Can You Tell Me How To Get...

My poor sweet Emma. I feel like I've deprived her! When Luke was a toddler and preschooler, Sesame Street and Blue's Clues were his favorite shows. Elmo was one of his first words. (well, Mamo)

And Sara and Hope watched Sesame Street pretty regularly. They can sing the songs, know all the characters, and still will sit and watch it if it comes on on the rare occasion that they're watching PBS Kids.

But Emma has never really been interested in watching it when she's home alone without her siblings. She loves Disney Jr. and that's about all she will watch. And the big kids are past watching toddler/preschool shows. So when they are all home and can watch a show, they turn it on Disney or watch something on Netflix.

Today, Emma was watching something on PBS Kids and Sesame Street came on. She said she wanted to watch it, so I was excited! That's when it happened. I felt like a failure of a mother. My daughter pointed at the TV and said, "Look, there's Cookie Cutter!"

Oh my. We're going to have to watch a lot more Sesame Street.

Mid Summer Night's Dream

We have had the mildest January this year! Last year at this time we'd had 2 feet of snow! So these mild temps of 50s to 60s have been crazy. The kids had their 100th day of school last Friday. Last year the 100th day fell on Valentine's Day, so we are way ahead of the game. I do like a little bit of snow every year (and the kids are asking for some), but I have to say that the above average temps have been nice. It was in the upper 50s today so when Lance got off work and the kids came home from school we loaded up and went to the farm.

Once I got over my migraine (bummer), I was able to have fun with everyone else. Daddy and Lance have been working hard on our barn this fall and winter. They have made some great progress...

I love this picture of the two of them.

The big kids played for over 2 hours all over the land. They made forts, had sword fights, talked to the chickens, and were able to just be kids. :) Emma has developed this "fear" of things lately. She's terrified of the horses and the neighbors dogs, so she stuck pretty close to me. But she had fun throwing rocks and hammering boards. It was fun to watch her.

We are supposed to get some heavy rains and flooding tonight, so Lance was concerned about the little ravine that runs through the farm. Another heavy rain will just wash out the ravine, so he wanted to dump so rocks in a low spot. We all spent about 45 minutes loading the tractor bucket with rocks. I think Lance made about 5 trips in the tractor. That's a LOT of rocks! Even Emma was picking up rocks and throwing them in the bucket. We all had so much fun! It's moments like those this afternoon in life that I don't want to take for granted. :)

Revamped and Ready to Go!

Have you missed me???? :) I have taken a somewhat life-imposed blogging hiatus. I hadn't planned on it, but life got extremely busy this fall. And I was starting to let my duties as a wife and mom fall to the wayside because of all the extra "stuff" I was attending to. The blog being a part of that. So I took a little time off. And I'm glad I did. :) I feel bad about not keeping up with our family and the kids, but I feel refreshed now. So I'm back to blogging again. And I'm happy about it.

The kids are at really fun ages right now. We're having some very fun times together just being a family. And I have made a point the past few months to focus on my family and let all the other "stuff" fall away. Let me say that I have not regretted it!

So in a very fast recap, here are the highlights from the past few months just so I'll remember them in the years to come :)

October - Arghhh! The Faddises were a band of pirates for Halloween. We went camping with our friends at Branson for Halloween and Mom and Poppa initiated their new camper!

November - Sara turned 7!!! Oh my word! We went and say Happy Feet 2 and she got another Build a Bear. Right before our family prayer on Thanksgiving, my mom asked everyone to say what they were thankful for. When it got to Emma, she announced "lipstick." Haha!

December - We introduced an "Elf on the Shelf" to our Christmas traditions in the Faddis Family. :) The kids LOVED "Jingle!" We had soooo much fun with him! Can't wait til he comes back next year. And more importantly...the biggest thing that happened in December was that my niece, Hattie Vella was born! She's a tiny little thing, but has added so much to our family!

And that brings us to January. The big news here??? We've started the home study for our adoption!!!! We are this much closer to getting our son! There have been lots of developments recently. Not any that I want to share on such a public forum yet, but things are moving along very well. We are so excited!

So there we are. All caught up! :) And I'm really looking forward to the daily/weekly recaps of our family again!

Caution: Hard Hat Area

Well, she did it again.  Emma has another emergency trip to her Daddy's office under her belt. :(

I helped host a baby shower for a friend this afternoon.  Mom and Dad were gracious enough to keep the kids for me for a few hours, because Lance also had a commitment. 

I picked the kids up after the shower and headed home to rest for about an hour before we all had to head to my sis in law's parent's house for my brother's grad school graduation party.

We hadn't been home for 30 minutes before it happened.  The girls were all playing in Hope and Sara's room. I heard a bang and Emma cry out.  I didn't jump at first. (any mom with more than 2 kids will feel me on that one!) But a split second later, I heard the scream. As I was jumping up to run to her, Sara came running to me yelling, "She's bleeding!"

I picked her up and she was holding her head. I took her into the bathroom to look at her and there it was.  An inch long gash about 1 inch below her hair line.  I freaked a little bit, because all that was going through my mind was the scar she was going to have. On her forehead. And she has curly hair. Which means, no bangs. :(

I know that is petty to be worried about. And I know that there are so many families out there dealing with real tragedies with their children. So I feel badly that I was thinking that, but I was.  I can't help it.

I called Lance and my parents and told them to come home and over immediately. Mom and Dad to the big kids to the party and Lance and I headed to his office with Emma.

It was not a fun experience to say the least. But we made it through it. She's feeling fine.  My nerves are shot and I'm a little emotional, but I'll be fine.  I'm just praying for minimal scarring.  Hoping it heals quickly.  But from now on, we're putting a hard hat on that girl!

By the way...For those keeping count, that's 3 head wounds this summer and 4 in the last year.  2 gluing wounds on her forehead, 7 staples in the back of her head, and now 7 stitches in her forehead.

Snaggletooth

Hope has been working on a loose tooth for a couple weeks.  When she first came to me and told me she had one, I didn't believe her. :) Luke and Sara didn't lose any teeth until they were 6. And Hope just turned 5 in June. I didn't think there was anyway that her teeth were loose. But I was wrong! It sure enough was loose. The past couple of days, it's loosened up some more.

Lance tried to pull it this weekend, but it wouldn't let go. This afternoon, I tried, but couldn't get a good hold on it. She must have worked on it some more because when she showed it to me right before we left for church, it was ready to come out! I got some toilet paper, reached in and grabbed it, and gave a gentle tug.

I just stood up holding it in the toilet paper and smiled really big. She looked at me confused and then she put her tongue where the tooth had been. I wish I had video of her reaction! Her eyes lit up and she got so excited! (and the little booger bled!)

So the tooth fairy is making a stop at our house tonight. And I have a very excited 5 year old in my house!

Dosey Do and a Birthday!

Labor Day is always a busy weekend for us.  The 3 big kids all have square dancing on Saturday and Monday. And on Saturday morning, they are in the Clothesline Fair parade with their square dance groups.  And this year, we had to drive to OK and back in between the 2 things for my Granddad's 90 birthday! Wow!

The following is a picture recap of our weekend...

Duke & Daisies

Boots & Bandanas

Emma in a sugar coma from the parade candy!

Me and my Granddad

Sara and her partner

Hope and her partner

Boots & Bandanas



Daddy took some extra pics of the girls :) LOVE!



And this one!

So proud of Luke!

  

Dukes & Daisies

Luke and his partner

That Boy of Mine

My precious boy.  We have been in school for a week and a half now.  Already, the past week and a half have been better than the past 2 years of school. :) We struggled in 2nd and 3rd grade with teachers that just didn't know how to handle Luke.  He has lived the past 2 years of school feeling defeated.  And so have we.  He doesn't fit "in the box." He is an active, energetic, curious, smart, loving handful. :)

We have taken some proactive measures this year to ensure that he is going to have a good year and not be punished for who he is.  And he was blessed with a GREAT teacher!  Someone who gets him and is thinking outside the box for ways to help him succeed in school.   He's always been a straight A or A/B student, but last year he got a couple of C's so we knew that we had to do something this year to nip it in the bud.

Here's a little insight into how his mind works...

That is a math assignment in which he was supposed to come up with 10 "rounding up or down" math equations.  He sat at the kitchen table doing it while I was washing dishes.  Every time he did a problem, he would look up and say something to me.  When he looked back down, he wrote the next equation.  They are all over the place!  No rhyme or reason to the placement on the page.  No order.  A little bit of chaos.  But done, and done well. 

God gave me that math assignment to understand my sweet, sweet boy just a little more.  His brain goes at lightning speed.  It's hard for him to process it all and contain it.  He's a little bit all over the place kinda like that math assignment.

He is an amazing boy. He is funny, loving, caring, sensitive, and loves the Lord.  I am so proud of him and pray that Lance and I can raise him into the man God wants him to be