Back to School 2013-2014

Another school year has begun!  I can't believe it.  Summer just flew by this year.

We now have a Kindergartner, Second Grader, Fifth Grader, Seventh Grader and Eighth Grader.

This school year Liam starts All day Kindergarten.  Thursday was his first day of school.  The day before I felt my emotions on the surface the entire day.  We went to play at open gym and he and I were running around laughing, playing with the balls, bouncing, kicking, just having a great time.  All of a sudden I realized this would be our last noon time open gym together and I got misty eyes.  I wanted to just hold on to that moment forever.  I always have a hard time when my babies go to school for the first time.  Liam is my little buddy, we have a special connection so it was especially hard letting him go for 8 hours a day.  To be honest I'm still questioning my decision to let him go all day....or to let him go at all!!

Official first day pictures:

Aidan had a particularly hard time with Liam leaving. Liam and Aidan are very close to each other.  Liam says they are "Best Brothers."  Aidan loves Liam so much and wants to do everything like him.  Aidan can say his "L's" perfectly but he calls his brother "Me-am" because Liam is merely an extension of Aidan.  Of course, they had to get a picture together and then Aidan spent the rest of the day asking if could go to school now.  He cried for at least an hour straight by mid-morning and when I had to explain to him for the 125th time that he couldn't go he was hard to console.

And with his teacher, Mrs. Maggard.  This was actually taken Tuesday night at Sneak Peek, where he got to meet the teacher and drop off his supplies.

Julianna is a 2nd grader this school year and Elise is a 5th grader.  Back in the Spring we made the decision that the girls would be homeschooled this year.  It is a huge leap of faith for me because I feel really inadequate.  I've researched and researched and poured my heart and soul into studying curriculum. I have really tried to find out what will be best with their learning styles. I am excited to spend the one on one time getting to truly know them.  I've really felt led to homeschooling and I'm trusting in The Lord.  It's hard to explain and wholly personal but I know that ultimately I'm doing the right thing for my little girls and they are so excited for the new experiences we are going to have at the Bowles Academy this year.  

Elise, 5th Grade

Julianna, 2nd Grade

They wanted a picture with their teacher....silly girls....

Lastly, my two big middle schoolers.  Ashlynne is in 8th grade this year.  Cheerleading, singing in the choir and also singing in the Kansas City youth choir Allegro.  I can't believe she is in her last year of middle school!  Next year we add seminary and high school to the mix!  Somebody press pause!!!

Brinton is in 7th grade and already I can tell he is much more mature this year than last. We went to the school to get his stuff in his locker and he kind of walked the halls like he owned the place, like he belonged.  There was a new confidence in him that I'd never really seen before.  He opened his locker on the first try, which was something that was really difficult at the beginning of last year.  He is playing cello in the orchestra again this year and also takes private cello lessons.  He is thinking he might try Cross Country this year. We are only a few days in but so far so good....fingers crossed.

Our family theme this school year is "O be wise..." {Jacob 6:5} with the reminder to be wise in all that we do.  Be wise in our choices, be wise in our daily dealings, be wise in our studies...so here is to te new school year.  Be Wise.

Bye-Bye Cast!!

Liam broke his arm February 13 and initially they told me he' likely be in a cast for 4-6 weeks. I'm happy to report that just 3 weeks later and he is completely out of the cast!!

He broke the humerus just above the elbow which is a called Supracondylar fracture. These types of fractures are somewhat problematic as they heal. At this point he still has to keep his arm in a sling for the next week or so as the bone continues to heal. After our next appointment it will be determined whether or not he will need a few sessions of physical therapy to help him learn how to fully extend the arm again. He is still really sore so he won't be doing flips anytime soon but he sure is glad to be out of the cast.

Pre-K

Hard to believe my little prince is starting Pre-K today and that he will go to actual kindergarten next year! He's still such a little guy it seems unreal. He has been talking about starting school all week, he is so excited. I just know he is going to love his teacher because I adore her and know that she is the perfect fit for his personality.

First Day Pic

He was so excited he was jumping up and down...

Then he got down right silly....cause he is a total Turkey!

With his teacher Miss Cristi (he looks scared but really that's just his fake camera smile)

Now that Liam started Pre-K that means that 3 days a week it's just me and this little guy (well and the baby when she finally joins our family...)

Oh boy do I look tired in this pic.....

Liam turns 4....

My curly headed, mighty morphin teenage mutant He-man warrior super hero from the planet krypton turned 4 on April 26. It's hard to believe he is 4 already!  He was pretty easy going this year, he asked for lunch at McDonalds Play place, a spiderman cake and a bicycle.





Day One: His Actual Birthday:
He got to go to lunch at Mcd's, eat a Happy Meal (which we rarely ever, ever do) and play in the play place. He was in heaven. I ordered his bike the week before and it was supposed to be there by his bday but no deal. :( We didn't have a chance to get the whole family together for cake so we had to wait.




Day Four: Monday after his birthday
5 days of Liam singing "Happy Birthday to me..cha, cha, cha" He said his birthday wasn't over until he got his Spiderman cake. Finally the whole family was together with time to spare so we went over to Chuck E Cheese for pizza, fun, and cake. The nice thing about having lots of siblings is that it's always an instant party. As for the bike....bike shop still didn't get it in yet...seriously.


Day 7: Hallelujah the bike finally arrived and Liam was in heaven!!

Happy Birthday to my sweet boy!!

     

Friday Foto #8: Brotherly Love

Friday Foto #7: It Rained!

Liam playing in the rain gutter at my dad's house.

Friday Foto #5: Sunday Battles

This is how Liam spent his time at church on Sunday crawling under the bench. He wasn't harming anyone so I decided to pick my battle and let him just lay there. Now I know I shouldn't have had my cell phone out at church....during sacrament meeting....BUT I kinda had to document it for myself so when I get old I don't forget and try and tell my daughters or daughter in laws that my kids were perfect during church and I can't understand why their children are not. I promise I WILL NEVER DO THAT.

Liam is kind of a terror and church (especially sacrament meeting) can be pretty crazy. On a given Sunday #1 and #2 are giggling, #3 is poking #4, I scooch my way inbetween #1 and #2, #4 asks for crayons to color, I HAVE NONE. I give her a Friend to read (she can't read) I hush #3 who is chitter chattering about something, #6 wants to get off my lap, #5 is crawling under the church benches chasing a toy car I told him not to bring into the chapel and it goes round and round in circles until the closing prayer is said and they bound off like nothing happened. MY GOODNESS I HAVE A LOT OF KIDS! That's a typical Sunday for us though (I may or may not be over exaggerating...depends on the week) For the most part #1 and #2 are awesome and super quiet, #3 can usually occupy herself as long as I don't make the mistake of sitting her next to #4 who likes to sit on my lap and make the baby crawl on the floor. Liam on the other hand is always up to something....see above pictures!

Friday Foto #3: Hiding Behind the Mask

We LOVE story time!! Puppet shows, stories, friends, and crafts! This week the kids got to make their own African Masks!!

Can you guess who is that hiding behind this Mask??

My Genius Solution to Melting Popsicles...

I LOVE POPSICLES! I hate the ooey, gooey, icky, sticky popsicle mess. So to combat the nastiness that is a melted popsicle I got a little creative and invented:

The Amazing

"Melting Popsicle, Dripping Collector, Thing-a-ma-jiggy"

Okay, okay so it's really just a plastic cup that I cut in half, with a slit on the bottom to put the popsicle stick through....but isn't it GENIUS?!

I had to pat myself on the back after that one.

Happy 3rd Birthday Liam!

Happiest Birthday Wishes to my darling boy!

Yippee! You're 3!

In honor of him today

You can read his birth story here :)

Weekend Favs and Ummm...Not So Favs

3 Weekend Favorites
***

Ashlynne had an allstar Cheer Competition this weeked in Tulsa, OK.

Her team won 2nd place...it was super tough competition and I am so, so proud of them.

Lately we've been trying to give our kids a little "culture" by renting Totally Rad 80's movies from Netflix and watching them together as a family. This weekend we got BACK TO THE FUTURE: Part 1,2,&3. We watched Part 1 on Saturday, followed by Part 2 last night, and Family Home Evening tonight will consist of lots of popcorn and Back to the Future:Part 3. My kids are absolutely LOVING the movies and I'm developing a little bit of a crush on Michael J. Fox, again.

Last night I wasn't in the mood to cook dinner. Nothing sounded good, I was feeling a little tired, and welll just plain lazy. I opted for sandwiches but before I could drag myself into the kitchen to cook my sweet hubby had already taken care of it. He made us a yummy Brinner (Breakfast for Dinner) with fluffy buttermilk pancakes, scrambled eggs and sausage. It was pretty darn good.

--->Imagine a photo of a yummy plate of food RIGHT.HERE<---

Now some NOT-SO-FAVORITES

***
Between the two youngest boys I'm pretty sure I changed roughly 1,653,756,324 poopy diapers this weekend. I need to do some potty training of a 2 (almost 3) year old...FAST.

Do you think my 4 month old will be on board, too??

(NO PHOTOS NECESSARY)

Baby pukey.
Poopy is bad enough but seriously milk pukey all over my favorite blouse at church. Not Coolio, Aidan Bug. I'll have to remember not to wear that blouse till the pukey days are over in a few months.

(YEP, YOU'LL SURVIVE WITHOUT PHOTOS OF THIS TOO...)

I have a sick 11 year old. Luckily, she was feeling great for her competition but now she is sniffly, sneezing, coughing, achy and feverish. It's a Nyquil commercial come to life. *sigh*
(POOR THING IS SLEEPING...)

OMGosh!! Some GOOD news.... (Liam Update!)

Wow, oh, Wow! What a downer our blog has been lately!!! Medical drama, after medical drama....kinda wondering when it's going to stop. Hopefully this week I can start REALLY blogging again and everything will be puppy dogs and rainbows. I hope.

Late Friday afternoon I got the most wonderful,miraculously, happy, good news I could ever have gotten. The pediatric cardiologist called with the results of Liam's angiogram and informed us that any anomalies that were seen in the first Xrays and Echocardiogram had completely disappeared. His heart was completely normal and he had absolutely no issues whatsoever!! She pronounced his little heart with a "clean bill of health" and said that she would happily never have to see us in the cardiological clinic again! :)

Yay!

Thank you! Thank you, for your prayers, your thoughts, your kind words, your love. Thank you so, so, so much! I feel so grateful to my Heavenly Father that he answered my prayers, your prayers, and that Liam has a healthy heart.

Did I mention....Yay?!? YAY!

Follow Up on Liam's Heart...

As Liam snuggled in my arms, Jeremiah and my dad gave him a blessing in the morning before his Angiogram. It was a sweet, comforting blessing. I truly felt a peace come over me and all the nervousness I had been feeling was washed away.

And then we were on our way....


We arrived at Children's Mercy at noon. Liam was not allowed to eat or drink anything beginning at midnight the night before, he was so hungry. As we waited in the waiting room for them to call us back he was a huge ball of energy going from one toy to the next, one book to the next, he was so happy. At around 12:30 they called us back to begin preparations for sedation and to meet with the anesthesiologist. Again Liam was a big ball of energy, he was just so happy. We felt super blessed that he was in such a good mood and that he wasn't scared of anything in his room.

The nurse began to get him ready, put the monitors on his chest, the monitor on his big toe (which he absolutely hated and kept ripping off), numbing cream on both arms to make it less painful when they put the IV in and placed him in a cute little hospital gown.

We met with the anesthesiologist who explained the sedation process and the breathing tube they would be using to control his breathing throughout the test. They were going to be holding his breath several times throughout so that that they could get clear views of the heart. Then he told us that Anesthesia was behind about an hour and we would have to wait a little while before he went back.

Then the waiting began...

and Liam ran around the room playing...

and we waited...

and Liam watched some TV...

and we waited...

and we took some pictures...

Finally it was time to GO!!

He was so adorable and so trusting. He went right into the nurses arms with a big smile on his face and didn't even cry we we left in the opposite direction. The nurse told us that he was so adorable during the procedure and before he fell asleep he even held his own little anesthesia mask. When he woke up he was very hungry, thirsty but in good spirits!

Thank you for all your thoughts, prayers and well wishes. We received a call this morning from the Cardiologist stating that it will be about a week before we will recieve the results. The radiologist will review and write up his report today and send it to the Cardiologist. She will then be meeting with a Cardiovascular Surgical team, possibly Monday, to review the results and if needs be figure out a plan of action. After that has been done she will contact us and let us know the results by the end of next week. I'm still hoping that it's nothing and that we will hear from her much sooner but I'm trying not to be too impatient. We will continue to keep you posted...again thank you for your thoughts and prayers.