February and March

BethAnne turned 12 in February.  It's hard to believe she's so grown up.  She is such a beautiful, sweet girl.  We're so lucky to have her in our family.

We had a fun birthday party at our house with Cheesecake and brownies and ice cream and pretty much all the toppings you can imagine (at her request).  It was very yummy!

 Andy getting in on the fun!

 BethAnne got a dog to go with her American Girl doll.

 Pretty Grace

 Spring has sprung here and we're having fun playing outside more often.  These are some recent pictures 

 Grace and Joy have been having fun playing badminton, or "birdie" as they call it. :)

 Last week, Mark put in these new trees with help from his Dad and brother.  We are hoping they provide some shade because in the words of Lady Catherine de Berg, "the windows are full west".  

 Pretty BethAnne by one of our new trees.

 Pretty blossoms are coming out.  Love the color!

Here's Andy on the trampoline.  I guess he needs a haircut.  This picture reminds me of Rick as a boy.

 And one more picture with BethAnne and our pretty dogs.  They were groomed yesterday.  They are sweet dogs and they are great helpers with the messes Andy makes.

 We will be taking BethAnne to Columbus, Ohio in a couple months (probably June) to get established with some new doctors at Nationwide Children's Hospital there.  It's a long story, but we are hoping they will be even better than the doctors in Cincinnati.  She will be having several tests and visiting several doctors.  Then she will probably be going back early Fall for a surgery, but we will let you know for sure when we know more.  We could use your prayers that the doctors will be wise and that BethAnne will be able to be healthy and grow properly the next couple years and that her bowels and bladder will work better.  Have a great Spring!

Love, Aubrey

Spring in February at the Zoo!

Today it was 65 degrees in Boise, it broke the record by 5 degrees for this day in February.  This warm weather luckily coincided with a free day at Zoo Boise.  It was pretty crowded but we had a great time.  This was the first time that Andy was old enough to appreciate the animals.  He would laugh and giggle when he saw a new animal, it was really cute.

Sweet kids who couldn't all smile and look at the camera at the same time.  At this point Andy wasn't sure about the Zoo so I couldn't get him to smile at all.

Andy's first time on a carousel.  He loved it! 

  Pretty Grace

Pretty Joy 

It was a great family day.  I'm glad it worked out so well because it was our replacement activity for going to the McCall winter Carnival.  We were going to go last weekend, but Andy was really sick.  He had a virus with a really high fever and a severe double ear infection that took two different kinds of antibiotics to get better.  Then he broke out in a terrible rash (either from the virus or from the 2nd antibiotic).  Finally, after about 10 days, he got better and is back to his happy self, which is such a relief.  

BethAnne had a difficult week also.  She had a tooth removed on Tuesday, her very back molar that had a large cavity in it before it even grew in (it's a rare problem).  They tried to fill it, but it was too big of a defect.  Then on Thursday, I took BethAnne to get a mole on her tummy looked at, and they had to remove it and biopsy it.  The doctor thinks it will not need any further treatment, but we will have the biopsy results next week and then we will know for sure.

My classes are going well and everything else is going pretty well.  Andy will be tested on Monday to see if he qualifies for some help with his speech.  He only says a few words, and not consistently. So that's my update.  Have a great weekend!

Love, Aubrey

Christmas 2014

Christmas Morning! 

 Pretty girls all in festive red shirts

Handsome Mr Blue-eyed Andy

 We had an American Girl Christmas. Here's Grace opening her doll.  The girls all loved their dolls.

 Pretty BethAnne

 Pretty Joy with her American girl doll, Elizabeth

We had a Christmas Eve miracle of about an inch of snow.  We got to drive through it falling in big flakes as we went to Mom and Dad's for Christmas Eve dinner.  It was beautiful and exciting.  When the girls were playing in it a few days later, Andy wanted to join in.  Since he is the first boy, and I haven't gotten him snow clothes yet, he had to wear pink boots and pink snow pants and purple gloves.  He was very cute and happy with his first snow experience...until his too big pink boot fell off.  Then they came inside for some hot chocolate.

It was a lovely Christmas and holiday season.  Now we are starting a new year and we are doing well.  I am starting another class at BSU this week (inching ever closer towards my degree).  This time it's on campus one evening a week.  It should be fun and interesting.  Have a wonderful 2015!

Love,

Aubrey

Family Portraits

We had family portraits taken with the whole Rogers family right before Thanksgiving.  I'm really happy with how the pictures turned out.  I love my family!

 We had a nice Thanksgiving and we're looking forward to a happy Christmas.  Love you all!  Merry Christmas!  Love, Aubrey

Handsome Andy!

I just wanted to share these cute pictures of my handsome Andy.  He is such a happy, bright boy.  He keeps us busy but gives us so much joy.  Today at the grocery store, Andy was riding in the cart and I asked him, "Who needs a kiss?" and he smiled and looked up and leaned his head towards me.  Then I gave him a kiss on his forehead.  Then he giggled and leaned his head forward again for another kiss and giggled again.  This went on for several minutes.  It was so cute.  

Andy had a little unexpected surgery last week for an infected sore on his back.  It was not a fun day, but he's getting better now.  I'm so grateful for modern medicine and for a happy, healthy Andy.  

I hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving, I wish we could all be together.

Love,

Aubrey

 

Halloween 2014

We had lots of fun yesterday on Halloween.  

 Grace was an Egyptian Princess

 Joy was a pretty witch with pink hair

 Andy was a toddler who likes to climb and not hold still for pictures.

And sweet BethAnne was Glinda the good witch

 

Mark had fun this year dressing up with his team at work.  They were the characters of Monty Python.  Mark was the squire (in brown on the right).  He worked hard on his costume and I think he did a great job. 

He made his "backpack" frame from big sticks and then he used rope to strap a bunch of stuff to it, including things from D.I. and boxes that he painted.  He also used some bedding to make a bedroll to strap on the bottom.

 On Halloween.  Mark and his friends went galloping (Monty Python style) around downtown Boise.  They won the costume contest at work and had a good time all around.

 I worked hard this week putting together a small party for the girls and a few of their friends, and they had a great time overall.  Now, I'm looking forward to listening to Christmas music in earnest and getting ready for the Holidays.  In the next couple of months Lisa and I are going to try to raise some money for one of the Reece's Rainbow orphans.  I'll be posting more about that soon.  Happy November!

Love,

Aubrey

Autumn Time!

Happy October!  I hope you are all well.  We are having a nice autumn.  I'm am feeling quite a bit better, and I'm hoping to get stronger in the months to come.  Joy is in preschool and loving it.  Grace is enjoying school and gaining some fame for her singing abilities.  She has a big solo in a school program in a couple months.   BethAnne is doing well with homeschool and she is very helpful and sweet as always.  Andy has discovered pulling hair and trying to give his parents heart attacks by seeing how high he can climb on everything.  But he's a happy, sweet boy and we adore him.  A few weeks ago Mark and the kids went to the pumpkin patch with his family (while I got my MRI to check for MS, which came out clean).  They had a great time at the pumpkin patch.

Here's Joy riding the cow train. 

 Pretty BethAnne in jail  

Grace got buried in dried corn.  

Then tonight we went to a school festival and book fair and then we came home and decorated pumpkins.  Why carve the pumpkins when you can decorate with paint and glitter and jewel stickers?  The girls are quite artistic and it looked like so much fun that Mark and I decorated pumpkins too.  It was a great family activity.

 

This is BethAnne's pumpkin.  It has white glitter on it too, that's hard to see.  I love it!

This is Grace's pumpkin.  So many colors and jewels and glitter.  Fabulous!

Then Joy's pumpkin.  She painted the dog herself.  Then I helped with the jewels and the pink circle (which is made from glitter, so it's more sparkly in person).  Then she put Frozen stickers all over the back of the pumpkin. 

 This is Mark's pumpkin, very cute!  And mine is below.  Mine is just lots of colors of glitter and you can't really get the full effect in this picture, but it's very sparkly and colorful.

 So, that's my report for this month.  I hope you are all well and happy.  We love you!

Love,

Aubrey