Citizen of the YEAR!

Attention blog readers:

Proud momma moment ahead... lots of bragging to follow! Consider yourself warned...

My sweet Micah was awarded Citizen of the YEAR for his class this morning in the closing assembly. He was so sweet.... proud and excited, grinning from ear to ear on the stage... yet humble about it with all his friends. It is one of the highest honors for an elementary student at Brentwood Christian, and we are so proud of him! He has got such a great balance of sweetness, BOY-ness, giggles, & brains! He has grown (physically & emotionally) so much this year, and we are so blessed to have had Mrs. Patterson as his teacher. She has this enthusiasm for school and a passion for reading, and it has been completely contagious for Micah. She also has a love for our Savior that has been reflected in her teaching... what a blessing!

Way to go MICAH! We love you!

Proud momma

Allow me to be a proud momma for just a moment and brag on my sweet Micah for being the Citizen of the Month for his class this past month! This is a big deal at BCS, and he was super excited. He asked me if we could go to the store and buy a new frame for his certificate... sweet boy! And by the way, how tall does he look in this pic? Mrs Patterson is kinda short, but still.... he is growing up way too fast! :o)

My little boy scouts

This is one of the big boys newest activities and they LOVE it!! How cute are they all in uniform?

Party at the Dell Diamond

So this was a few weeks ago, but I had to post these pics from Micah's end-of-the-year party at the Dell Diamond. We had loads of fun. Many poeple had a hard time believing that I really did the bungoe jumping thing, so here is my proof.... back flips and all! :o) I need not mention that I had difficulty even walking the next day from my sore muscles... who knew that the bungie jumping uses every single muscle in your body.... did you know that we have muscles in our armpits? Well, we do!

Here is Micah after he got up the nerve to try it out...

This was so fun... I scremaed like a little girl and felt like a kid again... until the next morning that is when I realized that I am an old lady!

One of my many back flips... they were more successful than my front flips. I did one or 2 of those, but my first one landed me on my head. A friend got it on video, so it may appear on YouTube someday.

The class looking out over the diamond... cool pic!

unique

Every evening before bed time, I have the boys lay out their clothes for school the next morning. They wear school uniforms, so the choice is pretty easy, but it is just nice to have it all right there in a little pile rather than having to dig thru closets and drawers when they are half-asleep at 6:30AM getting dressed.....

Below is Micah's pile. He likes to stack it neatly on the coffee table so it doesnt get sat or stepped on. His shoes are always laid left-right, his clothes neatly folded, and his belt rolled.... a boy after his mommy's own little OCD heart...

And now for Coby's pile.... :o) And just FYI, he will snuggle up and waller around on this couch all over these clothes for a good 10 minutes in the morning before he even attempts to put anything on. But I am so proud of him that he now gets every piece to the uniform here to the "pile!" He even thought up his own idea of keeping up with his glasses by putting them inside his shoe! Sweet boy!! And you cant see it, but there is a little bit of dried toothpaste on his belt from last monday when they had to wear belts for chapel...

This just made me laugh as I walked thru the living room last night, so I decided to take a picture... I love that my boys are all 4 so different in so many ways. It helps them to be more flexible and it is interesting that they have so many diverse friends I think because they are able to embrace eachother's differences... Yes, it is the cause for lots of squabbles, too!! But I wouldnt have it any other way!!

Perspective

Today was the 100th day of school. The kids made lots of fun things and did cool activities having to do with the number 100. One thing they did was talk about being 100 years old. Here was my conversation with Micah this afternoon...
Micah: "Mommy I cant wait to be 100!"
Me: " Why?"
Micah, "Cause I get to wear glasses and use one of those cool those sticks when I walk and drink coffee."
I love their perspective at this age!! :o)

'Twas the night before Kindergarten

Tomorrow's the big day... the first day of school. Micah will be in first grade and Coby will be in kindergarten.... we went to "meet the teacher" today although we knew them both from church already... but they reconnected with old friends and delivered school supplies... we picniced at the park in honor of the last day of summertime... The excitement was unbelievable, especially since I can still hear them giggling intheir beds!! Coby's prayers tonite went something like this:
"Dear God, Thank you for this beautiful day and thank you for the summertime and the swimming pool. Thank you for mommy, daddy, micah, coby, cason, bryson, and mrs. allen. Thank you for kindergarten and help me stay on green. Thank you for my trains and my soccer team and for my food and my bed. Help me to stay on green in kindergarten and for mrs. allen to be nice to me. Help me not to lose my glasses or get them dirty. And help our fish not to die anymore [we lost 2 over the weekend...] and help me stay on green and make good choices. Help the hungry man on the road to find a job so he can work and have money to buy some food and a house. Help Sam [his friend from preschool] not to cry tomorrow at school and help mommy not to cry too [he saw me all teary in the hallway last year when we dropped off micah]. Make me not be tired at kindergarten and make micah say hi to me at lunch time. And God, please just help me stay on green. In Jesus name, Amen"
I was tearing up and laughing all at the same time... do you think we have hammered it into him enough that we expect him to stay on green??? I thought it was so sweet to have the glimpse into his little innocent mind to hear his thoughts! Sweet boy!
I posted this last year, but it is so sweet I will post it again for Coby.... good luck to all you other moms who are bringing kids for their first day tomorrow.... and to those who start on monday as well!

'Twas the night before kindergarten, and as they prepared,
kids were excited and a little bit scared.
They tossed and they turned about in their beds,
while visions of school supplies danced in their heads.
Erasers and crayons and pencils galore
were stuffed in their backpacks and set by the door.
Outfits were hung in the closets with care,
knowing that kindergarten soon would be there.
In the morning it came--school starts today!
Would the teacher be nice? Would they still get to play?
Faces were washed, and teeth were brushed white;
kids posed for pictures with eyes sparkling bright.
Parents packed snacks, and kids hopped in cars
as if they were boarding a spaceship to Mars.
Some kids brought blankets or their favorite stuffed bear,
in hopes they could nap like they did last year.

Their parents exclaimed, "You're big kids--wow!
Let us hold your bears and blankies for now."
The parents were worried their children would cry
if they left them at school with just a good-bye.
So they told their darlings, "If you want, we can stay
and make sure that everythingwill be A-okay."
The teacher then greeted each one with a smile,
and invited the students to stay for a while.
The room was all filled with toys, books, and maps,
but where are the beds for midmorning naps?
They colored and painted and played Simon Says,
then tumbled and skipped and stood on their heads.
They sang silly songs from beginning to end.
Within just a minute, each kid had a friend.
The children were happy. They loved Miss Sunrise!
It was she who was in for a giant surprise.
When what to her wondering eyes should appear
but sad moms and dad who were holding back tears!
Their noses--so sniffly! Their eyes--red and wet!
This was the saddest good-bye Miss Sunrise had seen yet!
She gathered the grown-ups on the magical rug,
then sent them away after one final hug.
The children all waved from the door of the school,
"Don't cry, Mom and Dad; kindergarten is cool!"
-- by Natasha Wing

"All I want for Christmas is....

... my 2 front teeth" He pulled this one himself... look at that cute little grin! :o)

For Micah

Last week when I posted about Camp Agape, my sensitive little guy had his feelings kinda hurt that I had no pictures of him from camp. I felt bad for him, but at the same time, I knew he had tons of fun without me there to capture each moment with my camera. Sometimes I think we get so wrapped up in trying to catch all the fun times on film or video and we forget to just enjoy the good times..... but that said, a sweet friend of mine emailed me this great pic of micah on the climbing wall at camp, and I decided to post it just for him.

This one's for you, Micah!

Updates

Well, we discovered last night that Micah had a fever of about 103.5, which is a really bad sign... we waited until this morning to call, at which time it was down to 101.7. They are just having us monitor that form home and be sure it doesnt get any higher. I dont know how much more I can take of the ER!! He is not showing any signs of infection, so they are thinking it is from blood loss and the body's way of showing the stress/trauma of what he has been thru... poor baby! But he is feeling so much better and his spirits are just great... It was an absolutely beautiful day so we spent some time out doors and shared Micah's popsicles with everyone! Even Bryson!

Needless to say, he loved it!!

And here we are discovering the sorrow of the melted, disappearing popsicle. It is rough being one!

This is just a sweet picture of my little Red-head! I know I am bias, but seriously... how sweet is he?

Micah feels good enough to show some love to his favorite baby!

And a quick game of peek-a-boo never gets old to a one-year old!

The other 2 munchkins enjoying their popsicles!
Cason is all smiles!

So is Coby!


He wanted to show off his boo-boo from his bike accident! This actually looks better than it did... it has been quite a week here at our house!


I have some other pics of the first hospital stay and some original pictures of Coby's bike accident, but they are on the memory card that will not download onto my computer for some reason?! Anyhoo, I will figure that out and post them someday! I just felt like I needed to give an update after my scary last post, and a few fun pictures always help bring everyone a little cheer!!

Complications

So I take back what I said in the previous post.... I have now experienced the longest night of my life. Everyone was all snug in their beds last night when I heard Micah cry out at about midnight. I went in to check on him and give him a drink, etc. He had blood all over his face, jammies, pillow, etc. It was a scary sight. So we called the dr and he advised us to meet him in the ER. So, 1:00am micah and I headed into austin to the ER while clint stayed here with the other 3 boys. He vomited twice in the hospital, and when they saw the amount, things started moving quickly. I was scared, but thankful that they werent dragging their feet becasue he was in a lot of pain, and I was ready to do what it took to ease it! By 2:00, they had him in emergency surgery to repair the left tonsil and stop the bleeding. The surgery took about twice as long as they told me it would, so at 3:30 I was sitting in a huge dark, cold waiting room, all alone... wondering what is wrong. There was nothing for me to do but pray (and cry). I had never heard of anyone dying from a tonsillectomy, but my head was spinning with ideas. Finally the dr rounded the dark corner to talk to me and tell me that he was fine. He said after they got him to sleep, when they put the breathing tube down his throat, he lost one more "clot" (as they called them) and it was on a artery. (They say these clots are the throat's way of healing itself, and usually about 1 in 100 cases have trouble with them falling off. Some folks are 1 in a million, we are 1 in a hundred!) His description of the bleeding during surgery made me just sick, but I was thankful to know that my baby was ok. The dr was incredible. He was focused, yet his bedside manner was great. He was serious, yet sensitive. He was honest with me and gave it to me straight, but he assured me that he was going to be fine. He offered to let me into the dr's lounge for some much needed Starbucks. So I got to go sit by him until he woke up ( grouchy), we gave him some ice chips and some pain meds, and he went back to sleep. The sweet nurses brought me a recliner so I could rest beside him, so I napped from about 4:00 to 5:00 when he woke back up and they moved us. He was jolly as can be at about 6:00am... it is amazing how kids bounce back! They did a blood count and his had gone from a 12 to a 9, which was not good. He is supposed to take it easy and let his blood replenish itself. The recovery basically starts over here... So back to Blockbuster it is, but I am incredibly thankful that Micah was released at about 7:30, and he is back home and doing ok. He was so incredibly brave! I am so proud of him! Please continue to pray for a speedy recovery this second time around.

Nothin' routine about it.....

When your "baby" is having surgery!!! My sweet Micah (who is actually 6 years old, so not a baby by any means, but he will always be my 'baby') is having a tonsillectomy and adnoidectomy (sp?) tomorrow morning at 11:00. They say it is a routine surgery, and I know they say that so moms like me will not worry, but there is just nothing routine about putting him under, inserting a breathing tube, and using a knife to cut these things outof his throat! Yes, I know kids have it done every day... and they are all fine... but PLEASE pray for Micah... and for me.... and for the pit in my tummy because I just cannot stop worring about it.... and for me to keep it together so he wont be scared! I will keep you all posted... but for now, I am going to go pack our bags and then clean my house from top to bottom as therapy for my anxiety! :o) And so I will be able to come home from the hospital to a clean house.... a clean house always makes me happy!

ps-- a special thanks to my sister-in-law and my momma for helping us out with our other munchkins!