Peaceful Sunday...

...everyone getting some rest... a Sunday afternoon favorite!

Nothing too new...

Jonathan's work always seems to be busy, but there are definitely busier 'seasons.' For example, August/Sept, and then May... are crazy, crazy months. That is when I go into 'simplicity' mode when it comes to dinners. So I took a picture of a typical dinner for the boys when Jonathan is gone in the evening. I call this 'pizza toast' - I served it this night with yogurt/blueberries and fruit. It's really nothing more than wheat bread with some pizza sauce on it and cheese, and then I put it in the oven to get crispy. So easy and the boys love it. I actually remember having this as a child all the time. Except instead of two pieces, my mom would have as many pieces as her oven could hold in order to give all of us kids some! I'm sure she went through a whole loaf of bread.

Smoothies... a favorite here. I think I told you about spinach in the smoothies, but I have told you about frozen cauliflower? They don't even know it...

The angel of the house... this child is a gem. He is so beautiful and so mild-mannered. We just can't get enough of him!

Memorable Things Kids Say - Volume 14

Henry has been saying all kinds of things lately that are worth documenting. It's so funny at this age how they think. Here's just two that stick in my brain:
1. Wyatt busted his mouth on a slide and broke that piece of skin that connects your upper lip to your gum while knocking one of his center teeth loose. It bled like crazy, but it finally slowed down and when we could finally get a good look at it, we realized his gum was really beat up. Henry must have been overhearing our conversation while we had the flashlight in Wyatt's mouth. The next day he was telling someone that "Wyatt's guts were bleeding out of his mouth. There was blood on his shirt." So funny... Which by the way, while we're on the subject of switching words, Wyatt has been calling his 'bottom' his 'body' - Henry did that exact same thing at this age.
2. Henry and I had lunch together outside today. He is getting ready to take a trip to his Grandma and Grandpa Cooper's. We were talking about how even while Mom and Dad are here and he is there, God can still see all of us b/c He is that powerful. Henry said, "Yeah, he can even see other people like the people in Haiti. It's like God has 45 eyes on his head." I was cracking up...

Some recent captures

1. Wyatt with his shades (borrowed from Aunt Beth).

2. Beth giving some love to Myles.














3. A picture of the wife who is married to an elementary school principal (surrounded by the paper trail that follows him home from the office...!). :)

4. Our newly renovated kitchen since the water incident. Lovely, huh?

Miles with Myles - Volume 2

Wow.. time is moving fast! We met with the Warren County ESC about a week and a half ago. They were great. We will have an Early Intervention Specialist in our home about twice a month to start working with Myles. Right now, he is actually doing really well. Some delays in his gross motor skills, but other than that, nothing alarming. We did get an appointment with the Thomas Center in Cinci. It is at the end of October. We are thankful for that. Myles is on the verge of smiling. Right now, he just smirks. I really think he is just giving us a hard time. The boys continue to dote on him and b/c of his pleasant demeanor, they have continued just love having him around!

If I would have known...

... that we'd have so many housing issues in our short 10 years of marriage, I would have started a label devoted to just that! For those of you who know about our past wknd (2 wknds ago), I didn't want to disappoint you by not posting pics. I will try to spare most details... but first, a recap on the past few years. Let's start here...
1. Henry shoved a whole roll of TP in the toilet... overflowed to our basement an hour before we had a house showing....
2. And then the wind storm right after we moved -this post doesn't tell the whole story. Later that day, about 20 shingles came right off our roof. We had only lived in that house for 2 months -- insurance claim #1
3. A lovely Christmas gift in Dec of 2008 - just 5 months of being in this house. We arrived home with sleeping kids at 11pm after driving 16hours straight home from Florida... insurance claim #2
4. In between our coffee maker breaking (which seems catastrophic) and the garage door breaking, we had a minor reprieve before this... an incredibly windy day pulled siding off the side of our house... insurance claim #3
5. Our insurance company dropped us...
6. Five days after our new insurance company picked us up -- the lovely pictures below tell a new story.

The first picture says it all. We were out-of-town at a family's home for dinner for the whole evening (left the house at 4pm, didn't return until 11pm). We arrive home to water standing on the kitchen floor and a strange spraying sound... We've had our fair share of water issues, so when you come home and see water on the floor, you know it is not good. Jonathan was amazingly calm... the kids were all sleeping in the car. He flies through the hallway and says... "water, water in the kitchen." I didn't think much until I noticed my flip flops wet. A water line in our fridge had popped a hole. Sprayed all evening long... and the best part was that it leaked all down into the ceiling of our newly finished basement. (Nathan, if you're reading this, sorry... ). Dripping... dripping... dripping. We put the kids to bed, called the Berry's (which is what we ALWAYS do when we encounter anything exciting... especially emergencies!), Beth comes over at about midnight, and the cutting begins. LONG story short, we had to turn the water off to the whole house, and then it wouldn't come back on, 3am and we had to get the boys out of bed to go stay at the Berry's... insurance claim #4... we're hoping for a happy ending... we had huge fans and dehumidifiers in our kitchen and basement from the drying service for 6 days... kitchen floor ripped up and holes in our basement ceiling. Ahh... breathe... school starts in 2 weeks... To be continued...

To top it off, our computer had a virus and we had to do a 'hard reset' on it. Not sure if that is the 'techy' term, but to me it means another headache! Even though we had things backed up to an external drive, we are missing many things including my contacts, my bookmarks, my task list, my calendar, the past year of my Quicken backup and the worst one is our past 6 months of pictures. It really is so depressing when I think of it all only from an earthly perspective. I have found myself praying much for patience in these past weeks. I continually remind myself that God IS in control over these large (heavenly small) earthly matters... He cares, He's interested, He's allowing it to happen for my good and His glory. Can a computer crash be for His glory? Can a ruined kitchen floor and holes in the basement be for His glory? Can a newborn baby with down syndrome be for his glory? Yes, yes, yes... And it's all for our good if we are indeed His. That is what amazes me... He glorifies Himself through all this by growing us through these tough times. We learn that His grace is sufficient... that He doesn't ask us to do anything beyond what we are able... and He will supply the strength. But how does He supply the strength? I had always hoped it'd be in the form of more sleep, or more muscle, or more time... but typically, it doesn't work that way. I'm still learning... but remember the gospel, Michelle! Remembering what Christ has done on the cross, remembering I have the Holy Spirit in me helping me to obey even when it feels very difficult, giving me hope for the future, supplying patience with my husband and family, supplying love to those around me... As we gear up for another school year, we look at the mountain of Jonathan's job (which is complex on many levels) and we wonder, will we make it through the year in a way that is pleasing to Him? I think this is the first time in our marriage where we are confident that we are NOT confident in ourselves. There seems to be so many hurdles, and yet, we are both at peace with what God has given us and praying for Him to make Himself known to us now. I was reading in Psalm 119 today: Your Word, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens. Your faithfulness continues through all generations; you established the earth, and it endures. Your law endures to this day, for all things serve you. If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have preserved my life... Your Word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path...My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end." The Lord will ALWAYS sustain those who are His. We are praying that for this year!

Very cool

I got this very cool necklace from my good friend. I love it!!

Miles with Myles - Volume 1

We have had several people ask us if we are going to do updates on Myles through our blog. I guess that is a pretty good idea since many of you we don't speak with by phone or email often. So, I've decided to create a new label entitled 'Miles with Myles.' I thought that was pretty clever... :) Since we hope he runs cross country some day, we've been coming up with all kinds of puns around here. While Henry and Wyatt are conquering the wild west, Myles will be "running" it. Ha ha... Ok, anyways, our first update.
We met with the Warren County's ERC - Help Me Grow program. This is for kids with delays/disabilities and provides health and developmental services so that children can go into the school environment as healthy and ready to learn as possible. They will work with him until he is 3yrs old, and then if we choose, he will transition into the public school environment and receive their services. Our service coordinator, Dawn, was very kind and helpful. We had our intake interview with her, and we will meet with a team on August 9th. The initial team will consist of the service coordinator (Dawn), a physical therapist, and an early intervention specialist. They will assess Myles and determine what type of assistance he could use now and then continue to re-assess him in the future. They communicate with our pediatrician as well. In these first 3 years, all therapists come to our home which I find very appealing being the homebody that I am :) We will see someone face-to-face at least once a month, but again, if we choose, could have someone in our home as much as once a week. I think it all depends on what they are saying he needs. So we will have more info on August 9th. Today we see our pediatrician and she will hopefully give us more info on the Down Syndrome clinic at UC (Thomas Center for Down Syndrome at Cincinnati Children's). We've heard great things about this place so far. We're not sure how it will play into our future, but I'm sure we'll find out. As of today, Myles is doing great! We are so thankful for his first month of life... he has been nothing but a delight!

In the midst...

... of trying to paint a door, make lunch, get a baby awake to eat, and finish mowing the lawn, I realized that I had been putting the boys off all morning. I really don't like when that happens. I am sometimes so concerned over my own agenda and task list, that I forget to just "be." A real weakness for me... and I know it's probably a weakness for all mom's, but it honestly is one of my bigger struggles as a person. I believe they are in the way of my "agenda" when they should be my agenda! Teaching, training, etc. and so much of that happens when you're spending time together and interacting. So... I came in and said... let's play a game! We played Candy Land - they loved it. We had M&M's. We drank iced tea. We let Wyatt quit the game when he was only two spaces from honestly winning... but he didn't care. So Henry won and invited me to eat the candy castle with him. Wyatt came too. :) We "ate" all the candy on the board!

Aunt Tabby...

... came to visit us all the way from Grand Rapids, MI. We were excited to see her and the boys were excited to see Greyson, one of her kiddos that she brought along. We were able to visit all Sunday afternoon which was so nice since we only see each other about 2-3x's a year now. It was a special vist and as usual with sisters, never long enough. As you can see in the last picture, Myles is really packing the chub on!! He's filling out quite nicely and is moving into his 0-3 month clothes. Getting so big already!

Memorable Things Kids Say - Volume 13

It's amazing how much you can love a little body that you are just getting to know. We LOVE Myles. He is precious in every way. The boys adore him too. I love watching them... as they talk and laugh and poke at him and express great joy whenever his eyes are even half open... or he lets a 'squirt' into his diaper... or he makes a grunt... or a sneeze... or they see his little feet sticking out from under the blanket. Henry calls him the 'little guy.'

Henry says to me at church... "Mom, those men already walked by, but we need one of those papers and pens for the little guy." I whispered, "What do you mean... a paper and a pen?" He says, "B/c the pastor always says if you're new, raise your hand and we'll give one of these pens to you. Myles can't raise his hand. We need to do it for him but they already passed." Too cute... It's funny, b/c he said this way back when I was first pregnant -- that we'd need to get one of those pens for the baby b/c he'd be new. I was surprised he even remembered!

Uncle Dave & Aunt Sona

We had a special visit from David (J's bro) and Sona, his wife. The boys had a blast and really gave David a workout playing baseball in what felt like 100+ temps with 80% humidity. He was a good sport! :) Sona and I enjoyed Myles and the A/C. Btw, thanks for the sticker book... we've been working on it everyday! :)

Don't Ask, Don't Tell - Volume 11

Hmmm....