Good Morning!! By request i'm updating... quickly...
As you know in May Grace had an ear infection, followed by the mystery rash, followed by falling down our stairs, then we went to a wedding in Pittsburgh leaving the kids with the Bush's, then she broke her leg, then we had memorial day, then June hit!
We've so far had the Kandray Family reunion in Salt Fork, I drove with the kidsto my grandma's to see my Aunt Pat who lives in Cali, Grace got her cast off and I drove with the kids to see my mom and the kids rode her horse. Whew! We also had Portraits taken a week or two ago at Penny's so i'll download those as well. We leave Friday for the beach and Tyler is finally at an age where he's the most excited of us all. :)
I hope this finds all who read well and full of blessings!
With Love and Prayers,
The Bush's

taking Grace to the ER....twice. Saturday morning while packing and getting ready to leave for the weekend Grace fell down our entire flight of stairs. My fault. she was bleeding in the mouth so we left in a hurry to take her to the ER with the Bush's meeting us there to be with Tyler. She tore the skin between her top lip and top gums= no recollection to it's name- but was otherwise fine. We were directed to give her motrin for pain and orajel if needed. We decided she was acting fine enough to go ahead and rush off to the wedding which we did. The weekend without the kids was wonderful and publicly- thank you to the Kelloggs for hosting us. We greatly appreciate it. We got back to the Bush's today around 4:30 and both kids were napping. Steph told us about how Grace hurt her leg while sliding earlier and while she was hard to console she was also exhausted so they had her nap and hoped she'd wake up fine. Unfortunately she did not. She was fussy and clearly in pain and could not crawl so we took her again to the ER. Several nurses recognized us. X rays showed she broke her right leg, both bones. They are actually "bent" I guess not bad breaks but she's in a half cast (plaster on bottom) toe to hip. She's already crawling with it and clearly is much more comfortable but it was an incredibly stressful several hours as she got increasingly agitated and cried more and more. She was very upset for the x rays and of course the wrapping of her leg. Please keep us all in prayer. Right now seems to be adjusting - praise GOD! She just pulls that leg when she crawls but she'll have to see the orthopedic surgeon (where steph works) sometime this week for possibly further x rays and casts and an indication of how long she'll be in the cast. She'll for sure be in it for her first birthday and we are praying NOT for vacation at the beach.... sand and casts do not mix I imagine... we are sorry for not personally emailing people but the stress and anxiety of Saturday morning on top of this and the late night excitement of the wedding has left Gary and I fully exhausted. We are so very thankful that nothing more serious happened.

Trying to get more April photos up of the kids... the add photo page is not working... sorry!


Tyler playing outside
A visit to the Kellogg's Grace-Tyler-Faith
Girls and Daddys
Girls and Mommys

After much effort and as little bad language (out loud) as I could manage
I have constructed the swing set. Here are some pictures and videos to enjoy.
(posted by gary)







Tyler kicking the ball as well!

Happy April! It's here and half gone already! Grace is still crawling, loves to stand on her knees but does not stand or pull herself to standing just yet. Both kids are sweet as can be. Tyler is getting to be very independant and, if possible, even more curious than before. I've got him signed up for swimming lessons which begin Tuesday so keep that in your prayers! Since last post we've enjoyed Easter as well as spring break where we got to spend time with friends which was a big blessing. Thank you to all who made an effor to see us when we were near or to come to see us here at the house. :) We love you! Enjoy a few more recent pictures of the kids and God Bless.


On this day I insisted we take a walk... it was much colder than I realized!
Even a princess can weild a sword!

Finger painting... he only got some on his eyebrow and fingers... go figure.
All by himself Tyler figured out how to get the cars to go best on the track using the large dump truck as a lift to make a ramp. He found by adding these others it went better and some cars even "flew" into the dump truck. I'm amazed sometimes at the things he comes up with!
And then sometimes I catch things like this and am reminded that he's only three... in my boots!
Grace is just a sweetie and her hair is growing... just in front and over her ears of course. :)
Josh and Faith Kellogg, Gary, Tyler and Grace Bush

Jackie and Faith Kellogg, Heather, Tyler and Grace Bush
Our little ham! Her new silly face is about her only face! Still no teeth you'll notice!
He didn't exactly smile but he did look at the camera... he's so sweet!
My best picture of the three of them smiling -Grace-Tyler-Faith

Ten Months 18 March 2008 Grace is ten months today! She started crawling yesterday!! For a few days she's been getting up on all fours more and putting one knee forward and then plopping down on her tummy. A few times she'd drag that second knee forward to even wtih the first but never could get it forward. Sunday she went forward a tiny bit but yesterday she really did it! It must have worn her out because she slept really well last night! I've not done it for several months and so I want to record some of her 'accomplishments' since in 2 weeks I won't remember let alone when I finally get around to writing in her baby book or her scrapbook! She's got no teeth. She's crawling and can also army crawl forwards and backwards. She can get from tummy to sitting (has been a week or two?). She gets stuck under the couch pretty often and also likes to wiggle into small spaces including under the step ladder, under the train and kitchen tables, under the desk, under the high chair and the space between the arm chair and couch. She does not like tight necked tops pulled over her head but she does help with the arms. During diaper changes she loves for us to blow raspberries on her belly and giggles like crazy. Her favorite toys to reach are Tyler's trains and cars. Her favorite toys of her own are ones she can either chew on or ones that make noise. She loves to play with her phones, her blocks, and the play house. She also likes rolling a ball toTyler and I. I"m not sure she rolls it on purpose but she gets a kick out of it when it falls out of her hands and rolls to one of us and we roll it back. She also loves books and likes to turn the pages and oftentimes sit on them. She tries to pull herself up to stand on the train table, high chair, couch and kitchen chairs. She has finally learned not to touch the TV stand. :) She clapps when she hears music or when anyone says "yay". She will often say it too. She also says with some consitancy ok, yea, mama, dada, nana, naynay, ni-ni, ditty-itty (kitty as far as we can tell), baba, num-num. She makes a lot of other sounds but these sounds seem to have meaning for her. She loves to make silly faces, play peek-a-boo, and make noises with her hand and mouth (a little like an indian cry). She has found her hair and ears and still is obsessed with her feet and toes. She rarely keeps socks on but has learned not to put them in her mouth. She fully understands "NO" and clearly chooses not to obey sometimes. She will even reach towards something and pull back really fast and look at you as if she hears 'no touch' in her head. She drinks her bottle on her own and is starting to conceed to the sippy cup but I dont push it. She loves cherrios and has the pincer grasp. She'll also eat potato pieces and last night ate some corn pieces much to my surprise. She likes any fruit pureed or cut in pieces but she won't pick them up- you have to feed them to her. Other than wiping her own runny nose she seems to hate having her hands wet or sticky. Her favorite veggies are potatoes (reg and sweet), and carrots. She also self feeds bread and cracker pieces and of course those wonderful Gerber stars. She also eats the homemade food better than the store bought. This is good b/c I know what she's getting but we only used the store bought when we are traveling b/c it's easier and so it is a bit of a pain that she eats less when we are traveling. Thankfully she'll still eat any baby cereal alone or with any fruit or veggie so that and cheerios often sustain her when we are out of the house for the day, a weekend, or even just a meal! She is our princess and we love her so much! We are blessed beyond comprehension to have both a son and daughter to love, care for and learn from. Thier smiles get us through life here on this sinful earth! They are our light and an ever renewed connection to the Lord.

We had a happy day here at the Bush house! Armandina Grace began to crawl!!! It went from two "almost" crawls to the real deal! At this point she has to be really interested in something pretty far away to do it but she's figuring it out. We are so thrilled and a little sad... 10 months tomorrow.... she's growing up way to fast!!

Here are some cute videos of Tyler and I playing in the snow after we shoveled.

Grace in the mini-skirt outfit my mom bought her for Christmas.
Grace and I play peek-a-boo
Grace got a Princess top from the Bush's for Valentines Day.
And Tyler got COOKIES!

Snowday #1 Was due to the windchill being so far below zero.

Making Valentines!

I made him a "robot helmet" out of his valentine bag.
Snow Day #2 was actually because we were supposed to get a lot of snow. We did!

We tried to sled but the snow was too deep and soft.

Tyler bundled up and ready to play!
Tyler and Mommy (Go Purdue! They won that day!)

Tyler shoveling snow with his sand toys

Grace in a snowsuit with no mittens or boots. :(
Tyler and Grace
Helping daddy clear off the car
Grace and Daddy
We sat her in the stroller in the garage since she couldn't actually be in the snow.

Making a snowman in the freezing rain after we did some quick sledding.
Grape eyes and a carrot nose...

2-13 Gary had snowday #3 and Heather babysat... with help! Yay! We had the snowday I suppose because we got more snow on top of the rain that froze on top of the first 6 inches we got the day before....

Tyler and Matthew making Valenintes

Wishing all our friends and family a very

Happy Valentines Day!

jen's having her baby soon! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so weird. I hear about other people getting pregnant or having babies or being close to having babies and I jump around all excited and giddy like a kid. It's rediculous actually. I'm so freaking excited about this kid being born you'd think it was my own kid coming. I'm also super excited b/c there is a small chance that I might get to FINALLY meet Zia this month! She was born in November! I've not seen Hannah since October and it's a wonder i've survived. I hate when I don't get to see or talk to a friend in a long time. Makes me crazy. Er... more crazy. I"m so so so excited for Jen! Did I mention that? She's being induced- for good reason- but I know it's not her first choice. I'm praying praying praying she has an experience very very similar to mine. She's delivering where I had Grace so I'm also praying she has nurse Joy who I had and LOVED. A part of me can't help but wonder if she would annoy Jen though. Jens' much more independant and grown up than I am. I need people surrounding me codoling me until my body takes over= then I'm like "get the hell into position and shut up". :) Ahhh... brings back memories. Grace is almost 9 months old. 9 months!!! Ill soon be unable to guage Grace's age by Jenn's pregnancy... .i wonder if she'll be able to write weekly blogs still and I can just say Grace is X weeks plus 9 months. haha! So Gary left this afternoon for Columbus. He's so excited. YOu know you've married a dork when he's excited to go to a technology conference. His self-perscribed ADD will kick in around 10:30 tomorrow though and he'll be sleeping with his eyes open... or emailing me whne he should be taking notes. I think at least this year there are no blizzards in teh forecast so it should not take him 6 hours to get home like last year. I hate when he's gone, I hate being alone at night and i hate feeling like such a baby for being so miserable. At least i won't have to watch the Super Bowl tonight! Speaking of Gary and sports (makes him less of a dork)... he's on an indoor soccer team for over 30 year olds- men and women. he has his games Sat. night and since he was going to be gone and the game was at 8pm, relativly early compared to 10pm we decided to all go. Turns out Gary scored a goal!!! His team won 4-0. I, of course, was busy with the kids (you dont think Tyler sits in the bleachers and actually watches quietly do you?) and Melissa was there so I got to listen to stories about someone else's kids for a change (she nanny's- don't worry, they aren't hers.). It turned out to be a fun night...other than the fact that I completley missed the goal.

The time has come my best friend said to talk of many things i choose smokers, lights, babies and kings. Ok, not kings but it rymed. It was mentioned to me that i need to blog more for some quality reading... yea right. You know how when you get to that point where so much is happening that your mind feels about to explode? Is that just a January thing? I swear it's always like this... then come March we are all whining about how cold and bored we are. Here's the tip of the iceburg... So the past few weeks have been the best and the worst for my dear friend Lori. She removed from her life, shall we say, dead weight. I couldn't be more thrilled. Adios and don't come back. Of course when removing a fixture of our lives there is always a process. Some would say this process isn't all that important when said fixture was a complete waste of humanity to begin with... however I think that the process is important and should be tailored to the situation and the individual. I'm doing what I can to help, which as usual is pretty much nothing but it's made life a little more fun for me! Haha! Last weekend she came up to stay with us which meant we took her out to dinner- it was nice to have someone new around, changes the conversation a little you know? Of course Lori's afraid of nothing so she brought up the dredded preschool issue... i must report we are not closer to any decision on the matter but it was nice to get her insight. Gary and the kids left and we forged on to the Mall. That's right folks! No kids! No diaper bag, no cheerios, no strollers, no "if you don't walk right I'm going to spank your butt". I remember on the way to eat (i rode with her) thinking how nice it was to talk to someone who's voice isn't so high pitched only cats can hear it and how weird it was to just listen and nod and not have to repeat each sentance back to assure I was listening. :) You mothers won't be surprised to learn I kind of missed it. What is it about kids? We ache for a moments peace and quiet and we get it and all we can think about is the kids! Will I grow out of that? So we went to Anne Taylor which I love. I tried on jeans and was thrilled to be down a size however they didn't have my size in petites so i passed. Lori got some really cute jeans and a beautiful dress. They have the nicest clothes and when stuff is on sale it's such a great deal! It was fun to just walk around and look- i made some special purchases in the Disney store- they had stuff an extra 50% off so I had to get these adorable bowls for the kids- tigger for Tyler and princess for Grace. Then I just picked some up for Jenn's kids. Jason can get over it. Besides, I see him like thrice a year. Is it realy worth his time to beat me up over a couple plates? I think not! See, he hates when existing kids get gifts at any time a new or expected baby gets gifts. I see his point but EXTRA 50% off! I even left the tags on in case they wanted to take them back. They don't. Her kids love them just as I knew they would. I also got Grace a Christmas dress iwth Mickey and Minnie on it for next year. It was 5$. She doesn't evne have to wear it for Christmas though it is red and black plaid. It said 1-2 years and it's sleeveless so as is if it fits in the summer, with a top if it fits in the winter. Couldn't pass it up. Saturday brought Lori observing a typical Saturday at our house. Awake for 6 hours, got nothing done before we left for the baby shower. It was great of Lori to come along and I knew Jen would be understanding. Again with the no kids! There were 10 of us there, most of us with no kids! It was like a glitch in the matrix... Jen, of course, got some great great stuff. I was especially impressed with the gallons of Garlic-Garlic her friend Amy got her. I think next time i'm over there i'll request we do veggies and dip. We headed out to my mom's that night which was fun. No matter how little I pack we manage to fill up the car. Thankfully Tyler was pretty quiet the whole trip so Gary and I got to converse like normal people a bit. Sunday we went to see my brother's new apartment. HIS. CLOSET. IS. HUGE. I think it's actually larger than his kitchen. I could stand in the middle stretching out my hands and not touch any walls. In fact Gary probably couldn't and his wing span is a good 2 feet more than mine. Joshua's TV is about a quarter the size of a real live theatre screen so i thought it'd be funny to watch Little People Big World on it. It was. I really do love that show but we didn't have to watch so much of it. Joshua was trying to be all polite and let us pick, mom slept on the couch, and Gary acts like he's not a remote hog when we are out in public. When we came home it was overdue baths time which was fun. I've given up on the baby tub so Grace sits on a washcloth in the water to keep from sliding and it's SO much easier to wash her... i wish I'd have tried it before Christmas rather than waiting till after. She's been doing it a month now and that little girl is just like me. She's a water baby. I love baths and swimming and the ocean... Grace just LOVES baths. She splashes and makes all these crazy noises. She makes noises in her mouth with her lips, tonge and in her throat that I can't even figure out how to copy and she's even louder in the bathroom. It's adorable. Plus you can see all her baby fat which I love. She's so short. I realized today when I was dressing her that she's in 12 month onsies and the 9 month pants are a bit long. I think she might just have short legs so far but she may be doomed to a life like mine- never having pants you don't walk on... This week was pretty typical- keep the kids alive all day and night and start over in the morning. I"m re-reading the second half of th Harry Potter series b/c I read the last book so fast last year I forget most of it and i'm reading the books leading up to refresh my memory. It's funny what you'll make time for when you want to. haha! Tuesday we went to visit Mary which turned out to be a blast. i wasn't sure she really wanted us over but we stayed till almost 9! Then we came home and fought about the stupid DVR which stopped recording biggest loser as soon as Gary touched the remote. I wanted to just listen to what was on but he wanted to scream and swear at it. I'm like SHUT UP I"M WATCHING TIHS! Thta's really my only show I care about. So we watched the second half first and the first half second. Yesterday i babysat. Tyler woke up with a froggy throat and some congestion in his chest which only flared up when he ran which is like all day when Matthew is here. I let them go pretty much because the more he runs in the house with Matthew, the less he runs in the house with me. I get dizzy running that circle! Samantha is either sick or teething or both but she was miserable. Grace just sat on the floor all day and played with herself b/c I was tending to Samantha quite a bit and trying to keep the boys entertained/away from the babies. My dad was over in the evening and we attempted to hit the new Quaker Steak and Lube... however it was 6:30 by the time we got there and all of Stark County was there. We'll try again when it's been open a little longer... I told dad we need to come early on a Tuesday- all you can eat wings- we make money back on that with Gary... Today was a pretty typical day. I'm so emotional that this roller coaster lori's on has been affecting me too. Today I was just ill for her because i just hate to see someone go through pain you know? I just hate it. I also know that the tone of emails can be decieving and i was desperate to know how she REALLY was. Thankfully tonight was our get together night so I got to go out AGAIN with no kids! whoo hooo!! Kudo's to Gary for watching them all these times so I can do these things. We met over in Salem and got to do a bit of chatting, eating and shopping. All great things in life. I figure in a few months she'll have a man and we can take the men with us to be the DD's and we can really have good time!! Long Island Iced Tea for her, Margaritaville for me! I always think it would be fun to go out to dinner and have a drink and then go dancing... you know I missed that whole scene in life but bars and clubs seem so trashy to me for the most part... Lori, should we do it before we turn 30?!?! Anyways on the way home I had to stop to pee, of course, so i hit wally-world which was fun b/c I was BY MYSELF but turned into a giant fiasco. I have a real love-hate relationship with walmart. I've discussed that here before... you know, the fun of being able to buy spinach, supper glue, clothes, makeup, light bulbs and paint in the same store is just facinating to me and so it's fun to jsut go walk around... plus about 90% of gary and I's dates in our 10 years of love have included walking around walmart or k.mart in the early days. I picked up a few items and headed to check out. My theory on the 10 items or less by the cigarette aisle being the fastest has completely been blown out of the water. We are talking Atomic Bomb here. I admit it, i have issues with smokers. It's nothing personal I just can't stand it. It's gross. It stinks and you make me wait around in the damn line. This guy is up there, gets off his little go-cart-mobile and limps over to where is son has the cart in line and proceeds to ask for a certain ciggy. Fine. Either the lady had never seen a cigarette before in her life or this guy had no idea what he wanted b/c it took FOREVER. he ended up with 2 cartons of Marlboro reds and about 10 individual packs of greens. Don't ask my why. What the hell do I know? He's got his vetran hat on all stooped over mumbling something to the lady and taking his sweet time... then they proceed to unload the cart of 12 tshirts that I counted (there were more) 2 gallons of milk, a pair of shoes and a few small things I coudln't quite make out --aforementioned son (# 5 of 6 kids mind you) was embarassed enough to attempt to hid the cart from the crabby lady behind me who said ever so quietly that it "F-ing sure doesn't look like no G-D 10 items" to her. I'm sure the guy with the adorable toddler girl (in her pink jammies on his shoulders aww!) in the lane next to us really appreaciate it. So 15 minutes later (no he did not know how to use his bank card and yes he checked the recipt and put it in his wallet folded neatly, in his inside coat pocket BEFORE he put the bags into his cart and shuffled away) it was my turn. Now I'm a sucker for great little gifts right? So valentines day is coming up so the world is full of random odds and ends colored pink, red and purple. I love those colors! SO I found a couple pink spatula's and thought that might be a cute gift to brighten the kitchen of some friends. Of course they were not marked with a price and I could nto find the price on teh shelf anywhere and the "FIND THE PRICE HERE" scannres wouldn't read it so I asked the cashier to tell me the price before I purchased. (Very audible sigh escapes lips of woman behind me.) She scans them- Freaking 4.97$! Who pays $5 for a freaking spatual at WALMART?!?!? I mean if this was Williams Sonoma I'd have bought them bu thtis was WALMART! I had watched the flat screen TV for that whole 15 minutes tell me about the millions of dollars walmart has saved Ohioans in 2008 (averages aobut 300$ a second best i could tell). You know how walmart saved me money? I did NOT buy those spatulas! Sorry. I said thank you but i don't want them and the cashier agreed with me that it was pretty expensive and she usually paid about a dollar for hers. I said "yea, i figured if they were a buck or two they'd be fun for me and my friends but not for 5. I can't pay that much- that's why I'm here." The lady behind me MIGHT have actually cracked a smile....err... grin. The guy with her (these ppl were in there 50's I'd guess) smiled kindly to me. I wonder if he was bright enough to be embarassed that the lady had ealier yelled/cussed in my ear about the ppl in front of me which I have no control over thank-you-very-much. Ok, that covers smokers, babies and the last week-in-the-life updates... lights... aahhh.. (Don't read this part grandma!!) So driving today I must have gone under at least 100 lights. At least 20 of them yellow and one red by the time i was under it. Sometimes idiots tail you so badly you just can't stop you know? Plus the momentary panic goes away when you see 2 idiots followed you making you less of an idiot. Anyways Gary told me ages ago that if you go under a yellow light and hit the ceiling as you go under you get 5 years great sex. 10 years for a red. I don't hit the ceiling but I'd say we're set for life. God bless the lights every 50 yards in Alliance (I'm mentally passing on the blessing to a friend- you know who you are). I will say though if you hit one red you hit at least 6 as was my fate earlier tonight.... PS edited to add that Gary is incredibly cool.

Tyler playing playdough
Tyler and Marta painting (Marta is a friend who came to visit last week)
A picture of Gary and I Jackie sent from 2003 maybe? WHY does my hair look dyed I wonder?
Beautiful Armandina

Handsome Tyler

The kids with my dad- Papa Tim
Eating puffs and cheerios now! She's growing up! ~*SOB*~ :o(
We're doing well. For those we've not heard from in awhile, we miss you!

Long overdue ... I"m back to the world of blogging. I was incredibly upset over everything that happened with Tyler going to see the surgeon and then busy over Christmas that I just got away from it- got more into keeping current with emailing... Tyler is well. The surgeon did recommend surgery by the time Tyler is 6, prefferably now or we can try casts but he's not confident it will work. Gary's mom also works for an orthopedic surgeon so she talked to him and said that in Tyler's case he belives surgery should be a last option. He also said (and belive me- Gary's mother in law found research to back it up) that often kids who have the surgery still walk on thier toes. Since Tyler does not have pain and physically CAN walk flat footed when he wants to, we are working with him to stand and walk on his flat feet and also on some stretching. We hope to take Tyler in the next couple months to see this doctor, continue to work with him including stretching and look into physical therapy. I'd like to then take him back in about a year and see if he thinks there is any reason to pursue the surgery. If there is, the man we saw in Akron is the best in the area and we'll do it. I just hate for surgery to be a first option when we've been told for 3 years not to worry about it. Something just can't go from "no big deal" to "let's put your kid under and cut the back of his leg open". Grace is officially "mobile". She's scooting all over the place on her bottom and also rolls around to get where she wants. We call the scooting "stealth" because neither of us have actually seen her do it She just tends to end up several feet away from where we left her in seconds to minutes. She tried to grab Tyler's pizza off his breakfast tray (we had pizza and Little Einstiens picnic) today. She's very interested in what we are eating too. Everyone always said she'd be the quiet one because Tyler will talk for her but she's showing us that this is highly unlikely. They both talk pretty nonstop. Since Grace suddenly is fine with being on her tummy she's gotten closer to crawling in the past two weeks. I really thought she'd never do it but suddenly she's not very interested in sitting and playing. She's getting down on her tummy from sitting, reaching stuff, rolling to stuff or scooting. She still occasionally gets so excited she falls backwards but not too often. I'm just amazed and how quickly things can change. She can stand holding only one hand and loves to bounce when she's like that... once she figures out how to pick up her feet we are in some serious trouble! She'll be our kid who's into everything and since she's observing all her brother's attempts to avoid athority I expect her to also have a bit of an attitude... on top of just being a woman! I"m babysitting one day a week now. The boy i watched last year and his sister. matthew is 3and Samantha is 10 months. She army crawls which I'm sure is where Grace has gotten the idea to chase after Tyler's cars and trains and try to get into our desk. They are both good kids and so far I've gotten all of them to nap at the same time for at least an hour and a half. This gives me time to get dishes done and colapse on the couch for a few minutes. So far no attempt on cleaning or anything else has been made on those days. Playing with them is really fun but so far I keep them pretty seperated since the boys don't like having to be careful and the girls want to eat all the boys toys! Tyler is still doing really well with the underpants. I keep him in diapers when he sleeps because he's just not showing any signs of being ready to be dry through the night. He's dry about half the time for naps. I swear the kid pees as many times a day as me but sleeps as hard as his dad so I expect bed-wetting to be an issue so i'm not giong to worry about it until he's older. Now that he's been in underpants for several months i finally, today, put him in the preschool class at church. he was th eonly one in there. Oh well. I actually felt bad afterwards b/c his teacher could have enjoyed the service with her boyfriend had Tyler not been in there, but it was time and Tyler did well. He did a craft, had a snac, played, did a bible story and even learned a verse. He was very excited that he got to take some snack up to the older kids and share. :) I was very relieved to be able to put him there and feel like he got something out of it. he's going to learn to follow directions from another adult, and hopefully learn more about Jesus and the Bible not to mention how to sit still at a table. I hope to also find out from this if he's going to benefit from going to "real" preschool or if he'll be fine with me homeschooling him. Gary's district (where Tyler will likely go) now has all day every day Kindergarten which I don't preferr- I like having a choice of a few days a week or every day... ugh. I have some pretty strong opionons about education and what i feel is best for my son so we'll see what the Lord brings. I have thought about homeschooing as much as through third grade but I really do want Tyler in school starting in First grade...now maybe Kindergarten... that's a ways off though. :) Either way I'm glad for him to be learning something in church other than bad habits of other kids :) LOL! Gary and I FINALLY got our will done. The main thing we wanted was to be sure the kids were taken care of and to adress a power of attorney and healthcare power of attorney. I"m so relieved to have it done and official. We've been going to do it since before Tyler was born... talk about procrastination! I'm ashamed to say we had nothing before this. It was easy, took only a few emails and an hour of signing (and visiting since we know the attorney we used) and a relativly small fee for the peace of mind. I"m relieved too that one of my bestest friends is single, happy and SAFE. Hours and hours and days and years of prayer have been answered- in God's perfect timing! Gary's still doing indoor soccer and we got to go to his game last night. I like the 6:00 games much better than the 10:00 games. Keep in mind this is PM! I like to be able to take the kids especially when, like last night, Tyler is well behaved and cheers. Between yelling for "daddy" "Spencer's Daddy" and "Pastor Dan" he provided a good bit of entertainment! Also Sue (Dan's wife) was there and she loves to hold Grace (I mean who doesn't?) so it was easy to feed her and watch Tyler at the same time. You'd think more was going on, and it is, but I think I've bored you to your limit so I will resume dancing and singing praise songs with Tyler! Have a blessed week! 06 Jan 2008 Grace update Grace is growing like a little weed. She's into and almost out of 6-9 month clothes already. I find I change her sizes a bit late b/c I'm so shocked when things still "fit" i don't realize that they fit BETTER in the next size up! In December she really found her voice even more than before. She mostly made just noises but she also finally got hugging, kissing, raspberries and discovered her tounge. She also discovered her fingers more and more. She plays a lot and sits up without help very very well. She only falls occasionally now and always when either rocking too hard back to front or when reaching for a toy. She just kind of leans forward until she's on her belly and then kicks her legs out and rolls over. She learned last week how to nod her head up and down which is hysterical b/c it makes it look like she's saying "yes" to everything- especially with her cute little closed-mouth grin she's started. Today was the big day though- she said her first word. After months of prodding she finally said Da-da and it's just amazing! She said it at the mall tonight (you know she's my child!!) How funny though that I"m sad b/c it's our last first word in our house. :( I'll get over it- don't worry. DOnt' worry, Tyler is doing well too- growing and learning and changing and challenging me every step of the way. 20 Dec 2007 Thursday oiy. Today Tyler has an appointment at Akron Children's to see an orthopedic doctor/surgeon. His toe walking, though adorable, could be a problem and we're getting it checked out. Results of this visit could range from "he's fine" to needed therapy, braces, casts or surgery. Please just pray for him and us. I'm very nervous (surprise surprise!) but don't want to make him nervous. I may never finish my last blog so in a nutshell we've all had the flu this week and it's horrible. Tyler's had the worst diapers known to man- in fact he had to be bathed in the middle of the night last night b/c it had gotten all down his legs and dried in the night. Why do they not wake us up to tell us? I mean he's THREE! You'd think that would bother him. ugh. Grace has thankfully stopped vomiting/ spitting up but still is waking in a 2 month old routine and eating little, Gary claims to be back to normal but I predict he'll have it again Christmas morning b/c he's running himself ragged. I can't seem to beat it b/c I'm running myself ragged too-not to mention my weak stomach and taking care of two kids secreting various bodily fluids at all hours of the day. Thank the LORD we have a working washer and dryer! We hope to leave tomorrow after Gary's work to go visit with my family through Christmas eve night, return for church and have Christmas morning us, and then afternoon and 26th with Gary's family. Pray for us as we travel and if I don't get back on here- Merry Christmas! We love you and are praying for you all. God Bless and thanks for your prayers!! UPDATE: Tyler needs casts, 2 sets 3 weeks each, and/or surgery.