Mark, Jennifer, Ethan, Emily

This blog is about our family, who have dealt with the loss of two sons with Muscular Dystrophy, the adoption of a son diagnosed with Agenesis of Corpus Callosum and the birth our a healthy little girl. It's a crazy life, but we are loving it.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Welcoming Fall, Part 2!

Last weekend we attended our little town's fall festival.

We stopped by the classic car show.

Ethan loved this one!

We went to the carnival!

Emily rode a pony. She was not in a happy mood because I made her wear the dress she had on.

We went to a petting zoo.
A pot bellied pig.

Ducks!

Turkeys!

I'm really not sure what she's petting!?

Snow cones!  
Ethan saw his friend Jonathan there! There are two adorable little boys.
Again, it was HOT! But, we had a great day and I hope we made some great memories for my kids.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Welcoming Fall!

We're doing our best to welcome Fall in HOT Texas weather!

The kid's school held a fall festival on Friday night! They had  lots of fun.
Emily got a tattoo!
A little puppy.

Emily got a tinsel in her hair. Ever heard of such a thing? Literally, a piece of tinsel was knotted in her hair.
Ethan showed off his basketball skills!
Emily also got her fingernails painted,  Ethan played a game of ring toss and ate a bunch of cotton candy, but the highlight of the night was the rock wall they both got to climb.





On Saturday, I took Ethan to Cub Scouts belt-loop day. He went to three different stations and learned about three different things to earn some beltloops; helping people with disabilities, geology & learned about another culture.

Ethan in the geology group learning about different rocks.


Later on in the afternoon, I took the kids to the pumpkin patch and we had a blast!

On our way to the pumpkin hunt!





Nothing says Fall in Texas like snow cones!
I told her to be a serious clown for this picture!
Ethan telling me how they made the snow cone!

Emily painted her pumpkins!

Ethan didn't want to paint his pumpkins. He wanted to work on his snow cone.
Last, they pet the goats.
We had a great, warm fall weekend here in Texas. They say a cool front is coming next week! I can't wait!!!

Monday, October 10, 2011

The New Job, Rain, The Gideons, Teacher Conferences & Fall Decorations... A hodge podge of what we've been up to!

Was anybody tired of my complaining in the last couple of posts? If you weren't, then God Bless You! But, we have really had a crazy month or so.

I completed my first week on my new position at work. It went rather well. I think I'm finally getting the hand of some of the work! It was very busy, but because it was so busy, the week flew by.

My mom & I took the kids with us to Walmart on Saturday. While we were there, I let the kids pick out their Halloween costumes. Ladybug knew already what she wanted to be. She's a planner. She had been telling me for months now that she wants to be a vampire. She found a cute Vampire Queen costume. Stinkbug on the other hand, could not make up his mind and we were in the costume isle for-ev-er!!! He kept picking out outfits that didn't have his size, or it wasn't mom approved, or he got distracted with all the extra gadgets they had (swords, guns, etc) so I put my foot down and told him to pick something out already. Finally  he made picked out a ninja costume. Alright! I can live with a ninja & vampire queen, both too cute to be scary.


When we came out, it was pouring rain. We were drenched! We celebrated getting caught in the rain by going through the drive through at Dairy Queen & had a mini pumpkin pie blizzard. Yum!


Mark & I were invited to a pastor appreciation dinner hosted by The Gideons International. It was such a great night! We had a great fancy schmancy dinner, sang some great hymns, heard a wonderful testimony from Duche' Bradley & met some wonderful people. It was great night & I'm glad Mark and I were able to attend.

We had both of the kids teacher conferences today. I was so nervous about Ethan's (because he got in trouble at school or his after school program 4 out of 5 days last week) so Mark told me he would take Ethan to his parent-teacher conference and I would take Emily to hers. They were 15 minutes apart. Emily is doing really well. She knows all her numbers, alphabet, sounds, shapes, & is working on her second list of sight words. However, her teacher said she likes to talk a lot. She gets that from her dad. She needs to work on counting to 100 & patterns.


Ethan's teacher said that he seems to like school and interacting with his peers & likes to play. OK. That's been established. He likes to play. A lot. I think she put it in a very nice way. How is he doing academically? He's not reading on his level. He's not organized. He has a hard time staying on task. He's unprepared. OK. Nothing new, but it's nothing we can't/don't work on with him. I know that Ethan can do the things he needs to do, but he needs to apply himself.

The kids made some Halloween jars this weekend.
Start with some Halloween paint colors & jars...
Don't forget your paint brush!
Paint them babies...
Let them dry completely...
Add some scary faces...
And some tea light candles...

And display!



Here is my tables in  my foyer...

I hope everyone has a great week!