Super Reader

No, I'm not talking about the cute super readers on the new PBS show Super Why!

I'm talking about this Super Reader that showed up at our library last night! Trust me, I was the only mom taking a picture of him.

Christian did love Super Reader, although he was also quite interested in facing the wrong direction all while chewing on his shirt and pulling it up over head during the entire presentation. Now I'm wondering if he does this in Sunday School. Christian learned all about brushing his teeth and I learned that Christian needs to do this sort of structured thing more often. We did however walk away with a very cute free book and a toothbrush!

Today's Adventures

Doesn't this look like the perfect morning?

Hiking through the woods with our friend Jacob.
Digging in a little mud!
Frolicking in a field of sunflowers!I love how Abby still doesn't mind the camera.
Seriously beautiful!
Our special friend Jake! This is who the boys say is their best friend when they're mad at each other and decide they're not best friends anymore.Christian was carrying this stick the entire time!

Nathan looking for a beaver (those sticks were put there by people, not by a beaver, but you couldn't convince him of that).
A great morning in the great outdoors.
At least it was still great at this point!
Then we headed to the duck pond to feed some ducks.

Once the bread was gone the kids pretended to fish.
Can you see how this might possibly not turn out so well?

And that's how we ended up in the tub when we got home. I have no pictures of Nathan's fall into the duck pond. There was too much crying and too much nasty duck poop, algae filled, murky looking water with moss covered rocks that made it impossible for him to stand up. So I didn't take a picture as I was hauling him out of the pond. Not to worry, his head didn't even go under, but it was traumatic for him none the less. I can't count the number of times I said; "Get away from the edge." "Don't get so close." "I don't want you falling in!" It's like I knew it was going to happen. We've been to the duck pond innumerable times, but this is the first time we had a casualty. Abby ended up in the tub for an unrelated reason. She's in there because going to the bathroom behind a bush is rather complicated when your a girl - enough said! I'm normally not a fan of tub pictures on a blog, but this one completes the story of our morning, so I cropped it and decided to post it! You'll also notice that Abby refused to put her arm down in the water. That's because of the huge red welt under her arm. That is what happens when you pretend to be Tarzan with ropes on the swing set in the backyard. That was yesterday's drama! At least my life isn't boring!!

Look what I found...

...under my desk today!

See how he's covering his eyes! Notice the binkie in his mouth! He wasn't supposed to have it!
Now he's thinking....Maybe if I just hide it behind my back and smile she won't notice that I have it.
This is the...You're really going to make me give it up! I want my mommy!...look!
And there is the beautiful smile (about 15 min. later) without the binkie! It's a hard habit to break, but I sure do love my Nate boy!

For My Mom

This dress was one of my mom's favorite outfits on Emma when she was this age. Emma is a February baby like McKenna so tons of Emma's old outfits have been worn by McKenna. This just happens to be my mom's favorite and I love it too!
It was McKenna's daddy who was getting her to smile so big! She loves her daddy!

An unexpected journey

Ryan got a phone call about 10 days ago that has sent us on an unexpected journey.

Let me first rewind a little bit back to 1999. In '99 Ryan and I were both students at Liberty University. I don't exactly remember the circumstances but they had a blood drive that also included the opportunity to sign up as a bone marrow donor. We both signed up and didn't think much of it. We just kind of went along with what everyone else was doing. I can still remember waiting in line with my friend Michelle and drinking orange juice and having a cookie as we walked back to our dorm.

We never imagined that almost ten years later we would be getting a call from the National Marrow Donor Program, but that's what has happened. They tracked Ryan down (they called his parent's house in Illinois too) because he is a potential match for someone needing a life saving bone marrow transplant. Being a bone marrow donor is not a pleasant experience and it's not something to take lightly, but because of two little people that we know this was an easy decision for Ryan to make.

Our precious cousin Olivia was the first person we both thought of when we got this call. If you've been following our blog for awhile you know that Olivia has basically spent the last two years of her life, fighting for her life. She was diagnosed with Leukemia this past spring, but God has poured out his blessings on her little life and her parents just got a call last week that Olivia's Leukemia is gone!!! WooHoo!

The other person that came to mind is one of Ryan's co-workers sons. Ryan's co-worker Brian has a two year old little boy named Alex. Alex was diagnosed with Leukemia in July of this year. He is currently at St. Judes receiving chemo treatments as he gets ready to have a bone marrow transplant. Please pray for Alex. He really has a fight on his hands, but he's a tough little guy and we are praying for him continually!!

And so, Ryan has decided to move forward with the process to find out if he is the best match for this stranger in need of a transplant. So far Ryan has completed an extensive medical history and tomorrow he has an appointment to have lots and lots of blood drawn. And then we wait! If it turns out that Ryan is the best match for this person then he could be asked to either donate bone marrow (a surgical procedure) or donate stem cells (not so fun either). This could take place this month or six months from now.

So that's what's going on with us! I wanted to share this, not because Ryan wants any glory in all of this (I'm sure any one of you would be doing the same thing if you knew you could save someone's life), but because we want God's will to be done. And that's how we're praying that whatever the outcome, God's will for Ryan's life will be accomplished. And we wanted to share this because this stranger needs a match! And we need to pray that they'll find one. Their life depends on it. It's exciting and a little nerve racking to think that God could use Ryan in this way. And if Ryan isn't a good enough match we need to pray that someone else will be!

I'll keep you posted on the progress of all of this and if you want to find out more information on how you could sign up to be a bone marrow donor go to: http://www.marrow.org/ for more information. I know that it's kind-of a hassle to go someplace and give blood, but you could potentially save some one's life by signing up. There are over 300 million people in the United States and only 5 million of them are registered bone marrow donors. Not a great ratio, but you can do something about it! Add your name to the list! How thankful I am that Ryan's name is on that list!

I had an additional thought that I wanted to add. If you're one of our LU friends that signed up to be a bone marrow donor the same time we did, you need to go to marrow.org and change your contact information. I'll warn you, it's not the most up-to-date website, they could make this easier, but it's definitely important to change your contact info. especially if you're a girl and have gotten married and now have a new last name. It's also important to do if your parents have moved in the last 10 years because they will try to contact your parents. You never know, you might be the next to get a call!

And the winner is...

JAMIE M!!

Congratulations Jamie! Aren't you lucky...the last one to enter and you ended up being the winner!

Well, I thought this little contest was fun! I just might have to do it again if I find something cute that I think everyone would like. I'm going to start keeping my eyes opened! Somehow I actually talked my husband into letting me video tape him while he drew the name. That's why I'm laughing in the video because he was not being a very willing participant. He basically thinks my blogging obsession is ridiculous, but he reads it everyday, so it must keep him entertained too. And I know he likes it when he's traveling. Anyway, thanks for joining in the fun! Have a great weekend everybody!

Only 3 Hours Left...

To enter the contest to win a nifty little magnetic pocket! See the post below this one to enter! Hurry the contest ends at 8pm tonight! We're having a family movie night tonight, so I may not post the winner immediately, but I will get to it tonight!


This is the side of my fridge before!
And this is after I gave it a make-over with the magnetic pockets (yup...found myself back at Target getting a few more!). I love organization!!!

Contest

I was shopping today and found this cute little magnet canvas pocket! Isn't it cute?? I stuck all my take-out menus in it and I put it right on the fridge. And, believe it or not, I was thinking of you guys and so I bought an extra one!

This is the extra one I bought! And one lucky blog reader can win it! To enter my little contest all you have to do is leave a comment (that includes your name - anonymous comments with no names won't count for obvious reasons). So leave a comment sometime in the next 48 hours. The contest ends on Saturday evening at 8pm. Then I will randomly draw a number and the person who left that number comment wins this cute little fridge pocket! I'll let you know who the winner is on Saturday night! Isn't this fun? I think so :) It was time to do a little something different with this blog! Anybody can enter. I don't have to know you and you don't have to necessarily be a fan of this blog. Please only enter once!

*Since everyone has been asking....I bought the pocket at Target. I found it in the scrapbooking/stationary section. I'm regretting that I didn't buy a few more for myself because you know how Target can be. Things fly off the shelves at that store! I just looked online and of course they have all their other Real Simple office organizing stuff, but not the nifty little pocket.

Friends

Old Friends + New Friends = Good Times

Christian has a new friend named Caedmon. His daddy just became a pastor at our church and Christian and I have been enjoying getting to know him and his mommy. Can you tell that these two are in boy heaven?
And then there's are sweet friend Tanyon who we always love to spend time with. These three, three year olds, had a great time playing at the park today!
Tanyon's sister Addie even joined in the fun!
Christian's in the middle with his sun glasses on!
And McKenna had a great time watching them!

What a blessing great friends are!!

MIRACLE!!!

I just got the best news I've heard in months. Maybe years! You know that we have been praying for our sweet little cousin Olivia. She has had some serious heart issues over the past two years of her life and she was just diagnosed with Leukemia this spring. We have been praying for complete healing for Olivia for two years now. And you're not going to believe it! It's happened!! I can't even keep the tears from falling!!! God you are so good!

The following is an exact quote from Olivia's blog:
"Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before Him with joyful songs.Know that the Lord is God.
It is He who made us, and we are His;
the sheep of His pasture.Enter His gates with thanksgiving
and His courts with praise;
give thanks to Him and praise His name.For the Lord is good and His love endures forever;
His faithfulness continues through all generations.
Psalm 100
I can't believe I am actually writing this post. Dr. Al just called from St. Jude. Olivia's bone marrow results are in. Her cancerous cells have significantly reduced to a point that takes them out of the classification of AML. The cancerous cells are virtually non-existent. She does not have leukemia. Her bone marrow is producing lots and lots of beautiful, healthy, wonderful, new cells. The bone marrow was so stressed and just reacting to how sick her little body was prior to surgery. St. Jude will still keep close tabs on Olivia and repeat a bone marrow biopsy in 6-8 months. It's so hard to believe that we have one of God's great miracles in our lives. We are so truly blessed. The power of prayer is absolutey amazing. Thanks be to God!"

Did you get that part about how Olivia doesn't have Leukemia anymore?? Amazing!! Thank you for praying for this sweet girl. I know that many of you have and God has heard the prayers of His people! There is NO doubt in my mind that this is a God thing and we give him all the glory.

September 9th

You may not realize this but today was a pretty important day:

#1 McKenna is now seven months old! Yipee! Wow these last few months have flown by!

#2 Today was the official release of Thomas and Friends and The Great Discovery. We don't have a copy yet, but I'm sure it won't be long!!

A sticky treat

Christian's been bugging me for awhile about trying a candy apple. One of his favorite friends, Caillou, had a candy apple on an episode of his show and ever since Christian has been convinced that they must be the best treat ever.

I'm not sure if Abby and Nate have had candy apples before. They both told me that they had not, so I think this was the first time all three of them have tried them.

We did NOT make these - I'm not that brave. I'm sure they would have enjoyed the candy apple making process and mess, but I wasn't up for it. So this time around the store bought ones will have to do.

I was convinced that no one would like their apple, but as you'll see from the video, I was wrong!

I know that this event probably wasn't a blog worthy moment, but we're having a slow day (which is rather nice) and this is all I could come up with to entertain you :)

So BIG!

We added another new toy today thanks to Nate! It took McKenna about 10 min. to figure out that you can bounce in this and once she got started she didn't want to stop. She keeps laughing at herself as she bounces!
McKenna wasn't the only one fascinated with this toy, Abby, Christian and Nate were hovering around dying to get their hands on this new toy as well, but I wouldn't let them. Can you just imagine poor little McKenna being bounced and rocked and swayed by a four year old, three year old and two year old? Not to worry, mommy was standing guard.
Whenever I see McKenna stand I realize just how big she's getting. Just for the record, she did not pull herself up, I put her there. She hung onto the side of the train table with one hand, while playing with a train in the other for quite awhile. Pretty amazing for a little girl who's not quite seven months old.

We'll miss you!

Goodbyes are never fun! We met Grammy and Grampy at Cracker Barrel this morning for a late breakfast and then they hit the road and began their journey back to Illinois. As soon as we got home Christian said, "I need my Grampy to come play with me."
Christian really is going to go through withdrawal because Grampy really does play with Christian pretty much non-stop when he's with him. It's been so much fun for him.
This was their very interesting game of checkers!

A big group hug until we see each other again for Thanksgiving!

Thanks for coming Grampy and Grammy. We made some great memories! You will be missed and talked about a lot! We're going to have to start talking about our trip to Illinois and all the tractors, wagons and doggies we'll get to see!

Genesis 1:1

"Genesis 1:1 In the beginning, God created, the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1"