A Trip

The other day I was thinking out loud and told David, "Wouldn't it be fun to take a trip and surprise Alex at college."  David thought it sounded great so we made it a reality.  We knew it would be a fast trip, so we decided to just take Aidric and go.  I am blessed with daughters who were ok with that and they did amazing.  My mom said that they followed their schedule and even did Bible time and prayer at the right time on their own.  I was so proud of them.  Meanwhile we got in our car and made an over  3,000 mile round trip to see our big son with our little son.  Aidric did absolutely amazing.  He had a couple minutes of cry time but overall I was amazed.  David did most of the driving and I spent a lot of time with Aidric.

After two days of driving we got to stay with some friends that actually used to baby sit Alex for us when he was Aidric's age.  It was a special time and a pleasure to share our second son with them.  The sad part is they have never met any of our daughters.  I guess we'll have to make another trip.

The next morning it was on the road for just a little while longer to see Alex!!!  I know it has only been a couple months since he left for college but we were getting pretty excited.  We were so happy to see Alex.   He took us on a tour of the campus, introduced us to a couple friends and then we got to go out to dinner.  It was very good to spend time with Alexander and see how good he is doing.  This was my first time seeing the college and I was glad to see it. The fall colors were amazing there,  We were able to check out local sites, Aidric got to go swimming for the first time, saw a great church, and spent a day in Branson.  All this was good and fun but truly the best part was just being with Alex again, if only for a few days.  It was fun to see Alex carrying his brother around and so many people let him know what a cute "son" he had.  He was quick to let them know it was his brother.  One of my favorite time was on our last day we went into one of the piano rooms and Alex played the piano for me.  This is something I truly miss and tried to soak it in as much as was possible.  I was so glad we made the trip and loved every moment with my son.  

While there we were also able to spend time with Ivy, my coleader of our Bright Lights group.  It was so good to see her also and we had a great time.

The trip was short and then we were back on the road across this great country of ours.  We went from the beautiful fall folliage of Missouri, to the flat bread basket country, and then to the amazing mountains of the Rockies.  It was nice to get home and be done with long driving days.  There is something special about seeing our state sign.  Aidric was glad to be out of the car and his sisters were glad to see him.  We got home a little earlier then they had expected.  They had planned on going to the zoo, so, why not.  Aidric and I joined them and life was back to normal.

Here are a couple pictures of our trip.  Have a great day and God Bless.

enjoying my sons

Me and my guys

Aidric, Ivy and I

first swim lesson

Alex and Aidric 

Dixie Stampede

Daddy and Sons 

My handsome boy

dinner at Lamberts

going home

my hubby taking us home

Here We Go Again

It's off to the races, as my dad says.  My pajama project for Christmas has begun again.  I ordered my material, got it in, washed it, and set it out waiting to be cut and sewed into our annual Christmas jammies.  This year I am using the ping pong table to cut out the patterns. I think it is working nicely.  Such an ordeal.  Finally today I began really getting down to work.  I had really hoped to have gotten more done, as I am a bit behind, but we got a good start and with all the help from my girls, we'll get them done.  It is hard to find the time.

This year has been especially busy.  We have been trying to get Isabella in to the right therapies to help her.  I wish I could be enough but she is still not talking and needs lots of supervision.  I was blessed to have a friend recommend a wonderful Christian home school mom/physical therapist/natural path who has been where I am, with one of her own children.  She has been able to answer some of my questions, provide insight, and give helpful ideas.  Also, she recommended a speech therapy center.  This week we had our speech eval at this center and Isabella scored extremely low.  They had set us up with a speech therapist who offered great encouragement and told me her story about her own child.  It sounded so much like my story with Isabella.  Somedays I feel like we're the only ones going through such struggles but hearing other people with similar personal experiences, who are trying to help Isabella, brings such encouragement.  Next month we begin occupational therapy, have neurological testing, and meet with a geneticist.  It is like I want the answer to what is going on but am fearful of the answer they might give.  Then I find I have been having a hard time not getting offended by comments made by other people lately.  I look at my beautiful little girl, my heavenly Father gave us and I just want to wrap my arms around her and protect her from everything.   I know that God is with us and He is so much bigger than any of this.  I hope I can be an encouragement to someone out there.  God is never surprised.  He doesn't ever say, "Wow, I didn't see that one coming."  I find in my moments of despair, when I surrender and fall down at His feet, He is there to lift me up.  Rachel Wissmann wrote a song we sang in Bright Lights called "I am your Shield."  Sierra will sometimes play it for us on the piano.  It is a beautiful encouraging song and I recommend it.

Other than that we canned 24 quarts of apples, thank you Amy.  We also froze several bags of carrots from our garden and made a yummy carrot cake with some of our carrots.  Today we made carmel apples with apples we got from my Grandma's tree.  I posted that recipe in 2011 under recipes.  School has been going great.  Sierra, Danika, and Cassandra are in horse riding lessons, thank you Mom and Shana.  The girls are loving it and Cassie is quite fearless.  I'll have to get some picture of that but for now enjoy some other fun pictures.   Have a great day and remember God is always more than enough.

Alicia

my little "Belly Bear"

Aidric never shies from the camera and his sissies love taking his picture

Cassie loves matching Isabella

my big boy figuring out the mirror

Carrot Cake

2 eggs

1/4 cup butter milk

1 tsp vanilla 1 3/4 cup shredded carrots

1 1/3 cup sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp ginger

mix 

combine and fold in...

2 cups flour 

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

bake 350 degrees.  Top with cream cheese icing.  Yum.

Silly

I have to share a little story that will hopefully tickle your funny bone.  Sometimes I get so wrapped up in what I am doing that I forget what I am doing.  Have you ever been there?  I'm not a real baby food fan but for some reason that is how I generally begin feeding food to my kiddos.  At the dinner table I now sit in between my two youngest.  We enjoy our family meals and sometimes we get into some deep discussions.  At this particular dinner we were in a deep discussion but both Isabella and Aidric were not interested in their food.  I was trying to feed them both and put in my two cents into the conversation.  So, as I was talking, I cut off a piece of the burrito and fed it to the wrong child, Aidric.  I really didn't even realize what I had done until Latisha calmly said "Mom you just fed that to Aidric."  I thought "well of course I did, don't interrupt."  Then I looked at what I fed Aidric.  He sat there with his mouth wide open and burrito sticking out.  But there was a pleasant look on his face like "now that is more like it."  I quickly did the finger sweep much to his disappointment and got it out.  Well, I guess now he knows there is more out there than baby cereal.  The table errupted into laughter and I refocused.  It is the little things in life that can brighten up a dreary day and I really needed the comic relief.  God can use our mistakes for good if we let him.  Have a great day.

Alicia

the girls enjoying a tea party