John 14:27

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (NIV)

Thankful

We had Thanksgiving at our house this year. It was fun. I had so much fun making the big feast. Who knows, maybe it wouldn't be as much fun if I had to do it every year. Once every 7 years, it was time! Hope you had a wonderful and thankful Thanksgiving. I am thankful for my family, near and far. I am thankful to be able to see most of them this year.

Christmas, here we come!

Gingerbread Fred

Ava came home with Gingerbread Fred today. Each person in her class gets to take him home for a night so he can see what it is like at their house. They had to write about their adventures with Gingerbread Fred. It was so funny to watch Ava take him around. She did everything with him. She played memory and candy land with him, read him a story and played in her room with him. It was quite the experience. After all the kids have had the chance to bring Fred home, they will develop the camera that came with him and make a book with each child's picture and story. What a fun project!

4

Happy Birthday to our sweet boy!

Happy Halloween!

May the force be with you...

Bye, bye tonsils

Kade's tonsils have been huge lately. And when I say huge, I mean HUGE! Like the size of marbles, if not bigger. His throat isn't that big. Put two marbles in there and there isn't much room left. Hence the reason we went to the hospital today. After steroid treatment and many restless nights (they were causing sleep apnea), the doctor decided the tonsils needed to go.

Oh how I wish we could have been prepared for the road ahead... Our sweet boy had no idea what was ahead of him. In his words, "the doctor was going to cut in my throat and I think that will make me sad."

We were able to go back and see him after about an hour and a half. It felt like forever after the doctor came and told us he was done. The nurses needed to wake him up and get his pain under control before we could go back. When we got there he was sleeping peacefully in his little bed, very groggy. The day went much smoother than expected. Once he woke up a little more he asked for some food. He wanted oatmeal and a muffin. Surprisingly enough, he scarfed down a large chocolate muffin and some brown-sugar oatmeal. Shocking. He whined from time to time of the pain, but for the most part it seemed his meds were controlling it well. In fact, they made him loopy most of the day. He was so cute. And his voice! Wow, I was amazed how different his voice was. It is so high now. He sounds like a different kid. I think it should go more back to normal once his throat heals, but for now it is funny.

We decided to head home at around 7pm. Once home, we ate some popsicles and settled down for the night. It should be an interesting night.

"Nature Walk"

This is our little "nature walk" that is pretty much in our back yard. It isn't all the impressive, compared to all the places we visited this summer, but the kids love it anyway.