Ruby is...

...walking!

Ruby is officially walking.  She has been taking steps here and there, three to four at a time.  Tonight she stood up and walked the entire way to her destination.  She did it again, and again, and again.  It is official.

Are there many cuter things than chubby ol' baby thighs waddling, a big splat on their cute bottom, then a proud grin and clapping?  I think not.

Oh, my girl, growing up so quickly.  It's a joy to get the front row seat to all your firsts.  I wouldn't miss them for the world.

Trees at TCS

This morning our school planted 60 trees.  We received the trees, per grant, from Trees Forever.  What a blessing!

{My husband is a doer, I tell ya.  And while it takes him away from us, I sure love him for it.  His servant heart and helping hands are on the top of the list of what makes him extra awesome.  He spent a lot of time this week preparing the trees for planting.  Thank you, my love.}

The morning started with chapel, followed by a demonstration on how to plant the trees, and away each group went.  As you can imagine, 60 tree is quite the undertaking.  Those kids were busy little bees and did a fabulous job working together.

All busy!

See Charlie and Ruby there?  You bet.  You better believe this was a family project.  They will one day benefit from the trees and benefits they bring to the school, so we all pitched in.  Do we like getting dirty?  Eh, not really.  But teaching our kids the act of service is far better than clean hands.  

Good job, girls!

The school crew!

It was a messy morning with all the rain we've gotten this week, but the sun was shining and that was a gift.  The kids were eager to have a fun morning of being outside.  We are thankful for a place our children go daily, that not only cares about their smarts, but their character and ability to work hard, and work together, to make their school a better place.

Ingenuity & Creativity

The girls worked very hard on Monday to bring us a "movie theatre."  After supper, we all got our tickets, they made very comfortable chairs for each of us, and we got cozy for the show.

Check it out!

They did this all on their own.  Layla drew the scenes, while Maleah got the box ready.  During the show, Layla told the story to us while Maleah rolled the film through.

I am absolutely fascinated by their imaginations, creativity, and ingenuity.
Way to go, girls!

Mother's Day Fun

Mother's Day was delightful.  We have started the tradition (well, it's only our second year in a row...) of planting flowers on Mother's Day.  It's so much fun to go pick out the flowers together, then come home and dig in.

I love the idea of planting our garden and flowers on Mother's Day.  There's working together as a family, the beauty of the colors, new life, and the production that the garden will bring.  It sounds fitting, right?  I should clarify, however, that I wish I could say the whole process was an absolute joy.  It wasn't.  There was frustration, nerves sky rocketing as garden tools were close to heads, and the list goes on.  It wouldn't be Mother's Day without some of "that."

{What did we do today?}
After church we went to Texas Roadhouse, home for a snooze, shopped for flowers, got T&L's ice cream, then home to do the work.  And let's not forget: I didn't change one diaper.  Score!

The kids love working in the garden!

Ruby girl watches on.

Pattin' those seeds down.

And, she found the dirt.  And, she ate the dirt.

Us girls went in for baths while the guys worked hard.

The little sweet peas who remind me of my name every day!
"Moooooommmmyyy!!"

It was a great day!  

Thoughts on Mother's Day...

It's 7:30 on Mother's Day evening, and all the little ones are sound asleep from a day full of goodness.  I have so many thoughts swimming around in my spaghetti brain.

If I were to be honest, it kind of feels like every day is Mother's Day.  I have always dreamt of being a mommy.  I knew it was what God wanted me to do with my life, and I felt so excited in that.  So, every single day I feel overwhelmingly grateful to be doing what I truly love and imagined about so many years.  Even on the bad days, I am living somebody else's dream.

But, Mother's Day is a nice day to set apart, isn't it?  Make it special.  Feel appreciated.  Bask in the beauty around me.  Be pampered a bit.

At church this morning, we were singing and I was looking around.  There were so many beautiful women; some with corsages on, some holding babies, and some with gray hairs.  And then boom, I saw him.  The single dad who had his sweet Jillian dedicated the same day as Layla.  Jillian is one of my very favorite little girls in the preschool wing, and her mama died shortly after she was born of heart arrhythmia (no real reason).  I remember Pastor John praying over Jillian, that she would not be bitter growing up without a mom, and that God would protect her.  Here we are on Mother's Day, celebrating, while five-year-old Jillian doesn't even have a mom.  I started crying.  And I couldn't stop.

My mind went back to our conversation in the van this morning.  To say Dallas and I are tired is an understatement.  After him working 102 hours this week, we felt like zombies.  I made the flippant statement in the car, "Eh...we will sleep when we are dead."  Layla piped up from the back seat, "I won't!"  Maleah said, "Me either!  I'll be dancing, singing, and praising God!"  Layla responded, "We won't even care about sleep!"  They are so wise in such a precious way.

Jillian's mom was celebrating today.  While I ache for the sadness of Jillian hearing all the other little children talk about Mother's Day, her mom is dancing.  Right then, when all this was weighing heavy on my heart, we sang the words to "10,000 Reason."  And on that day when my strength is failing.  The end draws near and my time has come.  Still my soul will sing your praise unending.  Ten thousand years and then forevermore.  Tears, tears, and more tears.  Praise the Lord!

Here's the deal.  I don't know everyone's story.  But they have all have one.

Sometimes I think about my opportunity to raise these little souls, and it almost takes my breath away.  Is there anything more worth my while?  I am a mom.  I am their mom.  I don't know what tomorrow will bring, but for today I am theirs and they are mine.  Life can be so short, and little earthly things that seem so big get in the way.  I never want to lose sight of the gift of being a mom.  I have all my babies with me everyday, I still have my beautiful mother to share life with, and I am surrounded by a multitude of mom friends that I absolutely adore.

For some reason, Mother's Day hit me different this year.  I am blessed.  So very, very blessed.

Evelyn Joyce

Last week, I was blessed with another sweet little niece!  

Meet Evelyn Joyce.

Evy was born on Tuesday.  We packed up that night and took off first thing Wednesday morning.  There's something about a fresh baby you just have got to see!  We went straight to the hospital, then back to the Scheve house to hang out and play games before heading to the hotel where all 13 {well, not Evelyn, Ruby, or Julia} children swam their little hearts out.  We ordered pizza, swam, swam, and swam, then hit the hay.  While the guys stayed back with the kiddos, Alisa, Mom, and I headed back to the hospital to see the baby and Erica.  It was peaceful and precious.  We stopped by the hospital for one more quick visit Thursday morning, then hurried back on home.

Between Alisa, Mom, and I, we brought home the first Scheve gals.  We also picked up Asher on the way home so the triplets could be together.  It was a fabulous, and I mean fabulous, five days.  I was seriously so sad to see them go back home.  The cousins had such a great time together, and it did my heart a lot of good.

I am positive all the kids will remember way back when Evy was born.  I love making memories.

Maleah's Contacts.

When we discovered all of Maleah's eye business, he mentioned that in a year or so we should consider doing a contact.  Well, that year came quick, and here we are.

She is super young for a contact, yes.  Let me explain.  She only has one contact for her right eye.  Her eyes are so drastically different.  She doesn't have an eye stigmatism or anything like that.  Lasik would do nothing for her, as it is more so a brain thing than an eye thing, actually.  Because her eyes are so incredibly different, one from the other, her brain (even with her glasses) gets two different visual images.  This is confusing to the brain.  A contact helps that barrier.  Not only will she be able to see up, down, and out so much better, but her contact basically serves as a part of her eye.  He said it's basically a fake cornea.  Makes sense.

To have contacts (a contact in our case), you have to be responsible enough to deal with it.  But, he told me that if Maleah was his daughter, he would have her working on a contact like yesterday.  He was confident that it would improve her vision (especially peripheral), and way of life, greatly.

Maleah was so excited to try a contact out!  Sadly, and surprisingly, the morning of getting her contact, we had this conversation:

Maleah: "Mom, if I have a contact, does that mean my eye won't look so big anymore?"
Me: "We can ask the doctor, but I think you won't even be able to tell you have a contact in.  Are you worried about what your eyes look like?"
Maleah: "Well, kids tell me a lot that my right eye is so much bigger than my left eye."
Me: "I think your eyes are beautifully perfect.  God gave you one funny eye to deal with, so we are thankful for Dr. Jarod and your glasses.  But, He made you so pretty, your eyes and all."
Maleah: "Yep!"

I had no idea anyone had ever said anything to her.  While getting the contact was totally for medical reasons, this was the icing on the cake for me.  Off we went, at the ripe ol' age of six, to try the contact.

Ready to learn!

She was so willing to try.

Donna was so incredibly patient with her!  They sat there for TWO HOURS.  It took one and a half hours to put the contact in the first time, then half hour to get it out, then back in and back out.  I had the kids, so we sat and encouraged her for a while, then went to the waiting room while they worked it out.  I assured Maleah that if it wasn't going to work, we could try again in 6 months/year.  I had heard that no matter the age, learning to put them in is difficult.  The youngest they had ever dealt with teaching contact care was to junior high kids.  But, she was determined.  And, it paid off.

Maleah was squealing in delight at the things she could see with her contact in!  An airplane.  She had never seen one in the sky before.  She loved her contact so much she didn't want to take it out.  But, in order to give the eye time to adjust, we have to gradually wear it longer each day.  She is now wearing it full time.

Her set up at home.

I'm not going to lie.  It is a really frustrating way to start the day.  Putting it in is hard and time consuming (we have to allow a loooot of time).  It takes a lot of tries and a lot of encouragement.  BUT, she has such a great attitude!  Probably better than mine.  Taking it out is going so well.  She can do it without even looking already!  She has done a fantastic job of learning.  She has a little bit of a thicker contact right now to learn on, so my next prayer is that our transition to her "dailies," which are flimsier, goes smooth.

We went back to the eye doctor today to get it checked, and her vision was better than it was with glasses.  Yay!  We celebrated with ice cream.

It took us a while to get used to her with glasses, and now it's taking some time to get used to her without.  I am so, so, so very proud of her.  Her courage and persistence has pleasantly surprised me.  She's done a good job, and I am very proud of my girl.