Roper's Round Up

Well, what can I say? I've neglected this awesome family blog when I promised to keep it up while Sabrena is at work. Sorry everybody!!! I hope you are ready for a whirlwind of catching up. There will be a new post going up each day this week starting today with Con's birthday at the Great Wolf Lodge!

For Connor's birthday this year, we told him that a present was going to arrive in the mail for him. This was not true. We had in fact, orchestrated a plan for Sabrena, Dawsyn, and myself to pick him from school with his bags all packed and in the trunk and to head for The Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound, WA. I'd never heard of Grand Mound, WA and when we got there, it looked a lot like Rochester to me. As you'll be able to see from the pictures, the place is AMAZING and heaps of fun. Here is a little video slideshow I made. The soundtrack is by Connor's favorite band (and mine - it was mine first), They Might Be Giants. It seemed to fit the occasion, what with my post  being so late his actual birthday.

Over the next few days I'll be updating posting updates on all that has been going on over the last few weeks. Yikes, we're behind! We've had three birthdays, a baby start walking, a boy ride a bike without training wheels, and a dad who has reached an all-time high weight since becoming a stay-at-home dad/struggling freelance writer who still decided it would be a great idea to take off his shirt at an indoor water park. That last sentance was a run-on purposely but I spelled sentence wrong on accident (I probably should have just corrected it ( now I've also made this sentence too long (dangit, I'm making it worse.)))

The last full week at Connor's school was Spirit Week and kids were encouraged to dress according each day's theme. The day Connor looked forward to most was the "Dress as your favorite fictional character" day. I think he looked like a dead ringer for his character but can anyone else guess who Connor dressed up as?

Today was our oldest and wisest son, Connor's birthday. It is amazing to me how big he is. Of course, the fact that he is so incredibly smart, funny, and thoughtful are astoundng too, but mostly I'm amazed at the sheer size of the kid. In all seriousness, I love him so much it scares me. He was my rite of passage into father hood. Nine years ago I had to sink or swim because it was Connor on the line. Not a high score at the arcade or a few bucks lost in a laser tag tournement. Everyday I see him, I thank God that He has not given up on me or let me screw this up somehow. Here is a little message from Sabrena to Connor for this special day.

Connor,

You're a very special boy and we are very lucky to celebrate you today. I thank God for choosing us as your parents! You're a blessing to our family and we love you so much!!

Happy Birthday!

Sabrena

Sabrena

Life has been "off" for lack of a better word lately. It's been hard to keep up with my blog with everything that has been going on so I apologize for the lack of updates and pictures.

On the Noah front. He had his longer evaluation on Monday. It went wonderful! He did amazing. He made it through the whole thing and was very compliant. I was disappointed that they didn't get to see the fun temper that he has, but thats o.k. We have an appt for the 9th at 1:00 to discuss the results. Be praying for the results and our hearts. We are prepared to hear either way. At this point I don't know it will make too much of a difference other then programs and such.

Connor is getting ready for Spring Break next week. He's been keeping busy playing lots of basketball and spending a lot of time outside. He's been reading a series of books called How to Speak Dragonese. We had conferences last week and he is doing very well. We are proud of him.

Dawsyn is enjoying a lot of pretend play. Playing with his action figures. We are thankful for the nice weather that has been around because he LOVES to get outside. He's a very active boy. He has a hard time wanting to do everything Connor does, and not always being able to. Last Friday, I took Connor and Dawsyn to see Horton Hears A Who and then we enjoyed some IHOP from their special Horton menu. It was a great time!

Can you believe my baby girl is going to be 1 next month???!! Gracielyn is getting SO BIG. She is very much a mommy's girl and I LOVE IT. I can't believe how different boys and girls can be at such young ages, but she is the complete opposite of the boys. She loves to cuddle, give kisses already, and has amazing eye contact. I'll be feeding her and we will just get lost in each other's gaze. I love it. She is "cruising" around on furniture. And walking when we hold onto her hands. She loves to play as well. Wants to be where all the action is.

Please be praying for our family please. We have been climbing a mountain and I feel like we are finally near the top. Chase has decided to make a career change for reasons that most of you already know. Please keep us lifted up that God will bring to us the perfect match for him. His heart so desires to write, I'm praying that that door is opened some how for him. It would make him so happy to do what he loves and support his family doing so.

Pictures to come soon!

Many Blessings and Love,
Sabrena

Happy Weekend to all!
Sabrena

I want the person that took my children that sleep all night and traded them with these 4 kids that wake up 5 times each a night, to give them back to us!!

Chase and I can not catch a break. Our kids are in this horrible routine of not sleeping through the night currently. Gracielyn is teething, so it's understandable, BUT the boys, MAN. Dawsyn get's up 10 times to pee, Noah wake up at 4am screaming, thinking its time to get up. Connor will hear "something" and need Chase to lay him back down. It goes on and on.

My poor husband will go to put one of the kids back and Gracie and I some how take over the bed and he ends up on the couch. Their all healthy, so I don't know what is going on, but Chase and I are drained right now. I feel like crying every morning I have to get up for the day, just wanting to beg for one more sec, min, hour.

Please pray for a good night of sleep and plenty of energy to keep chugging along.

All my love,
A very sleepy Sabrena

I got pictures uploaded from my camera FINALLY. I will start with Christmas Eve today, Enjoy!

Christmas Eve:

I've been bad about keeping up lately. Lots going on and I keep forgetting to get Fun Photo Friday's up. But, I will get it up tomorrow.

Couple things I wanted to share.

Noah is doing well. He is making some great progress with his speech. I am getting excited about how much is coming out of his mouth now. We have even heard him repeat us when we weren't talking to him. That's exciting for us. And we are rejoicing for answered prayers!! We are learning to be creative with him. Distracting him from what frustrates him most. That is helping to keep the fits to a minimum and not to escalate. It's working out so much better for us and Noah. His Occupational therapist gave me some great ideas to help him. I'm exciting to see the progress he makes from working with her more as well.

We just had a conference with Connor's teacher, and he seems to be doing really good in calls and is thriving in Math. That doesn't surprise us, because he loves to do math and he seems to catch on and "get" it. One thing Connor was concerned about this year was making good friends. He came home a couple weeks ago pretty upset about kids not wanting to play with him. So we sat down and talked about it and afterwards we prayed about it. Asking God to bring boys' into Connor's life that would be good friends and I'm happy to report that God is working in that part of Connor's life right now. He has come home 2 different time since praying about it telling me about a couple kids that he didn't even realize "knew" him and asked him to play. What an opportunity to share with Connor about answered prayers. Nothing makes me happier then to show him that God is faithful and will answer prayers. Not always in our timing, but I think Connor got to see that first hand and it was awesome to see.

Dawsyn is testing lots of boundaries lately. But for the most part is a pretty good listener. We just started going to open gym time and he loves it. He had a blast running around and playing with the kids. Dawsyn is at an age where he is cracking us up almost daily with things that come out of his mouth. He is so different then Connor was at 3. They both have great sense of humors, but Dawsyn has things that come out of his mouth that I can't help but laugh when I probably shouldn't be. An example of this is the other day when he realized that he had "boobs" (found his nipple), and explained how he could also feed Gracie like mom does. Or when he will be singing his ABC's and gets towards the end and adds "Butt" in as a letter. Not appropriate but really funny. He also says the sweetest thing's like this morning when he went around telling Connor, Noah and Gracie that they are his best friends. After asking me who my best friend was. It melted my heart.

Gracie is on the move. Not crawling, but rolling. And she goes from one side of the room to the other, just rolling around. She seems to be really enjoying her new found freedom. Although, will let me know she is not in the mood to be put down quite clearly with her little "fits." Man, she is all girl. Her little screams and "talking" its all so girly. I love it!! I'm excited to celebrate her first Christmas. Dress her up in a cute Christmas dress. And buy girl toys. It's an exciting time for me!

Our family enjoyed a nice low key Thanksgiving at home. Just our family. Chase and I cooked, and it was fun to be in the kitchen together.

We have our tree up early this year. Although, the kid will NOT leave it alone and that is adding in a whole other thing to drive me completely mad, I'm enjoying having it up and getting our family geared up for the season! This is such a fun time of the year.

Babes are calling. Until next time...Be blessed!
Sabrena

Yesterday my friend Anne and I took our boys(minus Noah, who was napping) to see the Bee Movie. We had a great time, and the kids seemed to enjoy it.

We go to leave after the movie and Dawsyn, having sat for over an hour to watch the movie of course needs to get his energy out and runs to the door, trips and falls face first into the doorway, cutting his head open.

I knew instantly that when I picked him up there was going to be blood, so I swooped him up like a baby and ran to the bathroom, and sure enough he was. Thank goodness, I had been through bleeding, head wounds before with Connor, because I was able to keep my head on straight and not lose control. Although, you should have heard some of the women in the bathrooms reactions. A lot of "Oh my gosh, is he ok," "He's going to need stitches," "I'll get the manager." It's nice to know so many people are willing to be helpful.

Got the bleeding cleaned up and off to the hospital we went. Where we waited for 3 hours to get in and be seen, and they only glued it closed. After waiting that long, I was really hoping for stitches, but none the less it got fixed.

After they placed the band aid over the glued wound, I said to them, "I can't go home to my husband that has been home with my 6 month and 2 year old all day with only a band aid on his head, you have to wrap it like he has a horrible head wound." To which they looked at me like, are you for real? Then I let them know I was just kidding around with them and the dr. said we need more humor in medicine. Yes, we will wrap it for you. So Dawsyn came home looking like he had just been in a car accident instead of just tripping and hitting his head on a doorway. It was quite funny and he wouldn't let us take it off because in his words, "the dr. said I'm a pirate."

Thank goodness, he's fine. And all is now well. We enjoyed the Bee movie and recommend it.

*On a side not I have to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to my good friend Anne. Who was with me and so helpful with getting it cleaned up and such. And SO brave.(LOL..she HATES blood) Also, after she went home and fed her baby, she came and walked the hospital with Dawsyn, Connor and I as we waited the 3 hours to get in. Isn't she the best???!!

Anne, your friendship means the world to me and I can never thank you enough for all that you are and do for me. God answered a prayer when he brought us closer. In everything that is happening right now, I can't imagine going through it or getting through it without you. There's so many things you have done and the saying "Thank You" just doesn't seem to do any justice, but none the less, I say Thank you from the bottom of my heart, for listening, allowing me to cry, and being the amazing person you are!

I love you Annie!!


Sorry about no photo's on Friday last week was a LONG one, and Friday was not the best of days. It shall return this Friday, so stay tuned.

Give thanks, theres so much to be thankful for!
Sabrena

ETA: I started this on Sunday, finished it today(Tuesday) This happened on Saturday.

Hope you had a great week! It's finally FRIDAY!
Sabrena

I know your not excited to get older, but oh the wiser you have become!! (wink wink). I just want you to know that you bless me life everyday. Thank you for being a man that adores his family and puts us first. Thank you for being the daddy that takes the time to explain things to Connor, or wrestles on the floor with the boys. That is disappointed if he misses giving Gracie her bath every night. Thank you for realizing the importance of a sense of humor and for making me laugh everyday. I could never put into words what you mean to me and how much I appreciate all that you are in my life. There is nobody I am happier to celebrate then you. And I am so thankful that God gave me this day, November 2nd, to celebrate the greatest man I have ever known. My heart is yours forever!!

Happy Birthday baby,
Your wifey!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY! WE LOVE YOU!!! YOUR THE BEST!!

Love: Connor, Dawsyn, Noah and Gracie

I just wanted to share my little munchkins in their costumes. The kids had a great time. Their Meme came over with dinner and took Connor and Dawsyn trick or treating. I am so blessed to have her in my life.

Meme thank you for loving us all. Your love for my children and time you invest in them is priceless. I can't thank you enough.

Hope you all enjoy the pictures!

Hope your Halloween was full of fun!!
Sabrena