snake bite!

i knew it was coming(see my previous post if you're confused). your home can not be struck with the intensity that ours was and not have some major damage. our car and garage windows were both fixed by this morning. however, around 2ish... i stepped in WET! i wanted to get onto caleb for wetting his pants, but this was a little much for his bladder.

long story- short: please pray for our insurance coverage as we wait to see what needs to be done. we believe that the lightening traveled through our copper pipes causing small hole damage which turned into this! our adjuster comes out monday morning at 9!

pretend-iversary

lance and i acknowledged our 7 year anniversary on monday, but with all that has been going on, we didn't celebrate until last night. it was officialy dubbed our "pretend-iversary!" we enjoyed a quiet and reflective meal at on the border and also helped ourselves to some frozen custard with peaches for dessert! i still can't believe that we've been together for 9 years and married for 7! what a blessing to tackle life with this man!

our million dollar kid!

quite literally... he has had open heart surgery and broken a bone before the age of three!

i finally have time to tell the whole story! last saturday we were suppose to be getting karen (lance's mom) to her surprise birthday party. about 45 minutes before we were to leave, caleb had his accident. his uncle kent was pushing him "faster" on the tricycle. we do that all the time at home... caleb loves to go fast! it usually isn't a problem except that this time caleb decided to put both feet down on the ground mid ride. the pedals grabbed his shins and threw him over the tricycle which then tripped up uncle kent and they all crashed. caleb screamed ALOT! during the 30 minute scream fest there was no blood, no swelling, and no bruising... i honestly thought that he was being over dramatic. this was not the first time that he had cried that hard or that long. so we loved on him lots, but eventually we had to get going. after reaching the party (which i sadly have no pictures of) he stayed seated for an hour. well, anyone who knows our kids knows that they never sit still. something was wrong! we left the party early and headed to an urgent care facility for x-rays. the x-rays showed that he broke his tibia and fibula at shin hight. as a result he is in a full leg, non-walking cast for at least four weeks. needless to say, we are learning some tricks.

• he wears only boxers so that his underwear will slide around his cast easily
• we put a plastic stool in the bathtub, wrap up his leg and bath him with the shower head
  
• we've borrowed a potty training potty so that he can potty by himself
• we use the radio flyer wagon to tote riley and caleb places
• i'm teaching caleb how to enjoy non-physical activities like play dough, coloring, bubbles, etc. he use to do these types of activities for five minutes... we are getting better
• i wrote psalm 118:14 on his cast and we talk about it when he gets frustrated (just between us... i think that one is more for me than him! HA!)

i'm going to include one more picture to prove that although it may slow him down at times... the cast is not stopping him from anything.

i was in the kitchen when allie came walking through. i asked her where caleb was and she responded, "oh, he's just in the crib pretending to be a baby."
"in the crib?"
"yeah!"
"no, how did he get in the crib?"
"oh, ha, he just climbed on in!"

and... in fact... he did! crazy kid!

shipwrecked?

the past three days have me really thinking about chapters 27 and 28 in acts. you know when the apostle paul is stuck on his boat in a storm for 14 days and then shipwrecks and then gets bit by a snake. i'm sure he was thinking, "ok, Lord, when does it stop?" and i'm asking the same question. many of you already know that caleb broke his leg on our vacation last week. he had a tricycle accident. i still want to tell whole story, but i'll save it for a later post. here is a pic of caleb with his new GREEN cast and a train set that his gigi bought him out of sympathy!

on tuesday i was just figuring out how to best "do life" with two non walkers and allie. riley was running a fever and lance left town that morning so i decided we would stick close to home. we played cars, blocks, trains, play dough and watched one show to make it to the lunch hour. after lunch, everyone napped hard and woke up around 4. around 4:30 a storm blew in rather quickly. i was in my bedroom and all three kids were playing in the living room when i heard a noise that sounded like every window in the home had burst. all three kids began screaming (especially caleb b/c allie ran off and left him scooting in terror). i came running around the corner afraid that they would be running through glass. in my rush to scoop everyone up, i didn't see any immediate danger. i put them all in one bed and looked out the front window. i have never heard anything that horrific and my heart has never been racing so fast. my first thought was that the garage had exploded b/c there was scraps of wood laying in the front yard and flowerbeds. then i saw this...

doesn't look too bad, right? that is what i thought... "big deal... the tree was struck by lightening... man, that was loud!" then i began to find more things...

somehow three of our garage door windows shattered and...

oh, yes... the back of our murano! i have no idea how this happens when your car is in the garage with the door shut??? we've called all the right people and we are working on getting things fixed, but with the car and house under different policies we won't meet our deductible on anything. i told lance that i keep waiting for the blessing in all this and he had a great response. he said, "the blessing is that everyone is safe and now the Lord just wants us to trust him!" amen! but if i could ask one favor of all my sweet friends and family... please pray for our spirits. the last three days have been so exhausting and if our story is anything like paul's... it is going to get worse before it gets better! thanks so much! i'll tell the caleb story soon!

ROAD TRIP!

with camp over it was time to make a trip to bartlesville! just imagine... three kids, two adults, and one dog in our murano!we got to see lots of family and caleb's cheek is proof!

the kids got to show off their swimming skills!

riley got two teeth while we were there.

the kiddy park was the highlight for the kids. here is allie in the trucks!

and caleb in the boats

they loved the swings too

sadly, the next morning caleb had a tricycle accident and broke his leg (no, i'm not kidding!) more on that later!

but it did not stop him from going to the kiddy park that night. this is caleb (post broken leg) counting out tickets to ride the train (which he says is his favorite).

gigi, lance's granma, got to meet riley for the first time!

this is allie with her cousin mason! they were best buds by the end of the weekend.

life!

summer camp 2009 is officially complete!

everyone always asks me what it is like at the end of a summer. it is a funny feeling because there are two extremes and no in between with this job. there is 90 miles an hour or turtle pace. we are, by the way, adjusting quite well to turtle pace (the kids especially), but we miss our staff tremendously. i am, however, glad that the kids have each other! there is just never a dull moment!

coolin' off in the pool!

teaching riley how to play with his new toy.... as if he needed help! Look at his face! i imagine he's thinking, "give me a break already! i'm not that dumb!"

three silly monkeys!

Reese Rowe

i had the pleasure of getting to know Katie, Reese's mommy, at Baylor and through the marriage of my friend ashley. she was then, and is now, a faithful follower of our Lord, Jesus Christ. early in the week she delivered a baby girl, Reese, with serious complications who went to be with Jesus at just two days old.

i feel it necessary to pass along her story because of the trials that we endured during our caleb's first month of life. when we were facing the terrifying circumstance of possibly losing our son, i remember thinking, "Lord, if this is going to happen - please let it make an eternal difference in this world!" i so desperately wanted his suffering to bring others LIFE! that is my prayer for this precious one as well. i will warn you, however, you can not visit this blog in passing. the Lord will touch your heart deeply through this family who is able to glorify His name even in the midst of such great loss. katie and jason are a sure example that when we are rooted in our relationship with the Lord nothing can separate us from His love! May God bless you through this story.... a story of heartache, faith, and hope!

bless or bust!

we realized about four weeks ago that our older children were in desperate need of our undivided attention. we could keep pushing until camp was over and hope that our kids would bounce back or we could do something about the void in their hearts. thankfully, the Lord reminded us that we need bless our kids because he has blessed us with them. with that in mind, we set out to make this month exciting for them.

it started with taking them to chuckie cheese's for the first time ever!

they had a blast playing any game that was open. it wasn't until the end that they realized that the tickets got you prizes.... they worked hard to make 17 tickets each. that use to get you an eraser or something, but they had to settle for 4 tiny stickers and a sucker! they are so easily pleased!

we were also given the opportunity to go to Splash Kingdom free of charge!
this was the response to me saying, "allie, are you having fun?"

once they started sliding they couldn't stop!

we've spent alot of time at home and around tyler with them as well. i think that they are in a better place now. more than anything, we are grateful that the LORD is patient with us and that we chose to bless over bust!