NUTCRACKER NEWS

If you have ever remotely considered coming down to TX to see Emma in the Nutcracker, you might want to consider coming this year. Not only will you see Emma as a Party Girl, Soldier and Tea - you'll see Ellie make her Nutcracker debut as an angel (on stage TWICE) AND you'll also see a cameo appearance by ERIK as a Party Boy and a Gingerbread Kid (the ones that come out from under Mother Ginger's dress).

Contact me for performance dates and to tell us when to expect you.

HAPPY 8TH BIRTHDAY

MISS ELLIE CHRISTINE!

As our youngest daughter,

she's more than we could have asked for or imagined.

Our lives are full of laughter and joy because we have Ellie.

In case you were wondering...

ERIK IS STILL ALLERGIC TO MILK!

Last night at the dinner table:
"Mom, this soymilk tastes funny."
"Erik, that's rice milk, not soymilk. Just drink it."

Upon watching Erik take sip #2, I realized that he was sitting in Everson's seat. Not his regular seat. Drinking Everson's milk. Not his rice milk.

"Erik! That's cow milk!"

Up he ran to get his allergy bag and drink 2 teaspons of Benadryl...then started coughing. And coughing. And saying things like, "My throat feels funny." Lips started swelling. Eyes started watering. Ears started feeling funny. Coughing progressing.

"Erik, get your shoes on," said his father.

Upon entering the lobby of the Emergency Room, I tell the nurse that we were in early anaphylaxis. A moment later, she reappeared with a pulse-ox meter and said, "We'll take you right in."

An hour and a very big and painful steroid shot and 2 back-to-back breathing treatments later (and jittery from the drugs), we are discharged with an rx for a steroid to take for 4 days.

"Tomorrow, we re-establish our dinner table routine," said his mother.

(Bald head happened 2 weeks ago)

Happy 1st Birthday Elisha John!

Weather Forecast for the week...

H-O-T
B-L-A-Z-I-N-G
S-C-O-R-C-H-I-N-G

101 today. 103 Monday. 100s all...week...long...
Nighttime lows...mid 70s.
(But still better than a New York Winter)

We'll be swimming many many times this week. Everson wants to go swimming 11 times today.

A week of milestones...

Elisha began crawling...

BOTH Emma and Erik conquered their fears of falling and taught themselves to ride a bike.

Erik can finally enjoy the 2 wheeler he bought himself LAST year with birthday money. Doug took Emma out on Saturday to buy her own bike.

Ellie continues to develop as a swimmer and bike rider and Everson still loves to jump in the pool and swim underwater across the pool.

Hi y`all in NY.
Emma here. I`m just going to tell you about what`s going on here. It`s so hot here! I am so tan it`s not funny. I look like a peanut ! LOL.
Ballet is good. Ballet summer intensive starts soon, it`s when we do ballet classes for one week in the summer , Ellie and I both are doing it!
VBS is tomorrow. It`s hawiain theme ! I am exited!
This year I am trying out for Nutcracker AND THE WIZARD OF OZ!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can finally ride a two wheeler bike! $I earned ten dollers for it!$ : )
Thats really all. Bye!

LOVE
EMMA

Pictures from May in no particular order...

This picture of Elisha is actually from late April...my how he's growing!

My Three Sons...looking clean and spiffy for church. Of course, Everson has on flip flops ;-)

Everson loves to climb the ladder of our new pool, then jump off and swim across the pool. Definately a water lover!

Everson is making his best "I'm-Indiana-Jones-don't-mess-with-me" face.

The older three spend LOTS of time in the pool! With temps in the high 90s for 3 weeks, they are quite tan...and they sleep well at night!

THE GREAT WALL OF WEST TEXAS

Since we moved in, I have dreamed of a brick patio next to our house. Kept it in the dream category, since I was not going to spend the $$ to buy bricks. Tom came across roughly 2000 clean, used bricks. He loaded them onto his trailer...all by himself...in 3 trips. Doug and the kids unloaded them. Then Doug got to work on clearing and leveling the ground between our house and garage. Forkful by forkful, the job was completed...mostly by Doug with some help from me and Erik...Erik did a super job with the bricks and the pattern...just like using legos!
This is just the beginning. The patio will go past the blue stroller all the way to the basketball hoop. If you scroll back to the top picture, you can make out the basketball hoop by the tree...just to get a sense of the S-I-Z-E of the patio that is getting put down. I'm sure Doug knows the exact dimensions, but all I can say is that it's BIG.

Update: Doug says it's about 15 x 30.
All we need now is a truckful of sand to be delivered so we can fill in the cracks and level out any wobbly bricks.

Kids on Easter Sunday. My mom had bought the dresses a year ago for the girls.
Cute...even though he's sideways. I'm too busy to fix it right now LOL
Bathtub buddies.

My mother and Tom bought us some fruit trees...NINE of them. 2 pear, 2 plum, 3 peach, 1 gala apple and 1 fig. So this weekend, Doug and the kids got to work on digging holes. Here's some pictures of their work. They are all a bit sunburned...Doug is the worst off, but seems to be faring well. Looking forward to the day that these little trees help lower my grocery budget! Come on down to Armstrong Farms!
Behind Emma is Tom's Chuckwagon-building-site.

Elisha enjoyed some snuggle time with Daddy at the Airshow on Saturday. The USAF Thunderbirds performed. INCREDIBLE! Didn't get any good pictures...it was my turn to hold the baby and cover his ears from the noise. Next year, we'll bring earplugs for him.

Glimpses of February...enjoy the show

Sickness abounds. Again.
As soon as I can stop coughing long enough to load pictures I will. Oh and I have to finish sterilizing the house from top to bottom. Again.
This one I'm blaming on Doug. ;-) He came home Monday not feeling well and was full-blown sick by Tuesday.
And it's supposed to hit 80* today! Too bad we'll all be too sick to enjoy it...

Emma participated in an annual art competition here for 5th grade students. Each fall, the Symphony Guild holds an "Art to Music" Competition. ALL 5th grade students in S.A. compete in this competition...I think the number is around 1500 (can't find the letter that says exactly how many, but that's the ballpark). The students were split into groups, each group listening to one of the 4 movements of Respighi's The Pines of Rome. As they listen, they create a piece of art with their interpretation of the movement. The pieces are then submitted and judged. Emma placed 4th for her movement, making her one of the 16 finalists...out of the 1500 participants... Next Saturday we will attend the Symphony, along with the other 15 students and families. The Maestro will recognize the students prior to the piece. The winning artwork will be displayed in the atrium as well as during a slide show during the actual symhpony performance. It's all quite exciting for Emma. Can't wait to see what our little artist created!
This is Everson and his best buddy from church, Joey. They bought these matching hats at AWANA Cubbies "store night". And yes, Everson has this little 'attitude' much of the time LOL.

Sickness...

Have been to the dr 3 times in 3 weeks with sick kiddos. Having 5 makes me wait until I'm really sure they need to be seen. Erik had the sore-throat-swollen-tonsil-thing from October and was given more antibiotics. Elisha now has RSV. Thanks to his age and, ahem, girth, he doesn't need hospitalization. Just nebulizer every 4 hours. Fortunately, Erik knows all too well how to use the nebulizer, so he and Emma are the "lucky" ones to do most treatments. (I knew I had so many kids for a reason).

Funky yuccy weather...happens each January for a few weeks. Then our winter should be ending.

I resolve...

On this something-teenth day of January 2008, I resolve to update the blog weekly...as long as you, my dear reader/visitor/lurker resolve to leave a comment or email me at least once a month with an update on YOUR life...it's the least you can do ;-) I mean, it's just not fair not knowing what's going on in your world.

Erik's Teeth...

We saw the dentist this morning...Erik will not have to get braces in the new year. Just a retainer for 3 months to pull the tooth back a bit. The orthodontist will use the retainer to pull back BOTH of Erik's teeth. We go next week to make the impressions for the retainer, then a 2-3 week wait for it to arrive, then visits every 3 weeks or so to adjust the retainer.

Erik was relieved to learn that he won't be getting braces...tho he was quite excited at the notion of having yellow and purple rubber bands to show his support for his Minnesota Vikings...

Here's our not-so-little 4 month old. He weighs 18 lbs now! Started cereal today. I think he liked it. The kids were a bit disappointed...I think they thought he'd eat a whole bowlful of cereal!
Everson is ever bit the 3 year old in this picture. Now that he's 4, I doubt he'll do such silly things anymore...ha ha.
Emma, Stephanie and Madison in their Nutcracker Party Girl costumes shortly before the curtain went up. These 2 girls are Emma's closest friends here. Homeschooled and in her ballet class, they see each other many hours every week.

Why Erik?!?!?

First, the cleft lip. Then the allergies. Then the fractured and extracted front teeth. The double-hernia surgery...

Well yesterday, Erik, Ellie and Everson were playing some new game on the trampoline. Erik came running in the house with blood streaming from his mouth. Trying not to FREAK OUT, I assessed the situation, while trying to understand what happened. Apparently, this new game entails Erik jumping and diving to tackle Ellie. She jumped out of the way while Erik was in the air. He hit the net and one of his front teeth (you know, the ones that JUST grew in this summer) hooked on the net of the trampoline as he fell. The tooth was jerked into a new position and is sticking out.

So we went to the dentist this am. This 'injury' did not damage the nerve (as far as he can tell). But we have to go back in 2 weeks to reevaluate. Oh, and the timeline for braces has been moved up...likely to 2008...thanks to this 'injury'. I'm to keep him on a soft food diet for a few days and give him ibuprofen to keep the swelling down. Forgot to ask about basketball - which starts tomorrow. Gotta go make our follow up appointment and ask about a mouthguard. Will keep you posted.

How's Erik in all of this? Relieved that the tooth wasn't pulled. Wondering what color rubber bands he'll pick for his braces...green, red, purple/yellow alternating for the Vikings...decisions decisions.