Our Thanksgiving Table

UPDATED:

Here is what the table looked like on Thanksgiving as we sat down to eat. All of the food was fabulous....just like always, and we totally stuffed ourselves! (Pun intended)

My MIL getting the juices to make the gravy....pretty good lookin' turkey, ain't it?

The Salad for the Vegetarian Hubby, and The Good Husband - doing dishes after the meal :)

Me - after all was eaten and cleaned up. I sat down to put together the scrapbook page I made. We each wrote down what we were thankful for.

(well, maybe not all was cleaned up - that is my pumpkin pie sitting in front of me!)
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ORIGINAL POST: "Happy Thanksgiving"

We are staying home this year, and having Lonnie's family over to our new home for dinner.
I'm very excited! I'm attemping my dear Gram's Banana Cream Pie - wish me luck! It's a pie filling from scratch on the stove....yikes...I've never done that before!

I have many things to be thankful for this year!
- My beautiful and AWESOME son!
- My loving and thoughtful husband!
- An everloving, ever-forgiving Lord and Savior in Jesus!
- Our beautiful home
- My family - lots and lots of wonderful family :)

- Friends who help make each day a little easier....

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

A friend of mine sent this verse to me, and I just love it! I hope you find comfort in it, too!

Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again-rejoice!
Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do.
Remember, the Lord is coming soon.
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.
Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.
If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more
wonderful than the human mind can understand.
His peace will guard you hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:4-7


My practice run...making sure all the dishes fit! Just in case I forget to take pictures amongst all the hustle and bustle of getting the meal on the table.

Everybody Dance Now! - Eli in a KidWalk Gait Trainer

"You Do the Hokey Pokey and You Turn Yourself Around...That's What It's All About!"

"I Want To Rock & Roll All Night and Party Every Day"

"Shake Your Groove Thang, It's a Funky Thang"

"Bust A Move"

"Jump Around, Jump Up, Jump Up and Get Down"

"Everybody Dance Now"

"I Want To See You Belly Dance"

"The Rhythym Is Gonna Get You"

Help me out everybody - what are some other great songs and lyrics I could use for this awesome photo of my boy walking in a KidWalk Gait Trainer? LEAVE A COMMENT WITH YOUR IDEAS! I'd love to hear them.....

We were so proud of him...he did AWESOME in this...even better than in his Bronco! We are looking at getting one, but want to try him in it a few more times before we spend the money.

MckWonderful World of MckMama

Hello my name is Amy and I'm a Blogaholic.

A woman that I've never met and probably never will, writes a blog called My Charming Kids. I look forward to it everyday...more than anything else I do online. (Well, besides post on my own blog of course!) Click on the hyperlinks to connect to her blog. (She's also in my list of blogs to the right)

To catch you up quickly on [part] of her story:
She has four children. Ages 3, 2, 1 and newborn! She is an awesome Mom, who loves the Lord, talks about Him openly, praises Him constantly, and shares her wonderfully blessed world with the rest of us "Blogaholics". Her parenting advice alone makes the blog worthwhile! But she gives photography tips, is an incredible decorator, has 'give the photo a title' contests, and her children are just absolutely beautiful!
She was pregnant this year with a baby boy she named Stellan. He had a heart defect and the doctors told her he wouldn't live outside the womb. Well, her blog became so popular, people all over the world were praying for Baby Stellan! And guess what God did? He healed Stellan!
The power of prayer still exists! She calls herself MckMama and all her kids have cute little nicknames with a McDonald's like theme.....it's a fun blog! You gotta go check it out.....soon you'll be addicted, too!
She is having a "Small Fryday Contest" to try and get even more readers over to her blog, because she is going to do a fundraiser soon for another blog String of Pearls. An organization that helps women who have been diagnosed with a fatal diagnosis for their unborn babies.

God can work miracles in many ways, and the internet can be one of them. The way Moms can connect through difficult situations, via online groups and blogs is truly a blessing. I don't know what I would have done without my online friends after my Eli was born! I belong to some wonderful Cerebral Palsy groups that have helped me through many situations.

God is good. All the time. We just have to give him the credit he deserves! :)

Goodbye Hisser

Our dear old cat Hisser had to be put down today, after
we got the shocking test results of Feline AIDS.

It is transmitted through bite wounds and has a higher occurence in male cats.

It doesn't live long enough on food or water dishes to transfer that way....and we were glad, because we didn't want the rest of our herd to get sick!

Lonnie found Hisser on the side of the road after he was hit by a car.

His jaw was broken and he had other injuries. Lon lovingly nursed him back to health, but Hisser was so scared all he would do is hiss at Lonnie - hence the name!

He was over 10 years old.....we hope he enjoyed his days of loooooong naps at our house.

We will miss him. Rest in peace, Little Hissy, I hope you feel better now!

Wordless Wednesday - What a Laugh!

Me Love Me Some FLOWBEE!

As you can imagine, it is quite difficult to cut Eli's hair.

The combination of not being able to hold his head up very long, arching back and looking to the right, and slobbering lots......makes "haircutting day" few and far between! I dread it...and Eli hates it when it's happening. I hurry as fast as I can with the clippers, and try to keep the hairs out of his mouth....but it's just plain stressful!



So - my dear readers - I present to you the best invention ever.............
the FLOWBEE!!!

You just plug in the hair cutting part to an electrical outlet, hook the hose up to your vacuum and it sucks the hair up as it cuts! Genius people! Absolute brilliance!

I gave Eli this awesome haircut in less than five minutes - with no clean-up afterwards!
Yeah, baby - that's what I'm talkin' about!
Ok -is it just me or did this haircut and pose make my son look instantly older!??? He sure ain't a baby anymore!
(I type this as he lays asleep in my arms just like one! Aren't I lucky! How many of you get to snuggle with your three year olds for naptime? hee hee)

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Now most of you look at the picture below and say, "Uh, what is so special about that, Aim?"
Well, let me tell you! Look closely - he's holding his first finger! It's the first time I've ever seen him do this! To make it even more special he opened his right hand up just as I took the picture.

It made my heart melt! This is one of the things most parents take for granted. A child grabbing his hands together! It's one of the first things that happens, right? Not for us!

As the Mom to a special needs child, it was a milestone we waited well over two years to see! Eli found his hands just this year! So, each time I see him holding onto himself - I savor it. I photograph it. I document, if only in my mind....with great anticipation for what might come next.....will he ever grab his toes?

This is where I must give thanks to the Lord! He made my beautiful son, He knows the timing for all Eli will accomplish. He is teaching me patience and understanding at a level I never knew existed! He is good......really good!
Amen.

And the Leaves, Leaves, Leaves came Down, Down, Down...

I love our new house!

After house hunting for almost nine months, I just kept saying, 'I'll know the house when I see it'. As we were driving up the long driveway to this house, and I saw all the big trees, and I immediately knew this was my new house! The backyard is so amazing. I positively LOVE the weeping Birch trees, and the HUGE tree for climbing that I highlighted in my post about Eli's birthday party in August.


It crossed my mind that these trees would be work in Autumn.....as the leaves started to fall............but Oh My Stars!....this is insane! I'm begging my dear sweet hubby to go buy a lawn sweeper. A person can only rake so much!



DO YOU THINK WE NEED ONE?



Nice piles of leaves awaiting their fate of being transported out into the pasture.




TODAY THE WIND BLEW........AND MORE LEAVES FELL ON TOP OF OUR PILES!

Are you kidding me? LOL!

Even though................I still love our house!

Thank you Lord for the awesome blessing of allowing us to be stewards to this beautiful property! The work is great, but so is the reward!
Amen!

Treadmill Therapy

On Thursday, October 30th, we were part of a seminar held at Childrens Village (http://www.yakimachildrensvillage.org/). Ginny Paleg (http://www.ginnypaleg.com/) is a Neuro-Developmental Treatment Physical Therapist from the Washington D.C. area, who specializes in kids with severe physical challenges. She came and spoke to a group of local therapist from the Village, Schools, and other facilities.
Part of the program was to show examples of kids using the treadmill. They asked us to bring Eli as one of their subjects. :)

As you can see, Eli is suspended from a harness, and then held by therapists. They moved his legs like he was walking...and then would give him the opportunity to do it by himself.
HE TRIED SO HARD...AND HE COULD DO IT!

After our very disappointing October full of appointments, where we felt no one had anything to offer us regarding helping Eli - we felt Ginny Paleg was a gift. A huge blessing to us! She saw things in Eli that others don't take the time to see. She noticed it took him about 8 minutes to respond to a request (very typical for CP kids). She saw that he still has the raw reflex of 'walking'. When he's put in a standing position, he'll lift his feet off the ground. It's slow, and intermittent...but it's still there! She could see how hard he was trying by watching his face and his body language. SHE GAVE US HOPE! She was awesome. :)

When a Doctor sees him for 30 minutes once a year - they cannot get a good idea of who our boy really is and what he can do! He has potential....he just has severe physical limitations.
So, we are very THANKFUL for people like Ginny who have made it their life's calling to help these kids have a chance at a more fulfilling life.

We aren't sure what we will do next regarding this kind of therapy. It would be great to have it available at home....so we'll see how it all works out....

Fall Back Time Change

When you have a kid who wakes up by 5 am (90% of the time).....the "Fall Back" time change really stinks! It takes us days to get back on track!
Eli has a hard enough time staying up until 7 pm - so last night he made it until 6 pm new time. Which then made for a 4 am wakening! He was off all morning....didn't want to take a good nap until right before we were supposed to leave for his horse therapy. We had to cancel it. Bummer!

Tonight he made it until 6:35 pm....we'll see what tomorrow brings.....Ugh... :)

UPDATE: He woke up Tuesday at 4:05 am!

Eli the Pirate

Eli had swim therapy today, so I dressed him up in his costume and took him to Children's Village this way. (well, he didn't wear the bandana in the car!)

So, that was the extent of his costume wearing :) And I think he was glad!

HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A CUTER PIRATE, MATEY?

Here he is in therapy, with an intern, Janell. We just LOVE her!