My, how the kids have grown!

As you can see, the children have grown so much and so fast. It seems like just yesterday they were all sitting at the kitchen table showing off our kitchen wall that was freshly painted yellow(and it probably took me quite some time to get this picture taken). Now Katie, Drew and Nick are posing for Christmas pictures outside without any fuss or ado... just a simple and quick click of the button.
This past decade, the kids had their share of bumps and bruises, though. Along with Andrew's boken nose, he has broken his arm. At the age of four, Nicholas broke the growth plate in his foot running barefoot outside and tripping. Then last year, as some of you might remember, poor Nick broke his finger at a bounce house place. He had to be put to sleep to have his finger reset. Katie fractured hew wrist also.
But in spite of all the sicknesses and hardships raising kids can bring, I must say these have been some of the best years of our lives. We try to show love in all we do, and hopefully that will be enough to carry us through.

A decade in review, part I

My poor baby Andrew! At three-years-old, while in preschool, Andrew fell during outside playtime and broke his nose. I remember this day five years ago as if it happened yesterday. I had JUST left his class where I had celebrated with my oldest son a Mother's Day tea. My mom had kept Nicholas, who was only one, so I could give Andrew my complete attention (this is the same year Katie was in the hospital with pneumonia, I might add). I had barely made it to my mother's house to pick Nicholas up, when I got a call on my cell phone that Andrew had fallen on the playground (on a rickety bridge) and his nose might be broken. I rushed back to the school, my "high" from our special tea brought down like an elevator within seconds. When I saw my sweet son, blood and tears coming down his face, with an ice pack pressed precariously to his nose, I had a hard time keeping my composure (and the contents of my stomach down). But I stayed strong and enough adrenaline came through to keep me going. The director had already called our doctor so we went straight to his office. The most horrible part of this whole story, which may come as no surprise, is when we got home. Nicholas saw Andrew's nose, went up and poked it and the bleeding started all over again. Sigh...'tis the way it goes with children.