Uncle Jake and Ella

Thursday nights Port has basketball practice for 1 hour at the Truman gym.  All the kids love coming and playing with each other during practice.  MOST of the kids, Haynes/Crew/Preslee, enjoy trying to play basketball during their practice.  Ella, on the other hand, could care less about playing with the ball...can't figure out where she got that from:-)  Thankfully Uncle Jake has decided to at least make sure she can catch a ball!  Thanks Uncle Jake for loving on our sweet girl so well!

Valentine's Parties at Gingerbread

 This year we had all our Valentine's parties on the same day and at the same time!  Halle and I did a great job running back and forth between each party.  I snapped this picture before the kids jumped out of the car that morning...it might be my new favorite pic!

One of the mom's made the cutest cookies for Haynes class! 

 I could hardly get a picture before he ate it!

Sutton and Halle

All of the cousins are so great with kids...maybe because there are so many around!  Sutton is one of the most tender-hearted ones for sure.  The moment I walk into a room with Halle, he is usually by my side, trying to talk to her, hug her, or hold her.  I had to grab a sweet picture of them together so she would know he has always loved her so much. 

Sisters

Ella has always loved the idea of being the big sister, but now that Halle is really interacting with us she LOVES it!  One of Ella's new favorite jobs is feeding Halle her little snacks.  She likes to work on sign language with her and then share the snacks of course...we do seem to go through snacks much more quickly now that she is my helper:-)

Doctor Appointments

This has been the week of doctor appointments for this cute girl.  Don't worry she has passed all of them with FLYING colors!  Monday we had our yearly checkup and a meeting with the genetics specialist.  I will admit that I definitely have to have my heart ready to walk into appointments, but I felt a lot of peace about these.  They checked her blood iron levels and everything was perfect!  Halle weighs a whole 14 lbs and 11 oz!  Her growth curve looks absolutely perfect and she has been consistently in the 1%.  She's off of bottles and formula and has been moved to Pediasure (to bulk her up) and sippy cups!  We think she is absolutely perfect!

Genetics was our second appointment of the day.  We met with the actual specialist this time and he sat down and talked to us about Halle for 1.5 hours.  He soon realized that we had done the specific blood test on Halle and determined that Halle's micro deletion was significantly less than the average Williams Syndrome patient.  He then agreed to go through the list of genes and help us determine areas that could be strengths and/or weaknesses since her deletion is so slight.  We felt so encouraged that God is giving us the practical places to pray into over the next season for sweet Halle.  

Then to top it off...Halle said, "Hi DaDa!" to Brian as we were walking into Children's.  I honestly thought he was going to cry...it's amazing what 2 sweet words can do to your heart.  By the end of the day she could have had anything she wanted from him:-)

Daddy Daughter Dance

 This is getting ready for our big date.  Ella is 3...not even really old enough to go to the Daddy Daughter Dance, but we all acknowledge that she looks and acts like she's 5...so we bent the rules:-)  Ella has an opinion on EVERYTHING.  Like most mom's...our opinions usually differ.  It's great exercise for me to learn to let go of things that don't really matter.  Ella got to pick her hair, shoes, dress, nail polish and even Brian's tie.  We actually had a great time getting ready this afternoon:-)

*Brian walked out of the closet and Ella said, "Daddy why do you always wear a red tie!"  I asked her if she wanted to choose Daddy's tie (as Brian cringed) and she said YES!  Brian gave her three options...she did not choose the red tie:-)

 Brian came to the door to pick Ella up and brought her a beautiful corsage, made by my mom.  Port answered the door, just like a big brother should...

 Don't they look amazing!

I let Ella borrow one of my purses for her date, she chose a gold one to match.  It was packed with her lipgloss and gum.  She couldn't hardly wait!!

Pulling Teeth

This week Brian and Port decided that this was the week his tooth was going to come out.  They made a plan for Wednesday night...They tied a string to a football and his tooth and threw it across the room a few times...Brian got some pliers and tried to pull out his tooth...and then just a good old fashion tug...it's still there!

Thursday night he got hit in the mouth at a basketball game and one of the mom's is a dental hygienist.  She told him to suck on a Popsicle and then take a big bite out of an apple...didn't work.  I finally said no more, let's wait a little bit longer:-)

This is a perfect picture and description of my boys.  Port is my sensitive, a little dramatic one:-)  He is slightly scared, disappointed, and in some pain.  Haynes is the sweetest little brother that just climbed up on the bar and cried because his brother was upset.  I completely missed the picture the night before of Haynes climbing up and just hugged Port after the failed attempt.  Oh how I love brothers....

This week I asked Port what he would miss most about being at Gingerbread.  His response was, "playing with my brother and sister...when we go out after lunch Haynes always comes and finds me and says, 'Brother!'"  Oh my...yes I immediately started crying!  Praying God will prepare my kids hearts for that season.  I am so thankful to be creating sweet relationships between siblings.

Perfect...just like we expected

"Perfect...just like we expected!"

Today we had our 6 month check up with the urologist.  They did an ultrasound of her kidneys and bladder.  Then we went and met with her urologist and this is what she said...

"Perfect...just like we expected!"  

She doesn't have any more problems with kidneys and that's exactly what we expected.  Then she asked me to share again how Halle got her diagnosis.  She said, "Every time I look at her chart before I come in I expect to come in and see a completely different baby!"  She asked me if I regretted ever walking into that cardiologist's office...

good question

although i hate the diagnosis i am SO thankful for what God has done in our family over the last year.  knowledge is power and we get the opportunity to press into God in ways we never dreamed of...we are constantly thankful for the ways God is showing Himself faithful to healing Halle.  We are SO thankful for this first of many good reports this month!!

Super Bowl Party

 The Waggoner's threw a Super Bowl party this year!  They did an awesome job and even set up the Wii for the kids during the game.  I'm not sure who like the old Nintendo games more the kids or the adults!

Ella's new OBSESSION is the new "Loft Sessions" CD from Bethel Church.  Saturday she walked around blaring the music as we ran errands, introducing everyone to "Brian."  I love that she not only thinks she knows them by name, but she can sing every word to them too!  She decided to listen to worship and dance in the kitchen during the Super Bowl...

I love this girl!

Works In Progress

 We have been so excited for our Works-In-Progress performance.  We bought a new leotard and boy have we practiced our dances:-)

Ella was not even kind of excited about her hair being up in a bun...I would say her attitude was comparable to my dad's opinion of only two people getting to watch her performance:-)

 Sweet Lainey came to watch these little ballerinas

 Ella got a new coloring book to keep her entertained during the performance while she was waiting.  

 This is the only shot of her hair that we got...doesn't she look beautiful!

We got her a little gift of lipstick for doing such a great job!

 She LOVED it of course!

Lolli and Champ kindly watched the rest of our crew while we went to the performance.  Ella just barely made it in the door before insisting on taking down her hair.  She did a beautiful job dancing!  

Bike Rides

The weather has been unusually AMAZING so we decided to try a bike ride to the park.  The boys did an AWESOME job...I actually had to make them stop and wait for us!  Ella did a great job, but man is she ALL girl!  About half way there she said, "Mom!  My back is hot!"  That's code for "I'm sweating!"  Don't worry she pushed through and made it there and back.  It's crazy to think family bike rides are in the horizon for us and our little ones!

Grigor Family Night

 Our friday nights have turned into family nights around here.  We invited the Grigor's to join us!  We told them about the XBOX dance and they joined in....

LOVE watching Brian and Gerod!!

Almost as much as I love watching these kiddos!!

Happy Birthday Emma!

All the amazing weather this winter so we headed to the park to celebrate sweet Emma Doke.  The kids had the best time playing and enjoying yummy cupcakes!

Happy Birthday sweet Emma!

Halle and Champ

Family Bowling Night

We are thankful for such an amazing family to laugh, cry, and celebrate with.  After celebrating my Poppy's life we headed to the bowling alley for some family time.  Halle just needed some cuddle time with Champ and he was glad to cuddle too!

Basketball

 It's basketball season around here at the Hartsock house!

Thursday nights include dance class, 2 basketball practice and dinner around 8:30.

Love this season of our life!

 Halle is the best cheerleader around!

Port's playing Junior Jammers this year with an AWESOME coach!

We love watching these boys improve every week!

Halle Update

Halle Beth

She's almost 1!!  I can't even wrap my mind around that yet!! 

 Just wanted to give a little update...

Halle is no longer on ANY medication. Praise Jesus!  

We are completely healed from larngomalacia, thank you Jesus!  

Halle has been sleeping dramatically better, both at night and for naps.

She is truly the easiest most joyful baby you could meet! 

She is talking all the time now, the kids even whined to get her to be quiet during their movie night!

She likes to say DaDa and Buba...no Mama yet:-)

She's quite the copy cat, which we are all LOVING!

We have started meeting with a physical therapist named, Mr. Bob.  We have some amazing friends that recommended him to us after doing a little research.  We have been meeting with him for about 1 month now and are seeing DRAMATIC difference in Halle's strength.  She's sitting up, her tummy is much more tone, she is much more active and moving around more...getting closer to crawling every day!  I've taken Haynes to meet Mr. Bob and the the other kids are anxious to come meet him and get their assignment on how to help Halle.

Sooner Start came to do their monthly evaluation and were AMAZED at how much progress Halle has made lately!  

We are getting ready to start a month of more appointments and believing for more good reports.  

Library Trip

 All my kids took a trip to the library, so Halle and I decided to join them!

This is Ella's class dancing during story time.

 Haynes and Beau came and joined us for story time too!

Love You Most

A few weeks ago my Poppy went to be with Jesus.  Through this process I have realized how thankful I am for the true patriarch my grandfather was to my family.  He truly "loved the Lord with all his heart, soul, and mind."  I'm so thankful that my kids LOVED their Poppy and have sweet memories with him. While we will continue to miss him so much, we are truly celebrating that He is with home with Jesus! 

Little helper

The grocery store is really one of my kids favorite places to go...I just LOVE it!  They love visiting their Uncle Tom especially since Poppy isn't there anymore.  They love checking the floral department with my mom.  They love running to my dad's office to watch cartoons, spy on me through the monitor, and get blue juice and candy.  They also LOVE helping me check out....

Ella's hair

We were so concerned that her hair wouldn't stay for the wedding, but it lasted at least 2 days!

Great job Allison!

The REAL after Party...

When we got home we had a house full of people all ready for bed....

Brian decided to bring out the XBOX for some dancing.

We stayed up ALL night dancing and laughing!!

I only wish I could put the videos of this on here:-)

After Party

 After the wedding we decided since kids were taken care of to go out with friends!  

 I think all these pictures are so good!

Such a fun night with friends!

David and Shannon's Wedding

 Allison came to help me with Ella's hair for the wedding.  A little puppy chow and Tinkerbell movie were the perfect trick.  Thanks Al!

 The only picture I got from the night of the sweet couple leaving!

I'm sure I have more picture somewhere, but this is the only one I can find.  The kids did a GREAT job!  They walked down the isle with their bells ringing loudly and then Ella burst out in the best laugh ever:-)  It was truly like the Holy Spirit entered the sanctuary and released JOY!  The boys looked so handsome and just look at my sweet girls.  

Rehearsal for the Burget Wedding

This was the rehearsal for the wedding!  

The kids LOVED their bells, but my boys were confused why they didn't get to carry the actual rings.  We had Brian and Alex sending the kids and Brooke and I catching them...

I LOVE Ella's giggly face!

Bridal Luncheon

 Ella was so excited to go to the Bridal luncheon.  On our way we were talking about what we would do, eat, etc.  Ella asked if she could have mac & cheese, which was totally random.  I told her probably not and prepped her for what she would probably get.  When we got there Shannon's sweet mom had got her a kids menu....Ella was THRILLED!

Ella with the beautiful BRIDE!

Nails with Girls

 Ella was the flower girl for David and Shannon's wedding.  We rushed out of dance class to meet with the girls...Ella couldn't wait!

 Waiting for our toes to dry

We loved getting a little girl time before the BIG DAY!  

Thanks for including us in such a fun day!!

"Best Night of the Year"

 We got to take some friends to the Thunder game right after New Year's.  We joked that it was the "Best Night of the Year" but it was a great night!  

We always love time with the Lebeau's!