Thankful Thursdays...

Thankful moments from this week...


~Our church has been blessed to grow so rapidly since moving into our building 11 months ago that we have to add on...woo hoo!

~Friends who buy you awesome books on prayer (Power of a Praying Wife) for no reason!

~Big brothers who share their BELOVED (and I do mean beloved!) blanket with their little sister because it makes her happy! Also, watching her go get his blanket after he has left for school and hug it tightly. (She will even do this with his dirty socks if she can't reach his blanket...now that is LOVE)

~Watching Alayna mimic everything Aidan does, and him giggle about it.

~My sweet husband who conjures up the energy to entertain 7 year olds to make Aidan's birthday a huge success, makes breakfasts and lunches and still has time to be silly and entertain us.

~My azalea bushes which are in full bloom.

~ One sweet little toddler who folds her hands to pray before meals and loves to go pee pee in the potty.



We hope you have a wonderfully, thankful Thursday...feel free to share.

Padawans to Jedi Knights...my how fast they grow!

Aidan is completely into Star Wars and enjoyed a Star Wars 7th birthday. Here are a few pictures of all the fun.

Darth Vadar and Luke battled it out on his cake. Thursday, Star Wars cupcakes were delivered for his schoolmates to enjoy thanks to daddy taking the day off and going up and having lunch with our Jedi wannabe.


That evening Uncle Ed & family and Aunt Elise & family came over for cake and ice cream and Star Wars presents galore.

Then Saturday night Aidan invited 2 friends to go out to eat with us at Fritz's, a restaurant where a train delivers your meal, the boys and Alayna LOVED it! The boys then came over to spend the night to celebrate his big day.


After dinner the young Padawans had a scavenger hunt around the house (rainy day outside) to begin their Jedi training by Master Jedi, Jason.







He trained them in proper use of the force, how to master their light sabers and how to use the force to fly.











Master Yoda, of course, was on hand to help train the younglings. (Alayna has been practicing her Yoda face for weeks just for this occasion!)





When Jason & Yoda were positive their learners had mastered all the skills necessary to be a Jedi they were then knighted.

The Jedi knights were able to defend the galaxy while enjoying some cake and ice cream, watching Return of the Jedi and staying awake giggling for hours!


What a fun 7th birthday! Thanks everyone for making Aidan's day so special (especially Master Jason~ your Jedi skills are good they are!)

Happy birthday Aidan! (thankful Thursday)

Seven years ago today God blessed us with a beautiful son. The moment I saw you I was forever changed for the better.

I thank Him daily for the wonderful blessing you continue to be to this family. You amaze us with your kindness, tender loving heart, intelligence, initiative, super hero type brother skills, sense of humor and thoughtfulness.

Being your mother is a great gift and I truly cherish it. I pray today and everyday that you continue to walk in the path that God has laid out for you and that you have a joyful heart in serving Him.

Have a wonderful day Aidan. We are proud to call you our son.

We love you no end~

xxoo

You know you would make a great music therapist if...

You get up every morning wanting to play music, dance and sing.

You see a radio and immediately your pointer finger has to push the power button on.

While alone in a room you put your babies on your drum and start playing them a song. "All our babies are sitting on the drum, sitting on the drum, sitting on the drum!"

Does this look familiar Ms. Erin?

Alayna does love music. She initiates playing with her musical instruments every day and singing her finger play songs, of which she can do most all the movements by herself now.

But, something tells me I think we have a little more work to do until she can take her skills out on the road for money.

Don't worry Ms. Erin or Nance, your job is safe, for now!

Bouncing good time

As spring is in full swing here we thought we would dust out our bounce house and let the kids have some fun.

Alayna was so young last year that all she could do was enjoy a little tummy time.

This year she was able to climb in by herself and crawl around (and be bounced all over thanks to big brother). My look how much hair she didn't have back then...

The giggles that came from our backyard today were priceless!

Thankfully Grace & Rayne held still long enough to let me get a picture of them with Alayna. Aidan was too busy bouncing to slow down.






You would think Alayna would get tired of being bounced around like a rag doll but, she kept giggling and signing more bounce and off Aidan would go to please his little princess!

After 2 hours they were still bouncing like crazy.

Needless to say our house is very quiet tonight.


Sweet dreams little bouncing beans!

Thankful Thursday

I love every season and truly enjoy living in the middle of the country where we get to enjoy the beauty of each season. However, this year I am rather fond of spring.

I love to watch God's creation spring forth with new buds on the trees and the flowers poke their heads out of their sleepy warm burrows where they spent the snow covered winter.

I am thankful for so many things, I thought I would share a few today.

~Big brothers who love their sister to the moon and back and will stop and smell the flowers with her just because

~Friends who drop everything when you need help

~Husbands who take the day off for no reason

~No follow up calls from the ds clinic visit from last week (means all her bloodwork was great!)


~Watching the wonder of a toddler fascinated by all the new things to learn each day

What are you thankful for today?

Alayna is 18 months!!!

We love you Alayna! Happy 18 months, sweet girl!

Down Syndrome Clinic

Alayna had her annual down syndrome clinic check up this morning. A super huge thanks to Liz for taking Aidan at 7:15 and making sure he got to school so we could get downtown by 8am. (He was so excited to have a play date before school that he was up at 5:55, hope he made it through the school day ok...)

Alayna was her normal happy go lucky, social self and entertained the 7 different "ologists" that came in to check on her. We were pleased to learn that she has put on 7 pounds and 6 inches in the year.

She got another clean bill of health from the doctors and the she is doing terrific from the rest of the staff.

My only concern for today was in the last two weeks I have noticed twice that Alayna has misunderstood what I said, she thought I said head for bread, for example. I definitely wanted her ears checked, which is part of this clinic visit anyway.

First we tried the sound booth but, after being in a small exam room with Jason & I for 2 hours prior she was a little less than participatory (no crying or anything just didn't look when the sound went off).
Even when the audiologist spoke into the microphone REALLY loud Alayna would sometimes ignore her. We all knew she could hear it just chose not to look toward the sound (stinker). So needless to say we didn't get a good reading. She tried a tympanometer and it read flat in both ears. So she did the otoacoustic emissions test (they put a small probe in her ear, there are a number of clicking sounds that are inaudible that go in and they register whether or not the vibration comes back out) she failed this test too.

The nurse practitioner told us that Alayna's ears were really filled with wax in the canal. As she hasn't had any hearing issues or ear infections to date, they and we are hopeful that the poor readings today are just from the wax buildup. We will get some wax removal drops and retest her with a tympanometer in one month. If after that she still doesn't pass we will go see an ENT.

After our clinic visit we always have to go to the dreaded lab for blood work. If you remember last year's visit I nearly came unglued at the lady digging around in Alayna's arm for a vein, so this year I requested upfront someone with experience in drawing on kids with down syndrome. YAHOO for the gal we had today she searched both arms and decided the right one would be better and lo and behold a vein on the FIRST attempt. After 4 vials of blood and very little tears (she was more upset about being held tightly than the needle in her arm) we were out of there.

We will have a full report in two weeks of their findings but, if any of the blood work comes back out of line they will call us by the end of the week so we can repeat it at our pediatrician's office when we go in for her 18 month check up.

Instead of going back to the ds clinic next spring, since medically she has no outstanding issues we will push it back 18 months to just after Alayna turns 3 so they can do the spinal x rays they do on kids with ds at that time.

We were also pleased to hear that the doctor that heads up the DS clinic is also in charge of the residents so she is having them spend some time in the clinic so they can expand their views of kids with down syndrome. Hopefully this will help these doctors provide positive, accurate and individual information to families with a new ds diagnosis.

Happy Easter

Aidan knew it was early morning when they found Jesus' tomb empty so of course he was up before the sun to hunt down his Easter basket and eggs.


While he hunted the house for eggs Alayna batted and chased her eggs around on the floor.

Thankfully both kids aren't really into the candy.


Aidan completely enjoyed his Star Wars book and Alayna loved all over her new baby! They didn't even open the eggs to see what was inside.


It was a beautiful day here so after a super morning at church we spent the sunny afternoon at the park.


Alayna enjoyed taking off her sandals and feeling the grass on her very cute feet.

Celebrating the resurrection and spending the day with my hubby and kids. What could be better?

We hope your day was as blessed as ours.

Easter egg coloring fun

This morning Aidan was super excited to finally decorate our Easter eggs. He loves to take a white crayon and draw designs on the egg that show up in the dye bath.

Alayna & daddy had a good time putting her name on her eggs.


Aidan then took his eggs and put them in the dye.


We got a great idea from our friend, Kelly to put the dye in a baggie so Alayna could color her own eggs (wish I would have thought of this one when Aidan was younger!) Thanks Kelly & Kelsey!

Alayna enjoyed squishing the bag and watching the egg turn colors.

But, after 2 eggs she was having more fun playing with daddy so thankfully big brother stepped in to the rescue and dyed the rest of her eggs.

He liked the baggie idea too so did his own dye mixing in a baggie and came out with a "golden egg" (although it looks more chartreuse to me)!

The finished product!

We had such a fun morning.

I am truly thankful for my family.

We wish you a truly blessed Easter!

Why do they call it Good Friday?

I can distinctively remember thinking as a child why do they call today Good Friday? What is so good about Jesus getting nailed to a cross and dying?

I didn't understand the gravity of the day until much later when I understood that "good" really meant "holy". Well that puts a new spin on it for me....Holy Friday.
I think today is the holiest of Fridays of the whole year.

Tonight as I take a 3 inch nail and hammer it into that 8 foot wooden cross remembering that my sins put Jesus there so many years ago and leave our church in silence I will remember that today is truly Holy and Good.

I thank you God for loving us so much that you sent your only son Jesus to fulfill your plan and die on that cross so that we may be saved.


Today's weather here is another great reminder for me of the gravity of this day.

During Jesus' last three hours on the cross the world was dark, at the moment he died the Temple curtain was ripped in two, there were earthquakes, people who had died were raised to life, and the captain of the guards replied, "Surely he was the Son of God".
Matthew 27: 45-54