Crosses for Carson

My Monogrammed Tahoe has a post on her blog about her nephew, Carson. He was diagnosed with Idiopathic Infantile Spasms at just 9 months old and he needs a seizure puppy. He has gotten approved but the puppy will cost about $13,000. This dog will alert his parents to his seizures, among other things, and make it so that they can sleep and know that they will be alerted to any seizures. They only need $1400 more! You can get the full story at My Monogrammed Tahoe.

Crosses for Carson is a fundraiser that his family is doing. Please take a look at the crosses they have for sale and consider one for yourself or for a gift. They start at only $6.00 each.

How many times have you thanked God for your healthy children? Here is a chance to put your money where your mouth is and help out a mother who is doing all she can to help her baby. Carson's mother has also started a blog where she talks about his tests and treatment, Snoopy and Sunshine.

I know I don't have a lot of readers but you can share this on your blog or send out an e-mail and hopefully help with the last little bit so Carson can get his puppy. How can you look at his sweet little face and not want to help?

Back to School

It's that time of year, again! Reilly started Pre-K this year so all of my children are in school and they are in school with me! Sometimes, this is a plus, sometimes it's not. Everybody had a great first day and loved their teachers. I was really worried that Reilly was going to cry but she went right in. I've done something to the settings on my camera so all my pictures of Connor by himself are blurry and I didn't get one of Reilly that was focused until after she had messed around and frizzed her hair out. She's looking a little like Medusa in these but, you get the idea. Everybody was wearing the new shoes that Ottie bought them and ready on time for their Daddy to take them to their new classes. That's one of the downsides of being a teacher. I always have to be in my room, waiting on my new students, so I can't be the one to drop them off on the first day. But of course, they love that Daddy takes off of work to take them and pick them up on the first day of school every year.

I'm going to take some more this week and hope for better shots. I've got to sit down with my camera and figure out what I'm doing wrong. I told Connor that I was sad because it was his last "first day" as an elementary student. He told me that it wasn't an important day. The one that was important is the Last Day of Elementary School! It's hard for me to believe that I'll have a middle schooler next year but apparently it's not worrying him.

I know it's hard for my dedicated readers (all 1 of them, Hi, Momma!) to believe that I'm posting and it's not even anybody's birthday. I'm going to try to be more consistent. It's just that we seem to be more busy than ever now that we have a 5th grader, 2nd grader, and a Pre-K student. Where did all the time go?

Brotherly Love

A couple of weeks ago I took the kids and my nephew to the pool after Bible School. You would think that all morning at church would help to cut down on brotherly disagreements, but apparently not! Garrett and Connor got into a little argument which ended with Connor throwing the swim mask at Garrett. It hit Garrett in the mouth, busted his lip, and knocked into a loose tooth. That resulted in this...

At least the Tooth Fairy did bring $5.00 since it was his first tooth to fall out and since he had a little "help" from his brother!

Happy Birthday, Mike!!!

Lucky Number 7!

Happy Birthday, Garrett!! I can hardly believe that you are already 7 years old!!! Here are 7 fabulous things about Garrett!

#1- He LOVES to play with his friend, #3W! He would rather do this than almost anything, if given the choice. This is not a great picture of the two of them, but it's the only one I have. I'm going to fix that this week!

#2- He loves art, music, and anything creative! He also loves sports, sometimes, but if he was given the option of going to baseball practice or playing with #3W, he would gladly skip baseball!

#3- He loves going to the Georgia football games with his Daddy, Pop Pop, and Connor. I don't know if it's the football he loves so much as just going!

#4- Garrett loves to spend time with his family! He loves to play and is really sweet with Reilly!

#5- He has one of the sweetest smiles and it really can light up a room!

#6- Garrett is always up for an adventure. He loves to go anywhere (except the store) and is always happy to go with somebody and spend the night or the day!

#7- He usually has a smile on his face, although he has definitely perfected the art of the pout and this past year he's figured out how to talk back and argue.

And one to grow on- When Garrett is tired, he can sleep anywhere and sleep through anything!

Happy Birthday, Garrett!!!

I love you!

Happy 4th Birthday, Reilly!

My Tootsie turns 4 years old today! A little more than four and a half years ago her Daddy and I were in for a big surprise when we discovered that we were having number 3! I have to say that at first it wasn't a happy surprise but I can't imagine life without her. Apparently what we needed to make our family complete was a lot of pink, a touch of glitter, and a little bit of bossiness! Four things I love about Reilly are:

• Her favorite color has always been PINK and she loves anything pink.
• She loves her "boys" and she gives them a run for their money.
• She loves to dress up and wants to wear a skirt or a dress to bed instead of pajamas. (Yes, I let her. By the time you get to number three, you just don't have the energy to argue about some things.)
• Instead of saying that she missed you very much, she says, "I very missed you!" which will melt your heart after a long day at work.

Happy Birthday Reilly!

(This picture was taken by my friend Amy at Hiley Creative Photography.)

My Christmas Jar

I am still working on my post about our December but I figured that, at the rate I'm going, if I wait on it to be through, I may not post again until next December. So, I'll keep working on that but in the meantime-I'm moving on!

One of the best parts of December, 2008 was the fact that our family was able to work more on remembering the real meaning of the season. So next year, I plan to do even more to make Christmas special for others and to have my family share in this. Last summer, I read the book Christmas Jars by Jason Wright. I thought it was a really inspiring story that can remind us to focus on helping others throughout the year. Well, as inspiring as it might have been, my own Christmas jar didn't add up to much by December since I wasn't very faithful about adding to it, so I ended up just mixing the change in with the other jar on my counter. This is a jar we use for ice cream money, change for the coke machine, etc.-in other words, nothing that helps anybody but us.

This year I have vowed to stick with it and do a better job. You'll notice below my beautiful Christmas Jar (in it's previous life it held applesauce-you know how fancy we are around here!) but I figured that it's not the appearance of the jar that matters but what goes into it. I'm hoping to fill this jar up pretty quickly, cash in the change, put the bills on the bottom, and fill it up all over again. Even though it's not a big jar I want it to add up to a nice surprise for someone needy in December.

If you haven't read the book you can order it online or check it out at the library. It's a sweet story and a nice way to celebrate Christmas throughout the year. If you have read the book then it's time to start your jar. Hopefully you can share your jar and the story of what you do with it this December and we can inspire others to make a difference one penny at a time!

Happy 10th Birthday, Connor!

Happy Birthday to my first baby! Ten years ago today I was getting ready for my most important job ever. Even though most days it seems like I'm not very good at it-I wouldn't give it up for anything. You always hear people say that you can't understand how it feels to be a mother until you are one and it is so true. You just can't comprehend how your heart can love someone that much, or how you can be so enraptured, so happy, so amused, so worried, so frustrated, or so stressed- all because of the same little person! To celebrate 10 years I'm going to list the top 10 things I love about Connor:
1. He is full of energy and sometimes I feel like we have our own Engergizer bunny! From the 1st day he was born he has been ready to go and doesn't stop much.
2. He is smart and full of facts! He has some bit of trivia about almost everything we talk about which sometimes can be a bit tedious but he loves to learn new things and share what he's learned.
3. He can talk like nobody's business! You never have to worry about a quiet awkward moment when Connor is around.
4. He is very enthusiastic about anything he loves and he gets into it with his whole heart-whether it's baseball, football, the Wii, reading, hunting or anything else-he gives it his all.
5. He loves to read and I think it is safe to say he got that from me!
6. He loves all thing sports- my Daddy would have loved this because he always wanted a boy and he loved sports, too.
7. He loves chocolate milk and always has. He went from formula to chocolate milk and it's still his favorite drink. He once won a costume contest at Halloween when he was dressed as a hobo with a sign that said "Will work for Chocolate Milk".
8. He loves Georgia football and going to the games with his Daddy, Pop-Pop, and Garrett. He also likes to watch football on TV, play it in the yard, and play it on the Wii.
9. He could care less about how he looks or how his clothes look or how his room looks. This is sometimes a big frustration for us but it is a great way to go through life, I mean it would be nice not to stress about those things sometimes.
10. He has a smile and a laugh that can light up a room and my heart!

Happy Birthday, Connor!