Good Trip, Great Friends!

Matt and I have been good friends with K since we went to middle school. We've grown up, she's grown up, we've all gotten married, she moved to another state...but we have still remained friends. We love her husband R too, so it was wonderful to be able to spend a few days with them at their home. They were such gracious hosts with a beautiful house!

Their 3 kids are so much fun, and we absolutely loved playing with them! Abby and Caleb haven't stopped talking about how much fun they had with them.

R is a doctor, so he had to work during the day. We enjoyed lots of quality time with K and the kids!

One of the first things we did was visit the Sturgis Pretzel Factory, which was lots of fun. The kids learned how to roll pretzels and enjoyed a yummy soft pretzel after the tour.

Then we went to a local park to feed the ducks and play on the playground. Unfortunately, K's oldest got badly scratched by a dog that got scared when she tried to pet him, and she had to get some stitches. Good thing her daddy is a doctor! It sure was a traumatic experience. Poor sweet girl!

The next day, we went to Kitchen Kettle Village to let the kids graze among the free samples and look around. I got my yummy Chow Chow and we let the kids play on the playground and visit the petting zoo. (This made K a little more nervous than usual, given yesterday's events, but all was well!)

I really, really loved these alpacas!!

The highlight of the trip was Dutch Wonderland! If you've never been there, it's a fantastic amusement park for the little ones. Caleb still liked it, although 8 is probably the max age for enjoyment. It's perfect for preschoolers though!

We learned that Abby's tolerance for rides is pretty low. Anything that swung her or jerked her at all made her back hurt, and I also noticed that she really had no control over her body when she spun around. While I could hold myself up during the teacup ride, she had to be held really tightly to keep from bashing her head into the side of the ride. So....no rollercoasters for Abs!

They had a whole forest of animated dinosaurs that we really fun!

We even managed to get in a little PT during our trip. These hand trains were a workout, but she did great!

The dive show was a big hit with all of the kids.

Abby and K's oldest are the same age, and they had a fantastic time together!

Honestly, despite all of the fun we had, I have to say my favorite times were our late night talks with K and R. Our discussions about Truth, parenting, and life in general were so refreshing. God is in every single part of their lives and I'm so thankful for their insights. I wish we lived closer (K tried desperately to get us to buy the house 3 doors down!), but it was so fun to "do life" with them for a few days. We love you, K and R!!!!!!

Cerebrocostomandibular Syndrome

If you happen to pick up the latest Reader's Digest, there is an article in there about Piper Breinholt , a four year old with CCMS. If you've been around here a while, you'll remember wayyyyyy back when we first received Abby's diagnosis that I was able to speak to Piper's mom, Reagan. The article is more about their story and not as much about the ins and outs of CCMS, but I think it's probably enough to get some people googling it and I'm hoping a few will end up here. Every once in a while, I give a blog post the title of Cerebrocostomandibular Syndrome so that it would show up in Google. My ever-present hope is that people will stumble across my blog and 1) be encouraged by the hope we have in Christ, 2) feel a connection with someone in a similar situation as them, or 3) get excited over the miracles that have been performed in Abby's life!! (a combination of all 3 is great too!) :) Notice that it's not to get famous and it never wi

The Potty Man

Caleb LOVES to go potty! I have never heard a potty training story like this one....Caleb tells us when he needs to go, we take his diaper off, and he goes! Now, is it perfect? No, not at all! We aren't trying to potty train at at all, but we figure every time he goes is one less diaper we have to change! The only time we consistantly put him on the potty is when we give him a bath (he always pees in the tub, so we know he needs to go!) He almost always goes on the potty now instead of the tub though. When he's not "really" going potty, he's pretending to go potty! He's such a funny kid!

Lego Party: Favors

I'm a little slow in posting the Lego Party pictures, but I think I have a few excuses I could use. At any rate, I wanted to share what I did for the party! It will take a few posts, so stay with me. I'll start with how I did the favors. These are the goody bags I made. I just bought solid colored gift bags and matched scrapbook paper to each bag. Then I punched circles and attached them with the 3D foam tape so that the circles were raised. I used the keychain (explained below) as a name tag on the outside. These are Duplo blocks. I put a round magnet on the back and...voila! A magnet! (note: hot glue doesn't work so well...I ended up reglueing them with my apoxy because the magnets fell off.) I made crayons using Lego man crayons. Yes, I know this guy has lost half of his leg. The others were already packaged and I didn't want to open one up just to get a picture. I used a Lego mold to make the crayons. Caleb put small pieces of crayon in each m

Life as a Leach

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