School....and fracture

WOW! 

I can't believe it, but school began today! Andrew it in 5th grade, Xavier is in 3rd, Haileah 2nd and KAylee is in first! Amazing! Ambrelyn has 1 more year of preschool before she will be  a full time Kindergarten girl :o(

Well, it wouldn't be a Gramzow school year with out a trip to the ER!

LAst night everyone was all comfy in their jammies around 6:30 or so. Corry was wrestling on the futon with the kids. They started off playing "family stack up". A game where the kids all lay on top of Corry from largest to smallest until all 5 kids are piled up on dad at one time. After a while it was HAileah and dad. She was on his back trying to hang on as he was trying to dump her off of him. Well......

She would be the very athletic and strong one who held on for dear life and tried to "dump dad"!! She managed to dump them both and her hand ended up between his shoulder and the metal frame of the futon. She got up screaming and the hand instantly turned purple and got VERY SWOLLEN. So we were off to see the doc at the ER around 7 last night. The Xray showed a fracture in her hand bone at the first tiny bone on the top of her hand. She is in this velcro cast/splint thing and has to see a sports medicine doc on Wednesday. 

The doc at the ER seemed pretty pleased with he way she fractured her hand. He said "better a dad that plays with his kids and the kid gets hurt than a dad who ignores his kids". This made Corry feel better. So did the big hug from Haileah at 10pm last night when we returned home from the ER. She told her daddy "it's not your fault daddy, don't feel bad. We had fun and it was just an accident. I forgive you." Amazing kid.... Amazing dad. 

Will update the first day of school later! 

Be blessed!

Farewell "Froggie Princess"

 

Heaven is a brighter place today... 

but the world is a little dimmer with out this beautiful little girl.

Little Miss Katie, our 4 year old "Froggie Princess" passed away Sunday surrounded by her family at her home in Clovis. 

Please pray for her family.  Although I know they are deeply saddened and miss their Froggie Princess, I am sure that they are also incredibly grateful that the princess is no longer suffering in pain. 

Rest in peace in Jesus' arms little one. 

(I first wrote of little Katie in May after meeting her Grandma at a craft fair, you can refer back to that blog if you are not aware of this little angel. ) 

School is OUT!!

School got out on Thursday and the kids are thrilled! 

We had an awards ceremony in the morning on the last day of school and were incredibly proud of all of the kids accomplishments.

 Kaylee of course graduated Kindergarten and is heading into first grade. She made the A honor roll and was awarded "Puzzle champ" of the year!  That girl can put together any puzzle, big or small! She is reading well and loves math. 

Haileah made the A/B honor roll. She was awarded most improved student in English, met all of her Accelerated Reader points, and won an award for Art and Music. She is working hard and will be continuing to work on her reading this summer.

Xavier made the A honor roll and will be tested for the "gifted" program in the fall. HIs lowest grade was  a 95, 2 97's and the rest were 100's! he was awarded the spelling excellence award because he did not misspell even one word on spelling tests all year. The teacher pointed out that he never studied because his spelling list was always shoved in his desk and never taken home! He also got the reading award, and the Award for art and music. He met his AR point goal as well

Andrew made the A/B honor roll, received the most improved student award and several awards in track and made his AR goal. He also scored a 108 on his New Mexico report. His was a 78 page scrapbook with 10 different subjects in regards to NM. The project was worth 100 points!

On Friday the 23rd Kaylee had her tonsils taken out. It was pretty rough friday night and Saturday, but she seems a little better today. Please keep her in your prayers!

God bless you all and if you have time after reading, leave a comment so I know you were here! Also, start your own blog! We would love to hear what's up in your world!!!!

4...

Time goes by so very fast. :0(

Our baby turned 4 today. I am more saddened by that than most people are about themselves turning 40. I was ok with turning 40, no biggie. Ambrelyn turning 4, however, is another story. On one hand I am thrilled because she is so excited to be "BIG", yet I am sad because she is officially a little girl!

It seems like just yesterday that a baby was brought to me in a carrier. A baby that didn't look real because she was SO TINY! This baby slept so much! Too much actually. It didn't take long for me to realize that this tiny baby had to wake up before the world passed her by... literally. 

So, we began waking her up to play, to eat, to exist. She began to come alive! She struggled through her first year and multiple formulas until a new formula was put on the market that she could tolerate with the help of the meds Raglan and Zantac. Her formula had to come in the ready mixed cans because her tiny little system could not handle her formula being shaken.

 Soon we got smiles from her, giggles and the assurance that she finally felt secure in this world and was going to live. Our Ambrelyn was a fighter. She lived in newborn clothes forever! Finally at a year old we could put her into 3-6 month clothing, although they were still a little big! At 14 months she weighed in at a whopping 14 pounds! She was put on Pediasure and began to take off! Walking, running, talking, joking, snuggling. She was real, she was developing normally even if she was still tiny! Tiny is ok though! Once she hit  14 months, she really began to thrive! Life was good!

Our baby who we thought might not make it is now a spunky, adorable loving little girl who is incredibly bright, so sweet and sometimes whiney and yes, still tiny! I'll take it though! I can enjoy still shopping in the toddler section for sweet clothes. Ambrelyn still loves to snuggle and loves to be carried... because she is still tiny that is not a problem. 

It is such a blessing to be Ambrelyn's Momma. Thank you Lord!

Happy Birthday to Ambrelyn Hope, 

our tiny little 4 year old! 

You are so loved! 

Beach party

I spent most of the evening creating Ambrelyn's birthday cake. She will be "one finger down" (4) on Thursday. It is hard to believe that "the baby" is not a baby anymore! 

She wanted a water party, so tomorrow we are throwing her a huge beach party bash! Both swimming pools are full, the water balloons and squirt guns are ready and so is her rain coat since she hates people squirting her!! To go along with the theme I thought I would create a cake to match. It is an island in the ocean (Maui maybe??????) with beach umbrellas, beach balls, a cute little beach chair,  a school of fish, hawaiian flowers and a palm tree!

 I hand made all of it except for the fishies (thanks to colored Goldfish crackers!!!) It is entirely edible with the exception of the foam palm tree that I made!

It was fun and the kids all think I am the coolest mom ever!!!!! LOL

The Graduate...

Well, Kaylee is a BIG girl now for sure! She graduated from Kindergarten yesterday morning and will be heading into first grade in the fall. The kids all sang songs and told the story of "The house that Jack built". It was very sweet. Prior to the graduation the teacher had asked the kids questions about their family and about their favorite things. As she introduced each child she read the responses the kids had to each question. 

Kaylee said her Daddy is good at building rose gardens (something the kids and Corry did for me for Mother's day), she said I was good at sewing, and that her favorite color was red. Ok, we expected all of that but not this.....

(and no, it had nothing to do with adult married things!!!!!!)

Apparently when Kaylee had been asked who her favorite movie/TV star she replied "Dave Ramsey"!!!!!!!!!! Her teacher had been expecting Hannah Montana or even Superman, like many of the other kids responses,  but not Dave Ramsey!

 The teacher didn't even know who Dave Ramsey is, so when the entire front row (in which all of our family and friends were sitting) burst out laughing the teacher was baffled!!!!

For any of you not knowing who Dave Ramsey is, go to www.daveramsey.com and find out! He is a Christian financial guru who teaches others how to live debt free, build wealth and spend wisely. Apparently Kaylee has been listening! Our Kindergartner "gets it"! Way to go Kaylee!!!

Apparently everything you need to know, you really do learn (while you are) in Kindergarten!!!!

"Princess Frogie"...

Today Julie and I were at the Clovis Trade days, a monthly, weekend-long trade show for crafters and other vendors. We were selling the custom children's clothing that we design and make. 

 We met a Grandma, her daughter and her daughter's 2 children. The Grandma noticed a photo of Ambrelyn we had displayed. Ambrelyn reminded her of her Granddaughter. Grandma began telling us about her Granddaughter (from her other daughter), Katie. 

Katie is 4 years old, her Kidneys and intestines are failing.  Katie is currently semi-comatose due moraphine to control the pain from an incurable rare cancer.  Grandma said that Katie was likely going to die soon.  She said that although she dreaded losing Katie,  she would be grateful that Katie would no longer be in pain when God takes her home. 

We began to realize who Katie is... 

4 year old Katie is the little girl in Clovis with Pancreatic Cancer, an extremely rare cancer in children and a cancer that is rarely curable in adults. We have prayed for Katie, there have been fund-raisers for Katie. 

Katie has the same Cancer that we were almost positive Zavy had, but didn't. It makes me wonder why one family goes through it all and another is spared. Don't get me wrong, I am  incredibly grateful that our son did not have cancer and that he has been healed, I just wonder is all. 

Grandma showed us some beautiful photos of Katie and her mom, Katie with her little bald head.  She is a beautiful child. They call Katie "Princess Frogie", a fun, silly nickname not unlike those that so many of us have given to children we love.  What is amazing is that we had a dress, a sweet silly little pink and green dress with frogs on it hanging on our rack... a dress embroidered with "Frog Princess" on the bodice. It was in Katie's size. The dress was one-of-a-kind...

God is simply amazing. 

The family sees the dress and is in tears. This dress was made to be Katie's, but by the looks on their faces we knew that there was no way that they could afford the dress today. Katie is in the hospital nearly 2 hours away. With the price of gas today, I am sure that they needed the money to travel to Lubbock to see their sweet Katie. 

With barely a glance between us, Julie and I put the "Frogie Princess" dress in a bag and handed it to Grandma to give to her Katie. She had told us of how she was at the hospital just yesterday that she said "How's my Frogie Princess?" to Katie and that Katie lifted her little arm and touched Grandma's head. The rest of the family in the hospital room drew in their breath, shocked. Remember, Katie is semi-comatose and has not responded to anything in a few days, yet she responded to this. Grandma and her daughter were overwhelmed with emotion from receiving the dress for Katie.  Julie and I were overwhelmed also.

We were blessed to be Katie's "Dress Angels".

Although the feeling we had from giving this dress was overwhelming and we were so emotional, please know that this is NOT about Julie and I giving the dress.

It is about the fact that...

 God knew that this dress needed to be made... 

He put the idea in our heads...

 Katie's Grandma was at "Trade Days" today...

 so was the dress...

(The dress had been at many other shows, loved by many, but never did it sell)

 Our sample book was opened to Ambrelyn's photo (we change them constantly throughout the day!)...

 Grandma spotted the photo...

 it reminded her of her Katie... 

The words "Frogie Princess" came up ...

 the dress was given...

 None of this is a coincidence...

 It is GOD. 

Please pray for Katie, for her family and for those that need to be touched by this precious child while God still has her here on earth. 

May you be blessed....