Day 14: Better late than never

In the spirit of project 365, here's a pic of the kids' Christmas Program last night.  Wanna see some more?  Head on over here.

(left-right: Abby, Aidan, Sam, Joel, Maggie, Blake)

They're all within 4 months of each other...age wise that is...and excluding Abby...sorry Abby.  ;-)

Sunday School...with a twist.

Eric taught Sunday School this last week and ended the lesson with a game of Hot Potato- where if you had the "potato" when the music stopped you were out unless you answered a question from the lesson correctly.  My kids are currently attempting their own version.  It goes a little something like this:

A singing "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" ornament is the music.
The potato is an IKEA soccer ball.
The questions I've heard so far include:
     - When does Mommy light candles in the house?  at Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas?
     - When did Miles get his red hair?
     - When does the farmer end the sheep?  (I think this means slaughter...we recently went to a REAL butcher shop to pick up some beef we bought from a friend's farmer-dad.  Animals, meat, and how-the-animal-becomes-meat is on their little minds right now)
     - When did baby Jesus come?
     - When does the farmer mow the sheep's hair?

Acceptable answers so far have included:
     - Halloween and Christmas
     - at zero
     - ?? (this one ended in laughter...not an answer)
     - Christmas (phew, glad they got this one right.)
     - 16. (huh??)
    

When you give your kids a camera.

We got a new camera...almost a year ago.  Since then the kids have taken over our old one.  It's been great, it entertains them for HOURS.  I thought that the simple fact that it kept them busy was a good enough reason to continue to change the batteries on it.  BUT, as it turns out the pictures are pretty fun too.  We took all their pictures off it a few weeks ago and handed the camera over to cousin Ashlynn for a bit so her mom can enjoy the wonders of the camera too.  Here are some of the pictures our budding photographers have taken:

 Daddy.  Needing a shave.

Sam.  Needing eye surgery.
Just kidding.

Mi laughing it up.

Squishy-face Sam tying some Polly Pocket to the bunk bed.  Knots are his specialty.

Sleeping Daddy and Sam...

Cute pic of crooked eye Miles.

Squishy-face Mommy.  Now we know where Sam gets it from.  (must have been a humid day, that's some special hair I'm sporting...)

Daddy-O.

Sam, in the car.  Apparently the camera went on a ride with us one day.

Sam and his stuffed pals during a rest time.  They must have been pretty proud of their bed making skills that day...

Sam's green tongue.

Debby Harding.
What?!?  When did they snap this one?  It's a mystery I tell you, a mystery.

And lastly, a series of self-portraits by Maggie.  There were probably 20+ of these...too funny!

Huh-Why Photography.

My niece, Ashlynn, held an impromptu photo session at our house this evening.   Following are some of the photographs that she took.

Her company is "Huh-Why Photography".  She's based in Sisters, OR and does wonderful work at a very reasonable rate.  Thanks for taking such great pictures, Ashlynn!

Snow? Well, kinda...

So, there is no school...mainly because it's below freezing and Portlanders don't know how to deal with ice, so we're all safer if they cancel school.  We're okay with it.  :-)  Here are some pics from the morning outside, you can check out Miles' eyes too if you want.  The redness is decreasing each day, and we're thankful.

Getting a trim and an alignment

Quick update on Miles.

His hair used to look like this:

Then we cut it.  

His eyes used to line up like this:

Then he got ready for surgery, that looked a little like this:

Then he got out of surgery, came home, and was a pathetic (and frankly annoying) little boy who looked like this:

Now he's rested, fed, an on pain medication.  He's looking something like this:

The redness should go down in a week or so and totally go away over the next two months.  BUT, so far his eyes are lining up MUCH better and he seems to have already compensated for the shift in balance/coordination that eye surgery requires.  So he's walking around getting into everything again today.  I pray he continues to get relief from tylenol and is able to sleep.  He did 12+ hours last night, but it was only after Mommy "forcing" him to give it up and stop the freak-out-show in his bed.  I think he was just over tired and over stimulated for the day and wasn't able to calm down enough to sleep.  

On another Miles note, he went back to the developmental assessment clinic last week and he's moved up from the 1st percentile developmentally to the 12th in the last 9 months.  We're praising God for his growth!  Physically he's still about 14-16 months old (chronologically 29 months old now) and on the Occupational charts (think problem solving, fine motor, self care- pretty much anything that isn't gross motor or speech right now) he's about 18-20 months old.  The therapists/doctors at the clinic were shocked at his growth since they saw him last and were very complimentary regarding the parenting Eric and I are doing with him.  SO, THANK YOU!! for praying for Miles and praying for us as we continue to trudge our way though the special needs waters.  Your prayers sustain us and give us strength in so many ways.

What about our other children, you ask?  Well...Maggie is a mini therapist for Miles.  She copies everything I do with him and has made it her job to teach him animals and animal sounds.  I'm very thankful she has her Daddy's spirit of servanthood and desire to help those around them.  Sam is busy showing Miles love via rough-housing.  I think Sam is enjoying it more than Miles right now, as Miles tends to get hurt while under Sam's "care".  BUT, Miles is getting tougher all the time and I know that any bond Sam can form with Miles will only benefit them both- so we're trying not to smother it too much.

If you read this far, I'm impressed.  Maybe I'll start a new trend- you know, one where I blog more than once every couple of months...

Maybe.

Bathtime for Mi.

My cutie-pie.

Excuses.

Excuses for not updating the blog:

Facebook totally-for-real-no-joke ate my blog
Broken computer
New computer
Learning to use the new (MAC!) Computer
School starting = insanely tired hubby
Preschool starting = busy (but happy!) mama
Soccer starting = busy (and TIRED) kids

Okay, so here they are:  Preschool pics!

And soccer pics!!

Sam celebrating his score

Maggie getting serious about kicking the ball

 Mags, taking the entire other team...and leaving with the ball.  Nice work girl.

Maggie is an animal on the field (or at least she was today)...but don't tell Sam we said that.  ;-)  He, on the other hand, did manage to score three times (Mags scored twice- but who's counting, right?) and then pooped out and CRIED his way through the fourth quarter.  Let's hope his stamina improves or baseball really will be the only sport he can play...