Catching Up

Hannah, I know that I told you this post would have video of Lillie walking, but it doesn't. I don't have a whole lot to report, so I have decided to just to blog about random things from the past couple of weeks.

Madison is doing great at school. She has a love for learning that I hope continues through her entire education. She got an award recognizing that she is a team player, so she was very proud of that!!

Eli on the other hand...well we celebrated no pee pee pants and sort of no time outs at school. The first week was a little rough but he is adjusting. The potty training is going great!! Our biggest challenge is trying to keep clothes on him. We let him run around naked while he was learning and now he prefers nudey tudey to the traditional clothing. Oh well.

Lillie continues to be a great little baby. For the most part she goes with the flow, still takes two naps a day, loves to be held like a baby and sings all the time. She will be my early talker (or singer). Her favorite thing to sing is "Ashes, ashes...all...down" It is precious.

I am still enjoying my job. I definately think I will learn a lot while I am in nursing school from the patients on the floor I am on (Neurology.) There is never a shortage of good stories, that is for sure.

Dan is doing good. He is taking 17 hours and keeping up with it very well. His friend Chris has shown drastic improvement. He has completed the reconstruction of his left arm including skin graphs and has been admitted to the rehab floor. He has lost a lot of weight but seems to be getting around fairly well and in pretty good spirits. It has been a real joy getting to know his family.

Well I guess that is all, I will end with a picture from Madison's and Lillie's room. I just finished their dresser and I think it looks really great.

First Day of School and Madison Rides the Bus

So, it is official, Eli has started Preschool!! He gets to go three days a week, and of the three days he has gone so far he only had to go to time out once (that we know of.) His teacher seems really nice and he acts like he really enjoys getting to be a big boy that goes to school. Yeah Eli!!

And yes, Madison is riding the bus.

DMB Dallas with the BFF

My best friend Erin called me this week and offered me the oppotunity to go see the Dave Matthews Band in Dallas. Since I have a wonderful husband, he agreed to watch the kids while I went and had a fun weekend with her, watching my favorite band play at an awesome venue. Luckily, I was able to catch a few shots from our seats and even a little video. In addition to getting to see DMB, which is always a treat, he had special guest Tim Reynolds who played the whole show with them. It was a cool bonus to an already incredible show.

Thank you Erin...I LOVE YOU

Pear Pickin'

This week, while on a walk around the block, my mom happened to notice one of her neighbors had a pear tree that was overwhelmed with delicious fruit. After sampling a few pieces, she went to the door and asked if it would be alright to bring her grandchildren to pick a few pieces. The sweet lady, herself a grandmother, was in the middle of watching her two year old twin grandaughters and was more than happy to offer her tree as entertainment for our kiddos. So Saturday morning, we loaded up, and began our pear picking expidition.

As you can see we were all assigned jobs....

Grumpy was the main picker....

Madison was the gatherer...
Eli was the sorter....and Lillie was quality contol.
We had lots of fun!

PS If anyone needs some pears, we have plenty to spare.

Madison's First Day of Kindergarten - Go Union???

Today was Madisons first day of school at Union Moore Elementary. It is hard to celebrate the big U that Madison seems to spot everywhere, but we are learning. (For those of you that don't know...Union is the rival school of the high school that I graduated from, and my parents before me.) She looked so cute and is already begging to go by herself to class and even ride the bus. I can't believe that she is already an elementary school student!!! We are very lucky that she has a great teacher and we are very impressed with the school so far.



Yesterday we took a trip to the zoo to celebrate our last day of summer break. It was lots of fun to get to go as a family. Of course, we had to stop and take a monkey picture.

Pray for Chris

Last Wednesday a friend of Dan's was in a bad motorcycle accident with his girlfriend. His girlfriend was suprisingly okay, but Chris' injuries were pretty severe. After a week in ICU, he is doing better but has a long way to go. Please pray for him and his family. If you are interested in helping, his family has asked that we donate blood at the Oklahoma Blood Institute at 81st and Yale in Tulsa. If 50 people donate under his name, all the blood that he has received will be free. His name is Chris Downs.

Lovin' Bath Time

So, I know that I keep saying that I will post pictures of the new house, but I just haven't had time. We are really loving our new space though. One of personal favorites is my new, big bath tub, or as my children refer to it, "Daddy's bath." Not sure why they call it that, as Dan has never been in it, but I would suspect it is because of it's large size. The nice thing is, all three kids can bathe at the same time!!

Dan's new motorcycle

Well, Dan has finally finished is new motorcycle. When we got it a few weeks ago, it was literally in hundreds of pieces. He has worked hard and finally this weekend, with some help from Eli, Dan got the bike together in time to show it off at the local bike show.

Here is one of the before pictures (of you look closely you can see the boxes of all the pieces that came with it)....

And here is Eli looking at the finished product.

Family Pictures

I realize that most of you have already discovered this, but just in case you don't frequently check her webpage, check out the Ashley Ann Photography website (it is listed under my favorite links on the right) and take a peek at some of our family pictures. It was hot but we love how the pictures look. Ashley is awesome....thank you Ash!!

A friend sent this video to me today and I thought it was amazingly powerful and really wanted to share it with everyone that I know. Pass it along.

I know that I haven't blogged in a while. We have been busy moving and I am starting a new job at Saint Francis Hospital on Monday, so things have been a little crazy. I will post as soon as I get some down time.