WOW!

10 month old Drew!! He's all smiles!!!

I know.....it's been more than a month since I blogged! Life just carried me away. Who would have thought just adding one little person into the mix would take so much time! Plus we have been passing around a cold/ virus that has laid me up a day or two. I also had the adventure of taking Drew to CHOP's ER this past week. Nothing serious - he had developed what I thought were hives last weekend and weren't gone by Monday.

The offending hives - they were actually a lot darker and more purple/ red.

The pediatrician wanted to see him and low and behold there was quite a ruckus about them! They weren't your "typical" looking hives and five different doctors took a look at him. When no one could agree on what they were I was sent to the ER for blood work. We got to ER at 5 pm and didn't leave until 1:00 am. Drew was a real champ as they looked and prodded and took blood. The end result? HIVES! He had a virus that was releasing itself through hives. My firstborn does the same exact thing. I was glad that they were being cautious and tested for different things - better to be safe than sorry - but it sure was a long night!

School has been going full force and the kids have been really working hard. Last Friday we had the opportunity to go on a field trip with some other homeschoolers. We went to the Penn Museum at the University of Penn. It was great! Some of my favorite items were this solid and pure crystal ball. Amazing! It took years to create and is the second largest one in the world.

They have mummies and a sphinx and all kinds of neat old things! We had a really fun time and the kids were glad to get out of the classroom for a day of school! Daniel really loved the above tablet with hieroglyphics. He was just fascinated with all the objects found in the museum.

We are currently in the midst of decorating for Christmas. I got the living room thoroughly cleaned and the tree up - but we will decorate it as a family this Wednesday. Drew is a riot! Not quite sure what to make of this huge tree in his house! He is trying to crawl so it will be interesting to see what he does with a tree and crawling as I believe he will get the hang of it before Christmas is through. I will post pictures as soon as we are done! I love how our house looks all decorated with beautiful lights! I'm even putting a tree up in the schoolroom in hopes it will help "lighten" the attitudes that sometimes prevail during the school day!

Please continue to pray for my sister, Lisa. She will start her chemo treatments December 16th. She is going through the University of Penn Hospital for her treatment. They have a fantastic program and the best part is each patient is assigned a scheduler - that person makes all your appointments and deals with the details of treatment and tells the patient when to show up - Lisa has to make no phone calls or deal with getting things lined up at the right time or day. Such a relief to her and clears up her time to focus on getting well! They are sure she will be cancer free within one year. My prayer is that she draws closer to Christ throughout this year and learns to lean heavily upon Him. Thanks for praying!