Lets go on a picnic!

We are members of a wonderful garden and museum in our town!  I won a year membership a few years ago and we loved going to much we have paid every year since.  It is really close and it has some great programs for the family to enjoy.  We decided to go and enjoy the flowering trees etc after church today. So, we packed our rolling cooler, our fold up blanket and our double stroller and off we went.  It was a beautiful spring day and we enjoyed our time at the garden, till Emma's eyes started swelling shut.  

 The cool branch sculptured houses that were just installed.  They were amazing!

 Pink flowers to match her pink shirt

 Trying to be serious is a joke with these two!

 love the Japanese garden

 More pics inside the houses.  They are all sticks so cool.  Here the three amigos are blowing the house down like the wolf!

 rare photo of the two of us

 What a sad face, his tummy hurts!

 hanging by the creek

 sharing chips at lunch under the trees

 We ended our time swinging under the tree house!  Emma was so happy to be swinging and trying to touch the deck!  She went really high!

It was a glorious day of church, family, nap snuggles and playing in the yard.  Now sitting and listening to the rain fall while the kids sleep the night away.  Days like these are a rare and I enjoyed our slower pace Sunday.  Hope your family had a blessed day as well!!!

Gator Gallop Fun!

Friday was Emma's school fun run to raise money to make improvements at the school!  I was part of the PTO team to raise money, it was fun (not really, but glad to help).  It was a cloudy morning but nice a cool for running!  Emma was so excited!  They all get new shirts and get to wear workout wear to school.  This is a big deal since they were uniforms most of the time.  I made Taylor his own little Gator shirt for the day and I put on my G for Gower shirt I already had from the choir tour.  

Me and my boy before the race

 They are good friends!  I just love this photo!  They just love each other!  

 My little racer all ready to go!

 Caught a sweet sibling moment as her class lined up to go!  Taylor thinks he is one of them!

 the start

 she is off!  This still amazes me!  Just three years ago, she took her first steps by herself, now she runs and dances just like the rest of her friends!

 Taylor mad at me for making him wait to run till she ran one by herself.  She refused my help this year!

 Taylor trying to join her!

 Then he just ran and ran!

 This is her sweet music and choir teacher that joined her for one lap. Emma was tired, but did not want me to help her.  But Mrs. Carpenter was allowed to and they were sweet walking hand and hand.  Thankful for good teachers who realized she needed some help.

 Surprise Papa showed up to join her at the end!  Emma was so excited!  We love him being retired!

 I only caught Taylor finishing some how!

 We need water!

 Sadly the race started way earlier then they had sent home it would.  Daddy made it as she finished.  But he did go to the opening ceremony.  The whole school did a parade of Nations and did the pledge together.

It was a great day at school.  So proud of my big girl runner and my little Gator as well!  So fun to get to be part of these fun moments at school!  

Another Step in the Journey

Today we took another step in the long journey of hearing better.  Today Emma had her last hearing testing and we made her implant device choice!!  This was our last big hurdle before surgery.  It went really well and it feels nice to have the prep work done now.  Emma rocked her testing!  She no longer needs help from another audiologist and follows the directions from just the one in the booth.  She tested her hearing unaided for about an hour.  Which let me tell you is a lot of work for her little ears.  She hung in there and the audiologist got all she needed done.  We did learn that since the ear drum repair on the left ear, her hearing improved slightly.  This was a hope, but not really something they expect.  But she was really surprised and ran a few test twice to check to make sure it was true.  However, it is still a profound loss and she will be getting her implant in that ear in June. 

Emma as a pro hearing tester!

 Checking out a few of the cochlear implant choices with daddy.  She thought is was really fun to play with all the parts!  She of course picked pink for her device color:)  

We did go with the  Advanced Bionic implants, which is made from the people who make her hearing aids.  This will allow some of the assistant devices to work with both ears.  Which will be really nice.  All of the implant companies are amazing and it was a hard choice.  However, the ability to use the mics etc with both ears tipped the scale.  I spent hours researching and talking with other parents in preparation for this meeting.  I about made myself crazy!  We truly feel we made the best choice for Emma.  

So, we are one step closer to what we pray will be a major breakthrough for Emma.  Everyone feels this will take her to the next level in speech and hearing.  She will continue to use her hearing aid in the right ear for the time being.  That ear is much stronger and doing well with the aids.  Right now Emma is just relying on that hearing aid and you can barely tell she is just wearing one.  Emma is not thrilled for another surgery, but when I said she would get lots of baked potatoes and McDonald's she cheered up!  

Bunnies, Eggs and family oh my!

The bunny came, the bunny came!  I woke up this morning to hearing a sweet little voice talking from the living room. I walk out and Taylor is sitting on the couch looking at the baskets across the room and talking about them.  He looked at me and said "I got a Spider man".  Then, he said "happy Easter Day"!  Sadly for him sissy slept another hour, so he had to wait to see his basket more closely.  Emma walked right past the baskets and when she got her hearing aid in Taylor told her she had "Hello Kitty"!

 After playing at home and at the park near us, we headed to my parents house.  Where all my siblings and their families gathered to enjoy each other and the beautiful sunshine.

The eggs to hunt!

 I think these two like each other a little bit!

 Papa gave many rides through the yard today!

 We did have a few moments like these two!  Yep gotta love temper tantrums! Please tell me we were not the only ones who had this today??

 Luckily the smiles were more plentiful then the frowns!

 The hunt for eggs was fast and furious!  It might have been because they were tipped off that there was money in some of them.  We will not name names of the teenage cousin who also hunted and shock the eggs looking for the ones that did not rattle:)  Sadly her planned did not totally work, each child averaged about the same amount.

 Papa's girl!

 Egg races and busting dyed eggs in the ditch ended the fun of Easter!

It was a great day full of family, memories, good food, and laughter.  Blessed to be part of an amazing family and love getting to spend time with all my nieces and nephews!  Love days like today!  Happy Easter 2014 to each of my readers.  Hope you had a blessed day as well!