Scooter Miracle

So, that night the scooter was MIA I went to a stitchery group in our ward and told Abby's sad story and the lady who was hosting it said, "oh, I have one of those in my garage.  I think it's pink.  Come and look at it and if it's what was stolen you can have it.  I got it from a neighbor and was going to give it to my grandchildren, but they live so far away and already have one."  So, she went to her garage and came back with a pink barbie razor scooter in better condition than the one that was stolen.  I was almost in tears and thought that Heavenly Father must really love Abby, because Abby prayed for a pink one, not an orange one:-)  It took a lot of self control not to wake her up that night and show her the scooter.  She was so elated and never looked back.  Well, the story doesn't end there.  We were driving home Saturday through the neighborhood behind our house and I saw a girl riding Abby's scooter.  I was positive it was Abby's scooter.  Long story short we got it back and will probably end up giving it back to the little girl who found it.  We aren't sure she is the one who stole it, but she was so sweet about it and probably needs the scooter more than we do and Abby likes the Barbie one better anyway.  So, God does answer prayers and loves ALL of His children.  I know he loves this little girl that ended up with the scooter and that she wanted it just as bad as Abby:-)

Poor Abby

Abby has been praying for a pink razor scooter that will go really fast for over a week now.  So, finally we found one on craigslist for $9 (exactly how much she got for her birthday money from Grandma M and sticker Grandma).  So, we bought it and last night her prayer was "thank you for the fast orange razor scooter that can go really fast and beat people.  Only to notice today that someone stole it right from by our house.  It was up against our house and now it's gone.  I know we don't live in the best neighborhood, but I haven't heard of anyone getting their razor scooter stolen.  Everyone leaves them out by their house. Well, I guess we start shopping again.  First her pumpkin and now this.  Poor Abby.  She is getting a glimpse of the real world and it makes me sad.

Kite Flying Fun

 Abby with her sucker and kite.

 Getting ready to launch the kite.

 Barbie...we let them choose and this is what we ended up with.  Granted it does fly well.

Abby just held the end and kept the kite up in the air for a long time.  Then she tired of holding it and was done.  She is a natural.  She takes after her daddy. 

 The joy of kite flying.  We have a perfect bowl by our house that we can fly them any time.  

Happy 4th Birthday Abby

 Abby's Bunny Cupcakes...

 I was able to make this birthday banner from a bunch of fabric JoAnn K. gave me.  It will come out every birthday:-)

This is the present Madison wrapped and gave to Abby.  She is really into drawing mermaids and spent a lot of time coloring this for Abby.  

 Madison was just as excited for Abby to open her presents as Abby was.

 I love how Abby posed.  She is such a sweetie.  I can't believe she has been a part of our family for four years.  She is so fun to have around.  Some funny things that I love about her are when she is holding my hand, she makes sure I am squeezing her hand the whole time or else she will then go to holding two fingers (pointer and middle finger).  I love her laugh, it's contagious.  She has the cutest dimples on her cheeks and when she smiles big enough you can see both of them.  When she climbs in bed with me in the morning I have to put my arms around her facing her and she usually has to put a leg over my body.  If I am facing the other way, or don't have my arms around her, the tears come.  She is such a cuddle bug and a monkey.  When I hold her (40 lbs) She wraps her legs and arms around me:-)  I just love this little girl and don't know what I would do without her. 

Happy Girl 

 Abby is truly loved by grandparents, sister, and family.  What a fun day.

It took her about 10 tries to blow all four out.  I had time to take multiple shots and keep my favorites.  These are the two that made the cut. 

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa E.  Madison has been asking me to do this with her all morning:-) 

 Abby thanking Madison for her gift.  A baby that can go in the bathtub.  Abby loves it!  They of course had to take a bath together after opening presents. 

 Madison sat on the table to help Abby open her presents and didn't see Abby's birthday cupcake there. I just had to take a picture.  Madison was oblivious to it.

 Grandma and Grandpa Evans gave her this fun book that sings a song.  Abby kept saying, "look how long it is!"

Grandma and Grandpa McVea gave her a beautiful dress up that I'm sure we will have pictures of her wearing soon.  She wore it that day, but I wasn't quick enough with the camera since we had to go out later and she couldn't wear it outside.  It would be a bit too chilly.

Stitches and prayers

"Mom, may I have some scissors?" asked Madison.

"sure, here they are."  I proceeded to grab the closest pair and they happened to be adult scissors.  Madison said, "thanks" and headed to the living room to work on an art project with Abby.  I was working on a Bill of Sale before the man came to look at our 1996 corolla and went out to help Brian clear out the car and make sure there weren't items of ours left in the car.  It was about this time I hear Madison screaming on the porch saying, "I'm cut."  She is cradling her thumb in one hand while the blood seeps through her fingers onto the porch.  I came running and helped her to calm down.  All she could keep saying was, "I don't want to go to the hospital.  I don't want stitches."  It just escalated from there to the point where she was screaming it, "No, No, I want them to just glue it."  Abby was crying in the living room and looked at me and said, "I said sorry."  Tears streaming down her face she ran upstairs to her room and continued to sob on her bed.  I was trying to deal with Madison at this point to see if stitches were needed, so I couldn’t go and comfort Abby right away.  When I first saw the cut that went from fingernail to fingernail across the fleshy part of her thumb, I knew stitches were inevitable. 

The man wanting to look at our car finally got there, bought the car, and left.  We had called Sarah S. and her husband came and got Abby and took her to their house (third time taking our other child while we went to the ER in the past 6 months) and had her there all night.  We arrived at the ER and I was sure they were going to put Social Services on us due to our horrible track record.  Well, the ordeal was rather long and painful, as they had to give her two shots to numb her thumb, and then proceeded to give her four stitches.  There was lots of screaming, crying, anger, and defiance on Madison’s part since getting staples in her head was a very fresh memory. 

Fast forward 9 days to when we were to take the stitches out.  We were just going to take them out while Madison was sleeping as we had done with her staples, but decided it might be best to let her calmly have this done while awake so she could practice appropriate behavior for these situations.  Once we told her that, she lost it.  She said, “you already gave me a choice and I chose to have them out when I was sleeping.  I will not get them taking out.  I don’t want to…etc.”  So, we proceeded to give a banana stitches and allowed Madison to take them out.  That still wasn’t enough, so I proceeded to put a stitch in my finger just below the skin and allowed her to take it out.  We even showed her a you-tube video of a little girl getting stitches out of her head and the little girl on the video was very calm.  We thought this would help her know it wasn’t painful.  We had a prayer with her in her room while kneeling at her bed and then went downstairs to take out the stitch.  With an ice cream cone in sight, we were finally able to take one stitch out and promised her we would do the rest that night.  It was dramatic and didn’t go as we had hoped, but we got the one stitch out and headed to McDonalds for an ice cream cone.

At 11 pm that night we tried to take them out, but she woke up and wouldn’t let us.  We told her they had to come out tomorrow or else they would get infected.  I then prayed and pleaded with the Lord that tomorrow she wouldn’t have the anxiety and would be calm and let us take out the rest of the three stitches.  I fell asleep pleading with the Lord and when I woke up to Madison by my bed she said, “Can we take my stitches out now?”  I was sure I hadn’t heard that right so I asked her what she said.  She repeated it very calmly and matter of fact like.  I was so relieved and hoped this would last to the time of actually taking them out.  After breakfast she went to Brian and had him cut the stitches one at a time as she pulled out of the stitch from her thumb.  She came to me proudly and showed me the stitches (I was in the shower) and so I told her to go and put them in a bag.  Well, they were stuck to her finger so she asked Abby to pull them off.  Abby did and then went and threw them in the garbage.  Madison was distraught.  She so wanted to put them in her baby book.  We sifted through the garbage and scoured the floor only to find nothing.  We found a tiny piece of the stitches left on the tweezers and used that for the book.  Oh, the drama.  I am just so grateful for the Lord answering my pleadings and letting me know he cared and is aware of each of his children.  He will answer my prayers when the timing is right and is his willJ  I needed that.


Pictures to come:-)

Best Friends

 This is one of Abby's best friends.  They are the same age and only a few days apart birthday wise.  L.P. is the sweetest girl and is such a good friend to Abby.  They will be starting Kindergarten together.

 This slide has a bunch of rolling round sticks and as you slide down they just roll.  It's a different kind of playground all together:-)

 Can you tell it was so windy that day.  Thanks A. for taking them to the playground and for Megan F. for taking the pictures.  I always forget my camera.  I'll try and be better.

 Gunny Slide huh?  The girls loved it though.

I love this one...she is so funny and just makes me laugh with all of her funny faces.  Fun day at the park.  She was so worn out after that she fell asleep on the living room floor later that day:-)

Synthetic Ice...who would have thought

 So a friend told us of this FREE ice skating event, so of course we took them up on it.  We were thinking we would relive the good old day of occum pond.  Well, when we arrived we found a small rink with plastic that they spray this nasty stuff on it to make it feel a bit like ice.  Brian was not impressed and couldn't even get any traction and fell the few times he tried.  It was nothing like ice!!!  But, this was Abby's first time on skates and she didn't know the difference and had a blast! Her and Madison just skated all over and had fun falling, being silly, and making us laugh.  

 Here is Brian on his attempt to skate.  It was more like slick plastic, not ice.  

They are both growing up on me so fast.  Tonight as I was putting them to bed Madison asked a question and I told her that only God knows and that she would have to ask Him.  Abby then said, "But he talks so softly that I can't hear him."  Then Madison said, "We'll you don't have to talk softly back when you hear him.  You can yell it or talk real loud back."  It was a fun little conversation between the two of them.  These happen often where they talk of spiritual matters like they are the authority on the matter and know everything.  

 This was when Brian was ready to be done after about...oh, two minutes on the fake ice.  The girls on the other hand where just getting started.  We had to bribe them to get off the plastic with the free hot chocolate and cookies.  The hot chocolate was the best I've ever tasted!!!  It was worth the trip for the hot chocolate and the fun the girls had.  Brian is going to take them to do the real thing this weekend.  

 This is the Abby look.  She does this all the time where she squints her eyes shuts and bobs her head around being silly.

 Best Friends

 Abby was doing this dancing thing on her knees and Madison was being silly behind her.  

 Then Abby began to roll around on the ice and make faces at me.  This is a typical Abby look.

 This is what Abby does with her tongue all the time and even tries to talk with it sticking out like that often.  She acts like a baby and talks with her tongue all twisted like that.  

Good thing for the cone in the middle of the rink.  They used it multiple times to get back up on their feet.  It was so fun to take out my camera again.  I haven't taken it out since Christmas due to the recent obsession with wood.  I just love the feel of it and creating something out of nothing.  I'll have to take some pictures of my most recent projects.