Halloween, I mean Fall Festivities

We're off to see the Wizard.......

Hopefully, I can get some better pictures of them dressed up, since we do have a few more "halloween" type things to go to, but I thought I would share these from Friday night. We took the girls to Boo in the Zoo and also the YMCA. I love all the family type events they have for Halloween. I know some people don't like Halloween for its evil beginnings or for the things that may go on that night, but I always enjoyed dressing up and tricker treating as a kid and I personally just love to dress my girls up. :) While I was sewing the Dorothy outfit, I told Kenny I must be crazy spending this time on this outfit because there were 16 pattern pieces to cut out -- which I HATE doing. Not a terribly hard outfit to make, but very time consuming. So I put it on Isabella and she twirled around the room and then came over to me and gave me a hug saying "Thank you mommy for making my Dorothy" *twirl, twirl* "You're the BEST Mommy!" *twirl, twirl* "You're the best..... maker" And yes, that did make it ALL worth it! Then seeing both of my girls looking as cute as can be, that made any time worth it. I will say we didn't run into as many Wizard of Oz fans like us, we had several ask if Amelia was a princess? Ok, if she wasn't with Isabella that's understandable, but come on -- she looks just like Glinda. :) She is such a little girly girl too, she LOVED wearing the tutu and didn't even pull the crown off, and boy did she know how to swing that wand. Hope everyone else is enjoying the season and the festivities!

October Joy

I love fall, its my favorite season. I love seeing the leaves start to change, I love the weather getting a little cooler, I love the pumpkin patch, the apple farm, hayrides, football (yes I did say that - wish we actually could go to more games, its the one sport I do enjoy watching) Halloween, ur, I mean Harvest, Thanksgiving, jeans and sweaters, etc. etc. Just something about the smell of fall air makes me happy. I will admit though that lately I have been busy and felt somewhat overwhelmed. We have alot going on, we have something tonight, but tomorrow is probably our last free weekend for a long time, we have alot that we want to do, I've been doing a good bit of sewing for my girls, and now I've started doing more sewing for others (this is a good thing, because then it pays for the sewing for my girls. :) I really have felt terribly disorganized, which then makes me realize it is my fault that I'm disorganized and then I get overwhelmed with that guilty feeling...... Ok, maybe its not as bad as it sounds, but it definitely has been a matter of prayer for myself.
Just a couple weeks ago, Daddy got a "new to us" swing set for the girls and Isabella loves having her own "park". And it brings me joy to watch her, she really has the most infectious laughter and my heart just swells with joy to be able to share just simple times like this with her. And then I found this poem and it seemed to fit perfectly with things going on right now.



Time rushes by, yet simple joys remind us of what is truly important.





So, I still need to find a way to be better organize my time, but this is one of those Truly Important things, spending time with my girls and enjoying them. Time is definitely rushing by so quickly.

Isabella's "Funnies"

I really wish I would type down everyday the things that Isabella says. The child cracks me up constantly, the only problem is that she pretty much never shuts up so I would have way too much to type. :) But I thought I would share a couple things from today. First, we were looking at a little toy catalog she got in the mail yesterday, we looked at this one toy yesterday and I explained to her what it was, then today she got the book out and again asked what it was.....
"What do you do with the monkey again"
"You hide it"
"And then what does the witch do?"
"What witch, there is no witch, just the little wand."
"And then you say "Bibbidy Bobbidy Boo" and wave the wand?"
"No, you hold the wand and it will beep when you get close to where the monkey is hiding?"
"And then we shoot the monkey?"
"What, NO, you just use the little wand to help you find him"
"And then we shoot him?"
"NO, we don't shoot monkeys!"
"Its just a pretend monkey mommy"

This is extra funny to me because I don't know where she gets this whole shooting thing from -- #1: she's a girl, she doesn't play with guns #2: I don't like anything about hunting and glad my hubby doesn't do it #3 and most importantly: We totally support Diego in his animal rescues :)

Also -- today is my parents Anniversary and the girls and I went to lunch with my mom and Isabella acted really bad (side note, don't know if any of you have heard or believe this but I heard somewhere that children act worse on rainy days due to the barometric pressure or something and its totally true for Isabella. She's always wild, but today she was just downright grumpy!) Anyway......
I said to her "Today is Noni and Papa's anniversary and you were supposed to be a sweet girl and tell Noni Happy Anniversary. Today is the day that they got married."

"NONI AND PAPA AREN'T MARRIED YET!!!!" :)

We've Gone Pink....

.... Have you??? Yes, today is the first day of October which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This Saturday, my mom and I went and did the 5K walk at the Race for the Cure. It was the first time we had done that and I know that it is going to be an annual thing now that we want to do. It was great! It was also very emotional, seeing many women walking around with their pink survivor shirts, the survivor walk and just seeing people out there supporting friends and family who have gone through or are going through breast cancer. And to think of those we know who have had breast cancer or have it now. As you can see, Isabella came down to the race for a short time with my dad and had a shirt on to support her "Nunu". Isabella asked me a couple times Saturday after I was home "why did you wear that shirt (the one they give you for the race), why were you racing?" I know she doesn't understand, but I told her that we were trying to raise money to help Nunu and others who are sick like Nunu -- she understands that because she prays for her every day. And of course, my Aunt Norma was in the forefront of my mind and how I wish we could be doing this Race in celebration of her being cancer free -- but that's not the case right now. Her cancer seems to have kind of baffled her drs -- or at least they say they haven't seen it like this,..... that is another reason for me to feel there needs to be more research done to help breast cancer. Even if the doctors haven't seen cancer like this, or maybe are confused about things -- I know that God isn't confused at all. He has His hand in all of this and He is in control!!! I may not understand why He is doing what He is doing, but I know that I trust Him and that He should be glorified in all things. Right now I am praying for real encouragment for my aunt, because I know being in and out of the hospital has to be discouraging and I know that she is in pain. So please keep her in your prayers as well. Saturday night, Kenny and I went on a date and went to a Mark Schultz concert. Loved it! When he was singing the song "He Will Carry Me" -- it made me think again of my aunt as she is going through this and also my cousin, Sheryl because I'm sure seeing your mom going through this is hard, so I wanted to post some of the lyrics for them as well as for others who are going through breast cancer (or any other trial)


And even though I feel so lonely
Like I've never been before
You never said it would be easy
But You said you'd see me through the storm

And even though I'm walkin' through
The valley of the shadow
I will hold tight to the hand of Him
Whose love will comfort me
And when all hope is gone
And I've been wounded in the battle
He is all the strength that I will
Ever need And He will carry me

Mikey B, you might have some competition

..... or I could title this, My Arranged Marriage Idea Might Not Work Out. :) Since the day Isabella was born, she has been promised to my friend Becky's son. Well, we can at least hope right? :) Although Mikey (he's 5, maybe he wants to be called Mike or Michael now?) I think has some "back ups", I do believe we have brainwashed him into thinking he wants to marry Isabella when he gets older. As of Monday, I'm thinking Mike might need to up his game to win my little girls heart. Monday morning we went apple picking with some friends -- actually, there were no apples on the trees due to the frost this year, so the "picking" was done out of bins. When we got to the orchard Isabella and the boys were playing (the only other girl was Amelia who was running like a wild woman) and she and Chase were playing on top of the hay bail, although I heard Isabella say, "let's play pirates - Aargh", she was acting like the sweet little girl so perfectly. Chase would throw hay and some would land on her arm for which she would hold up her arm to him and as this picture to the left shows, he would then wipe off of her arm. What a gentleman. :) On the way up there, Isabella kept telling me she didn't want to go on the hayride because she was afraid of the tractor. I don't know where this came from since last year she loved it. So when it came time for the hayride I told her that everyone else was going, it will be fun, etc., etc. She wasn't totally convinced because she said it was going to be loud. Chase then said "I'll protect you" and she said in an oh so sweet damsel in distress voice "Oooo Kkkk!" This all sounds so sweet, but as you can see in the picture, she took this rather seriously, she really thought that Chase, the mighty 4 year old could protect her from the fire breathing dragon -- urr I mean tractor. His mom, Shelli, and I were laughing and saying how cute this was now, but give them another 10 years..... I'm still rooting for ya, Mike, but we might have to talk to your parents about this "living so far away" thing. :)

Season of Life

I feel like I have been so absent from blogging lately, actually I feel like I have been so "busy" lately and I kept wondering why since I was feeling like I was not getting that much done, or at least what I am getting done seems to take me forever. Then, yesterday I was making lunch in the kitchen and looked over and there was Amelia standing on our breakfast table -- STANDING in the middle of it. And it hit me, oh yes, this is THAT season of life. The last few weeks several ladies have said in passing, all with young babies or pregnant, that they weren't "baby" people. They loved their babies, but they didn't like the baby/newborn stage, they looked forward to when their babies would start walking and able to communicate some with them. First of all, I can't even imagine not thoroughly loving the baby stage. Both my girls were prettty easy though so maybe it was different for these ladies. Although I do enjoy at least parts of every stage, and right now Amelia cracks me up with her little personality, if I had to pick one stage that was my least favorite -- this would be it. This is the age where both my girls have turned into little monkeys and start climbing on everything, EVERYTHING! They go non-stop, I think Amelia was walking at 12 1/2 months and running by 13 months -- and she doesn't stop. And they start doing things that need disciplining, but how do you REALLY discipline an 1 1/2 year old -- its not like I can sit her down and talk to her about what she's done, pray with her, and then hope to see a repentant heart. :) If I had absolutely nothing to do (or if I could get myself up at 4am) then this would not be so bad, I could just follow Amelia around non stop and not have to worry about her even having the chance of taking a nose dive off the couch, bed, computer desk, or table, but as we all do, there are other things I need to do as well. Oh yeah and throw in her very active 3 1/2 year old sister ..... Don't get me wrong, I'm still enjoying this stage. She is so funny as she is learning more words and trying to "talk" to us by using one word she knows and jibber jabber for the rest of the sentence. Its funny to hear her as she picks up books and "reads" them aloud in her own little language. She LOVES shoes, she is constantly bringing me Isabella's shoes to put on her, or yesterday when her cousin Olivia was here it was Olivia's shoes, last night was the funniest of all, it was Daddy's shoes and she will continue to bring them to you everytime they come off (last night I finally had to hide Daddy's shoes because I was tired of putting her in them :) She is actually becoming more of a cuddler, which I love! But, for me this seems like the craziest stage of all, so my time on the computer blogging might continue to be few and far between for a few more months. Oh and as I am writing this, she just pushed the button on my computer so that it "hibernated" and she is now throwing the candles off the coffee table. :) I really do have pictures and things to share, it just might take me a little longer to get them here. :)

1 year ago today......

Amelia "officially, legally" became our daughter --- obviously, she was our daughter before this, but this was the day that her adoption was finalized. Heres pictures from last year -- we had to call in to the courts and finalized over the phone (that's why Amelia has the headphones on :) --I hated not going to court and getting it all on video and picture, but I still cried and we still had a nice day with pictures, trip to Build a Bear and a dinner that night. I can't believe it has already been a year and my baby girl will be 1 1/2 in a couple weeks. Once again I'm reminded of how precious she is and how blessed I am. She is such a sweet little blessing and her little personality is getting even cuter.

I barely recognize the baby in these pictures. I would love to write a nice long post about everything, but right now we have no air conditioner and I'm getting ready to leave, so I am just going leave you with more current pictures of my little diva......

My "baby"

This is by far my favorite picture right now! She does give the sweetest little kisses. :) And of course I love pictures of my honey with daddy's girls.

And no, this picture below is not upside down. Amelia was in her stroller and just kept looking up at me with the cutest little grins, so I had to take some pictures. I can't believe that tomorrow my baby is going to be 17 months old, is that really possible?!

Where's the camouflage when we need it?

I don't know about the rest of you, but Sundays are really hard on my girls. With church it really does mess them up, especially Amelia with her (Praise the Lord) 2 nap schedule. This Sunday is even harder because we have had a very busy last couple weeks. Almost 2 weeks ago we spent a couple days with family while they were vacationing a couple hours away. Then we got home and had VBS at our church. That ended on Friday night and Saturday morning we headed to the Lake with our friends Randy, Andrea and Makenna. We were there until Tuesday. Then Wednesday we had my cousin and her family come in and they just left this morning. Going non-stop, schedules being scattered and crazy, so today is an even crazier Sunday. Sunday morning/afternoon is especially hard because church is right during Amelia's nap time, so by the time church is out, she's hungry for lunch, but tired because she missed her nap. We decided today after church to go out to eat at a "family restaurant" -- the place was busy, Amelia was cranky, the only 2 available highchairs we realized were broken, Isabella was "rambunctious", Daddy and Mommy are tired, so are the girlies....... and everyone notices us already because we do have the cutest girls on the planet and... Oh yeah, we were the only pasty white folks in there with children darker than them. :) Quite honestly, it doesn't bother me that people notice our differences, I enjoy that God has given me the children He has and has made us a multi-racial family. Sometimes I am amazed that God chose me to stick out like a sore thumb to people because I'm kind of shy and I don't think I'm the type that tries to stand out in a crowd. And most of the time people are always nice -- even today Kenny and I said "our girls are being kind of rotten, why is everyone coming over and talking to them and mentioning how sweet and pretty they are?" :) Really it was quite comical, crying children, mommy and daddy taking turns eating so one of us can hold Amelia...."Do you want this Amelia? No, this?....." "What do you want? "If I had a cookie I would give it to you", "Isabella, please sit down" "Eat your food" "Thank you for announcing to the whole restaurant that you have to go POO POO" And in the midst of this, honestly, we had at least 6 different people come and talk to the girls, most of them worked there, but its not like they were all our waitress. So as we were leaving Kenny and I decided we needed a camouflage -- a magic button to make us not pasty white so then maybe on days like today we wouldn't be noticable. Oh, who am I kidding..... we still have the cutest girls on the planet, no one is looking at daddy and mommy anyway. :)

I should've known

This is pretty much the picture I wanted -- minus the bunny, which she said she wanted to be a chick instead. But these are the pictures SHE wanted...

I titled this last one "honestly, we're not rockers" -- doesn't she look like that? She also mentioned to me that she didn't want to wear her "pirate" pants because, well, pirates are for boys. So I should've known that this day was going to be "interesting" with her. When she gets in these ultra silly moods, it can sometimes also mean wild, crazy, and somewhat stubborn. I don't need to talk about the stubborness because we all know that ends in discipline, but some of the crazy things were running and hiding when she was about to be disciplined, she asked if she could go talk to Amelia when she heard Amelia waking up from a nap --- I went in to find that she had climbed in the crib with Amelia, I believe she is either part monkey or gymnastics is having an adverse effect. She also was wild at the restaurant today with friends and climbed up on something and might as well have had a shirt on that said "My mommy is not doing a good job" because that's probably what those around me were thinking -- who am I kidding, I was thinking that today too. Oh and the day is only half through....... :)

3 1/2

We don't actually celebrate 1/2 birthdays around here, but today my sweet girl is 3 1/2!! Why does that sound so much older than 3 to me?! I didn't tell her it was her 1/2 birthday or she surely would have expected presents and a cake, but we did get to go to a movie this morning, so I guess we actually did do something special. She really does keep getting sweeter and sweeter all the time. She has the best little personality (although not immune to rottenness too) I wish I could share all of the ways she makes me smile and laugh on a daily basis, but then I guess I would miss it all sitting in front of the computer. :) She is so precious and I am so thankful that God has entrusted her to us!!!

A toy store is a toy store to a 3 year old

Here is proof that my 3 year old is pretty easy to please. Last night, I convinced my husband to take me to a thrift store. I have been browsing on some sewing/craft sites and ladies were mentioning that they had found some cool vintage sewing patterns and material at thrift stores, so I decided that I wanted to try and see if I could happen upon anything interesting. To begin with, the one we chose to go last night was not a good choice. There might have been a great vintage pattern there, but if so it was at the bottom of the bin -- literally. We went to a Goodwill, but it was a Goodwill Clearance Center -- which cracks me up, now thrift stores aren't even cheap enough you have to have a thrift store clearance center. Definitely a clearance center, everything is 99 cents a pound. Everything is thrown in these HUGE bins, no rhyme or reason EXCEPT for the toys, they are all in one area. So as soon as we walk in, Isabella is excited to see bins and bins of toys. It made me laugh to realize its not just the toy area in Target, Wal Mart, or Toys R Us -- even old broken toys get this child excited. Well, the trip wasn't a total waste, we got a frisbee for the dog to chew up, I found a Disney dress up dress for Isabella (its in the washer as I write) but best of all -- Isabella found her "treasure" -- this is what she wanted, we couldn't convince her otherwise.

May I present, Dancing Cow -- as she has named him. Now all of you rush out to your local thrift store in hopes of finding a "dancing" wooden cow with a broken ear!!!

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to my honey!!!! He's the one on the right with the Urkle pulled up pants with the huge roll up at the bottom. HA! What an outfit. (And Tanya if you read this, don't laugh to hard, that's your hubby on the left. :) I think he had a good day, we met him for lunch and Isabella got to take Daddy some balloons. They also were as cute as can be because I had embroidered some shirts for them to wear to his work that say "My Dad's the Coolest", he liked those the best. (See below for pictures) Then tonight he actually got a small surprise party, which we never do parties for us, so any party would probably be a surprise. I had mentioned to the teens that it was Kenny's birthday on Wednesday so I was going to bring a cake and ice cream to youth group -- well, they decided they wanted to do something so they went out and bought decorations and cards/gift for him. I had to make up some excuses to hide things, but I got there early with the teens and helped them decorate and he was surprised when he got there. They also had asked me for some pictures of him that they could blow up -- I REALLY need to get some more "embarassing" pictures from my in-laws. :) Actualy, I think he's had a whole birthday week, because I gave him his present on Monday, we got together with my parents, brother and sil last night to celebrate 3 birthdays, then today was his actual birthday and we celebrated. I hope he remembers this week long celebration when my birthday rolls around. :)












I was trying to get Amelia to smile in this one by singing "If you're happy and you know it..." but Isabella decided to play along too. :)

AND, since it is Daddy's day, I thought I would share a little conversation Isabella and I had the other day.

Isabella: When Daddy gets home can he do..... (I won't write it all out because she was making no sense what she was wanting :)
Me: Honey, I don't know what you are talking about, but I'm sure if you ask Daddy he will try.
Isabella: I love my daddy, SO much.
Me: You have a good Daddy don't you?
Isabella: Yeah, he gives me lots and lots of kisses. *pause* He's so handsome and pretty. (She's giggling because she called him pretty)
Me: Silly girl, not pretty.
Isabella: He's so handsome and cool!

I agree honey, you are so handsome and cool. :)

Watching what we say....

I forgot to share this earlier, but I thought ya'll would get a kick out of this. A couple weeks ago the girls and I went out to the store. I put the girls in the double stroller, but Isabella doesn't like to be in the stroller -- she's a big girl, you know?! She may be a "big girl" but I know my child, she would be running around the store like a crazy woman if I let her just walk around. So we kind of "compromise" - I tell her that if she sits good and behaves that I won't lock her in -- she hates to have the buckle on her -- but she HAS to be a good girl and not get out of the stroller. While we at the store, as it seems to happen everywhere we go, a stranger came by and started talking to my girls. Actually its more like a stranger walks by and Isabella starts talking to them. She is my little social butterfly and loves the attention so she of course did her normal "What's your name?" etc routine. Then out of the blue she says "If I'm bad, I get locked up!" Thankfully, I don't think the person really even heard her, or maybe she was just pretending like she didn't hear -- I don't know but either way I know try to say buckled in rather than locked in.

4th of July

Thought I would share a couple pics from the 4th. I'll probably have some more after this weekend because we are having our church 4th of July picnic Sunday. We had a great 4th.
This first picture of my girls cracks me up, I really just wanted to get a picture of Isabella all dressed up -- not that I didn't want one of Amelia, but I thought there would be no way that I could get them to sit together, I thought she would either crawl away, try to grab the camera, etc. Instead I told Isabella to go stand so I could get a picture of her and right before I snapped it Amelia walked over, sat down and grinned. :) (Of course, neither one is looking at me, they're looking at Daddy)

I love this picture of Amelia and Kenny -- I'm not sure who adores who more!

After afternoon naps, we went over to our friends Randy and Andrea's house and then went swimming, had a cookout, and shot off a couple fireworks. This is Isabella's little friend Makenna -- I at first couldn't get them to pose until I asked them to hug and pose like they are always doing. We will go out and they will hug each other like this and say to us, take a picture (of course its when we don't have a camera) and then they will try to walk while they are hugging each other -- so cute!!

Everyone enjoyed the sparklers, I love the pic of Amelia looking at the sparkler, I left the flash off on purpose, so it may be a little blurry, but it was on purpose. We didn't get to go see any big fireworks because this is how Isabella watched the small ones Daddy was doing. She loves to see the "pretty fireworks" but doesn't want to hear them. And yes, that is her nose smashed against the window -- sorry Andrea, you probably have a mark on your window from that one. :)

Cute as a button,....

Sweet as Sugar.....

....Stubborn as an ox, and mean as a snake! :) I know you're thinking I'm being a mean mommy, but honestly, I love this little girl SO much -- but I can no longer hide that she has some faults --- dare I say it she has a sinful heart. We realized the stubborness some time ago, but as she gets older it is all too clear to us. When she wants her way, she wants her way and she expects you to follow suit. Just this weekend we went camping and she just wanted to run -- everywhere -- fast --- by herself. Well, its just not possible at a campground where she easily is running, then rolling down a hill. I decided to take her hand and we would walk. This was not her plan, she decided after we were walking for a while that she no longer wanted to hold my hand, she started pulling away, then realized that wasn't going to work, so she was trying to use her other hand to push/pry my hand off of hers, then she was leaning and pulling thinking she could get loose ---- all while letting out little mad screams, then she decided to just pretty much go limp on the ground. Some ladies were passing by and I said "She's 15 months, I really didn't think temper tantrums would start this soon" They kind of chuckled and gave me the "we've been in your shoes" nod. I haven't, Isabella never did this. And as for being mean, Ok, so mean as a snake is really harsh, but its the only catch phrase analogy I could think of. She actually cracks me up and I have a hard time not laughing as I scold her. She will reach out and out of the blue grab Isabella's hair, Isabella will yell, I will look and Amelia will be smiling like a hunter catching her prey. And then, if I give her goldfish (or peas for goodness sake) and decide to let Isabella have a couple, she yells and gives a dirty look. And if Isabella comes near her food, she pushes her away. Like I said, its kind of funny (now) to see her trying to push Isabella away from the possibility of eating her peas, but selfishness is rearing its ugly head. BUT -- she is still CUTE AS A BUTTON and SWEET AS SUGAR!!! :)

My brother -- maybe Picasso style

Just in case any of you wondered what my brother looks like here is a sculpture of him ...... or otherwise known as Untle Mike - by Isabella.



Honestly, I had nothing to do with this. Isabella was playing with play doh and Amelia had just woke up from her nap. I was back changing Amelia when Isabella, very excited, yells "MOMMY, I JUST MADE UNTLE MIKE! I made his nose and his eyes and his ears and his chin and his hair!!" (and his tent, not pictured here, and not sure why he had a tent) She is very proud of this creation, so I had to take a picture. Now you all know EXACTLY what my brother looks like. :)

Father's Day

I know Father's Day was a week ago, but I still wanted to post. I definitely didn't want to overlook my husband. He is such a good daddy (and husband!) and our girls absolutely adore him. Every day when he comes home from work, you will hear squeals throughout our house as our girls are racing to the door. And he normally comes in the door, kisses me, and then gets bombarded by them. He is either holding both of them in his arms or they are tackling him on the floor. Isabella, especially, thinks the sun rises and sets on him. :) Her daddy is the best, strongest, silliest, daddy who can fix anything - in her opinion. Just the other night she asked him to fix something for her and he said "I'll try, I can't fix everything though" to which she responded by laughing and saying "Daddy, you're silly anyway." :) I've been so amazed at how early a little girl wants the approval and attention of her Daddy. She will put a little dress on and say "Daddy will be so excited", "Daddy will think I'm so pretty", "Maybe Daddy will dance with me". I can tell her a hundred times a day that she is beautiful, but she wants her Daddy to tell her and when he does, because he always does, she gets this sweet little shy look on her face, like "Yay, my Daddy thinks I'm pretty". And its not just hearing that she's pretty, she wants to please him in other ways -- like shouting "Go Blue" even if its in the middle of a NFL, NBA, or our hometown baseball game instead of Michigan sports, she doesn't know who is playing, but she knows that Daddy loves it when she yells Go Blue. Amelia hasn't gotten into all of that yet, but I know its coming, it's sure to come, they will both end up being Daddy's girl. And that's Ok, seeing how sweetly he loves them, plays with them, disciplines them, prays with them, makes me know how blessed they are to have him for a daddy. There is so much more I could say, but I won't type forever. :) I am thankful that God has given me my husband and has given us the privilege and responsibility to raise our two beautiful daughters together!

Praise the Lord update

My dad told me last night and then my cousin Sheryl (Norma's daughter) posted an update today about my aunt, here is what she said... "I have been sick and not able to visit mom in the hospital. I did talk to Melva (our cousin) last night and the cancer has not gotten into moms bones and she doesn't have the congested heart failure. She does have the bacteria you get from hot tubs. How I don't know. I want to thank everyone for their prayers for mom. It really means a lot to know that there are people you have never met, praying for your loved ones. " PRAISE THE LORD!! My dad told me this last night and what a huge answer to prayer. Because of my aunt's symptoms, the drs were thinking that it was going to be congestive heart failure, but the test results said no. Thank you Lord! And when I personally heard that the "stuff" (for lack of better term) on her chest had spread, I was so afraid that the cancer was either spreading or something, but it hasn't -- again, thank you Lord! I really do appreciate all of you who have prayed for her, some of you have mentioned it on here and some of you, I know are praying but don't comment much on my blog :) All of the prayers are greatly appreciated. And I echo my cousins sentiment, it is really encouraging to know that people I have never met in person are praying! Please continue to pray that she will feel better, that she will be able to fight this infection away quickly (due to her lower immunity from chemo she can catch things like this easier), and that God will continue to strengthen and encourage her and all those around her. I am still praying for complete healing and it is an encouragment to me personally to feel that God has not told me to do otherwise.

Last of the beach pics

.... and lots of them. :)

These first ones are pictures from our evening at Harbour Town. We went there to eat and then got on a sightseeing cruise to see dolphins. The kids loved seeing the dolphins and as you can see above, they let you take pictures of the kids "driving" the boat. Isabella really thought she was driving. She hopped up on that seat and started steering back and forth -- praise God she wasn't really driving or we all would have been sea sick. :) And in the picture to the left, I was hurrying to get a picture of my girls before we got on the boat and I mentioned something to Isabella about wanting a picture of her with the lighthouse that is on her skirt, so of course she ignored me and pointed up at the lighthouse instead -- yeah, sorry baby couldn't get you both in the picture.

This picture really cracks me up, I decided that maybe I could get a picture of my girls with the lighthouse in the distance, but then the boat made a loud noise so I have a few pictures of Isabella with a similar look on her face, trying to smile for mommy, but more of a terrified smile of that noise. This one was the funniest. :) Thankfully she didn't stay scared too long, as exhibited in these pictures below where she is being my little silly girl

Even with her silly faces, look at those dimples?!? And here's a cute one of my niece, Olivia. She was sitting next to me for alot of the cruise so I was taking pictures of her and she leaned right into the camera and smiled -- it was so cute.

And of course, here's my little cutie-patootie. I thought she would be afraid, but she wasn't -- at all -- to the point that we couldn't put her down because she would have walked right over to the side of the boat. And I love this one of Isabella and my dad. She probably stayed with him most of the cruise -- such a Papa's girl.

And then, these are from our last evening at the beach. I have no idea WHAT Isabella is doing or where she learned these poses -- I promise I did not ask her to pose like that. She's such a little nut. I'm sure its somewhere in Cinderella. :) And Amelia, the best way to get her to smile now is to sing "If you're happy and you know it...." she automatically smiles and starts clapping her hands. I wish Amelia was smiling in this picture of her on the little boardwalk, but she's still so cute. Actually getting her to stand still here was a miracle in itself, she kept running from one end to the other, just stopping when we would say look, theres a turtle or look there's an .....

...alligator! We saw lots of alligators that week, or maybe the same alligator lots of times, but either way the kids were thrilled to see them. Last year we only saw the alligator a couple times (well, I didn't see them at all) but lots of turtles. And that's it, that concludes my beach pictures --- or at least I think so, for now. :)

Update on my aunt

Please continue to pray. Right now, the doctors are thinking that my aunt may have congestive heart failure -- which is a common side effect of chemotherapy (I didn't know this.) They are still running some tests to find out for sure, but they are thinking this is most likely. The stuff on her chest has spread, last week it was 6 inches and this week it was 12 inches. I'm not sure what this means, I don't think they are yet either. I think the drs are coming in today to check that out. There was some mention of it being a side effect of medicine or something like that. So we will find out (hopefully) today if this is the cancer that has spread that quickly or something else. I'm sorry I'm so vague, we don't know a lot right now. Hopefully my dad will hear today from one of his other sisters more information. Please pray obviously for my aunt in general, I know she is in alot of pain, I know they have her on medicine, but I'm not sure how much this helps. Please pray for God's peace and that her spirits will be lifted instead of discouraged-- I know it has to be so discouraging to not know what is going on, and to have to be living in pain. Please pray for wisdom for the drs to know how to diagnose and handle everything. And also pray for my other aunts and cousins as they are up there with her and are having to deal with things first hand. I know that it has to be really hard on them to see her in pain and not know exactly what is going on.