A New Look

If you have been to our blog before you will now notice a NEW LOOK.
It took me a long while to be OK with removing this picture from the top of our blog.

I am filled with all kinds of emotions when I see this picture of Cael. I remember the day this picture was taken in the hospital. It was the day all of his monitors were removed. He was free of all kinds of wires and beeping noises. He was completely healthy and ready to be taken home. Our hearts longed for this little guy so much it was painful. This picture is one I never want to forget.



One year later, we capture this moment.


A picture that shows a family...OUR family. A picture of a family that we had hidden in our hearts but never knew what it would look like until now. A picture I want to remember and reflect upon for the rest of my life.

Thanksgiving

As we anticipated the celebration of Thanksgiving, I decided to do Cael's 1st Craft! I was so excited to dig into the paint and make something with his hand print. One thing that I miss about being in the classroom...crafts! I really do. Even though at times managing 20 students through a craft was insane...it was fun and the kids LOVED it! Around the holidays, I used to always tried to do a craft that involved my student's hand print. I find a child's handprint to be one of the most precious things to remember. This was my motivation for finding a craft for Cael.

After looking through some of my idea books and on the internet, this is what we came up with for his first craft. First, we needed to paint some paper. After I put paint on his fingers, he wasn't sure what to do with it. Of course some of it went in his mouth..but what doesn't go in his mouth these days?! With a little bit of help, I got his hand started on rubbing the paper with the paint. After the paper was painted and dried I then traced his hand on the painted paper.





Here is the finished product! It turned out so stinking cute. My heart just melted at the thought of bringing this special "qwaft" out each Thanksgiving and remembering just how small his little hand was when he was 1.


Thanksgiving day arrived. We hosted at our house again this year. There were about 18members of my extended family here to celebrate. My grandpa made the meat and a few casseroles while others filled in the rest of the menu. There was quite a spread of delicious food. Some of the food that Cael enjoyed was the sweet potato pie, mashed potatoes, strawberry fluff, a roll, cheese and of course pumpkin pie with whipped topping. :)


After we all took naps and browsed the Black Friday Ads, we cleared the table for a special little girl's birthday party. My niece, Mallory, turned 4 the day before Thanksgiving. Since we were all going to be together, my sister decided to celebrate while we were all together. Cael loves candles and was fascinated with the candles on Mallory's cake. After we were done singing he felt the need to place a sweet kiss on the birthday girl!


THANKSGIVING is time to be THANKFUL. We have so much to be thankful for so here are a few things that come to my mind..
*Our precious son.
*Our health
*Our home
*our Jobs that help provide for our needs
*Our church family
*Our marriage that is built on a firm foundation
*our families and friends
Most of all our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the saving power of Grace and Mercy that he lavishes on us each day.

The Someday Project is...COMPLETE!

About six weeks ago, a project was started. This project was one that we have anticipated for about 5 years now. It was a project that we have talked about ever since we built our house and one that we kept putting on the "back burner". We have had some situations arise in our LIFE that were not what we expected and so this project stayed on the "back burner" for a long while. We always used the answer "someday" or "wouldn't that be nice". Well, those comments can be said no longer for this project.
We now are humbly blessed to share that we have a back deck!!!!!

As soon as the trailer arrived and the materials started coming off of the truck...Cael was glued to the window! He wanted to watch every move that the men made to make this deck happen. He loved all the tools but most of all he loved the waves and smiles the men gave him when he caught their eye while he was standing at the door watching.







Here is the deck..completed!! I decided to put flower boxes in the corners for a little decorative touch. :) We'll see if I can keep the plants alive when I fill those boxes...I'm not going to hold my breath though. We also decided to put a chair rail all the way around so that when our whole family is here (which is often) everyone will have a seat without having to search for lawn chairs.








Again, let me reiterate that we are HUMBLED. This was a project that we are so excited to have completed for several reasons. Now that we have a little one around the house we cringed at the thought of having our back door open up to no where but down. We have also spent countless hours dreaming about many mornings watching the sunrise and many nights admiring the sunset from the back our house. We can now do both...except it will be a few more months before we can really enjoy either one of those things. Also, since we have the space in our home, we have often been the community center for our family. When we have our house full of people, it tends to get a little crowded and a little noisy. Now that we have this area out our backdoor we can dwindle both of those problems by spreading out.

Ahhh...the sound of scratching something off of my list..is music to my ears!