School and the flu!?

You are probably thinking what a wierd title! Although it may sound wierd, it is the best way to describe the last few days around here. Sunday morning Ben woke up complaining of his belly hurting. He was not running a temp and seemed fine otherwise. We all got ready for church and were halfway there when he vomited in the van :o( Since we had planned to go to my parents house for dinner we decided to drop off Me, Caleb and Ben at their house while the rest of the healthy ones went to church. Ben was miserable all morning and kept throwing up. The funny thing is that I thought that it was just his allergies because all he was throwing up was mucous since he had not eaten anything all day. Well, that evening Me, Becca, Abby and Caleb went to church and Danny stayed home with Ben. We were about 10 minutes from home when Abby repeated Ben's performance from earlier! Only this time it was not just snot! EWWW! What a mess! I grabbed wipes and a stray Walmart bag that happened to be handy and cleaned her up the best I could. She ended up riding home in just her undies! All night Abby was sick and we were changing sheets and ...you get the picture! I quickly realized that our family had somehow contracted a nasty flu bug and it was making its way through everyone. Sure enough, it hit Danny Tues. afternoon and he is just now starting to feel better. Who will be next?! I am hoping and praying that it is done! At this time noone is sick...hope the wellness lasts!

To add to the chaos of the last few days, we started homeschooling Monday. (That was a fairly healthy day!) Becca is in 4th grade, Ben is in 1st and Abby is pre-school. We are using the ACE curriculum that they are used to and I had all my school days. I will not lie and say that everything is going smoothly because it is not! Challenging and overwhelming are 2 words that come to mind to describe the last 3 days! However, we feel that this is the best option for our family right now and with LOTS of God's grace we will make it! Remember us in your prayers that we can get a routine worked out and that I do not tear out my hair! LOL!!

Here are pics of schooltime:

Getting ready to start the 2008-2009 school year.

Abby-pre-school, Becca-4th, Ben-1st

Becca doing her English PACE.

Ben is very proud of the letters that he is learning to write.

Abby 'made' her letters out of glue and dried beans.

Caleb took his first nap in his crib since he has been born! This

was such a milestone for him because everytime we laid him in his crib he would wake up and cry and we had to hold him. This

was on Monday and he slept in there again today..yeah!!

Becca cooked pancakes for our breakfast and made smiley faces!

Ben is being very studious!

Abby sitting at her little desk coloring.

Here are some other random pics:

Landon Summers came to visit and we had to get

pics of the 2 cuties!

Caleb was trying his best to eat his hand while daddy held him.

I guess I don't feed him enough...LOL!

That's all folks! Have a good night!

Waiting.....

We are all waiting in anticipation of Mr. Caleb James first smile! He is 6 weeks old and coos and does a lot of 'talking' with his eyebrows but no smile has appeared yet. It is funny because we are all in a sort of contest to see who can get him to smile first ;o)He seems to grow bigger everyday and we love him so much. Her are some pics of the little man's different moods:

We went to the park with our best friends the Quakenbushes and we took some silly pictures of all our 'monkeys'! They all really hammed for the camera!

Top row is Tanner and Cory. Bottom row is Becca,Elli,Skyler,Abby and Ben.

We have got tomatoes coming out our ears!

Anyone want some tomatoes!? Earlier this Spring, Danny bought 40 tomato plants thinking that he would be selling them. Well, we ended up planting all 40 in our garden! And now we have gotten well over 200 tomatoes! We LOVE tomatoes and have been enjoying them, but enough is enough! We have made 1 batch of salsa and Danny is getting ready to make another batch. We really enjoy chips and salsa! But, seriously, if you would like some tomatoes and live here locally..let us know! We would rather give them away and let others enjoy them then to have them rot.;o)






Other news: My mom is turning 50 tomorrow! My dad, sister, brother and I put on a BIG surprise party for her last Sat. There were over 50 people that came and we had dominoes pizza, chips, carrot cake, choc. sheet cake, butter pecan icecream and choc. chip cookies. All her favorites! When her and my dad came home riding on their new-to-them Goldwing motorcycle, we were all hiding in their dark garage and we all yelled "Surprise". She definitely was! It turned out great! She recieved some nice presents...candles, hand soaps and Thomas Kincaid just to name a few. I volunteered to make the carrot cake since I know that is her absolute favorite. I was a little nervous about it turning out since I have never baked a cake that BIG before! (It took 3 cake mixes!) Thankfully, it turned out. Today my dad whisked her away on their Goldwing to Little Nashville for some R&R time. They are staying in a nice bed and breakfast type place that mom said is way back in the boonies.


Happy Birthday Mom! We love and appreciate you very much and hope you have a wonderful, relaxing time on your birthday!







Notice that we did not use a regular birthday cake candle? That is because the 2 candles that I brought for that specific purpose were mysteriously missing when we needed them! We looked everywhere and could not find them, so we opened mom's buffet and grabbed the little votive and ....TADA! We had a candle! ;o)

A hodge-podge of recent happenings

Nothing huge and monumental has been going on around here, so I am posting random pics of this and that..:o)

The BEAUTIFUL roses that my sweetie bought me for our 10th anniversary! They are some of the most prettiest roses I have ever seen! Thank-you honey! I love you!

Brotherly love! Let's hope it lasts!

Sisterly love... (It doesn't last!)

in rollers! They wanted their hair to be curly for church.

Abby's curled nicely but Becca's was still straight after all

that work!

This is my favorite picture! They all love their baby brother a lot!

Caleb gets smothered with luvins' more than he cares for.

His expression tells it all!

...and last, but not least, the little man at 5 weeks.

Indiana Beach Pics and Caleb's 4 week check-up

Caleb had his 4 week check-up today and he is now weighing in at 9 lbs. He was proclaimed "healthy and awesome" by his pediatrician ;o) We are so thankful to have a healthy and growing baby!

As I promised, here are a few pics of the kids at Indiana Beach. Enjoy!

Becca, Ben and Abby with Aunt Rachel and g-pa getting ready for a fun-filled day!

Becca on a whale ride.

Becca and Ben racing on the motorcycles.

Abby chauffering two girls.

The whole gang on a boat ride.

Ben is down for the count!

Ben very proud of his cone that he made.

Caleb James is 1 month old!

Yesterday Caleb turned 1 month old! We are enjoying this sweet little cuddler that God has given us. His siblings want to hold him all the time and we are all waiting for his first genuine smile..it's just around the corner! There is nothing more sweet than holding a newborn!

An update on me: We found out that my infection isn't quite as serious as we first thought..praise the Lord for that! I am still very sore and limited to what I can do around the house. I am getting better and I am thankful for that!

Happy Anniversary to the Love of My Life

Exactly 10 years ago today on a sunny August day, I became Mrs. Danny Flowers. God truly gave me my soulmate when He sent Danny to me!
Danny~
On this 8th day of August, our 10th anniversary, I want to let you know how much I truly appreciate you! Thank-you for being a sweet, caring husband and wonderful father to our 4 children. Thank-you for understanding me and knowing what I want sometimes before I even know! Thank-you for your patience during my many times of illness and pregnancy. Thank-you for believing in me and my dreams. Thank-you for knowing how to cheer me up the way you brought home roses, a sweet card and Chinese takeout last night! I love you soo much and I am so thankful that God has brought you into my life and I look forward to many more years by your side.
Your Loving Wife,
Elizabeth

Bad Doctor's Report

This is Liz posting. I am having a longer recovery from my c-section than I had hoped. I found out today that I have developed a serious infection in my c-section incision. I am getting ready to start at least 2 weeks of antibiotics and maybe longer. The type of infection I have can be resistant to some antibiotics and take longer to heal. I am hoping and praying that will not be the case with me. Our family was supposed to all go to Indiana Beach Amusement park today but because of my setback we ended up sending the kids with their grandparents and my sister. The way I am feeling there is no way I could have handled all the walking and it would be pure torture to not be able to ride any roller coasters! I LOVE roller coasters! Anyway, I hope to get pics from my mom to post on here of the kids on the rides.
Those of you that know the power of prayer please remember me and my family that we can get thru this unexpected, hard time.

Our Weekend

We had a fun and relaxing weekend! Friday afternoon the kids had 2 friends over to play, Elec and Trinity. We had gotten the game Mousetrap earlier that day and they had a blast putting it together! I have a few pics of them playing. The game kept them entertained for quite awhile ;o)

Trinity and Becca watching a movie.

Ben, Elec and Abby 're-inventing' Mousetrap their own way!

Later in the evening we had our friends the Quakenbushes over and had fun taking pics of Wesley and Caleb together.

On Saturday Danny went fishing and caught enough for a fish fry for our supper! They were yummy and we also added fried green tomatoes, hush puppies, mac-n-cheese, and corn..delicious! The kids enjoyed helping scale the fish and watching daddy getting them ready to fry. They all reeked with a bad fishy smell when they came in later...showertime!

Our future supper! Blech! I much prefer them cooked and breaded!

Daddy's happy and willing helper.

Welcome to our Blog

Greetings and thank-you for visiting our families blog! We are Danny & Elizabeth Flowers. We will be celebrating 10 full years of marriage in exactly 6 days! God has blessed us with 4 precious children. Rebecca Grace will be turning 9 on Sept. 10th. Benjamin Daniel is 6. Abigail Joy is 4 and our newest addition, Caleb James will be 1 month old this coming Wed. It is amazing how time has flown, it seems only yesterday that I was expecting Rebecca!
Okay, a little bit more about us...Danny owns and operates his own business called Flowers Quality Care Lawn & Landscaping. He loves to work outdoors and has a real talent for landscaping. The business has been in operation for 5 yrs and has had its ups and downs. We thank God for allowing Danny to achieve his dream of having his own business and for the way He provides for us daily. I am a blessed, full-time mommy!
We have been enjoying little Caleb soo much and cannot wait until he gives us his first genuine smile! He is such a sweet baby! His siblings just love to hug and kiss him until he gets a little agitated with them! I guess he will have to get used to it! ;o)
Hopefully, we can keep this updated and let you all get a glimpse of our busy lives from time to time. Here are a few pics....enjoy!

Here are the kids wearing their"I'm the Big brother/sister ' shirts that we made.

Baby Caleb in his bassinet at the hospital.




Getting him dressed for his hospital picture. We decided against the hat so we could show off all his hair!







We had lots of visitor's to welcome Caleb! Our pastor, Dan York, was one of the first to hold him and he looks like he was enjoying it very much!





One of our dear friends Greg Quakenbush was tickled to be able to meet and hold Caleb BEFORE his wife and my best friend, Tasha! He even sent her a text saying "Haha, I got to hold him first!"






Of course, the proud BIG brother and sister's were the first to meet him and Mr. Ben was thrilled to finally get a little brother to play with. We still have to explain to him that Caleb is just not interested in "playing" yet!





Landon Summers came to meet Caleb with his mommy, Lana, also another one of our good friends. Lana and I were expecting at the same time with due dates just days apart. Landon surprised his mommy by coming at 35 weeks. He was in the NICU for a few weeks, but God answered prayer and he is home and growing stronger everyday. We will post more pics of the two of them as they grow!






Presley Thompson, my brother Matt's girlfriend, came and visited and was a BIG help when it was time to pack up and go home. She helped load up all my stuff and get Caleb ready for his picture. Thanks Presley! She also bought us a cool looking diaper bag that we get compliments on all the time ;o)




FINALLY, Tasha was able to meet baby Caleb. Their family came to visit the next day after we got home from the hospital. Of course, all the Quakenbush children had to hold Caleb and they were thrilled to meet him. ;o)



Tanner, their oldest was the first to hold him.





Next, it was Skyler's turn. He is their 2nd oldest. You can also see Miss Elli waiting patiently for her turn.





Cory is #3 and he thoroughly enjoyed his turn of holding baby Caleb!




And Miss Elli finally get's her turn! Hmmm, wonder what Skyler is thinking?







Wesley is the youngest and just 6 months old. Since he was too little to 'hold' Caleb we held them beside each other. Wesleys' hands had to be held so he wouldn't scratch or grab Caleb.;o)
I want to say a big THANKYOU to Greg & Tasha for helping us get started on the blogging world. Well, our first post has turned into a book...more will follow!