I'm not sure how to blog lately. Of course, it's always hard to find time...but it's more than that. Here I have all these sweet pictures that I want to share, but lately life doesn't feel as sweet as the pictures look. How should I handle that in the blog? Do I share all the dirt of our life, or sweep it under the rug and just show the pictures? I'm leaning toward letting the dirt show...this is our family journal, and when God pulls us out of this mucky pit, it will be all the sweeter to share. Bear with me these days while I try to figure this out.
Let's see...how to sort out all the pictures and events...
Valentine's Day
I had yet another breech of sanity, and decided (last-minute) that we should have a Valentine's Party...complete with homemade frosted sugar cookies, hand-made cards, and music.
That my mom didn't put me under citizen's arrest shows that she was also suffering from some mental impairment.
Sure, we look happy... That was early in the day. :)
While the cookies were cooling, we worked on making Valentine's bags and cards. I had gotten out every-single-crafty-artsy supply I could find. In further example of my insanity, I spread the crafts ALL OVER the counter before we made cookies. Brilliant. Then I had to shove everything out of the way, and then re-arrange after the cookie cutting blitz.
It's not that I didn't have a sweet idea...it's just that my brain-timing skills were off.
We each made a cute bag--just like in grade school--for everyone to deposit eachother's cards in. We made bags for the grandmothers, a widow friend, and our uncle who was in the hospital.
The kids could barely hang in there to make enough Valentines to pass out to everyone. Mom and I wound up frosting all the cookies ourselves.
We got finished with just enough time left to deliver the bags. At around 4:00 William and I started the Dodge Caravan Express and successfully delivered all the bags. We picked up dinner on the way home :). Aahh...love, sweet love.
Trevor's Birthday
Trevor turned 10 this month!!!!
10!!
Our plan was that instead of a birthday party, we would get Trevor a trampoline. Um...the birthday has come...and gone...and we still don't have a trampoline. Oops.
So, we started Trevor's birthday celebrations a few days early. Mom found tickets to Riverdance (!) and got them for T's birthday. She kept Z-dog while Tim and I took the 3 big boys to dinner and the show.
I have some Riverdance music from back-in-the-day, and Trevor really likes it. As the show started up, I was getting goosebumps, and thinking this could have been MY birthday present! I was imagining that Trevor was just loving it when he leaned over and started asking questions:
How much did these tickets cost?
Can we still do something else for my birthday?
Do we have to stay for the whole show?
Can we give our tickets back?
What???
Poor Trevor spent the whole 1st half of the show worrying about things. I didn't know what to do to help him. The music, the dancers, the lights...everything was so amazing...so fun to see. The other boys were enjoying it, I was loving it, and Trevor was miserable. Thank you, OCD.
Thankfully, the second half had songs that were new to us. That distracted Trevor enough that he was able to start to enjoy the show. Then came a comedy act that had us all hooting and laughing, even Trevor. By the end of the show he was having a good time, and was glad we went.
We started Trevor's birthday morning with donuts...
He opened some presents at lunch...
Notice his right arm hanging off to the side in that last picture? He does that when he feels contaminated. He walks around most of the day with his arms held funny like that. Or he'll fold his hands together to keep them from getting contaminated. I kept finding him that day trying to use just one hand to put together his lego sets. I had to order him to use both hands. He would wimper and do it for awhile...and then go back to one hand.
We took the day off school, and had some friends over to play legos in the afternoon. We dumped all the legos (that weren't made into creations already) onto the kitchen counter. It was really fun for the boys.
Trevor picked ihop for dinner, to everyone's delight.
Here we are trying to make a cupcake stand with legos to take to his family party. Again...what was I thinking?
We wound up just decorating the cupcakes with lego men. Still fun.
In other news
Zack is growing like a weed. He loves to eat.
That is...he loves to eat most things.
Still working on the peas...
He's starting to enjoy playing on the floor more. He is often in danger of being smothered with attention from the brothers. Poor baby.
He rolled over for the first time just this week!
Funny pose in the swing...
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I let Trevor hold him the other day (u-hum--unattended). A few minutes later, I found Trevor, but no Zack. Where was Zack?
Trevor had made him a hut. And put him in it. And walked away. Uh-huh.
But Zack loved it!
Oh Dear.
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More bottle pictures. I pump about 12-14 oz. each morning, so Zack gets bottles a couple times a day in addition to nursing. (More information than you were looking for? Sorry. :) We all love to give Zack a bottle.
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What else... Oh yes...the boys styled their hair like Antonio Banderas on Spy Kids...Sa-Weet.
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Mom and I redid the downstairs bathroom...
Working with that weird color of tile worked out pretty well...
Remember what it used to look like?
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Mom and I took Trevor and Zack to Birmingham last week. Trevor had a re-evaluation at the Snider Therapy Center. We are going to start him on all the therapy that we didn't do last year. We hadn't realized how much better Trevor had been doing until he regressed after Zack was born. It was really good to be reminded of all the problems that Trevor has. It helps me understand part of why he is so anxious.
Our appointment was so early in the day that we went up the night before and stayed in a hotel, which was super fun for Trevor. Cartoons in bed? He-Haw!! or, he-haw...he looks way too tired to use exclamation points.
In between appointments, we hung out at the mall. Here I am trying to explain to Trevor why a book that says "believe in yourself" is okay for him to have.
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And some random pictures:
The guys have been enjoying the gift Kim gave T for his birthday...
It runs on "crank" power--not sure what the real term for that is. You crank it up, and it goes. This is particularly nice, since Trevor has issues with using things up, like batteries.
I built a fort with the kids...which they slept in all night. Fun.
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And...I buried our sweet kitty this week.
But God was so kind and gentle. I'm so grateful that Mom was still here when I had to do it. She had been sick off and on starting with the day Mom got here, and the day before Mom left, William and I took Indi to the vet to be put to sleep. Poor Kitty.
With this long of a blog, maybe I should change the name to
Epic Accounts of Our Family
