breakdancing lessons

We finally got Shelby's new lenses put into her frames and she has her glasses again. She has to wear them most of the time. Her eyes are crossing more and more every day without the glasses. I am starting to wonder if the surgery was successful at all. We will find out more in a few weeks. Even so, I am thankful for the interruption of her surgery and time off of school if nothing else. I have had time to reevaluate how we schedule our time and make some decisions about what I really want our home school day to look like.

James has been teaching the kids some break dancing moves. Mostly just the back spin. There are a few videos at the end. Good times...

Shelby is perfecting this elbow technique that James says helps with the back spin.
Lucy is doing the caterpillar. She is rolling all over the place now. She is trying to talk too. James swears she says, "hungee," when she is hungry. She makes sounds like she is trying to say mama too. She is such a joyful baby. She brightens up the room with her smiles and laughter. Shelby's newest nickname for her is "banana bum boes." No clue where she got it, but it is so cute. Today Shelby said, "When I die, Lucy will always remember my kisses and my touch and how I called her Banana bum boes." There is a sweet man at our church who is going to meet Jesus soon and we have been talking about it a lot. The kids say they are ready to go too. They can't wait to meet Jesus, Grandma Shelby and Papa Gene. Shelby can't wait to eat whatever she wants all the time and Jesse thinks he will get to swim year round.
My mom was here for these videos. Lots of fun. She got a glimpse into what a typical evening looks like for us when we don't have plans away from home. I wish we had more nights at home. All of our obligations are good, but they get in the way of this kind of much needed down time with the fam. It feels so good to laugh! I finally figured out how to use the feature of my camera. In the first video, James banged his head on the fridge pretty hard. OOPS.

chicago and more

This is actually the ride home from Chicago on the Amtrak. I love how much room there is on a train compared to an airplane. Cush! We are watching the last episode of Lost season 2. Now that we figured out home to watch it online, we don't have to wait for the library to get season 3 in. We are 92nd in queue, so we'd be waiting a long time. We are limiting ourselves to one episode before bedtime each night so we can stretch it out. When the kids were at Noni and Papa's we watched it all evening and morning Tuesday and Wednesday. It was SWEET! Just like being in college again. We missed the kiddos, but we enjoyed our time alone too.

This is the ride there. Also watching Lost.

Here is Lucy and Matt Kelley at church in their KU shirts. Matt and Kaitlyn bought Lucy this shirt. It is very girly with the ruffled sleeves.
I just love these two pics of Lucy. She is at that age where most pics don't really capture her, but I feel like these do.

updates

Shelby's eyes are much straighter, but the doc says she will still have to wear glasses most of the time. She won't have to wear bifocals...yea! But, she will still have to have them on 90% of the time. He said when she is outside playing she doesn't have to wear them. We are trying not to be disappointed. It is still a huge improvement, but she was so hoping that she wouldn't have to wear her glasses anymore. We also found out that Lucy's eye is crossing already. We are taking her in in 6 weeks when we return Shelby for her check-up. Hopefully we have caught it early enough to do something about it. We will have to wait and see.

Jess and Luce in their pjs...so glad to be together again. Lucy went with us to Chicago with the youth (an amazing & unforgettable trip) and Shelb and Jess went to my parents for the week. They had more that a blast hanging with them, going to a dog show, a movie, the dam, Papa's houses (he is a realtor) and Tulsa to visit Gigi and Papa and Jay and Jeff. They were happy to see their sister when they got home. She was a little overwhelmed by their excitement. The first few hours she was afraid of Jesse. She is fine now.

I missed my babies too. They seemed to grow a foot each while I was away for the week.

It was worth the time away though. The teens had an awesome time in Chicago. We rode an Amtrak train...very cool. The Dare2Share conference was really good and the favorite part of the weekend had to be evangelizing door to door in the very ethnically diverse Chicago suburbs. I really enjoyed reconnecting with many of the teens. I have felt disconnected with them since Lucy has been born b/c I am so busy with my 3 kiddos.

I still haven't decided which sling to keep. I am leaning toward #2, b/c it is more my style. #1 is more summery and more trendy, but #2 has me written all over it. I am usually much more decisive. Thanks for your votes!!

Which sling should I keep?

number 1

number 2

I accidentally won 2 slings on ebay and I need to decide which one to sell. Please comment to let me know which one I should keep and which I should sell. And if anyone wants to buy one from me, that is great too. Thanks!!

Shelby is doing fine and looking good so far.

Check out my Slide Show!

eye surgery...number 2...friday

I wanted to snap some before photos of Shelby to compare after her surgery on Friday. In this one I had her close her eyes and I snapped the pic right when she opened them.
In this one, there is s slight cross. It can get pretty dramatic without her glasses. Sometimes it turns all the way in on one side or another.
This is what her eyes usually do when she goes without glasses.

She got her first pair of glasses just before her 2nd bday. She had to wear a patch several hours a day in an attempt to strengthen the muscle. It didn't work, so she had surgery right after her 3rd b-day. Now, at 5 she doesn't seem to be improving. In fact, her eyes seem to be getting more and more crossed again. So, we went for a second opinion last week and the new dr. suggested surgery. He explained that the glasses were not strengthening the muscle, but only holding the eyes in place and that they were purely cosmetic. He told us that hers was strictly a muscle problem and that she can see perfectly out of each eye. That blew me away b/c the old dr. never explained it that way. We got her in really soon for surgery b/c it was either now or June, when she'd have to be out of the water for a month. There is a 50-50 chance that she won't have to wear glasses at all after the surgery. We are praying she will have straight eyes after this one, like her aunt Janell did at her age. I am really nervous about her going in for surgery...praying about that too.

recent random pics

Jesse on the teeter-totter Noni and Papa gave them for Christmas. James put it up last weekend. The kids love it! James already hurt his knee on it...not sure how.

Shelby is in the creatively dressing herself phase. She doesn't always match, but I love to see what she puts together. She has a unique sense of style for sure, and I have never been a big fan of ordinary or girly. Sometimes I mismatch on purpose...she must take after me.

Jeka, Jesse and Shelby sharing some bbq chips Monday night.

Lucy has been having cereal for over a week now. Shelby loves to help feed her. She is surprisingly good at it fo a 5 year old. I had forgoten how the diapers change with solids...stinky central.

Latest development: Lucy sucking her thumb. She might do it more often if she wasn't swaddled to sleep, but I can't get her to sleep with her arms free for more than 45 minutes.