Molly's Birthday Party

A few shots from the penultimate Sadd's birthday party!

From Molly's 2nd B...

Happy Birthday!

Happy 2nd Birthday to Molly! And happy birthday to her great grandmother, Hilda "Granny" Wood, who was gracious enough to share her 80th birthday with the wee lass (and has continued to share each birthday since). Granny is shown here with her husband to be. They have now been married over 60 years!

Front Page News

This morning's issue of Bluffton Today featured Noah and Beah on the front page and the centerfold article of today's paper. We started assistance dog training on Monday and the paper was there to cover it. Click the pic for more!

Preparations for a Wedding

Even 600 miles away, the preparations for the Uncle Jonathan and (soon to be Aunt) Rachel's wedding. This is the result of a day of wonderful shopping with mom. Now, we just wait for Rachel's thumbs up...

Time for a Bath!

It's been a LONG time since the last update. So, to get things rolling again, I won't tell you about the mashed potatoes. But, I will list the top 6 things removed from children's hair over the past 10 years...

Runner up: Half a packet of Cream Cheese (Molly rubbed it into Beah's Back.)
6. Mashed Potatoes (with butter. last week. pictured here.)
5. Chunky, Natural Peanut Butter (Andrew decided to eat peanut butter out of the jar our first day in the apartment in Ocean City, NJ. But every time he dipped his hand and licked it, he then shook off the remaining peanut butter until the he and the kitchen looked like something from 101 Dalmatians.)
4. Gum (Elaina, small portion of hair cut off)
3. Mrs. Butterworth's Maple Syrup (Noah was drinking it on the kitchen floor and had poured it everywhere. I wish we had had a dog at this point.)
2. Experimental Friends (A friend of Elaina's cut her hair for her the day before kindergarten started.)
Drumroll...
1. A Comb (I know combs are supposed to help hair, but Elaina wrapped her hair around one like a curler and there was no way to remove it without 20 minutes cutting up the comb. Very little hair was actually lost due to the surgeon's skill.)

A recipe for "Filthy Dog"

Filthy Dog is a recipe which dates back as far as mankind has made anything at all and may have actually predated history itself. But, with modern advances the recipe has evolved into this delicious dish.

Prep Time: aprox 90 minutes

Ingredients:
2 dogs (any breed will do)
1 small room
1 frisbee
1 huge, muddy field

Directions:
1. Take dogs and combine in small room. Keep dogs seperated and in a prolonged down while humans in room talk about things very boring to dogs.

2. Get frisbee.

3. Take dogs to back field after 24 hours of rain and throw it toward the woods. repeat as needed.

Beah at 37 lbs!

Beah on November 15th, January 8th, and Today

And Kaeden makes 3!

Kaeden Matthews Cronin
Born Feb 16th, 2007 at 5:11pm
7lbs 10oz, 21¼ inches
Mom and Dad, Jim and Heather, are thrilled and mom is doing well.
Older Brothers, Cuyler (6) and Reiley (4), are waiting to meet their new baby brother.

Congratulations Cronin Family!

Of rockets and motorcycles

Is there a better thing to do after church than shoot rockets? Andrew got a model rocket kit for his birthday two weeks ago and we have been waiting for the perfect day to go launching. Well, yesterday was it. Very little breeze, a huge field (which will soon be filled with houses, but it empty for now), dogs and friends made for a successful launching. We had a team of highly trained Dorrells to go find the rockets when they had splashed back down. Andrew was able to actually do the count down and the launch by himself while dad kept brothers and dogs out of the way. The rockets go about as high as you can see, then pop off the top and a parachute comes out. They slowly float back go earth as the recovery team runs over very rough ground to try a "mid air catch." Then it's time to put in a new engine and relaunch.
I know the title mentions motorcycles, but you will have to check The One Boof's Blog for more on that.
And Happy Birthday OMA!

Autism Rate

The rate of Autism in the USA is now 1 in 150.
In 1973 the rate was 1 in 10,000. Notice a change?
more here.

Happy Birthday Andrew

February first. Andrew is now 6 years old! He had a birthday party at school after the official day was over. Cake, balloons, noise makers and carrots made much noise, mess and fun. His classmates really enjoy him and the presents that he got from them were not only very generous, but showed that they really understood what he loves: thomas, race cars, dinosaurs... they were all there. Happy Birthday!

Another Video from the Archive

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Getting Better

Population of Sicksville is in decline, but the move up the mountain to health is seemingly a long and slow one. Most of us are back at work or school or whatever and generally on the mend. Thanks for the meals, prayers and all you have done, locally and from afar.

Crying

HI all, welcome to sicksville. Population: us. 1 ear infection, 3 sinus infections and a lot of nights of coughing. So, since I am a visual person and usually tell most stories with pictures, I find myself at a loss since you don't want to see anything of us at the moment. lol. So here's another vid out of the archive. It's kinda how we are all feeling at the moment.

A day at the farm

Emily and the Pratt girls took Molly and Andrew to a farm near where we live. The morning saw goats (including three day old babies), sheep, chickens, donkeys, cows, rabbits, horses and ponies all on parade for the kids. Pictured here is Andrew with his horse. This magnificent beast followed Andrew around for the whole morning. This picture was taken during one of Andrew's many monologues with his new friend. They shared stories, song and a whole lot of time just being together. Here are move pics for you.

Beah's Getting Big

Growing Fast!

The right hand photo was taken on November 15th. The one on the left was taken about 8 minutes ago. No, Elaina is not shrinking!

Hot Winters

Things are just plain warm. So, I dug into the archives and posted this little movie from years ago. Just click PLAY and enjoy...

24 lbs!

Today Molly is just over 20 months and Beah is 14 weeks and they both weigh 24 lbs. It's a tight race, and we still believe that Molly will pull ahead in the end. But, in the mean time, she might have to spend some time being smaller than the dog. (click and scroll for more)