Our Week

Becca got back from Corpus.  She had a wonderful time!  She had to get her hugs in.

It is still nice out – not for too much longer, so we are trying to enjoy it while we can!  Loved our picnic on Monday!  Loved this – Joy decided to copy us.  Here she is teaching us something, didn’t quite catch her words, but it was about Jesus.

Tuesday morning at way too early in the morning, we loaded up and headed to the hospital.  Bella went in for a DL&B, stayed over night and had a CT the next day.  More on that on her blog!

 

Oh, this picture!  We got home and got settled in and just as we are wanting to crash and go to sleep, we realized the vent plug in got left at TCH.  So we took our exhausted bodies and went to get it.  What a blessing that we are only one hour away from the hospital!

 

Back to life after we got home from the hospital Wednesday night.  Back to cuddling Alex.  Jason said Alex missed me while I was gone – ahhh.

Jason’s project while I was gone – re-sodding the back yard.

Back to piano lessons.  No, Joy doesn’t have piano lessons, but she packed up and headed out with everyone.  I thought she was so cute!  Lizzy went to the home school Field Day with my sister-in-law Marissa.  She had so much fun!  Friday Alex, Jessi, and I went back to TCH, but this time for Alex.  He had a head CT done.  This will be his baseline from now on.  He did great!

On Saturday Lizzy started the craziness we call swim team.  Very curious what we have gotten ourselves into!  We saw this fledging in our yard.  Very fascinating.   Thankfully, no one touched it and it made it back to bird land unharmed.

More Alex, sisters, and caterpillars

Our sweet boy…

Playing outside

Fun Lizzy                                             Joy, the bag lady

Sweet girls                                                                   Cowgirl Joy

Saturday Jason built us our final bed of the year.  We have a bush cherry, dwarf peach, and lots of herbs.  It looks great!

Cuddles

Jessi's harp is FINALLY here!  Jason and Becca tuning it.  It sounds beautiful, even with us just playing around with it!

Sunday my Dad, Nathan, and Mandy came by for a lesson in all things Apple.  Cute to listen to.  A strawberry – yes, it was cut into a thousand pieces so we could share it!

Two videos of Alex from this morning.  There is all kinds of background noise – from Joy to me reading to Bella.  Enjoy! 

PS – The only sound that is Alex is the little squeak at the end. The rest is Bella.

Our Week

Becca helping Sammi with a Personal Progress goal – learning to make Dewberry Jam

Because she sees Alex doing it all the time, Lizzy had to experience being swaddled again. 

The girls working hard on their school work. I love seeing the girls playing together!

Little Alex is very loved!

We had to have a tea party with our new jam!  We enjoyed Meyer Park.  I was saddened to see how many trees we had lost due to the drought.

We found this amazing – this bird was faking an injured wing so we would stay away from it’s nest which had eggs!  I love to see my children marvel at the beauty of God’s creations!

Jason reached a big goal – squats of 225 pounds!  Playing the Wii with Bella

My energetic Lizzy found this position particularly good for science.  The girls experimenting with eggs.

Becca and her Didi talking.  Lizzy’s former public school teacher dropped by.  That was really sweet.  Our sweet Alex sleeping.  He is growing double time it seems.

Joy went to the doctor for a rash.  I was right – Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease which she shared with Bella.  Alex went to the neuro surgeon.  He was pleased with Alex.  He said that the shunt is working well.  He asked us to get a CT done of his head.  It will serve as his baseline from here on out.  I asked him if he could look into his crystal ball and see how this would all effect our Alex.  He said we will know the extent of any damage by the time Alex reaches ten years of age.  But, he said, he would be optimistic.  He looks really good.  And he added, as everyone does, he is really cute!  We couldn’t agree more!  Jessi was my companion for that trip.

More experiments with eggs – this time on the strength of the shell.  ever wonder why a Mama bird can sit on eggs and not break them?  Alex being adorable!  The girls swimming!

Sammi made us this beautiful cake.  She pressed this leaf in the fall.  She framed it and hung it in our guest bathroom.  I suggested a bright vibrant background color, but no, she said that would distract from the beauty of the leaf.   The artist!

Bubbles, tummy time and reading with a cat

Art club creations      It hailed on Thursday!  Crazy!  My garden was not injured thankfully!

We have studied Japan this week.  Our banners and sushi lunch

Labs for Bella

The girls playing together in the toy box.  Jessi went to a babysitting clinic at the Fire Department

Joy being adorable  Sammi off to participate in the Art Walk in Tomball.  We drove by latter on.  She ended up selling seven of her little clay figurines.  She was delighted!

Jason picked the butternut leaf lettuce and made us this great salad for lunch.  After that our social worker stopped by for our first post placement supervisory visit with Alex.  One of the questions – How is bonding going?  How do you answer a question like that?  He is our son.  He love him dearly.  We would fight tooth and nail for him.  We love you Alex!

Hanging out and playing with bubbles

When we visited Sammi the lady whose store Sammi was at showed the girls her doll collection.  They enjoyed learned about each one very much!

Playing outside – it was the perfect day!  I am finally the proud owner of a composter!  A very cool caterpillar!  We have a few more plans for the back yard before it gets hot – hopefully they will get done this week!

 

And then our crawfish boil!  Yummy!  Love the picture of Jason impersonating a crawfish!  A woodpecker joined our feast!

Notice the absence of Becca Lynn?  She has been down in Corpus at a music festival with Orchestra since Thursday.  I’m looking forward to seeing her and hearing about her adventures!

Sammi saw this bird with it’s ground nest today at church.  Poor thing must have thought it was picking a nice quiet spot till Sunday came around!