretty handy and time-saving, if you are like me and like to read blogs in your "spare time".

The other day Jude asked John, "What is a block, Dad?" To which John replied something like this: "It is short for a web log, it is a website, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.....Why do you ask?"

And Jude said, "Because a kid in my class said he lives just a couple of blocks from us."

Now what I would like to know about blogs is, how do people get all the little flowery designs? I'd really like to have that! If you know, please tell.

Who is this?

Since you have nothing better to do.....who is this person?

Now stand back about 5 feet and look again. Kind of freaky!

Surprise visitors!

Opa and Oma came for a surprise visit from Mexico today. They are planning to help my brother move down from Ohio. Somehow we managed to keep it a surprise from the kids (I almost slipped a time or two).

I picked the kids up from school early, and told them we had suprise visitors waiting for us at home. When we got home they had to find the "mystery" guests.

Oma was hiding in the upstairs closet, and Opa was hiding under the bed. I hope it is a memory they will never forget.

I'll post pictures soon.

The pink and white polka dot dress

This dress is my favorite of Ava's. I love pink, and I love polka dots. She wore this at first as a dress, 5 pounds later as a long blouse, and today, I'm sad to say, will probably be her last time to wear it as I could barely squeeze her chubby arms into the arm holes. So I took her out on the porch to take pictures of this sad occasion. Her very last day to wear the pink and white polka dot dress.

When I was expecting my first child a little over 10 years ago I read a parenting book that told me how to get my baby to go to sleep by himself and stay asleep during the night. It told me that my baby would be much more pleasant during his waking hours, because he would be well rested, and that he would learn to soothe himself at night instead of demanding that I come rock him back to sleep if he woke up. The catch was, I had to let him cry himself to sleep EVERY time without exception. If I got him into the habit of being rocked or nursed to sleep he would become spoiled and expect the same ritual for every bedtime.

I tried, really I did. But this theory, which made perfect sense before he was born, went against every maternal instinct in my being afterwards. So eventually I threw the book out the window, and rocked every one of my children to sleep after that. Did we have sleep issues throughout the years? Yes. Did my children ever sleep through the night before they were 2 or 3? Not that I remember. Do a couple of them still crawl into bed with us in the middle of the night? Occasionally. Would I change anything? Not at all.

So when we adopted Ava I was really torn. I knew she had not been rocked to sleep a day of her life, she had never felt the comfort of falling asleep in her mother's arms. She slept soundly, peacefully all night, and went to her crib as happy as a lark. But I just couldn't lay her down in that crib without holding her, singing to her, rocking her, laying and snuggling with her, it just didn't seem right. On the other hand I was afraid to ruin a good thing.

Well guess what? I ruined a good thing. The little girl who, 3 months ago, would have layed happily in her little crib, isolated from the world for hours at a time....now cries ever so pitifully when I lay her down. She doesn't want to take a nap, doesn't want to go to bed (thinking of all the excitement she will miss out on, I'm sure). But when someone lays with her, she drifts right to sleep (after giggling for a few minutes, that is). As you can see the excitement of having a little sister has not worn off, the kids are still arguing over who gets to sit with her, who gets to push her in her buggy, or "put her to sleep". Tonight two of them shared the task.

A movie and a book

Two things I enjoyed this past weekend on our camping trip, finishing a great book, and watching a great movie as a family in our popup camper on the laptop (We really roughed it). Disney's Enchanted and The Last Sin Eater by Francine Rivers. I loved both of these, if you are looking for some good clean entertainment.

Sister bonding

Boy do I feel silly...Update on the earthworm

Well I left that "earthworm" on the floor of the garage, and as soon as the kids came home I told them what had happened this morning. I asked Simeon to IMMEDIATELY remove it. I have literally had the heeby-jeebies all day thinking of that nasty earthworm between my fingertips. 

So he comes back from the garage, holding the worm, holds it up close to my face, and says, "Mom, it's not an earthworm, it's a fishing lure." Boy do I feel silly now.  OK. Makes more sense now as to why it would be on the floor of the garage. So I can rest peacefully tonight knowing that I did not touch a dead earthworm today after all! 

When I took the trash out this morning I saw this big rusty screw on the floor of the garage. I went to pick it up to dispose of it, and guess what.......

It wasn't a screw, it was a giant 5-inch long earthworm....a dead one. EEEEEEK! I'm sure every neighbor on my block heard the scream.

There is a reason we like the men to take the trash out for us, isn't there ladies?

Atypical beauty

When we were fishing the other night, John tried to hand Ava the fishing pole to be funny, and of course she wasn't interested in holding it. So he made a comment that she was a "typical girl" and didn't care about fishing. Liesel said, "Dad, what does 'typical' mean?" He said, "Typical means 'average', 'ordinary'". Liesel said, "Daddy she is not typical, she is beautiful!"