Summertime

We had the yummiest and easiest kabob dinner tonight of summer foods and thought I would share! We are cooking lots of squash and zucchini right now since this is the time of year for it. All the produce is at great prices at the store right now.
For the vegetable skewers-squash, zucchini, and onions. For the fruit skewers-pineapple and mango. They are simply cut up into about 1 inch cube pieces, so they will stay on the skewer while grilling. We like to keep our pieces touching. It seems to keep the food from getting dried out and it retains the juices that way.
The chicken is cut the same size. I always end up with some smaller strips of chicken when I'm done cutting it up and I just put those on the skewer in a "C" shape, skewering both ends of those pieces.
The sauces are what makes this. For the vegetables we use a salad dressing, such as balsamic/red wine vinaigrette or caesar, but NOT italian. For the chicken we use whatever marinade we're in the mood for that day-BBQ, tequila-lime, Dale's, etc. For the fruit, and this is important, we ONLY use Brianna's blush wine vinaigrette. If you don't use that dressing, I'm not responsible for the outcome! The pineapple and mango are absolutely unbelievable, and could even be served as a dessert.

Once all the pieces are cut up we get 3 Ziploc bags or tupperware containers and place each veg/fruit/meat in the separate containers with desired marinade for at least 30 minutes (tonight we marinaded for 2 hours). The fruit only needs about 3 Tbsp of dressing, just enough to coat the pieces.
Once skewered, head to the grill. Our grill has 2 levels. We put the vegetable and chicken skewers on the bottom rack, directly on the heat, and the fruit goes on the top rack. Cook for on med to med-high heat for about 20-25 minutes (chicken should be at 175 degrees). It is so good! Added bonus-both of my kids devoured it! In our house, adding a novelty at dinner, like chopsticks, goes a long way in getting kids interested in the food and eating well. Sister ate hers right on the skewer.
Brother isn't quite ready for the kabob yet, but loved it anyway.

We do have one addition that I think we will try next time. We were at a dinner recently where we had grilled angel food cake for dessert. They sliced the cake and lightly grilled each piece. It was served with fresh fruit and lime sorbet. It was soooo good, and I think the pineapple/mango would be a great addition to it.

One

Guess what little man? You're ONE!!!!

Seriously Mom?!?!

That went by pretty quick!
We had a very eventful weekend of celebrating our first year with this little guy and getting the all clear from the doctor. No surgery, no scarring, and no more dressing changes!! He's back to his normal very happy and content self, with one addition. Meet Bla Bla.
Anything else he gets in his hands is thrown, chunked, banged, clapped, hit, or any other activity that would be expected of a baby boy. But Bla Bla, is cuddled, carried, never let go of, and even stays in the crib with him.

Mom, can you stop taking pictures please? I dropped Bla Bla and need you to pick it up for me.

Little man, your personality is definitely shining now. You love to open and close doors, empty baskets, be thrown in the air, swim, play in the tub, flip pages of books, and look out the window to watch sister and Papa throw the ball with Lily.

You love your dad. In the last few weeks you have also started holding onto us when we hold you and I really love that. I especially love it when I'm putting you to bed and you snuggle your head into the left crook of my neck, grip my left shoulder with your right hand, and wrap your left arm around the right side of my neck.

You love your dog and she loves you. When I can't find Lily I always know to look for her under your crib or sleeping in front of the door to your room while you nap.

You love your sister and immediately start grinning and giggling when she walks in the room. The first you do in the morning is start calling for her if you don't see her "Sis, sis, sis!"

You love to sit with her while we ride in the car, holding hands, dancing, and jibber-jabbering with her.

And your favorite may be when she shares her ice cream cone with you.

You like to sleep with your pointer finger of one hand in your mouth, while the other hand grips the edge of your ultimate crib sheet.

You love the park and laugh uncontrollably on the swings. So much that the other moms within earshot say "Wow, he really likes the swings doesn't he!?"

My precious son, you are an absolute gift from God and a complete joy to us. We love you more than I could ever adequately put into words. We are so thankful for you and treasure every moment we have with you. We are excited to see the boy you are becoming and eventual man that you will become.

It's Your Birthday

A couple of weeks ago we had a cookout/pool party/early birthday party for brother, since part of our family would be out of town for the actual day. If was a somewhat last minute get together, so Mr. and I were trying to decide if I should make a cake, of if we should just buy one. Well, that decision was made for us when 4 year old ears heard that conversation. She was aghast that would even consider buying a cake. "Mommy, we HAVE to make a cake for brother!" Since it was last minute I couldn't order a cake and would have had to pick out a pre-made cake and have a birthday message written on it. That would've been fine, but thought the proud big sis and I could could do a special project and since 1st birthdays are special.

I initially planned on this (fairly) simple fish cake. It would just be a sheet cake, with the corners rounded, repositioned to be fins and tails, icing, and decorating. That idea also got shot down by the 4 year old. She quickly let me know that brother does not like fish, but really likes crocodiles! I guess it's a good thing she let me know, because I had no idea :). So we proceeded with a crocodile cake, which was an undertaking for this self-professed uncrafty mom. First, we had to make a bundt cake, cut in into 3 sections (with one of them cut diagonally top to bottom), and arrange the sections.

Then we iced it. She would drop a big glob of icing (vanilla with green food coloring) and I would spread it. She frequently licked the spatula before the next application, but we kept that our little secret. Somehow 4 year olds don't see the big picture of licking it at the end as not to spread germs when there's yummy icing staring them in the face! Then we decorated with candy. There might have been a few pieces of candy eaten along with those used for decorating. Sis was so proud at the end she had to give our crocodile a kiss.

Then {because better is always the enemy of good :)}, we decided he couldn't just sit on the cutting board, but needed a scene, and thought a swamp would be appropriate. We were going to do chocolate dipped pretzels for logs, but somehow the chocolate turned into balled up bits. We improvised and used it as dirt instead and covered the pretzels with chocolate icing.

I was pleased with the results and honestly a little shocked that I didn't have to ditch our efforts and run to Publix for a cake! It wasn't too hard, just time consuming. I was glad I made the cake the day beforehand, because it took a good chunk of the morning to decorate it.

The company arrived that afternoon for some grillin' and chillin' by the pool

Papa is pretty sly and snagged the umbrella from the outdoor table while he cooked the burgers, hot dogs, and ribs.

After dinner we brought out the cake. Doesn't brother look so thrilled by our hard work?

He took one bite of it, ONE BITE, and was done. This is my son that has eaten anything we have ever given him-broccoli, green beans, asparagus, squash, olives, tomatoes, bell peppers, mango, blueberries, watermelon, avocado, etc, and yet wanted nothing to do with his cake! Maybe there's some type of survival instinct that tells you not to eat neon green food :)
My thoughtful nephew even tried to cut it up and feed it to him, but he still wasn't interested.
Then he said, thanks but no thanks. Here you can have mine! As least that's what I think he was saying. I'm not going to lie and say my heart didn't do a little backflip when he turned down sweets!
It was such a fun day. I got the cake instructions here. I did change a few things. I made the green icing a little lighter than the picture and used candy that I thought stood out more: green gum drops along the back, yellow sour gummy candy for claws, and junior mints for the eyes and nose. The whites of the eyes are marshmellows cut in half and the teeth are broken yogurt covered pretzels. I also think it should call for more icing. I got 2 cans of icing, 1.5 for the alligator and the remainder for the water. I'm not a pro at bundt cakes, but my MIL is, and recommended a thick layer of Baker's Joy (not Pam or butter) and then flour in the pan. I also waited 10 minutes for it to cool, then put the cutting board on top of the pan, flipped it, and tapped the pan. I was so afraid huge chunks would stick to the pan, but it came our perfectly! Good luck if you try it-if I can do it, trust me, anybody can do this one.

As for an update on my little guy, he continues to improve! It already looks much better than it did on Thursday when we went in for a checkup. We have to keep up the dressing changes and go back on Thursday.

Thankful

I'm being lazy at this point and copying an email I sent out this evening, so if you already got the email, it's basically a duplicate. Just wanted to forewarn you :). Sorry, I'm just running on little sleep and have had a knockout headache all day.

Today's visit was thankfully another encouraging one. Our physician and the other staff at the burn unit all said that it is definitely looking better and should be on the road to healing. They think as long as it keeps progressing this way it may heal on it's own in the next 1-2 weeks without grafting and may not even scar!! We have to continue the dressing changes and go back for another visit next week. On the drive home he threw up in the car and we got a crack in the windshield, but it was certainly a promising afternoon overall :).

Please continue to pray for his healing. We are so thankful for the progress he has made as it was beyond everyone's expectation, and clearly healing from God. Sister, brother, and I have also developed some type of upper respiratory infection, so pray for healing for us a well as I'm trying to take care of the kids while feeling like my head is going to explode, we now have 2 sick kids on our hands, and Grant's little body is fighting 2 things now.

Thank you so much for your prayers, comments, calls, emails, meals, watching sister while we go the doctor, and all the other ways that you have supported us. It has meant more to us than we can express. We are so grateful for you and for what God has done and will continue to do.

Good Report!

It has been a looonnnggg weekend, including dressing changes every 3-4 hours and whenever there's a dirty diaper, but it was worth it for our follow up appointment today. Our doctor and the other staff were impressed with how brother is doing. They all said that it looked better today than they expected it would, which was incredibly encouraging to us. If it continues to progress as it is now, it could likely heal on it's own without need for surgery or grafting. We are so grateful!! We are to continue the dressing changes for the next few days and go back in on Thursday. We are praying for continued healing without scarring or surgery. Since this is in the diaper area it is also critical that the area stay as clean as possible and we are praying that he remain infection free. We are certainly not out of the woods yet, but it appears we are moving in the right direction.

Thank you so much for calls, emails, comments, words of encouragement, and especially your prayers. The outpouring of love and support we have experienced has been immense and an unbelievable help to us. Thankfully, we haven't often been on this side of a situation like this. I know there have been times when friends and acquaintances of ours have gone through terrible experiences and I want to support them, but sometimes I'm not sure how to go about doing that. I think "should I call? Do they want to be left alone? I don't want to bother them...Could I make a meal? Should I offer to have their kids over?" I want to support, but not bother and interfere. I have to confess, there have been times that I have just ended up praying, but not taking any tangible action toward them. After this experience, I will be much more prone to step in without fear of interfering/bothering. I don't know if any of you ever have those same feelings, but I would encourage you to put those thoughts aside and call, email, go visit, keep their kids, pick up groceries, etc. I also encourage to not only pray FOR people, but pray WITH them, in person or even if it's just over the phone.

I have so many other thoughts congealed in a mess in my head, but I'll have to wait for further posts to make any sense of them. My head feels like jell-o and I have to be up with him again in an hour, so I'm going to try and get a little sleep. Thanks again for your support. I'll give more updates this week and definitely after we go back for our next appointment in a few days.

Seeds

jpg">

The last few days have been some of the hardest days of my life, but we are so thankful for our faith, family, and friends. An unexpected source of encouragement has been this CD, Seeds of Courage. It is a entire CD of scripture set to music and it is wonderful!! It was given to us as a gift for our daughter, but it's not typical, purple dinosaur children's music. It's drums, guitar, great singing, really good music that J and I love, along with the kids.

We have been playing it in the kitchen while we cook and eat dinner for the last 3-4 weeks and all of us are memorizing scripture through it. I don't know about your house, but late in the afternoon/evening is often the hardest time of day around here. No matter what my attitude is, when I start this music, I immediately feel better as I listen to these songs of God's word an and am reminded of his love and promises to me and my family. I dare you to buy them and see if you can stay in a bad mood and if your kids stay grouchy during dinner.

It is called Seeds of .... because they use it as a seed to spread God's word. Each CD case actually comes with 2 of the CD's in it and a dividable case. That way you keep one and pass one on to someone else. I think $12.98 is a bargain for 2 CD's and the benefit of my family being transformed literally before my eyes through it. The only reason I even know about it is by a friend giving me their extra CD. It can be ordered here. There are 4 other albums: Seeds of Faith, praise, power, and encouragement. Go buy one or all of them (which is what I did 2 days ago) and make sure to pass on your extra CD.

As for updates on sweet brother, we don't have much new to share yet. He has done well over the weekend. His pain medicine is controlling his pain very well. He is sleeping a lot and the only time he is upset is when we change the diaper and dressing. It looks like it is making progress to us, but we'll see what our doctor says tomorrow. We are praying for mighty healing from God, as we know only He is able to do, and for a full recovery without scarring or the need for surgery. Thank you for calls, emails, words of encouragement, and especially your prayers. I will try to update tomorrow after our visit.

Little Man Needs PRAYERS!

I'm sitting here trying to think where I should begin. I was planning on posting about our recent trip to Arizona, or a late Mother's day post, or how we had an early 1 year birthday party for this little man with some family that will be out of town on his birthday. Instead, I am desperately asking for your prayers and that you would ask others to pray for him.

Poor little guy has had some bad diapers {what we call cha cha around here} this week. A friend was watching him and he had terrible blow out mess in the crib while he was sleeping. She went to put him in the bath, tested the water twice before putting him in, and set him in the tub, but didn't plug the drain. In just a matter of seconds she put the diaper in the trash and grabbed a towel off the rack. When she turned back to him the hot water had come through the pipes at that point and was hot enough to burn him.

We immediately got him to the ER and were treated in the burn unit and told it looked like a second degree burn and would probably take 10-14 days to heal, but may get worse over the next few days. We took him back today and in fact, it was worse. Now they think it could actually be a third degree burn. We initially thought it would mean 2 miserable weeks of our poor baby in pain as we would have to do multiple dressing changes a day since he is in diapers, but today were informed he could need skin grafting. We were utterly devastated by that. Our doctor said we will have to wait until Monday to know what the likely outcome will be. It could heal on it's own within 10-14 days with little to no scarring or it could be to the point that skin grafting is indicated.

Please pray that God will work mightily and heal him without scarring or the need for surgery. I know my God is bigger and more powerful than I can even imagine and we have already seen His hand in this tragedy. We are thankful that the drain wasn't shut and the burn is only on the right buttock. It could have easily been all over his bottom, legs, hands, feet, or anywhere if he had tried to crawl away from the water. We are also thankful that the diarrhea is much better, reducing the risk for infection and how often we have to change the dressing. Also, amazingly enough, the only time he really seems uncomfortable, or is fussy, is when we change the dressing. He is on pain medication, which makes him sleepy, and he is sleeping most the day and night. This helps his pain level, but also helps that he isn't moving the area and pulling on the dressing.

We do have specific prayer requests

1. As above, for healing. That God would quickly heal him in a way that would clearly show His power. That it would heal on it's own without scar, surgery, or infection.

2. That the diarrhea would resolve. Again, as above, it would reduce infection risk, help with dressing changes, and make him more comfortable.

3. Wisdom for our doctors and nurses. Much of burn treatment is decided by opinion as to what the best healing methods are and what treatment is indicated. Pray God would give them clear wisdom to know the best treatment for him.

4. Pray for J and me. We are experiencing so much guilt right of now of "what if we had done....." I think hindsight we both feel ways the situation could have ended differently and we are torturing ourselves with those thoughts. It has also been a long week in general-we had to have our chimney repaired, our garage flooded on Monday, and before we went to the hospital for our follow up appointment today we had a plumber here to repair ALL the toilets in our house. Of course, all these are minuscule in the big picture, but are certainly not helping my sanity right now.

Thank you so much for your prayers. We are so thankful for the friends and family that have come around us and supported us at a time when I feel I am on on the verge of physical and emotional collapse at any moment. Meals, words of encouragement, prayer, and the many other ways you have served us have meant more to us than I can express in words.

Most of all, I am thankful for a God that heals, that is all mighty, wise, and powerful, and that only He is able to do more than I could ever ask or imagine. I am thankful that He understands the heartache of watching His son in pain. As we are told all throughout the gospels, He is powerful to heal with just a touch of his cloak or one word from his mouth. Please, please pray, ask others to pray, and if you have blog (and wouldn't mind) ask for prayer there as well. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Hebrews 4:14-16 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Jeremiah 17:14 Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.

Psalm 34:17-18 The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. The LORD is close to the brokenhearted 
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.