Crazy Ducks

Isabel has been dying to get out of the house and always cries when we get home! It's so sad. So Friday we took the girls out to feed the ducks and then stopped by the library on the way home. Let me tell you about those crazy ducks! They were HUNGRY! There was tons of them and as soon as we started tossing bread they were surrounding us from all directions and a bunch were standing right at our feet.

Cori kept walking around with a piece of bread hanging out of her hands and she was lucky to only get pecked a couple of times. Those little black ducks were chasing her around!

P.S. I just love their new jackets and yes, even though we live in San Diego they have been able to wear them a couple of times!

Why does God create severely handicapped children?

This is probably the most beautiful thing I have read in a long time, or maybe ever. I wanted to post it in memory of our friend, Aiden, who passed away yesterday. He had SMA type 1 just like Isabel. Isabel is no stronger than Aiden was and it just really reminds us how fragile Isabel's life is and how lucky we are for every second we get to spend with her on this earth.

Why does God create severely handicapped children? By Aron Moss

Question:A friend gave birth to a baby with a rare condition that has rendered her severely handicapped. She is not expected to live much past her tenth birthday. I just can't understand why God does that. If life has a purpose, what is the purpose of such a short and sad life?...

Answer:Every birth is a gamble. A soul enters the world innocent and pure. But it may not stay that way. This world is a maze of diverging pathways, both good and evil, and the choice is ours which way we go. Once a soul enters a body, it is free and therefore vulnerable to corruption. While acts of good elevate the soul, every act of evil makes a blemish on the soul.Some souls are so lofty, it simply isn't worth the gamble. These souls are too precious to risk being compromised by life in a body. They are too high to come down to this world. But the other option, not to be sent down at all, to never reach this world, would mean that we would miss out on meeting these holy and lofty souls and hearing their message.So these souls do come down. But in order to be protected from the potential evils of an earthly existence, they are sent down into a body that will not compromise their holiness. They enter this world in a form that is above sin, above evil. From a purely physical perspective we call them "disabled" or "handicapped"; from the perspective of the soul they are protected. They will never sin. Their sojourn in this world is often brief, and in terms of this world may seem sad. But they have retained their purity. And they have fulfilled their mission.These special souls remind us that true love doesn't need a reason. We often love others for what they give us -- we love our children because they are cute, smart, and high achievers; we love our spouse for the pleasure and contentment they give us; we love our parents because they care for us. This is love, but it is not pure.When a child is born that will never achieve worldly success, cannot provide the usual source of pride for her parents, all extraneous reasons to love her fall away and what's left is the purest love that there can be. These children are lovable not because of what they do for you, and not because of what they will one day become, but simply because they are.These pure souls remind us what love should be. Only such a pure and holy soul can elicit such a pure and holy emotion. We can only stand in awe of them, and the parents and friends who care for them. And we can only thank them all, for giving us a glimpse of what true love really means.

4th of July Pics

Summertime

We're having a nice warm summer in sunny San Diego filled with swimming suits, swimming, and swimming lessons. The only thing missing is Aunt Niki!

Oops!

Isabel was scheduled to have a couple of procedures done in the OR last week. She needed to have a hearing test that can only be done under anesthsia and she also needed her 4 top front teeth pulled. They are all loose and because she cannot protect her airway we don't want to risk having her teeth come out on their own and go into her lungs. That would obviously not be good. And she hates when I try to wiggle them so the plan was just to pull them real quick while she was out for the hearing test. We got her all ready, went back to pre-op and found out that I messed up on the feeding instructions and they couldn't do the anesthsia! So we spent about 4 hours at the hospital for nothing and we'll have to go back again in a few weeks. At least we got to hang out with daddy, watch tv, and take a little walk while we were there.

And we even picked up a new baby giraffe for sissy and a hello kitty for Izzy from the gift shop.

At least Izzy was happy to avoid the operating room!

Hiking

This was not technically a hike for us, but for Izzy it was. We've been going on a few nice hikes around San Diego the last few months and I'm always sad that Isabel doesn't get to go. Our neighbors found a nice place with a paved road that goes through the hills and it was perfect to take Izzy. I think it was maybe a couple miles long and Isabel just loved being outside.
It was the perfect time of day to go, right at sunset, and it was beautiful out. We'll definitely be back soon!

Park Time!

There's an awesome park close to our house that has a swing Isabel can kind-of use. I just have to hold onto her head to make sure it doesn't fall forward because the swing is not quite reclined enough for her. But she loves it!
She is just getting so big and looking so grown up! Lately this girl loves doing anything that gets her out of the house so we've been trying to take her the park, library, target, movies, anywhere we can think of. Whatever Izzy wants she gets because she deserves it!

And here's little miss sassy. Seriously, 3 three year olds are not my cup of tea. She's so bossy and demanding lately. Thank goodness she's so adorable!

Easter Day

The girls were super excited for Easter this year. Izzy was up bright and early this morning ready to see her basket. Actually, it wasn't bright. The sun wasn't even out yet!The bunny filled their baskets with some good stuff. New swimming suits and towels, a sprinkler, some books, new outfits, and a few other things. Cori even got the green boots she was asking for!

Then we did an egg hunt in the front yard with our neighbors. Izzy had a very special egg hunt that she could do right in her chair. She had a lot of eggs to find in that bucket!

Cori filled her basket up, even though she would stop every time she found an egg to see what was inside. After all the eggs were found she ate all the candy out of probably 5 eggs in about 2 minutes! I think she knew we wouldn't let her eat candy all day long so she was getting as much in as fast as she could!

Izzy found all of her eggs too!

The special treats inside of Izzy's eggs! Lots of suckers, nail polish and hairclips!

Coloring Eggs

The girls and I had a lot of fun coloring eggs on Saturday. They both love to do projects. Cori will walk around asking me if we can do arts and crafts all day long!
This is Cori's artwork on the blue egg.

My favorite egg that Izzy and I made :) It says Isabel & Mommy.

Sisters working on their eggs together. They were deciding what stickers to use.

I just love seeing these two girls together. I know they have a different relationship than most sisters and it's harder for them to play together, but they really love each other. Cori really likes to talk to Izzy lately and show her things and she is a pretty good helper sometimes.

All finished! Don't tell Izzy that Cori's been eating her eggs for dinner the last couple of days!

MAW Egg Hunt

We were invited to an egg hunt at the San Diego Botanic Gardens by the local Make a Wish chapter. Even though we were late and missed the egg hunt, we still had a lot of fun!The easter bunny brought over a few eggs for the girls and they both got to plant a succulent to take home with us. Those will probably die soon ;)

They also got a cute easter basket.

We walked around the gardens a little bit and it was really pretty there. We walked through the rainforest and saw a waterfall that the girls really liked (behind them in the picture).

Then we went to the kids garden where Cori had fun in the treehouse.

We waved to Izzy from way up high!

Thank you make a wish for the fun day!

Soccer

Cori has been playing soccer for a couple weeks now and she really likes it. She is getting pretty good at dribbling and learning some of the drills, for a 3 year old anyways. She does a little bit of running.....
a little laying down.......

some sitting.......
(thanks for being her helper Jaime!)

and she even kicks the ball a few times!

Then she gets really hungry and shoves a whole nutri-grain bar in her mouth!