Quinn

Our giggle bot!

Oh how I love her giggles!

 There was a special walk a thon at Maxey and Quinn was not to sure of the special guests!

 We have a new nurse.  She is wonderful with Quinn!  We are so thankful for her!

 Quinn got new braces and new shoes!  She is growing like a weed!

Quinn is our inspiration! At the same time she is just a kid!  She is smart, cute as a button, and a great sister!  She loves Isaiah and Denali so much, and it's returned the same!  If I can't find Denali, she is usually curled up next to Quinn and they are reading or watching tv, or working on homework together!  God sure did have a plan for everything!  We are sure grateful for where we are right now!

getting fitted for braces!  

What a great support system we have!

Isaiah

 Isaiah is loving the Cello this year.  

His other big news is that he is in a competitive dance troop.  I had my first dance mom's meeting last night.  Thankfully he is in the young group, and they are not to crazy with us.  He will be out and about doing different events and competitions.  He has wonderful teachers and a great group of boys he dances with, so be ready for lots of hip hop pictures this year. 

 We thought it was pretty cool how the sun was reflecting off the camera to get some of these pictures.

 So far this year, he is doing great in school, and he knows if the cello and dance are to continue, he needs to keep working hard.

 His loves are still electronics, but he sure does love the puppy too.  He is our reader too.  I catch him reading when he should be doing other things, but it's hard to say stop reading!

He is a great kid, and we are lucky to have him in our lives!  He keeps things fair, and does a good job with all the girls in the house!  He sure is thankful for dad!

Denali

 She is in pom right now.

 She loves one on one time with mom, I have to say I like it too, she is a fun kid!

 She is also twirling and in ballet as well.

 So we are keeping her busy.

a fun story about Denali, on Monday's when we take Quinn to therapy, one of her dancing buddies is there, and she loves Denali and wants her to be her buddy again, so Denali always goes over and gives her a hug and talks to her, it makes both of their day.  Who does not like to feel treasured.  Denali already was super excited to sign up to be a buddy again this year.

Also Denali has been talking a lot about jobs, asking folks why they chose the job they did?  She is interested in being a Physical Therapist and a librarian lately.

We got a new OT occupational therapist!

Emily is so sweet and Quinn is choosing not to talk to her at the moment.  (Silly kid!)

But wow she is working hard.  

 Look at her hands open up on that ball.  That was not the case a year ago.

This weekend, we (as in us girls)  got to go to Alexis's birthday / spa party.

 So much fun!  We can't wait to start dance and see most of these girls again!

What a beautiful group of girls!  I continue to learn more about each of them and see them blooming more and more.  It's wonderful!

Well I can now say I've been dunked in a dunk tank.

 I can also say the first person to dunk me was my own daughter, Denali.

 I had to give her a hard time and say I now have a favorite son and daughter, and she comes in 3rd for dunking me.  They know I was just kidding.

and here is the video of it!

What I will do for my own kids and my larger group of kids!

It was a fun night!

It was a busy weekend!

 We started with a pool party birthday party that was lots of fun!  Quinn swam for two hours straight and did not stop kicking!  Both girls were so good!  We got to see lots of friends we have not seen for awhile, it was so much fun!

 Then Sunday school started in the morning, and we had Husker Hero's that evening.  This is where many University of Nebraska players, come out and play with kids and their families that have a diagnosis of some kind.

Isaiah was scared of the cheerleaders, and I'm ok with that, and hoping it stays that way for awhile!

Can you spot my kids on the jumbo screen?

Denali racing a cross country runner.

What a fun day!  We ran into lots of folks we know.

More then that it is so good to see we are not in our battles alone.  

There are so many wonderful parents with kids that might need a bit of extra this or that, and seeing all of us enjoying an afternoon, where we see these wonderful college athletes loving on our kids.  

It brings on the tears!

We are so luck to live where we live, and have the chance to take part in fun activities,

have great therapists, wonderful teachers, caring nurses.

We are so blessed!

It was a tough week for us this week.

Our dog Blue passed away.  He was 11 and he was such a good dog.  He was with us through a lot of stuff that happened in our lives.  He let the kids put all kinds of barrets and bows in his hair.  He loved to swipe a sandwich off a plate that was not being watched, or steal muffins out of a bag.

He was so good with the kids, never trying to bite, and he and Quinn had a fun game of Quinn plopping her foot off the couch and him rubbing up against it.

I was proud of the kids, they all wanted to go to the pet hospital and visit him one last time.   There were a few other ladies in the waiting room when we were there, and not a single one of us had dry eyes.  All my kids were right there loving him up.  They all were a bit different in how they loved on him, but we had some great closure, and that is so important. 

Thankfully a friend let us use a few books that we read when we got home from the pet hospital, to read about pets passing away, and there were lots of tears, but sitting together talking and crying made for a night I will not forget.

Life is not always easy, we need to remember to love up the folks and pets around us.  We are so lucky to have had Blue in our lives, and he was my first dog that was just mine, for quite awhile, and I could not have gotten any luckier then I was.  What a great dog!

 A fun day at the zoo!

 Many of my pictures look great, while in fact, here is more like how most of them look that don't make it to the blog.

 Quinn did not want to ride, so we took selfies instead.

 We don't get to many pictures of all of us!

Here is to a calm relaxing long weekend.  We have one kiddo grounded, one kiddo sick, and one kiddo who might get to go to the farmers market with me.  So it will be calm in my neck of the woods.  Blessings!  Susan