We had to delay school for 30 minutes due to more snow! The girls just had to get out in it and play before Sascha got out to run all through it! Once again you never know what Lauren will say or do! Make sure you watch her and listen to what she has to say about her actions!

New pictures of the girls!

I'm Back!

I know it has been a while since I have been on here, but those closest to me know what all has been going on! My health is doing a lot better right now, so I will try to, even with our hectic schedule, get on here every couple of weeks or so and let you know how we are doing! Well as you can see by the picture below, El Paso was so beautiful today as huge snow flakes fell most of the day! There is about 2 inches on the ground right now and supposed to be more by in the morning! The girls are loving it! It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....

Are you starting to see a trend here?

Lauren had put mousse in her hair that morning and decided to try and see how it looked when she combed it out that night. She flipped her head over, combed away, and came up grinning and looking like this! Let us know what you think of her new do! Luckily it combs back down normal or we might have to shave her head.
HA!HA!

Biology, Part II

Before the girls went with their dad for a few days on spring break, we took the opportunity to finish up Kalani's dissecting labs. They all gathered round as she dissected the fetal pig and had a blast seeing the different dyes that were injected into the pig to show the difference between the arteries and the veins, in other words to show the blood flow to the heart and then the blood flow leaving the heart. Amazingly there was still not much odor at all to the preservation process done and it was really neat to see all the organs inside. The next night they all got to dissect a crawfish since the order came with 10. They all had gloves on and were ready to go. These were a little more stinky! I guess from being a little fishy smelling mixed along with the chemicals was a bit of a weird mix to smell. They all had fun doing this, but things were a little harder to see because the crawfish are so small. Though we may not have found everything on them, the girls still really enjoyed getting to play around and be a part of something Kalani is doing. Hope this wasn't too much of a visual, but that you enjoyed sharing the experience along with us!

Spoiled Rotten!!!

Little Miss Libby has nestled her way right into all of our hearts, just like she has always been a part of the family. She has the sweetest disposition and loves to be treated just like a baby, which Hannah has no problem doing and does on a daily basis. For those that don't know our grumpy old man, Goober, disappeared 4 weeks ago and we haven't seen him since. He has wondered off for days at a time, but never for this long. He has a microchip, but nothing has turned up so far. We have had him about 7 years and I still just keep expecting to go outside and see him sitting there waiting for food or attention. Kalani took it the hardest since she had deemed him her cat, but has made room for Libby in her heart as well. Kalani really misses him, but as you can see has made room to spoil Libby and even allow her to have her afternoon nap on her bed and even using her pillow. The daily battle is getting Hannah to not be so possessive with this cat since she is the one that found her and thinks she is only hers. The cat is very spoiled needless to say and never lacks for attention!!

Prayer Request Update!

Our former pastor's wife, who I mentioned previously, just had a second scan done before having her 4th chemo treatment next Monday to see if the tumors on her lungs were shrinking. Through God's grace the scan revealed that they have shrunk by 20% and the chemo is working. I just wanted to share with you all the good news and below is the praise report she sent out to all those praying.

Dear precious family and friends,

Psalm 126:3 says, "The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad." This morning I had my CT scan, and then Gary and I met with Dr. Butler. Usually a very solemn man, Dr. Butler had a smile on his face! He told us that the scan revealed that the tumors in my lungs are shrinking in size (about 20% smaller in size than they were eight weeks ago). Sue, my clinical trial nurse, said that when a scan reveals that tumors are stable and not growing, she and Dr. Butler are happy; but when a scan reveals that tumors are shrinking, they are ecstatic! So I guess I can be ecstatic, too! To God be the glory--great things HE hath done!!

No matter what the results of my scan had been, God would still be good and He would still be in complete control of everything happening in my life. I am (again) scheduled for my 4th chemo treatment this Monday (March 9). I cannot thank you enough for your prayers for our family.

Rejoicing in our wonderful Lord,
Barbara Ledbetter

Psalm 33:21 says, "For our heart shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name."

Homeschool Fun!!!!!

Kalani is taking Biology this year which came along with its own lab book. I just recently told her to pick out a couple of labs she might like to do in there this year. She picked out dissecting a sheep’s brain and a fetal pig. I ordered those, plus a frog and crawfish for us all to do together. Oh, what fun!






Yesterday, Kalani dissected the brain and the frog. Lauren and Hannah were at her sides, waiting to see if they would gross out or if it would be cool. Needless to say it turned into something so funny that I had to share it with everyone. Hannah was at her side with the lab book telling her what to do and Lauren was on the other side acting like her nurse. When it came time to cut open the brain, Lauren would not hand Kalani the proper tool until she said just as Lauren asked. When Lauren sets her mind to something she will not let it go. Kalani had to say, “Scalpel, please!” before Lauren would hand it to her.








Just to let you know Shelby has been running a fever the past few days and was on the couch crashed after taking some medicine, so she missed out on all the excitement. I was nervous myself about doing this, knowing that if there was any odor associated with these items then I might lose it, but there was amazingly no smell to them at all.
Hannah and Lauren had to touch the brain to see how it felt and was very goofy about it. Hannah was very intent on Kalani doing the frog just right, and Lauren was anxious to see all the organs, making Kalani point out each one. Lauren wanted to know if it was a boy or girl frog and Kalani determined that it was a boy because of not having any of the female reproductive organs.

I almost think that Hannah and Lauren enjoyed it more than Kalani, but I know she did as well. Hannah even said she can’t wait to do it herself in a few years. We cleaned up the mess so we could get ready for dinner, but it was a blast watching them have fun together and share this educational experience with Kalani. Stay tuned for more on the fetal pig and crawfish dissections!!!!!!

Albuquerque Trip

This past weekend we were suppose to go away with the army for a family retreat before the unit deploys next month. Once again the army let us down and there was not enough room for us to go. Bags were all packed and the kids so excited about getting away (and missing a day of school), so Greg and I decided we would do our own little family retreat. We went away on Friday for the weekend to Albuquerque, New Mexico. We were hoping to see some snow, but the city was warm and all the snow was at high elevations.

On Friday evening we just got there in time to get some dinner and enjoy a few hours in the hotel pool. We went to a local Mexican restaurant and it was very good, but a little on the warm side. New Mexico does a red or green chile sauce and the red that night was very warm, not to mention my food was swimming in it. Besides drinking a lot of water with my meal, the flavors were great! Swimming was fun, although Greg and I mostly watched from a distance as we enjoyed the hot tub together.

Saturday morning, we got up and headed straight out for the Sandia Peak tram after eating breakfast. We enjoyed looking out at God’s beautiful scenery while going up the world’s longest tram. We ended up at an elevation of 10,387 feet and there was snow. The snow was slippery and very packed down, but Lauren still managed to find some to eat. We found some loose snow that wasn’t packed down, even though it would not make very good snow balls, a few of us still ended up with very cold snow down our backs. After coming back down, we went around the other side of the mountain to drive up and go to the crest at over 10,600 feet in elevation. On the way up the girls had seen spots they were dying to go back to and sled. We stopped on the way back down and did some fun, but painful sledding. All we had was those little disk, so we flew down the small hills on some very slippery snow. A few of us even took to the air as we hit bumps in the snow and landed back very roughly on a small plastic disk. We had fun and were very wet and cold. We left there and went to Old Town to walk around and do some shopping, but we also went to this small rattlesnake museum. They were all in cages, so I was fine seeing them so up close. We asked the owner where to get a good bite to eat for dinner around there and he recommended Church Street Café, so off we went. It was awesome food and another great local place to eat. Kalani and I shared food with each other to try 2 different things. She had the Indian Taco, which is pretty much a taco in Indian Fry Bread and it was awesome. I had a Hot Spanish Chili Dip sandwich which was also great! Greg had a hamburger that was on the Fry Bread for his buns, which was huge and delicious. We let our massive meal digest and went back to enjoy the pool again that night.

On Sunday, we got up and headed off to the zoo and aquarium after breakfast and checking out of the hotel. The zoo was bigger than we expected and the girls were filled with such excitement at each animal we saw. Kalani said she saw animals she had never seen before at another zoo and even one she thought was extinct. The Mexican wolf is extinct in the wild, but we saw at least 3 and they are trying to breed them and reintroduce them into the wild. There were at least 5-6 zoo babies mostly born last October, but there was one from September and one in July. They have an elephant pregnant right now and said she would give birth and about another 12 months, so I asked how long they are pregnant. They are pregnant 22 months, so I guess we have nothing to complain about our nine months ladies.

A storm was coming in and right as we were leaving the zoo on our train ride to the aquarium, the clouds started rolling in. Against what I had told them, the 3 younger went off with out a jacket and in flip flops. Let’s just say the train ride back was very miserable and cold for them and they will learn to listen to mom next time. We saw some neat, but weird fish at the museum and enjoyed it as well. It was not a very big one, but we had a great day. We even had some sleet coming down as we waited for the train. I told Greg we needed to get out of there before the roads turned bad. We decided to head to a Rudy’s we had seen while out driving because we were all starving and have learned to love Rudy’s BBQ since coming out to El Paso. Some of us even think it beats Sonny’s out in Georgia.

We got on the road about 4 and were home by 8 that night to get the girls in bed for school the next day and so Greg could do some homework before going to bed. On the way home, I asked the girls what was each of theirs favorite part of the trip. Lauren, of course, said the food. She is a girl after my own heart. Shelby and Hannah both said the sledding, which was ironic because Shelby was crying after the first time down with how fast and hard we zoomed down the hills. Hannah is a thrill seeker, so I am not surprised. Kalani said she couldn’t pick between the tram and the zoo. She loved the day at the zoo, seeing how they are helping to try and breed animals that are in danger of extinction and really saw how what she wants to do can even be done at a zoo. She was even more excited about her choice for her path in life to get a conservation degree and to be able to work with animals that way. Mine and Greg’s favorite time was when they were sleeping!!!!! No, I am just joking! It was just all being together as a family, experiencing somewhere new, and the enjoyment we saw in all their eyes! Corny, I know, but so very true!! The new slide show of pictures at the top is from our trip!

What is Lauren up to now?

Lauren seems to get more attention on this blog than anyone else, but she is the one that is constantly doing something silly and you should always keep your camera near by. The other night we were sitting down to dinner and were eating lasagna and salad. I had a plate of cucumbers out for those that like them in their salad. Lauren decided to start smelling one and putting it on her nose. With out even thinking about who I was talking to, I told her cucumbers are suppose to be good for your eyes. Lauren proceeded to see if she believed that with 2 slices on her eyes and then put holes in them so she could see. Once again we were all laughing, but I did have to finally tell her to stop playing with her food.
Yes, she did go ahead and eat them because Lauren does not believe in wasting food.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year to all our friends and family! We hope and pray you all have a blessed 2009 and hope that things will be better for us as well. I know next year all my kids will be with us and that gives me something to look forward to so much! Greg and I brought the new year in already in bed, but woke up by fireworks and Sascha barking at them as they went on for over an hour. Hannah said she was going to stay up, but we said happy new year to her at 11:15 as she went to bed and said she was tired. We picked up around the house some today after eating breakfast, so as to not come home to a messy house. We are leaving in the morning to go to Houston and spend a few days with my family before getting the girls on Monday! And yes, I am counting down, we are now under 4 days until they are back in my arms! I beat Greg and Hannah at a very long game of Scrabble earlier and Hannah already has electronic Monopoly out for us to play later! I just wanted to say thank you to all of you for your prayers for our family and we hope and pray for a very special 2009! We love you all!