Family Update

So a lot has happened since I was regularly blogging.  We started homeschooling when Sarah started Kindergarten and Elijah was in 3rd grade.  We wanted our kids to have the best education that was individualized from them.  Sarah needed this one on one.  Elijah decided it sounded good to him too. We absolutely love homeschooling.  It has been the right decision for our family on so many levels.

With this in mind, we soon realized that for this stage in life country living was not best.  We decided to start looking for a house in a neighborhood type setting with some amenities(pool, trails, playground, etc).  Also, we wanted to increase Sarah's and Isaac's therapies, but a 30 minute drive one way multiple times a week was not conducive to school time.  We found a neighborhood that we liked, but wanted to build our next home.  Our plans don't always match God's plans.  Through a string of events, one of which included selling our home in just a couple of days on the market, we decided to buy an already built home.  We absolutely love our newest home.  Each of the kids have their own room, a playroom, and 3 full baths.  We are in a community with a pool, walking trails, playground, and the best part is we are now 5 min from therapy!!!

We have met many of our neighbors and are blessed to call them friends.  We have hooked up with one family that have kids close in age as our kids, homeschool, attend our co-op and use the same curriculum we use.  How is that for God working out the small details?  We get together once a week and do school together.  Honestly we see each other daily.  We love doing life with them.  It has been wonderful.

We did increase the kids therapy and they are excelling on many levels.  Sarah is talking up a storm and getting so mature.  She can do so much now.  She is getting independent in dressing, bathing, etc.   She is surprising us daily with new skills.  I am amazed!!!  Isaac is doing great.  He is still not talking but he is signing and making his wants and needs known.  He is now potty trained!!!!!!  I am super happy about that.  He is doing good learning his colors and ABC's.

Elijah has entered into the Middle School age group.  When did he grow up?  He is currently on his first mission trip with the Middle Schoolers.  He loves to go and do.  He is very smart and caring.  Highly over-protective of his siblings and probably knows as much as I do about their various diagnosis and treatments.  He loves the GA bulldogs.  He loves to read and play mindcraft.


I took the plunge into essential oils.  We began several years ago to use them for cognitive boost.  I began to research and found through trial and error that Young Living were the best for my family for so many reasons.  We have been healthier this last year since I started using them for everything.  We still love and see our doctors, but the oils help us maintain and support our health and lifestyle.  I did decide at the end of Feb of this year to start selling the oils to support my oil habit and add a little to our income.  I am really enjoying learning about the oils and the science behind them.

More soon!!!

New Beginnings...

Thought I would get back into blogging about our life.  We are a family of 5 who are on a journey of living life to the fullest and following God in whatever direction he takes us!!  Doug and I journeyed alone for many years.  We finally connected on eHarmony and fell in love.  Soon we married.  Doug's job brought us to TN thirteen years ago.  A year later, we welcomed our first born, Elijah.  He was our miracle baby.  Our second child came to us via adoption in 2007.  With Sarah, we began our journey through "Holland",  the journey of Down syndrome.  We learned that "Holland" is a beautiful place and full of blessings.  This led us to adopt Isaac in 2010, who also has an extra chromosome.  This blog will be about our journey as we navigate this beautiful land God has created for us.  Glad you are going to join us and we began again to document the beauty of our lives.

I will start by updating you on each of us over the next week.  Looking forward to sharing our fun and crazy life!!!

Happy New Year!!!

Welcome 2014!!! We have had a quiet day at home. I decided over the weekend to rearrange the kids bedrooms. I moved Elijah to Sarah's room and Sarah and Isaac are sharing a room. Elijah needs his own space and the 2 little ones don't mind sharing. So we have spent the week painting and moving furniture. Boy, Elijah is a pack rat!  He had tons of stuff stashed everywhere. It is all cleaned out now. I still need to touch up paint in the shared room, but I can't find that paint can. Now on to packing up Christmas!!

The paint looks green in these pictures, but it is really a blue/gray color. 

Time Flies

Wow, has it really been almost a year since I posted?  Sorry about that. I finally got on Facebook so I do most of my posting there. 

We have had a wild year. Isaac has had ear tubes and a T&A and spent several days in the hospital with pneumonia. Elijah had a T&A. Doug had his other knee repaired. Sarah had a colonoscopy that showed her colon issues are due to food allergies!!!  They did neck X-rays since she has a mild AAI that showed her AAI was no longer considered mild. She had her neck fused 2 weeks ago. Whew!

We are still homeschooling. Elijah is working about a grade level above his actual grade. Sarah has started reading a few words. Isaac is loving joining us for music, bible, and circle time. We are still loving homeschooling. 

I will try to do better this coming year!!!

What's for Dinner?

Going gluten and soy/soybean free has posed a bit of a dilemma at our house. All of the gluten free foods we liked, all have soy in them. This made me so sad. It was like starting over. Basically, if it is in a box, we can't eat it. We are back to cooking from scratch. Sarah also is on a high fiber diet(super hard when gluten free) and must have 5-7 serving of fruits and veggies a day for her digestive issues. I am trying new things to get in the fiber and fruits &veggies. Tonight for supper we had roasted chicken with fennel, onions and tomatoes and a side of sautéed brussel sprouts. Here is my recipe.

Sliced onion and fennel. Sauté in olive oil until tender. Add a few of the fennel leaves at the end. All parts of the fennel is edible, but we generally just eat the bulb and a few of the leaves. The stalk can be tough. Put in bottom of a roasting pan. Using same skillet brown chicken on both sides then place on top of onions and fennel. Add grape tomatoes and a cup of chicken broth. Cover and cook at 400 for 30min-1hour depending on the cut of chicken you use.

The brussel sprouts I sautéed in olive oil until browned then I put in oven until cook through. About 15 min.

Everyone here cleaned their plates.

Isaac

I will start my updates with Isaac since he has had the most change. He is now two. He is definitely living up to being two! Haha. He is a full time walker, runner, climber, into everything boy! He is in a toddler bed now and shares the room with Elijah. He still sucks his middle two fingers to go to sleep or if he is sick or tired. He needs his blue puppy and music to go to sleep. He likes his brother's Toby Mac CD the best but will take his nature sounds CD too. He is jabbering all the time and loves to scream as loud as he can if no one is watching him. He knows a lot of signs, but generally refuses to use them. He will say a few words, but not if you want him. He loves Elijah and says Elijah and bubba all the time. He loves to bother Sarah and make her scream, then he just giggles. He loves baths and I am sure the neighbors for miles can hear him scream when we take him out of the bath. He is still the happiest baby I have ever seen. His smile just lights up a room. He is a big flirt with all the girls! He is wearing 18 month clothing and a 4/5 shoe. He weighs about 23 pounds, but he is short so he looks a little overweight. He is such a joy.

Still here

Sorry I have not posted in forever! We have been busy and I needed a break. I am trying to decide what direction to take this blog. Over the last few months we have had to make major lifestyle changes due to allergies in our family. We are now gluten and soybean free. It is a struggle to find foods or recipes to replace favorites of our family. I think I will start sharing some of those recipes here and hopefully help others along the way. I will still share about the kiddos and plenty of pictures! I will give you and update on everyone later this week, but I will leave you with a few pictures!