Yard work

Hannah really likes to help Jacob mow the yard.

School work!

I love watching my girls learn something new everyday. I have been very fortunate to be able to home school our children.

Mom called

Well, my dad us going to get to come home tonight. They are going to up his medication again. He has three different appointments tomorrow. We shall see what happens again tomorrow. At this point I have to give it over to God to handle.

Emily's Birthday

 Waiting in line for Hunger Games!

 Emily and our cousin Madison

 Chilling and eating Taco Bell. Typical.

 The girls!

 May The Odds Be Ever in Your Favor.

 The lovely Ms. Jami

 Birthday girl!

 Hyper as always

 The big kids.

 ...Austen and Jake having a camera is kind of a bad idea.

 High school best friends!

 The three amigos

 Cousins! These girls have a lot of wonderful memories.

 Fantasy baseball draft!

 Mama Heather and her baby Madison

 Yep. We're the 20-somethings of the group. Stuck between parents and the younger teens.

 She got an iPad 2

We celebrated Emily's birthday over the weekend. She's now 17. Crazy how we all grow up so quick. I remember playing in the sandbox in the backyard with her when we were like, 6 and 4. But now she's talking about boys and her massive crush on Tim Tebow, or her ever growing collection and hobby of wedding magazines and photography artwork. She's really an amazing girl that I'm very proud to call my sister. I love you blondie!

> Jake 

Dad back in the hospital

I am sure everyone who knows me knows my dad is a very sick man. The doctor lowered the dose of one of his MANY medications that keeps the water off of him on Thursday. Well, as of yesterday he had gained almost 10 pounds. He woke up this morning having a very had time breathing. My mom loaded him up and took him to the ER at the Veterans Hospital in LA. He is still there. We don't know quite yet what the game plan is. I will keep everyone posted.

RX

My mom is setting my dad's medication up for two weeks! I knew he was on a lot of medication, but I never realized that it was this much!! No wonder his kidneys aren't working!

Go Fish

Our niece Madison is spending the weekend with us. She is teaching Hannah how to play Go Fish. Hannah is loving the one on one time with her. Madison is a great teacher!

Post Op

Jacob just called to say the doctor after his doctor's appointment.  He is healing up nicely and is cleared to go back to work, but not lifting anything over 20 pounds for 6 weeks.  He should be one happy kids since he can drive himself around again. God is good!!

Cotton Candy Clouds

A few months back Hannah was outside playing when she comes running into the house yelling at me, saying there was a pink cloud in the sky and its just impossible to have pink clouds because God made clouds white! So I take my perplexed sister outside and explain to her that the pink 'clouds' are not clouds. I tell her that magic airplanes fly around at this time of day making cotton candy in the sky. Her in complete shock and believing every word I say ask me how she can get this cotton candy. I reply with telling her she needs some bouncy shoes like on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, basically spring shoes to jump in the sky and catch the cotton candy on a stick. Ever since then she will inform me every time there is a pink cotton candy in the sky.
-Emily

Growing Up (From a Mom's Perspective)

She's gonna get mad at me for writing this, because Ishould be working on math (meh. I'm better at writing), but I was thinking about this topic this morning, and felt the need to type it out. A while back I wrote a post on "Son of Man" (link to post HERE ), and how it's crazy to think about growing up.

But the same concept goes for the mother of that Tarzan story. She has a really hard job. She has to raise the wild and hyper son. She has to feed his never ending pit of a stomach, make sure that he's not breaking a bone falling out of a tree. She has to worry about when he is out late, gets bad grades or in trouble with the neighbors. And then as he gets older, she has to pray with all she has that what she did for him in his short time under her wings somehow seeped into his thick (and possibly cracked) skull, and that he becomes a solid man. She then has to watch him walk away from her, into the world, and possibly even into the arms of another young woman he's in love with. I've realized lately that that has to be by far one of the hardest occupations on earth to do. Yet millions of women do it day in and out, and they love it. I will never totally understand why they will go through those 19, 20, 21 years of torture, but they do it.

I just have to thank my mom for everything she's put up with from me. I haven't been easy to raise. A quick bullet pointed example of this goes like this...

• Age 3 or 4: touched a lawn mower THREE consecutive times in one summer. Didn't learn it was actually HOT. 
• Age 4 or 5: climbed the entertainment center. Fell and left a massive goose egg on my head.
• Age 6 through about 10: Multiple bike ramps built. Multiple wrecks, and possible quarts of neosporin used.
• Age 13: Fell in a drained pool. Concussion. 
• Age 14-current: multiple near drownings from boogie boarding, and surfing.
• Age 15: Shot foot with 3200 PSI power washer. Pinky Toe in tact (barely)
• Age 17: dislocated and relocated knee cap from football. 
• Age 18: torn ligaments on ankle from jumping off trailer. 
• Age 19: bilateral hernia from years of sports and extreme stunts. 
• Age 19: Car accident. Hit by drunk driver. 

This is on top of bad attitudes, arguments at times over some of the stupidest things, and just disrespect at times just because. Now, I will say that this isn't like it all the time, but I'm writing to make a point that my mother has put up with a lot from me. I just want to thank her for doing such. 

I know it's hard for her right now. I'm starting to do my own life, while still being a part of the family. It's reallyweird to think that I'm kind of my own island, but still attached to the mainland, if that makes sense. But I'm doing my own college classes, working my own job, and having my own relationship with my girlfriend, that is developing towards a life-time commitment (as it rightfully should, if done right in the courting/dating phase). But she's still amazingly smiling through it all, and loving me just the same. For that, I love you mama. <3

Pizza Time

Papa Murphy's is doing the coolest thing for kids. You can buy a small pizza kit for $5.00 and kids can make their own pizza at home! Hannah loves it

Freedom

Sometimes we take for granted how free we really are. We are truly blessed to live in a country that allows us to worship God freely. Today at church the closing song was "I Am Free" and it really touched my heart as Hannah was singing this song. If she lived in China she would not be allowed to worship Jesus Christ freely and openly. Sometimes it takes those little moments in life for us to really realize how lucky we are to have the freedom of where we live, but also to know we have freedom in Jesus Christ as our personal LORD and Savior.
 There is a story that comes to my mind every time I hear this song, from when we were in China. We were walking around the streets near our hotel one evening and the kids had made some friends with some of the shop owners and workers there. I was holding Hannah and this really cute young girl came up to me and asked me if I was Jacob and Emilys mama?  She came up to talk to me about Hannah and to tell me how excited she was for us. She kept telling me how LUCKY this baby was. I had several young girls tell me this, so I decided to ask her why she is so lucky? I will never forget the words that came out of that young ladies mouth. She said that she is going to have FREEDOM! I asked her what she considered freedom? Her reply back to me was "she is going to have freedom in everything"...... She looked at me and said, "I know you are a CHRISTIAN!" I swallowed hard on that one. Here I am standing on the streets of a country that doesn't allow people to openly share their faith. I looked at her and asked, "How do you know I am a Christian?" Her reply was, "By your actions!" She said, "I could tell because your children are so nice!" I waited for a moment to get my head on straight and decided to ask her if she knew about Jesus. She looked down at the ground and all she could tell me is that she has heard of him, but she wants to know more and she wanted a Bible. I didn't have a Bible on me or I would have given it to her, but I did tell her that the church on the island hands out Bibles every Sunday morning. (But only on Sunday mornings.)  She promised me that she would go get one. At that moment I realized we are so lucky to have Freedom in America and if we know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior we have all the freedom in the world!! I am so humbled to say that as Hannah's mama I am giving her a chance that she would have never been able to have by learning to love and one day accept Jesus Christ as her own personal Lord and Savior.  

Cupcakes

I saw this idea on Pinterst! Cupcakes died green with frosting top with Lucky Charms! Enjoy kids!

St. Patrick's day at our house

Today is pretty quite! Tonight's dinner is in the crock pot Potato cheese soup. Irish soda bread made. The girls are making cupcakes & Jacob is hanging out! Jami is going out soon & the kids are starting a Lord if the Rings movie marathon! Austen will out after work!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

One tired kid

Jacob is so sore & tired today! He has been a trooper through this whole thing! He has taken minimum pain meds, because he doesn't like the way they make him feel. He didn't sleep very good last night. He said he kept waking up thinking he was going to rip open the incisions trying to move. Hopefully he will get some much needed rest tonight!

Bed check

I go into the kids rooms every night before I go to bed to check on them, yes I still check on the 19 & 17 year old too! Well, tonight I found Hannah at the foot of the bed! Her cute little feet dangling off the bed. She has a full size bed and she is asleep at the end! She just makes my heart melt. Just think almost 4 years ago she was sleeping in a metal crib on a piece of ply board as a mattress & tonight she is snuggled into a bed fit for a princess! I can't fathom some of the things that she has had to go through for being so young! There is one thing she has a family that would go to the moon and back for her! She is one LOVED kid!! God has blessed us all with an amazing daughter & sister! Thank you Lord for this precious child!

Jacob's hernia surgery

For those that Dont know, I had a bilateral inguinal hernia. Yesterday I had an outpatient surgery done to get it removed. Now as I type this, I lay propped up on the couch with a frozen bag of peas on me to ease the pain. To explain what happened, it goes something like this: a while back I realized I had a swelling in my right groin area, and I thought it was just a pulled muscle, because the next day it was gone. It recurred for a while, but neve thought anything of it because I live a fairly active lifestyle. Well about two to three weeks ago I REALLY pulled it. I brought it up to my dad and we got a doctor appointment set up. Turns out that I had a hernia and would need surgery to remove it. Flash forward to yesterday: it was scheduled for 12:45pm, and my family and girlfriend show up to support me with the surgery. I go back and get ready in one of those silly green gowns, IV hooked up, etc. last thing I remember was the nurse saying "dream of that cute girl of yours on the beach", and then I woke up in recovery. Apparently Ive had this hernia since I was a baby, but it became really bad as of lately. But it's removed now, and I have two scars below my belly button to show it. It hurts to move a lot, but I'll be right as rain in a few days. Hoping to be able to go to church Sunday. And thank you very much to everyone that sent well wishes and prayers my way. I really appreciate it.

Surgery

Today was surgery day for Jacob. He had two bilateral inguenial hernias that had to get repaired. He went into surgery around 1:45 & was out around 2:50. The doctor said that everything went really well and it was very routine! He has two nice size incisions! Dr. Taylor said the hernia on the right side he has had sense birth! We have a wonderful God to thank that everything went great & that Jacob is fine! He is going to be very sore for a couple of days!! Thank you for all your prayers!!

Hannah wants one!

Hannah played on Jacob's I Pad while we where waiting for his surgery to finish!! She informed me that she wants one!

Road trip

All plugged in for the road! The featured movie for this trip is "It is a Bug's Life"!