VACATION PICS

I've finally found a few minutes here and there to get these pics uploaded!

Caution -there are alot of them. :)

running from the waves for the first time. :)

the water was COLD for us desert dwellers!

daddy had to "rescue" Elizabeth. He was right there with her when a wave knocked her down a bit. She will still tell you "I taste the beach-it yucky". :)

can you see the sand in his ears?!

this boy had sand EVERYWHERE!

Auntie Paula (one of John's sisters) played soccer with Andrew on the beach.

For some reason Becca kept running out to get the wet sand and bring it up to the dry sand.

daddy took the 2 brave ones out for rides on the boogie board

this is what happens after spending 5 hours at the beach. :)


the kids with John's mom

Becca has such a soft heart for animals. We stay at John's sister's house whenever we visit and she has an old German Shepherd, Mindy, that has to be put on the side yard whenever we eat outside -cuz she'll beg for food. :)

Becca finished her dinner early and went over and talked with Mindy thru the fence until she was let out.

After 2.5 days w/John's family, we drove to see my extended family.

my cousin gave the kids a little toy from the circus -a cannon that shoots out a little plastic man.

they decided to try to catch the little shooting man with a plastic flower pot as their bucket.

then we went over to my aunt's house to see my cousins and have our kids play with their kids.

My aunt takes care of my cousins' 3 kids so her house is VERY kid friendly :)

I didn't get permission to post up close photos of my cousins' kids so this one will have to suffice :) the kids played SO well together and had such a good time.

if you're wondering where the 3rd cousin is...she is only 10 weeks old so no trampoline jumping allowed. :)

Monday morning we went to visit my grandpa at his Alheimer's Care unit. The girls were SO sweet with him, Becca especially. Here the girls are helping him walk down the hall from his room to a room we can all visit in.

Our vacation was much needed and quite overdue. John, especially, needed the vacation from work. :) We had such a great time visiting with everyone and have now resolved to make the beach an annual thing as the kids obviously LOVED it and still haven't stopped talking about it.

2 ATTACHMENT GAMES on VIDEO

John took this of me and Elizabeth while we were on vacation.

We left for vacation knowing Elizabeth was struggling with insecurity (triggered, we think, by my back injury preventing me from being able to interact with her in all the ways we have in the past)....so I did my best to step up the attachment games/therapy ideas while we were away from home.

The first 30 seconds is just another fun way we've found to foster eye contact. :)

The 2nd part of the video might be difficult to see/understand. I'm hiding a little fuzzy "pom pom" ball. The idea is to hide most of the ball with just a little sticking out and for Elizabeth to find it. This helps with the idea of permanence....that the WHOLE ball is still there even if you just see a tiny bit of it. Elizabeth has always done well with this game...but since she was struggling w/insecurity for a bit, I went ahead and played it.

P.S ~Pardon our looks! :) It was after dinner and we all had already had showers...thus, Andrew in his box*ers and me w/o makeup. :)

I JUST LOVE THIS BOY

sand and all. :)

ADOPTION RAFFLE/FUNDRAISER

alrighty-most of you know my girls pretty much ALWAYS have a Sara Beth Bow in their hair. :)

I love these bows...but I love their creator even more...my dear friend Jeanette. :)

Jeanette and her hubby are leaving in just a few short weeks to FINALLY receive Sara Beth into their arms.

As you all know, international adoption is very costly, so Jeanette is hosting a raffle as a fundraiser. For every $10 you donate to help bring Sara Beth home, you receive an entry into the raffle.

There are some seriously cool prizes to be won!!!
$200 gift certificate for bows -that's alot of bows people!!
a "Rabbit" corkscrew (looks really fancy!)

a couple beautiful tote bags/purses
a gift certificate for jewelry
a candle holder
a bib and burp cloth

a Pizza Hut gift card

Please take a minute and bop over to their blog, Sara Beth Bows, to enter and win one of their prizes...and ultimately, help to bring Sara Beth home to her forever family.

MY ACHING BACK!

ok-this pic turned out way too large but I can't get it smaller. :)

A few of you know I ended up in the ER last Sunday, the 2nd, with bad back pain. Well, I've had back pain for nearly 20 years..since college days and it's just gotten worse over time. That Sunday, I bent over to fix my sandal before walking out the door to church and VOILA! I couldn't stand back up. The pain was more of a pressure type pain right at my tailbone.

Anyway-the ER was a total waste of time. The doc never even touched me...just old me to take vic*odin for a few days and to live with the pain cuz millions of other Americans do too.

Thanks.

I didn't even fill the Rx for the drugs cuz they didn't touch the pain...just made me loopy and sick. :)

I exercise 3-5 times/week and I eat right.....and I'm still dealing with this pain......so John and I decided to take a leap of faith and actually see a chiropractor. :)

I know some of you probably love yours and swear by them...but I've seen the damage bad ones can do -I worked in a physical therapy clinic for 2-3 years and saw so many people that chiro's had made worse ...so I've been terrified of going to see one.

My parents knew of a Christian guy who was supposedly phenomenal.....so I took the leap of faith and saw him last Tuesday. He took x-rays and my history and told me to come back on Thursday.

I returned last Thursday....to find out I already have degenerative disc disease. At only 35 (nearly 36!). :( He said my one disc has been slowly deterioriating for what he estimates at least 15 years. And I have a few vertebrae that are showing damage signs as well.

sigh.

He did a quick adjustment on my tailbone and I was totally surprised to have relief from the pain. It was nearly instantaneous.

From this appt. I then proceeded to sit in our new Yuk*on for 7.5 hours as we drove out to So. California to see John's family and my extended family. :) I was really worried how my back would fair on the trip...and as long as I iced it down every once in awhile, I did pretty well.

I see the chiro again on Thursday. He will give me the "plan of action" he would like to take to help my spine heal. :)

AND.....since we JUST returned from a 6 day vacation...stay tuned for lots o'pictures. The kids had a blast visiting our family and heading to the beach for the first real time. :)

LOTS O'SWIMMING GOING ON

Last week, my sister's pool was finally completed and they invited us over TWICE to swim.

The first time was to play in the water AS the pool was being filled, the second time for a belated b-day party for Jacklyn.

baby Jameson is getting SO big!

look at both of these boys -Jameson above and Jeremiah below -such BIG brown eyes. :)





playing in the "deep end"

that's ALL 11 kids in there at 1 time too!

then we got to come back to play last Sunday to celebrate Jacklyn turning the big "5".:)

look at that face! :)

we had lots of floatation toys as well as a few life jackets to keep us adults sane! watching so many little ones in the water is tough -not that floatation devices are a reason to NOT watch the kids, but it certainly helped us!

Josiah got the biggest kick out of splashing and splashing!

lots of diving going on!

yes, that's Elizabeth jumping off the diving rocks too.

daredevil!

*I had a video of Elizabeth jumping into the pool -but it wouldn't load/process...will have to work on that later. :)**