random photos of activites with the kids

Steady as she goes.....

The progress on my dad's transplant is slow, but hopeful that it will be completely successful. He has extreme faith and his spirits are good. He has good days and bad days, as far as comfort is concerned. I try to check in daily, just for a few minutes or so by telephone to let him and my mom know that we are thinking about him and continue to pray for him. According to the health professionals, it can be another 2-3 weeks of hospitalization and monitoring, if all goes well he will return home to normal activities after that. This may allow them to go back to ND for a while before winter to take care of some things there and travel back to AZ for the winter months, or maybe even some light travelling. We shall see.

My kids are enjoying their summer days, but most of them within the last week have been rainy. This brings on boredom, more television (which is not helping anything), and just plain no activity. They need to be outside more. I will see if there are some inexpensive activities they can participate in at the rec center before the school year starts. Of course, as many of you know, I homeschool them, so it doesn't matter to them when the school year officially starts.

We will be ordering our FCAT tests for 2007 here shortly. This will provide the necessary info for the school district and general recordkeeping. They did pretty well this year. Dana still struggles to get all of her studies done. We added too many electives this year I think, plus she has her responsibilities with music at the church, teaching 1 piano student (now 2), and general helpful duties around the house. Maybe this year we will concentrate on the 'core' study areas and bypass some of the electives.

David just had surgery on the 16th. This was a partial adenoid removal, tubes in his ears, sinus culture procedures. He did well. We were all home safe by 3:30 p.m. the same day for rest. His speech tends to be more nasal than it was before, which is one of the reasons we wanted to do the procedure, to help his breathing and speech.....

Celebrating the 4th of July, Kassian-style

On july 4th Olivia turned 7. We had a great day that day. I managed to get the day off at the last minute, which rarely happens, and we all celebrated the 4th and Olivia's birthday by going to the Dade County Sparklebration. I don't know if it was supposed to be like a county fair, or just a small 4th celebration, in any event we enjoyed ourselves after the initial shock of rain and lack of entertainment. That is, of course, until we found the LIVE entertainment on stage all day! What a pleasant surprise. We saw the Larkins performance 2 or 3 times throughout the day. We saw the clogger dancers perform, we saw a live statue of liberty, sky divers presenting the american flag, some random performers on stage (some children, some adults) singing songs we all recognized.



The kids REALLY wanted to go on the 'rides' there, but the carnival was extremely lame and the equipment looked older than me and not very safe, so Warren and I distracted them with food and the live entertainment!

We went blueberry picking!

We went blueberry picking today, we got about 9 # and paid about $28 - but the experience was awesome, the kids enjoyed it and the blueberries are excellent!

Photo of my Kids from 2006

This photo was taken during a visit with my folks when they came to Florida in April/May 2006. My parents were taking care of Flat Stanley. ;) As you can see from the photo, my parents brought their RV - so this was taken in the RV.

Aren't my kids adorable? ;)

Elizabeth is 4 on May 7th, 2007

Elizabeth loves the movie "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" so it was quite fitting that she have a Snow White birthday party, complete of course with the Snow White costume that we bought for her a couple of months ago.

David turns 9 on March 16th, 2007

David loved the Disney movie "Cars" - hence the theme for his 9th birthday. His birthday was shared by his siblings and parents, a quiet little family party. All of his presents were also themed after the movie. Car toys, coloring books, story books, new colors, etc... Isn't the cake adorable?!?

Here is a close up of just the cake. David was so proud. Sometimes I think he enjoys seeing what kind of cake I'll come up with for the party that it overshadows the fact he is getting presents and having his favorite meal, which just happens to be spaghetti! We 'almost' had a party with other friends but those are normally to hard to plan out and get just how you want them.....too many variables and other people's schedules to contend with. We are all happy, even David, that we did what we did this year!

Elizabeth

bubbles

blowing bubbles! This is Elizabeth having fun outside.....boy our lawn needs to be mowed!

My Children

This is my 4 kids at a local park last fall, 2005.

Dana, the oldest, is now 15,

David is 8,

Olivia is 6

and Elizabeth is 3.

My Son is Sick Again...

I'm hoping its not pneumonia, but it may very well be. He has these coughing attacks that keep us all up during the night. He is a very thin boy and tends to run on the sickly side of the line anyway. I'm praying that he will be healed. I will be taking him to the doctor to see if it requires medications or just the breathing treatments I have been doing. The saline solution by itself can't really be helping that much, can they?

December 2004 Kids Photo

This is my 4 kids. Dana is 13 and is on the left in the red sweater. Dana is holding Elizabeth who is 18 months. Olivia is the one in the green shirt and she is 4. She wasn't cooperating much that day. David is so handsome, isn't he? David is 6.