Formally known as Halibut

HI! This is Piper.....formally known as Halibut....aka Hali.

Allow us to explain won't you?

Before Christmas we asked the college girl what she wanted for Christmas. She tentatively replied "a kitten?" HUH! A kitten? We have three dogs and a guinea pig. You have 2 more dogs and 2 cats at your other house. A kitten? Daddy is allergic. A kitten? Yep, that was all. Who will take care of your kitten while you are at school? Three other children happily volunteered......of course. "No.", said the Daddy. Well........three days before Christmas, in a moment born out of complete and utter mental breakdown pure love for his first born, Daddy caved in! Since we were seeing Lizzie at my mother's for Christmas we knew we couldn't actually give her a kitten there, so.....we wrapped up a litter box! Although I told Lizzie I wouldn't publish any pictures of her from that day (due to lack of make-up, etc...) I can't help but show this one.

This is when she realized what she'd just opened and what it meant!

Knowing Lizzie was coming home on Friday, the kids and I made a trip to the shelter to see what we could find. We found Halibut. Not a lovely name, I know. But, there she was, all playful and happy in a little kitty cage with her brother who had already been adopted but not picked up. The children fell in complete love with her and insisted she was the one for Lizzie. I could not bring myself to call her Halibut though, so we shortened it to Hali until Lizzie could get here and give her a proper name. After throwing some things out there, she settled on Piper. She and Piper spent the weekend bonding.

Enjoying an afternoon snooze with Lizzie

Another one with Parker

Some playtime with Isabel

Making herself at home with Noah!

By-the-way...Roxy and Lola are terrified of her! All she has to do is hiss and they scatter!

New Years Tag Game

Thanks to my sweet bloggy friend Yvette at The Wait For Kate, I have been tagged, not once, but twice in the new year! Soooooooo, without further ado......

Picture Tag

The object of picture tag is to:

1) Choose the 4th folder where you store your pictures on your computer.

2) Select the 4th picture in the folder.

3) Explain the picture.

4) Tag 4 people to do the same.

No cheating or cropping allowed!

The fourth folder in my picture files is "Basketball o8" and the the fourth picture is this lovely shot of Noah with cousin Jordan. We were at Isabel's basketball game and they were cutting up in the stands.

The four I tag are..... Michelle at Let's Monkey Around, Peggy at Everyday Life with Grace Noelle, Rina at Bringing Home Myah and my sister, Amy at With Faith, Hope & Love (she just started blogging and is getting a slow start :), so I thought I'd help her!) When you read this blog, and I know you will, consider yourselves TAGGED!

The Lemonade Award

The purpose of this award is to give it to someone who is showing gratitude or a good attitude ("if life hands you lemons, make lemonade") within their life or blog.

The rules:

1) put the logo on your blog

2) nominate at least 10 blogs that show great attitude and/or gratitude.

3) have your 10 pass it along to 10 more!

Well, I can't guarantee that I can pass this along to 10 more or that they can either. But, I will definitely pass this along to a handful of people that have made my life nicer and more fun by having blogs that I read that have touched my life in a positive way! Honestly, I would award it to all the blogs I read, because I only read blogs that are fun and positive....if I wanted negativity I would watch the news! But, I don't want to overwhelm some people. Amy just started blogging, Michelle crashed her computer last week, Gracie's mom has been sick and is having to start back to work this week and Rina is about to head to Cincinnati for Myah to have FOUR surgeries, so I gave them the "easy" picture tag! The rest of you are NOT off the hook!

My Lemonade tags go to:

Stephanie at Significant Source, Regina at Never Say Never, Anna at Waiting Child (aka YoYo's Mommy), Brianna at Learning to Breathe (sorry folks, this one is private, but she deserves the award-trust me), Joanne at Living in Carolina, Blessed Mom from And Now There Are Five (who doesn't even know that I read her blog....yet) and Marcie at Lovable Dysfunction. Well, except for the four who got the Picture Tag, that's all I got for now. Yes, I read some more wonderful blogs but it's way out of my comfort zone to go tagging a bunch of people that don't "know" me....I already have to go explain myself to one mom over at Now There Are Five, who will think I'm a nutball....because she doesn't know me...yet. I wish my friends Sara and Elisa had blogs, because they are exactly the kind of people that deserve this award and I would so tag them (hint hint)! Well, happy juicing!

A Mother's Request

If you remember a few weeks back, I asked you to pray for our cousin's daughter, Hannah. Hannah has hydrocephalus. The treatment for that is to have a shunt implanted to create a pathway for the fluid that builds up on her brain to drain and be pumped into her stomach. A few weeks before Christmas, Hannah was scheduled to have her shunt revised as a test showed it was not working properly. However this procedure was postponed due to Hannah having a cold. I recently recieved an email from Hannah's mother, Allison. I have reprinted parts of the email here for better understanding of this situation but also, I wanted you to see this mother's humble prayer request in her own words.

"Well after gathering some more information the past couple of days and talking repeatedly with the neurosurgeon, Nate and I and the neurosurgeon have decided to actually put off the surgery for at least three months."

This was decided due to the fact that Hannah is showing no signs of increased presure on her brain and an opthamologist confirmed that Hannah's optic nerve is not swollen which is another indication that there is not any additional pressure.

"So, it seems that Hannah is draining some of the CSF on her own (which is something that we have been praying for)."

Allison and Nate have concluded that due to the possible difficulties involved in this type of surgery, the benefits may not outweigh the risks at this point.


"Nate and I have been praying that God would guide our footsteps and make it clear what decisions we should make. At this point I feel like God used Hannah's cold to force us to take more time to consider all of the possibilities. Over the past two days we were forced to wait and we feel that waiting three more months would be the best thing at this point. We have to consider the possibility that her ventricles will increase in size over the next three months and so I am asking you all to pray that if they do at all then it would be obvious to us (she would display symptoms) and we would know without a doubt. Also, please pray for her brain, that God would continue to heal her and protect her, and that the Lord would make clear to us what the best course of action is. Also, I know that God's hand is in this and that he is capable of performing miracles. Please pray that when we go back in three months that God would perform a miracle in her. Lastly, please pray that Nate and I would continue to place Hannah in God's hands and trust that He is with us and love's her more than we possible could. I know that the Lord can and will continue to show is grace, love, and power through our lives and I am thankful all of these decisions do not rest entirely on my shoulders. Thank you for your prayers and support."



I am heading over to the prayer meeting today at Significant Source. Please feel free to drop by and leave your own requests or just visit the comments section to pray for others. Thank you!

It Is Finished....

Today is January 6th and that means that I have be un-decorating my house all day. It's sad....but at the same time, I'm kind of glad to be getting back to normal. But, sad. Now, I have to wait 11 months before I can see my Christmas again *sigh*.

The boys were great helpers and almost put ever ornament away without my help. The girls stayed out of the way......sort of.

Because it made me AND my children laugh!

TURN OFF THE MUSIC BEFORE YOU HIT PLAY!