Thankful Thursday

This Thursday I am thankful for:

~Our smart girl who taught herself how to tie her shoes!

~For beautiful weather to feed the ducks!

~For fun times outside with sidewalk chalk!

~For little boys that get their haircut and don't cry (this is a first! plus he sat in the chair by himself)

What are you thankful for this week?

My special Labor Day 10 years ago!

This weekend we have been celebrating Hunter! 

Ten years ago, God blessed me with a beautiful baby boy!  We lived in Colorado Springs at the time and I really wanted to go to their annual hot air balloon lift off.  Every Labor Day, hot air balloons lift off from downtown Colorado Springs and fill the sky with color.  We had already gone to the balloon glow the night before and we planned on going to the lift off in the morning.  Little did I know that God (and Hunter) had other plans!  At 4:05AM, September 4, 2000~ Labor Day morning Hunter entered the world!  But guess what, God knew the desire of my heart and as the sun came up we opened the curtains in my hospital room and you know what we saw?  Yep, the sky was full of hot air balloons!  The hospital was just up the road from the park and our room faced that direction!  Not only did I have a new baby but I still got to enjoy the hot air balloons from my hospital room!  Another thing about Hunter's arrival, I had been telling people for months that I would have him on Labor Day even though that was a few weeks before my due date.  I just thought it would be so stinkin fun to have a baby on Labor Day!  It gives me a whole new meaning of Labor Day!  Again, God blessed me with my heart's desire and brought Hunter into the world!  I wish I wasn't having computer issues because I would love to share some pictures from that day 10 years ago.  I have an entire page in his baby book of the balloons outside the window!

Hunter opening his presents!  Yes, he got highlights.  He had been begging me to highlight his hair!

We celebrated his birthday at Chilis!

Happy birthday, Hunter!  I love you!

Thankful Thursday

This Thursday I am thankful for:

~The wonderful weekend I had a few weeks back in Indianapolis.  I went to the Women of Faith conference with a group of ladies from church.  It was a great weekend full of great worship, great speakers, and great friends!  Plus, plenty of laughter.  Isn't laughter just good for the soul?  Well, we sure did laugh and laugh!

Our group outside the arena

The precious babies I got to love on during the weekend

~For sweet reunions with friends.  At the conference, I met up with my dear friend, Jenny!  I hadn't seen Jenny in 4+ years.  It was great to see her again.  I love how we could just pick up and talk like we hadn't been apart at all!  I am especially thankful that Jenny is a breast cancer survivor!  She is 1 year cancer free!

                                     

Jenny and I together again!

~For small town parades.  I love parades!  Brianna and Nicholas marched in the local parade so we went to watch.  What fun!  Caleb loved it and waved at everyone that went by.  Claire was into all the candy and beads that were thrown!

                                       

Look at him just a waving!

                                             

Claire sporting her many beads!

Hunter enjoyed the parade too!

Gary's dad enjoyed the parade with us!

Brianna and Nicholas after the band was finished

How could you not enjoy a parade with this precious smile!?

~For small town carnivals!  Before the parade we enjoyed some of the rides at the carnival!

                                        

Hunter and Nicholas ready for the ride!

Yep that is Claire and Brianna!

Claire is riding the dragon coaster.

She really did like it!

I took this of us as we were on a ride!

I took this mid ride too!

Caleb loved this ride.  He is not a daredevil like Claire!

~For good friends!  It was great to move back to an area where we had lived once before because with that came ready made friends!  My friend, Jodi, has been great.  She helped us unpack our many boxes.  She loves on my kids.  She meets me for lunch when my hubby is out of town and I need some adult conversation!  She volunteered to go to a LONG doctor appointment with me so she could help with Claire and Caleb.  I am thankful for her friendship!

I took this picture of us while we were at the Women of Faith conference!

What are you thankful for this week?

Happy 5 months home Caleb!

Gracious, I can't believe how long it has been since I last posted!  To say things have been busy around here would be an understatement!  We have had a bunch of back to school events, football practice, volleyball practice, taekwondo practice, doctor appointments, and of course a special birthday party for our sweet Caleb!

I can't believe that 5 months have flown by since Caleb joined our family!  I am so thankful that Caleb is very low key and not high maintenance at all!  We are a family on the go and he just goes with the flow!  He is so happy and brings so much laughter to our family!  He has had many doctor appointments the last couple of weeks.  I know he has learned to trust us because he used to freak out at the doctor even if they weren't doing anything!  Now he trusts that we are not going to do anything to hurt him and he is the best patient!  We really don't know what all was done to him in K*rea so maybe he had reasons to be scared but not anymore.  You can just feel the confidence and trust that he has gained.  We found out that he does have hearing loss in his left ear.  We are still doing testing to figure out the type of hearing loss and the extent of the loss.  We are also facing future surgery for his bladder.  Let's just say potty training will not be happening anytime soon.  Despite these challenges Caleb continues to amaze us with how much he is unaffected by his spina bifida.  Just watch him for a little while as he runs, jumps, does somersaults, climbs and on and on!  I marvel at the goodness of our God to bless Caleb with legs that work!  I am so thankful that God spoke to our hearts that day back in May 2009 and told us he was our child.  I am also thankful that we didn't let the fear of adopting a special needs child stop us.  God has big plans for Caleb and I thankful that I get to watch it play out each and every day!

Enjoy these pictures from his birthday celebration!

He knows it is all about him today

Nicholas, Caleb and Claire

Our friend Ryan

Our friend Gracie

Our friends, Scott and Jodi

Hunter and Caleb

Daddy and the little ones

Waiting patiently for cake

Yummy cake

Happy 5 months home, Caleb!

CALEB

C is for copy cat!

A is for adorable!

L is for loveable!

E is for energetic!

B is for birthday boy!

Happy 3rd birthday, Caleb!  We love you and are so thankful that we are sharing this birthday with you!

First Day of School

Today is the first full day of school for my kiddos.  They went yesterday for a half day but today is the BIG day!  I wondered what Caleb and I would do just the 2 of us.  It has never been just me and Caleb since he joined our family 4 months ago.  I was so looking forward to a nice quiet day at home enjoying my boy.  Well....Caleb woke up with a fever this morning.  So off to the doctor we went.  He is okay just a pesky fever.  I am still enjoying my boy but we are spending the day snuggling and watching movies.  Which is probably just the kind of day I needed!  I am missing my big kids!

Brianna - sophomore

Nicholas - 8th grade

Hunter - 4th grade

Claire - Pre-K/ Kinder

She is so excited!

The big kids don't let me follow them to school and take pictures anymore!