First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for Rachel, Hannah and Dan. They were all excited after meeting their new (and old) teachers on Tuesday night. They put on their "first day clothes", we loaded backpacks with new supplies, made lunches and we all waited for the bus.

All smiles and excitement for the new school year.

Rachel, lovely as always. She has such a sweet, tender personality.

Hannah, ready to embrace it all. She is so full of life and excitement.

And Dan, just look at his hair and wrinkled shirt (and no it was not wrinkled when I laid it out lastnight). That about sums up our wild and adventurous boy.



I snapped this last shot when the walked out to the road. I think it is so cute how they always line up youngest to oldest.

They came home happy and excited by all the new things. They seem to love their new teachers and were not too nervous about all the new things to learn and schedules to figure out.

I still have mixed feelings about them going to public school, but if they have to go, we are pretty happy with our local school. They work hard to give our children all the special help they need and they do it in a warm and friendly way.

Hannah's 9th Birthday

March 1st was Hannah's 9th birthday. Hannah is a tremendously cheery child and loves all sort of celebrations.

We had to spread her birthday out due to Brian's work schedule. Mom and Dad came over on Sunday the 28th and we had Shepherd's Pie and cake and ice cream.

Later in the week, we had our little family celebration. Hannah loved all her gifts and we enjoyed celebrating our little Hannah.

Happy Birthday, Hannah!

Hannah's Dental Day

Hannah had a tough day today. She had two appointments, one with the Orthodontist to put in spacers in preparation for a palette expander and another with the Oral Surgeon to remove a tooth.

She is such a tremendously tough little girl and very brave. She rarely complains and never gives us a fight when she has to have these procedures done. She took it all so well.

The tooth extraction was a tough one. It was a canine tooth with an extremely long root and even though it was a baby tooth, it was not loose at all. There was quite a bit of pain afterward and she did not like the fact that she could not spit or use a straw.

This picture says it all...poor little dear. I felt very bad for her. Thankfully, by the evening, she was feeling much better and almost pain free except when she bumped it by mistake. I told her she could stay home from school if she wants tomorrow. It would be pretty hard to send her to school with a tender mouth and a soft food diet.

Hannah's Surgery

Hannah recently had surgery on her mouth. This was part of the ongoing treatment for her cleft. She had a tooth pulled, a fistula closed and a bone graft.

She did a get job. The pre-op rooms are equipped with TVs and she enjoyed some cartoons before she went in.


The procedure took about an hour and she was in recovery in no time. Her poor little mouth was pretty swollen, but she took it all in stride with the help of a nice cold Popsicle.

New Look

Rachel and Hannah both wanted to get their hair cut. I'm not sure who had the idea first but that was fine by me. I usually do the hair trimming, but they wanted much shorter cuts, so I brought them to the salon.

Here is the a picture before we headed to the salon. Poor Hannah wasn't having a great morning, so she looks much grumpier than usual. I tried to get her to smile a bit, but she was not too happy.

And the after picture. Don't they look so cute. I especially like this look on Hannah as her hair does a natural bob thing swooping under, but it is a great look for both of them. And doesn't Hannah look more like her usual cheery self? She had a much better afternoon.

Hannah's 8th Birthday

Hannah had her 8th birthday earlier in the month. She was so excited this year. Each milestone builds memories for the Littles and they are beginning to look forward to things like birthdays, vacations and holidays.

Her birthday fell on a Sunday this year, so we had to wait until after church for the festivities to begin.

She got some fun things this year, including some PetShoppe, a new umbrella and a pretty purple and pink pillow that Bessie made for her.


She had seen a cake in a magazine at a friends house. We did the best we could although I'm sure it wasn't exactly like the fancy one. Four layers of chocolate cake with pink frosting and sprinkles. It sure was yummy!

Mom and Dad came over later in the day for dinner and cake and ice cream. I just love the "flower" headband we found for her. It is so Hannah!

Happy birthday, Hannah. We love you, sweetie!

Hannah's Dentist

Hannah has some special issues with her mouth, so she gets to go to the pediatric dentist. She loves it there. They are so patient and gentle with her. Gabe loves tagging along because they have video games in the waiting room and movies in the exam rooms.

Here they are as we wait for the dentist to come in.

Little Miss Sunshine

Hannah has one of those terrific personalities that makes her very pleasant to be around. She just makes you smile with her cheeriness and upbeat take on life. She is funny, has a great imagination, is so enthusiastic about learning, gets a lot of pleasure out of the simple things in life and rarely complains. The ironic thing about all this is I thought she was the one I would have the most problems with when the Littles first came home. She seemed so sullen and stoic. Was I sure wrong and it just goes to show that you should never make snap judgements about anyone.

Hannah's static filled hair from the tramp expresses

her "wild" approach to life

Always drawing and creating

Hannah is a joy!

Lego Fun

Legos are this summer's favorite indoor pastime. Thankfully, we have a very large bin of them, so there are plenty for all.

Hannah and Gabe worked together to make this church. Check it out. Great job, kids!

Outside

Inside

Hannah's Birthday

March 1st was Hannah's seventh birthday. For one reason or another, we didn't get to actually celebrate her birthday on that day. When this Saturday, the 8th, rolled around, we finally were able to celebrate.

The Littles don't really understand the whole birthday thing except that they get presents and special desserts. The one celebrating the day loves it, the other two do not. Sometimes there is a bit of whining and fussing over the presents that aren't theirs, but we are working toward helping them be gracious and enjoy the day with the one being feted.

The different aspects of the celebration was interspersed throughout the day. Hannah opened her gifts in the morning. The cake was made in the afternoon and we had singing and cake after dinner.

Hannah is always so appreciative of any gifts that she gets. Her enthusiasm is quite humorous at times. We never have to worry about getting something she will like, as she seems to enjoy everything.

The suspense of it all

A small jewelry box was the biggest hit...does she look happy?

Bessie baked the cake and Gabe helped her frost it...hmm likes

a lot of finger licking going on

When it came time to put on the candles, we could only find five. I thought for sure we had some new candles and I was just about to use the #8 candle again and hope Hannah didn't notice. In the very back of the "junk" drawer, Brian found some stray candles. A quick washing and they were good to go. I really need to be more organized about these special occasions. We certainly don't fuss over presentation.

Make a wish and blow out the candles

Hannah was thrilled with her day and didn't seem to mind at all that it was a week late and that the candles didn't match.

A Few Pictures

The end of last week was pretty uneventful...homeschool lessons, speech for Dan, church stuff and play.

Dan wearing my reading glasses

Hannah working on her Learning Language Arts Through Literature

The girls are enjoying this language arts program

Math Fun

Hannah and Dan love playing with the Math U See blocks.

Our Week

Brian was on TDY this week. We are used to this, it is a regular occurrence. This week, all the kids decided to get sick while Daddy was away.

The Littles started with gloppy noses, thick heads and coughs that made it sound like a TB ward. We stayed home a lot.

I thought Gabe and Bessie dodged the bullet on this one as they didn't seem to get the same symptoms.

Early Monday morning...3ish, Gabe wakes with a stomach upset and then throwing up. Well, not the head colds that the Littles have, something new and improved. He and I spend most of the day snuggling. He worked valiantly to not throw up again, mainly by not eating for the next two days. I did manage to keep him hydrated. Thankfully, no else acquired this particularly ailment.

Dan fell asleep on the couch...a very rare occurrence...you can tell he was sick

Gabe spend quite a bit of time laying at my feet at the computer

By Wednesday morning, Gabe pronounces that his stomach feels better. I had spent quite a bit of time worrying (one of my favorite past times) about what I was going to do if he was still sick as Hannah had an appointment to get a tooth removed and Gabe does not like staying home unless Bri or I am there.

Gabe, Hannah and I hustled off to the pediatric dentist.

Gabe loves this dentist's office. They have a large screen TV playing kids shows, Nintendo and PlayStation video games and these fun consuls that have many type of games that you can play from card games to sports type games.

They even have a fun house mirror

Gabe decides which game to play

Hannah was awesome. She was such a trooper about the whole thing. The dentist ended up taking out her two top front teeth in addition to a molar that had gotten absessed. They also put some sealants on her six year molars. Because of Hannah's cleft-lip, she will need quite a bit of extra dental work done and I am so glad she takes it all in stride.

She looked so funny when I went in to talk to the dentist. She had on sunglasses, headphones to listen to the movie she was watching, the little gas mask thingy for her "happy gas" and a mouth full of gauze. You couldn't even see her little face with all this stuff.

Hannah, minus her two front teeth!

I was so relieved to have this visit done. The rest of the week we layed low. I canceled all other appointments and visits. We got a little bit of schoolwork in, but not much. We read books, played games and watched videos. By Thursday morning, the Littles were much better. Gabe's stomach troubles had cleared up for the most part. Bessie came down with a sore throat. Oh, well...at least I managed to not get sick....yet!

Nativity Lapbook

Hannah and Dan finished their Nativity Lapbooks this week. They were so excited to see the finished product. This is a really good medium for the Littles as they love color, cut and paste activities. It gives them a real sense of accomplishment.

They started a new Lapbook on The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Here they are working on sequencing cards for the life cycle of the butterfly.

Trip to the Dentist

Because of Hannah's cleft lip, she has extra issues that the other kids don't have to deal with. One area is her teeth. She will need extensive work.

This week she had her first visit with the pediatric dentist. We love this place. They are so kid friendly and really go out of their way to treat the whole patient, not just work on the teeth.

She did great, handling the x-rays and even a panoramic x-ray with no trouble. He did an exam and light cleaning. She will start her course of treatment in January.

Here Hannah is in the chair. How cool is this to be able to watch TV while you sit in the dentist chair. I want to find a place like this for adults!