Cakes and Gardens

I'm afraid there aren't many pictures from the past couple of weeks as we've been extremely busy. We enjoyed dinner with my parents last weekend as we celebrated my dad's 59th birthday. After dinner and baths, it was a race for Grandma's lap for storytime.

One of the time-takers from the past week was my first commissioned cake decorating job. Elizabeth's teacher is convinced that I should go into business for myself and so she called early in the week with her order. Cake decorating is something that I really enjoy, as my mother did and still does occasionally. Where it goes from here, has yet to be seen.

The biggest time-taker of the week was this plot of land in the backyard. My garden has doubled in size for the year, taking it from 14' x 20' to 14' x 41'. In order to pull this off I had to remove the sod from the new area. We once just rototilled it under and I regretted it for the rest of the summer as all of the grass came back. This was much more labor intensive but will hopefully produce better results. Our lettuce is already coming up and our indoor seed station is starting to show some activity. I'm excited to have a lot more room to not only grow more but to create a kid-friendly garden for the girls to help with this summer. Hopefully, they will eventually reach a point where they're as excited to EAT the homegrown veggies as they are to help take care of them. I'm not holding my breath!

Hope you have a great week!

Easter Day

We spent a quiet Easter as a family this year. We were able to spend time counting our blessings together and rejoicing that Jesus is alive and a part of our home. We are so thankful for the many ways God has blessed our family and carried us through the difficult times as well.

Our beautiful family. We are so thankful for these 3 little blessings that both enrich and at times control our lives.

Bryan, always our little clown.

Ashlynn, our sweet little princess, always thinking of others.

Elizabeth, who's growing up way too fast to suit us. By the way, as of yesterday her class had earned enough money to buy almost 15 goats at $75.00 each. Today, they are presenting their business plan, and the Advance is coming in to take some pictures. When their teacher was marveling out loud at how proud she was that the kids worked so hard when they are essentially getting nothing in return, one of the little boys interjected that they certainly were reaping the benefits of joy in their hearts knowing that they were able to make a difference for all the families that will receive the goats. In spite of all of the negativity directed toward public schools, our family has a completely different story. We are so blessed to be part of a school that is not only challenging our children academically but is also helping them to develop strong values as well. Have a wonderful weekend.

Easter Eggs and Get a Goat Fund

It's been a long time since the last post but we have had a very busy couple of weeks. This past week was Spring Break and we enjoyed being home together as a family while we prepared for our big "Getting Rid of Baby Stuff" Garage Sale. It's over now. We did well and are happy to have our garage back and a much less cluttered home to contend with. One of the events of the week was coloring our Easter eggs. We did it with a lot less mess that usual this year which made Mommy VERY happy!

Bryan, the silent (OK, not SO silent) observer. He enjoyed watching his sisters have fun while he finished his meal.

We ended up with such beautifully colored eggs that we don't really want to eat them.

Bryan discovered the wonder of Daddy's old headphones this week.



He probably sat here for a whole hour as still as can be listening to his Veggie Tales CD. He was in his own little world and would just stare at us blankly if we tried to talk to him. Yes, I did check the volume of the CD player.

Elizabeth had a school project to do over Spring Break. Her second grade teacher invested one dollar in each of her students and challenged them to find a way to multiply that dollar. The money will be used to buy goats and chickens for stuggling families in Africa. It will not only provide food but also a source of income. Elizabeth's first investment was in a box of cake mix with which we made cupcakes. Due to the generosity of family and friends (or maybe they were just really good cupcakes?) , 24 cupcakes brought in $20.50. She then was hired to do some yardwork for a friend's neighbors and made $10.00 doing that. We decided to keep going and made four dozen cupcakes and 3 dozen cookies as well as some greeting cards which the girls sold at our garage sale for a total of 55.00! All together, they made 0ver $100 which is enough for a goat and chicken. It was a great lesson for the girls and fun to watch their excitement in helping others.

Working hard on their poster.

Selling cupcakes on Wednesday.

Selling cookies on Thursday.



Have a blessed Easter!

Spring Fun

Last week we spent a morning at Frederik Meijer Gardens butterfly exhibit with friends. It was fun to see the array of beautiful moths and butterflies that our Creator designed. It's impossible not to marvel at His creativity and attention to detail. It was a fun morning and Bryan's first time at the exhibit. It was fun to see his reaction to them. He wasn't quite sure if he should run or try to get one to land on him.

Elizabeth is trying out a new skill; one that is dear to her mother's heart - Cross-stitching. She has really picked up on it and is doing great. It brings back memories of my aunt teaching me when I was probably about her age. I used to bike over to her house for a couple of hours in the afternoon and we would just sit and cross-stitch. I have a lot of hobbies that have stuck around for a time and then phased out, but that one has only advanced. Thanks, Aunt Barb!

Ashlynn has also picked up a new and exciting skill - READING!!! What I tried to capture in the picture was her sitting on the couch, reading to Bryan which is what I found when I entered the room, but Bryan refused to be in the picture. Both girls got great reports from their teachers last week at conferences. It looks like we will be spending a lot of time at the library this summer. With two recreational readers as parents, they do come by it honestly.

Swimming Lessons

Our little boy is just finishing up his first session of swimming lessons. He started off ready to go. Then we did a little bit of back-pedaling for a few weeks and are now making some great progress. Eric and I have taken turns going with him and today the girls were gone on an outing with Grandma and Grandpa so we both went to try to capture the lesson in pictures.

This is the smile that we have hoped that being able to swim would trigger.

Working on his kick.




Two weeks ago, he wouldn't even jump off the side of the pool, so we've made remarkable progress.

When first asked, Bryan decided that he was brave enough to go off the diving board and was excited to be able to tell his sisters that he did it. Not surprisingly, as he started making his way out on the board, it seemed like a long way down and his feet started to stick.

"No thanks, Daddy," he said. That didn't work so he resorted to the Bryan scream.

Once in the water, he decided it wasn't sooo bad, but neither was it fun enough to want to repeat the process twice more. We'll spare you the rest of the pictures, but he did it! Three times off the diving board.

Daddy and I are still good friends.

Bryan's favorite part of swimming lessons is getting to play with the toy shark at the end.

Good job, Bryan, we're so proud of you!

Changes and Fun

It's been a week of changes for our family. After talking to the doctor on Tuesday, we decided that it is best to remove milk/dairy completely from Elizabeth's diet once again. This was incredible disappointing news after considering ourselves free from that allergy for the past two years. We are readjusting to the new diet and pulling out all of the old tricks that we used for so long. I'm thankful for a strong little girl, sometimes stronger than her mother, who goes with the flow and is open to adjusting her eating habits.

Our other big change that won't actually take place until this summer will be Eric's switch to an insulin pump to better control his diabetes. The hope is that it will help his blood sugar levels to be more consistant without so many highs and lows. It will also mean a few less pokes with a needle which is always a good thing. We're thankful for a good report from the specialist as he said other than one minor thing, it would be difficult for him to tell that Eric is diabetic. After 12 years of diabetes, that is a huge blessing.

Last week, Ashlynn's class had the opportunity to go to the G. R. Children's Museum. Because the afternoon class is a couple minutes shorter than the morning class, the principal escorted the afternoon class to the museum in the morning to make up for the lost minutes. I was able to accompany the class, which I considered a real treat.

Ashlynn taking care of delivering the mail.

Ashlynn and her friends playing with the bubbles.

Last night, the girls had their school music program at a local church. They both did a fabulous job participating and we were so proud of both of them.

Elizabeth's class

Ashlynn's class beating their sticks.

Grandma and Grandpa were our guests for the evening.

Grandma Tower was also our guest and all three of them helped corral Bryan so I could take pictures and Eric could video the program. It's so nice to have our families close to be involved in things like this.

Scope Report

Elizabeth's scope went really well yesterday and we were rejoicing that her esophagus and stomach looked disease free. Things flip-flopped a bit when we got a phone message today from the specialists' office saying that the biopsies showed a slightly elevated amount of inflammation and that they would like us to once again remove milk completely from Elizabeth's diet. This is a difficult decision for me as a mom as it involves once again transforming our meal plans and being stricter about food that she receives at school and other places. Next week, I will hopefully be able to talk to the doctor and determine whether such a drastic action is necessary. While we have the utmost concern for our daughter's health and would do whatever is necessary to help her to continue to thrive, we also do not want to subject her to a plan because it "might" be a solution. She's been back on milk for 2 years, so if that is really the problem I would expect the damage to be more than "slightly elevated." We would appreciate your prayers as we wait to sort this out with the doctors and decide the best plan of action for all of us.