California made us Crazy!

Amelleah made her first trip to California at the end of May. All the other kids stayed home with Salyna's parents! Then Davis went home to South Dakota with them for a few weeks! He was VERY excited to get away. I don't blame him!
The California trip started off with LOTS of rain and a delay leaving Wichita. But we made up time with our 4 minute layover. First time we have ever got off one plane, nearly ran 4 gates away, and boarded the next flight.... not our ideal day of flying!

She was a great flyer!

We were greeted by some very excited grandparents! And we headed straight for some good mexican food!

Amelleah also met her only Great-Grandma for the first time!
(Salyna's Grandma)

We had a very short but sweet visit!

Miles' good friend Todd is a new, first-time Daddy! It was so fun to see his family! Although the quality isn't very good, I love this pic!

Another short visit... but what a wonderful time we had with
The Powers Family... aren't they cute?!

We spent some time at Pt. Loma where we put my mom's ashes over 2 years ago.
It was a BEAUTIFUL morning!

We had some great family time with Miles' Dad & Grandpa.
We took flowers to Grandma's grave and Grandpa cleaned up her headstone like he usually does.

Great-Grandpa!

And we spent some time ALONE!!!
Amazing!
And because I get complaints about not posting pics of us ...
here are 2!

Our favorite tattoo artist, next to cousin Joe that is,
is in San Diego!
We finally paid him a visit after several years!
Here is the proof that is on Miles' forearm.
So this is where you learn about the title of this post,
"California made us Crazy"
The morning of our return Miles woke up and could hardly walk. He was in a lot of pain from his back and down his leg, all the way to his foot. So I was able to drug him up and get him home, but he was in very bad shape. After xrays, an MRI, and an epidural steroid injection he is doing much better. He is not 100% but he is functioning much better although still on pain meds.
He has 2 herniated discs, one of which he has already had surgery on 8 years ago.
So, in two weeks he goes back for a 2nd epidural injection.
We are hoping this works well enough and long enough for Miles (and myself) to lose some weight and be able to strengthen his core and AVOID surgery. If not, surgery will be the ultimate outcome.
So as if that were not enough....
we adopted a dog!

Meet Windee!
She was in a shelter in Oklahoma that was damaged by a tornado then she was moved to our shelter here.... hence the name... Wind-ee :)
She is 1 yrs old, housebroken, sweet, and a great addition to our family!
So why not just ONE MORE thing.....
notice anything odd, other than the obvious, about this pic??
Lincoln is wearing underwear!!!!! I finally gave in to potty training! *sigh*
I still am not totally thrilled about it, but I decided I shouldn't pass up the opportunity with him so interested. So....

Ok. That's it!!!
OH WAIT...
It's 100 degrees and my kids won't play outside!!!
OH AND...
My video camera and computer are still not communicating and I can't figure it out!

Technical Difficulties

I apologize for the lack of posting... especially the pics & videos.
We are having technical difficulties.
Please check back in June when I will have A LOT of California stuff to post!!

I really don't have much to post right now anyway... we are really busy with the end of school activities & field trips, doctor appointments, house & yard projects, and on the 25th part of our family will be taking off for California. Miles & I are taking Amelleah to meet the rest of the family for a long weekend. It should be fun!!!

Videos... bouncing & chainsaws!

Amelleah hs started this weird wiggle type thing to get of a position she isn't particularly fond of... here is a super cute example!

Amelleah loves her bouncer and she finally started figuring it out although it looks more like swinging here

Now this is bouncing!

Even though Miles grew up in San Diego I always knew he was a true redneck...
he LOVES his chainsaw!
And has a perfect reason to use it,
this dead pine tree in our yard!!!

Of course I've always secretly wanted to try the chainsaw,
so when he said "you wanna try it?"...
I said "yes!"

Easter

Here are some cute pics from Easter Sunday. I LOVE picture editing... wish I had more time to do it more often!



Okay... so take 5 kids, 3 of which are boys, and get them in a group for a picture...
and well, it doesn't always work out the way you want it to. So while Miles was calling out names and making obnoxious, look-over-here noises I had a vision of an old movie reel running through all these pics....
So a made a little movie of all the pics!

Cuteness!

Sisters!

We had a little photo shoot.

Here is Lincoln being silly... he had been dancing, then Sydni

tried to get him to do a push up, then it led to this.

So Amelleah is finally doing better, Praise.The.Lord.!
We started her on goat milk the evening of my last post and she has done amazingly well.
She still spits up but at least she is happy while doing it. And she is a sleeping princess!!
The only draw back so far is the smell.... WOW!!! The spit up and the poop is quite something! We've also been doing cereal for about a week and tonight we added sweet potatoes to the menu!We have enjoyed some amazing Spring weather and our deck!

More Random Pics

April Fools! We had cupcakes for dinner...

They were really meatloaf with colored mashed potatoe "frosting"!

And candy sushi for dessert!

April is Autism Awareness Month and

April 2 was World Autism Awareness Day

so our entire family participated in the

Heartspring Autism CARE Walk!

Along with over 2000 other people!

Heartspring is a wonderful center that helps kids who are anywhere

on the autism spectrum... from severe to high functioning.

They have outpatient consultations, therapy, day camps, summer camps,

a school, and a residential facility!

Amelleah and Lincoln enjoyed the morning...

except for the characters...

Lincoln pulled the shade down in front of himself to hide!

When I saw the list of events for the morning I was curious about the

characters... you know like at Disneyland...

I thought "won't the kids be scared?"

Boy was I wrong!!!!!

I think the lack of fear in most autistic kids helped!

Andrew LOVED them ALL and had to go see ALL

of them!!!

Ok, so if you are around my age or part of my family then you

probably remember a cartoon that used to be on MTV

years ago... Beavis & Butthead...

if you have ever seen it, then you know why I think

this pic is absolutely HILARIOUS!!!

If not, sorry... but it's still a cute pic right?!

Sydni was pretty proud of her puzzle piece

tattoo that she got!

So, have you ever wondered what an 8 yr old boy would

take pics of if he got ahold of your camera?

I don't have to wonder anymore!

Deck progress...

after one terrible weather weekend, Miles and our friend Lorrin

made HUGE progress on the deck redo.

Here are the stairs in their new location, with new railing

The stairs used to be all the way to the left, against the house (dumb!)

that is a whole new railing and babyproofed with the lattice!

We still have the lattice on the other 2 sides to finish

as well as making a gate at the top of the stairs!

NO videos???

No more pics of Amelleah???

Well, let me give a brief excuse. She has been EXTREMELY fussy and crying (all the time)...

for a couple weeks now.

The end of last week we started her on another med for the reflux.

And she was fabulous...

for about 2 days...

so instead of taking pics and video I was catching up on housework, laundry, grocery shopping, etc.

On Saturday afternoon she had a reaction to the medicine *BOOOO*

So we are back to fussy and crying... both baby and Mommy!!

We are thickening her formula with cereal, which is helping some with the extreme spitting up but she is still obviously uncomfortable.

As I am typing this (with her sleeping next to me, in.my.bed.) I am waiting for the doctor to call me back!

Pray for us!