Oh to be loved!

3 years ago Taylor was praying for a baby sister. (We weren't praying for one however I think her prayers reached God and mine got intercepted by something b/c she got a little sister) Anyway I thought they would be close but I never figured on her and Caleb being close. Madison and Caleb are always together. She does whatever he does and follows him around the house when he is here. I am always catching them doing things together. One day they set up "camp" in my walk-in closet. They had their blankets, toys and snacks all in there too. Another day I caught them lining up all of Caleb's cars in rows. They are too funny together and he is always making sure she is taken care of. She is going to have a hard time next year when he goes off to Kindergarten, I am too :( Here are some pictures of them wrapped in Caleb's blanket one morning after the got up.

Yummy Cupcakes!

Yesterday our church though a shower for Sara. She is also in our Heart to Heart group. 6 of us helped host the shower which was so much fun. I love looking at all the little baby things I no longer have laying around my house. Anyway Ginger ordered these wonderful cupcakes from Sam's. There were some left over and Sara was kind enough to send some home with the hostess's as she didn't want to take home that many cupcakes. Well my kids loved them. They weren't able to eat them last night but tonight after dinner that was their dessert. This was a treat as we don't have dessert on a regular basis. Here are some pictures of the kids really enjoying their cupcakes! (Madison especially enjoyed hers as you can see from the pictures)



Sara, my kids and myself (b/c of the great pics I got) thank you for sharing with us!

The Dentist (not me though this time!)

Our Monday started out busy (this is normal for our life it seems). Taylor and Caleb both had dentist appointments, one at 8 AM and the other at 9 AM. (Not sure what I was thinking when I made these appointments) We have tried to take Caleb before but he always chickens out, I think he is picking up on my absolute fear of the dentist! We went 6 months ago but he just wouldn't open his mouth. I think though after my having all this work done on my mouth the last few weeks he was ready. We had talked to him alot about taking care of your teeth and that mommy hadn't been doing a great job and that was why I had been having to have so much done. I guess he thought he would try again. Anyway, he did great!!!!! He watched Taylor and asked lots of questions while the hygienist worked on Taylor. When it was his turn he hopped in the seat and requested the cherry flavored toothpaste ("I don't like mint flavored" he said) and fluoride treatment. And away they went. He was done in 20 minutes and was smiling away. The dentist said his teeth looked great!! I was so glad especially after my recent expensive dentist appointments. Taylor's teeth looked good too. He did inform us that she still doesn't have her 6 year molars! The child will be 8 in April. He hoped maybe when she came back in 6 months they would be in. She gets teeth slowly which means she loses them slowly. The tooth fairy has only visited our house 2 times so far! They both got to pick from the treasure box and Caleb got 2 things since it was his first time! He thought that was great and Taylor was glad she got to go to school late. The things that make them happy (late to school and toys worth .10 cents) This is Caleb's afterwards with his "reward".

Broken Heart (Warning this post may cause you to cry)

For days I have tried to decide when and what I would write about a very special boy who died last week after almost a year battling brain cancer. This is someone we have never met in person but feel like we know. We found out about Julian through another blog and have gotten to know him and his family very well considering we have only "talked" through email. They found out he was sick last March and after an operation, chemo and radiation there just wasn't anything left to do. This little boy and his family have taught me so much over the last 9 months. Mimi chose to share her little boy with people all over the world. She had to endure watching her baby suffer and knowing she couldn't "fix it" which is what moms do best. She had to hold him through the rough times and then wasn't able to hold him anymore. She commented that "she heard his first heartbeat and felt his last as she was laying beside him when he finally stopped breathing. I hope to one day get to meet her, she lives in Fort Worth TX so not sure when I will get to meet her but will one day. My kids have loved getting to know JuJu. Caleb and JuJu have birthdays just a few days apart. We have watched lots of videos of him. It was hard to have to tell them that Julian had gone to Heaven. I wrote his just this morning after Caleb and I got through watching his life video. Caleb looked up at me halfway though the video and said "mom what did Julian have again?" I explained cancer as best I could to a 4 year old and we talked about how the Dr's just couldn't make him better though they tried hard. I told him that now Julian was in Heaven and that he wasn't hurting anymore and that he could run and play like he used to before he got sick. Caleb looked up at me and said "yeah, mom. Jesus made him all better b/c that is what Jesus does!" Such wisdom from such a small mind. He then wanted to know if when we get to Heaven could we find Julian b/c he really wants to meet him. Caleb said he just knew it would be fun to play with Julian since they like so many of the same things. I told him without a doubt we would look up Julian when we get to Heaven b/c I too want to meet him and play with him. Please pray for this family as the learn to live without one of their family. They have 3 other little boys. Also remember to hug your kids every chance you get. They are so precious!

Finally on the Mend

Well after a very busy weekend and week things are starting to get back to normal. Matt, Caleb, Madison and myself went to Nashville for the weekend to help out Matt's brother and sister-in-law. Taylor had previous plans to spend the night with 2 of her friends. Nana and Pops offered to keep her Saturday since we wouldn't be back until Sunday so we left her here. We were glad we were able to go and help out Don and Gabby. Don finally got to come home from the hospital. He is doing good but can't stand for very long, it makes his leg hurt. Both our moms are doing well. Recovering nicely from the surgeries and looking forward to being back to the normal selfs. Matt's mom got a great report today from her dr. All the results from the test are good. She will be starting radiation up in a few weeks. She should be good as new though. My mom's knee is slowly healing. Her physical therapist is trying to kill her we think! Well not really it just seems like it most days.







We had a great time getting to entertain our 5 nieces and nephews while in Nashville. We enjoyed playing some games with the older 2-scrabble, 5 crowns, Cranium! Don and Gabby even joined in for a few games once they came home from the hospital. The younger 3 enjoyed playing with Madison and Caleb. I meant to take more pics of them playing but forgot to. Here a few though that I did manage to get.

Needles aka stitches

It has been a busy week but a great one! Matt's mom's surgery went great, she is at home recovering. The kids are being super gentle with her. Though Caleb is most interested in the "needles" in her skin. The black stitches kinda stick up on the ends and are sharp so they remind him of needles. (He thought the same thing about the ones my mom has in her knee) He just can't grasp the idea of thread holding your boo-boo together. He thought you needed something stronger. I can't believe he even gave it that much thought.

We are holding out for some snow soon. We hoped we would wake up Thursday morning to some but didn't :( Maybe this weekend. We are going to go shopping for some snow sleds this today, just in case. We checked Walmart but they didn't have any and a nice worker told us that Target had some so we headed there today. Hope they have some! (Though if we actually find them and buy them there will be no snow but if we don't buy some there will be snow, that is just how it works)

Also Taylor starts selling GirlScout cookies today, so if anyone is interested just let us know!! (Who can resist wonderful Girl Scout cookies! Yummy)

What a Week!

It was a crazy week at our house last week. Wasn't any extra time to blog not that much interesting happened anyway :) My mom had knee surgery on Tuesday, everything went very well and she is doing excellent! She has weeks of rehab ahead of her but it looks good so far. Also Matt's mom met with her surgeon on Tuesday. She is going to be having a lumpectomy on Tuesday and then after about a 2 week recovery will start radiation therapy. She shouldn't have to go through chemo unless the cancer is found in her lymph nodes. They will biopsy them on Tuesday after they remove them during the lumpectomy. For a cancer diagnosis, she got a good one. We are very thankful for the blessings that we experienced. Matt's job hunt (one that he actually enjoys and that has good pay) is on-going. We hope that this prayer will soon be answered. I was talking with Matt's mom this afternoon and she was saying there are always "bumps" in the road of life (I am thinking we need to call TDOT about having ours repaved :) One a light note our kids continue to amaze us and make us laugh. Caleb and Madison especially tend to be funny (Taylor is more serious like her daddy). A few weeks ago when we were traveling with my parents and trying to decide where to eat Caleb really made us laugh. Taylor really wanted to eat at Ryan's but since we were on the interstate between Nashville and Knoxville we weren't sure where the nearest one was. We kept passing signs for restaurants. Taylor kept reading them and calling them out. She saw numerous fast food signs. I said "we aren't eating fast food today, I need a real meal." Caleb responded with "yeah, Taylor no fast food today, we are eating at a slow food place today!" It was too funny! I still laugh every time I think about it. Wish I had my camera out at the moment :)

Reelfoot Lake

We went to visit my Grandparents last week for 4 days. We had a really great time and it is always good to see them. They don't travel anymore and we can only travel when school is out so we don't get to go real often. The kids love to go though b/c Grandmother cooks all kinds of good things. She made homemade biscuits every morning! Nobody makes biscuits like her. And we use homemade jelly. The kids all have a favorite. It was really cold while we were there so we were stuck inside alot but one day we bundled the kids up and my dad and I took them down to Reelfoot Lake to check out the ice. I have seen the lake many times but never with ice on and around it. I know there have been times when it has looked like but I just hadn't ever seen it. It was really pretty and we got some cool pictures. Madison was not thrilled about standing on the ice by the water. She kept saying "no fall Paw, no fall". I think she might have been a little traumatized by it.