Kirkland Cousins

The Kirkland Cousins are super special to us. Joshua, Marin and Maddie are such great playmates! Annalise and Max are like little twinnies, besides Max's huge cheeks :) Even though they are kinda far away, we always find ways to spend time together!

Growing Up

The girls are growing, each in their own way...

Marin: learning to write her name, spell words on her own

Madeline: potty trained! (hidden behind the stickers: Maddie's Potty Chart)... the funniest part of this experience is that she refused to put the stickers in the little squares I drew. Her older sister is big on order and things being in their proper place, but younger sis likes to buck tradition and place her stickers randomly all around the edge. I'm pretty sure NONE of the stickers made it to a square - ha!

Our Easter Miracle

This year for Easter we missed out on lots of special things: the delicious family meal, the easter egg hunt, the easter baskets, the special visit with my family in town, the amazing church service...  However in its place, we got an Easter Miracle.

Many of you know that our precious Max, just 8 months old at the time, was laid low by a very serious mystery illness. With fevers approaching 106 degrees, he would wail at the slightest touch and was clearly in severe pain. After a trip to our pedatrician on Good Friday,we were immediately sent to a nearby children's hospital ER. Their fear was meningitis.

Despite a large amount of effort, the doctors in the ER were unable to help him or diagnose the source of his illness, so he was admitted to the children's hospital that night. We were there for three days. Max underwent every procedure you can imagine. The chief infectious disease doctor for the hospital was assigned our case. Everyone was stumped. Teams of doctors came through our room day and night, all trying desperately to figure out what was wrong. Nothing.

Then finally the last procedure they had left to try was an MRI. Being a young baby incapable of holding still during this procedure, they had to put him under anesthesia. So under he went.

I will pause here and mention that I was clicking away as often as possible on my laptop to give updates to our friends & family, who were doing an amazing job of distributing the info near and far asking for prayer. Literally hundreds of people everywhere were praying for our son. Many we have never met. They were holding us up, as Kyle and I focused on our boy.

So back to the MRI... He was under much longer than expected, each scan turning up nothing, so the doctors kept expanding to new areas, just hoping something would turn up. More nothing. Finally with seriously nothing left to check, Max was sent to the recovery room.

Then he woke up.

Healed.

I believe God healed him. To say the medical professionals were flabbergasted is an understatement. I can't document all the conversations we had with the staff just expressing their disbelief. All the follow up calls for days and days after we were sent home.

There is no human explanation. God did it, He is our explanation.

And I know for every story like ours, there is one where the healing did not come, the prayers were not "answered" in terms of what was asked for. Only He knows the purpose behind each outcome, and someone close to us said "God has plans for this boy, that's for sure"... referring to his precarious birth, and now this.

All I know is I got the love of my life back, and I praise my God for blessing us with this child. He is a gift, as are my girls and my cherished husband. We are all so thankful to have each other.

Camping at Mt. Rainier

Once again my husband gets "Dad of the Year" when it comes to taking our kids on special fun outings. He took the girls camping to Mount Rainier with uncle John & cousin Joshua. The girls supposedly refused to take any pictures (explaining the limited offerings here)... Hmmmm... They had lots of fun and warm weather, barely needed their pink camo sleeping bags. The happy girls came home dirty and the daddy came home TIRED! Next year I think I better go to help out :) Fun memories...

Fishing

Kyle took both girls on special individual fishing trips this year. Marin absolutely LOVES everything about fishing. Maddie loves the time with Daddy, but decided she doesn't want those wiggly things anywhere near her. So... we have "leaving the house" pics of both (Kyle wearing his MHL fishing shirt both times, ha!), but only my eldest daughter was willing to get anywhere near a fish for a picture :)

Max and Food

Max started eating solids near the beginning of the year... Unlike the girls, he is not as interested in food in general. He is on the smaller end of the percentile spectrum, but happy and healthy which is all we could hope for. Good boy :)







Mmmmmm, steak....

Bye-Bye Old Blue...

We bid farewell to my very first car, the blue 1994 Honda Civic... Kyle has been driving it since the swagger wagon came on the scene in 2006. I bought her used in 1999 right before I graduated from college. I have such fond memories of my wheeling and dealing. The guy I bought it from was probably so exasperated with my negotiating, he just gave me what I wanted. Now that's what I like to hear! :) I think it's a well known fact I am the best haggler (better than hag!) in this family. Except maybe Maddie, she is pretty convincing as well.

Kyle had to do some major work to get it ready to sell, and thanks to his and Poppy's persistence, they accomplished a huge feat. Like father, like son... I'm so thankful to have such a handy husband (trained by the master!)

I'll leave you with one final thought on Old Blue... This is a conversation between Kyle and Marin (Kyle narrating)...

"I asked Marin if she remembered that Dad got a new car yesterday... to which she replied 'Yes'. I then asked her if she liked my new car or the old blue car better... to which she replied 'I like the new car. I don't like old cars. Old stinky cars make my mouth worry'"... :)

Goodbye Ivy Girl

We said goodbye to our sweet doggy earlier this year. All those years of her eating naughty things finally caught up with her. This time it tied her intestines up into a knot, and they couldn't save her. We put her to sleep, while Kyle and I stood by COMPLETELY unable to hold it together (lots of tears). We miss our girl, that's for sure. The M girls assure me she is very happy in heaven - they've decided she is swimming, eating treats and that Jesus is throwing lots of sticks for her.

I'm baaaaack....

Seriously, four months since the last update? Oh brother! Blog guilt has crept in, and all three littles are asleep, therefore (deep breath) here we go with a huge update in one. I have to be breaking some kind of blog rule somewhere just piling everything on like this. I am also breaking the rule of things being in order, you might see Halloween after Christmas, and you will survive. I have to move fast here, people... Did I mention ALL THREE CHILDREN ARE SLEEPING? This is considered a miracle in my house. I'm a happy, busy mama, that's all I can say. I'm just warning you now, there WILL be Halloween costumes in a post in January.

Ok now they are all awake again, so I'm hitting the "pause" button...

See, now it's already February before I got back to this... Anyway here we have it!
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St. Nicholas Day presents from Poppy & Nana: wheels!

We were blessed to have family and friends join us as we had Max dedicated at our church. Sommer & Jordan also had daughter Jewel (who is 1 month younger than Max) dedicated at the same time, and joined us afterwards for a little celebration!

Happy 4th Birthday to my sweet, spunky, hilarious, creative, smart and beautiful daughter Marin. Have I bragged enough yet? I love this girl. Flower Bunches Cake made by her mommy.

Halloween Harvest festivities: Kitty cat girls and a pumpkin boy...

First (and maybe only) snow of the year!

These four would fit right in, in some parts of the world where entire families travel on scooters together. Check out the cast of characters: proud Daddy, clueless & blind Max, worried Madeline and last but not least, self admiring Marin. Hysterical! I love them all.

Trip to the Apple Farm with the Corrigan Cousins. Poor Anna Mae needs a sibling to match with! Soon enough little girl :) I hear your mommy has a bun in the oven! I love how my M girls are holding hands...

My girls... Maddie has a certain aversion to the camera lately, so these days we are capturing more of Marin... I'm going to have to work on that!

One cute boy growing up...

Christmas Corrigan Cuties