Advent

I had surgery on my shoulder on Friday, and in my long weekend of sleeping and recovering, I forgot to light our advent wreath at dinner Sunday night.  It was a wonderfully delicious dinner delivered by the Altar Society ladies at our church.  At any rate, Thomas and I were home alone this evening and we lit the wreath before our own meal.  Thomas actually enjoyed it more than this picture suggests... after all, fire is involved.

This Advent, I hope you will be the light of the world for your family and someone in need.

Thankful

("I am thankful for my birth Dad.")

This picture of a little boy with his daddy in an Ethiopian village touched my heart and reminded me just how blessed my family is this year.  I hope you and your family have a chance to be thankful for your blessings this year, too.

Glorious

A beautiful Nebraska sunset.

Pictures I love

This is a picture of my dad and newborn baby Emily in March of 1991.  I love how intently they are studying each other.  My daddy loved cuddling babies.

Halloween

 

The parade at school... first up, kindergarten and 

Spidey (aka Thomas)

Here comes Sarah the bride...

We don't live in Kansas, but we're close... Candace as Dorothy

Modeling both the costumes and the jack o'lanterns!

 An (almost) full moon shining on the lake for Halloween.

Miss Sylvia Kittywhiskens checking out the haul...

 okay, this is just a gratuitous picture because I love my bad kitty so much.

A special gift from far away

Imagine how happy the twins were to receive a package from their birth mother! Thank you, Terry W., for bringing it back from Ethiopia and mailing it to us!

Beautiful table linens and basket from Ethiopia.

  We got some new photos, too.

Pumpkin patch

With autumn comes the annual pilgrimage to our local fall extravaganza, Vala's Pumpkin Patch.  This year, Anna, roommate Kenzie and new college buddy Allie joined us for the fun.

Littles on the upper floor, college kids on the bottom of the Old Woman's shoe house.

Candace on the pedal go-karts.

 Thomas waiting for the pig races to begin.

 Thomas' pig wins first place!  He has the award winning snout to prove it.

Sarah was also chosen as a pig cheerleader...

 her pig got second and Sarah got this groovy spider ring.

 Strangely, Mickey Mouse was at the pumpkin patch.

Thomas "pulls" the twins royal pumpkin carriage.

 Pumpkins selected fresh from the field!

Broken :(

Tough week at the Spears house... last Wednesday, Sarah took a tumble off the monkey bars at school.  A trip to the ER revealed that her shoulder wasn't broken, dislocated, or separated... but when her pain was still high on Monday, I took her to the orthopedist.  Turns out, she has a broken collar bone.  Pretty plain on the X-rays, so I'm not sure why the ER doctors didn't see it.  Anyway, the sling is her constant companion for three weeks.

Poor little Sarah was in a lot of pain.

Monday night, it was Candace's turn.  Tumbling and dancing shenanigans in the kitchen led to a collision between Candace's forehead and the granite counter top.  Fortunately, I was able to close the cut up with a butterfly closure and a band-aid... we really didn't want to reappear in the ER so soon!

An unhappy Candace.

Hopefully Thomas doesn't feel like it needs to be his turn next!

Wedding bells are ringing

This weekend, we attended the second family wedding in the last month. This time I remembered to bring my camera, so I have some pictures of the event. This particular couple, Kristina and Brandon, are among the littles' favorite relatives. The bride is my cousin John's daughter. The littles were very happy to attend the wedding and hang out with the cousins. It's always nice to get to see the extended family, and we've had parties three times in the last few months to catch up with everyone!

The happy couple with the littles.

Me with my sweet Anna.

Candace caught the bouquet Kristina

 tossed just for her little girl guests.

My Anna and my cousin Connie's Anna... both freshman at UNL.

 They did not catch a bouquet, but they didn't seem too sad about it.  :)

Thomas and cousin Caden coming up with

 new uses for the table decorations.

Cousins Moira, Sarah and Candace hanging out.

Dude...

Kenneth came over yesterday, and much to Thomas' excitement, he brought his skateboard.  Thomas absolutely adores his big brother.  He was more than a little thrilled that Kenneth offered to teach him and his friend Kaiser some skateboarding moves.  It makes my mom heart happy to see them hanging out together.

Cool skateboarding dudes hanging out.

Thomas and Kaiser practicing their moves.

Let the soccer season begin... again!

Thomas loves soccer more than just about anything, so it's nice that our little town league has both fall and spring sessions. Thomas is playing with the second and third graders again, this time on the black team. They decided to go for a pirate look.  Thomas scored four goals, but the Pirates went down 5-4.

Our little soccer pirate.

First time playing goalie.

Fancy footwork

Taking the ball out of bounds.

Friends in real life

The littles with Bobby dog and new friend Dimples.

One thing that I love about blogging and the internet is getting to know people from all over... even if you've never actually met in "real life". But something I love even more is when I get to meet one of my cyber acquaintances in person. This past week, we hosted a lovely family as they traveled to Nebraska to pursue EMDR therapy for one of the daughters in the family. EMDR therapy is one of the therapies that Candace and Sarah have had through the Attachment and Trauma Center of Nebraska, where they meet with Cathy the Wonder Therapist.  Lisa, Russ and daughter K. (known online as "Dimples") came all the way from Idaho for a week of intensive work with the staff at ATCN.  You can read more about that on Lisa's excellent and informative blog One Thankful Mom.  Lisa has been generously sharing her knowledge on parenting children from hard places for several years now... I know we are just one family that has benefitted from her wisdom and openness.

So... may I admit that finally getting to meet her was for me very much the way some people must feel when they meet a Hollywood celebrity?  Yeah, I was that excited.  And all three of our guests were lovely people; a pleasure to have in our home.  Also, the littles loved Dimples, and I believe the feeling was mutual.  They had a great dynamic during the entire visit.

I think I can safely say that we are now "friends in real life".  I hope to be able to visit Idaho some day and will be delighted if Dimples and family make it out our way again.

Because Every Mother Matters

Today Because Every Mother Matters is celebrating the launch of our new website! Please click here and take a few minutes to check it out... BEMM is my passion!

Fishing

Tom really loves to fish. Me... eh, not so much. Living on a lake has given Tom lots of opportunity to enjoy this past time, and he likes to share it with the kids. The bigs were teenagers and pretty busy with their own activities by the time we moved out here, but the littles are just ripe for the picking. Last summer, Thomas was a little nervous about pulling slimy finned creatures out of the lake for fun and relaxation, but this year he has become quite the little fisherman. He loves when he and daddy are the only ones home and they go down to the lake to fish together.

Casting from the dock and waiting patiently.

He moved down the shore a little ways and reeled one in.

Thomas can even remove the fish from the line and throw it back by himself.  Pretty good for a kindergartner!