Last Saturday we had the privilege of attending the 60th anniversary American Indian Institute of Chicago’s Pow wow. It was a wonderful day of learning, enjoying friends and meeting new friends. Here are some of my favorite moments.
The girl enjoyed dancing anytime there was an intertribal dance. She even encouraged her friend to join her (and her mommy)
Finally, some sunny days just in time for Easter weekend! We really enjoyed running in the mud, helping the farmers, “hunting” for eggs, and coloring some too!
We joined our friends at Klein Creek Farm for a run through the mud and a fun morning helping the farmers.
I thought it was appropriate that her favorite job was shoveling manure.
We joined “a million” other kids for an Easter egg hunt.
I was really worried that the eggs were too well hidden!
The girl was up for the challenge!
After the hunt, we had fun coloring our own eggs!
Amos even found an egg!
Happy Easter!
What a year this has been! The girl is feeling very grown up! Here she is on her last day at 3.
She was very excited for the big celebration! We have a lot to celebrate as she turns 4…good health and lots of good friends.
The girl wanted a camera (she takes after her mommy), and a wild animal party with chocolate cupcakes! At home we celebrated with Nonnie, Poppie, Aunt Jane and our good friends from Indiana.
Then it was off to the Arboretum for a winter expedition with her friends.
Armed with “noculars”, the kids went tracking and found a raccoon:
A coyote…and lots of other critters:
It looked like everyone had a great time on their hike through the woods:
After the scavenger hunt, the kids made a craft and s’mores!
Just to make sure the kids had enough sugar, we then went back to the outpost for cupcakes and a book exchange! It was a terrific day!!
We started the year with an amazing day watching Snowy Owls! The girl loved using her new binoculars!
The girl started cello lessons, and we discovered she’s a real ham!
We celebrated her 3rd birthday “on the farm”
We enjoyed so many fun times with friends through the year!
The girl was brave as she endured her first surgery of the year and the tethered cord was released.
We celebrated the “release” at the beach!
The girl had fun with soccer and swimming!
The real cello was earned and beautiful music ensued.
Summer was for picnics, camping and toasted marshmallows!
Our family grew…
The girl’s imagination bloomed.
She started preschool!
We now have an art gallery, and enough art to start new exhibits weekly!
The girl’s colorful personality was perfect for our colorful fall.
We gave thanks for good friends on the West Coast!
We stayed home for Christmas and missed out on the Texas White Christmas. It was sweet anyway!
We sent 2012 out with a bang! We hope that we stay away from hospitals in 2013!!!
Happy New Year! Peace, Joy, and good health to you this year!
Merry Christmas!
With Christmas comes the promise of Love, Joy and Peace! We pray you find your rest in that promise.
It seems that the Christmas season flies by every year. The excitement grabs us and spins us along until we sit in a pile of wrapping paper. This year I’m astounded that this is the girl’s 4th Christmas! Time has really flown…
2009
2010
2011
2012
She’s so big, and being a big girl means we’ve been busy with more activities than we could have imagined!
Meeting Santa Mike
…and a friend of his
Singing in a preschool program
Christmas strings concert:
(That’s my girl on the big screen)
We’ve made cookies!
We’ve made ornaments for our Jesse Tree
We’ve welcomed Nonnie and Poppie
Now we will try to slow it all down and celebrate Emmanuel (God is certainly with us).
The girl is so excited about Christmas! She has to redecorate the tree daily, and is loving our Jesse Tree celebration each night!
She’s so joyful, and we are happy that she’s doing so well!
The girl’s mom has 3 more weeks before a break. We have one visit to Children’s this week to see the urologist. I think that the medicine is making a difference. I’m not sure what that means…but thankful that the medicine helps with the accidents.
I’m writing this post as I listen to our little freight train in the other room. We think that losing the tonsils will help a lot!!! When she actually gets a good nights sleep, she’s going to be unstoppable. We will have to Wait until the day after Christmas for that sleep (surgery 12/26). She’s not going to sleep until then anyway. She’s just too excited!!!
Kp
We are thankful for so many things!!
1. Prayers and love of friends and family
2. Good Health!!
And
3. Chocolate Cake (says the girl)
Thank you to everyone who has prayed for us and encouraged us this year! God has blessed us richly through your love to our family!
I can’t believe that September is over! We had an appointment at Children’s every tuesday of this month! I wish I had an update to share, but we are still waiting to learn the results of some of the girl’s tests. Once we know more, I will post an update…we go to the spina bifida clinic on the 16th.
Today is the daddy’s birthday! He’s getting pretty old, but he’s still smiling. The cake was the girl’s idea:
Thanks to food allergies, we have to come up with alternatives to “icing”…this one tasted good, but wasn’t going to win any artistic awards.
We had a good weekend celebrating with daddy. Even the trees were celebrating!
We had a nice time hiking
There were lots of frogs…most were hard to see!
The girl had fun balancing across logs (for those who know this mom…yes, I checked and this log was “clean”)
The girl wasn’t excited to learn that there could be “poop germs” from raccoons on this log! Maybe she won’t ever be my field assistant?
It was a good weekend! Saying goodbye to summer!
