Pumpkin Patch and Halloween

Even without teaching this year, I am still surprised with how busy I am.  I'm thankful to not have the extra burden of working. 

We had a fun trip to the pumpkin patch with Nana and Grampa and Great Grandpa.  The kids keep picking bigger and bigger pumpkins each year.  Thankfully they picked easy plans for carving as Brad and I end up doing most of the carving work.  This year Brad said he has officially trained them well in scooping out the pumpkins so he doesn't have that job to do also.  Honestly, carving pumpkins is my least favorite activity, but we do it for the kids.  Thankfully Brad does most of it.  What a great Daddy. 

This year the kids wanted to trick or treat in our own neighborhood.  So, we walked around for about 40 minutes which was Asher and Mia's limit and had such a fun time.  They are the perfect age for trick or treating and I was really enjoying Asher's excitement after each house we stopped at.  Afterward, Calvin wanted to take over the job of passing out candy.  He's getting so big and I love his enthusiasm for that part of Halloween because it's my favorite part -- passing out candy. 

Dinos, Games, and More!

Mia had her birthday party on Saturday.  She was initially going to have a fox themed party, but then the brothers swayed her to a dinosaur themed party, so that's what we went with.  It ended up being a cute, fun party.  Mia invited her classmates, so there were quite a few kids there.  We made some carnival dinosaur themed games and I think the kids had fun with it.  Here are some pics!

Happy 11th Birthday, Mia!

Dearest SweetPea,

It's hard to believe that today you are 11!  It feels like we were just walking you around and around the kitchen island to keep you from fussing as a baby.  Now you are 11! 

You are such a sweet girl.  You love helping and are always willing to share.  You have one of the kindest hearts we know.  We love you so much!

This year you started 4th grade!  You are loving it.  You also continue to ride horses at MARE and we work on a few other therapies with you.  You love animals and if we could adopt a zoo, I think you would be in animal heaven.  Maybe Mom and Dad can be brave enough to think of a furry type of animal for you...

Lately you have been into all things dinosaur, like your brothers.  You are having a dino party tomorrow and we can't wait to have all your friends over.  It is going to be a lot of fun!

There are many who continue to faithfully pray for you, SweetPea!  This year, we've been praying for your seizures to go away and your back to be straighter.  We will keep praying for those things, you are such a brave girl even with all of this other stuff going on. 

We love you so much, Mia!  Thank you God for giving us a sweet girl, who loves you and loves other.  We are so blessed to have her in our family!

All our love,
Mom and Dad, Calvin and Asher

Disappointing News

So we heard from the East coast doctors regarding Mia's scoliosis.  The news was what we kind of anticipated, but we wanted to remain hopeful that the experts in the field might be able to do something different with Mia's special case.  So, now we have some big decisions ahead of us.  At what point do we absolutely need to do surgery for Mia's back?  Is it better to wait or not to wait?  How much of her back should be fused?  I guess what is so heart wrenching for us at this point is knowing that if we do end up having surgery, the chances of further risk and degeneration of her back from the surgery are high.  It's not really a matter of "if" the degeneration will happen, but "when"... and there are pain and problems with that which are just so discouraging to us to even think about.  That in itself makes me want to hold off as long as possible, but correcting a smaller curve is easier than correcting a larger curve.  If her back were to not change at all from this point forward, I think the doctors would agree that she would not need a surgery, but knowing scoliosis, that would be a miracle.  So, please be praying with us and for us as we sort out everything. 

Back In The Saddle

Mia started up at MARE again.  She's been riding there since Calvin was a baby--she had just turned 3 when she started riding.  Her birthday is coming up, so we are nearing on 8 years of riding at MARE!  When she first started riding, she rode a tiny horse named Sally.  Her horse was about the size of those at pony rides that people take kids to when they are little.  Now that she is older, she rides a huge horse - Haven.  We love Haven.  Haven is a sweet horse and does really well with Mia.  Her riding instructor this year is the same instructor she had the first time she went to MARE.  This instructor had left and is now back, so it is neat to see her again and for her to see how much Mia has changed.  She is a great instructor, so we are excited for her to be back at MARE. 

So I found some pics, and here is Mia's first ride in November of 2010!!!  She was so tiny!