Little Bits of Life

My crew has logged countless hours in the yard as of late and they are loving every single second!  Our schedule has thankfully been less crazy the last couple of weeks, so we are taking advantage of some lazy days.  It's wild that we will be out for summer in just a couple of weeks!!! 

The big kids had another successful fishing adventure with Kay Kay and G. They each caught a couple of fish. Mom even got in on the fishing action and caught her own fish!  The highlight for sure was seeing an alligator. It was a ways away from where the group was fishing, but it provided a lot of excitement for my gator loving little guy!

Walker has been working on a little batting practice. I see many, many days ahead of us watching him play ball. 

He's also been fighting a lot of fires. 

EK had a fun little play date with Lillie this week before going to church. Precious friends!!

EK is still loving tennis. I'm so proud of how hard she works and you can really see her improvement since she began a few months ago. Walker and Emma stayed busy at practice this week by climbing trees. Thankfully we didn't end up in the emergency room. 

Speaking of doctors....here is the latest on Miss Emma. We met with our surgeon last week to discuss the next steps. He said it's time to go ahead with her next palate surgery to lengthen the palate which will greatly improve speech and lessen her hypernasality.  First though, he wanted to have genetic testing done to rule out any unknowns that could cause problems with this surgery. This surgery is a bit more complex than the previous 2 because it is further back in her throat and he will be taking tissue very close to some major arteries that are super important. All that to say, she had her genetic testing done today and the doctor said she looked great. We will get the "official" results next week, but she doesn't expect to see anything abnormal. Also before palate surgery, Emma will need her tonsils out to allow for a better palate closure. So, June 3 is the big day for this family's second tonsillectomy in the last few weeks. Too bad they don't have a deal where you buy one, get one free!!!  Then, 6 weeks after the tonsillectomy, she will have her palate lengthening surgery.  Hopefully all the extra ice cream and Popsicles will make up for the fact that she is having a summer of surgeries!!!

 

Field Trip Fun

Walker's preschool class had their much anticipated field trip to the zoo this week. His class has been talking about this day for what seems like months, so we were all so thrilled that the weather cooperated and the rain held off until we were finished with our morning. 

Emma found her favorite "giraffe long neck"

Then Walker found his beloved alligators. 

We stayed at the alligator exhibit for about 85% of the morning. He was so happy. 

Sister girl fell down and scraped up her hands not long after we arrived.  We got her all bandaged up but bless her heart, she was pretty much over the zoo after that. She was content to ride in the stroller the rest of the time which was alright with me!  

Walker had the best time running around like a crazy person from one area to the next. 

He made his way back to the gators for another visit. 

We met up with the rest of his preschool friends to ride the train and have a little snack. 

Sweet little friends! It's hard to believe that summer will be here in just a few weeks and Walker will be all finished with K3!!!!!!  It has been such a wonderful year in the Black Dogs class!!!

Celebrating Emma

The stomach bug surely put a damper on our birthday plans for Miss Emma, but we did manage to sneak in some cupcakes and cookies over the last few days inspite of the lingering bug. We celebrated in Columbus (6 hours later, Emma was sick in the van on the way home...awesome)

We celebrated in Madison (J missed this one bc he was not well and EK also ended up sick that night.)

We celebrated today at Primos with our normal Tuesday night crew all in attendance and healthy.... thank goodness!

In all seriousness, I'm so grateful that my kids have all these folks (and many more) to celebrate their birthdays and to love on them. We truly have an incredible village!

Happy Birthday, Emma!

Our little Emma Kyle is 3 years old today and I can hardly wrap my brain around it!  There is a whole lot of sass trapped inside her petite little body. She has plenty of opinions and doesn't mind sharing them. She loves to tattle on her brother and sister if they are doing things she knows they shouldn't be doing. Although she tattles often, she pretty much wants to do exactly what W and EK are doing at all times!  She has become quite independent and likes to do things like dressing herself, brushing her teeth, and showering on her own (I obviously help her, though!) she loves her dolls and to play in her kitchen.  She loves all food but her favorites include macaroni, rice, broccoli, green beans, and carrots. Now that she is 3, she has completed her therapy sessions with the early intervention therapists, but she will continue with our dear speech teacher at UMC as well as begin the process for services in the school district. She has done amazingly well in the eyes of all her therapist and they are so pleased with her progress. We still need more surgery to lengthen her palate and have a long road ahead of us, so we are just taking it a day at a time. She actually has an appointment with her surgeon on Tuesday to come up with our game plan of what to do next. A couple of funny things she does when she is trying to say something and people can't understand...1) she shakes her hands back and forth and says "no, no, no, no, no" and then will repeat until you figure out what she means and 2) if she tries to say something and it's a sound she physically can not make, she will grab your arm and put your fingers on her nose to hold it so she can say the sound (some sounds like B, C, and D go out of her nose because her palate doesn't reach far enough back in her throat. When you hold her nose, it forces the sound to come out of her mouth instead of her nose and it sounds correct. It's pretty wild!) 

Emma is the happiest, most loving and affectionate child and I am so grateful that I get to be her mama. We are so excited to see God's story for Emma unfold. It's a pretty amazing story because He is the author and perfecter of it!!!

As I do each year which each child, I asked the birthday girl a few questions.  This has become one of my absolute favorite things about birthdays at our house!!

What is your name: Emma

How old are you?  3

What is your favorite color: Purple

What is your favorite thing to eat: Rice

What is your favorite thing on TV:  Barney

What is your favorite movie: George

Who is your best friend:  Carter and Mae

Where do you like to go:  School

Where do you like to eat:  Newks

What do you like to do with Walker:  Play

What do you like to do with EK: Play

What is your favorite animal: giraffe long neck (she always adds the long neck part because one of her   

        therapist always said "giraffe long neck" when they would practice flash cards to build her 

        vocabulary)

What do you like to play: Baby Mamie (her favorite doll)

What is your favorite song: Power In the Name of Jesus (thanks K-Love)

What's your favorite Bible story:  Jesus

Happy Birthday, sweet girl!  You are loved so very much!!!

Happenings

April is zipping by, so here are a few of the highlights....

Our school's huge fundraiser is coming up in a few weeks, so I have been busy with my committee creating some precious art with all the K3-5th grade students to sell. The kids did an amazing job and the student art team was fabulous to work with. There was prepping, painting, glazing and bagging to be done for nearly 600 canvases...needless to say, we were all pretty pumped to finish this giant task!

A perk to helping with the art was that I got to hang out with EK and her friends while they painted. I love getting to watch her in her school element!

G took Walker fishing last weekend. Walker caught 3 fish and seemed quite pleased with himself. Their fishing trip lasted about 45 minutes and then Walker was over it and ready to head home.😊

After the fishing, it was time for some planting. Mom helped the kids plant some flowers in the backyard and I am happy to report that all are still alive over a week later....that's a big deal for me!  I have a black thumb. 

We are loving the great temperatures and spending our days playing in the new back yard! 

It is almost recital time for my favorite ballerina. We got to observe her dances this week but I can't wait to see her for real performance in a few weeks!

We spent the night in Columbus on Friday. The kids made cupcakes and shared them with the firemen at the station down the street from the Nelson's house. J and I were able to watch some Bulldog baseball while the kiddos had a blast with Nana and Pop. Unfortunately, a tummy bug joined our family this weekend, so we are all at home resting up and recovering because we have a birthday to celebrate tomorrow. Miss Emma will be 3!!!!!

Grandparents Day

Ella Kate got to combine some of her favorite things on Friday....her grandparents and performing! The 1st-3rd graders did their spring musical "Hats" on Friday morning and it was precious. FYI....wearing a hat with a bow in your hair is quite difficult.😉👒🎀

After the performance, EK got to show her grandparents around the school and take them by the book fair (good planning on the librarian's part to have the book fair when the grandparents would be at school!). These 3 kiddos hit the jackpot with their grandparents!

I'm just not sure we could have 4 grandparents any better!

I got tickled to see what EK said she would do if she was a grandmother!  I especially like "relax a lot!"  I'm fairly confident that EK's grandparents relax very little thanks to these 3 very active grandchildren!! Goodness, we are so grateful to have them!

What's Up?

It's was a busy week around these parts....who am I kidding?  It's always busy around here!  

On the day after Easter, I woke up to breakfast in bed thanks to my big girl (with some help from Nana). Such a fun treat!  

Walker has done so well with his surgery recovery and we are so thankful!!!  One day he was feeling so great that we worked on some shaving cream art for our playroom. It was a fun and messy project!

Happy little sister!  I can't believe she will be 3 in 2 weeks! 

EK had a big birthday party week. She LOVED getting to celebrate her BFF Sienna!  She's surely going to miss her sweet friend when her family heads out for her daddy's job for a few months. I'm fairly confident she will create a countdown calendar to count down the days until Sienna comes back in August!

EK also got to party with her buddy Ellie James at a groovy dance party complete with glow in the dark face paint, black lights, and the "Whip and Nae Nae!"

Mom and I took EK to see the "Frozen Heart" ballet that her dance studio performed.   It was fabulous!  EK is so ready to get to dance in one of these big productions as a company dancer!

Our church had our "All In" Sunday today where groups go out into the community to love on and serve our neighbors. My little family helped shop for and then pack boxes to be given to the boys as they arrive at the Methodist Children's Home. Most children arrive with only the clothes on their back, so we wanted to do something for them to make the transition a little more comfortable.  The kids had a great time making signs and packing the boxes and we had a sweet time of prayer for the boys who will be receiving these boxes.