Disney World

As noted in my previous post, we went to Disney World with Matt, Sarah, and Rachel.  We still had another 4 months left to use our last day, but I wanted to go when the weather was cool and before spring breakers started flooding in.  I think the longest we waited was about 25 minutes.  It was busy, but not terribly crowded.  We got to ride on pretty much everything we wanted to.  

 The first time meeting Ariel

 First time meeting the Fairies

 Hannah, Rosetta, & Kate

 And you should all know who this famous fairy is...Tinkerbell!

 Sleeping Beauty

 Belle

 Cinderella

 One of my favorite princesses.  She was SO good despite having the onset of a cold.  You can tell by her groggy, watery eyes.  She got to ride a couple of rides, but was fairly content to be in her new stroller.

 Eating dinner at Tony's-the restaurant from "Lady & the Tramp"

 His face says it all

Hannah and Kate asked for balloons all day long and Daddy surprised them with ones that lit up! 

George and I both agreed that we are Disneyed out for a while, but we had a great time.  

My Loves

Ahhh...love is in the air!  Let's start with these two little lovebirds (just kidding...I'm really not that mom who already has my daughters' husbands picked out...leaving that one up to the Lord).  Joseph is the son of some close friends, Summer and Sean.  For those of you that went to our wedding, you'll remember (maybe) that Summer was my maid of honor.  We don't get to see them nearly enough because they live about 45 minutes south of us, but it's much more convenient now that she's a stay at home mommy.  We had a lot of fun hanging out with them yesterday and I couldn't resist snapping a picture of them.   

Kate has been very into helping with Reagan recently and she wanted to feed her her bottle last night.  Reagan really holds her own bottle, but Kate can hold (with close mommy supervision) Reagan.

 Nanny & Grampie Lantz bought them these adorable Valentine's Day dresses.  Hannah and Kate absolutely love them and luckily the weather is warm enough today to wear them!  Reagan seems to know just what to do when I break out the camera.  I can't believe I got all three of them to smile and look at the camera.

 Daddy got Hannah and Kate a box of Princess chocolates for Valentine's Day.

We are going to Disney tomorrow to use our last of the three day passes we bought.  Matt, Sarah, and Rachel are coming with us.  It should be a lot of fun with all of the little ones getting to see the princesses together. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Forgotten Reflection

"Do not merely be listeners of the word and so deceive yourselves.  Do what it says.  Anyone who listens to the word, but does not do what it says, is like a man who looks at his face in the mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.  But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do so, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it-he will be blessed in what he does." ~James 1:22-24

If those verses aren't quoted perfectly it's because I wrote them from memory.  I am doing a new bible study written by Beth Moore on the book of James.  She has encouraged those who want to to memorize the entire book of James.  For those unfamiliar with the book, it is 5 chapters long.  I fail miserably at scripture memory.  Therefore, I thought why not give it a go.  I memorized about 21 verses in John during a previous bible study so I figured I could do this one, too.  So hopefully, in about another 4 months, I'll have all 5 chapters memorized.  I am done with chapter 1. 

That's not why I am writing this post though.  If anyone is like me, those verses in James have flat out confused me for basically the last 10+ years of my life.  Sure I've read them & I got the basic concept of them, but I don't think I have ever fully understood them until just this past week.  And I can tell you that it wasn't due to any bible study homework or teacher, it was simply an act of the Holy Spirit unveiling my eyes to His truth.  Don't you love when that happens? 

As believers, we are to reflect Christ, right?  When I look in the mirror, I should see the reflection of my Lord, Jesus Christ.  So if I have spent time looking intently at His Word then I should see the image on Christ reflected in the mirror.  How do I see that?  Through doing what His Word says.  The doing is motivated by faith.  However, if I'm reading the bible, but never allow it to change me, then when I look in the mirror, I will see me, not the One whose image I was created in.  I was created to look like Christ.  So what's stopping me?  Not looking intently enough into His Word...being touched by His Word, but not changed by it (a concept courtesy of Beth Moore)...not hiding His Word in my heart...and not doing what it says.  

 

Here's a little girl that has a cute as a button reflection in the mirror!

 She loves playing in the kitchen.  She empties it of everything.

Kate-Before & After

Most of you have already heard about Kate's accident on Sunday night, but for those who haven't, here it is.  Kate fell off the couch ottoman.  We immediately knew something was wrong due to the amount of blood in her mouth, her blood curdling screams, and that her teeth were hanging much lower than they used to.  Thanks to a friend who happens to be a pediatric nurse practitioner, we decided not to take her to the ER.  The bleeding had stopped and she didn't seem to be in much pain, but her teeth were very obviously loose.  We went to the dentist first thing in the morning and after an exam and x-rays, he determined that they had been completely ripped away from the roots.  We had a couple of options:

1) Have them re-implanted.  They would likely fuse together and need to be extracted when her permanant teeth came in.
2) Have them extracted.  We had a couple of ways of doing this:
     a) Do it in his office with some novacaine.  It would be quick, but painful. 
     b) Go to an oral surgeon and sedate her.
Since I thought she'd been through enough trauma and I didn't want the dentist to be a place of pain, I opted for the second choice.

We went in for a consultation yesterday.  Bright and early this morning, we went in and she had them removed.  Other than some initial confusion and anger on the way home, she has been fine.  Once the meds wore off, she was up hopping around like usual.  She has enjoyed her non-chewing diet of bowls of chocolate ice cream, jello, popsicles, pudding, and oatmeal.  Hannah has been trying to "break" her teeth all day long because she didn't think it was fair that Kate didn't have to eat a PBJ at lunch or pizza at dinner.  Hannah has very much shared all of Kate's goodies so she hasn't been deprived.

So...what next?  We can just leave the space open or we can look into getting an implant device.  I am going to discuss it with her pediatrician tomorrow and with her dentist again.

For those interested in what Kate's teeth looked like...here they are.  These were pictures from Sunday night. 

Notice Hannah laying on the couch in the background.  She had a 24 hour fever and didn't feel well.

 Pictures from this morning, still a little doped up.

 Probably one of the only times eating ice cream on the couch is acceptable.  The doctor wanted her on the couch for the first 4 hours until the meds wore off.

All smiles.  She cried for a second when I showed her in the mirror, but I think she has accepted it now. 

A lot of you sent texts, e-mails, or commented on facebook and I wasn't able to get back to each of you individually.  THANK YOU!!!  I really appreciate all of the prayers and support.  God has blessed us with a beautiful girl and I am so grateful for His provision.  The night that this happened, I just layed with her and thanked God that my daughter had teeth to begin with.  Many moms around the world worry about their children's teeth falling out due to malnutrition.  My child fell off the couch (another blessing) and had an accident.  It happens.  Life goes on.  We are so blessed to have dental and medical insurance and that we have options!  

Spoken Too Soon

Do you remember my words from yesterday's post regarding Reagan, "Whatever seems to be ailing her is gone today"?  You think that I would know as a mother by this point to never speak so soon.  I was even just telling Sarah in the hours before we discovered Reagan's fever that it's been a month since she's been sick.  Well, as I was getting Reagan out of the car yesterday from a shopping trip, I noticed that she has "grown" hundreds of little red pin pricks all over her arms and legs.  I thought to myself, "We've seen this before."

 

I was pretty sure it was hand, foot, & mouth disease.  I took her to the pediatrician just in case though.  The doctor confirmed that I was right (may I have a co-pay refund, please?) and sent us on our merry way.  There is nothing we can do.  It's hard to tell from the picture below, but she is pretty spotty.  Not nearly as spotty as Hannah was.  Although, Reagan has developed some blisters on her hands and feet.  They look like little fire ant bites.  They don't seem to bother her and she has been pretty happy today.  She isn't even contagious, but I've kept her home from the gym because I don't think I would like to see my children playing with a spotty baby.  

Here's to hoping we don't have anything else too exciting to post about this week!