This first video is Derek. He was having a hard
time coordinating all the parts at the same time. He would finally
be able to see the target through the scope, but he would lose it
when he put his finger on the trigger or position his hands. He
would finally feel he had it all, but he would miss the target.
Finally, he got it all together and hit the target!

Troy likes target shooting some days, and other days, he would rather collect the shell
casings. Today he was the master shell casing collector until the
end when we convinced him to give if another shot (no pun
intended…). He then never missed the target and wanted to shoot
all day!

Jason went from only pulling the trigger to doing everything himself. You see him load
and cock the gun and take safety off, find the target in the scope
and hit it right on! I think target shooting is something Jason
could really get into.

At the moment they are
using sandbags to steady the rifle, but soon we will get at least
Jason, if not Troy, to shoot off hand. Like my blog? PLEASE click
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After lunch, we all went out back and my dad set up a few .22 rifles in the shooting range. The kids went first,
shooting a rifle specifically made for young children. It has a ton of safety measures, one of which is that it only shoots 1 bullet at a time. It also has a safety and a key that locks and unlocks the gun whenever you want to use it. This was the gun the kids were shooting. Before, my dad or Jason would guide them every step of the way. They would set the gun up so it was aimed right at the target, and still it was a 50/50 chance the kids would hit the target. This time, all three boys learned how to find the target in the scope, and hit the target much more often! Jason even learned how to load it, cock it, aim it, and shoot it all on his own! And the best part is that he hit the target almost every time!! He is starting to show some real skill and interest. So much so, that I am going to look into a gun for home and some lessons or a club for him when we get back. It was an amazing first day!

We have also madea trip into town (a 40 minute- one- way ordeal),
another round of shooting, where the boys improved even more, and we even took a trip to the beach on the lake. We found a place at the base of a small mountainous, rocky point. We tried to swim in the water, but it was sooooo cold! We all ventured out there, each one attempting to be braver than the next. Eventually, Jason went under water and stayed there a bit. The kids kicked around in water up to their waist, and I even went under water for a split second before I shot out like a rocket, landed on the beach and curled up into two towels in an attempt to get warm. Big Jason won the bravery contest by a landslide. The kids found the large boulders behind the beach area and wated to check them out. Within seconds theywere at the top. Then they set their sights on the top of the rocky, mountainous area. There was cactus everywhere, so Jason stopped half-way with Ash as it got pretty steep and headed down, but I continued up to the top with the boys. The view from the top was amazing, and the boys were so proud!! Except for some cactus stuck in my hand and in Derek’s foot, all was well!

Today we are headed to the dunes, so stay tuned for that story!

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story!!!

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It has been a bit since I last wrote, but that is because we finally got a chance to go on a family vacation! And after the year we had, we need it, too. Desperately! We have escaped to Utopia with my parents in Colorado. We have only been here two days, and I have so much to tell you, it will take several days to cover.

We left Wednesday morning for a typically thirteen hour drive with 4 kids and a dog. Jason and I had spent the last couple days gearing up for the inevitable. We had snacks and bottled water packed, and toys, books, and coloring materials for the kids, and a long and desperate prayer for the adults. Then we left civilization behind, and headed into the wilderness. After about two hours of driving west through Kansas, the scenery, while beautiful, became very redundant. Here is the view for a large part of the trip:

The kids fell asleep after about an hour and a half, and slept for about an hour, so it was smooth sailing for a little while. When they woke up, they surprised us by entertaining themselves and getting along for the most part. As my gas tank started to reach the last quarter, the kids started getting restless. Troy had to go to the bathroom. But we were making great time! We can’t stop now…right? So what does Jason do, he takes my now empty coffee cup from Quik Trip and tried to teach Troy how to pee in a cup! I just pretended I didn’t know what was going on…I decided that we were going to try and make it all the way to Colby, Kansas before we stopped to fill up. (Check your map of Kansas…we left from Kansas City). As we reached the small towns before Colby, Jason started suggesting strongly that we fill up there, but I was determined. Unfortunately, the road signs didn’t give the miles away from Colby, so I was guessing…and the needle was free falling to “E.”. After we passed the last small town before Colby, there was finally a sign telling us how far we were. With my needle already on “E,” we still had 36 miles to go! Laughing nervously, I feigned confidence and told Jason we were going to make it. He responded by calling back to the kids, telling them that, “Mommy is going to make us have to walk soon!” He laughed and watched. I called out each mile as we got closer and closer. The needle was dropping below the line, but we kept going. Finally, with my hands gripping the wheel like a vice, we approached the second exit to Colby and pulled into the first gas station we came to. We had made it, and I was vindicated. Jason walked the dog while I hunted for kid shoes (for ten minutes!) and then finally took everyone to the bathroom and got more coffee while Jason filled up the tank. That was the first and only stop of the whole trip! We got to my parents’ in 11 hours!! The kids were pretty good, though they bickered a bit. They started getting restless, and so did Echo, but they just moved around and found a better spot.

Other than the gas challenge, the only real excitement we had was when we passed the wild fire by Colorado Springs. We watched a helicopter dip a bucket to get water and then fly over to drop it onto the fire. While it was interesting, it was also heartbreaking to see such devastation so close.

We finally pulled into the driveway, in the tiny town of Fort Garland, 8500 feet up in the mountains, far away from all the stressors we have been contending with the last year plus. Just breathing the thinner and drier air filled our bodies with a sense of peace that we haven’t felt in a long time. My parents are amazing people, opening their home to us at such short notice. They even agreed to make us dinner so we could skip that stop so we could just get there. The kids were in heaven immediately, too. The following day brought amazing stories I will tell you about tomorrow.

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We were walking with the other supporters, and the kids started out with handfuls of candy that they threw at the kids on the sidelines, almost hitting them in the head in the process! I told them to aim for the ground at their feet and keep it easy. Jason decided it would just be easier to hand one out to each kid, one at a time. Needless to say, he got pretty far behind, and I had to go back and get him a few times. Overall, the kids felt pretty special being in the parade instead of watching it, but they got pretty darn tired by the time we reached the end, and then we had to walk all the way back to get to the car! They were troopers, and made it without too much complaint. Even Ashley made it! We didn’t have any drinks with us (mom fail), so we ate lunch at Wendy’s and the kids downed a soda within seconds!

After lunch, we went home and did some chores. Then they went out into the back yard and wanted to play with the hose. They got their suits on and went out. They set up the thing you wind the hose up onto (I forget what that doohickey is called) and turned on the water so it squirt out like a big fountain.

The water immediately created a giant mud puddle that the kids took full advantage of by having a mud fight, rolling their entire body in the mud, and then rinsing off in the water. They did this over and over.

Grandma stopped by unexpectedly, and these little mud-rats started to come in and see her, but that was not going to happen.

Instead, Grandma and I went around to the back and attempted to talk to them there. The neighbor’s little dog was barking up a storm at us, making Echo bark at it, so it was too hard to talk. We instead had each kid come to the front yard and see Grandma real quick. Overall, it was a fun day for all!

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Just Derek being Derek!

We had a doctor’s appointment yesterday with the Orthopedic Surgeon, and it went pretty well over all, but it didn’t come without adventure!  The kids have Vacation Bible School this week, so we went there at first in the morning.  As I was gathering all four kids to come with me so we could leave early for Derek’s appointment, one of the amazing women I attend church with offered to take Jason and Troy until we got home.  She was going to let them finish out Vacation Bible School and then take them out to lunch.  How could I refuse such a great offer??  (Thank you, Debbie!!!)  I left those two boys, but took Derek and Ashley with me.  We went straight to the doctor.  While we were driving to the hospital, Derek was getting lower and lower into his seat.  I just assumed he was going to fall asleep.  We had been to the Drive-in the night before, so I just assumed he was tired.  He never said anything to me.  As we pulled into the parking lot, I was having a heck of a time finding a spot.  About 10-15 minutes later, I finally got one.  We had been early, but now we were a few minutes late.  Figures.  As I pulled into the parking spot, Derek started to cry and then threw up all over the front of himself and the seat.  Apparently he got car sick.  Now what?  It isn’t like I still pack an extra outfit for him anymore!  He hasn’t needed one for a long time!  Of course I didn’t get mad, but I won’t lie.  I was very frustrated and flustered.  I took off his shirt, and used handfuls of wipes (that was all I had) and wiped of his face and wiped out his mouth (Yuck!  Poor thing, but it had to taste better than puke!) and then I wiped down the seat.  After another 15 minutes or so, we were as cleaned up as we could be, so I got Ashley out of the car, put a jacket over Derek (of course the zipper was broken…) and went into the hospital.  We took the two elevators up to the Orthopedic’s office and I ran up to the front and told her what happened.  I was praying she would still allow us to keep our appointment.  Thankfully we made it by about 5 minutes before we would have had to reschedule.  I might have had to get serious if they had made me reschedule!  :)  I asked the girl at the desk if they happened to sell T-shirts somewhere, and she went back and brought Derek a short gown.  That was good enough for us!  He put it on and we sat down and waited, but not for long.  (This hospital seriously rocks!)  We went back and they took X-rays of his leg.  Then we went into another room and waited a few minutes for the doc.  Hi intern came in first and looked him over, and then the doc came in.  We didn’t wait long at all.  After looking at his foot, he took Derek to get more X-rays of the injured foot and came back.

His leg is healing nicely. He showed us pictures of the day it happened, 6 months later, and now.  The changes are pretty amazing.  They went from jagged, unattached, pointy bone, to smoothed over, relatively straight and healed bone.  There is still a slight bowing in the smaller of the two bones (the fibula), but that seems to be improving each time we go, and the larger bone (the tibia) is looking much better as well.  We are now starting to keep an eye out to see if the hurt leg grows faster and longer than the other leg.  If it does, we will have to address it surgically.  That is something we will know later, as he grows and we are able to see what happens.  

As for his foot, he is able to move the big toe up and down a bit because, as he lifts his other toes, the scar tissue pulls the big toe up as well.  This is a good thing!  The joint at the tip of his toe still does not move, however, so the toe continues to droop, making him more susceptible to falls, and making it a nightmare to put on a shoe.  He still has to either go barefoot (his personal favorite), go with only a shoe on his good foot, or wear shoes that are a bit too big for him, making him still susceptible to falls.  I have him go barefoot a lot, though many managers of stores get antsy about it!  I just tell them he was hit by a car and they back off, though.  :)  We will have to go in at some point and surgically fix that by adding something that keeps it permanently straight, but I am not sure when he will want to do that.

You can see the droopiness of the toe here a little bit.

There is a little bit of a new development on the top of his foot where new bone, or pre-bone, as the doctor called it, has grown and formed a bump.  That was why we initially took the X-ray of his foot.  When he wears shoes, this bump chaffs and causes discomfort and sometimes tears at the new skin that was grafted on there.  That skin is a bit more fragile, so it tears more easily and causes him to bleed, so that is a bummer for sure!  Poor thing can’t catch a break with shoes!  The doc said that we will have to go in and get that bump shaved down at some point.

The bump is pretty easy to see here. Just look in the middle of his foot on the top.

I am not sure how much of this last part I understand, but I think he was saying that the side of his foot has turned a little, causing him to favor the other side of his foot more than the hurt side.  From what I understand, this will also have to be surgically corrected.  I am not sure how they will go about that, but it sounds like it won’t be any fun!  Poor Derek.

I realize this pic doesn’t seem much different from the last one, but if you look closely, you can kind of see better the reason he favors the other side of his foot. It is hard to see, but it is there a bit.

For the most part, he is healing well, and doing fine.  We are far from finished with the whole ordeal, but the future still looks good for him.  There are no major issues that are life threatening or injuries that will completely ruin his life, and for that we are grateful.  There are, though, several things that will have to be addressed and dealt with that are not going to be any fun, and will still affect him for the rest of his life.  While minor in scope, it is not too crazy to assume that just the scar itself will be hard for him to deal with as a teenager.  While he can make it “cool” and a “battle scar’” (Thank God he is a boy!) he will still be a bit self conscious about it no doubt.

This is a slightly older picture from back in November, but it gives a pretty good idea of the scar he will have to deal with.

We go back to the Doctor on December 3, so we will have another update then.  I hope we can start to address these issues after that time, but who knows.  It may be a long time before we are able to take care of these things.  I am going to do whatever the doc says, and I will go along with his recommendations.  He is a really great doctor, and I completely trust his judgement.  It is nice to feel that way about the doc, since he is the one that holds my son’s well being in his hands.  I just want to get the whole thing over with, not just for my sake, but for Derek’s as well!

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Ashley

OK…so Jason and I are sitting on our bed talking before he goes to sleep.  Ashley comes into the room and babbles for a bit, steals Daddy’s heart by giving him a kiss goodnight, and then leaves the room.  She begins pacing up and down the hall making a chanting sound, and giving the impression she was staging a protest.  As I got closer to her, I could tell that indeed, she WAS staging a protest.  She was pacing up and down the hall, chanting “No more poop!  No more poop!”  I busted out laughing, and Jason heard it at the same time and he started laughing as well.  When she heard our stifled laughter, she smiled and changed her chant to, “No more pee!  No more pee!”

My protesting toddler!

Funny Cartoons About Parenting

Physicist father…

Funny Dog Cartoons

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The bone on the edge of the wound seems to have grown a lot, and there seems to be a large ridge there. It is too high, I think. It seems to hurt him sometimes, especially when he wears shoes. I hate that it still hurts him. I feel so helpless. There is nothing I can do, really. I just rub it, kiss it, and offer him ice that he always refuses. I just wish he could go through life like a normal little boy.

You might be able to see on the top of his foot how the bone has grown a bump on the top of his foot that doesn’t seem to belong.

Most days, you would never he know had an injury just by watching him. He is so tough and so agile for a boy his age. He falls a lot because his big toe droops, and his shoes are just a bit too big because we can’t get shoes his size on. His droopy toe just gets caught too easily. When he falls, he just bounces right back up and he barely, if at all, glances in my direction. He just keeps right on going like nothing even happened. The only time I hear about a fall is if he smacked his head or something and got a “bonk.” Usually he just wants a hug and kiss and then bursts out of my arms and back to whatever he was doing. If it drew blood, he might want a band-aid, but that is all.

An injury caused by tripping over his droopy toe.

He is such a good, tough, sweet boy. This morning, he wanted to show me the vegetable garden we are growing in the back. He and I started walking toward it when we noticed Ashley coming behind us. Echo was already out and on his long, chain leash. When he runs, that leash can be kind of dangerous and can trip a little one pretty easily. I started to tell Ashley to go back inside, but Derek ran towards her, grabbed her little hand and walked her around Echo’s reach and out of harms way. He walked her most of the way to the garden. He never looked for praise for what he had done. He just did it because he is so sweet and loves and looks out for his sister. Of course I praised him anyway. I told him how sweet and nice that was, and what a good big brother he is, but he just shrugged and pointed out how well the lettuce and carrots were growing.

Derek hanging with his little sister!

Derek is such a remarkable little guy. His injury on his foot and his leg will haunt him for a long time, but he is so emotionally and physically strong, that he will get through it. As his mom, I worry. I feel sad. I hate it when we all get ready to leave and I tell the kids to get their shoes on and he walks up to me with his shoes in hand and says, “I can’t, mama.” My four-year-old son still can’t put his shoes on by himself. I know that frustrates him because he is so capable and so independent any other time.

My sweet baby boy…

We will see how things go on Tuesday. I hope we get to hear that we can fix some of these issues. I just want my baby boy to be able to do all the same things other boys can do without pain or help from Mom. I will keep you posted.

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Ingredients

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 sticks (1 cup) of unsalted butter

3/4 cup of sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 small package of chocolate chips

1 small package of butterscotch chips

1 cup walnuts

1 cup coconut

Directions

1)  Preheat the oven to 350°.

2)  Grease a 9 x 13 baking pan with butter.

3)  In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, salt and baking soda.  Set it aside.

4)  In another bowl, add the two sticks of butter, and whip with an electric mixer until the butter is creamy, and looks like frosting.

5)  Add both sugar and brown sugar, and mix in with the butter until they are barely combined together.

6)  Add both eggs and vanilla, and mix together thoroughly with the mixer.

7)  Slowly add flour mixture to the wet mixture, combining with the electric mixer until you have a consistent dough.

8)  In a third bowl, combine the chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, 3/4 cup of walnuts, and the coconut.  Using a large spoon, mix them all together well.

9)  Pour the contents of the third bowl into the dough, and stir thoroughly with a large spoon until dough is consistent all the way through.

10)  Pour the dough into the 9 X 13 greased pan.

11)  Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of walnuts over the top of the dough.

12)  Bake for 30 minutes.

The Chocolate Chip Butterscotch Cookie Bars as they first came out of the oven.

When you remove the pan from the oven, you have to refrain from eating the cookie bars for about 20 minutes so they can cool.  I know, I know…they smell incredible, and the dough tasted so good…but you have to wait, or you will burn your tongue.  If you eat them while still warm, I suggest adding a scoop of vanilla ice cream and drizzling it with chocolate syrup and butterscotch topping.  Maybe even some whipped cream and a cherry, too!  I hope you love these as much as we do!

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1.  Play some board games.  Video games and computer games are fine, but they are not as social as regular board games, so more kids can be involved, and if you are anything like I am, board games or cards are games I can actually figure out.  With smaller kids, play games that last only about 10-20 minutes per game.  Card games, like Go Fish, War, Crazy Eights, etc. are good, or board games, such as Chutes and Ladders, Memory, or Candyland.  With older kids, a good, long game of Monopoly, Life, or Axis and Allies (a personal favorite for Jason and I), is really fun.

2.  Read books.  Let the kids read to you out loud, read to themselves all curled up in a bean bag, or take turns reading to each other.  Let the littlest ones point out characters and objects in the pictures, while letting the older ones read or pick out the books.

3.  Bake.  Make cookies, brownies, cupcakes, etc.  Get creative!  Look up some really fun ideas on Pintrest and try it out!  When you are all done with the treat, gather together and eat!  (And then everyone cleans up together, too).

Brownies we made today!

4.  Make forts!  When I was a kid, we used to gather up every blanket we could find, throw in all the pillows, and gather in someone’s room or in the TV room and take it over.  We would make the biggest, baddest fort we could, and then we would play all kinds of games in them!  You could even build a fort, and then read or play board games inside the fort.

5.  Puzzles.  This could possibly be combined with games, but I find them to be completely different activities.  We have puzzles that span all sorts of ages.  Have each kid pick out their own puzzle and have a race, work together on a particularly hard one, or pick a few to do at the same time.    Mix it up a bit.  Maybe time how long it takes to put them together.  Set a timer and see if you all can get the puzzle completed before time is up.

6.  Water colors or other paints.  Seriously…what kid doesn’t LOVE to paint?  Grab a smock or old T-shirt, or just don’t wear a shirt (the kids, not the mom…), and have at it!  Make picture books as a group or let them make their own.  Cut out cardboard frames that they can decorate and then put their painting into it.

7.  Make homemade stuff, such as play dough, cornstarch and water slime or glow-in-the-dark slime.  The kids absolutely love making these items, and they have a ball after they make them because they are so much fun to play with!  The best part is that both of these projects last for a long time if they have been stored properly.

8.  Build and play with Play Dough, Moon Sand, or Clay.  Pick a topic, such as food or animals and have the kids use their imaginations to make something in that category.  Make a game of it. Throw out a category and give them 5 minutes to make something that falls into the category.

9.  Plant an herb garden to keep in their window.  Seriously!  Get anything you can find that will hold dirt and water, and let them decorate it.  Then fill it with soil, plant small herbs, such as Basil, Thyme, any of the Mints, Lemon Verbana (smells amazing!), and several others.  Plant the seeds, and then have them take care of it on their window sill in their room, or in a room that has a good, sunny spot.  (Not recommended for toddlers.  They eat the dirt, spill the pots, and pick the plants the second they begin to grow.  They will take any remaining dirt and dump it into the toilet, their bed, in the Cherrios box, etc….keep this idea only for the older kids).

10.  Put on a play or play dress-up!  Have them all put on a costume, and either put on a play for the adults and each other, or you can help them create one for when Daddy comes home!  Make it a “Dinner Theater” scenario, by serving dinner while the kids put on a play for you and your spouse!  (Make sure the kids eat before hand and then have dessert ready for after their stellar performance)!

11.  Put on play clothes and run around outside while it is pouring rain, getting soaked and muddy.  Sit in the mud, throw it at each other, and laugh hysterically until you are all too cold to take it any more.  Then come in, dry off, clean off, change clothes and curl up together and watch a movie.

12.  Make a tissue paper stained glass window.  These are really fun and much easier to do than you might think.  Even the young ones can do it.

13.  Play songs that the kids love, either from the radio, iPod, or kid’s CD, and have a dance party!  Dance with the kids.  They don’t care how terrible you are or how off beat you are.  Just dance and have fun.  Make juice popsicles before you start so you have them to enjoy for when you are done and tired and thirsty.

14.  Build with blocks.  Gather all the blocks you have in the house and build the biggest, grandest city, castle, etc. you can possibly build!

15.  Make a scavenger hunt.  Make a list of objects for each child, and have them gather up all the different objects on their list.  leave notes and clues around the whole house.

Have fun!  I hope this list helps you get through some of those dreary and boring rainy days.  So often we get sucked into the idea that there is nothing to do, and we, along with our kiddos get bored and irritable.  Some of these rainy day activities can break up the monotony and make rainy days fun!

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