Seeking Your Help

I seek your help! A little boy from my primary class was just diagnosed with leukemia this last week. He moved here from Mississippi to live with his dad in a better environment. He comes from a small 3 bedroom apt, occupied by12 people. He is not a member of the church, but was in the process of taking the discussions which was getting his inactive dad back to church! The hospital that he is in says that they can't keep him because he doesn't have insurance. His dad makes too much to qualify for state insurance, and of course he can't get on his dad's insurance with a condition already developed. They are going to transfer him back to Mississippi, where his mom is on medicaid, to be treated there. But then he is back in a pretty sad home situation. I went and visited him in the hospital yesterday, such a humbling experience. I wish there was something that I could do. So, in my feeble attempts to do something I am asking you all. Do you know someone or something that might help this boy to stay in Texas to get the treatment that he needs?
Thanks!!!

Blood or no blood?

Zach lost his first tooth on Friday!!! We were all so excited. I am a little bummed, cause my pics didn't turn out how I wanted. I really got to get a new camera! Anyway, Gabe and I had been worried about this day and how the events would unfold. We were expecting wailing and a whole bloody scene. His tooth has been loose for about 3 weeks and every day I would tell him to wiggle it. Then Friday he comes home and hands me this little plastic treasure box. Yep, it had his tooth! Apparently he was eating his cracker and out it came. No bloody scene, no wailing. Just excitment and hoorahs!!!

But we did have a good bloody scene 2 days before this, and not from the kids. Gabriel hurt his big toe a couple of weeks ago. It was getting pretty sensitive and wasn't getting any better. So, he went to see a foot doctor. They said that he had bruised the nail pretty good. They said it would heal the best if they removed the nail! Ouch! Kudos to him, he did it. The first day that he took the bandage off it looked pretty bad. I thought about taking a picture for you all, but my stomach couldn't last long enough to focus the camera. Which is probably good for you all!! It looks pretty good now, today is day 4 for him. It is going to take up to 8 months to grow the nail back. But now it just looks like he did a poor job of painting his toe!!!

Hair!!!

She has hair!!! And enough that I can put some of it in a little ponytail! I was so excited today that I went and bought the little elastic bands. You can't really tell very well, but it is there and it is curly. But it is so fine, a barret won't stay in at all. Soon she will have enough so I can have 2 on her head. But for now, I am just excited that I can get one. Now I just have to get bows that I can attach to the ponytail. Oh, I love having a girl. And a girl with little curls!!! I sure hope she likes it as much as me.

Disney trip

We recently made a quick trip to Disney World to do the obvious and visit Gabe's parents. (his dad works there, nice added bonus!) We spent just 1 day there, but we had a blast! The boys have been 1 time prior couple years ago, but this was Natalie's first visit. So, we had a ball watching her with many things. We went on a Safari ride at Animal Kingdom and she said "Wow" for every animal she saw. It was cute. We saw the Lion King show, which if you ever get there you have to see that. All of our kids liked that show. It was great!! Then Nat had her first ride, "Dumbo". She did very good waiting in line for almost 25 min, but once we got into the seat she freaked out! She was, as you can see in the picture, really wigged out. Then, once the ride started she was great. She loved it! When it stopped she kept asking, "More?" But not for another 25 min wait, the picture spot will have to do!

................The boys had a blast going on a Buzz Lightyear thing with Dad and Grandpa. Their hightlights were getting cotton candy(apparently we can't get it anywhere else, or maybe it just tastes better here). But if you ask them what their favorite parts were it is as follows:1-Buzz Lightyear ride 2-Cotton Candy 3-Lego store. Our boys loved the lego store at Downtown Disney. There were some pretty amazing things all out of Legos! Zach has found his lot in life. He wants to build the robots he saw with his legos! Good Luck! I don't know if you can tell, but in the picture everything, but our boys is out of legos. It simply was amazing. The funny thing is, I remember seeing this the last time we came. But our boys were young and I just didn't appreciate the fact that these great pieces of work.

For me the best part was watching Nat's reaction to seeing the characters at the Magic Kingdom. We passed Pooh and Tigger and she got all excited. But there was an extremely long line to see them, so we didn't even attempt. But while we waited for the men in the family to do their Buzz thing we saw these two and she was so excited. She has never even seen a picture of Stitch, but she ran right up to him(and we weren't in line) and hugged him. So, then I got in line to see him, it wasn't long at all. She hugged him again. Then we saw Buzz and I thought there is no way she will do the same, he is soft or cuddly. But she loved him. When I picked her up next to him she was poking all over him. I only wish we had enough time to go see more characters, just to get more pictures like this. Hopefully we will be able to go back sometime this year. It was a blast!

late christmas kids

This was a picture that I wanted to do in front of our Christmas tree, but now the tree is put away. But I really wanted to get a picture of the kids before it got too far past the holidays. Anyway, here is our late Christmas picture of the kids and the process to get there. It was hard getting Natalie to work with me. She has one pose in her and then she is all over the place. And of course the one that she sat for didn't turn out that cute. This was after church, cause they were already dressed up, and they hadn't been fed (bad on my part). But I knew that if I fed them lunch then I was going to remove the clothes and I would not have got the picture I wanted. Hopefully next year I will plan this a little better. To make a long story short, here are our kids!

Notice Zach is smiling and ready in every picture! I love how

Evan is trying to get Natalie to cooperate, he is a great helper

when it comes to her. In the end, it is not a professional, but they are cute and I have to laugh at how much they put up with me.

Roses are Red

My husband is convinced that when I talk to a friend that it involves husband venting. So, to show you all what a wonderful husband I have here is a picture of what he did the other day! (after he cleaned my toilets, don't forget that!) I love my husband. He wants every day for me to be happy, which makes me love him even more. On the days that I am ready to hang everybody, his positive attitude is the last thing I want to hear. But then I step back and realize how grateful I am for him. When he walked into the kitchen with these all I could do was. . . . . . awwww! He says they are going to die pretty soon, but for now they are beautiful and they are mine!

Independence

Natalie has become very independent as of late. She wants to do everything herself. I should just hand her the diaper and wipes and call it good!!! But then again. Sunday as we are trying to get ready for church she is eating breakfast. We have a little shaker for powder sugar, which we use for some breakfast foods. Well, she decided that she wanted to shake it on herself. As she pulled it from my hand this is what happened. And we had just washed hair the night before!

I love it when they find that independent bug.