Wizzing By....

This summer is just flying don't you all think so? This week seems like it just flew! On Tuesday Lucy got to spend the day with Big Nani and Big Papa all by herself and loved every minute of it. We joined her for a great supper and visit with them. Gideon and Keith even got to fish in the pond and he reeled in a 10 inch bass! Way to go Bud!! I think that's the biggest fish he's caught so he was pretty excited. He came up to Grandma and me, Ella and Luc on the gazebo and said "Guys....I gotta tell you something" with a big smile..." I caught a big bass!!" He was so funny. Anyway we had a good visit as we always do and hated to leave!
It was hot all week so we swam in the neighbors pool quite a bit too. Gideon, who was very fearful of the water at first has been doing awesome this summer. He swims around by himself and is constantly dunking his head in the water and practicing his strokes that he learned this winter in swim class. He is really turning into a little boy. We play frisbee outside almost everyday and he runs around after the soccer ball and hits his tee-ball a ton too. For those who don't know this is big progress for my creative but kinda "in-active" boy. That was our goal for this summer to get him more active. It's not that he sits around and watches tv all the time but he does live in a world of imagination a lot of the time, pretending to be lions and hiena's and any other aniamel possible and we really wanted him to spend some time running around in reality for awhile...he's made great strides and while he still plays pretend a lot (which we are totally fine with) he has become very balenced spending as much time doing that as he does riding his bike and running around outside!
On Wednesday I got to get my massage at the therapy clinic in Archbold. It was very relaxing and quite a blessing on a stressful day. THat night we got to meet our friends new baby Natalie. She was really cute and little and they were all doing well.
On Thursday the kids and I took an afternoon trip to a popcorn factory in Napoleon, hitting a park and stopping for some sweet tea at Mcdonalds to wash down our caramel corn. It was fun, although the "factory" was not as exciting as expected. Gideon kept saying...It stinks in here over and over again....
Saterday night my parents offered to watch the kids so we could go out for our anniversary. We ended up going out to a new Mexican Restaurant in Napoleon called Azul Tequila. It was really good food and Keith and I enjoyed ourselves but the service was so quick we were done eating only a half hour after we got there so we decided to take a drive down to historic Grand Rapids. It's so beautiful down there with the river and canal that we walked through the park and down the main street. It was a very relaxing evening and brought back lots of good memories of when I was a little girl with my great grandma (she was originlly from Grand Rapids).
my parents kept the older kids over night and they went to see The Wizard of Oz at the community theater on Sunday afternoon. Although it was long play the kids loved it. I guess when the witch melted it was pretty quiet and Lucy clapped her hands andyelled "Yay Dorthy!!" Pretty funny.

Prayer Request

Hey everybody, well I just recieved news that my friend Traci's moms breast cancer is back. This is so disappointing because Traci and Jason are in the middle of wedding plans for November and now she may have trouble enjoying not only the day but the "event" that a wedding can be when it's your daughter getting married. More importantly though, Traci and Jason just want her well! Please pray that her chemo will work and she will be healed from this and that she can enjoy these months before Traci gets married and not be too worn out from the chemo to celebrate with Traci!!

Dedication Sunday

Sunday was Baby Dedication at church and we decided to dedicate our precious little Ella. It was a busy morning getting everyone dressed and ready to go and meeting up with the grandparents and great grandma but everybody made it and the service was great. We had met with Jerry (one of the ministers) earlier and he had a "practice" hold on Ella and we talked to him about her and our pregnancy with her, her personality and our hopes and dreams for her spiritually. It was really neat. He wrote out a little personalized blessing for her that day read it and then gave us a copy! It was really special. It took everything in me not to start bawling but I managed to just have the watery eye quivering chin thing:) She is so special to us and such a light in my life and I so desire for her and all my children to really L.I.V.E for Christ in freedom without fear fully understanding and believing in the grace to which they were given!!! I viewed dedication as kinda a kick in the pants for me to guide my children toward that spiritual state in their futures, to help their spiritual lives to be full of truth and freedom from the start and hopefully help them conquer some battles over Satan and over generational sin!!! AMEN!!! God is great and good and has blessed me alowing me to be a mom of 3 great kids.. Thank you Lord !!

Little Lucy Update

Well we met with the doctor yesterday about Lucy's eyes and it was a mixed emotional visit. Her offical diagnosis is bilateral strabismus and ocular torticollis. I'm sure not very many people know what that means but pretty much it means that the muscles that make her eyes move don't work right...either they are too short, weak, connected incorrectly or some other issue (we won't be able to find out 'til she's older) so she compinsates(sp?) for her weak eyes by turning her head slightly to see up, down and side to side. Unfortunetly this can only be repaired by surgury and only when it grows more severe will they even think about attempting it. The good news is that usually in these kind of cases the brain will begin to automatically shut down vision to one of the eyes and eventually the patient will go blind in that weaker eye. Lucy's right eye is weaker but she has great vision in it and her left eye as well right now. Unfortunetly there is and 80 percent chance that before she is 9 years old the brain will begin to shut down vision so we have to go back every 6 months to make sure it is not happening. If it does we will have to do some therapy. I feel really sad for Lucy. I am sorry that she has to turn her eyes and head to the left to see. The doctor said that she really is not that far behind other kids her age but it is sad to me that she has to overcome such a hardship. Of course as a mother I think about her being teased about it when she gets older and struggling to see in school may impair her learning a bit. Keith and I are praying for a miracle still that God would heal her eyes and help her to be able to see without turning her head for help! We will be hopeful for that always for with God All Things Are Possible!!! So that's the scoop! If you have any questions you can give us a call!!

We are Back and Home to Stay!!

This is Gideon Boogie Boarding! Him and Emily had a blast catching the waves and riding them in!! Of course they were very closely supervised!

Such a sweet baby!! Ella L.O.V.E.D the beach! She played in the sand and let the waves come up and tickle her toes! She giggled and played and enjoyed every minute!

Yes that is a jelly fish! NASTY!!! Lucy would run up and down the beach finding Jelly Fish picking them up, showing them to us and then running off with them! I told Keith....Go take it away from her and he said....and I quote..."I'm not touching that thing"...they didn't have any veins so they couldn't sting so we thought she'd be fine...it just grossed us out!!

Mob baby.....!! Crack me up!! Check out the Cheeks!

Well, we had an awesome vacation. The weather was great and the kids just had a blast togethor! We started out at my aunts in West Chester and had lots of good food, fellowship and fun with them...we ended up by ourselves the first day on the beach because Ang had car trouble and Traci and Jason got stuck in Tennesee but by Wednesday everyone had arrived. We played on the beach most of the time but did take a trip to the boardwalk one night for games and Mac and Manco's Pizza...YUMMY!! Salt Water Taffy, Fudge and Popcorn. We ate icecream, laughed, road a "family bike" that held all 12 of us and made lots of good memories! We got back Sunday night but the last few days have been chaos so that 's why it's taken so long to write! Hope all is well!

Back and Away

These pics were taken in the Seul Choix (pronounced Say Shwa) lighthouse in the UP.....unfortunetly they were the last pics I took before my camera died. So...I will have to ask everybody else for pictures of my other 2 kids on vacation. So vacation went well for us this year. The weather was amazingly warm and sunny and we spent much of the time in the lake. The kids had a ton of fun with all their cousins and Keith enjoyed his fishing time. We are home now for about 6 days franticallly doing laundry and packing up again to go to the Shore with my 2 friends from college. It's going to be a great time but kinda sad. My best friend Ang is leaving for Albania in December/January and this may be her last time to the shore for a long time. Traci (the shore house owner) just got engaged on Sunday and it is a true celebration and answer to prayer so we will be excited to get togethor and talk on the beach! The day we get back from vacation Keith flies out the Arkansas and then the next day Lucy has here eye appointment. It feels like the summer is just rushing by....I hope the end of July and August slow down a bit! Hope all's well!