I didn't miss this last year...

This fall has made me realize what an incredible blessing we had last fall when the boys were hardly sick at all.  We are on round three of horrible colds already.

Friday I was suspicious Brandon had a cold, but wasn't sure if it was allergies or not either.  Yesterday I knew both he and Micah had colds and the asthma had started kicking in and becoming an issue.

Last night as we were getting ready for bed Bryan asked what I was thinking so hard about and I realized I had been creating a list in my head of things to grab "in case" we had to run to the ER.  Thankfully we never got to that point, but I was up with Brandon who needed asthma relief of some sort every two hours last night and by 4:30 Micah had joined the party.  Brandon is quite a bit better this morning, but we kept him home from school so I could keep a close eye on him.  Micah, however, is really struggling to breathe today.

Where I'm thankful for medicine and the knowledge to help my kiddos ease their tighten chests, I sure didn't miss this routine last fall.

Please pray for healing for the boys and protection from this cold for the rest of us.

Thanks

Where Did November Go?

Here's what has been happening in this small corner of the world...

 At the beginning of November my parents came for a couple days to visit.

Jetlag finally caught up with him.

Brandon had a chance to show Grandpa and Grandma around his classroom.  He was very proud!

Bryan had an overnight lay-over in Seattle so we went down and spent the day with him.

One of the things he wanted to see was Pikes Place Market so we walked around there for a little while.  Somehow it came about that Micah should kiss the pig.  The first time he did it I didn't get it on camera so I asked him to do it again. However, by that point, Brandon had already climbed up on the snout.  And I present to you a future wedding picture...

Little Miss Lisa has been changing quickly.  She is now rolling from front to back and back to front and getting herself into trouble.  Yesterday she rolled herself into the mantle twice and got a couple scrapes on her head.  She didn't think that was such a fun game.  Today I heard, "Mom, come quick.  Lisa is so cute--she's playing with my duplo."  Somehow I don't think it will be so "cute" in a couple days when she starts taking said duplo and Thomas tracks apart.  And a couple times now she has flipped her jungle gym over on herself and played with it this way...

 

 

And she turned 5 MONTHS old.  Where did that time go?

 



The other day Brandon was at school and the house was REALLY quiet so I went on a hunt to find Micah.  I found him on the floor coloring away, perfectly content.  He had taken everything off the table and made himself comfortable in a way that Brandon had never thought to do.  It was fun to see him take charge of his own play.

Blessings

Honored

One of the elements of the World Wide Photo Walk is to submit your favorite photo of the day.  One photo from each group gets chosen to go on to be submitted for the larger competition.  I just about didn't bother submitting one this year.  With three kiddos around I was having a hard enough time getting my photos edited.  But one night, two days before the link closed, I had enough time to edit them and I made Bryan choose which one to submit.  This afternoon I randomly went on the website to see the other photos that were submitted and low and behold mine was chosen as the best of our group!  I was astonished, excited, and very honored.

There were only five photos submitted from our group, but to have mine chosen was pretty fun!

Blessings

Happenings

Last night about 9:30 Brandon was crying about an ear ache and I heard Micah give that raspy barky cough that never fails to send bone chilling shivers down my whole skeleton.  Needless to say I've been praying protection around Lisa and Brandon against croup and healing for Micah without hospitalization.  Thankfully he slept well last night but is coughing more today.   Pretty sure he'll be on the neb this afternoon a couple times.

In other news, here are some pictures of what's been happening around here lately:

Brandon has been off school since last Thursday for teacher's convention and curriculum day.  He missed it so much he coerced his brother into playing school with him.  Here Micah is taking a turn being the teacher and Brandon is having "snack" time.  ;)

The boys love taking turns holding Lisa and playing with her.  So precious to see them growing closer together as siblings.

Lisa has had some big changes.  She moved into the crib in the boy's room this week (and was promptly moved back out last night after I heard Micah's cough).  She's also loving the jumper!  This week she will be starting on solids too.  Growing up way too fast!

Saturday Bryan helped the boys carve pumpkins.  We didn't say anything about it but Brandon asked to carve one (must have heard about it at school or something).

And finally, Miss Lisa is four months old this week!  Where has the time gone?

I thought it would be fun to compare her poof pictures:

2 weeks

1 month

2 months

3 months

 4 months

She's also almost sitting up on her own already!

Blessings on the rest of your week.

World Wide Photo Walk 2013

This was the third year I participated in Scott Kelbey's World Wide Photo Walk.  This year there were over 1300 walks and just about 28,000 people walking around the world.  It is so much fun to walk around for two hours with other photographers just taking pictures.  This year I really wanted to go somewhere I hadn't been before and the two I was looking at were either up in BC or at the southern end of Whidbey Island.  Bryan decided to come along and watch the kids while I went on the walk and then we could spend the rest of the day together and I wouldn't have to drag Lisa with me on the walk or leave four bottles behind for Bryan to feed her.  It turned about the be a beautifully sunny day!

Here are a few of my favorites from the two hour walk:

Langley, WA is an extremely artsy town.  Just about every home had some kind of art in their yard, mostly rustic and antique but some other types as well.  It was fun to have some fresh subjects to photograph.

Blessings

Field Trip: Stoney Ridge

Last week Friday was Brandon's first field trip.  They went to Stoney Ridge Farms which is a pumpkin/apple farm.  They have people there who give school tours to explain how apples are grown and the importance of farms.

I took Micah along and was an adult "helper" and Lisa got to spend her first time at Grandma's house. 

Debbie is an excellent teacher.  Brandon couldn't remember anything she taught when we got home, but looking at the pictures now he could tell me everything she said.

The corn maze was Brandon's favorite part of the whole afternoon.

Micah looked kind of dazed and confused all afternoon.  ;)

The animals were Micah's favorite part.

Brandon's class.
Weston (boy on the far left standing up) and James B (black American in the front row) are the boys he talks about playing with the most.  Mrs. Corkill (his teacher) is on the far right and Mrs. Bosman (teacher's aid) is on the far left.

It was a delightful afternoon of playing with my boys!

Blessings