anna leigh's 4th birthday party....8.9

sarah and griffin (unsure about this girly party!!!)

the birthday family...amy, mary mcrae, mac, and anna leigh
sarah serving tea to griffin
emma and claire
sarah admiring all the goodies!

the kids playing musical chairs...
sarah and i went to anna leigh's 4th birthday party...A TEA PARTY on saturday afternoon. it was so adorable! the kids had so much fun and sarah was totally in her element!!!

current events...sarah's eye update...8.26

today we had a routine check up with dr. byrd, sarah's pediatric ophthalmologist...

here's the latest....sarah's eye exam showed her "bad" eye, her right eye is now 20/40 (same as last appt). dr. byrd looked back, and in january of 2008 (a mere 8 months ago) sarah's vision in her right eye was 20/80!!! a wonderful improvement! dr. byrd always says, "slow and steady wins the race" referring to correcting a child's vision. so, we were super excited to hear that she had made that much progress! and another thing that i never knew until today, until a child is 6 years old, true "perfect vision" is 20/30 NOT 20/20! so, we are really close to sarah having perfect vision! oh, i guess i should clarify that all of these results are sarah's CORRECTED VISION (with glasses)! so, i don't know how poor her vision actually is without the glasses.

so, the game plan...keep up the patch work! we are currently patching 3-4 hours a day. and i am really OCD about it (imagine that). so, we are going to continue on that plan since we ARE getting results. again, people go their whole lives with vision like what sarah started with, but since her vision deficits were caught at such a young age, we are just trying to literally fix her vision as much as possible before vision becomes un-fixable in childhood. also, sarah's eyes were dialated today and that exam continues to be normal. we have also noticed a significant decrease in sarah's eye turning in to compensate for her weak vision (what looks like a mild lazy eye...but is actually just a part of sarah's extreme farsightedness). dr. byrd confirmed that sarah did better on that testing as well!

dr. byrd was very encouraging today. tim and i were telling her how hard it is to see the progress when we are in the trenches day in and day out. i was REALLY happy that she gave us the concrete evidence that all of this "stuff" is working. i was actually almost in tears when i thought sarah hadn't made any progress between last appointment and this one. its getting old to have to patch every day. and, sarah's friends are starting to ask more questions. sweet sarah just tells people that her eye is "getting stronger" when they ask her. its so precious...and heart breaking at the same time that my daughter is having to go through this. of course, we just want to shield sarah from any pain or suffering. but, in the grand scheme of things, this is SO MINOR and sarah is coping with it amazingly. ok, enough pity party-talk...that's just what's on my mind tonight...

oh, a little funny from today at the doctor's office...sarah and another little patient were talking in the waiting room, and sarah said, "i'm getting my eyes cleaned today"! guess that recent dentist visit is still fresh on her mind!!!

see previous updates...here and here. i don't blog every time we go to the doctor. we usually go 8 weeks or 3 months between appointments--whatever dr. byrd recommends, we do!!!

nana's birthday celebration...8.8

we finally had a chance to get together to celebrate nana's birthday on 08.08.08...of course while watching the opening ceremony of the olympics!!! it was fun night, except for little drew who was having THE WORST NIGHT OF HIS LITTLE LIFE!!! he was mildly feverish and had 2 of his molars 1/2 broken through the skin...and he let us know about it! as you can tell from the pictures, he was royally spoiled rotten that night by his nana and aunt becky. good thing they were around...the whining was getting to this pregnant mama!!! i actually asked the kids (as they were jumping up and down on the couch), "are you just trying to drive me crazy?" sarah answered NO and drew answered YES at the same time. they were both in rare form that night. but, we still managed to enjoy our time visiting together and celebrating nana!!!

ali's 4th birthday party...8.3

sunday afternoon, august 3rd (yea! i am finally blogging on the current month!!!), tim took sarah to ali's birthday party at pump it up! i think tim loves pump at up AT LEAST as much as sarah does! according to daddy, sarah had so much fun playing with her little friends and enjoying the balloon artist too! i can attest that she was a big sweaty mess when they got home--a sure fire sign of fun times!!!

another morning at the movies...with special friends! 7.28

edited to add: i KNEW that the first time i didn't double check my links, i would mess one up! it should be fixed now! thanks for the heads up dana!!!

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for almost a WHOLE WEEK my friend dianna and her little girl grace were in town! of course, they weren't here just to see us...dianna's younger brother, micah was getting married! but, that didn't stop us from hanging out when they were free! on wednesday morning, i took sarah and drew to the movies to meet dianna and grace AND our new friends miss donna and her daughter maddie! maddie is sarah's age and lives in the neighborhood right next to ours! they moved to collierville this summer and we met them at church. anyways...all three girls sat together at the movie and had so much fun! we saw charlotte's web (year #2 of seeing this at the kidsfest). drew hung out by me, but still enjoyed his sprite and popcorn :) after the movie, dianna and grace came over for lunch and to play a little longer. sarah and grace see each other maybe 2-3 times a year, but always play together like they see each other weekly! while dianna was in town, i also got to go out to dinner TWICE sans kids to visit with her and other friends of ours from the good ole days of high school! that in and of itself was a super treat! the first time we went out, tim was out of town so mimi offered to babysit so i wouldn't have to miss the girls! thanks mimi!!! its always so fun to see dianna and catch up! i'm just so glad her parents still live here for her to come visit :)

our summer visit to louisiana...7.21-24

all summer long, mimi and i kept saying, "we'll get to louisiana sometime...". then, all of the sudden, we realized if we didn't leave TWO days from when we were talking, then we wouldn't have any other time to go! so, we packed our bags and the kiddos and hit the road!!!

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cuddle time with g.g. first thing in the morning...

we went swimming in aunt annie's pool...it was so nice! the entire shallow end was in the shade for most of our swim! we didn't get the camera out while we were all in the pool, but once we headed into the hot tub, i HAD to capture a few pics of the fun!!!

sarah smiling and hamming it up for the camera... drew is such a cold natured little thing! he needed lots of cuddling to stay warm!!!
he was briefly distracted from his "i cold"-ness by the cool water gun that jacob let him play with!
after our swim, sarah and jacob watched disney movies on jacob's bed. sarah is finally old enough to appreciate jacob's great love of dvd's!!!

uncle chip has a "media room" with a big screen, wii, etc. it has a pocket sliding door that drew was obsessed with closing...usually to keep the kids in and the adults out!!!
sarah and drew look on as mimi plays a tune...
we were so excited we were able to visit with aunt susan, michael (i think i'm the last person alive who doesn't call him just mike), jessica, savannah, and new baby samantha! sarah, drew, and savannah could have played together for days!!!

being silly on savannah's bed...

we left the kids mostly to play by themselves. all of the sudden we heard what sounded like chanting come from sav's room. all three kids were sitting on the bed and they were all reading their own book aloud! it was too cute!!! after aunt susan pestered samantha to wake her up, mimi got to give her a bottle :) drew capitalized on mimi's lack of hands to sneak a drink of diet coke!
how cool that sarah and drew's great grandmother can get down on the floor and play with them?!?
sarah and drew enjoying some time on the piano together...
my aunt ann (THE SAINT) kept the youth minister's two kids (4 and 1, i think) while the youth were gone on a summer trip. she brought "her kids" over to play with sarah and drew a few times. sarah really thought aunt ann had two new kids that she had just never met! how silly!

sumner family reunion at enid lake...7.19