April is Autism Awareness Month...

Autism (sometimes called ���classical autism���) is the most common condition in a group of developmental disorders known as the autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Autism is characterized by impaired social interaction, problems with verbal and nonverbal communication, and unusual, repetitive, or severely limited activities and interests. Other ASDs include Asperger syndrome, Rett syndrome, childhood disintegrative disorder, and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (usually referred to as PDD-NOS). Experts estimate that three to six children out of every 1,000 will have autism. Males are four times more likely to have autism than females.

For more information, or signs of Autism visit the site here.

Trying to catch my breath.....

It has been an extremely busy week around our house. My Monday without the kids was spent at the Dr's office all day. I have had a knot in my lower leg that has been there for a couple of months and it really started bothering me this past week, so I went to the Dr. and found out it was a blood clot. He then sent me to a bigger town about half an hour from here to have a sonogram done on my leg to see if it was a deep vein thrombosis, or if it was in the outer veins. Thank goodness it turned out to be a Superficial vein Thrombosis in the outer veins, which is not nearly as serious or deadly. Although it still doesn't make it hurt any less. I have been trying to keep my leg elevated and keep off of it as much as possible as directed, but it is so very hard when I have three little ones and my husband works all the time. Add to that the numerous appointments the kids have had this week and it has been a doozie.

The knot hasn't gotten any smaller and it still aches all the time. Guess I am going to have to do a return visit in a week if it isn't gone. Talk about a wake up call. I never realized how deadly a blood clot could be until I heard all the horror stories from the Doctor and the sono-technician. Scary stuff.

Isaiah now has his splint off his arm. We took him back to Kansas City on Thursday for his six week follow up, can you believe how fast these six weeks went? His shoulder is healing well and we are gearing up for lots of Occupational and Physical therapy for him. I am so glad that we had this done while he was so young. Kids his age bounce back so very quickly. What a blessing he is.

So that's just a few highlights of what has been going on in our little corner of the world. Seems like there is always something brewing around here. ;) At least the beautiful spring weather has reappeared today. We got into a horrible storm while in KC on Thursday and my poor van got beat up from the hail. It was raining so hard and the wind must have been blowing 60 miles an hour at one time. I didn't think we were going to make it home. Thank goodness it all worked out. But talk about scary. The rest of the 3 hour drive consisted of barely outrunning more storms. It was fun. ha. What an adventure for the books!

Love this..

The very best reason parents are so special . . . is because we are the holders of a priceless gift, a gift we received from countless generations we never knew, a gift that only we now possess and only we can give to our children. That unique gift, of course, is the gift of ourselves. Whatever we can do to give that gift, and to help others receive it, is worth the challenge of all our human endeavor.~Fred Rogers~

I came across this quote and it really hit home with me, this speaks to me in a few ways. The first of which being that it is so very important to teach our children that the best gift they can give someone is the gift of time from ones self. It can make such a difference in someones life and it is so easy to give. It also talks to me because of the line that says, "Whatever we can do to give that gift, and to help others recieve it" this is special to me because without someone giving I would not be a mother and I wouldn't feel the incredible love and gratitude I feel each and every day when I awake and realize that my home is full of beautiful children and I am so very blessed.

We as parents can make such a difference in our children's lives by just making ourselves available to our children. This along with unconditional love is such a gift.

New Addiction

Image from uppercase living idea book.

I was invited to a Uppercase Living party a while back and ever since have been addicted to their products. They are so much fun. They sell vinyl quotes and images for your walls or whatever surface you want to place them on. So cute. To date I have purchased four of them and am in the process of getting some more for my kids rooms. Check out their website and if you get invited to a party go. It's fun.

Thankful Thursday

Things I am thankful for this Thursday in no particular order.

1. Laughter. It is such great medicine.

2. My Dad. My dad just had a surgery on Monday and came home today from the Hospital. I am so thankful that he is doing well and that he is in my life. I am such a daddies girl.

3. Our Freedom. With so much on the news these days about other countries and their trials, I am so very thankful I live in a country where I am free to make my own decisions and walk down my street fairly safely.

4. Faith. Couldn't survive without it.

5. Adoption. Without someone being selfless enough to give me a blessing I would walk through life without my beautiful little kids and wouldn't ever know the blessing of being a mom.

6. Tiburon. Who started this whole Thankful Thursday post and has made me stop and take notice of the beautiful things in my life each week. Thank you Tiburon.

Silly kids and this and that!

Trevor was playing in the dress-up clothes and came walking out of his room in this getup..charming isn't it? The black and purple thing he has on his head is actually a purse and the feathers used to be wrapped around the top of the opening. Oh what fun my little ones are. Note the beautiful black and white bow on the heals and the skeleton hand gloves. This boy can dress..hahahaha.

Just when we were getting used to the new spring weather it had to go and get cold and yucky on us again. I tell ya, this weather pattern we have been having lately is for the birds. I am so ready for some dry heat, and I am not much on the heat, but I will take it at this point. Now mind you in a few months when it is 105 and the humidity is at 90% I will be changing my story..lol. Oh you gotta love Kansas. ;).

Being a stay at home mom of three little ones and having a Farmer for a husband who works 12-16 hours a day, I don't get a lot of time to myself or away from the kids, so when the opportunity presents itself and it works out that I can find a sitter, I jump on it. Tomorrow evening I am going to go to a Scrapbooking party at a friends where we bring all our scrapbooking stuff and work on it uninterrupted by children, for several hours. It will be from 5-11 and she will be cooking us a great meal. I just recently got back into my scrapbooking, so this is going to be so much fun. I can hardly wait. Boy..I live such an exciting life huh? ha.

Awesome Deal

I was at Sam's today and was looking through their marked down section and came upon these outfits. Each one was under $3.50 a SET, with two of them being $2.59 a set. Outstanding deals. Of course there weren't many for the sizes I needed, but lots for all the sizes I didn't need..lol. If you are in your local Sam's Club in the next few days check out their markdowns.