My Nephews

I have 2 younger sisters, Rachel & Anna, who both live in Texas. Anna, the youngest, aka Aunt Boo, is not married (yet, uh hum, Daryl, time to propose already), but has built a brand new house that she & Daryl will be moving into this summer. My other sister, Rachel, the middle child, is married to Uncle Richie, and they have 2 boys. We do have an older brother also, Daniel, who is divorced (a good thing), and has two adorable kidos, a boy (Stephen) & a girl (Linnea). You may be asking why I am telling you all of this? Before I launch into this post, I just thought you should have some background information on my siblings and our kidos. On a side note, Rachel & I are convinced that no matter how many children we would have, she would always have boys & me girls. Hence, I don't have an overwhelming desire to have a boy because my nephews (all though far away) are very special to me.


This is Gavin Pierce, he was born in August of 2009. I haven't met him yet in person, but am looking forward to meeting him this fall. I hear he is a very sweet natured baby, always happy, and he does coo affectionately at his Aunt Sarah on the phone. I am also planning on getting Skype set up for my Houstonian family so that we can "see" each other more regularly.


Mister Gavin in my parent's backyard, Gram & Pops, riding in his wagon. He has such twinkly little eyes that he got from his dad. All of us Laughlin kids have giant eyes and he is the first grandbaby to not have these. We think that is a blessing, see next.


Gavin with his Aunt Boo! The whole reason I decided to do this post was to ask for prayers for my youngest nephew Gavin. He was diagnosed just a couple weeks ago with a very rare (like one in a million) congenital anomaly called Morning Glory Disc Anomaly. As you can see, his left eye is crossed, and he is also mostly blind in that eye. There is no cure for this. They have started him on wearing a patch on his right eye to strengthen what little sight he does have on the left side. He hates this, as you could imagine, going from seeing just fine to barely being able to see & not being able to understand why would be very upsetting. We know that God can heal all & provides miracles everyday. We are thankful that there are no developmental issues associated with this and that he does have sight. Of course, Nurse Aunt Sarah did as much research as she could and guess what... there isn't much of anything on this because it is so rare. The most I learned was on a message board for people living with this disorder.

So here is what I need from you... Prayers! I know that God has wonderful things in store for this little one and I also know that God never gives anyone more than they can handle. It breaks my heart to think that he may get made fun of in school, because let's face it, that's what kids do. I pray that God helps the doctors he sees have the knowledge to give him the best treatment available, and from that that Gavin has the best possible outcome. I also pray that God gives Gavin the strength in life to stand up to those who don't understand and therefore say hurtful things. Most of all, I say thanks that he has sight in his right eye & that so far there are not any other comorbidities associated with this that we know of. I feel very blessed that Gavin is a part of our family and is a happy, healthy, normal baby boy!


This is Ethan Nicholas, Gavin's proud big brother. He is and has always been a character. He wants to be just like his Pops! He is wearing a pair of cowboy boots that belong to my dad, the only pair that he is "allowed" to wear. Ethan is also very mischievous, he wants to do grown up things just like "Pops"! This gets him into trouble a lot! And although he is almost 5 years old, you can't take your eyes off of him or you never know what you might find.


He is ALL boy! Like I said before, whatever Pops is doing, Ethan is doing too. My mom said that she wouldn't put it past him to try and use one of my dad's power tools that he has seen him use, so for that reason, my dad only works with these when he is not home or out of sight.


Mister Ethan being his normal goofy self. I wish I had a picture of the face he makes when he knows he is being mischievous. I am sure I do somewhere; or Mom send me one if you are reading this, you know the face.

Anyway, these are my precious nephews and as close to sons as I will ever have. Thanks for letting me share my extended family with you! -SR


Thanks Aunt Boo for sending me this one of Ethan when he was 3 years old. This captures that infamous mischievous face he makes perfectly. What a pumpkin!

Food for thought

This is true: http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/bell.asp


. . . Something To Think About . . .


In Washington, DC, at a Metro Station, on a cold January morning in 2007, this man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, approximately 2,000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After about 3 minutes, a middle-aged man noticed that there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, and then he hurried on to meet his schedule.


About 4 minutes later
The violinist received his first dollar. A woman threw money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.


At 6 minutes
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.


At 10 minutes
A 3-year old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head the whole time. This action was repeated by several other children, but every parent - without exception - forced their children to move on quickly.


At 45 minutes
The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.


After 1 hour
He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed and no one applauded. There was no recognition at all.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before, Joshua Bell sold-out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100 each to sit and listen to him play the same music.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell, playing incognito in the D.C. Metro Station, was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.


This experiment raised several questions:
*In a common-place environment, at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?
*If so, do we stop to appreciate it?
*Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?


One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the
most beautiful instruments ever made . . .
How many other things are we missing as we rush through life?


Not sure who the original author is of this, but I received this from my aunt via email & thought I should share. -SR

Just because...

...we finally got a new computer! This has been on our wish list for years, but as most of you know real life usually gets in the way, and wish list items get put on hold. Much like our vacuum & camera, we finally got new ones when the old ceased to work any longer. Now my blog postings will not take nearly as long as they use to. Woohoo! And, we can finally return Andrew's parent's little netbook that they lent us to Skype. For those living far away, feel free to email us for our Skype Name. It is lots of fun! I just have a few pictures to post, but will have more after this weekend. We have quite a weekend planned!


Kathryn turned 10 years old on May 2nd. Man how fast time flies! I can't believe that when Grace is Kate's age, that Kate will be 20 years old and in college. And college is not optional, period. Kate came home from school the Friday before her birth date & saw this balloon sticking out of the fridge. We had a fun night of family celebration planned!


Nana Laurie & Papa Homer had sent her a fruit bouquet, hence the arrangement being in the fridge. What a nice surprise!


We enjoyed snacking on the fruit bouquet while Kate enjoyed opening a few small gifts from Mom & Dad. What a treat the fruit was, thank you Nana & Papa! Written in her card was the clue for her big gift surprise, which we were taking her shopping for that evening. "I ride on two, while sometimes you ride on four. What am I?"


Check out the cute new headband from Vera Bradley. I have a matching black one, and just received a red one for mother's day. She also got a bottle cap necklace which was invented by a 12 year old girl, who now runs the company, making & designing these. Who would of thought a piece of stretchy cotton with a washer attached to hold a decorated bottle cap glued to a magnet would be the latest preteen fashion. She also got a cute little pair of sterling silver tiny hoop earrings, but will have to wait a year to wear these (Mom read the directions for ear care on recently pierced ears after I bought them).


Grace & I waiting in the car while Kate gets her kickstand put on. Miss Gracie had had enough of the store so we headed back to the car for a diaper change, feeding, and change of scenery. I am horrible at taking these kind of self pictures. I just saw that they came out with a camera that has a screen on the front for self portraits. What an idea! I am surprised my husband/inventor didn't think of that. He is always inventing things that he could retire off of.


Kathryn Elisabeth with her brand new bike sporting the "I'm Unique" shirt that her cousin Hannah in Texas sent her for her birthday. Andrew just finished finals yesterday, and April showers seem to have brought us more May showers, so Kate has only practiced riding a hand full of times. We are going to have to keep working on it. She gets her balance, Dad lets go, she pedals 3-4 times before she realizes Dad has let go, then dumps her bike & jumps off. I keep envisioning that one day she is just going to take off. But hey, the agreement still stands that she has to learn to ride her bike before she can learn to drive a car. It's all up to her!


Kate making cupcakes to take to school on Monday. She actually did everything herself with little guidance, except for the oven part of course. They were delicious! She made me an extra special one with lots of icing that I enjoyed with my coffee Monday morning. Nothing like dessert for breakfast with coffee! I had to work that weekend, so I told Kate I would make her cupcakes Monday morning and bring them up to school. I was impressed that she took care of it herself. I am usually good for nothing on Mondays, as I just finished working 26 out of 48 hours, not including drive/preparation time. What a thoughtful daughter I have.


Grace pondering the water being splashed in her face. She kicks her legs a lot in the bath & splashes water on her face, then wonders where it came from. Oh the joy of experiencing things through the eyes of a baby. How cool is it that mundane daily things to us are things they are experiencing for the first time. Fascinating!


P.S. Aren't those chubby cheeks super cute! I can't believe it has already been over 3 months since she was born. We look forward to bath time everyday, one, because she loves it, and two, because it marks the start of the bedtime routine. Bath time, baby massage, story time, goodnight... and our little bundle of joy sleeps through the night, how considerate of her.

Like I said above, we have a busy weekend planned. I have the weekend off from work, so of course I had to make it count. Andrew's mom, Laurie is coming in tonight to help with all the festivities, and Andrew's dad, Homer will be joining us Saturday morning. Friday night is Kate's gourmet cooking & sleepover birthday party, Saturday night is Andrew's good friends wedding (Luz & Tylor, who have been dating since college, so like 10 years, are finally saying "I do"), and Sunday we are baptizing Grace Elaine. I will have lots of pictures to post! -SR