Celebrating Grandparents!

Earlier this month was grandparents day. Our kids are very fortunate to have two great sets of grandparents and a wonderful set of great-grandparents. We do not celebrate them often enough. My kids have a special place in their hearts for all their grandparents, as do I.

We were able to have lunch with Grammy and Grandpa on Grandparents Day. We went out to lunch with Mam and PopPop the day before. They had come to watch Sam and Noah play soccer.

My grandparents (Papa and Nana) live about 3 hours away, so I had to settle for a phone call. I try to talk to them often. They have had a positive and profound impact on my life. They are strong Christian role models. They raised 6 children, had 16 grandchildren and too many greats for me to quickly count. As a matter of fact, they just added one last week. Welcome little Ethan!

Four Months Ago Today........

My "little itty bitty buddy" was born 4 months ago. Luke has brought immeasurable joy to our lives. He is a cute cuddly smiley little guy. You can literally say "smile" and he will happily oblige.

As of today, Luke weighs 14lbs 1oz and 24.75inches long. At his four month appointment they asked me if he reached for his feet. I joked that with his short legs and big belly that he probably couldn't reach them. Guess what? As soon as we got home, he discovered his feet. They are pretty fascinating!

Luke enjoys his jumperoo and can now sit-up for a short period of time. His back and abdominals are still too weak to maintain the position for long. He is babbling more frequently and drools constantly. My sister says that he has a slow leak. He is starting to enjoy playing on the floor, but still prefers to be held. He likes me to sing to him. I will only do it around immediate family. I have difficulty remembering the words to songs, so I just make up my own. They usually rhyme. This is a trait I picked up from my dad. My dad is the best at making up songs, sounds and entertaining the little ones. It doesn't hurt that he has some rhythm, whereas I have none.

I will be adding pictures in the next couple of days, so check back soon.

Proud Mama!

Luke and Wyatt (my sweet little nephew) are getting dedicated on September 28th. Not that you have to plan out a baby dedication, but this just came together last week. Why now? Well, three real motivating factors:

1. It is never too soon to formally dedicate a child to God (This is already done in our hearts).
2. My brother-in-laws parents will be here from Omaha, NE.
3. My mom is having knee surgery next month.

So for all the right reasons, we are doing the Baby Dedication next Sunday. With that being said, little things have cropped up this past week. For the first three kids, we invited other friends and family, which we haven't done yet. I love sharing special moments! Also, we realized that Noah's soccer pictures were smack dab in the middle of the service. The pastor schedules dedications during the last service. We usually attend an earlier service. Noah never thought twice about missing pictures with his team. He said that he would rather Luke be dedicated sooner, as it is much more important. This is only one small example of how he puts others first.

Reflections On Pregnacy!!

Luke at 20 weeks

Luke at 32 weeks

My little Luke is a precious gift from God. I must admit that I prayed for him before conception. I consistently asked God to protect my baby in the womb and beyond. My prayers were specific, asking for physical and mental health. The experience of loss that I will talk about in the following paragraphs inspired me to have my sweet little Luke. It wasn't that I had stopped yearning for a baby, but I let age (and the opinions of others) become an obstacle. Through a surprise pregnancy, my maternal desires for a newborn were reawakened. I felt as if God was opening the doors to adopt and have a baby.

Just six weeks before I became pregnant with Luke, I lost a set of mono-mono twins (and possibly another singleton). It truly was devastating! It was not only a loss of two (or 3) babies, but it was a loss of my lifelong dream of having twins. Okay, lifelong is a bit of an exaggeration. I had reached the ripe old age of 10 when I began to wish for twins. For a moment in time, it looked as if my dream had a chance to come to fruition. Obviously, it was not to be! Well, at least not in the way I had hoped for. Being a little further removed from the situation, I am glad to have been able to carry those little ones. They were not meant for this world, but they were very real and alive. God's full purpose will never be known on this earth. I was brought to my knees in prayer. It was difficult to understand why God would allow me to conceive (a wonderfully unexpected surprise) only to experience loss. As far as I can figure, those babies had a purpose in heaven. Bless their little souls! On the other hand, Luke was meant for this world and he brightens each and every day. Just as I say about Faith, I am so glad that we did not miss this blessing.

It is with mixed emotions and reservation that I actually decided to blog about this, as I know people don't really like to reopen chapters like these. I just felt that it would be wrong not to acknowledge that these babies were very real and alive, if just for a short time. God did know them in the womb! As I think about the debate on life, I am so sad that to some people my babies never really existed.

Got the Giggles!

Too Cute to Miss!! This is one of my favorites.

Bouncing in the Jumperoo!!!

Luke loves to bounce! We think he is tiggerific!

In the background of the video Evan is trying to take a still picture with our camera phones. We discovered these are not so good with motion.

Baby Bobblehead - Bouncing Back to May!!

Coming Home from the Hospital ~ 5/25/08

The pictures shown below were taken on Luke's birth day!

Mama Bear, Mama Bear - What Do You See?

I See A Blue Bear Looking at Me!

This pictures of Luke were taken on 8/15.

We Remember! September 11, 2001

Unspeakable tragedy struck our nation 7 years ago today. We will never forget! The images of those planes hitting the twin towers is forever etched into my mind, along with the heroism of the passengers of Flight 93. I often think of those that died at ground zero, the pentagon and on a PA field. I think of all the babies that were born after their fathers were tragically killed by cowardly terrorist. I also think of the mothers, fathers and children that never returned home that day. I will NEVER forget why so many have sacrificed for us to live in a FREE and relatively safe country. I also learned that it does matter what people are doing on the other side of the world (and in our own backyard). We need to stand up for what is right! Freedom is not free! Thanks to our military past and present. Thanks Dad!

September 11th brought out the best in many of us. We were more patriotic, compassionate and prayerful! God Bless the United States of America and her heros - firefighters, police officers, moms, dads and everyone who cared for and inspired us.

More Preschool Pictures!

Where are the pictures?

Just to let you know, I will post pictures soon. I just wanted to write the text while the thought were fresh.

Luke is 3+ Months Old!

Smiley, Happy, and curious about the world is how I would describe my little guy. Luke is beautiful and precious in every way. He is a great blessing! I am so glad that I didn't stick to my original plan of no bio babies after 30. I have to admit I am enjoying Luke in a different way than the others. I am pretty certain that he is my last newborn baby. I also have realized how quickly time passes by and that these little moments will be gone in the blink of the eye. I often wonder how many moments that I rushed through or missed altogether. How many am I still rushing? I do take comfort in the fact that I am now a little less uptight, which allows me to not stress so much about the little things.

Many moms have told me that they find breastfeeding to be a beautiful and bonding experience. I am proud to say that I breastfed my older bio kids for a year each. It was not because I enjoyed it, but because I wanted to give them the best and healthiest start. It was a struggle at first! It took a lot of determination (and pumping) to make it through those first few days, weeks and months. This time around, the struggle is further removed and I am enjoying the time I spend feeding Luke. It is in these 10-15 minute installments that I get to stop everything and place most of my focus on my newest little son. Looking into his eyes and watching the expressions on his face is precious. He is a blessing!

With Sam every moment was hers, so feeding time wasn't our primary bonding time. When Noah came along we still enjoyed plenty of quality time, as we had not entered into the rat race of school, sports or extra-curricular activities. With Faith, I obviously did not have the opportunity to breastfeed, nor did I miss it. We had many special moments and I enjoyed my first bottle fed baby.

Soccer Season Underway!

This weekend the kids had their first soccer games of the season. Noah's game was first. This was his first game in two seasons, so I wasn't sure what to expect. He did great! He played forward during the first quarter and was really aggressive. It was nice to see him be "in the game" physically and mentally. In years past, he could have been picking daisies. In the second half, he played Goalie. He was very focused and kept his eye on the ball. He did not let the other team score. His team won 4-0. I can't wait to see him play again.

Samantha is our little soccer play. She has come along ways over the past few years. She generally is very fast and aggressive. The day before her game, she had to go to Urgent Care for a sinus infection. She was playing mid-field and did a ton of running, but was a little slower than normal. As if things weren't rough enough, she ended up injuring (likely fracturing) her big toe. Apparently, her toe met up with someone else's shinguard. When Sam complained about her toe initially, I thought it would probably get better in time. What can they do for a broken toe anyways?

Evan and Sam went back to the soccer fields to Ref their first game. They looked so cute in their referee shirts! After the game, they came home and Sam took off her shoe. Her toe was extremely swollen and was quite painful. We decided we should take her to urgent care, just in case. They send her over to the ER. They could not find any major breaks or fractures, but they said that it could be a fractured ligament or a small fracture. It looks as if soccer is out for at least a few days. At first (before the x-rays) they told her, she may be out for 4-6 weeks. She heard 46 weeks and began to tear up. Evan was the one that took her, as we thought it would be a quick trip to the urgent care. I really hated not being with her.

Let's Feed the Dolphin's!

One of the highlight of our Sea World trip was feeding the dolphins. Samantha decided that if the acting career doesn't work out, she would like to be a dolphin trainer. We have always told our kids that they can accomplish anything they set their mind too! Maybe, we are raising a future dolphin trainer! Too bad Faith doesn't even want to touch the dolphins!

Soak Zone and Family Fun!

Our last summer adventure included a trip to Sea World. My sister called and invited us along for some marine life fun. I had planned to do last minute school preparation and house cleaning, but after much arm twisting we decided to go (lol). Who really believes that I would opt to be neat and organized over having fun away from home?

We headed down to San Diego (again!) after Sam and Noah had their Les Miz auditions. We got there in time for a yummy and fun dinner at Rockin Baja Lobster. With a party of 12 (6 children), we appreciated the noisey and busy environment. I would definitely recommend this place!

My concern about going to Sea World was Luke getting too much sun. Fortunately, he did quite well. Everyone had a great time! A highlight for the older kids (and their parents) was riding the Ship Wreck Rapids. We got soaked but had lots of fun. Sea World puts on several great shows, all of which have "Splash Zones". During the dophin show, Faith and Lorelei wanted to sit in the wet zone with Sam and Noah. It turns out that they didn't really like it, but it was precious watching Sam trying to shield them from the water. Needless to say, no more splash zones for the little girls. Noah likes to act like he wants to get wet, but as soon as the splashing starts he runs to higher ground.

Samantha and Noah ran around the play area with Faith and Lorelei. It sure is nice to have older kids. I really do not enjoy climbing in the ropes and tunnels too much these days. Evan, Terry and I did our best to keep an eye on them from below, as my parents watched Luke and my sister fed Wyatt in a shaded area. It does your heart good when you see your older kids enjoy playing with their little sister and cousin. At Sea World they have some Sesame Street characters and rides. The kids took time to get pictures with some of the characters. In the meantime, my mom changed Luke and my dad spent time holding him. It would seem to be a win-win situation. When I returned to be with Luke, my sister and mom started to crack up. It turns out a bird had just pooped on Luke's head! He had been wearing a hat all day, but my mom had just taken it off. By the time I had arrived he was cleaned up and no worse for the wear. Grandpa was cleaned up too.

Some other highlights of Seaworld were feeding the dolphins, observing the Manatees and walking through the Shark Encounter. Did i mention the 4D Sesame Street Movie? It was a little scary and a bit too wet.

The best part of the trip was spending time with the family. I especially like seeing the grandparents and grandkids having fun together.