The beginning of summer

Caleb receiving his Character Award- Respect from his principal
Taking the kids to a family tradition at the cottage- Slack's store
Riding the ferry on Lake Wisconsin
Strawberry picking
Isaac ate his weight in strawberries
Going for a pontoon boat ride
My cousin, Emma, was a great help with Julia
Driving the boat with Aunt Beth
My aunt gave us this hand-me-down for Julia- Julia and Isaac love it!
Showing off a cute dress
Caleb making a gross picture
The men observing Nate's sprinkler system in action
Why does he need a big bed when he only sleeps in a corner of it? :)
Enjoying Lake Michigan

June is almost over, crazy! In early June we went to Caleb's moving up ceremony at school. Every student was given a Character Award and Caleb was given "respect." We are very proud of him for being respectful! Another little girl was given the award of "persuasiveness." That made me laugh. I can only imagine what her personality is like. :) Caleb was excited to move up to kindergarten and leave the ceremony with his new teacher.

I then drove the kids to my grandparent's cottage on Lake WI. I was proud of myself for doing the 6 hour drive alone! I am also thankful for the portable DVD player. Nate came up a few days later with my brother. The weather wasn't fantastic that week, but we still had a fun time. The kids enjoyed playing outside with my cousins, Ian and Emma, who are a little older than Caleb. I wish my children would sleep in during the summer. Isaac consistently wakes up as soon as the sun is up. I'm sure someday all they'll want to do is sleep and I'll be yelling at them to wake up!

We have taken the kids to Lake Michigan a few times. They all love playing in the water, no matter what the temperature. Julia continually makes a beeline for the water and wants to be outside when the boys are. She is imitating more words like, "water, shoes, socks, and bath." She understands much of what we say to her. Isaac still mispronounces words and it is so cute. For example, "sirsty (thirsty), pack-pack (backpack), and "I, Isaac, I not tired!" He can't pronounce his "L's" so he says "Y's" instead. He also likes to say, "Daddy and Caleb tooted!" even if they didn't. :)

Nate has been able to use some vacation time this summer which has been great. We'll head to the cottage again in July and do some short camping trips. Gotta love summer!

On the move

Julia is now walking!
What a look! I just asked him to smile next to Julia.
What a great smile!
Water Balloon Toss
Caleb and his friend, Donovan

Caleb is on summer break! This school year went very fast. Caleb loved his Young 5's class and teacher, but he is excited to start kindergarten. He grew 2 1/2 inches this school year! No wonder I have to keep buying him clothes. I went to his end of school party. Caleb enjoyed the water balloon toss and fight. We're a little sad that his good friend, Donovan, will attend a different school next year. I remember last summer, I was nervous about how we would all stay sane. I'm feeling pretty good about this summer. I think it helps that Caleb and Isaac play well together.

We had our last post-placement visit with our social worker. The adoption court date should be mid-June. Julia will be officially ours! About two weeks ago she started walking everywhere. She is so proud of herself. I'm having fun dressing her in cute summer dresses. She loves being outside with the boys and swinging. We took the kids to the beach and the water was COLD. The boys were splashing around and Julia kept crawling to the water so she could join in. She throws tantrums now. She'll go limp and fall to the floor. She also bangs her forehead on the floor, but not very hard. Ahh, the toddler stage. :)

Isaac has been potty-training for a couple weeks now. He wears underwear which he is very proud of. He has the peeing thing down, still struggling with pooping on the toilet. Just need to figure out what really motivates him!

Nate has the sprinkler system installed and working! I'm very impressed with his abilities. All he has left is planting grass.

My Mom is recovering well. The doctor took her off IV nutrition. She is allowed to start working again, but only 2 hours at a time. That is better than nothing! I appreciate all of your prayers for my Mom these past months.

Oh, and here are a couple funny stories about my children. Isaac was pointing at his nipples and asked, "What are these?" I said, "those are your nipples." He then said, "Let me see your pickles." I had a good laugh over that. I took Isaac to the library and he said he had to pee. So we ran to the bathroom, but he didn't go. I was walking him into the library when a chunk of poop fell out of his pant leg onto the carpet! I was mortified! I ran him back to the bathroom and grabbed a ton of toilet paper to clean up. Thankfully it wasn't much of a mess. So embarrassing though! The other day I was wearing a cami and Caleb puts his hand on my stomach and asked, "Why is your stomach getting bigger?" Trying to maintain my composure I asked him what he meant? He asked me if I was going to have a baby! Talk about blow to the self-esteem. I promised myself to exercise more than once a week and eat less sugar, at least for a day. :)

Where to begin?

Leaving the Whitecaps game- Caleb still holds my hand (sometimes!)
Julia being silly
Isaac loves having a dirt backyard
Julia could sit happily in her swing for an hour

Since our Virginia trip, I have been busy! I was home for a couple days after VA and then I left for an orphan conference (Summit VI) in Minneapolis. I carpooled with 10 other people from West Michigan. The conference was amazing. It was inspiring, challenging, educational and emotionally exhausting. I went to some sessions that were personally interesting to me as an adoptive/foster parent and to some sessions that gave info I can take back to my church. I'm praying God will raise up other people in my church who want to start an orphan ministry with me. Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife sat right behind me during a session. It took alot of willpower to not act like a starstruck idiot. It was apparent they wanted their privacy and everyone respected that. I was gone a total of four days and Julia had a rough time of it. Nate was home with her, but my absence instilled some fear in her. She was quite clingy when I got home, but she is doing well again.

After Summit I was home for two days and then Nate and I took the younger two to WI for his Grandma DeMaster's funeral. She was 98 years old and died in her sleep. It was sad, but also a celebration of her long life. My Mom stayed home with Caleb so he didn't have to miss school.

For Mother's Day weekend we went to my parent's house. We had lunch at a nice restaurant and then Nate and I took the boys to a Whitecaps baseball game. We met the Slots there and had a fun afternoon.

Thank you to everyone who asks about my Mom and prays for her. She has been struggling with pancreatitis for 7 weeks now. She had a surgery at U of M a couple weeks ago, but it wasn't completely successful. She is having a 2nd surgery this Friday, the 14th. Please pray that the Dr. can get the stent in and she will be healed.

Nate is a man on a mission this week. For a couple of years we have talked about installing a sprinkler system and now we are doing it. I should say Nate is doing it. :) It is amazing to me how he can plan and configure and pull this all together. We had 3 dump trucks of dirt brought into our backyard. Many of you know our yard is mostly sand, so hopefully we can grow things now! The weather has not been cooperating as Nate would like, but he is getting alot done. His goal was to dig a well and have the system run off of that. He got about 15 feet down and was then stuck in the clay. He called a well digging business to ask about the water level in our area and they told him he'd have to go down 80 feet! Needless to say the digging stopped right then. Nate goes back to work Thursday night and he wants to have all of the equipment in the ground by then, we'll see what happens!

We've been blessed with healthy kids the past couple months, so I shouldn't be surprised that they are getting sick. Caleb was diagnosed with bronchitis today and started antibiotics. The poor kid has had a horrible sore throat and fever. Isaac had a fever tonight and might be starting a cough. I'm praying the rest of us don't all get sick! Julia has been teething like crazy. She has gotten a couple of molars and other teeth too. She isn't walking much yet, but she seems to be more interested lately. She now says, "gaku" which is Korean for "peek-a-boo." That is the only Korean word we've taught her and I don't know how to really spell it in Korean. :) She likes to find people's bellies, points to her nose, and knows some animal noises. She is still the best eater we've had in this family, she is not picky. Speaking of food, we saw the allergist again after doing the wheat/apple experiment. The Dr. recommended putting wheat back in Isaac's diet since it didn't seem to be affecting him negatively. Woo-hoo! We're still not giving him dairy or apples, but we can live with that. We'll see the allergist in a year to see if anything has changed. Thank you for all of your prayers!

Virginia

The jacuzzi tub in our condo was the highlight for Caleb. They all have suits on, except Julia :)
Caleb and Britta mini-golfing
We had an egg toss- Look at that skill and concentration. Nate dropped our egg, not me!
Nate's brother, Pete, Julia and April
Jack, Colleen, Julia, Grandpa, and Isa
Kids playing musical chairs, all of the kids were crying by the end. :)
Caleb and Britta were best pals
Grandpa and Grandma with the grandkids
Blaise (3), Britta (5), Caleb (5), Isaac (2)
Julia loves to roll around on the coach with us
The ladies went for a hike for a couple hours, good bonding time!
Inside Shenandoah Caverns- very cool
Caleb got a hole in one, I did not. :)
Go-Karting was awesome!

We had a great time in Virginia. It was a 13 1/2 hour drive, but the kids did well considering the circumstances. The kids had fun playing with their cousins and grandparents. There are 10 grandkids now- 9,8, two 5 year olds, 3, 2, two 1 year olds, and twin 11 month olds! We enjoyed catching up with family and playing games every night. We took some hikes, swam in the pool, walked thru a cavern, went mini-golfing and did I mention we played games? :) Hopefully we can all get together again in a couple years. Thanks again to Mom and Dad for organizing this reunion!

Easter

Checking out the chicks and ducklings at Tractor Supply
I think Isaac is cuter than the chick :)
Playing with Grandma
Julia wanted to see what was going on
Kind of a gross picture, but funny too. Isaac decided he didn't like the taste of boiled eggs!
I like this picture of Caleb. It's not very often we get a "natural" smile when taking a picture!
Nate reading to the boys during Cardale's visit.
Family picture on Easter

Easter egg hunt. I like Tim's idea of sipping wine during the hunt!
Isaac checking out the eggs.

We spent Easter weekend at my parent's house along with my siblings. We had some really nice weather! The boys enjoy seeing the chicks at Tractor Supply every spring. Caleb really wanted to buy some chicks. I had to remind him that chicks grow up into chickens that can peck you. Remember, the chickens at Uncle Reuben's house and how you didn't like them? :) I also don't think our neighbors would appreciate a bunch of chickens in our backyard. The boys had fun decorating Easter eggs, although Isaac cracked most of the ones he touched. Cardale also came over for an afternoon which was probably the highlight of the weekend for Isaac. Caleb enjoys playing with Cardale, but Isaac and Cardale have alot of fun together. Granted, there is still some of the rivalry between them, but overall they have a good time. We are very excited for Cardale and his parents because his adoption will be finalized in a couple weeks!

My Mom was feeling a little better over Easter weekend, but ended up back in the hospital this week. Her pancreas is kind of going crazy on her. She's hoping to go home this week and then she'll see a specialist at University of Michigan in a couple weeks. Hopefully the specialist can figure out what needs to be done and get the procedure scheduled quickly!

We started reintroducing apples into Isaac's diet. The first apple slices he ate went well. However, yesterday we gave him apple slices at lunch and applesauce at supper. He complained his stomach hurt and then threw up at bedtime. Ouch. It's not looking so good for apples in the diet.

Still Here!

Opening her package from Gpa and Gma D- the paper was the best part!
Cruising around the house
Quick get a picture, they are getting along! ;)
Isaac with his "Thomas the Train" sunglasses
Isaac showing his new fireman boots from Gma D- he wears them alot!
Caleb got his first lollipop from his teacher, I was actually a little jealous. Lollipops are so cool!
Enjoying a snack in a cute spring outfit

It's hard to believe I haven't blogged since Julia's birthday. It seems like life has been in the fast lane this past month. After learning we had to cut wheat and dairy out of Isaac's diet, I was overwhelmed. It took a few days to gain confidence that I could find food for him to eat. After changing his diet we did notice some changes in Isaac. He wasn't waking up during the night anymore and he wasn't complaining about his stomach hurting all of the time. This week his blood work came back saying he isn't allergic to any food. Say what?? The pediatrician had warned me that allergy testing isn't always conclusive, she was right. The allergist said we can start reintroducing wheat and apples into Isaac's diet and keep a journal about how he does. Since his skin reacted so quickly to milk products, she recommends keeping milk out of his diet for another year or two. At that point they will do a food challenge to see how he tolerates milk. We started reintroducing wheat into his diet a couple of days ago. I know it is still early to know for sure, but he has been crabbier and complaining about his back/stomach hurting. I'm praying that maybe he's just getting sick, but I'm guessing he has a sensitivity to wheat. We'll see what happens.

This past month my Mom also got really sick. She ended up in the hospital with pancreatitis for over a week. She is home now, but struggling with nausea. The doctors think they know what caused the pancreatitis, but she needs to see a specialist at the University of Chicago as well. Please keep praying that she regains her appetite and strength soon.

Julia started taking some steps on her own a couple of days after her birthday! She will occasionally walk between Nate and I, but she still prefers crawling. She is discovering her voice these days. I think she realizes the boys are pretty loud and she feels the need to compete and make sure she is noticed. :) We are down to one bottle a day now, yay! She is drinking whole milk better, but we still have to add a little sugar free chocolate syrup.

Caleb is reading now! He can read the little books made up of 3 letter words. It is so amazing to see your child reading. Soccer will start soon which he is excited about. We are trying to teach him how to ride a two wheel bike. It will be slow going, but I'm confident he'll catch on this summer.

It seems like there was more I wanted to write about, but my brain is shutting down. :) I pray you all have a wonderful Easter celebrating our risen Lord!