Wow, almost exactly 2 years...

I've been thinking a lot lately about how important it is to keep a record of our family, and what a poor job I've done of it.  But today has been one of those days that has made me think about how important it is to keep these memories, especially because they are growing so fast.

Tonight at dinner when I asked who would like to say the prayer, Drew quickly rose his hand, as he always does.  (Sweet boy)  He prayed that our family would make good choices and that we would have the Spirit in our home.  After his prayer he asked me what that meant.  (I think he was repeating what he hears in our prayers, but it was so sweet that he was stopping to think about what it meant.)  We had a great talk about the Holy Ghost and his different roles.  I asked them what some of those roles were.  Drew quickly responded that He protects us.  When I asked them what that meant, Abby talked about how the Holy Ghost warns us when we are in bad situations.  We talked about different situations they might find themselves in when they are away from our family at playdates, or at school, and what they can do when the Holy Ghost warns them.  We also talked about how the Holy Ghost teaches us about truths and helps us gain our testimony.  I also, talked to them about how he comforts us.  I don't know if it was wise, but I said that someday one of their grandparents will pass away and how the Holy Ghost will comfort them to know that we are a forever family and that they will be with the Savior waiting for us.  It was just a very sweet talk, and helped me to realize that they really are listening and learning and I'm so grateful for that.

The story we read before bedtime was about Alma the Younger and then a book called the Golden Rule.  We talked about treating others the way we want to be treated.  For his bedtime prayer Drew said, "Please help us to treat others the way we want to be treated, and help us to always remember it."  So sweet.  Then Abby's prayer asked for protection and the Spirit while she slept.  She has become a wonderful prayer and I often catch her praying when we aren't looking, usually asking for comfort or help with something.  I even saw her praying for Drew the other day, because he was hurt.  What a wonderful thing that will be in her life if she can continue it.

And sweet Ella is enjoying her new skill of walking.  She investigates everything and does it with a smile.  She has really melted my heart today with several hugs and kisses.  This is one of my favorite phases, for sure.  We are so lucky to have her in our family.

Oh, another conversation at dinner was about how Drew was just certain that our next baby would be a boy, and that he wanted to name him Lightening.  I hope we can deliver. ;)

Time for bed.  Adam will be working through the night.  He has a deadline on Friday and has been hard at work.  I am so grateful that we were able to finally (2 years later and with a lot of help from Adam's parents) get his office completely set up so that he can work from home.

4th of July

Sweet Ella at 17 months

Our most recent family picture

Abby at 8 years old

This is a very common thing to see with these two

Drew at 5 years old

Time Out

These are from a recent fun outing at D'arbonne Lake in Louisiana, which we just discovered is only 45 minutes away. Yay! Something to do on the weekends. We had a great time hiking and canoeing. So glad to get my kids out in the sun and out in nature. (poison ivy, ticks, and all)

Arkansas Youth Art Competition

We took Abby to her awards reception this weekend. It was at the Arkansas Art's Center, and all of the pictures chosen for the exhibit were displayed, and they were amazing. I am seriously astounded by some of the talent people have, and some of them were so young. It made me wish that I had learned to draw at some point. :) I really hope that we can find Abby a good teacher and see if this is something she wants to develop. She had a great time, and was excited to see her work on the wall.

Abby's birthday party

Abby's birthday is actually this weekend, but since we were up in Little Rock this weekend for her award's ceremony, we decided to have a birthday party with all the family. It was a beautiful day so we went to the park, and had some hamburgers and hot dogs, and let the kids play at the playground and with some balls and hula hoops. It was a lot of fun being with everyone. I love that my babies have spring birthdays. It's a time when everything feels like it's coming alive again. Abby came home the day that the groundhog showed his shadow and said that she was so glad the spring was coming early this year, because she felt that meant her birthday would be coming early as well. (Last year her birthday was on the first day of spring). And Drew gets the easter birthday this year, so that's exciting. I'll do a post about Abby's birthday on Abby's birthday, but I will say this over and over... I can't believe that she is six! She has been such a blessing to our family these past 6 years. Happy Birthday baby-girl.

Award winning artist

I know it's been a long time. Sorry. I will try and catch up. I promised Abby I would post these few little tidbits though... she has become as award winning artist and has decided that on top of being a hospital doctor, mommy, babysitter and rockstar, she is going to be an artist.

First we received a phone call from her art teacher at school saying that she had won an award from the Arkansas Arts Association. Every school in the state submitted a picture from someone in each of the classes K-12 and one from each class (K-12) was chosen as best in class, and Abby won for the kindergartners. Of course, she has no idea what a big deal this is, but we are very excited to see her picture. It will be matted and framed and hung up in the Arkansas Arts Center for a month, and then there is a traveling exhibit throughout the state of Arkansas for the next year. Hopefully we'll get it when it's done, to put up in our home. Again, we've never seen it, so we're excited.

Then, a week later, we received another phone call saying that she had won the coloring contest for the newspaper. We got the paper today and it was on the front page... exciting stuff. Of course, this was more exciting for her because she could actually see it in print... and her art teacher gave her a bag of M&M's, so you can't get much better than that.

It's fun, now, seeing her confidence. She has been working at the easel with Drew trying to teach him to draw people and, for some reason, pizza's. He enjoys drawing as much as she did at this age. His favorite letter is the letter 'M' and he writes it over and over and over, and he draws the cutest people. I'll get a picture one of these days. Poor second child. I probably have every picture Abby has drawn since she was born. I'll be better. :)

Parvo

So, just 12 hours after getting our sweet little puppy, he was diagnosed with Parvo. For those of you that may be dog illiterate like me, it's pretty much close to a death sentence to these sweet puppies. It's highly contagious. It attacks the intestines and sometimes the heart, causing major diarrhea and vomiting. And just as sad is the lethargy. A puppy who should be jumping and running can barely lift it's head. This was what we saw in our sweet Jack. Even after a few hours we were very attached and were devestated by this diagnosis. We've spent the last 24 hours squirting water and pedialyte into his mouth and just cuddling with him. This video was taken tonight. We have hope that he will be able to pull through this. He was the sole survivor of his litter of ten puppies. So even though the chances are around 1 in 10 that a puppy will survive Parvo, he's done this before, and we're hoping/believing he can do it again. We hope you will all be able to meet him someday.

P.S. - Jack is Drew's biggest fan and vice versa. He's already following Drew around wanting to play with him. It's so cute. We just have to continue to teach Drew to be a little more gentle.

Halloween costumes