A New Addition to our Family

HA HA! I knew that would get your attention! Jewel had puppies yesterday! Six black little labs! They are so sweet! We are so excited! She is a good mom and was already nursing all of them when I found her. She is so careful with them and very cautious when we come in the pen to check on them. When we picked one up yesterday she stayed with us the whole time cleaning the pup we were holding. No, we aren't keeping them, at least not all of them!

The Wooden Cross

I just wanted to share our experience at church last night. There was a wooden cross at the alter at the front of church. After the pastor shared a few scriptures, we were instructed to write down the biggest sin we have committed (in our eyes), the thing that is holding us back, a fear, a stronghold or just something that we do not like about ourselves or our behavior. Then after we prayed, we took the paper to the cross and left it there, walking away free, clean, brand new because of what Jesus did for us there. I am a visual person so I loved this! How many times a day do I think about those things? Wasting time on them? Something about actually writing it down and leaving it there made it clear to me! This is what He does for us daily. We can't hold on to our sin. We just have to leave it there!!

A More Serious Post

First of all, let me make it clear that I do not believe in glorifying the works of the enemy. I do not dwell on them nor make them the object of my discussions. I am (usually)a very positive person. I believe in speaking good things over people and circumstances. I don't always do the best job at doing that but I am trying to do more and more of it. So this blog should be taken as a call to pray. I want to inform you of things happening here so that you will know how to pray and see a little of this war that is raging against our family.

It actually started on Ethan's birthday. He said, "It hurts when I breathe." So the day after we find out he has mono and a bad case of it. His liver or spleen? was so swollen that it was causing pain when he took a breath. Then the other two boys got it too.
A week or so later, there is an awful case of coxsachie virus going around in the church nursery. Aaron and Lauren had it so bad that they could not eat and Aaron could not talk. It caused huge blister in their mouths.
While we were in Brazil, Brendan had this bizarre case of the hives. They were so severe that his eyes were swollen shut. Hives all over his body. No apparent reason for any of this.
Coxsachie virus came around again in November. Two of our kids got it.
In December, Lauren had a small boil in her diaper area. We had it cultured and it turned out to be MRSA- the resistant staph. This resulted in two days in the hospital.
We were so well in January. For Valentine's Day, the youngest three got the flu.
Now, Ethan has pneumonia. Aaron has the same cough so we are watching him closely. I am so thankful that we caught Ethan's in time to not have a hospital stay.


So my reasoning in sharing all of these details is so that you can see the battle we are fighting daily. I know this is nothing compared to the sufferings that many endure. We are trying to keep a good attitude because I know God has a plan for us. I am just taking this opportunity to ask my fellow prayer warriors to pray for our family. We need this sickness to be lifted off of us for a while. We are tired and weary and need YOUR prayers!!

Our Weekend Began with Snow!!!

Its so hard to believe that it snowed in Louisiana in March. It was really neat. I picked up the kids from school after lunch and brought them home to watch this phenomenon. ;)




This has always been Aaron's favorite part of the snow--catching it in his mouth!!!
He got all of his snow clothes on and went outside. He was back inside within 2 seconds saying "It's just wet. There's none on the ground!" Poor thing, the only snow he knows is Michigan snow!



They had fun in it anyway. Ethan was riding the scooter.






Thank you God for allowing us to see snow again!

An Uneventful Week

The weather has been crazy this week. It was around 75F on Monday. Then it got cold yesterday. We had a frost last night and today the kids are outside running around in the 65F weather. I am not complaining. At least they can get outside to run around :) This week has been pretty uneventful. We did some major cleaning today then ran errands. It is nice to stick little visits between the errands just to enjoy being out. We visited my mom at the bank and my sister and niece dropped by at the same time. More errands. Then visited the secretary at the office. Meme and Pop were there so we actually did a lot of visiting today. Talked to my good friend that works at the pharmacy. I guess there are advantages to living in a small town. It is good to see a friendly face and catch up with friends and family on errand day. The lady at McDonalds almost knows us I think. We are going to have to boycott the fast food joints and get to eating a little better. Little by little is the way to go. So I think I'll cut out Dr. Peppers first :( Am I rambling?? Just thought I'd sit and write a minute while the kiddos are outside.

Our Weekend Trip

This weekend we went to visit our friends in Mississippi. The last time we saw each other was very briefly right before we moved to Michigan. So you can imagine that we had a lot of catching up to do. The boys had a great time playing together as you can see by this picture just a little while after we arrived.


Lauren's new best friend--Mrs Kim! They are making plans to build a house. These pictures are of Grandma's new house next door.







The boys made a game of running around the house while holding on to the two by fours. I love it when they entertain themselves!







The boys did not want to leave!!!! This is our good bye picture!






We had such a good time!!! We enjoyed Nathan's ballgame, playing at the park, lots of good food and most of all of great friends!!! Thank you guys for an awesome weekend!!!!