Fall's Last Hurrah

I took the kids to the botanical gardens in an effort to get some cute pictures of them and also to get us out of the house while we were home for our Thanksgiving break. I waited until later in the afternoon so that we would have good light. Evidently, so did everyone else. The gardens were FULL of families taking pictures. They were all dressed up and the kids were all matching and coordinated. I'm so glad that I didn't go to all of the trouble that they all did, otherwise I would have been really upset at these pictures instead of laughing at their comedic qualities.

I had several of these kinds of pictures. No one could position themselves...

We finally got on the rock and Hayden and Landry could/would not be still... There were several more of these with some kids in focus and blurry heads on the others.

We finally got a semi cute picture. Landry was rebelling in the background and refusing to cooperate.

I gave up and let them do their thing.

We found a path that had all kinds of educational stuff about the outdoors and Texas gardens. The kids had lots of fun exploring.

I did manage to get a couple of good shots out of our day.

This one was cute - minus Landry.

Once again, not being very still...

Hayden was having fun!

This was the best shot of the day!

The lantern is lit!

We love living in the Fort Worth area for various reasons, but one of the many is that we have such a fantastic science museum! It has been closed for the last year and a half as they were building a new facility and adding new exhibits. Before they closed, the museum was one of the kids' most favorite places because of the dino dig, and the grocery store - complete with buggies and play food. Well, they have recently had their reopening (it was called 'Light the Lantern' because of part of the architecture of the building) and we have already visited and are set up with our family passes for the year. The kids are loving it!

This is part of an exhibit that is full of hands on experiments using air, different materials to build your own flying machines, magnets, spinning tops, light sources and the list goes on... We could have stayed in there all day!

Gibson was busy building and constructing...

In the kids zone area, they have the largest train set that I have ever seen. The kids get to put on construction gear and build tracks, drive trains and have lots of fun.

Hayden and Grace were checking out fossils and dino tracks with giant magnifying glasses.

Landry had the time of her life in the health section. They had a large ambulance, a TON of baby dolls, a hospital section complete with real X-rays and a lighted stand so that the kids can look at them.

We will be going back soon!

Cardboard Testimony

I first saw the cardboard testimony concept a couple of years ago and it stayed with me. The concept is that in a few short words, you sum up where you were before God helped you, and then where you are after. The situation can be anything from your prayer life to finances to where you were before you were saved.



I had thought about it a lot after I saw it the first time, but then our church family did their own a couple of weeks ago during worship. Once again, I went back to really thinking about what my cardboard would say. I have really appreciated the concept as it has made me reflect on where my relationship with God has taken me.

I grew up in a very godly home and accepted Christ at an early age. My parents laid a good foundation by emphasizing Bible study and regular praying. My relationship really grew and became personal when I went to college, was on my own and scared to death that I wouldn't be able to make it. I met Shane, married, and immediately found out that we were pregnant with Grace. Life continued to be good. We were poor and struggling to make ends meet, and while trusting that God was taking care of us, we still felt like we had a little control over our lives. When Grace was about 18 months, we found out that we were pregnant again. We were a little nervous, but excited. We had been out of town for the weekend, I was about 8 weeks along, and I started spotting. The worst thing was having to wait until Monday to get into the doctor's office. We went in for an ultrasound and they couldn't see anything. They did a different kind of ultrasound and found that there was no baby. I have never felt so devastated and numb. I felt like my heart had been ripped from my chest. Shane was also hurting, and comforting me and dealing with his own grief was almost too much. For the first time, I had to turn to a Comforter that was bigger than anyone here on earth. The hits kept coming. They sent me home to wait for my body to pass the baby and miscarry. After two weeks of nothing happening, they brought me back in for more tests and found that I had a molar pregnancy. Basically, the body thinks that it's pregnant, but there is a growing, cancerous mass in the uterus that has to be removed. We went in for that surgery and then started going back weekly for blood tests to make sure that the cancer wasn't returning. In the midst of all of this testing, they found cervical cancer. At the age of 23, I was visiting an oncologist and talking surgeries and procedures to remove all of the cancer. In the span of a month, I had gone from an excited, expectant mother to a grieving and scared cancer patient. In the midst of all the visits and uncertainty, I felt a peace like I have never known. The cancer was removed successfully, and after a year of waiting to be sure that nothing returned, we were able to try to have children again. Because of the scarring, we (and our doctors) were unsure as to how my body would react to being pregnant and carrying a baby. By God's grace, we were blessed with three more healthy babies. The whole experience taught me that God really is in control of everything. I had thought that I was trusting God before my experience, but in reality I was trusting God within the parameters of what I wanted for my family and my life. So during this season of Thanksgiving, my cardboard would say:

Cervical Cancer
Uncertain of the future


Blessed with 4
beautiful children.
3 after the diagnosis.

So, what would your sign say? Happy Thanksgiving.

Halloween 2009

Well, Halloween has come and gone again. I know that it is Gibson's favorite holiday, and I think that Hayden is not far behind him in that opinion. I can't blame them, though. Not only do you get to dress up as your favorite character, but you have access to unlimited candy. If Mom doesn't catch you, it might even be possible to eat enough to make yourself sick! (We had a couple complaining of tummy aches.) Halloween went on for three days at our house. We had the school carnival on Thursday, Dad's center had their festival on Friday and then the kids trick or treated in the neighborhood on Saturday. We have oodles of candy at our house! This year, Grace was a hippy, (She asked me what hippies do and I said, vote for world peace. That subject was a little more rich than I cared to get into!) Gibson was Wolverine, (He changed his mind every day about what he wanted to be. What he didn't know, was that since we already had the costume, he was always going to be Wolverine. Thankfully, I was able to present it as though it was his idea and he was thrilled.) Hayden was Buzz Lightyear, and Landry was a dinosaur.

Here we are in the front yard on Friday night. Right as I was taking the picture, Gibson raised his bag and covered Landry. Then I couldn't get anyone that still again. The night before at the school, several of the kids had vampire teeth and Gib just had to have a pair. We never could find any the night before, but that morning at school, his teacher gave everyone a set. Gib was so excited. He saved them all day, so that he would look tough in his costume, and put them in for this picture. I literally snapped this picture and Gib grabbed those teeth out of his mouth and threw up in the front yard! He has a really good gag reflex. After we got him washed up, and I stopped laughing, we finished the rest of our pictures.

Here are the boys looking tough.

Here was the bottom of Landry's outfit. She refused to wear the head, but the tail was super cute.

Gibson was convinced he had super powers and was climbing the tree.

Landry was very concerned and was trying to drag him down.

At the end, Landry had enough and refused to be in any more pictures. The older three were being very sweet.

This was Landry. She was in full protest on the ground.

Believe it or not, a little candy did fix this situation.

Friendship. You should try it...

When Shane came back from Salt Lake City, he brought everyone little gifts. Mine was a wonderful box of chocolates from a local chocolate studio (yes, I know, normally you would say store, but these are like little works of art) that have been delicious! I have hoarded and savored them, eating one just every now and then, so that they would last. My kids have asked for me to share, but since they eat their boogars and think those are good, there is NO WAY that I am sharing my little works of art with them and their screwed up palettes!

We had the sliding door open while the kids were bouncing outside, and Shane was sitting next to the door on the computer. I was taking advantage of the kids not being in the room to enjoy a chocolate. Gibson, while bouncing outside, saw that I was eating a chocolate and started talking to us from the trampoline.

Gib: "Hey, Mom! Is that one of those chocolates that you won't share?"

Me: "Mmmhmm."

Gib: "Can I have a bite?"

Me: "No."

Gib: "Dad! Mom won't let us have even one of those chocolates!"

Dad: "Sorry, dude."

Gib: (with his face completely smashed into the net around the trampoline and the most pitiful expression that you can make with a smushed nose) "It's called friendship, Mom. It's called friendship..."

My OCD Love

Look at this adorable, sweet, little child. You would never know that he is extremely obsessive compulsive. I thought that it pertained mainly to his clothing and grooming routine, but from these pictures, I'm guessing that I was wrong. In the mornings, he has to be completely dressed with his shoes on before he can brush his teeth. When I put his socks on, he has to tug the toe of each sock before I can put his shoes on. When we are brushing his teeth, we have to brush a certain number of times, then he gets mouthwash, spits, gets his cologne spray and then he has to jump off of the sink top where he has been standing. If any of these things does not happen in this order, it really does rock his world. He's not upset like a fit, but truly distressed. Tonight, he was enjoying some M&Ms and Shane opened the package so that he could get to them easier and this is what he did.

He even ate the colors in a certain order. Notice that there are no greens or reds.

Hard Heads

This is the latest in crazy head injuries and nasty looking bruises from my children (mainly Gibson.)

We pulled into the drive from church on Sunday morning and Gibson jumped out of the car and was racing to the door to be first, tripped and slammed into the brick step at the front door. It immediately looked like this and we were thankful that it didn't break the skin. I'm pretty sure that if it had, we would have been in the ER for stitches.

Landry was afraid that she might be left out. Last night she climbed the ladder to the bunk bed before I could catch her. (She has already fallen off of the top bunk, so we keep the ladder off of the bed when we are home and it's not bed time.) I was trying to get her off and she leaned over to smile at me and caught her head with the ceiling fan (it was on). She hit it so hard that the light bulb blew out. Of course, there were lots of tears. We just added that bruise to the others that are already on her forehead. My kids live hard!