More Vacation pictures

As promised, here are some pictures of my Dad and the boys! My poor step mom, Darcy had just gotten over the flu, yes it has gone through their family too!

Here is the view coming down to the bridge going over the Columbia river in Vantage. So beautiful!

Dad and Joshua

Dad, Noah and Joshua

Manitoe Park

During our trip to my Dad's we had a lot of time just to hang out as a family! What a huge blessing, we don't seem to have much of that when are home! Like I mentioned before we spent much of our time at the park, just letting Noah run and play. We also went to a beautiful Park called Manitoe Park. As a kid I can remember going there often, we always liked to drive through the part of town that this park is in and look at the houses. They're absolutely beautiful! Think craftsman style, from the 20's and 30's. Probably where my LOVE for old houses came from. We would drive up and down the neighborhoods just to look, and dream I suppose... maybe one day I will live in a house like that. Here are some pictures I took at Manitoe park, unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the homes in the area, that would have looked a little creepy!

Here is my Dad with Noah

Joshua in the swing for the first time. He loved it!
We stopped at Sonic on the way home... here is my cherry limeade! yum!
We had the "car hop" deliver our food this time. So fun!

We always drove by this church on the way to the park. I always thought it was beautiful, I love architecture, actually I took a class in high school where we studied a whole section on churches. Finally got a picture of it!

Micah and I couldn't figure out what this tree is, it is beautiful though.
Micah and I in front of the fountain
Me and Noah


These were huge! Thought it was so cool, how long did they have to train this to be in this shape?

This is the railing on the staircase going down to the garden in the next picture, the garden with that huge beautiful fountain in it. Not sure why I got two pictures of it, just thought it was beautiful.
The view of the garden from the top of the staircase.
A saucer magnolia tree!I have been nagging and nagging Micah to let me get one of these... I absolutely love them. The flowers are so huge.
chives!
Don't know what these are but thought they were neat looking.
The only area that was in full bloom, the border outside of the English garden. Unfortunately the rose garden wasn't blooming yet, I can't even imagine how beautiful it will be in full bloom.
A rose called first kiss!
another flowering tree
The bridge in the Japanese garden

Happy Joshua!
Noah and Micah looking at the huge fish in the Koi pond
One of the Koi.

Noah and his seizures

I was very surprised to get a call last week from Swedish Pediatric Neuroscience... we had an appointment scheduled with them for the middle of June, anyway They were wanting to see Noah that week! I was totally unprepared, I thought we had over a month till we were going to be there for our second opinion! Originally our appointment was scheduled after Noah had an EEG at the hospital, I was so upset about the EEG because our previous experience was so awful! It had been 2 years since and I certainly didn't want to re-live that experience with my son! The doctor wanted to see Noah even without having the EEG, ( we could schedule that after...)

So off we went, we dropped Joshua off with Aunt Cammie and baby Matthew and made the trek to downtown Seattle. It is so unnerving, going to a place for the first time, how do we get there?where do we park? Do we have to pay to park? what if were late? Anyway we got there in plenty of time, checked in, and I actually spoke to the man who made our appointment, it was great to know that the man who called to schedule Noah's appointment was the same man who answers all of the phones, and will no doubt answer when I call with a question/concern, or when Noah has another seizure. Our appointment was wonderful, all of our questions were answered and then some! We were listened to, and I truly felt that our doctor understood Noah. We will be going to the hospital for a 2 day EEG... ugh... 2 days!!!!! How on earth does that work with a 3 year old, oh and by the way I am still nursing Joshua so this will be interesting! Micah will have to be with us for most of the time during the day, I suppose it will be another adventure for us. Noah's doctor suspects that Noah is still having seizures, that we just aren't seeing them. I actually think that this is very possible. There are many times when I watch Noah and he does some weird movement, or stares off for just a few seconds and I think, man that looks like a seizure, but he cant be having seizure activity, he is on medication! But maybe he is... So i guess this EEG is a good idea, just overwhelming to me. After the EEG our doctor will determine the best way to help Noah, regardless of what the EEG reveals, Noah's medicine will be changed! Praise the Lord! his new medication has virtually no side effects, and wont cause any harm to his liver, which his medication he is on now has been known to do. The transition will take 6 months of gradually weaning him onto the new and off of the old, for several months he will be on double the amount of meds... I don't really know what that will look like, praying that the EEG will be the hardest part of this. Sorry, this is mostly my heart and thoughts that have been just swimming around in my head for days that I am finally putting into words, not a very interesting or fun post, I will have one of those soon. Thank you for your prayers! I am so excited for what the Lord has in store for my sweet boy, obviously I pray that the seizures will go away, but even if they don't God loves him even more than i do. He knows our every trial, and every tear we shed, such a comfort.

Vacation

I mentioned in an earlier post that we are on a mini vacation at my Dad's in Spokane. I love to come out here, obviously because I get to see my Dad, Step mom and brothers, but also I love the relaxing time we have. Our lives are very fast paced and it is so nice, and needful to slow down a bit and just be together. that is pretty much how we spend our time when we are here. There is a park basically in the backyard so Noah is loving it! Our first day here was sunny and warm, very unexpected considering the forecast said to expect thunderstorms all week. I will share some more pictures later, my poor Dad has that wonderful flu I was talking about in my earlier post so I haven't gotten many family pictures yet. Not to worry, we still have a few more days! Here are some pictures of our time at the park.

One of my favorite pictures! Joshua and Daddy

Joshua's first trip down the slide... wasn't too excited

Wish I had a zoom lens! If you look carefully, you will see Noah running back to the house, and the dog, Harley chasing him! Awesome!

Softball game

What a crazy week it has been for our family! I am working on a post about our trip to my Dad's then I realized I wanted to share pictures from last weeks church softball game! oops! I mentioned that we have had a mess of a week, since Wednesday our entire family has had the stomach flu! It has been awful! Noah started to get sick on our way to church on Wednesday so I took the boys home while Micah went to teach bible study, Joshua started to get sick pretty soon after we got home. I was thankful that Micah and I seemed to be fine, its much easier to take care of sick kids when Mom and Dad are well! Then Thursday night hit us like a freight train! Thankfully the really bad part of this bug is short lived! We were all on our feet again by Saturday! Here are some pictures from our softball game, before all of the craziness began!

It was a beautiful sunny day, Here is Joshua squinting in the sun!

He looks like he is having a conversation with his bear! So cute!

Noah and his friend Leslie sneaking ore cookies from someones bag!

Things I love about my Mom

This week we celebrated my Moms birthday. She absolutely LOVES this time of year, first we celebrate Mothers Day and then a week or so later its her birthday! I thought I would do a post about some of the things I love about her.

She sings at the top of her lungs when It is a nice day outside. Her song of choice... Oh what a beautiful morning!

She loves her grandchildren so very much

Sometimes when she reads her Bible, she is moved to tears

She made it a priority for our family to be in church whenever the doors were open

Her sense of humor

Her love of gardening

She gave me her love for reading

She also gave me her love for musicals, plays, and pretty much anything on stage

She sacrifices for her family

Loves to embarrass her children!

She lived out her faith

She taught me the power of prayer

She loves the beach

I love you Mom. Thank you for all that you do for our family. Happy Birthday!

My Garden

We finally had a beautiful spring day last week, so I took advantage of it and headed out to my garden to see what was new! I also spent way too much time weeding! It needed to be done, but I am already seeing new ones pop up!

Joshua playing in the grass


FYI.. 11 month olds like to eat grass, weeds, dirt... pretty much whatever they find

My Lilac's are getting ready to bloom!

Bleeding heart from my mom's garden. I love these flowers.

My neighbor has this pear tree that is drooping over our fence and into our yard, I don't mind it actually, it is beautiful, and I will take any shade I can get!

A close up of some of the pear blossoms

I cant wait till our next sunny day to see what else is happening! I think it is finally time to get to my local nursery for some new plants!

Saddle Ridge Ranch

I caught Noah and my Nephew dancing and singing "Saddle Ridge Ranch" a song from last years Vacation Bible School at our church. They were so cute I had to run and grab my camera! It is just so amazing what our children soak up... I am so thankful for a church that teaches them these songs that are all about Jesus!

Caleb jumping off the couch



Noah getting ready to jump



Love these precious moments

"... on saddle ridge ranch, discovering whenever I need wisdom, God is the one to ask..."