a-MAY-zing May

This has been such a busy month with school wrapping up, but we have had some incredible things happen this month.  Brace yourself for a long post!  Here are some of them:

Brooke suddenly went from being up every 2-3 hours to sleeping through the night most nights.  We couldn't believe it!  Liz is finally feeling like she is recovering from having a baby 11 months later.

Michael learned how to drink from a straw.  We were having our traditional Mother's Day breakfast at our favorite local cafe, The Silver Grill, when he picked up his cup with a straw, placed it in the corner of his mouth and managed to get enough lip closure around it to suck.  I was crying happy tears to see him accomplish something so simple and yet difficult.  We have been working intensely on this for more than 1 1/2 years.

Gotta add a picture of this cutie in the mix

Grilled cheese, cucumbers and a juice box to practice

Michael also crawled over to his walker, pulled himself up in it and started walking around the house without our help.  We took it to church and he was so excited to be able to walk down the long hallways to his nursery class.  Another miracle after 1 1/2 years of difficult therapy.

Spencer turned 5!  He had a superhero birthday party with a race car themed cake and a pinata.  He has been talking about his birthday non-stop (and I literally mean non-stop) for more than 6 months so this was a big event for all of us.  For Mother's Day, his preschool put on a darling Mother's Day show complete with the ABC Mother's Day song.  He is so tall that I think all of the other kids in his class came up to his shoulder.  This month, he also wrapped up Flutterbugs preschool and said goodbye to Mrs. Smith, Miss Kaeli and his friends at a pool party. It's on to Kindergarten in the Fall.

We had an extra cake on his actual birthday too

Whitney was student spotlight at school which is a big-deal, week-long event these days.  Tim joined her for lunch with KFC one day and my sister, Julie, helped us put together a little video of her to show to the class.  I also managed to find babysitting so I could go on a field-trip to the zoo with her.  She amazed me with her kindness to the other little girl in our group who was having a rough day.  I came home with different eyes for my Whitney.  She is six, finishing 1st grade at the end of this week and is so tall, she get's mistaken for a 10 year old.

She and Sarah are practicing their medical skills on Spencer

Sarah had a wonderful surprise when she won a school district wide art contest for a poster she drew.  The school had contacted us a couple of weeks before the superintendent came to present the award to her during a school assembly, so we surprised her by all coming in to see her win her award, which was a new bike!  Sarah doesn't know how to ride a bike (actually, I taught her the summer Michael was born but she has been too scared and we haven't had the time to coax her back on one since), but after winning this bike, she went out with me one day after school and is starting to pick it up pretty quickly.

Here are just a few more pictures from our month:

Yep, I was just about to eat all that popcorn myself until the kids reminded me to share.  Just kidding.

We've had our share of rough days too, but I cannot help but feel overwhelmed by our blessings during our a-MAY-zing May.