I'm way behind!!!

I'm warning you...this is going to be a super-post. I'm so far behind on blogging (as well as many other things in life!), so I'm going to try to knock this all out at once. So if you're in a hurry, you might want to come back for a visit later. But if you've got a little time on your hands, stick around to see what's been going on with the Lewis Crew. :-)
First I'll start with some updated pictures of the little ones. Abigail is three years old, and as you can see from my last post, she's having a great time in ballet right now. She is a fantastic big sister to her little brother and sister.

Jack will be two years old tomorrow, and he is learning and growing everyday. Due to his solid year of ear infections (and the accompanying hearing loss), his speech hasn't developed normally, so we have a speech therapist that works with us one day each week. He is saying several single words, lots of animal sounds, and he is attempting just about any syllable he hears. His biggest form of communication right now, though, is sign language. He is signing about 50 words independently and is learning more each day. He's signing "airplane" in this first picture...



Isabel is eight months old, and she is definitely mommy's little girl. She is as happy as can be when she's in my arms, but outside of them, she's a bit weepy. Actually, she's a lot weepy! There's not much to tell about her...she's not talking, she's not walking, she's not even crawling. She usually just sits around and looks really cute! She can roll around from her back to her tummy and back over again...is that exciting?!?


Oh wait...I'm not giving credit where credit is due. Izzy has learned something new lately. She has learned to clap her hands to "If You're Happy and You Know It..." Here are a couple of pictures of her practicing. :-)


I wasn't planning on putting this in, but I just ran across a picture of Isabel in her favorite sleeping position. I thought you might all like to see it.

Last weekend was Jack's birthday party. He is a HUGE fan of trucks, cars, trains, planes...anything that moves fast and has lights, so we had his party at the firestation. He and his buddies got to climb all over the firetruck, and they had a great time...

UNTIL the firemen dressed Josh up in the full garb...

It started out OK. Abby thought it was pretty funny, but Jack wasn't so sure...

But then Abby decided she wasn't so sure either...

It took a serious turn for the worse, though, when Josh tried to hold them!

It was nothing that a little pizza and cake couldn't solve, though. :-)

Where was Izzy during all of this? In my arms, of course!

And here's what happened when someone else tried to hold her...

I'll close with some random "flying" pictures from playing outside with Daddy tonight after work. I lightened them way up on the computer, so the quality is pretty rough because of the actual light we had. Enjoy!!




As I mentioned, tomorrow is Jack's birthday, but it's even more special because he shares his birthday with his great-grandfather (Grandpa Lewis). He and Josh recently made a trip to NC to visit with Grandma and Grandpa and the rest of the Raleigh crew. They had a wonderful time and made some priceless memories. Happy Birthday, Grandpa!!! We all love you. :-)

Abby's First Day of Ballet

We've tried gymnastics...we've tried swimming...and now we're giving ballet a shot. Abigail started her little ballet class today, and she loved it!! She learned all about first position, proper posture, and walking on her tippy-toes. She was so precious in her little leotard, and she had a great time. :-)

It had to be done...

The day has come. The hour has arrived. Yes folks, Jack got his first haircut. I have been thinking for a while now that it was time for a little trim, but Josh kept holding out (isn't that usually the other way around)? Well, a couple of days ago Josh announced out of the blue that he thought we should go ahead with it. So I did it. I thought up a fool-proof plan that involved strapping him into the booster (can't get away), outside (easy to clean up), with a tray full of cereal (great distraction). The plan worked beautifully, and now Jack is down a couple of pounds of curls. I sound like this was a very non-emotional experience for me, don't I? Don't be fooled. Part of Jack's "precious-ness" comes from his head full of blonde curls. He is such a sweet little guy, and this seemed like a major "big boy" moment for him. I gathered up the scissors, fought back the tears and chanted: IT HAD TO BE DONE!

Not quite a fish yet...

Abigail had a big "pool scare" last summer, and she's been a bit water-phobic ever since. So we decided to enroll her in swimming lessons at our gym to help her gain some confidence and be more comfortable in the water. Here are some pictures from her first day of lessons with her buddy Ellery...make sure to check out the goggles! :-)

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Updates...

Praise the Lord...everyone is healthy! After two weeks in quarantine (with one of those weeks being at my parents for floor-to-ceiling disinfecting at our house!), everyone is well and medicine-free. Hooray!! Jack is doing wonderfully from his surgery on Monday. We think he's finally feeling (and hearing!) better. Here are some of the recent pictures of what the kids have been up to. Make sure you pay attention to Isabel's "hair-raising" shot about halfway through the montage. Oh, and Abigail wants everyone to know that she picked out this song. :-)

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Wyatt and Emery

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

This past weekend I had a great time doing pictures for the Birch family. I've done pictures of several babies and new crawlers/walkers, so I had to laugh at how different it is shooting pictures of fast-moving targets! In case you don't know him, Wyatt is definitely a little guy on the move, and he gave me great practice with shooting at faster shutter speeds. :-)

Jack's Big Ear Tube Day

It started at 5:20 this morning. Well, it was actually closer to 4:00 for me, but 5:20 is what time we headed out the door for Jack's surgery. We were scheduled to arrive at Children's Hospital downtown at 6:00. We rolled in at 5:50 and felt like everything was going just as planned until the nurse came in to Jack's hospital room and said these words: "Mr. and Mrs. Lewis...I'm afraid we have some bad news." Already? At 6:30 in the morning? She went on: "The doctor got stuck in New York, so we are having to cancel all of his surgeries today." Here it comes...I feel it...the big lump rising in my throat...the tears filling my eyes. She continued to tell us how sorry she was and that we should go back home and wait for the office to call us with a rescheduled surgery date. My mind is racing now. Do I quietly say "Yes ma'am" and go back home with a little guy who is desperate for this procedure or do I beg for mercy? I chose to beg. I'll spare you the details of my groveling, but in the end, we were sent to Children's South (which is right down the road from our house) to be worked in with another doctor. Once Jack was finally taken back to the OR, he was only away from us for about 25 minutes. The doctor came out and told us everything had gone perfectly and that Jack had already been working his way into another infection (just a few days after coming off of antibiotics for the last one!). By the time we got home, he had a voracious appetite (it was unlike anything I've ever seen!) and was ready for a snoozer. I expected him to sleep most of the afternoon, but as you can see, after a couple of hours he was up and ready to go. And by "ready to go", I mean that he is wild! Only six hours after surgery, he is acting like he feels so much better than he has in a while. As I'm looking back on the day now, I can see that God handled every concern we had as well as some we didn't even know to pray about (i.e. Children's South was our original choice of facilities for his surgery, but they were booked at the time and couldn't get us in for several more weeks). We're so glad today is over with, and we thank you for your prayers for our little guy!