little bits of luallen life

Isn't this picture so fun of Joshua?!?! Jeremy's mom caught it on her camera when she was here for his birthday. I love it! He does it all the time and as soon as I whip out my camera to try to capture it he of course quits. What a cutie he is! Thanks Gram for capturing his precious face!

Some of you may have remembered several months ago me doing a post about Joshua and his clogged tear ducts. We had an appointment with the eye doctor yesterday since he was over one year and he still has one eye that is still clogged. So, of course, surgery is now the next step. So, next week will be a very stressful week for our family. Madison will have her tonsils out on Monday and Joshua will have his eye surgery on Friday. Thankfully, Joshua should be completely normal after the anesthesia wears off. They wanted to do the surgery next Wednesday but I requested a couple more days between children having surgery. I am also so glad that Jeremy's mom is coming to help!

So, I am coveting your prayers for my children next week and also for Jeremy and I as we have never traveled this path with any of our children. And, instead of one, it is two of them. Please pray for the doctors and nurses that will be tending to them. Our family also had a huge and stressful situation arise at the end of last week. Please pray for us and the guidance of God to be shown in our lives. We are really hurting right now. Thank you all!

First I want to say how excited I am that Spring is here.....again! What in the world was that winter front that came through right before Easter and was here until Sunday?!?! This is what we woke up to Saturday morning (yes, four days ago)---I sure hope Spring is here to stay!

Saturday night we took the teens bowling. Madison bowled and she had a blast! She bowled a 80 something on her first game and then her second game she hit a 107! She was second on her team of four!Thankfully since the weather has been nice the past few days we have been able to spend some time outdoors. My kids love to play outside which I am very thankful for. Jeremy and his dad built them a swing set last week and so they have been enjoying that. Here they are trying it out for the first time last week when it was a little chilly.
Thanks Pops and Daddy for a great swing set!

They also have been able to play in the sandbox. Joshua really loved it after he got over the initial shock of how sand feels. Boy was he was dirty when it was time to get out!

On another note, Madison has to have her tonsils and adenoids taken out at the end of this month (April 30th). She was very apprehensive at first but is super excited now because she will get to eat tons of ice cream. Please be praying for her over the next few weeks as we go through this new adventure--surgery :( Hopefully, she will be able to sleep much better once they are gone!

Yesterday was Joshua's birthday! It is so hard to believe that he is one! He has been such a joy this past year. I cannot imagine our lives without him. He is definitely all boy and I am thankful for that. He talks all the time! He probably says 20 words and tries to say just about anything you say to him. He can say Mama, Dada, ball, bye-bye, thank you, please, drink, eat, and several other things I can't think of at this minute. He had a good birthday! He loved the sausage and biscuits for breakfast! For lunch we went to a Mexican restaurant and when one of the waitresses came up to talk to him we just mentioned it was his birthday. So, at the end of our meal they came and sang to him and brought him a yummy dessert! Check out the video:

Last night we had a family party. Jeremy parents were here and we just did a small family party. It was fun and he sure enjoyed the cake. Here is another video of that.

Finally, here are some pictures of the rest of his party! We had to break between dinner and presents for a bath as you will soon see!

Today he had his one year check up. He was 22lb. 12oz. and was 30 inches long! We are so thankful for our sweet boy! The Lord has truly blessed our family!

I am trying something new that I saw on someone else's blog. I thought it was a neat idea when you had lots of pictures you wanted to share. Here are the promised pictures of last weeks Easter Egg Hunt and also from yesterday on Easter Sunday. Enjoy the slideshow.

What was lost has now been found...


and THROWN away! Joshua "discarded" the earring last night and Karmann Refuse Service took it away today to where ever trash companies take your trash. Madison asked me last night after I found it if I was going to put it back in my ear? I said no!!!!

Onto a more fun subject, Sunday we had the annual Spring Fling "Easter Egg Hunt" at church for the little youth. It was lots of fun and the kids look so sweet in their Spring clothes. Emma came down with a fever during church Sunday and had some kind of virus til mid-afternoon yesterday. Today we came to Searcy for a few days and so I was unable to post before leaving Springfield. So, between Emma being sick and packing to leave, no pictures today but I will catch you all up with my kiddos cuteness when I return.