Proud Mama Moment

A year ago my heart and emotions were in turmoil.  Rebecca had been diagnosed with environmental allergies during the winter and the next several months were a roller coaster ride as we tried a variety of different meds to help her manage them.  Emotional she was struggling and everyday was a journey that we had to travel.  The decision was made to have her repeat kindergarten and to start her in speech therapy.  It was not an easy decision nor was it something that Rebecca was thrilled about.  (She does love the teacher that she has had for the last two years and that made the decision to repeat a little easier for her.)

Fast forward to this year.  Her allergies are under control and her meds help rather than hinder her.  She is excited about school, is confident and her speech is making huge strides.  We are thankful for the Lord's guidance in the decisions that we made last year and are so thankful for the improvements that the last year has brought.

This weekend was 8th grade graduation at the small school that our children attend.  Every year a couple of kindergarteners are asked to read a Welcome Poem and specifically addresses the current years graduates.  This year Rebecca and one of the boys in her class were asked to do the welcome.  I was quite surprised when she came home with the poem that she needed to memorize and told me that she had been asked.  She memorized her lines with ease (which was my primary concern) and she delivered them flawlessly they night of graduation.

I couldn't help but think about what a difference a year can make.  Last year she was tired and emotional all the time and would have "melt-downs" whenever something was difficult or she didn't want to do it.  She was constantly stuffy and she struggled to carry on an understandable conversation with her peers.  This year she is confident and excited about every day and she can engage with her peers.  She is excited about moving on to 1st grade and we are excited to see what the Lord has in store for her in the coming years.  I am so proud of her and how she has handled the last year.  We still have our struggles, but she is facing them with more confidence and understanding.  So thankful for her and the Lord who has blessed us with her!

The Start of A Season

Three days after it snowed we were out at the baseball field for Micah's first little league game of the season. (Crazy, I know.)

His team has been practicing for a month (between rain and snow) so the season really started a month ago, but a schedule that involves all of us just started this week.  He will play approximately two games every week from now until the 3rd week of June.  Rebecca will also start T-ball at some point so our schedule will be full of ball games for the next 6-weeks or so.

I had to take my turn in the concession stand the night of Micah's first game so I didn't get to see much, but it seemed like the boys were having a good time and it looks like we will be in for a fun season again.

Play Ball!

 This is the first year that we have played with paid-umpires.  It caught me a little off-guard and then I remembered that Micah had moved up a level again this year.

 All ready at first base.

Racing back to cover the bag.

Batter up!

Tulip Time 2013

Tulip Time 2013 was definitely an unique one.

The older two were supposed to ride old bikes with the school again.  I had the costumes all ready to go (along withe layers and layers and layers of clothing to go under them) only the weather threw us all for a BIG loop this year.

Thursday is rained nearly all day and it was super windy.  My kids were disappointed, but very hopeful that they would still get to be part of the parade on Friday.

Friday morning we woke up to this....

 Snow on May 3.  How crazy is that!

Both parades on both Thursday and Friday were cancelled, but they were able to get the parades in on Saturday.  Normally I wouldn't have opted to go back in with the kiddos, but I decided to give it a go and my parents joined us.  The crowds were smaller for a Saturday during Tulip Time, but that didn't bother us.

This is a pretty accurate picture of our three kiddos.  They had a good time and expressed much appreciation that we had gone back into town for the parade.

We walked back to my grandparent's home and the kids found a few remnants of snow and had to get wet before getting back in the car to go home.

 Hopefully next year the weather will be better and this was a once in a lifetime experience! :)

The Great Bedroom Flip

When we moved into our home nearly 7 years ago it was considered a 2-bedroom home.  (There was a "bedroom" in the basement, but it couldn't be called that because it didn't have an egress window.)  So when we brought Rebecca home from the hospital her and Micah had to share a bedroom.  Not ideal for children of opposite sex to be sharing a bedroom, but we figured we had a few years before that became and issue.

When Olivia came along we decided that we should egress the basement window and that the older two could sleep down there and Olivia would have the bedroom upstairs.  We stole borrowed bunk beds from Nick's parents and a dress and chest of drawers from my parent's and the older two had a nice bedroom in the basement. Olivia has been quite content in her crib for the last 2 1/2 years.

All was well until this crazy spring weather interrupted our arrangements.

I had just begun to start thinking about what we were going to do with the sleeping arrangements because at age 8 Micah should maybe not be sharing a bedroom with his sister any more.  I wasn't sure how or when I was going to make all the changes, but the weather had a way of speeding the process up.

When you take really dry land and you have 5 inches of rain dumped on you in 24 hours homes like ours get some water in the basement and along with that you get wet carpeting. Ugh.

So everything and I mean everything had to come out of the kid's bedroom in the basement. Not an easy task

It was decided that for the time being the older two would just sleep with their mattresses on the family room in the other part of the basement.   Not ideal, but they had to sleep somewhere and the living room floor upstairs wasn't really an option. :)

In the midst of drying carpet and trying to find clothing in dressers that had been moved I starting thinking about the bedroom situation.  I figured that since we had everything out of basement bedroom that we should maybe just completely flip bedrooms.  The work was as good a 1/3 done already....  I ran then idea past my hubby and then got started.

We decided that the girls would both sleep upstairs.  The bedroom is smaller, but Rebecca has environmental allergies and I just wasn't comfortable with Olivia going downstairs being as she is only 2 years old.  So that meant that the bunk beds, the dresser and the chest of drawers all had to come upstairs.  That also meant that a smaller dresser needed to go downstairs along with setting up the "spare" queen mattress that we have been hanging on to for nearly 3 years. 

It took me nearly a week (along with getting some kind of bronchial illness) to get the smaller items (clothing, items from dressers, dresser drawers, toys, etc.) moved around and then my dad came over to help with the heavy lifting. 

Two and half weeks after we had water in the basement everyone was up off the floor and sleeping in a "new to them" sleeping arrangement.  Of course, I still had to put away all of the "little" things, but that is slowly getting taken care of.  Olivia is adapting well to her "big girl" bed, but she still thinks of it as a giant play ground for her to test out every evening.  (Let's just say that she hasn't been getting as much sleep as she normally does or needs.)

Just a few pictures of everyone in their new arrangements.  So far so good!

 The girls praying before they crawl into bed.

Rebecca in the top bunk.

Before all the stuffed animals...

 After the partial invasion of stuffed animals.... I have no idea how she sleeps with all that stuff in her bed....

Micah in the big bed all by himself in the basement.  We told him that he could stay awake a little bit longer and read now that he has a room to himself.  He was THRILLED! :)