Jumping on the Wordle Bandwagon

I got the idea from Amber and Lynette. I copied and pasted all my blog entries from January to June. The bigger the word the more it's been used.



You can click on it to make it bigger.

This Has Been Our Week...

The past week in our household has very busy. I am sitting here trying to remember what all has been going on. Here's a basic recap of the Wallace household going ons.

Jadon:
On Sunday Jadon renamed the whole family, now here's the new names we all go by:
* Todd - Monty
* Jadon - Harv
* Haven - Judy
* Jude - Jack
* Me - Marge

I have no idea where these names came from, but we've had a great time pretending to be these people. Jadon is Harv who works at a workshop. I forget what the rest of us do.

Haven:
The big change with Haven this past week is she now sleeps in a big girl bed. We moved her to her own room and put a twin bed in there. She loves her new bed and amazingly sleeps a lot better in her new bed than in the crib. I was sure of having long sleepless nights due to her constantly getting out of bed. I have to say thank you to those who prayed for this transition when I posted about us getting ready to make this move. God definitely answered! It has been fun with her in her own room because I can make it as girly as I want.

We also had our first incident of Haven or any of our kids putting something up their nose. We were eating dinner and she kept pointing up there. Finally, after a while of her doing it (because there are times I just can't figure out what in the world she is saying) I realized that there was something up her nose. Todd got the tweezers to see if they would work and thankfully it wasn't far enough up there that we got it. It was a kernel of corn and a huge one at that. I've decided that Haven is going to be the one to commission us on all things parents dread happening. We got it pretty easy with Jadon, now we're paying for it.

Jude:
Since Haven was put in a big girl bed that means Jude gets the crib. He so needed that crib, his chunky arms and legs were hanging out the cradle every time I went to get him. Since moving into his crib (and by the way he got new bedding) I find him sleeping on his tummy. He is now rolling over from back to front and front to back. He also is sharing a room with Jadon. When we found out we were pregnant and before we knew we had a Jude I prayed God would give us the one, boy or girl, that would best share a room. I see already how God answered that prayer in how well Jadon has been in sharing his room with Jude. And in how well Haven has taken to having her own room.

Jude had his 4 month check-up and all is well. He is over 13 lbs and 24 in long and everything checked out wonderfully. On a sad note I did find out that my doctor is leaving and will no longer be in the area. I love my doctor, he was my doctor when we lost Karis and with each of my other kids. He knows my entire family including parents and siblings and just does those extra little things. I told him I was really sad about this news and he was so nice in giving me permission to call him anytime I needed anything. Even though his leaving is very sad I do have a God story about his leaving.

The girl that does my hair for now (I go to the School of Cosmetology because my cousin is an instructor there and she puts me with the really talented students and I can get my hair cut and colored for $6, stinking incredible!) lives in Branson and that happens to be where my doctor is moving to. We both had the unfortunate reality of losing our first born and we were talking about the things God did for us during that experience and how He still continues to heal and show us things. In the process I told her about my doctor and how absolutely wonderful he was through it all and even now. Then I told her he was leaving and moving to Branson. She got really excited and asked when, it took me a second and I realized that while he was leaving and could no longer be my doctor he could be hers. I couldn't think of a better doctor to have after having experienced a loss of a child.

The more I thought about it the more I could see God working this out. Todd and I are planning on being done with having babies and here she is just starting to expand her family. Now I pray God brings them together and He can use my doctor to be a blessing to someone else the way he was to me and my family.

I will get to see my doctor one last time before he leaves. I might cry on that day.

All for now,
Marg

Our Monday Evening

Last night was a fun night in our household. We did nothing, but stay at the house...Jadon and Daddy mowed the yard...Haven and I played in the memorial garden, cleaning it out and looking for roly polys...Jude sat in his bumbo seat for the first time. The kids were all in a great mood, which when you have a 2 year old and a 3 year old that doesn't always happen. We did absolutely nothing yet there are so many things I want to remember about last night.

Daddy and Jadon mowing the yard. I think Todd may enjoy mowing the yard with Jadon more than Jadon enjoys being with Todd.

Haven looking for her roly-polys. She cracks me up, she is so scared of any bug, spider, crawling/flying thing, but she loves roly-polys. Every day she asks to go look for roly-polys. She's into the catch and release program too. She will catch them carry them around for a little while and then puts them back where she found them. Then she tells them, "Go make babies, o-hay daddy hohe pohe, o-hay, o-hay daddy hohe pohe." She will say okay several times like she expects for the roly-poly to look up at her and say okay back. And where she got the go make babies and telling the daddy roly-poly.

I love this picture because it shows her shoes being on the wrong feet. I didn't notice that until I was looking through the pictures. Thankfully, I wasn't the one who put them on her feet because I have done that to Jadon before, oops.

Admiring the roly-poly she just found.
Jude in his bumbo seat. Todd and I always thought Jadon and Haven were happy babies, but Jude he's like no other. This little guy will smile at anything.

At the end of the evening when the kids are getting ready for bed this is where I found Jadon. Love the expression on his face!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my sweet husband!

Thank you for leading our home in the ways of the Lord. Thank you for getting up with me in the middle of the night when our kids need someone. Thank you for working so hard to support your family. Thank you for being a romantic husband. Thank you for taking Jadon every Saturday to breakfast, just the 2 of you. Thank you for making Haven the Princess. Thank you for laying in the floor laughing and playing with Jude. Thank you for loving God first and your family second. You are the greatest, most loving father/husband.

Love,
Your Wife
Jadon, Haven & Jude

All I Can Say Is Wow!

I was amazed when I read this about Baby Macie. I always get a little excited and emotional when I see things like this. When God allows doctors to perform these miracles it closes the door even more for people to argue that an unborn baby is not a baby.

We Love...

The people in our new church. We've been there almost 2 months and we have already come to adore the people of Glidewell. They are some of the most sweet and encouraging people we've met. They have taken us in so warmly and love on us. It's the type of church that when services are over people just hang out.

Last Sunday we had an old fashion baptism at the river complete with carriage rides, canoe rides, horse shoe pitching and a picnic. It was a great chance to hang out with the people and the kids loved playing in the river. I think they would have stayed there all night throwing rocks into the water. It really became fun when they realized they could go into the water to get rocks to throw. Because obviously there were not enough rocks on the rock bank they were standing on. Jadon kept "falling" in the water. Little did they know mommy had expected they would want to get in the water so she planned for that very thing. I didn't let on to them though. Haven had a blast playing with her new friends Jeremiah (or Jer-Mi as she calls him) and Mason.

We are enjoying our time with the youth. They are an incredible group of young people. Most of our youth continues to be Jr. High, which makes for interesting times. We just had our version of what Springhill used to call Muckfest. We had a great time of getting super messy and ended with Todd inviting them to all go to the sanctuary for worship. It took a couple of minutes for someone to realize that we probably shouldn't go into the sanctuary all messy. Todd then asked how many of them ever thought about their sin before entering for worship. Does anyone go before the Lord prior to worshipping Him and confess their dirtiness to Him. I have to admit there are times I don't.

A group picture of our youth after the food fight.

Cookies and Chips

What do these two things have in common? Other than the fact that they are both edible and start with "c" they are the 2 things Haven wanted for her birthday party. When asked what kind of birthday she would like to have her response was cookie. Okay, is there any thing else you would like? Her response - chips. So, we had a cookie and chips birthday and I took the liberty to add sandwiches which I think was okay with her.

We had Haven's birthday party on Saturday and other than starting the party off with her dumping all my foundation in the floor of my bathroom and having to go to time out we had a great party. She was so cute opening her presents. Every time she opened one she would tilt her head and say ooohhh. She was such a little girl. Jadon, of course, stood close by just in case she needed help in opening her presents.

This was also the first time that Jadon went and picked out a present from him to give to her. He got to decide on his own what he wanted to give her and then he took it home and wrapped it all by himself. He was so proud for Sissy to open his present for her. That night before bed Haven asked to sleep with the present "Bubby got her".

Haven with her Birthday Girl tiarra on.

See her pretty slippers? She absolutely loves them and wants to wear them all the time.

This is how she likes to wear her princess hat. If you turn it around she puts it right back like this. Who put the princess hat on Jude?!The sand box Nana & Papa got her. The first time Haven came in the house after playing in the sand box, took her shoes off and dumped the sand out of her shoe in my floor I suddenly realized why they hadn't had a sand box before this. Oh well, her enjoyment or my floor?

The car that Mema & Pappy got her. Jadon was nice enough to open and shut her door for her. A gentlemen just like his daddy.

Praise The Lord

We have an awesome praise in our household. I just have to say that God is so good and His goodness is not contingent on whether He answers our prayers the way we want. So, even if He had not done this incredible thing in our lives we would still think He is good. I just wanted to make that statement before I went on to the answered prayer.

Some people know about Jude and his genetic condition. For those that don't we found out when Jude was about 8 weeks old that he has a genetic condition where his body lacks the full enzyme to break down a sugar in lactose called galactose. Thankfully Jude did have part of the enzyme, there are babies that do not have any of the enzyme at all and these babies can have serious problems. With Jude we were looking at problems with his liver and/or kidneys and/or possible cataracts. The problems would arise if he continued to have high levels of the galactose in his body, because high amounts of galactose turns in to an alcohol, which is what could cause the problems.

In a normal person the level of galactose is below 1 in the body. When we first did blood work to check Jude's levels he was at 18.5. Which is very high, I had to supplement him with a couple of soy formula feedings a day. That in itself was very hard for me, I love to breastfeed and did not want to give that up even for a couple of feedings a day. After 2 weeks we went back and took some more blood and his levels had gone down to 6.8. Good, but still not great. So, 2 weeks ago we had our appointment with a geneticist and did some more blood work. I have to say that after our appointment and being able to hear what he had to say Todd and I felt much better about the whole situation. We did find out that in most cases like Jude's after they turn 1 we wouldn't have to do a special diet or anything. He turns 1 and it's like it's gone, so, it's until then that we will watch his levels to hopefully prevent any damage to his liver or kidney or causing cataracts. This news was very exciting to us and would have been the answer to our prayers. But God is bigger and better than anything we could ever ask. While we thought God was done and answered us God was doing even more.

We got the results back Friday from Jude's latest blood tests and his levels were at .8. Okay, let me just rejoice in the Lord and go through this again. We started off with Jude's levels being at 18.5, we did 2 bottles a day with soy I continued to breastfeed the other feedings...we did blood work again after 2 weeks they went down to 6.8, I didn't change anything in the way of feedings...we went back 3 weeks later and did more blood work and now his levels are at .8, a normal person with the full enzyme is below 1. Only God can do this! When the geneticist called me she was amazed, I was on the other end smiling and rejoicing. We don't have to have anymore appointments where they have to try to take blood from his tiny little veins and I want to cry because it breaks my heart watching them search for a vein...Jude will not have to be put on a lactose free diet...we've been given a victory.

I want to end with saying again how good our God is and we are so undeserving of His kindness. The night before the appointment with the geneticists Todd and I prayed that God would do something, what we didn't know, but that He would just take care of Jude. People He did better than just take care of Jude.

I Think It's Time

Since Jude was born he's been sleeping in the cradle that Pappy made for our kids when we were pregnant with Karis. He's made cradles for each of his kid's families and they are absolutely beautiful. He definitely has a gift for wood working.

Because of our children being close in age and still having the need for one to have the crib we try to stretch out the stay in the cradle. Well, yesterday morning I went to get Jude up from his nap and I found him asleep on his side with his arms hanging out the side and sucking on the bars. There's been times I've found him with both legs and arms hanging out of the cradle. I think it is about time for us to transition Haven to a big girl bed so Jude can have the crib. You might pray for us in this transition time. There may be some sleepless nights ahead as Haven learns she can freely get out of bed at any time.

On another note Haven had her first, that we know of, nightmare. We heard her crying in the middle of the night last night so Todd went to check on her. When he got in there he found her still asleep holding onto her bed and she was crying and kicking. Todd had to wake her up to get her to stop crying. When asked if she was having a bad dream she said bees were chasing her. Poor little girl, that would scare me too. This morning she told me that bees were chasing her and flys were chasing bubby. Daddy will have to take care of all the bees and flys tonight before she goes to bed.

Happy Birthday Haven

Our sweet little girl is 2 today. I was looking back at baby pictures of her and admiring what beautiful little girl she is. She was a beautiful baby and every year she becomes more beautiful. Her beauty is seen on the inside as well. Daddy and I get to witness almost daily her compassionate spirit and loving heart.

Haven loves people. She already amazes us in her ability to connect with other children and form friendships. The way she cares for that person and plays with them. One of our prayers for her from the moment we knew we were having a girl and named her was God to make her a compassionate friend to those around her. We already see this being answered in her.

We can't wait to see how she continues to grow into a young girl and the things God has planned for her. However, I also want to enjoy her as she is now and wish time could slow just a little. I want to enjoy her more now before she does grow into a young girl.

Haven, you are a joy and you bring laughter and that girliness factor to our home.

We love you,
Mommy and Daddy, Jadon & Jude

Memorial Day

Our Memorial Day here was rainy so we waited to visit Karis' grave on the following Friday. It was a nice day and Todd and I took the kids. Jadon helped put the flower and butterfly picks beside her headstone. Afterwards they both sat beside the headstone. At one point they were sitting there running their little fingers over her name. It brought tears to my eyes watching them. This year she would have been 5. It is so hard to imagine us having a 5 year old, so many times it seems like it all happened just yesterday.

Everytime we go visit her grave Jadon spends the next couple of days talking about her. I am always amazed at how his little mind works.

More Pictures

I hadn't had a day in a while where I just carried my camera around and took pictures. I'm still trying to learn all the cool things I can do with it. I'm really hoping to get lessons soon with a friend who is a photographer. Here's some pictures of our day on Friday.

Haven is helping me work in our flower bed in front of our house. We had many weeds that needed to be pulled. She enjoyed shoveling the dirt for me.

Jude was laying in the floor and Jadon went and layed beside him. Jude kept grabbing his ear and laughing.

After playing hard outside they were rewarded with pop-ices. This was Haven's first one, I think she enjoyed it.

At the end of our day I went to check on the kids before heading to bed myself and this is how I found Jadon sleeping. His "string" laying across his face. He was so tired that the flash from the camera didn't even stir him, and I took several.