Evan's Tree

Several months ago Children's had a ceremony for the children who had passed away at the hospital. Becca made an ornament for me with Evan's name and date of birth and death on the back. So I had her make a few more with the intention of having a tree just for Evan this year. G&G have trees in their rooms so I thought it might be nice for Evan to have his own. The tree is just an extra tree I already had. When I went to get one for him, it was too late. I want a white tree with white lights and everywhere I went, they were out. So next year... Anyway, I had Becca paint a passage from Psalms 139 on the ornaments. That passage is very important to me because of Evan's trisomy 13. It is very important for me to remember that God created him that way. I have no idea the reason why, and I probably will not know why until I am on my knees before God one day, but He created Evan this way. The photos do not do justice to the beautiful ornaments. I am just not that great at indoor pictures. They are brown and blue, like his room and the side are painted with stripes to match his name ornament. The Willow Tree ornament was sent to us from another family who had a child with Trisomy 13. There are also some plain brown balls with blue ribbon.

She is 12

Really, she should not be 12 yet. She was just a little girl yesterday, I promise. Now we are a year away from teenager. In 6 years we will be getting her ready to go to college? Really? Time needs to stop. I love watching her grow, but she needs to grow a little more slowly. (in the top pic she was 5. That was 7 years ago. Seven. years.)

Church Christmas Program

Two years ago Gracie had a solo at the school Christmas program. The last verse to Silent Night. I posted it about it here. She looks so little there! Anyway. She had a really hard time, but when it came time to actually sing, she nailed it. She did not attempt to sing in public again until we started to plan Evan's service. Sean wanted her to sing. She sings at home all. the. time. We have all the "Sing It" Wii games and it is very common to hear Gracie singing Disney songs. I was very hesitant because she had such a hard time at the school program and I thought her brothers funeral would just be too hard. He asked her, she agreed. She worked with our music leader and sang "How Great is Our God" for Evan. She sang beautifully, without the slightest hint of anxiety.

So, it was really fun to see her sing with the band in "big" church this Sunday. So many people have told me how comfortable she looked and how much fun she looked like she was having. What a difference two years make! Ha! She really loved it! Anyway, I am very proud of my girl. My boy did great also! He did more posing for me and my camera than actually singing, but he was cute in his reindeer tie.

One Year and One Day

It has been one year and one day since I wrote this post about Faith (poor little boy, we REALLY thought he was a girl!). One year since we first found out that there could be a problem. At the time we were told hypoplastic left heart, we later found out it was Double Outlet Right Ventricle with a Ventricle Septal Defect. Trisomy 13 trumped it all though. Evan also would have been 9 months old yesterday. I don't really know why I am posting all this except it seems significant somehow. We started this journey one year and one day ago. We went to the doc very excited about our ultrasound and seeing our baby. We came home crawled in bed, held each other and cried. I am so not the person I was a year ago. When your world is rocked to its core it changes you in so many ways. Just thought I would share.

Wordless Wednesday - Gingerbread House

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

I did not take one picture on Thanksgiving. I know, I know, Bad mom. I was cooking though and it just got crazy!! The day after we went to the Christmas tree farm and I made up for lost pictures. A friend told me about a different Christmas tree farm so we decided to try it out. We LOVED it!! There were animals and hot chocolate and hay rides! Above all BEAUTIFUL trees!
On the hunt!

Gracie liked this one, but it was just not big enough!

On the hay ride! We actually saw the tree we picked from the hay ride, great way to see a lot of trees quickly!

Sean was not that amused. I may have been a little obnoxious with the camera while on the hay ride.

So lets put him in the spirit!

Back on the hunt (with hot chocolate!)

We found the tree. Sean and GW had fun with the pole while waiting for them to cut our tree. Here they were bending it and then letting it go.

The kids played chase through the trees while they were cutting it down and loading it.

All loaded up and ready to take home!

It is decorated now, but I still have several things to do today so the final product will be in a later post!
Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Wordless Wednesday

*Photos by Julie Jones :)

Fall Pics

Julie did an amazing job! I am having trouble picking which to print off for frames and which one I want to use for Christmas cards, even which to put on my blog!

Julie - Thank you so much! You have captured some of my most treasured family pictures!

He is Eight

I just snuggled him and told him eight years ago right now he was still in my tummy. It just does not seem possible. He is eight. I love you my sweet red haired, freckle faced, cartoon loving, little man!

*photo taken by the amazing Julie Amber!

Viking Sunday

Little Man is not looking at the camera, but I thought they were so cute in their matching Farve jerseys playing football at half time!

Joy

Meet Baby Bum. We did not find out of Baby Bum is a girl or a boy, even though S/he tried really hard to show us! We did find out that Baby Bum does not have rocker bottom feet. Baby Bum does not have a cleft lip or palette. Baby Bum does not have anything that would cause the doctor to be concerned or think that Baby Bum is anything but a normal, growing baby. The ultrasound tech even got some amazing shots of the heart and those images ruled out 98% of all heart defects. To say Sean and I walked out of the doc's office with a huge weight off our shoulders would be an understatement. The US Tech spent all the time we needed looking at anything we asked her to. She said that God was with us because the baby was in the perfect position to get the images we needed. Sean told her 21 weeks of anxiety was just lifted. I think for the first time in a long time I felt just pure joy. Thankful. Blessed. Joyful.

Cute Boots

at least I think so. Sean bought them for me a while back and I thought they would look cute with the skirt I wore today. The problem is I am 20 weeks pregnant. I am so swollen (I always swell bad and early on) and these cute boots were not made for 20 week pregnant, swollen legs.



Sorry, maybe I should have posted a warning of gross feet pictures! They looked fine this morning when I left for the school ( I was subbing today), but when I got home my legs were spilling out over the top of the boots (not cute) and there were huge indentations where my ankles usually are. So, no more cute boots for me this year. I will be wearing tennis shoe or something comfy!

One Word

My friend Michelle tagged me. This was harder than you would think!

**The Rules~ Use only one word, pass along to six favorite bloggers, and tell them you did so.
1. Where is your cell phone?computer table
2. Your hair? dirty
3. Your mother? in heaven
4. Your father? amazing
5. Your favorite food? Mexican
6. Your dream last night? anxiety
7. Your favorite drink? water
8. Your dream/goal? organization
9. What room are you in? office
10. Your hobby? crafts
11. Your fear? rejection
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? here
13. Where were you last night? home
14. Something that you aren’t? complete
15. Muffins? blueberry
16. Wish list item? books
17. Where did you grow up? Arkansas
18. Last thing you did? eat
19. What are you wearing? PJs
20. Your TV? on
21. Your pets? Barbie Belle B. (the big black lab)
22. Friends? many
23. Your life? blessed
24. Your mood? happy
25. Missing someone? always
26. Vehicle? dirty
27. Something you’re not wearing? shoes
28. Your favorite store? Target
29. Your favorite color? pink (today)
30. When was the last time you laughed? last night
31. Last time you cried? yesterday
32. Your best friend? husband
33. One place that I go to over and over? target
34. One person who emails me regularly? facebook
35. Favorite place to eat? home
So now it's your turn!
I really don't know who to tag. So if you want to do this then I tag you! :P
Please let me know if you do it, I would like to read it!

Trick or Treat!

The kids had a blast! I love our neighborhood! We invited some friends to go with us and all 5 kids names start with "G" ! I think I was tongue tied all night. They got a lot of candy and had a lot of fun playing afterward and Sean played with his car so all in all, it was a good night!

Cora and Carson Came All the Way to Arkansas

to see us!! Aaron and Kelly came with them also! Ha! They watched some softball and soccer. We took them to the fall festival at our church. We also had some family pictures taken. I cannot wait to get them back. I love all the fall leaves and since fall kind of skipped Minnesota it was fun to get pics of the kids playing in all the leaves. The trip went way too fast! I know it is stressful to travel with two kids under the age of two, but I really hope they had a good time!

Please Pray

Chad, Nikki, and Clayton welcomed baby Johanna this morning. She spent some time with her family then went to Heaven. I know this family is being surrounded in prayer, but my heart is just breaking for them.
http://chadandnikki.blogspot.com/

Nothing like going through photos

from this mornings soccer game and coming across this gem.


I don't believe she was hurt and I know he was going for the ball, but this just looks bad!


I like these better! Big kick!!



Celebrating GW's last second goal!!!

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Month

October is pregnancy and infant loss remembrance month, and the 15th is the day of the month that is singled out to remember. I am not really sure what I want to say, but I have met some of the most amazing women in the past 7 months. Their babies are precious and so loved and missed. So throughout the day I will be thinking of these women and their families and praying.

Busy, Busy, Busy...

I love this picture of Little Man. He looks like he is praying before he punts it!
Life has just been so busy lately. Right now we have at least one activity every night, sometimes two. So we are running around and getting children to this practice or that game. We have learned a lesson though. We will never allow our family get this committed again. Sean and I are in a parenting Bible study right now and the first lesson was about our children being experience rich, but relationship poor. A few days later MG had a friend over and it became very clear that she is experience rich, but relationship poor. I really think slowing down a little bit is in our future. Anyway, Baby Bum is moving around and kicking like the soccer player s/he is probably born to be! Sean's brother and his family are coming in a couple of weeks and we are so excited!!! There is a lot going and a lot to look forward to!

Thank you

for the love and reassurance. It really means so much to me. I did realize that I did not share any info on the new baby though. I am almost 16 weeks. S/he is due on March 23rd. I think this has contributed to a lot of my anxieties. Evan was due on March 27th. I am pretty much reliving everything from a year ago, and a year ago I could not even imagine what my life would be like now. The name for a girl is the same, it is very special to us, Carolina Faith. I told Sean that he could name a son anything he wanted to so he has chosen Brett (probably) Dayton. He waivers on the middle name, probably because I vetoed it with Evan. Dayton means happy, sunny day and that would probably be a good thing in our lives about now. We are not going to find out if the baby is a girl or boy. Sean loves that part and it was something fun at a stressful time. The doc who delivered Evan had to tell me 3 times it was a boy! I was sooooo sure Evan was a girl. I will not even begin to try to guess with this baby. Anyway, thank you again. I am starting to feel some of the anxiety fall away and it helps the more people who know and are truly happy for us.