Happy 6th Birthday, Calvin!

Dearest Calvin!

We can't believe you are six!  You've grown into such a nice, helpful, young boy.  We love you so much.  You sprouted three inches this past year and have hit the big 4-1 in weight!  As you can imagine, you are a tall, lanky boy...just like your dad was at your age. 

This year you are starting Kindergarten and we are so excited for you.  You know so much already, but being in a class of kids that are your age will be so much fun for you. 

You and Daddy went on your first mission trip with our church this past June.  You had a great time and want to do that again.  We love watching you develop a heart for helping others. 

You love God more than us and that makes us very happy.  Things are very black and white to you, we love watching you ask questions about your faith and making it more real for you. 

We pray that God would continue to mold you into the man he would want you to be.  We pray that you would fiercely love God and want to serve him always. 

We love you sweet boy, our sonshine!

Love always,
Mommy and Daddy, Mia & Asher 

6th Birthday Bash

Today we celebrated Calvin turning 6.  Family came over and a few of his friends came over and we had a nice, small party for him.  He has been obsessed with Pokemon since the new Pokemon Go app and so that is what his party was all about.  It was a big hit.  All the kids had fun and of course, the birthday boy learned more things about Pokemon then he had ever known before...we may have created our own little pocket monster.  Here are a few pics of the day. 

Summer

I feel like it just started and it is almost over all at the same time.  The kids and I have been just relaxing at home, not really doing anything.  It's hot outside, so we try not to be out there in the afternoon.  I have a million things on my to do list and absolutely no motivation to do any of them. 

Thankfully my kids don't realize that other kids do a lot more things during the summer.  They are perfectly content to hang out with mama all day and color and paint. 

We do have a tiny trip planned at the end of the month to Monterey.  The kids have been asking to go to the aquarium and we thought we could go for a couple days.  Brad will be finished with his class he is taking at the local community college and it will be a nice end to his hard work. 

Mia continues to be seizure free and we continue to praise God.  We have slowly started weaning one of her meds and will continue to slowly do this for awhile.  Our prayer is that she would remain seizure free without the third medicine, but it's going to take us quite awhile to wean.  Thank you for continuing to pray for her!

A Much Needed Update

Is it summer yet?  As of today, I can officially say it is.  June tends to be a bit more chaotic because for the last two years I have been co-director of crafts at our church's VBS.  It's a fun job, but can be exhausting too.  Thankfully my co-director is AWESOME and I couldn't do it without her.  But, it just seems like everything revolves around making that happen in June. 

The kids had a blast at VBS.  It was just a great week for them and I love how excited they were about going.  We've listened to the music CD of VBS songs on repeat for the last month, so I was rather surprised when it came on in the car today and everyone still got excited.  Asher said, "this is my favorite." 

The kids have been doing swim lessons every day and I'm excited to report that both Calvin and Asher can swim!  How crazy is that?  Their teacher has them jumping in or sliding in and then swimming to the side on their own.  Neither of them can swim the length of the pool, and Calvin can definitely swim further than Asher, but I'm so impressed with how much they have improved.  Mia is right there too and while she readily tries and works on all the skills, she just has a tougher time getting it all together than the boys.  But, I think with enough practice, she too will get it. 

Speaking of Mia, she continues to be seizure free!  Praise God!  We have started to wean her off one of her meds very slowly.  We are being cautious, but realize also that she's probably on a bit too much medication as she gets really sleepy during the afternoon.  She is also completely healed from her surgery and doing really well. 

We are looking forward to relaxing over the next few weeks as we enjoy our first days of summer!

Home!

We made it home late on Thursday evening.  It was so nice to be able to fly home and not drive especially since we ended up staying longer than I anticipated. 

Mia is doing really well.  It always amazes me how quickly kids bounce back after surgery. 

Before her surgery date, we had to meet with several specialties to get her cleared for surgery because of her complicated history.  One of those was neurology because of her ongoing seizures.  They recommended that we increase one of her meds just a little bit to bridge us through surgery since the body is prone to more seizures during a surgery and recovery.  So the Tuesday before surgery, we increased the one med just a tiny bit for her AM dose.  Up through her surgery, she was still having daily seizures.  The day after her surgery she had 3 seizures.  But then, amazingly, they stopped.  We haven't had a seizure since last week Saturday.  There have been a few times when she zones and I wonder if it is an absence seizure, but they are very brief and it could just be exhaustion and recovery from her surgery.  We are hopeful that in the next few weeks we can determine, as she gets rested, if she indeed is seizure free.  Right now, we are just so grateful.  Every day without a seizure is a blessing.  Thank you, thank you, thank you God!!!