Could It Be?

dare we get our hopes up? COULD IT BE? is the title of this post cuz we've had a couple of cool things happen w/ quincie the past couple of days. :) *****our first mention happened to occur on our first friday (february 4th)...before the guests arrived. :) it was about 4:30pm. quincie came to find me and was absolutely insistent that i follow her up to her room. i couldn't figure out why. she was already wearing her fave pink ballerina outfit; what else could be so important that she was literally dragging me up the stairs? we walked into her room together. ok, i'm here. what is it? :) she picked up a butterfly wand, spun around w/ it, held it up to me...THEN SIGNED BUTTERFLY. cool! ;) yes, your butterfly wand. NEXT she grabbed a plush toy, an old ostrich beanie baby. she spun around again to look directly at me - that's pretty HUGE in and of itself...AND SIGNED BIRD. i was starting to get goosebumps. WAS THIS THE HELEN KELLER MOMENT WE'VE BEEN SO ANXIOUSLY HOPING FOR? i was waiting to see what she might latch onto next...but that was it. still, it was a PRETTY BIG IT. first she'd made a point to find me and have me follow her. then she identified two objects and INITIATED THE SIGN????? HUMONGOUS! eye contact? WOW! *****i had to go back down to the kitchen to begin making my corn dip. quincie followed me. i had two cans of corn on the counter beside me. when i dumped the first can of corn into my glass bowl quincie looked at it, pointed to it and SIGNED CORN. i literally almost fell over. i felt like crying but there was certainly no time for tears, even tears of joy! :) mainly just due to busy-ness that was it for that friday. unless you count all of the times she sat at the nook that nite, the reigning queen over all of the munchies, and pleadingly signed FOOD and EAT. we already knew she could do that!!! :) *****our second incredible mentions happened monday nite february 8th. as i was making tate's fave spaghetti for supper :) quincie came out to check up on me. i had two cans of diced tomatoes on the counter. she pointed to the picture of the tomato on the can and looked at me questioningly, so i signed tomato to her. she signed tomato back. :) again, excitement just SWELLED UP inside of me. she's ASKING ME for a sign? REALLY? REALLY? ASTOUNDING! ***i asked quincie to set the table for me. she didn't quite seem to get that one. i took her over to the table, drummed it w/ the palms of my hands and signed table to her. it took her a minute but i think she finally got it. tomato and table are a bit harder signs than toilet and eat. i was impressed she was making the effort to learn them. ;) she didn't end up setting the table for me, but it was alright. i was still on a HUGE HIGH from our tomato moment. ;) ***quincie had to go to the bathroom right after supper...as is her habit. ;) brent scooted her into the bathroom. her pull up was DRY - a definite HUGE WOW! - and then she successfully perched herself up on the toilet and did her business where she is supposed to. :) NOTE HERE - the potty training has simply not been going well. AT ALL. in fact a couple of weeks ago i decided to give up on the potty end of it. she's been doing fairly well telling us she has to go poop. ;) but the potty? FORGET IT! back to monday nite february 8th. ;) - brent of course was proud of her for having an all around completely successful bathroom event. ;) so he signed good to her. quincie emphatically nodded her head in agreement; then she signed back to her daddy GOOD GIRL. THIS WAS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HUGE! :) we truly think this is THE FIRST TIME quincie enhanced or expanded on something that was signed to her. basically she took a one word compliment and turned it into a TWO WORD acknowledgement. UNBELIEVABLE! CAN YOU TELL WE'RE EXCITED? ******************this just feels like the real thing. it seems like the beginning dawn or initial inklings of REAL COMPREHENSION. like its all starting to come together for her. like its beginning to stick and make sense. there's a part of me that doesn't want to get my hopes up. cuz it would be devestating to have a couple of huge moments like the ones we've so recently experienced w/ her...and then go back to the customary averted gazes and non-interest / non-responsiveness when we try to engage her in sign. we know that might happen. but those moments were still REAL. they still really happened. i saw her face lite up and some spark of realization in her expression. so if we do hit a speedbump :) we'll get over it; but at least we know we are definitely ON THE ROAD TO LANGUAGE! ;) woo-hoooooooooooooooooo! ;) WE LOVE YOU Q-BABY! ;) please keep it up!!! ;)

Fantastic First Friday in February :)

the first friday in february (4th) really was a FANTASTIC day. the boys were out of school. the girlsies had to get up at and be on the bus by 7:19am as usual. tate slept in and cory and wade played pokemon cards til 10 or so. then WADE got to hop in the van and i delivered him to his buddy dylan's house. it was dylan's birthday and he was having a SUPER DUPER AMAZINGLY FUN PARTY at THE GREAT WOLF LODGE (water resort park). wade had been literally bouncing off of the walls all week anticipating the FUN he would have on friday...and we are pleased to say that the great wolf lodge did not disappoint that bunch of seven year old boys! wade had A GRAND TIME. and that's putting it mildly. he especially loved THE HOWLER, a giant water tube slide that for a couple of twists and turns even goes outside the building! wade could tell when the tube took him outside; he said it was noticeably colder! :) *****tate and cory got to play wii while wade was at the water park. they also had a bit of a babysitting gig...but it turned out to be pretty easy for them. becca and i had a shopping date planned that friday afternoon, so ellie watched pocahontus II twice while the mommas were out shopping. mallie and quincie LOVE that movie and it seems ellie did too. becca and i got back home and shortly thereafter ellie spied the yellow school bus round the corner. finally, her fave playmates! the three girlsies had fun for an hour or two. then becca and ellie had to go and we had to get ready for a HOUSEFUL OF FRIENDS. :) we were hosting our AWESOME EIGHTSOME that evening. that would be brent, allie, aunt c, uncle steve, our next door neighbors mark and takako and kevin and lori - our new years eve crew! once again we had a terrific time. adding kevin and lori has definitely changed the dynamics of our group; mainly because mark and takako each have someone they can really talk to. ;) when it was just our two families, the bestwicks and the kerns, conversation was much more stilted and i'm sure cumbersome for the kerns; however since it was one on one conversation brent and i absorbed alot more sign. now (naturally) mark and takako interact much, much more w/ kevin and lori. remember that kevin is a hearing person (like us) plus an interpreter; so he can relay signed conversations to us. kevin's wife LORI IS ONE OF THE MOST AMAZING PROFOUNDLY DEAF PERSONS I HAVE BEEN PRIVILIGED TO HANG OUT W/ SO FAR. :) if real life were like a game of wizard 101 ;) lori would be like cory, a grand master! she is simply an astounding lipreader and prefers that we speak verbally rather than sign to her. sometimes its difficult for me to believe that she is really deaf...let alone profoundly deaf. ;) takako can verbally speak her native japanese, but chooses not to speak english. so takako signs only. its easier for a hearing person like me to converse w/ lori, cuz she engages me in my first language. lori of course can switch effortlessly between the two languages; so she can sign something to takako, then turn around and have a spoken english conversation w/ me. i simply never realized there were so many DEGREES OF DEAFNESS. we are learning alot! brent, myself, aunt c and steve do our best to interact / sign with mark and takako. we also officially eavesdrop ;) on their signed conversations w/ kevin and lori. i think we have permission since we're all sitting at the same table. ;) in short, having eight adults is always fun and part of that fun is experiencing the different dynamics that unfold in any particular evening. friday february 4th takako was really enjoying her friend lori's company! *****we played several games of LCR or Left, Center, Right. that's a dice game we picked up a few weeks ago and it was definitely A HIT! UNCLE STEVE WAS OUR BIG ROLLER THAT NITE. cher said they need to go to vegas and she wasn't kidding! we inadvertantly had all of the girls at one end of the table and all of the guys at the other end. i sat in between takako and chise and those girls are TWO OF THE MOST FUN PEOPLE TO PLAY GAMES WITH that i know. ;) TAKAKO MAKES ANY GAME FUN. she really does. she has a great sense of humor and is animated and fun...not to mention LADY LUCK HERSELF. takako wins almost every game she plays! :) chise makes me laugh, just like her momma. one time i rolled three R's so had to pass my three chips to chise. it was unbelievable! after a while some little kids joined in on our big people fun. owen came up and proved to be as lucky as his daddy at rolling dice. wow! :) mallie came up and plopped herself down on a barstool between brent and mark and mark was having fun teasing her about passing chips back and forth. one time mallie had five chips. she made a square w/ four of her chips, put the fifth chip in the center on top, then turned to mark and signed flower. the very next roll mallie (rolling for brent) rolled an R and had to pass one of her chips to mark. that made his fifth chip, so he copied her and made a flower w/ his five chips. mallie looked at him w/ a mixture of awe and disbelief. i think she was trying to figure out how mark had made off w/ her flower! lori kept losing her chips to kevin and cheri. then kevin and chise began wedging one of their chips into the crevices in my long table and those became the lucky chips. :) suffice it to say, there were ALOT OF LAUGHS and we all had ALOT OF FUN. aunt c, steve and owen said goodnight at 9:30pm as uncle steve has been getting up ludicrously early (4:30am) to go to the gym to work out. he was tired. i think we played five or six games of LCR total before quincie toddled in and looked like she was about to pass out. she was pretty wiped out from sneaking out to the table so many times and swiping more sweets! ;O we had to take a break so that brent could get her ready for, then put her, to bed. while he was upstairs doing that chise got tired so she went home...and by the time brent got back downstairs LCR was passe. ;) so we played a few rounds of bunko...then sat around and had a nice chat...and by 11pm the remaining adults were all about ready to pass out from fatigue so we finally called it a nite too. david and rina had asked if they could sleep over and we said sure. we let the four boys play computer games and ds til midnite; then they had to occupy themselves in their room w/out electronics. rina and mallie got sleeping bags and snuggled up together on the floor in the girls's room. rina said that mallie was so tired she said goodnite rina, then literally rolled over and went to sleep! *****poor rina was awakened bright and early saturday morning (about 6:30am) by QUINCIE'S HAPPY SOUNDS. she is one loud deaf kid...and she seems especially loud in a quiet house at 6:30am on a saturday morning! :) rina couldn't get back to sleep after that but fortunately rina is very good natured and loves quincie. david wanted to get up and watch cartoons beginning at 7am. tate was a very gracious host and set his alarm and got up w/ david at 7am on a saturday. wow! i wonder if david realizes that tate generally doesn't wake up that early for anyone! :) the kerns kids ate lunch w/ us and stayed until 1pm. we TRULY LOVE our OLD AND NEW next door neighbors! remember that kevin and lori lived there first; then they moved and sold the house to mark and takako. brent and i are just sick now that we didn't get to know kevin and lori better the couple of years we actually lived next door to each other. however we have NOW and we are making good use of from now on. :) we really love our AWESOME EIGHTSOME and hope there are many, many more first fridays in our future! :)

Thursday Night Had Only One Casualty...The Charred Chocolate Chip Muffin

thursday february 4th turned out to be one of those golden nites. brent and cory were all set to go to the casting crowns concert downtown. brent got off of work early and got home at 4:30pm so that he and cory could eat an insanely early supper. ;) they chatted excitedly over their chowder; then brent checked facebook and saw that the youth pastor had two extra casting crowns tickets he was trying to give away. really? tate got excited. this was originally suppposed to be a dad and cory nite; but fortunately for tate cory is usually cool about, not to mention very used to, sharing his dad w/ his brothers; and let's face it...a free ticket is hard to pass up. tate called jeremy (youth pastor) and secured one of the two tickets. tate had to wolf down a bowl of very hot chowder so that the three of them could race to the church to meet up / carpool with becca and jennifer; then scurry over to jeremy's house to get the extra ticket. they made it! brent had purchased cheap seat tickets; but as it worked out there were some empty seats next to jeremy and nicole (and chuck and kari) so brent and the boys got to UPGRADE. WOW! needless to say they had an absolutely terrific time at the concert. one of the coolest parts was the first opening act...who turned out to be none other than caleb chapman, steven curtis chapman's son! steven curtis chapman is a HUGE name in christian music and in the world of adoption; so getting to see his son perform was WAY COOL! ;) cory simply LOVES casting crowns. we're extremely grateful he got to see one of his fave groups in concert!!! ********we ended up having an unexpected, magical, warm fuzzy sort of nite on the homefront. i think its because we were watching mary poppins before supper. :) she shared some of her practically perfect in every way magic w/ us! :) quincie loves the penguins in mary poppins. plus the merry go round horses and practically the entire animated sequence. she perched herself on the edge of the coffee table and waved an imaginary caramel apple around, just like jane and michael, while bert and mary sang supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! it still just makes me SMILE BIG to hear that belly laugh of hers. talk about MAGICAL. :) anyway, after mary poppins had left us via her umbrella ;) we ate our chicken chowder. quincie of course wolfed hers down before wade and mallie even picked their spoons up. we've still never seen anything quite like this eating machine! :) she enjoys her meals. let's put it that way. :) ********after supper i decided to make wade's favorite chocolate chip mini muffins. wade and mallie began a great game of chase on the first floor while quincie played w/ ariel and flounder up in her bedroom. this is one of those absolutely zany things. last year on one of our trips to the pool we met up w/ karen gleason, mom to matt, who is one of tate's buddies. she and her daughter rummaged thru their pool bag and gave the girls two little pool toys. one was mini mouse and the other was ariel, the little mermaid. for some reason quince has become OBSESSED w/ this ariel pool toy of late. they are literally attached at the hip while quincie is in the house. she carries ariel w/ her from room to room, to the bath, to the supper table, etc. SHE ABSOLUTELY LOVES THIS LITTLE HAND ME DOWN FIGURINE that has spent the past few years at the bottom of a friend's pool bag! anyway, its also neat that we somehow came by a flounder (ariel's fish friend) plush toy. granted flounder is about twenty times the size of ariel; but it puts a new spin on quincie's imaginary games. ;) it still makes me a bit wistful that quincie cannot seem to join in games w/ her big brother and sister; but i guess i'm becoming accustomed to it. mallie began running in to the kitchen to tell me something and wade came flying in after her yelling don't tell, mallory! :) they were both grinning from ear to ear and i tho't it was cute. someday maybe quincie will join in their fun...or maybe she won't. she seems completely content w/ her polly pocket dolls and ariel for the moment. :) I LOVE HAVING THE TRHEE LITTLE ONES ALL TO MYSELF. i love to see them laugh and play together. wade is definitely much more in tune to his little sisters when his big brothers aren't around and well, its just nice to see different dynamics develop between them. *****the muffins were finally done! i can honestly say I'VE NEVER HAD THIS HAPPEN TO ME BEFORE. the timer went off so i grabbed a muffin tin to check to see if they looked perfectly done or not. my new can of non-stick spray must have been SUPER DUPER POWERFUL STUFF; cuz when i ever so slightly tipped the tin towards me to check my mini muffins they all tumbled out of the tin and into the oven!!!!!!!! :O fortunately most of them did not make it thru the grill to the bottom of the oven. i was able to quickly scoop them up w/ my oven mitts. i threw them onto the stovetop...then tried to extricate the three that unfortunately were stuck in the bottom grill. i actually had to get some tongs and managed to pull two out...but the third one finally fell between the metal slats of the bottom grill right onto the heating element. :O slivers of smoke began rising and yes, it smelled like a muffin was burning! i threw open a window to get some fresh air. then i moved my adjustable grills up to the top two tiers and grabbed the bottom grill and threw it into the sink. with the tongs i rescued the twelfth muffin...a little too late. ;) amazingly it hadn't completely burned up; it was just mostly charred on the top. ;) oh well. that charred chocolate chip mini muffin was our only casualty of an otherwise perfectly wonderful evening! ********i found some new valentine themed appetizer plates at target and the girlsies loved them of course. they're just the right size for pink strawberry heart cakes and chocolate chip mini muffins! everybody had two mini muffins and wade even made a special delivery to matt and jon next door. matt made my MONTH by calling to tell me my mini muffins were heavenly. WOW! he knows that flattery will get him everywhere; plus lots more muffins!!! :) ********after our evening snack it was bathtime. wade was sprawled across my bed playing chronotrigger on his ds and the girls were enjoying their princess berry bubble bath as usual. the girls really LOVE bathtime. its always a treat for them at the end of the day. i let them play for a bit while i gathered up the trash. wade met me on the stairs and told me that the three of them had been playing a fun bath game. cool! basically wade ran by the bathtub and both girls tried to spray him w/ bathwater they blew out of their mouths. hmmmmmm. i could tell they'd been having a blast; but there was a lot of WET CARPET beside the bathtub. :O oh well again. it was getting late so it was time to get the girls out of the tub and into bed. mallie surprised me by reading the entire there was an old lady book to me. how awesome is that? she's quoting it from memory of course. but still, i'm impressed that she has completely absorbed this nursery rhyme and simply loves the book! i rocked my girlsies and knew that our unexpected, ordinary extraordinary fairy tale nite was over. but it was definitely magical, marvelous and fun while it lasted. :)

Strawberry Saturday Pink Party

that's what we called it. on saturday january 30th the girlsies and i had one of our MOST FUN BAKING EVENTS EVER. we made pink / strawberry heart cakes since we're excited about valentine's day and IT WAS A SPECTACULAR TIME. ;) i mixed up the cake batter but i let the girlsies do the rest. they loved the big silver bowl full of pink strawberry cake batter. they each loved their very own five-heart muffin tin. they loved taking the measuring cup and scooping up pink batter and pouring it into each heart tin. and of course, quincie loved dipping her finger into the batter and eating it! i wouldn't let her scoop it and eat it the first time around. but by the second batch i found myself relaxing the rules a little bit. :) i hate for her to have ooey gooey fattening cake batter. i truly do. but darn it, she makes the cutest little mischievious food face i think i've ever, ever seen and its hard for me to resist sometimes. ;) we were also having fun singing and signing. i just started singing strawberry saturday pink party and mallie loved to sign along w/ me. we tried to get quincie excited about signing those four words w/ us but as usual, she didn't show much interest. its still frustrating to get zero to little response in situations like that; but mallie and i weren't going to let quincie's non-enthusiasm for signing spoil our marvelous time. :) we had some extra cake batter so i asked wade to join our pink party. i knew better than to ask the big boys!!! ;O wade still likes to bake w/ us. even if its pink stuff. :) wade made mini cupcakes and did a terrific job of filling up his tin all by himself. when wade was done we found ourselves asking ourselves is it really over? DOES IT HAVE TO BE OVER? NO! we had another box of pillsbury strawberry cake mix...so why not? i whipped up the cake batter and we went back to the table for more. this time i dug out my third heart muffin tin so that wade could make heart cakes instead of mini cupcakes. :) and i have to say, wade's heart cakes turned out PERFECT. not too big, not too little, but JUST RIGHT. wade's heart cakes were definitely the prettiest; but i didn't tell his sisters that. the girls tended to overfull their tins just a smidge ;) but poofy pink heart cakes taste just as good as perfect pink heart cakes. i iced them later w/ pink frosting and that nite after supper we all enjoyed pink cakes for dessert. *****years and years ago now it seems ;) the boys and i used to deliver these heart cupcakes to friends on valentine's day. this year we were obviously a little early :) but on sunday january 31st we tho't we'd make some pre-valentine deliveries to neighbors. the girls and i delivered heart cakes to the kerns family, mattie and jon and also to lon, shirley and vienna across the street. vienna really loved her heart cakes! ;) we also found out that shirley and vienna are heading to china for a few months...so we were extra glad we made our extra early valentine's day delivery. ;) *****tate was so excited for monday february 1st. one of his buddies was having a bday party at coco key, another swim resort place here in the metro area that is similar to the great wolf lodge. i happened to have an early afternoon workout that day (unusual for me) and as soon as i hopped off of the treadmill (about 1:30m) the phone rang. oh no. yep. tate was sick. my heart was breaking for my buddy. we tho't he was invincible ;) and had somehow managed to stave it off; but that relentless stomach bug got him in the end after all. ;O tate was ROUND SIX and i believe the final round. quincie thankfully seems to have a much stronger immune system than the rest of us. ;) tate was out of commission for the rest of the day and nite. he woke up feeling better on tuesday february 2nd. hooray! we got our dodgeball date in that tuesday morning so that i could say i watched dodgeball w/ all five of my sickies this go around. ;) tate also used his recovery day to beat his latest obsession ds game, chrono trigger. this is an old, old game that brent happens to be obsessed w/ too. he and tate have been fighting over wade's ds for it! :) *****tuesday nite february 2nd was BIG if you are a LOST FAN. brent and tate are big lost fans. :) because there is usually a bit too much commotion :) over here to watch television in the evening we'd pre-arranged for brent and tate to go watch lost at jon's house; then mattie came over to our house to watch the nightmare before christmas w/ the girlsies and me. matt loved the show...plus watching quincie role play / act out her fave characters. she especially loves sally, of course! ;) mattie and i had a great time watching jack and sally...and chatting :) and jon, brent and tate had a riveting three hours watching the season premiere of their fave tv show. it ended up being a fun - and late! - tuesday nite for everyone. ;)

The House of Ick Plus I Was Right and You Were Wrong Daddy (Love, Mallie!)

the last week in january proved to be a ROUGH week for our fam. in five days five of us came down w/ the stomach flu. UGH i believe is the appropriate word here. :) wade got it saturday nite january 23rd and brent and mallie came down w/ it monday nite january 25th. wade was well enough to go back to school tuesday january 26th while mallie and brent took his place here at home. tuesday nite cory had his drum lesson w/ tom at 7pm. tom left about 7:30pm and by 8pm cory was SICKER THAN SICK. i felt extremely bad that cory had been in such close proximity to tom but again...we had no warning signs. it just hit and that was it. it always breaks my heart when cory gets a stomach bug cuz he gets extremely sick w/ it. sicker than almost all of his siblings combined! my poor coreo!!!! ;O ***WEDNESDAY JANUARY 27TH WAS NOT A GOOD DAY AROUND HERE. at all. ;O i woke up w/ stomach cramps (yep, i was #5) and brent felt a bit better than he did tuesday...but not much. mallie woke up fussy. she was crying (not normal) and said she didn't want to go to school; plus she said she wanted to stay home and help take care of her mom. my lil' sweetie pie! however her daddy didn't like that idea. not one bit. he absolutely insisted that mallie go to school (mistake #1). he asked if she wanted something to drink before the bus came and she replied that she'd like chocolate milk. brent wasn't feeling good so he just wasn't thinking. mallie had been really sick monday nite; then the next day had only had a couple bites of toast, a few cheerios to munch on plus her big achievement, a quarter of a sandwich tuesday nite at supper. in short, she hadn't had much at all to eat after getting sick so giving her chocolate milk before she hopped on the bus was BIG mistake #2. ;O brent got the girls on the bus. mission accomplished. he was waiting to drive wade over to school and then he wanted to go into garmin and retrieve his laptop. but before he could even get out the door w/ wade, at precisely 8:01am, the phone rang. KSD. oh boy! hey allie its annie. mallie just threw up at school. i seriously tho't brent was going to SPONTANEOUSLY COMBUST when i gave him the message. poor brent! its just one extra stop honey. ha ha! ok he didn't think that was very funny. :) brent picked up mallie from the nurse's office; then ALL THE WAY HOME had to listen to his know-it-all four year old daughter say I WAS RIGHT AND YOU WERE WRONG DADDY. :O i had really wanted to chime in w/ i told you so, but figured mallie had already rubbed it in enough. :) *****so now we were four on the homefront. cory was out cold on the couch most of the day while i was in bed and brent was sweet to take care of his little princess. they set up shop in the office and played barbie games on barbie.com most of the afternoon. ;) annie had given brent strict orders ;) that mallie could not come to school on thursday january 28th. cory stayed home thursday too to recuperate from wednesday and i was better, but sadly still in bed. brent still wasn't feeling great yet either but bravely went into work for a bit on thursday afternoon. cory and mallie played waaaaaaaaaaay too much princess peach together that thursday...but then they took a break mid-afternoon and mallie actually crawled up into bed w/ me and took a long nap. cory and i got our second dodgeball date in while mallie was napping ;) and that's how we passed thursday january 28th. FRIDAY JANUARY 29TH was the first day that schoolweek that ALL FIVE KIDS WERE IN SCHOOL. wow! i'm not sure we've ever had a week quite like that one. mercifully those flu bugs usually s-t-r-e-t-c-h themselves out a bit more so not so many of us are down at once. ;O as of friday (1-29) tate and quincie are still standing and we hope that stays true! if it does this will be the second time quincie has escaped a flu epidemic at our house. :) she's my tough little cookie, that's for sure! ;) ********we did have a couple of SWEET THINGS happen during our sick week and they both happened to occur on wednesday january 27th. first of all, TATE RECEIVED HIS ACCEPTANCE LETTER FROM THE DISTINGUISHED SCHOLARS PROGRAM AT OLATHE NORTH HIGH SCHOOL. woo-hoooooooooooooooooooo! and way to go tate! :) needless to say we're SUPER DUPER PROUD of our eldest einstein. ;) its funny cuz this is what tate has been striving for and now secured. but now all of the realities are setting in. HIGH SCHOOL looms on the horizon. that's always a big, scary and HUGE UNKNOWN. plus this is where school friends begin to find themselves on different paths. tate and anureet got accepted into the ds program at north, alex f. was accepted into the aeronautics program at northwest and many other lifelong classmates are gearing up to go to east, which is the school we are zoned for. most of the kids tate has known since kindergarten are going to east; that makes it tough for him to choose north. ultimately i'm sure he will. he's just having some very understandable doubts about what the very near future holds for him. *****the second sweet thing that happened on wednesday january 27th was quincie loving on her momma! ;) brent had steered her away from the upstairs region when she got home from school; so around 6pm she stole away from him to find me. i wasn't feeling well at all; but it was more than sweet to have my happy little q-baby bound into my bedroom. she looked, sounded and seemed absolutely ELATED to see me. ;) she made sure to tuck me in extra tight under my covers and she even snuggled beside me for a few minutes. then she began crawling on me and sadly i had to put an end to our few precious moments together. my body wasn't ready for that quite yet! :) but still, it was wonderful to be the recipient of these simple, sweet gestures cuz remember, quincie cannot tell me in words that she loves me. she's also never initiated the sign so though i can assume that she loves me, well...what momma doesn't want to receive some sort of real affirmation from her wee one that she is loved in return? for now this is how quincie can tell me that she loves me. so i guess for now...its enough. :)

Baking Heart Cookies and A Teen Movie Date w/ Dad ;)

sunday january 24th while wade was on the couch ;) the rest of us were having fun. sorry wadie! :O occ's (our church's) youthgroup went to see the movie to save a life that afternoon. on word from brent, tate, cory and everyone else who has seen it :) this is ONE TERRIFIC FILM. it throws a pretty hard punch to teens on contemporary topics including teen cutting, suicide, pregnancy, peer pressure and the church's place in the midst of it all. i didn't see it but i say kudos to the producers for tackling these tough but extremely relevant issues for our kiddos! i'm glad my three guys saw it sunday afternoon, that's for sure. ;) while most of the boys (minus wade) were at the movies the girls and i had a terrific time, as usual, BAKING HEART COOKIES. I'M LOVING THESE PILLSBURY PRE-CUT HOLIDAY COOKIES. they're fast, fun, easy and even tasty! :) we had, simply put, A GREAT TIME. again. quincie doesn't quite understand the four rows of three concept that make up a baker's dozen ;) yet but she's getting there. mallie has it down and her cookie sheet looks almost cookie cutter perfect each time. :) we've certainly come a long way from our christmas tree cut out cookies, haven't we? ;) while the first two dozen were in the oven we got to PLAY w/ the second two dozen. MY CLEVER QUINCIE stacked all twelve of her pre-cut cookies. she's simply AMAZING at hands on stuff like that. brent still remembers how those district ladies ooohed and aaahed over her stacking / overall tactile abilities at her first district evalution back in july 2008. foreshadowings...................... :) so then mallie began stacking pre-cut cookies and my was it fun when our cookie dough towers toppled over! quincie kept trying to sneak nibbles...and its hard for mom to be the disciplinarian when mom is busy GIGGLING at her mischievious daughter! ;) mallie dragged her blue booster seat over to the oven so that she could have a front row seat and watch the cookies bake. quincie liked this idea and copied her sister. finally the first batch was baked, cooled and ready to go. both girls did such a good job getting their dozen cookies off of the sheet w/ their bright blue spatulas. i just LOVE to see kids have fun in the kitchen. i have oodles of memories w/ my boysies too!!!! in fact one of my fave pics of all time is my sweet little three year old cory holding a long orange carrot on his nose as my two big boys and i laughed and laughed at our carrot nose! :) sorry. its easy for me to get sidetracked w/ amazingly fun kitchen memories (the best kind besides trail memories!)! *****the next two dozen went into the oven so we munched on a few cookies from our first batch. they were good! :) no one was sick / throwing up sunday nite so we counted it as A REALLY GOOD DAY! :)

Independent to the Extreme, My Lil' Patches and Much Ado Over A Sleeping Bag...

saturday january 23rd was ONE SLEEPY DAY around here. brent was of course exhausted and trying to adjust to the time change plus recover from jetlag. i hadn't felt terrific for the past couple of days and even the kids seemed a bit droopy. ;O the boys grumbled about chores but got them done; we made it thru lunch and then about 4pm we decided to head to the track. once again we were deceived by the weather. it was so chilly out that we didn't stay too long! :) oh well. we got home and tate took the three little ones out back for us while i started supper and brent helped cory w/ some algebra. yep. still a pretty bor-ing but quickly waning saturday. ;) an hour or so later i called everyone in for supper. wade had been in and out from outdoors a couple of times; but this time he ran straight past me. hey buddy! i said its suppertime. where are you going? upstairs to the bathroom! can't it wait til after supper? i have to throw up again. WHAT? so it turns out that a couple of those trips indoors wade had been upstairs in his bathroom puking. um, were you going to TELL ME about this today or anytime soon? no. WADE, YOU HAVE TO TELL ME WHEN YOU'RE SICK! why? ***grandma alice has said several times that our kids are extremely independent. she wasn't kidding! i was simply astounded that a seven year old was together enough to handle himself so well while throwing up that his parents hadn't even the slightest idea he was ill. hmmmm. this reminded me alot of the previous week when cory had neglected to tell me about his migraine. what is up w/ these boys of mine? ;O i think the answer is that THEY KNOW that when they're sick...NINTENDO IS WAY, WAY OUT! ;) *****i certainly appreciate my kiddos being independent...to a point. but i would still like to be in the loop when someone has the stomach flu! ;) wade was sent to the couch and pretty much spent the rest of saturday nite there. wade is so dreadfully skinny its worrisome when he gets the flu. :) there's just not a whole lot there to lose. fortunately he survived. he tried to eat some red jello sunday morning january 24th but it came right back up. back to the couch buddy! ;O poor wade was down for the day. w/ no nintendo. ;) and on top of already missing saturday nite's supper he didn't have anything to eat after his attempt at jello sunday morning. he was feeling better by sunday nite; he just couldn't eat. at least he'd earned himself a sick day on monday! :) i really enjoyed wade's company monday january 25th. he was in a good mood that morning and munching on some cheerios at least. wade begged me for a dodgeball date and how could i refuse since its one of my fave movies? dodgeball is stupid humor; but we LOVE stupid humor so we find ourselves quoting dodgeball ALOT! wade and i laughed and laughed together at every single thing that patches, pepper and white said; then wade moved up to eating a piece of toast while we watched peter and the average joe's crew clean up the dodgeball court! ;) it was fun. of course i knew what wade was really wanting to do. finally around 2pm i determined he was "well" enough to play. ;) he'd kept cheerios and toast down and had even sweetly thrown his fave patches line at me, you're about as useful as a poopie flavored lollipop...so i knew my lil' patches / wadie was back! he was still a bit behind food wise but i could tell he was very much improved from saturday nite. ********i was standing over the stovetop working on supper monday nite (a few hours after my dodgeball date w/ lil' patches!) when mallie came out to the kitchen. mom, i 'm ready to throw up now. ***earlier that afternoon mallie had come up to me and stated she that she was sick like wadie. :) you are? do you feel like you're going to throw up? what's throw up? well, its being sick like wadie in this case. i provided a short, 4 yr old graphic explanation. oh. no. i'm not ready to throw up yet. ok. i figured that was mallie just sympathizing w/ her big brother. ;) ***fast forward a couple of hours back to supper. i took her by the hand into the bathroom and...mallie figured out the hard way what throwing up was. my poor girlie! ;) now wade was better but mallie was down. and she wasn't the only one. brent actually came down w/ this stuff too! ;O oh no, parent down!!! yikes! bedtime was especially tricky monday nite january 25th. brent was flat on his back in bed. i wanted mallie to sleep in a sleeping bag in our bathroom /outside our toilet closet. that way if she got sick i was right there. so i got mallie into her pink footie pajamas and into the sleeping bag. i had an INKLING when i did this that it could cause trouble. and it did. quincie toddled in and saw mallie in her sleeping bag, let out a huge deaf happy sound ;) and literally took off running down the hall towards the boys' room. again i was impressed; she knows where i stash all of the sleeping bags! i actually had to run to catch up w/ her. i caught her just before she got to the boysies bedroom. i wheeled her around to face me and signed mallie sick. yeah, like that did any good. she kept trying to break free from me and close the short distance to the boys room. i kept signing mallie sick but i'm thinking quincie doesn't understand the sign, or concept, for sick. i finally had to end my futile attempt at conversation, scoop her up, carry her back to the bathroom to brush her teeth and BOY OH BOY was that little girl mad at me. not to mention absolutely broken hearted. these are times when i especially HATE being in this situation. i can't even communicate to my 4 yr old daughter that her sister is sick...that mallie is not in a sleeping bag for a fun sleepover w/ mom but because she's close to throwing up again...so now we've landed in this ridiculously upsetting situation...all because quincie is still trapped in the vastlands of non-communication. its f-r-u-s-t-r-a-t-i-n-g to say the least. however i really didn't have the time to expend too much energy on it right then and there cuz there was business to attend to. tears were streaming down quincie's face as i brushed her teeth. i was just hoping i could distract her once we got into her bedroom and away from mallie in the sleeping bag. quincie was so upset at me she tried to crawl right into her bed and skip rocking w/ mom. NOT A CHANCE SISTER! :) she kept trying to squirm herself right off of my lap but i was holding on tight to this one. ONE OF THE REASONS i love quincie so much ;) is that she doesn't seem to stay angry for long. she was thrusting her head over the arm of the chair; so i thrust my head over the arm of the chair and made a silly face...and thankfully it worked. ;) before long quincie was laughing so hard i was afraid brent was going to storm thru the door any second and tell us to be quiet. brent did storm thru the door after a while; but its cuz i wan't fast enough. the puking had begun. mallie puked once, twice, three times in the space of about 45 minutes. brent wasn't being a jerk; he just felt close to losing his stomach himself. trouble was mallie was needing attention and quincie was now WIDE AWAKE w/ a bad case of the giggles. i was on my third sleeping bag and thinking ok, i've got two clean ones left and the first and second ones are in the dryer and washer respectively...but was sincerely hoping i wasn't going to be running up and down the stairs w/ puked on or freshly laundered sleeping bags all nite long. yikes again!!! *****fortunately after bout #3 mallie fell fast asleep. it was about 10:20pm. i went to check on quincie and as soon as i opened the door she popped UP from beneath her blankets. OH BOY! still WIDE awake and in THE BEST MOOD EVER. i love it when quincie is EXCEPTIONALLY happy. this just wasn't exactly the best time ever. :) finally at 10:45pm i was beat. i put her back to bed and fortunately she stayed in bed. i think. i was out pretty fast! :)