Prayers

I have been meaning to post for several days, and have some cute pictures of the kids to blog, but we are back in Iowa today and those will have to wait. Well, this week our friends and family have been dealt some difficult cards. Lately it really does seem like we have had lots of trying news, and this week has not been much better. First off we are back in Iowa to celebrate the life of Josh's grandma Shirley. If there was one woman I ever thought could defy death, it would have been her, but it was her time. Many of you will remember her as the grandma who traveled with us to Jamaica for our wedding about 6 years ago. The last few years had been rough for grandma, as she has battled cancer and other illnesses, and was recently told that her cancer was back and had metastasized to several places in her body. She chose not to do further treatment, and to be honest, was probably not strong enough for much more. She passed over the weekend so today we will be attending the wake, and the funeral tomorrow. She was a quirky, loving, caring, funny woman, and as Josh said it best in the car last night, "a fancy lady" who will be sadly missed. The world is one less a wonderful woman this week.


Additionally, yesterday a good friend of Josh and I's had a large tumor removed from his brain. Although the surgery went well, the findings were not what we had hoped for. It was discovered that our dear friend Lane has brain cancer, and he needs every single prayer that you can muster. He is only 28 years old, and his wife Rachel, an amazing friend, is pregnant and they also have a one year old little boy, Kamden. They have a blog, linked to ours, if you want to read about his situation, but more than anything: Please pray for Lane. Words are hard to describe how we are feeling about this, but we are hopeful that their strong faith will heal Lane and will carry him, his wife, child, his parents and siblings, other family, friends through this difficult journey as he begins his battle with cancer.

Hazel

Eye Patching Begins

Yesterday was our first day of eye patching. He wore it for 2 1/4 hours. It went much better than we had anticipated.

Gus loves play dough! He got some for his birthday and for the last two days, has spent 1 1/2 each day playing with it! He has also spent a lot of time with stickers and crayons the last few days. He is so good entertaining himself.

Hazel is getting more active and spending more time awake during the day, and less at night. She is growing into an awesome baby!

Gus loves his pirate swords from Godfather Jared (a gift to help him adjust to the eye patch!). Notice how he wears daddy's arm bands on his ankles- no one showed Gus this, he just started wearing them this way. He is such a cutie!

Notice the cool shirt we got him- special for his first day of eye patching.

Daddy and Gus playing last night after he got home from work.

This morning at breakfast we put the patch on. I tried a larger size eye patch today and he is amazingly still wearing it (and it is 4:30 pm)! It must not bother him as much. He loves that it has fire on it. He keeps touching it and saying "hot hot hot". Adorable. We are excited that he is wearing it so long, hopefully this means that he doesn't have as much damage as we had thought in the bad eye, as if it were really hard to see out of, he would probably fight us more on wearing the patch.

It has been hard to get the sword out of his hands!

Finally a decent picture of this adorable smile! 7 weeks old today.

Sunny Family Fun

Tough guy.

Borrowing daddy's arm bands, bandanna and YMCA medals.

Gorgeous baby blues.

Helping me clean my closet this afternoon by organizing my shoes- he especially liked mommy's cowgirl boots. Josh and I switched closets today, as it just makes more sense that he share a closet with Gus in Gus's room.

Tonight we played outside, it was a gorgeous evening. Gus loved the pool and sprinkler! He had so much fun outside this weekend, the pool several times, bubbles, his tee ball set. What a lucky boy. I hate to ruin the fun for him, but this week we have to start patching his good eye at least 2 hours a day- wish us luck.

Hazel hung out in the shade. Gus wanted her to come in the pool with her, but I explained to him that she is just a little bit too young for that. Look at that cute belly!

I sure love my daddy.

Hazel says: Tickle Tickle Tickle Gus...

I tried to get a picture of her adorable smile, but I could only get her playing with her tongue. A little stinker already!

My newest angel. Six weeks and 5 days old.

Memorial Day Weekend

So the first thing I want to say about this post is that it is REALLY long- sorry! Okay, to begin the weekend in Iowa, we visited my friend Brandi and her husband Curt on Friday morning in Rockford. What a beautiful day- and Gus had so much fun with Curt (and his MoMo ).

Just of couple of kids eating freezies.

Saturday Matt and Jenni hosted a Memorial Day party for the family. The cousins all had so much fun together! We also had a quick impromptu birthday party for Gus.

Hazel was a popular lady. Here is Avery and Hazel.

Ty and Hazel.

Brea and Hazel.

Cade and Gus eating too much chocolate!

Shae and Hazel.

Messy Gus!

Gus and Kamden at their play date Sunday morning. We visited the Smith family cabin and Rachel (as well as Kathy, Kylee and Sherry Fischer) got to meet Hazel.

Playing on the beach together, I love Clear Lake in the summer. Congrats to the Lane and Rachel Smith family on their newly announced pregnancy. It is kind of a wild story- if you haven't already, you should visit their blog and read about it.

Gus and Uncle Nick- who he can't stop talking about by the way. Just this afternoon Gus asked where Nick went.

The Birthday Girl (the only name Kennedy would answer to on Sunday).

A birthday kiss from Gus.

Papa and Hazel.

We had a birthday party for Kennedy on Sunday.

Gus playing with Uncle Nick.

Slip-n-slide!

Kenny on the slip-n-slide. It was a hit- good idea Grandma!

Gus LOVED it! And did really well. Luckily Papa was willing to push the kids down it so they could get enough momentum to slide.

Papa helping the kids blow bubbles with the cool bubble wand Gus got from Kennedy and Parker for his birthday. Papa sure was a popular guy on Sunday!

Kennedy- one day short of 5 years old.

Parker- about 14 months.

Gus and Kennedy playing with sidewalk chalk.

Aunt "Insy" and cousin "Keneneeeneeeeneee"

I LOVE this picture of Gus. He looks kinda like an 80 year old man, but ADORABLE none-the-less.

Eating some BBQ ribs. He enjoyed chewing on the bone. Gus did not get that from his mother.

I was able to see Kate several times this weekend, which was nice because it had been a long time. I also got to meet Mike, her boyfriend. He is very nice and we are excited for them to come to KC and visit in July. Here Kate is playing Duck Duck Goose with the kids at our little bonfire Sunday night at my parents home.

Hazel got to meet all her great-grandparents this trip. We stopped by and visited Grandma Shirley. She sure loved to see little Hazel. We also visited Grandma Thompson, but I failed to get a picture of them- we'll have to do that over the 4th of July in a few weeks.

Grandma Kennedy and Hazel.

Grandpa Kennedy and Hazel.

We stopped by Grandpa McCollom's gravestone on Monday. Gus put a little flag on it. I hadn't been there for several years, so it was nice to take a moment and visit. It reminded me of what Memorial Day is really supposed to be about.

Grandma McCollom and Hazel.

Gus and his Godfather Jared (and kitty Phoebe in a choke hold!). We stopped by the Ringus home for supper on our way back to KC Monday evening.

And friend of mine from Rudd was in town this week so he stopped by last night and had supper with us. Gus is still talking about "Annee" (Andy) today. Andy is a natural with the kids, I think it's time for him and his wife Tracey to start their own brood...

Yesterday Gus got his new specs, the ones he wore last week were a loaner pair until his frames came in. They are basically the same, but these are blue and the loaners were black. He sure is cute in them- and is wearing them so well. He hardly takes them off. Next week we start patching his good eye. I am not looking forward to that.

Gus (about 2yrs, 1 month) giving Hazel a kiss- or so I thought. A few seconds after this picture the paper towel roll was taken away, as it quickly became a bat to hit Hazel in the head with.

Hazel (6 weeks, 2 days) wasn't bothered though, and did her own thing- fell asleep. She is tired- we had a busy day today. She has been smiling today, but I have yet to get a good picture of it. I'll keep trying and post one as soon as I get it! I did get some on my phone and put those on facebook if you are interested. Gus, Hazel and I went for a walk this morning, to the park, and then played outside in the backyard in the baby pool and sprinkler. What a beautiful day! Earlier this afternoon we all took a 2 hour nap together. Finally- things are slowing down. THIS is supposed to be what maternity leave is all about.