An update on Colby

For those who have asked and those who are wondering I wanted to give an update on our friend, Colby, as he battles brain cancer.
His surgery went well but could not get all of the tumor. The tumor was also a more serious grade than they had hoped. But Colby has felt incredibly well considering brain surgery and more recently radiation and chemo. We hosted a little surprise party for him for completing his first week of treatment.

The kids decorated and used the chalk board as place to put to use last week's memory verse...

 Thanking God for His goodness and asking for healing...

 Here are Colby, Emily and sweet Jireh. In their latest update they wrote " the Lord has filled our days with many joys and many struggles.  Both are gifts from God."

 
What a testimony they are - not to themselves but to the sustaining grace of the Lord. Oh what He will do in those willing to trust Him! And it makes me wonder why I wait for tragedy to show "such faith." Are not every little inconvenience in life under His control as much as cancer cells?? Oh for grace to trust Him more!

                Pray for healing and strength and perseverance and joy for these dear friends of ours.

Fun Day Sunday

I guess we've been too busy having all the fun in the world to be blogging. And by all the fun in the world I mean lots of school (in which 8th grade science and Madison's debate class are kicking my tail), lots of laundry (but hey - I've been completely on top of it for a month now!), cleaning, entertaining, more cleaning (which entails lots of "So, is your room clean?" "I think so" "If you are saying you think so then it probably isn't clean. You need to KNOW so" conversations), and lots of playing in the backyard (which looks so ghetto and trashed - but it is no longer 400 degrees here so the kids are making up for lost time and I love it).
In the past 4 weeks we have had two days that we called "Fun Day Sunday." Since we go to church services on Saturday nights we often have a entire day on Sunday to be together as a family. We can't always do something fun but with the onset of the cooler weather we have found some time to just enjoy one another.

Our first Fun Day Sunday was spent in downtown OKC in Bricktown. We walked all over and found really fun things to play on and in. Here are just a ton of pictures (and a video) from our day...

 daddy is a show off...

 The botanical gardens has added a waterfall fountain. The mist that came off was refreshing as the air was getting warmer...

 Watching the Devon building go up - it is so tall...

Downtown has added some cool stuff - including this fountain that when it overflows causes waves around the sides. The kids loved it and within a matter of minutes most were soaking wet...

 On the grounds of the botanical gardens - mommy's back had had enough so I say up top and watched...

 Still praying for the Lord to provide a vehicle in which we can all fit, Madison found a great option...

 After all the walking and the temperature rising we had to make a stop for ice cream on the way home...

Fun Day Sunday was great. We spend so much time with other families so being just us was really really great. Seeing the kids having so much fun with their siblings just fills a momma's heart. It was also cool to set aside Sunday as a special day - restful and encouraging to body and soul.Almost like God knew what He was talking about when He commanded Sabbath rest. And Sabbath rest points us to the spiritual rest offered by God to those who are in Him. Glorious.
Here's to hoping there are many more Fun Day Sundays to come.

Birthday and Birthdays and More Birthdays

Every time I would go to the OB for that first visit after finding out I was pregnant I would wonder if it was twins. "Wouldn't that be neat?" I would think. Of course, I never expected to actually be carrying twins which is why I was so surprised that day when I found out I was. It still seems crazy that I have twins. A good friend of mine just has twin girls. When I went to the hospital to meet them and hold them I could hardly remember that I had been through that - That I had once cuddled two tiny little babies.

It's hard to remember because that was now 7 years ago!!

These little boogers are 7 years old. Nutso.

Once again we opted to not do a big party. But on their birthday day we had two friends come over for a pizza lunch, cupcakes and some play time.

That night each of the boys went on a date - Wilson with me and Tyson with Jason. And once again we used coupons that earned in the library reading program to go to dinner.
Wilson and I headed to the Elephant Bar. It happens to be located right next to the mall that has the Lego store.

One of the tings he was most excited about was that they served him his drink in A REAL GLASS. He was super cute about it.

 Even though we had cupcakes after lunch and smores bars waiting at home he got a strawberry sundae. Hey - it came with his meal and it's only your birthday once a year. The waitress (can you say waitress anymore? Server?) even put a candle in it for him.

Then we headed to the mall. We rode up and down the escalator and then got down to business - using every last dollar of birthday money to buy legos.

As Wilson went through the store I was touched at how many times he said "Carson would love this one." "I bet Carson would think this is cool." or "I wonder if Carson would want me to get this one?" I begged him to pick the things HE liked and forget about Carson but I loved that he wanted to impress and please his big brother.
Once every dollar was spoken for we checked out.

 (Shhh - don't tell any homeschoolers we know that we bought a Harry Potter set)

We walked - hand in hand for a little bit outside but he was eager to get home and show Carson what he bought.
Meanwhile - Jason and Tyson did their purging of birthday money first. Tyson has been counting down the days till his birthday - not so much to be older or to celebrate but so he would have money to go buy an orange kid camera that he had his heart set on.
Once that was done they headed to Bricktown where they a coupon for a free meal at Spaghetti Warehouse. This was perfect because they are building a skyscraper downtown (the new Devon building) and Tyson is beyond in love with it. Skyscrapers are his new favorite obsession. So getting to be right down where it is being being built was such a treat.

 Bricktown is such a cool place and they are doing things to it all the time. Here there are in front of a waterfall - with the beloved orange camera of course...

Jason said they really had a great time. And at the end of all their walking Tyson asked if they could please just get a hot dog at Sonic for dinner. So they did.

We all met back at the house to have smores bars. Yep, no cake - the little guys begged for smores bars. (notice that the orange camera is in every shot - he took pictures of EVERYTHING all night long)

Happy birthday to my twin baby boys.