Blessings Of Rainbows

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Fun with my "sick" kid!


Well yesterday Ryan stayed home from school because during the night before he woke up crying and screaming that his throat was hurting. By morning he appeared fine, but just to be on the safe side we kept him home, but away from the daycare kiddo's.



We had a lot of fun! We made a volcano with baking soda & vinegar, learned how mixing the primary colors gets you the secondary colors using food color & water, & putty with cornstarch & water. Later we added food coloring to make the putty green and played in it even more - he even remembered what colors to mix to make green! Needless to say Ryan went to school today with green arms because he decided to paint himself!



When we were all done he learned what color you get when you mix them all together! "Yucky green brownish black!"

He ended up being perfectly fine. I enjoyed spending some special time with him though!

Ryan has been doing really good on his growing the past few months. He's grown almost 2 inches since last June! Of course I never really notice how tiny he still is until we are near other kids his age and he's about a head smaller than most of them, but that's okay! Makes him easier to snuggle! :)

Snowman Soup! Yum!

These boy LOVE Snowman Soup! I love the smiles that come from making it!
(Do not serve after 4pm though! LOL you maybe up all night!)
They had it around 9:30 in the morning and were still very wired by evening!

Directions:
*1 pack of Hot Chocolate made according to directions on package
*1 Candy Cane for stirring
*1-3 Chocolate Kisses(or flavored kisses)
*5-10 Marshmallows of choice (we used gingerbread flavored & chocolate covered mini's)

Mix together and enjoy!

New Years & New Puppy!

Aydan doing a puzzle with Nana at our New Years Party!

Grown up's playing Uno while the youngsters watched Ponyo in the playroom. It was fun teaching Grannie to play Uno. Our first few hands we showed our cards so she could see how you choose what cards to play. She got pretty good at it. Still learning to have fun even at 80! :)
Nana & Cheryl had fun too!
Symon & our new puppy Dyson. We got him from a shelter in OKC on Dec. 3rd. He came home with kennel cough & quickly shared it with Symon so our $50 (adoption fee) puppy quickly became a $200 puppy! But I guess he's worth it! ;) Symon very much loves his new friend!

Chilling out on the couch during party time.

More Christmas!

Cookies for Santa - Christmas Eve

Christmas Morning - We lock them out of the living room for Safety! :)

Aydan & his ball Aunt Jamie got him. He loves this thing!

Harmonica's from Aunt Jamie. I now have very musical children! :)

Okay time for some updating! :)

Where to begin....hmmmm - Christmas!
We are just beginning to get back into routine after Christmas & New years. Christmas was so busy with family, fun and lots of exciting goodies!
This year of course we made our annual trip to Quail Springs to get pictures with Santa.
Dylan asked Santa for Lego's and to Nutcracker. (The decoration kind) - Not sure why he really wanted one, but he did! He loves the things - I think it's because he see's JD somewhat collecting them. Although it's not really so much that JD collects them it's just that I keep buying them for him... :) Well, Santa came through on the Lego's but had a hard time and was unable to locate ANY Nutcrackers this year. But Dylan being the happy everything goes kind of kid really didn't mind - he absolutely loved the Lego's though! His second favorite gift was his clothes I know hard to believe a 6 year old would care much about that but he did. We got him a couple pairs of pj's, Gamma & Grandpa got him some Jeans & a couple of shirts which he very much loves!

Ryan asked Santa for a Build-a-bear gift card. Really he wanted to be able to pick out clothes for his bear Champ, but we told him that Santa couldn't deliver the store to our house for him to shop on Christmas so maybe a giftcard would be best - of course then we had to explain what a giftcard was. Santa came through with flying colors getting him a giftcard PLUS some shoes, clothes and a coat for Champ! Ryan was so excited! He very much loves Champ and has been asking to get Champ a coat for a LONG time - he was so happy Champ would no longer get cold! :)

Aydan didn't really understand who Santa was and really wasn't sure he liked the guy! He spent the entire time just trying to figure out what was going on. Though as soon as we left he started asking to "go back see Santa?" and every time he sees the picture hanging on the fridge he asks again! Aydan is really into Elmo this year so of course he got everything imaginable with Elmo on it - socks, slippers, Pj's, a backpack, books, pop up tent, coloring/sticker books, and an Elmo Dr. kit! And probably his favorite gift of all - a ball from Aunt Jamie!

We had a great time getting to spend time with Nana, Grannie, Cousin Cheryl, Uncle Ralph, Jamie, Dale, Alli, Derek, Gamma & Grandpa, even David & Mila via Skpe!

Christmas is my favorite time of year so I'm sad to see it go, but only 11 1/2 more months & we get to celebrate all over again!

Monday, November 22, 2010

Aydan's 2nd Birthday (family party)

Dylan & Ryan helping Aydan open his gifts! Such great big brothers!
Elmo Guitar & Elmo-doodler from Gamma & Grandpa!


Aydan was SOOOO excited about his cake, he actually when I wasn't looking did get his finger into the yellow icing on the bottom - very proudly! (Notice the lovely Elmo shoes he refused to remove!) :)





Okay don't have a heart attack!! I know I very rarely post pictures of myself & I sure don't post pictures of myself wearing pink, but I was honestly just surprised when I started removing the pictures from the camera that there was one of me on it!! I'm always the one behind it.... So though I'd share..LOL


Spining on his new Sit & Spin - loves this thing! I'm surprised he can walk without falling he uses it for such long periods of time! Aunt Jamie knows how to get good gifts for active little boys!!

Aydan's Birthday (friend party)

The weekend before last we celebrated Aydan's 2nd birthday. If was a wonderful day filled with friends, family, and fun!! Here a few pictures to show all the events!
The theme for the party was Elmo - of course! So Elmo juice, plates, napkins & if I could have found cookies we would have had those too! But couldn't so sugar cookies with blue frosting is what we had! (Aydan with his Juice, Mara with her cookie)

Dylan sitting by Kaylee(his g/f), he's had it planned that she's the one he's going to marry for years now & he's only 6. She's 9 months older than he is, but they were very close from the time he was born. She feels the same way about him...should I be worried?? Is it possible to know you love someone when you are so young?? I guess time will tell, but I do approve! :)

The whole gang! Waiting for their yummy treats!


Aydan's with his best friend Roderick. These two I swear are conected at the hip! They are happy together, sad together, naughty together & even try to bail each other out of time-out. Wonderful to have a friend so close! (Lets just hope the time-out thing isn't a show of their future! LOL) :)

More pictures to come from his family party!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Wow, it's been awhile!

First of all I'd like to update on Sonny. The family that was working to adopt him lost him through "blind referral" - not good, but God still has great things planned for this little boy. His forever family is still out there somewhere! Please keep him in your prayers to be held in the arms of a family soon. Also please keep the other family in your prayers that they will soon be matched with another waiting child!

Well, Aydan did it! He turned two! I can't believe my baby is two! Where did the time go?? He's getting so big. He's talking a ton, running super fast(getting faster everyday!), and we think he's part monkey because he loves to climb!
These days he's all about Elmo & Sesame Street - which is great with me because I've found it to be very educational! He lives in a pair of red Elmo slip on shoes that he pretty much refuses to remove from his feet and even sleeps in them! Bath time is rough because he doesn't understand why his shoes can't go in too! For his birthday we bought him a new pair because his first ones are beginning to get a little snug. Luckily he was pleased with the new ones & gladly accepted them!

Ryan Started Pre-K this year. As far as we know he's doing well with school. He likes it and that's a good sign, right?? He absolutely loves his teachers! And truly we couldn't be happier! We have been very blessed with both boys getting wonderful teachers who fit their personalities so well to bring out their full potential! Ryan's been growing some too! He's now in 4t clothes!! This is a huge deal for us. For those who know Ryan has always struggled with his size & weight. He's still very tiny but he's getting there! Though I have noticed we are having some trouble with the weight thing again, but it is most likely due to him not eating too well at lunch time at school. We are working on making up for it at home though so we'll see! Recently he started writing his name & I couldn't be more proud of him. I worked with him all summer and more trying to get him to write & he wouldn't do it(he's not at all hard headed), but now he's doing it. So far I've saved every paper he's written it on! I'm just so excited! :)

Dylan started 1st grade this year. He's reading like crazy! He's grown a ton! I reach down to hug him and realize I'm not having to reach far! This makes me sad & realize how quickly he's growing up. He's extremely interested in entomology right now. Our freezer is full of insects waiting patiently to be pined. He's also been doing a bunch of origami with J.D. lately. My house is covered in small paper creations! He's been working very hard at school learning about Christopher Columbus - excitedly coming home telling us everything he's learning. He's just such a little sponge with a zest for acquiring knowledge. At his parent teacher conference his teacher went on and on about how eager he is to learn. I hope this follows him all through school. I know he can achieve anything he wants as long as he puts his mind to it and works hard! He's such a blessing!

It's been a very stressful few months around here for the "parent folk", we've been busy taking care of grandmothers...
J.D.'s grandmother is doing well. She's finally on medications that are very helpful holding back and slowing down the progression of her Dementia/Alzheimer's symptoms. It's been a long year so far with a few bumps, but in my opinion a very good year. We really couldn't ask for better results. She keeps the 2 oldest boys every now & then to get in some good Nana time so JD & I can go out on dates. They con home so spoiled rotten, but I guess that's what Nana's are for right?? Currently we are in the process of planning her a surprise 75th birthday party for later this month. Going to be so much fun!! I hope she loves it!
My Grandmother just last week finally had surgery for her kidney cancer. She's doing well & has yet to take a single pain pill. I wish I had the strength she has. She takes a lickin' and keeps a tickin' nothing can keep her down. I'm just sad to think about how she gained such strength and if that's what it takes I just don't want it. Shortly before her kidney surgery we were informed she now how spots on her lungs that they think are just "environmental deposits" which I don't understand, but they say it's nothing to worry about. They also discovered her thyroid is now enlarged on both sides(I guess that's worse then it being on just one side??), we are scheduled to go it to meet a thoracic/cardiac critical care(?) surgeon on Dec. 3rd. We are strongly hoping this is just to talk and that they aren't planning another surgery. She still has the spots on her adrenial gland but after a couple more CT scans they feel those seems to be fluid filled cysts and not cancer so we are very hopeful there will be no spreading.

So many things though seems to finally be coming together from where they were just a little over a year ago. For some reason I've had just a huge sense of peace the last few days. I can't explain it, but I feel like either something really great is about to happen to turn our lives upside down and inside out (in a good way), or maybe it's the calm before the storm, but either way I'm ready to take it on full force! I've needed this though for a while I feel like I have time to just stop and breath. Like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders and I'm filled with a new sense of urgency to get things organized.

I will be adding pictures soon! So many wonderful things to show & share!

Thursday, September 30, 2010

He's going home!!

Sonny's forever family has found him! I've kept him in my prayers constantly hoping he would be adopted soon. I check the website almost daily with two hopes, one to see his picture still there because that way I know he's still okay, but two that his picture is gone from the waiting children because he's not going to be waiting much longer and his family has come.
Earlier this week I went on Reece's Rainbow to discover his picture was gone. I couldn't find him anywhere on the site - my heart sank because for some reason my first thought was that he passed away alone & an orphan.
Today I went on to find him in the "committed families" section - he's not going to be an orphan much longer! He has a wonderful family working hard to bring him home. He's going to have a Mom, Dad, Big Sister & a Big Brother.
I can't wait until his family gets him home, he gets to feel the love of a family & more love than he'll know what to do with!!

Please keep this family in your prayers that everything goes through smoothly and Sonny makes it home soon!

To donate to help bring Sonny home to his waiting family please click here! http://www.reecesrainbow.com/familysponsorshipnew.html

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Reece's Rainbow - Sonny

Back a few months ago we discovered Reece's Rainbow. A website dedicated to finding homes for children with special needs such as down syndrome or birth deformities - living outside of the US.
Anyone who knows me knows I was given a love for children and a heart for adoption.
Recently I came across the picture and story of a one year old little boy named Sonny. He has the smile of an angel and if we could we'd bring him home this second hug him never letting go and while right now we don't have a way to afford it I decided I can still help by praying for him to find his forever family. I also wanted to share his picture and story with everyone so you can also keep him along with all the other little ones in your prayers.



Sonny (41)
BOY, born February 5, 2009

This muffin has a whole host of health complications, but what a SUNshine he is!

Diagnosis: congenital malformation of urinoexcretory system: bilateral terminal hydronephrosis to the left, secondary chronic pyelonephritis, chronic nephrism (kidney failure), aplasia of muscles of anterior wall of stomach, cryptorchism, systolic murmur, brain affection of unspecified etiology, iron-deficiency anemia
He has $500 in his grant fund towards the cost of his adoption!

To donate towards the cost of his adoption please go to:
http://www.reecesrainbow.com/newsite/angelboys.html


You are the helper of the fatherless. LORD, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will prepare their heart; You will cause Your ear to hear, To do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, That the man of the earth may oppress no more.

Psalms 10:14,17-18


Thursday, May 20, 2010

Sumo Baby Bath Time!

Aydan just recently started tolerating bath time. He still doesn't fully enjoy them but we are getting closer... Up until last month he still screamed at the top of his lungs every time we touched water to his body. This seemed very strange to us since our other two are part fish, but oh well! He is his own person!!This is how Aydan insists on sitting during his bathes. He absolutely refuses to let his tush touch the tub in any way. He sits like a little sumo wrestler, he's even got the tummy to match! :)

Aydan favorite tubby toys are his duckies - he's doing well to keep his ducks all in a row!

The little guy is quickly outgrowing his bath robes. Maybe it's time to go robe shopping....
Aydan is officially our biggest. At his 18 month appointment he weighed 19.6 pounds & was 30 inches tall! Such a big boy!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

And the adventure begins!!

Back a couple weeks ago we began a journey to discover why my grandmother -Grannie- was having abdominal pain & tenderness. We scheduled her a CT scan, x-rays, blood work, & urine analysis to try to find the source of the problem. 2 months of searching and well...no such luck, but we did find Kidney & Adrenal Cancer as well as a MASSIVE amount of fluid on her heart.
Going to Dr. appointment after Dr. appointment we are beginning to set a game plan in motion to take care of everything to get her feeling better. Still of course scared for her at the same time.

This coming Friday we go in to the hospital to have a procedure done where they will insert a needle into the sack around her heart to hopefully drain off all the fluid. If the needle fails to do this the will insert a drain tube to do it. Once the heart is taken care of we can begin working on discovering the main source of her cancer to figure out a treatment plan for this.

During this you can tell inside Grannie is coming to terms with her own life/death. She has things the she desires to do "while she still feels like it and is still alive" as she puts it. First of all she wants to go back to Hugo to put flowers on the graves of my dad (her son) as well as her brothers and parents. This is a huge deal to her which she keeps telling me she is worried it wont happen. We are trying so hard to be able to make sure this happens for her. Her sister Ruby is hoping she will be upto going next week, so if everything goes well - Hugo here she comes!
The next thing Grannie keeps bringing up is the fact that she wants to "see our little girl before she dies" this one for many reasons is much harder to make happen quickly. She knows our plan is to someday adopt, but she feels this wont occur before she is gone - which most likely this is true. Our children have been very blessed to have something that many people never get the chance to have Time With GREAT-Grandparents! Ours have gotten to spend time with 2 wonderful Great-Grandmothers! They also have 1 Great-Great-Grandmother (whom they haven't yet gotten to meet). I want more than anything to make Grannie's dream of seeing her from the heart(adopted) granddaughter come true. So I guess it's time to sit down & start a game plan for that too!

Please take the time to look at the beautiful children on this website. Keep them in your prayers that they will all be blessed to find loving forever families!
http://www.reecesrainbow.com/newsite/index.php

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Dylan's Birthday! He's 6!!

Wow, I can't believe it's been 6 years already! It has just flown by!

Well, Dylan actually managed to get a bunch of "parties" this year! 3 so far & 1 still to go.

The first party we had was a family party. Gamma, Gampa, Aunt Jamie, Nana & Grannie all got to join us for it! Unfortunately J.D. had food poisoning & spent that time in bed.. :(

Dylan had a great time though & was very happy to have so many people here.He LOVED all his gifts! A transformer, 2 boxes of Legos, A Space/Astronaut book, box of office supplies (what boy doesn't love ink pens, paper & a stapler??), a giant wooden dinosaur puzzle, AND...
A HUGE smiley face cookie!! - So yummy!! (From Aunt Jamie - who knows the best way to a boys heart is through his tummy!) :)

~~Party # 2 took place at school, not really a party so much as just snacks with his classmates. He took juice & cupcakes to school - since we refused to let him stay home for the day & yes he did ask...I don't remember asking to do that until like 4th or 5th grade!

~~Party # 3 was when he got home from school on his b-day. We took him out to eat at Golden Dragon Cafe (his favorite food place besides Red Lobster), he had shrimp & chocolate ice cream! Then came home & got to open his gift from us.

What could it be???
Legos of course!! A 539 piece creator set - took him less than 15 hours to put together (he slept about 10 of that & ate twice - so more like 2-3 hours). His biggest set before this was about 90 pieces....

Saturday, January 30, 2010

One week, one day away and.......

He's doing it, finally doing it!!

His Dr. told us he would before she saw him next at his 15 month appointment...I was beginning to wonder!



Those of you who came here from FB though I was pregnant didn't you! LOL...Sorry...NOPE!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Wow, what a week!

Ok, as a Mom I've had something happen this week that very rarely happens & even when it does...not for this long!!

Actually I'm convinced it's just not real!!

Okay, okay...so I'll get to what I'm talking about! My kids! They are being...well...how do I say it...PERFECT!!

Maybe someone came in when I wasn't looking & switched them out - who knows!?!?

All I know is I LOVE it!!!

They've been sharing with each other & caring about each other. Playing together non-stop...All 3 of them!!
We've had no fighting, no arguing...and when we ask them to do something they've been doing it!!

It's been so wonderful...I know though by writing this that it'll all stop first thing tomorrow morning! But oh well - it's been an awesome week!

I remember when Dylan was little he was always like this until he woke up on his 3rd birthday and it's just been crazy from there with him.
Ryan - well, Ryan was born loud & wild...so we don't know any different with him...(But he's a great kid & he keeps us on our toes, every parent needs at least one like that!!)
Aydan - he's only 14 months..refuses to walk so really doesn't get into any trouble (yet)....Though today did decide to all of a sudden blurt out (as clear as day) "I want up" & said it twice - which is crazy because up until now all he's said was Momma, Adda (Dad-da), Bu-Bu & Cookie (have to thank Grannie for that one!) So I'm not sure what to expect in the coming days...

I wish we could just continue this week forever! I mean I've been shown that kids don't have to fight to live! (Even though I'm sure somewhere in the sibling rule book it states otherwise - I just lost my copy so I can't check, and am sure not going to tell the boys).. :)

What a week though. I've needed it for a long time, so maybe it's just been a belated birthday or Christmas gift....

I'm truly blessed even with their little quirks I still have really awesome (mostly) well behaved boys. And although I think there is some truth to the old saying "Boy will be boys." I think so much of it has to do with their upbringing.

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
(Proverbs 22:6)

Monday, January 04, 2010

Wow, when it rains it pours!!!

Here are just a few more snapshots that I found while clearing the camera.

After this I think I'll be caught up for a while on blogging!!! :)

This is one of Aydan favorite places to take his afternoon nap. It's a good thing the weight limit on this thing is 25lbs! Aydan just hit 16lbs so we've still got some time before we have to take the swing away!
Dylan & Ryan were getting a little Phineas & Ferb time before we left to head to Grannies for the move. We stuck them in their pj's so they could go straight to bed once we got there!

Back before Aydan's birthday I was actually telling JD I felt bad for him because he didn't have any "big boy" toys. Everything he had was for babies upto 6 months. As you can see thanks to friends & family Aydan is now doing well in the toy department after his birthday & Christmas! Thanks everyone!! He really loves having his own new things.

If you spend much time around my kids you know how much they LOVE anything artsy. Playdoh is one of those things. They just got this "meal makin' kitchen" last week, but have almost worn it out already!
Dylan also got some "Moon sand" for Christmas - this was also a huge hit! Even I enjoyed it, but we did discover "Moon Sand" required supervision so it doesn't get everywhere!


A couple weeks ago Dylan's friend (my first child..LOL) Kaylee came over to play. They had a blast!
Kaylee was teaching Dylan how a "gangster" wears their hat. A Black Bear hat with ears & a Disney Cars hat pull off the look even better!
When I asked her how she knew what a "gangster" looked like she told me because she saw one & when he sat down she could see his "underpants"!! LOL, she is sooooo funny! I love that little girl! It's hard to believe she'll be 7 this year!!! Seems like only yesterday I changed her very first poopy diaper!

Gingerbread Houses!


After Christmas we found these cool little gingerbread house kits on sale - so we got a couple for Dylan & Ryan to do.


They just loved them!

Makes me wish we had done it sooner, but life has just been so busy up until last week.

Of course they were begging to eat them before they were even 1/2 finished & 5 min after the houses were completed - well, they had bite marks taken out of them already... :)

Playin' in the Snow!!!!

When we arrived home from Hugo we were met with ALOT of snow!!!


I'm not such a big fan but between JD, my brother, my 3 boys, & nephew...there were a few fans in the group...


Being in Oklahoma though we didn't really have good "snow clothes" so we came up with our own!
Double pants, trash bags over shoes, plastic disposable gloves over regular gloves, hats, coats - lots of bundling!!!

Christmas!

Our Christmas was started in Hugo since we had to pack & move Grannie...

The first gift the boys got was something to share - a Backyardagins movie (the robot one) - we gave it to them on Christmas Eve morning so they could use it while we were packing....

Gift 2 - was a tradition of ours - Christmas Eve night opening one gift - it's always PJ's - usually JD & I are involved with this one too, but this year just the boys.....
Dylan got Transformers, Ryan & Aydan got Disney Cars.

Gift 3 was Christmas Morning - since we weren't going to be home I want to take one thing for each of them to open when they woke up.

  • Dylan got a Robot - this he actually knew about but didn't know he was getting it for Christmas. We had bought it back a few months ago so he could use his allowance to buy it from us, but well he never did & with money being tight I thought it was a good thing to wrap up!!
  • Ryan got a pretend computer - he has wanted one for soooo long. He sees J.D. using his for work & he likes playing number & letter games on mine so when we found one on HUGE clearance we got it!!! - I love sales!!!!
  • Aydan got a Mini Car Raceway thing - it has soft chunky cars that go down a spinning track thing.....


Then Christmas night my Cousin came over with her little boy & all the kids exchanged gifts.
Dylan got Bakugans which he loves (Mommy & Daddy are still trying to figure out exactly what these are)
Ryan got Batman toys
Aydan got a shape sorter blender thing - that is awesome!! :) LOL

~Christmas at Home!!!~

We had our family Christmas at like 2:30ish a.m. on Dec. 27th - so we were all verrryyyy tired!

We had left milk & cookies in the fridge for Santa when we left so it wouldn't go bad before he arrived...

Dylan & Ryan also got their first set of "big kid" legos from Daddy! - They each a box box of 400+ pieces - they love them!!!

Then Nana came over so we could have Christmas with her on the afternoon on the 27th.

How do -You- eat Pizza????

This is how Aydan does it.......


I realized as I was taking the pictures that I had forgotten to put a bib on him...oops!

Oh well, at least he was wearing something dark....

Dylan's birthday ticker

Lilypie - Personal pictureLilypie Kids Birthday tickers

Ryan's birthday ticker

Lilypie - Personal pictureLilypie Kids Birthday tickers

Aydan's Birthday Ticker

Lilypie - Personal pictureLilypie Kids Birthday tickers

Eyvan's Ticker

Lilypie - Personal pictureLilypie Angel and Memorial tickers