Pool Pic's

Tooth Fairy!

The tooth fairy is broke! Jake has lost 2 teeth in 12 hours. He is pretty cute!

Tooth Fairy!

The Tooth Fairy is coming to our house tonight!!!! This is number 3!


This is a picture of Isaac, just because he is so cute! Notice his front tooth. It is called a fused tooth. Dr. Parkey thinks it is cool and says that the permanent will be normal. We have already told him that the Tooth Fairy will give him double for that one!

AR Children's

First: Thank you for all of your prayers today!

Second: AR Children's Hospital is the coolest, most awesome, most impressive, and most caring place I have ever been. I pray that you never have to be there, but know that if you have to, you could not be in a better place. This is our third year to take Jake there and we are more in awe every year. Amazing.

(Jake after he got his hospital bands)

Here is what we did today:
1. Checked in and waited 5 minutes.
2. Height, weight, blood pressure, went over all Jake's medicine.
3. Sent across hall to have a breathing test.
4. Came back and was put in a room.
5. Immediately, the dietitian came in and started asking us about how we are doing. What struggles we are having with food? What she could do for us? Checking on his calcium intake. Which I must say, I am doing wonderful with! She answered all of our questions and even went to go more information for us.
6. Dr. Stacy Jones came in. She is his allergy doctor and the smartest women in the world. I really wanted to hug her, but I restrained myself! She listened and asked questions and listened some more. I know that this sounds funny, but it is so nice for someone to actually listen to you. She examined Jake and went off to schedule some more things.
7. The asthma girl came in ( I don't know what to call her!) She came in and had him practice on a new inhaler that they want him to try. She explained everything to us and Jake.
8. Next, we went down the hall to have a chest x-ray and sinus x-ray.
9. Back to our room, Dr. Jones came back in to talk to us some more, then the blood lady came and took his blood. Got it the first time!
10. Dr. Jones came back in to go over all of the medicines and x-rays.
11. Asthma lady came back in to show us his asthma "action plan".
12. Another nurse came in to show us our prescriptions and go over everything one more time.
13. Came home.

Amazing. We were not alone in that room for more than 3 minutes at a time.

So... here is what we found out:
*food allergies - we won't know about for a week.
*bad asthma that is out of control.
*bad sinus issues.
*She likes to hit these things hard and then back off when we have it under control.
*He is on a 3 week antibiotic, and new daily inhaler that is about 100 times stronger than the last one.
*go back in 3 months.

I love that they know what they are talking about and that I now feel informed about all of this!

Let me now brag on Jake for a minute. He could not have been any better. He was excited to go. Just walked right in and started playing. He never complained, cried or anything. When they asked him to do something, he just did it. No delay, no questions. He just did it. Even happily! He was brave, strong, and just the best! We stopped at a gas station on the way home and told him he could have anything he wanted. He picked a Dr.Pepper and laffy taffy.

God is so good and we are so blessed!

Prayers for Jake

Hi Friends!

Tomorrow is a big day for the Harrell family and we could really use your prayers. As most of you know, Jake is allergic to milk, eggs, and nuts. He also has bad asthma. Tomorrow is our yearly appointment at Arkansas Children's Hospital. We will meet with his food allergy doctor, his nutritionist, and his asthma doctor. It is a very long stressful day for us and especially Jake. We need prayers for everything concerning tomorrow! Here is a list!

*Safe journey to Little Rock.
*Peace about the whole day.
*Patience!
*That Jake will be brave and not scared.
*Healing! We would love a miracle!
*Good information that will improve his quality of life.
*Lack of pain for Jake. He will, at the very least, have to have his blood drawn.

Thanks for your prayers! Our appointment is Wed. at 11:15am. I will let you know how it goes!

More Graduation Pictures

This is a picture of Jake, Isaac, and Mrs. Horton on the last day of school. I wasn't going to send Jake on the last day, but when he heard that Mrs. Horton was going to be there, he wanted to go! Mrs. Horton had to miss the last few weeks of school because she had Baby Lily. We are so thankful that everyone is alright now and that she is back home. Mrs. Horton has been an answer to so many prayers this year! Isaac even loves her!

This next picture is the funniest picture of the year! I had told Jake that he didn't have to take the graduation picture at school because I wasn't going to buy one, but when he got to school he found out that everyone had to take it. As you can see, he was NOT happy about it! I had to buy it because it was so funny! He is going to be so happy with me when I put this in his Senior Slide show at church!

Jake is a Graduate!

My Jakers has officially completed Kindergarten! We attended his kindergarten picnic and graduation this afternoon. Jake also received the Student of the Month award for the month of January. He was so pumped! He put both hands in the air and said "YES!".

I can't beleive that this year is already over. What a blessing Mrs. Horton and the Kindergarten Center have been! I could not have asked for a better experience for Jake's first year of school.

Jake's awards and t-shirt. The teachers in the purple pod made each student in their class t-shirts to wear during graduation. Jake was so proud of his!

This is Jake receiving his "Student of the Month" Award.

Proud Dad after Graduation!

Demario, Jake, Wesley, and Christian.

Travis, Bryson, Jake, Kaleel.
Jake's best friends in his class. They all play football at recess.

T-ball

Thought I would post a few pictures of Jake playing t-ball. This is his first year and Chris' first year to be the assistant coach. It has been great and so laid back. We are playing at the YMCA. I would definitely recommend it!





This picture is from Monday night. Our young married bible class came out and cooked for all of the teams playing that night. Will, Jake and Isaac had a great time playing and even handed out a few WOW fliers.

Thankful Tuesday

It is Thankful Tuesday! One of my favorite days of the week! Today I thought I would list 10 things that Jake and Isaac would write on their thankful lists.

Things that Jake is thankful for:

1. Cyberchase - a pbs show that comes on at 3pm. We race home everyday after school so he can watch it

2. His big blue bed. For some reason he loves his bed. He never wants to sleep anywhere else or let anyone else sleep in his bed. Except Gigi!

3. The Wii. He loves the wii!

4. Wesley. What would we do without Wesley!?

5. Zaxby's. Jake loves zaxby's. If given the choice where to eat, it would always be zaxby's. That is were all "guys nights out" take place.

6. Jake loves school. My prayer all year has been that he would have a great first experience with school and learn to love school and learning. God has answered my prayers!

7. Jake's favorite outfit! His black athletic "swishy" pants, his gray Lipscomb t-shirt, his black ASU Indians hat turned around backwards, and his red hooded sweatshirt tied around his waist. Crazy kid!

8. Webkins. Jake got a webkins snake from the Easter bunny. It is our new computer obsession.

9. Jake's favorite foods: soy yogurt, dino chicken, pop-tarts, bananas, special rolls that I make him, graham crackers with icing in the middle-then frozen, strawberries, blueberries.

10. And the most important one of all....Isaac! Jake loves Isaac. They are an inseparable team. They wake up playing, get home from school playing, and go to bed playing.

10 Things that Isaac is thankful for:

1. His dino's. He couldn't sleep without them.

2. His favorite little friends at school. Tennyson, Will and Colby. They like to play Star Wars. Isaac has no idea what that is!

3. Space Jam and Toy Story 2. Isaac's favorite movies!

4. Basketball. He is actually really good!

5. Favorite food: fruit snacks, bananas, grapes, pineapple, baked potato, mac and cheese, apple sauce.

6. Baths. He could stay in there for hours. Sometimes he does!!

7. Isaac loves to be held! Holdja me mama!

8. Croc's.

9. Samuel. We love us some Samuel!

10. And the most important of all...Jake. Isaac lives and breathes Jake. He is happy when he is with him and sad when he isn't.

Thank you Lord for my 2 sweet boys!

Jake's 6th Birthday - part 2!!!

Jake is 6!!!! We had a great Birthday weekend! My parents and my sister came in for the big day. Auntie Erica got to come Thursday right after lunch, so that was a big special treat for the boys. She is the Best Aunt Ever. (the only aunt that they have!)

Jake decided that he wanted a Dinosaur birthday party. We decided to have it at church since there were so many people staying at our house. The weather was perfect, so the party consisted of playing outside, coming inside for cake and presents, and going back outside to play some more. A great relaxing party! Some of Jake's favorite friends were there. Of course, Wesley. We have to plan our parties around whether he can be there. The Mullins, Wilkies, Winters, and Shumperts were all there.

Jake's milk-free, egg-free, nut-free cake. It was actually pretty good!

Even the adults had a nice relaxing time!

Jake and Isaac both got new bikes from Gigi and Papa this weekend. This is Jake's first bike without training wheels. He likes it, but is frustrated that he just can't get on it and start riding. We are trying to practice a few minutes a day. That is about all mom and dad's backs can take.

My favorite 6 year old!

Jake's 6th Birthday!!!

My Jakers is 6 years old. I really can't believe it. I have had a hard time with this birthday for some reason. I usually love his birthdays and are so excited for him to get another year older, but this year has been harder for me. I have been a deep thinker this week. I have been thinking about how special he is and in particular how blessed I am to have him with me as long as I have. I know that every parent is thankful for their child's life, but for Jake and I it is different. It was a miracle that Jake was even born after a very serious pregnancy. But mostly, this week I have been thinking about Jake's food allergy's and asthma. Maybe it is because he has had a hard asthma week, or maybe it is because his allergy testing is coming up in June, or maybe God has just put in on my heart. I have had a very heavy heart. Most of the time, I have a pretty good attitude about it and don't worry much about his health or his safety, but this week I have. I have had a major burden to continually pray for him. I even called Chris one day crying and asking him to pray for him. I get in my "happy place" and don't think about how life threatening his allergies are most of the time. But this week, I have been thankful for every moment that I have had with him. God has been so good to us and I know that he will continue to be good to us no matter what, but it is still really hard. There have many times this week that I have wanted to keep him at home and not send him somewhere because I was scared. I even slept with him one night. I know that God can call any of our children home at anytime and that they would be so much happier there, but it is so hard. I have been proud of myself that I still let him go even though it scared me and that I trusted God more than me having control of the situation. I don't really know why I am writing all of this, other than I just felt like I had to. I really don't want sympathy, I just covet your prayers. Prayers for Jake and for me. Prayers that Jake will be ok, that his allergies and his asthma will go away, that God will have a constant hedge of protection around him. Pray for me, that I have some peace about this, that I will continue to trust God with Jake, and that I will trust God's plan in all of this.

Believe it or not, we really did have a great birthday weekend. I will try to get myself together tonight, so that I can post about all of the fun stuff tomorrow. Thanks for letting me ramble.

Jake Tuesday!

Oh...my Jakers! Do I have a story to tell you about Jake's emotional Monday!

Let me set the scene for you:
*I am driving back to work after a nice relaxing lunch by myself at Pizza Inn. (I like to go myself and read)
*Phone rings. Kindergarten Center. Jake didn't make it from the playground in time. Had a accident in the bathroom trying to get his pants down. (This has never happened at school before!)
*I work over by the mall, so I called Chris because he works right down the street. He runs home and gets him new clothes and heads up there.
* Jake immediately starts crying when he sees Chris.
*What the nurse failed to tell me is that Jake didn't only pee his pants, but he did "something else" his pants.
*Side note: Jake has really bad food allergies and that results in "abnormal" stools. I will let your mind wander on that one. To say the least he can't hold it as well as normal children!
*Chris attempts to clean him up, but finally asks him, "buddy, do you just want to go home?" Jake of course wants to, so Chris takes him home and gives him a bath.
*Bless him! My poor Jakers! Very traumatic!

Scene two:
*Jake's first t-ball practice. He has never played before. Chris is the assistant coach.
*Jake is paired up with another little boy and they are suppose to throw the ball back and forth to each other.
*The other boy puts the ball in his glove and throws it. Jake tells him he is doing it wrong.
*Jake throws it right, but hits the boy in the crotch.
*He throws it again and hits the boy in the chin.
*Later on, he throws the ball to coach and hits him in the head.
*At least he has good aim!

My Jakers is a great kid, with a great attitude! By the time he got out of the bath he was completely over the whole incident. He was happy and couldn't wait to go pick up Isaac from school. He loved t-ball and can't wait for their first game. He is a happy boy that can always roll with the punches. Love that boy!

Love Chris too! He gets the "Dad of the Year" award!

(I would appreicate it if no one would say anything to Jake about this post! He can read it when he is an adult!)

Jake's Tuesday

I am starting something new today! Some of my fellow bloggers have special days of the week that they post about certain things, so today I am trying it. Tuesday's, I am going to post about Jake. Thursday's, I am going to post about Isaac. It is so easy for me to group them together since they do everything together, so hopefully this will help me focus on the things that make them who they are.

10 Things that I love about Jake!

1. Jake has the best laugh. He has one of those laughs that you have to laugh because he is laughing. There are many days that I am laughing so hard and I don't even know what we are laughing at!
2. I love that Jake loves his brother!
3. I love that Jake still has a big belly and big cheeks for me to kiss.
4. I love that he still wants me to scratch his back every night before bed.
5. I love that, for the most part, he has a great attitude about his food allergies.
6. I love that Jake is so social. He loves people.
7. I love that Jake spells everything while he is talking. For example: Chris comes home from work last night "d-a-d, m-o-m is in a bad mood!" (which I was :) !)
8. I love that he is so grown up in some ways, but such a baby in others.
9. I love that he is so flexible and is able to go with the flow. We have dragged him all over the world and back with the teenagers and he is always excited and ready to go.
10. I love Jake because he is always wanting to learn. Always asking questions. Always trying to figure things out.

Well...I could keep going, but I think that is a good first start! The picture below is one of Jake's papers from school. I thought you might enjoy it. They write everyday at school. I will try to post one every week. It says: I have a pet pig. My pig is in the brown mud. Do you like it? My pig likes yogurt and guk.

Tornado Clean Up

I thought I better go ahead and post about last Saturday since I have finally figured this whole blogging thing out! Chris had to speak at a retreat in Memphis last Saturday and I was so tired of being in the house that when they announced at church that they were taking a bus full of people to go to Zion, AR to help clean up from the recent tornado, I jumped on it! I sent Isaac over to a friends house because I knew that I couldn't handle both of them. Jake and I got on the bus and 6:30am Sat. morning and were ready to work. Actually, I was ready for work and this was one of those moments that I had to pull out the whole "that is just what Harrell's do" phrase with Jake. He didn't quit understand why we were going to pick up trash, but quickly caught on. We got to the house that we were helping with and the nice old man asked us if we could help clean up his blueberry bushes. He grew blueberries for a living and they were covered in tree branches. It wasn't really hard work, but a lot of work. Jake did great and had fun with all of the teens that were there. He worked with them most of time. We probably filled 25 trailers full of branches in 2 hours. This is how one of the conversations with Jake went:
Jake: Why are we cleaning up these blueberry bushes mom?
Me: We are helping him because this would take him a really long time to clean up.
Jake: Why does he need them cleaned up?
Me: He grows blueberries to make money and if these aren't cleaned up he won't make any money.
Jake: Why does he need money?
Me: He needs the money so that he can buy food for his family.
Jake: OH...so we are helping him clean up the bushes so that he can buy food for his family?
Me: Yep! And ...Harrell's like to help people because it makes God happy.
Jake: Got it mom.
I don't know if he still gets it, but at the time it made me really proud of him. He went running off to tell one of the teenagers all about it too. Go Jake!
The day was really great and the weather was perfect. It was great to get outside and get some sun along with helping some really wonderful people.