Brothers

What a gift we have in brothers in sisters!  We always knew we wanted just one more baby and after a son and two daughters, I was ready to bring some blue back into our lives and play with trucks and cars for a change, and well we got Isaac, 100% boy.  The problem being that our boys would be almost 14 years apart and I had worries, would they love each other, would they bond, would they find common interests to share together like brothers should?  I have been so relieved that even with an age gap, they do love each other, they do play cars together, and even better Isaac just thinks Brandyn is the coolest thing, well right after Tow Mater, I am only half kidding here!  So the fun thing they do is go for drives, which I find so cool, I do not know why this is so great for both of them but I find it sweet.  Isaac will ask every morning "Brandyn can we go for a drive?' and his big brother pulls out the car seat and puts it into his truck and they drive, together.  They both come back refreshed and Isaac is usually grinning from ear to ear.  This last week it was Brandyn doing the asking Isaac and me being the overprotective mother that I am, I just had to know what they do so I asked.  Apparently not much, they talk, they listen to music, they look for animals, and look at the mountains, in other words they are bonding just like brothers should!

So here are some pictures of our boys to celebrate this awesome friendship in the making!

Nap Time

Some early morning relaxing

A little reading

Some fun in the sun

I love these brothers and I am so glad that they love each other!

Introducing

Well, funny thing is I have always been a cat person, not really a dog person.  Cats are self sufficient, they love you, they don't chew clothes, shoes, and they would never think about a Thomas the Train, well dogs do and in case you had no idea Thomas the Train can go perfect to to disaster in about 30 seconds!  So when we got Happy at the shelter a little over a year ago I found myself in love with this puppy who was full of energy and loved our children, she let Isaac crawl on her, roll on her and she loved him, well she just plain loved us all, and we loved her to pieces, to be honest, I had never met such a loyal dog.

So onto the introductions, we found this little shitzu at the shelter, well he found us, with a shattered hip needing surgery, and he was so adorable that I could not say not to him.  So here he is, I am sure you will find him as cute and love able as we do!  He follows me around and yes goes everywhere with us in the car, he truly is our fifth child

His name was and still is Eli!

And then my aunt and uncle moved into town, and my aunt is a dog breeder, and Taylor fell head over heels in love with Opal, she also grooms Eli, Taylor could not got enough of Opal, that is all we heard about for weeks, was Opal, when we visited Opal and Taylor where together constantly so she found a new home too.  Happy was not too thrilled to have her at first, which surprised me to no need as she did not mind Eli. The funniest thing about Opal is that she buries herself in blankets I mean buries, sometimes we can not find her, but now that we know she is buried somewhere it normally does not take long.  She has found a BFF in Isaac and I love that! So here she is 

Quiet often I find Opal sleeping with Isaac which is odd, being that she is very small and of course had not been around small children, but I find it sweet, that she loves him and loves curling up to sleep with him.  

I guess she prefers his head!

Off my Chest

Wow, this month has been so crazy yet full of so many fun things, and lessons learned, so here goes.  A couple of weeks ago my aunt of people made some rude comments about me and my children being sick, I suppose she made the sick comments in reference to my daughter who has two auto immune disease, and autism spectrum disorder.  Well this was painful and to be honest my mother bear instincts kicked in, fast and furious.  I was livid, none of her conditions are contagious, possibly she sould have sent me a private message and expressed her concerns, and secondly my daughter can not be vaccinated because of all the damage that it could cause her, she has been in the hospital for seizures for seizures following vaccines, so needless to say our fourth child has not been vaccinated yet because to be honest, the thought terrifies me, I am lost one child, and I am never going to risk this again, maybe I will someday if vaccines become safe, and by safe I MEAN NO RISK, NO SIDE EFFECTS!  My children are not a threat to you, in fact vaccinated children are more of a risk to my unvaccinated children, but I am not writing to post a debate on vaccines, like I always say make up your own mind and educate yourself, sadly I did too late.
So I got a phone call so that she could apologize, I accepted her apology even though it was followed up with "but you have offended me too", so I asked genuinely from my heart so I could do the right thing and apologize.  Guess what, she refused to tell me, so I am grateful that in all this I learned a valuable, some people do not know what a true apology is, I am so grateful that I have learned what true reconciliation is and how to apply it to my life.  It is hard, it is not from man, it is from Jesus, and without it there is only bitterness that chews away at you, now I am not perfect but something I am and continue to learn is in order to give forgiveness, you must accept it and if someone wants to genuinely receive forgiveness they need to give you an opportunity to ask for it.