Celebrating Honey!

On July 8th, 2011, Honey had her last chemo treatment and the very next day we threw a party to celebrate the end of a very long year of cancer treatments.

Honey and GPop with their kids.

What a party it was.

4 generations celebrating one of our favorite people.

You've never met a more special lady.  She's worth celebrating.

Honey, you tackled this with honesty, faith, and such grace.  Thank you for letting us share in celebrating what the Lord has done in you and the cancer that's been driven out.  May we not hear that word again except to celebrate that you BEAT it!  God is so good and you've brought such glory to Him with the way you walked this journey. We love you!

And now for the scores of pictures. :)

cousins and best friends :)

Heaton :) 

playing dominoes :)

Eye Appointments Update!

I know it's been awhile.  Summers are crazy busy around here and we just came off a great week of Backyard Bible Clubs with the students.  We're exhausted but it was really really good.
In the midst of the craziness, we've had 3 eye appointments in 6 days.  All 3 of my guys had an appointment and they're all doing super well.  We're so thankful.

Carson sat SO still to have his pressures checked today.  We've learned the secret to eye doctor visits with babies:  A hungry baby and a full bottle. :)  She was able to get a good look at his eyes and check his pressures.  He's still glaucoma free and we don't have to go back for 6 months. (yay!)

Kyler is still off drops and his eyes are super stable.  He's so good at his appointments too.  Actually I think the eye dr appointment might be the most still you'll ever see him.  He's looking great and the doctor said there are no promises and glaucoma is super unpredictable, but theoretically his pressures could be stable for a long long time. (Praise God! and keep those prayers coming)

photo by Lisa Moguel

Conor is off drops in his one eye and the doctor is super impressed with how well it's healing.  His eye looks so much better than it did 6 months ago - no more irritation and pain.  He's really doing great, and can see better than he did before the surgery.  We just bought him some really cool rec specs so he can start playing sports again soon.  (I'm sure you can imagine how thrilled he is about wearing them, but it's just too risky to go without them)

And just so as not to leave her out: Darby had her 4 yr old appointment a little while back and has finally past 30 pounds haha!  She's such a petite little thing.  She still misses her old friends and talks about them often.  The other day she said, "Mom, Austin is almost perfect."  "Almost perfect?"  I asked.  "I just miss my old friends.  If I could see them it would be perfect."  Ugh break a momma's heart.

Praise God for good reports for all 3 of my guys!

Lightning McQueen

There was a problem in our house.

Our middle child loves his big sister.  He wants to do everything she does.  Which often leads to both of them twirling around dancing in tutus..

Kyler hasn't started making gender distinctions yet.  He's not even 2 1/2.  I'm not worried.  I think it's funny.  He'll play with trucks and crash them together and ten minutes later be playing with his sister's princesses.

The problem came with his shoes.  Up until this point, he hasn't cared what I put on him to wear.  So I dressed him in what I liked.  There's only so long that you get full say in what your kid wears.  But recently he's started having opinions and since he doesn't gender discriminate, his footwear of choice was.....

his sister's sparkly princess shoes.  Oh how he loved them.  All of his shoes were sweet little navy leather sandals and converse sneakers that his mama picked out. I think he found them boring.

We had to do something.  I'm all for minimizing battles with things that don't really matter (so you can WIN the battles you do fight), but Daddy wasn't thrilled about his little man running around in pink & gold sparkly shoes.  Off to Payless we went and came home with...

Lightning McQueen light-up sandals.

 He loooves them.

The first shoes that he picked out all on his own. The lightning bolts on the top light up when he walks...or runs.  He doesn't walk much.

"Ka-CHOW Ka-CHOW!"

PS  My children do wear clothes.  This was right after baths and getting ready for bed (hence the disposable diaper - we use disposable for overnight) He wanted to put his shoes back on after he got out of the tub. Funny kid.  And no more fights over who gets to wear the sparkly princess shoes. :)

I love summer.
Backyard sprinklers and silly giggles.  Lazy mornings and afternoon naps.  Trips to the pool and popsicle red tongues.
It's my favorite time of year, crazy 100 degree heat and all.

Birthday Boy!

He had a great day! 
We had a party on Saturday and kept it small and simple.  We just included a few families our kids play with regularly, the grandparents, and one aunt & uncle that were in from out of town.

A fun pool in the backyard.

A few crafts for the big kids.

And a store-bought cake from Target.  I have finally admitted to myself that I am just not a baker and that's ok. :)  There's much less stress in our house when we order the cake and the kids LOVE flipping through the book at the bakery counter and picking the perfect cake. Win-Win. ;)

I can't believe he's one.  This year has flown by.

He is such a blessing to us.  His laugh is contagious and we hear it often.  He loves to be with his older siblings and they love him back.  I love to hear them cheer him on every time he does something new.  He's walking more and more but is such a fast crawler, he often drops to all fours when he's in a hurry.  (like when he's chasing the older two)  He loves to build towers and be outside and when he's upset, not matter the cause, he is quickly calmed just by being held by mommy or daddy.

Carson Paul, you are such a gift from God.  We love you our little red-headed man!

Health Insurance and Answered Prayers.

It's amazing.  Amazing to me, that no matter how many times the Lord proves Himself faithful, no matter how many times He shows up at the perfect time.  Still I struggle.  I struggle to trust, I question, I worry.

Just last night, Conor and I prayed together and asked the Lord to help us trust His plan as we wait on Him, especially as it relates to our health insurance.  We have health insurance, so I realize that makes us very fortunate, as Conor is working two part-time jobs (both of which he loves and it is very evident that this is where the Lord has him right now).  However, we're paying for our own health insurance out of pocket.  I'm sure you can imagine, it's very expensive when you have two family members with a degenerative disease.  Like almost a mortgage payment expensive.

We're grateful to have it, but it's certainly not ideal and hopefully not a long-term plan.

Today a letter arrived.  Conor has to get his health insurance separately from the rest of us and as a rule it's double an average premium for someone his age.  Well, the letter explained they are going to offer a subsidy which will reduce our premium for Conor's insurance by up to 50%.

The very next day.  Should I be surprised?  Obviously, our health costs will still be expensive even with Conor's premium cut in half, but I feel like it was the Lord's little way of saying
"I've got this.  Relax.  I'm taking care of you in little and big ways.  Just keep trusting Me.  I'm worthy of your trust."

My manna for the day.

He is so good to us.  So so good.

To My Children's Father

I love the way you love God and pursue a heart like His and the way you want to teach that to our children.

 I love your humility and that you're never afraid to tell our children that you made a mistake.

I love the way you jumped in from day one, changing nasty meconium diapers and letting baby girl sleep on your chest.

I love that you change cloth diapers, even the nasty dirty ones, even though you swore you would make me do them.

I love that you are my partner in parenting and that you've never seen any of it as 'my job' or 'your job.'

I love the way our children feel so safe when you're there and the way they love to snuggle with Daddy.

I love your patience and your gentle discipline.

I love when you read the Bible and pray with our kids.

I love that you always know how to say things to them in a way they understand.

I love that when you run an errand, you take a kid with you whenever you can.

I love that you're always more than willing to let me take a night off and go out while you're home with the kids.  I don't think you've ever complained about that.  Even once.

I love that the most important thing to you is not how smart our children are or how athletic they are, but our childrens' hearts and that they learn to follow Christ.

I love that your family is your priority and that you're always looking for ways to spend more time with us.

I love that you work so hard so that I can stay home with our kids and that you tell me all the time that you know being at home is hard work too. :)

I love that you read parenting books and books on newborn sleep schedules when I ask you to.

I love that you're around and that our kids really know you and you really know them.

I love that you love me with all your heart and that you see loving me well as one of the most important things you can do for our children.

I love that there's so much more I could add to this list...


I love you.  I'm grateful every day that God chose you to be these kids' daddy and that I get to be the one by your side.  Every day.  For the rest of our lives.

Happy Father's Day