Wishing everyone a blessed Pom-pom Sunday

What exactly IS Pom-pom Sunday? Well, Chris and I just found out this evening. On the way home from shopping, we overheard the following conversation.
Lauren: Well Michael, tomorrow is Pom-pom Sunday.
Michael: What is pom-pom Sunday?
Lauren: Don't you know? You get to wave pom-poms in church. Don't you remember last year how they had all the Sunday School kids come in the back of the church and wave pom-poms to surprise all the parents?
By this time, Chris and I were laughing and Michael thought Pom-pom Sunday sounded pretty neat! Hope you all have a good Sunday!

Enjoying Spring!

Book of the Month for March

Can you believe that March is almost over already? This month has certainly
flown by for me. I decided it was time to share my book of the month with you. It was
very hard to pick just one because currently I'm working on
five different books. However, this is the book that has had the biggest impact
on me. I will not try to do a book review on it either. Partly because I'm still deeply
immersed in it's contents and partly because I'm
struggling to form an opinion. For the most part, this book
has been a real eye opener in terms of me personally and
also the church. I highly recommend it....you won't be able to lay it down. Happy reading!!!
(If anyone has read this book already, and would like to share your opinions, please do so and leave a comment! I'd love to get some feedback on this one!)

Lauren's First Recital

Thursday night, at our church, Robyn Clemens held her
recital for her piano students. This was Lauren's first recital
since starting lessons last Nov.Of course, Lauren was not the least
bit nervous. I was. I had
to play three times. Also, we would've had a nice
DVD clip of this for you all to view, but SOMEBODY made sure
she charged the battery ALL day and then left
the battery on the charger. I was so upset with myself. aaaagh!

Lauren and I also played "Holy, Holy, Holy" together

Esther Byer performs

Robyn Clemens and I played a fun little duet
version of "Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho"

Lauren and her teacher

Lauren and her little friend, Madelyn Stetler

A neat little group of kids enjoying the cookies and lemonade
after recital in the fellowship hall.
L to R: Michael, Chris Stamper,Katie Stamper,Maddie Stetler,
Lauren and Kourtlyn Frankenberry.

Girl fun afterwards

Caleb's 11 month pictures

Haircuts!

I must say, when I was pregnant with my first boy, I was somewhat nervous....no, quite a bit nervous. I wasn't altogether sure I wanted a boy. Reason #1, I had babysat more than one rowdy and obnoxious boy in my life. They were the kind that can drive a person crazy....rowdy in public, rowdy at home,etc, etc. (With the exception of yours, Chris B.) Reason #2, all but two had bad haircuts. Call me weird, but for some reason, hair is important to me. So needless to say, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with a boy. On this side of two boys, let me quickly say, boys are energetic, but I wouldn't say they are rowdy or obnoxious. (I think this may be due to a healthy "fear" of consequences...if you catch my drift :) Maybe just because they are mine, but I thoroughly enjoy taking them shopping, to church, library etc. I have thoroughly enjoyed my boys. As for the hair, let's just say, I'm glad I have discovered "Kids Kuts Salon" in Hyde Park. That takes care of the bad haircut issue. I have even gotten brave enough to purchase a pair of hair clippers and have learned to "maintain" their hair for a month or two, but inevitably it gets out of hand and back to Kids Kuts we go.The hardest part of this whole trip, was taking Caleb. I had originally wanted to wait till a year old before cutting his hair. However, I was tiring of the shag and hair hanging in his eyelashes, so....here are the results.


Michael before (result of my "maintaining")

Caleb before

Michael during

Caleb during....not exactly thrilled, but no tears



Michael after

Caleb after

After the haircuts, all were thrilled with their new
balloons! All in all, it was a fun day.
I have two boys with good haircuts,
and although Caleb does look some older,
he still looks like a baby. So Mama's happy.
When the mama's happy, everybody's happy!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

Pics from the Smoky Mountains

Good news and Bad news.......

Hi. Since I need to get supper started, I will give you a brief update on the echocardiogram. The good news is that my EF has not gotten any worse. It is still at 15 %. The bad news, of course, is that it hasn't improved any either. We did go out to Chuck E Cheese and celebrate....we celebrated the fact that I've been feeling much better, AND that that all 3 kids were good for Marianne! (She was our babysitter while we were up at Christ) Sorry about not posting sooner, but I was dealing with my disappointment :( For those of you thinking "what is an EF?" I have copied a definition from the Mayo Clinic website. Hope it helps. Hope you all are having a good week.....we're enjoying this lovely weather in the 70's. I can hardly keep the kids indoors at all!

During each heartbeat cycle, the heart contracts and relaxes. When your heart contracts (systole), it ejects blood from the two pumping chambers (ventricles). When your heart relaxes (diastole), the ventricles refill with blood. No matter how forceful the contraction, it doesn't empty all of the blood out of a ventricle. The term "ejection fraction" refers to the percentage of blood that's pumped out of a filled ventricle with each heartbeat. This measures the capacity at which your heart is pumping.

Because the left ventricle is the heart's main pumping chamber, ejection fraction is usually measured only in the left ventricle (LV). A normal LV ejection fraction is 55 percent to 70 percent. The ejection fraction may decrease when the heart muscle has been damaged, such as due to:

• Heart attack
• Heart-muscle disease (cardiomyopathy)
• Heart valve problems

Monday's Memory

Today's memory is.........Lauren and Mommy's matching dresses. We've only had identical dresses once. This past weekend, I was part of a huge Kids Consignment Sale in Mason. While shopping there, I picked up some dresses for Bronwyn Taylor. One of them was a navy blue Ralph Lauren dress just like the one Lauren is wearing in this picture. Bronwyn is about the size that Lauren was when she wore it. As I was buying it, I couldn't help but feel those bittersweet feelings you feel as you watch your kids grow. All you Moms know what I'm talking about! You are so happy that they are growing and developing and learning like they should, yet part of you wishes they could just stay little forever! As I look at this picture, I can't imagine where the time has gone. Lauren is her Mommy's pride and joy.
This past December, while chatting one day, she said "Mommy, I know multiplication". I'm sitting there thinking "Yeah, right!". She continued, "Like 4 times 6 is 24 and 3 times 8 is 24 too." I asked where she heard of multiplication. Well, turns out, our babysitter told her those two mult. facts. I assumed she was just saying those two from memory, but had no idea what it really meant in real life. So, I used a couple plates of cookies as visual aids and explained that if I had these two plates with 12 cookies on each plate, that would mean that 12 times 2 was 24. No sooner had I explained that than she gave me this bored look and said "I already KNOW that." I'm trying the whole time to act like this was all completely normal. About that time she piped up " Mommy, 10 times 15 is" ....paused a moment of two......"150!" If you are thinking this is all a little bit weird, well, so was I. Anyway, all I could say to Chris was that when we get to multiplication in her Math, I won't have to elaborate!

In unrelated news,
I am having an echo cardiogram in the morning. It's the first one I've had since I was diagnosed with CHF. My stomach is in knots; this has me nervous! I have been feeling very well the past month or two, and so I'm hoping that means my EF (ejection fraction) has improved. When I was diagnosed, the EF was 15 %. So, if it's at least 30 % or higher, I will be not be posting...... we will be out on the town celebrating! Hope you all have a good day!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday, Craig!

(Mexico, 2004)

Our family would like to wish Craig a very Happy Birthday. He is
a wonderful brother, great brother-in-law and Michael's
favorite uncle! He is a fun, generous person, and has given us all a
special sister-in-law, (and aunt)Tonya, as well. We hope you have the best
birthday, Craig!

Love,
Chris & Nancy, Lauren, Michael and Caleb

Play Day at Sharon Woods

Our "day out" group
L to R: Judy Kay Taylor, Bronwyn Taylor, Michael,
Lauren, Caroline Crater, (yes those are matching denim dresses...somehow
Lauren and Caroline often end up with matching outfits)and Caleb.

Our "new" friends, Judy Kay and Bronwyn
The Taylors have been here almost two years
and although we chat at church and on campus, we've never
gotten to spend a day together getting to know each other.
I love getting to know people and making friends,
and Judy Kay is a great person inside and out!

The covered wagon
It's filled with "sacks of feed"
They're actually real feed sacks filled with
pillow stuffing.

Lauren and Michael in jail

At the General Store.

The wishing well you can actually crawl into and go
down to first floor.

Caleb was happy with just crawling around and playing with a
couple balls from the ball pit area.


For my readers in this area, we were at the Adventure Center
at Sharon Woods. It is an indoor play area. Admission for children 2 - 12
is just $2.50. Sharon Woods is a lovely park to visit in warm weather
as well. They have the Heritage Village Museum,
a lovely play area outside and lots of hiking trails.

A week ago today.... and we want to go back!!!!!

My birthday and Valentine's Day present combined,
was a trip to Pigeon Forge. The morning of the trip
as Chris was packing the van, he disappeared for quite a
while. When he finally came back in, he was carrying a cake
from the "campus cake decorator". (Marianne Brown) It
was so beautiful; I was speechless. I was totally surprised because
I wasn't even expecting a cake at all. Anyway, I was thrilled and
Chris had Marianne decorate it in my favorite flowers....Calla Lilies. I still don't
know how she managed such REAL looking flowers. She does an
EXCELLENT job! ~Thanks Marianne~

(I guess the cake just gave away my age!!!)

The "Honey Bear" cabin located about
10 min. off the main road.


View from the loft to main floor

Main floor gas fireplace

Jacuzzi in the master bedroom

Master bedroom and gas fireplace

Hot tub and swing on the back deck

We all enjoyed the pool table, air hockey and foosball table!

The kids' bedroom in the loft.

Monday's Memory

Memories of summer days......
bare feet and sandals.....


Just thought at least a couple of my blog readers
would enjoy seeing this one! For the readers that
don't know, Khara Burley and Lauren are just
a couple weeks apart in age....likewise with Kelsea and Michael.