Vacation Bible Spectacular!!

Last week the kids and I were busy at church with VBS. We all had a wonderful time! Yesterday we ended it all with the kids performing a musical and then a Luau at the church. Unfortunately Gabriel started running a fever on Saturday so he, Daddy, and Josie stayed home from church and missed the celebration. I was very bummed about that!

The theme for VBS this year was Outrigger Island. Kindergarten and first grade sang two songs before the musical in both of the services. I knew that Luke would do fine, standing up in front of people never bothered him. Now Kaden I wasn't so sure about. He does not like our HUGE sanctuary with all the lights and all, it's loud and intimidating to him. I didn't know if he would sing or not. Sure enough we show up and he starts tearing up, he did NOT want to do it. I felt so bad for him. I don't want him to be so scared. There was children's church for the kiddos not preforming during the first service so he GLADLY went in there! Luke did a GREAT job singing, as I knew he would. He looks so old to me. He will be 7 on Wednesday and I am having a hard time with that! Here are some pics of him singing (orange shirt and yellow lei):

After the first service, Kaden had to come and sit with me in church. He wasn't too happy about it, saying he just wanted to go home PLEASE! A few minutes after sitting in there with me he started to relax a little. I was telling him Luke was going to sing and then we were going to watch all of the 'big' kids sing. He seemed to like that idea. When the K and 1st graders starting filing in for their songs, Kaden said "I want to try." "What?! You want to go up there?" He said "I think so. I want to try." So I quickly threw him in the line right next to Luke. He seemed to be excited. Unfortunately when they were lining the kids up they took Luke off to another line and he was on the complete opposite side of both Kaden and where I was sitting. (good thing I got to see him in the first performance!) Kaden waved at me a couple times and then the lights went out and the kiddos were spotlighted. He did not like this. He looked straight at me and got a lip. I gave him a thumbs up and prayed like crazy. Once the music started he was better, then he caught glimpses of himself on our big TVs in there and that made Kaden smile. He did a wonderful job and I am SO proud of him for just getting up there! Here are sweet K pics. In line with his brother (K has on the yellow shirt and flower lei):

Not so sure:

Warming up a bit:

In the groove:

I do have some video and I will post those tomorrow!

Sorry!

I know, I know. It's been a crazy long time since I posted. I can practically hear my Mother grumbling at me when she checks the page to find no new pics of HER babies! Sorry Momma!
Things have been crazy busy for us. And I thought summer would be laid back with nothing much to do...boy, was I wrong. Let's see, here is a quick recap. Though it didn't exist in my blog world---Michael and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary (also my nephew's happy birthday :) on the 19th of June! I cannot believe it's been 9 years. Awesome! I love ya babe! Saturday night we left the kiddos and drove over to Tulsa to see "The Phantom of the Opera"! We had the best time. We LOVE that show. I am sad I didn't get any pictures of us all dressed up that night. We were looking good!! Guess you will just have to take me at my word :)

This week the kids and I have been busy with Vacation Bible School. I am leading one of the first grade classes. We have one of the largest VBS's in the country. We have kids from entering Kindergarten to entering 6th grade and Wednesday's count was over 1300!!!! Isn't that awesome?! We have around 350-400 volunteers, it's quite an undertaking. I love playing my small part! Luke and Kaden will be singing in church on Sunday morning. I cannot wait for that. This will be Kaden's first experience with anything like that, I am curious to see how he will do.

What else? I went back to my ENT doc and he said everything in my ear looks GREAT! The skin graft has completely attached to my ear drum. I will go back in mid-July for a hearing test and then we will decide how long until I come back to get it all checked out again. My hearing has SIGNIFICANTLY improved now that the gooey gel (remember that was the doc's words) is out of my ear. I can actually hear again on my left side! It's wonderful.

I am sure there is a ton more to report but I have forgotten. I'll try and be a better poster...(while I was typing this my sis-in-law called me to complain that I haven't changed my blog and she wanted to know how our Phantom trip went...)

Here are the rest of the photos from my Granny's family day. We took the kids over to the play area all excited. Last year there was a train and a bouncing house. The kids were super excited to do that, we had all talked it up for a few days before we went to the picnic. Well, there was no bouncing house and no train. But the kids recovered well and enjoyed the few games they did have:

Here's Riley and Josie, our sweet one year old girls:Lunch time and game time were too much for my angel:

SWEET pic of Granny and Mel!!!!!!! Love it!

Granny's family day!

Last Saturday we spent the day at my Granny's Family Picnic. We all had a wonderful time. We were quite a crew and took up our share of the tent and shade nearby. There were 15 of us there! We had large amounts of good food and some blessed time just being together. I have lots of pics to share. As with my norm, I will break up the pictures into a couple of days. (that way it feels as if I have more to share :)

This is from Granny's balcony, nice view huh? (There is a gorgeous lake too!)

Josie watched intently as her brothers headed across the street with their uncle. Where ARE they going?Fishing with Uncle Don:

Between my boys and Uncle Don and Aunt Deb's foster kiddos it was a good size group of little ones. Just when you think it couldn't get much bigger...enter the Fitz girls :)Here's a view of our table:Like I said I have more pics to share. But now I have a JOSIE update. Last Friday she started taking crazy steps while holding onto your fingers. That is AWESOME! Before when Josie was standing holding onto you, if you started to pull her to walk she would just lean and lean. She would not move those feet for NOTHING!! Then Friday she crawled to me in Mom's kitchen, pulled up on my fingers and I started to walk backwards and she walked with me for like 15 feet or something nuts like that! From famine to feast I guess! It was wonderful. She would only do it barefoot though, no walking with shoes on...until yesterday that is. She walked a good bit with me yesterday with her hi-tops on. I am SO happy that she is making these strides (ha, ha, get it?! it's a pun! and a funny one at that :)

We're back

The kiddos and I took an impromptu trip to St. Louis this past week. Michael was leaving for Virginia and I figured why stay home alone? So we went, totally spur of the moment. We of course, had a wonderful time. I love my family, they are just the best. We went swimming with the Gienkes (my cousins) on 2 of the days. You would not believe how much my boys love being in the water!! Josie wasn't too sure about it but she was also teething and not feeling so good. You would not believe how adorable she was in her itty-bitty bathing suit! :) So we swam, took a family trip to Borders, celebrated my cousin Peter's 16th b-day, Mom and I watched some movies, got visits from the Fitzs. It was full week I will tell you that! We had a picnic at my Granny's place on Saturday, she had 11 grand and great grand children there--how fun is that?! There will be lots of pics to come. I ended up going to the doc on Saturday to discover I have a staph infection, yippee, loads of fun. But I am on my meds now so I will be better soon. Gotta keep things interesting, right?

We came back to Oklahoma and it has done nothing but thunderstorm since we got here. Ugh. It's only day 3 and RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY!!!!!!!!! We are supposed to get storms (some severe) through Thursday evening. Thank goodness for Netflix :)

Bye Bye Baseball

Ready for a long post? Okay, the post won't be so long but there will be LOTS of pics! T-ball ended for both Kaden and Luke this past week. Neither are very happy that their season is over. They are already excited for next year! Kaden finished on Monday night. It was a gorgeous night and Daddy was able to be there for his last game! That was super exciting! Here's some pics of the fam waiting around for K's game. Gabriel was playing on the 'gate' to the park:

Daddy and Luke were playing catch:Josie was sitting in the grass and NOT enjoying it in the least!!!!!! Her face is so funny, huh?!:Here's a pic of Josie's incoming hair: (can you tell I am so excited about this?!)More of Gabes:Kaden scoring:Silly faced Josie during the game: More of Kaden (#10), he is such a happy guy! Here is a video of Luke. This was from Friday night and his infamous 8:35 game. We didn't get home until after 10 but it was a GREAT game! (just Mommy and Luke were at this one!) Luke was so happy. Watch and see why:

Shhhhhhhhhhhh!

Mike and I bought a cute game for the kiddos last weekend. It's called "Don't Wake Hulk!" The premise is the characters are moving around Hulk's bedroom and if you wake him up, he'll be angry, and we all know you won't like him when he's angry! There is a button next to Hulk's bed that you have to push a certain number of times depending on what square of the game board you are on. Randomly Hulk will "wake up" and pop up in his bed. The kids LOVE it and even Gabriel is old enough to play (a big reason we got this game!) We have played it many times and I love to hear the kids laugh when Hulk springs up! I love the idea of a family game night and I pray this is something we can keep up as the kids get older.

Enchanting boys

I bought the Disney movie "Enchanted". It's so cute and fun! (and it stars Thad's friend, remember?!) The boys have only made it through the entire movie at one sitting once but there are a couple of parts we have watched probably around a hundred times. See for yourself:

Cardinal Fever

I have fallen behind again in my blogging, I've got to catch up the end of May before I get into the first of June here. This week is the kiddos last scheduled week of baseball, Kaden finished last night. I have adorable pics! I just don't want to blog everything in one day that way my faithful readers (you know the 3 of you!) can have something new to read everyday! :)

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Baseball season, as you know, is well underway and we are watching LOTS of Cardinals in this house. Admit it, STL fans, the Cards are doing much better then predicted this year. We just have to sit and wait for the collapse of the nasty cubs, it always happens...just wait for it.

Grandmom sent a package for the kiddos this past weekend. The boys were super excited to get new Cardinal clothes! There were books and a swimsuit for Josie (which I still haven't tried on her yet...there will certainly be photos of that!) Thanks Grandmom!

Gabriel says "It's Cardinals, Momma!" And I said "That's Fredbird on your shirt." He looks and says "No that's Cardinalbird on my shirt." He'll get there.And Ms. Josie got the biggest kick out of the post-it note name tags on the books. (sorry it's blurry)

Josie's Eval

Well another weekend came and went too quickly for me! It's amazing how that keeps happening...

On Thursday Josie was evaluated by SoonerStart. An Occupational Therapist and Child Development Specialist did a whole series of 'tests' on Josie to see where she fits on a general development scale. The ladies asked me questions "Is she generally happy?" "Does she cry when left with strangers?" "Does she help put her arms through her sleeves when getting her dressed?" etc, etc. Then they tested her cognitive level by hiding a toy underneath a cup to see if she could find it, asking her to bang toys together, seeing if she looked when her name was called, etc. They were here at the house for about an hour and half. This won't be a surprise to anyone who is around Josie but it was funny to hear the women say over and over again they were so excited to work with a baby who is so calm, happy, and cooperative. And they were here at nap time even! Josie was just perfect. At the end of it all, Josie is exactly where she should be in every category (adaptive, personal-social, communication, cognitive) EXCEPT for motor. Which is what we figured. As it turns out she is exactly 50% deficient in this category and so does qualify for help from SoonerStart. If she had scored one higher on anything she would not have qualified. The Occupational Therapist said that Josie's ankles turn out and that very well might be why she is not taking steps. Josie has to concentrate on using her whole body to stay balanced when she stands that she doesn't want to move her feet. She suggested we buy Josie some high top shoes to help those ankles stay straight. Also she did notice that Josie had some 'extra' flexibility in her hips but doesn't think it's cause for too much alarm. Something we will just watch. We are not supposed to let her sit in the "W" way with her knees bent and her feet behind her. They said not to tell her "no", or "don't do that", just to move her and tell her "sit pretty". We finish the evaluation part today when we go downtown for a hearing test. After that SoonerStart will come to the house (don't know how often yet) to work with Josie and try and get her walking!

This weekend the search for Josie's shoes commenced. I first went to the BX (store on the air force base), no luck. Kohl's--NO! Target--NO! JCPenney--kinda. They the expensive stride rite shoes but only in a size 3. Josie's feet are INCREDIBLY small, the size 3 was way too big but I went ahead and bought them so we could at least get her ankle support and because I couldn't find any other high tops period! Then yesterday at Wal-mart we found some size 2's that aren't too big. They had one pair in that size! So here is my sweet girl in her new shoes (that she is supposed to wear all the time!)

That is a hair picture for my Momma, see--it is coming in! :)