Happy Halloween

Hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween.  It was totally different with a three year old.  We did a little trick or treating and she was very outgoing and cute. Then had supper with family and friends. This is how new traditions start. Daddy even came up to go get candy with us.

And Mommy had to give the Monkey a ride home...

Another time full of fun and excitement...together.

Just had to share...

I am finally getting around to ordering pics that my friend, the lovely and talented Amy Rockwell, took of Lauren and I this summer.  This one is my fave...I just had to share because I love it so much...

And then I have to share this one because I love it so much, too....

And I could not leave this one out...

I Miss My Mommy

I spent the weekend with my daddy, which was totally awesome.  We went to the zoo and the Children's Museum and went shopping at Target where I got a new Clifford stuffed animal.

Then I came home on Sunday and had a fun afternoon with mommy.  We hung out on the couch having 'hopcorn and watching Toy Story.  Then we went out to Mommy Juju's for supper and had hot fries.  I took a bath with Cody and got my jammies on.  Then, the silliest thing happened...my mommy left me at Juju's house.  She said she was going bye-bye for a couple of days.  I got to spend the night with Juju, Uncle Ry, the boys and Missy Missy.  Mommy Juju even took me to Josie's today...but not before taking my picture with Missy Missy.

And now I am at Grammy's taking my nap and being a good girl...my mommy hopes, anyway.  The weirdest thing I heard, though, is that Juju is picking me up at Grammy's tonight and I am spending the night again tonight and mommy won't be picking me up until tomorrow night just before bed time.  I miss her a lot...but not as much as she misses me.



It's October...

It has been quite a while since we have gotten a post in and boy, oh, boy have we been busy.  Busy doing what you may ask?  I ask myself that same question almost daily.  It never feels like we get anything done, but yet everything that needs done seems to be getting done.  We all know that the stuff like dishes, laundry and cleaning can wait til later when you have a three year old because here are the things we are busy doing instead:
                  1) Enjoying this wonderful weather...seems like payback from the hot summer, although we can do without the little black bugs that have shown up.
                  2) For two days we had a blast at the Clay County Fair!  One days was with Aunt Juju and Cody and the other was with our friends The Peats.
                  3) Lauren spending time with her daddy.
                  4) I have gotten the school year of to a successful start.  I think, anyways.  Can't believe it is almost the end of the 1st quarter already.
                  5) Lauren has totally adjusted to her new daycare and has been talking a lot about Lucas. Our new daycare goddess, Josie, has been awesome.
                  6) Have I mentioned we have been enjoying the weather?
                  7) Lauren has started her first non-daycare learning activity...she is attending First Hour of Power at our church and is totally LOVING it!
                  8) And.......drumroll, please.....I would like that announce that we are fully potty trained in the #1 department and are becoming very successful in the #2 department.  This has been a long time coming and it just goes to show that slow and steady wins the race.

Here are some things we have to look forward to during October:
                  1) Halloween, of course.  You can expect the world's cutest monkey at a doorstep near you.
                  2) #2...you knew it was coming.
                  3) Harvest.  Although Hampa's beans have already been combined, we are going to try to get a ride somewhere else.
                  4) Hopefully enjoying some more wonderful weather through this month.

Whether it is all that has happened or all that will happen, Lauren and I are truly blessed.  We have great friends.  We have wonderful family.  Most of all...we have each other.
                 

A Simple Lesson

Lauren would like to introduce you to her friend, Kyleigh.  Kyleigh is one of our Firecracker Friends.  She is three and up until last week, she lived in Schoharie, New York.  Then Hurricane Irene came through and ruined her house.  The only home she has ever known.  Kyleigh's mom, Amy, is my friend.  Over the last week, Amy has taught me a great lesson and one that I will definitely pass on to Lauren.  Take a look at this picture and see if you can tell what that lesson is:

I am having a hard time finding one word or phrase that sums up what the lesson is.  Grace.  Love.  Gratitude.  Teaching.  Humbleness.  Amazing.  There...I searched long enough.  It is simply amazing.  Here is a woman and her three year old daughter currently living at her mom's where they share a room with Daddy and baby sister and all of their possessions in that one room.  But through it all,  they both have a smile on their face and love in their hearts.  They are sending out a simple thank you.  Simple, only in the fact that it is written on a plain 8.5x11 piece of paper with a marker.  It is a thank you to people they know and love, and to complete strangers.  It is a thank you for the big things that have been given to them, but also to the smallest of the small.  What a lesson to teach.

Amy, Kyleigh, Kane and Stella...Lauren and I love you guys so much.  You are amazing people who don't deserve what happened, but we just wanted to send a big THANK YOU right back at 'cha for teaching us how to be strong, grateful and amazing.

Brayton the Brave and Strong

Many of you know, and some don't, of our friend, Brayton. Brayton came into our lives before Lauren and Brayton were even born, through a group for pregnant women on iVillage (this is where the Firecracker Friends were born). Brayton was born, a few weeks before Lauren, with Tracheoesophageal Fistula and Esophogeal Atresia.  It is a defect where his esophagus is not properly connected and his trachea and esophagus are abnormally connected.   He spent the first ten months of his life in a hospital while Lauren was home with us being our baby.

We celebrated when Brayton got to come home after such a long time in the hospital.  We wept tears of joy at the photos that another Firecracker mommy took of Brayton's first day of freedom and his trip to the beach.  Those were the best tears.

Over the next two years, all the Firecrackers rallied as Brayton would be in and out of the hospital for surgeries and sicknesses.  Our little ones have become very proficient at remembering B in their prayers (or whatever form of wishing their mommies have them make) and we have always gotten to cry those happy tears when Brayton got to go home.

The tears this time are different.  Brayton went into the hospital again in mid-July - the month of the Firecrackers.  Our praying knees got their exercise, and then some, over the past few weeks.  Brayton was brave and strong through a couple of surgeries, one lasting the better part of the day.  But, last night, August 28, 2011, Brayton made his final trip home.  This time it wasn't to his home with his mom and his sisters.  This time he went home to be with God and Jesus.  That's how I had to explain my tears to my three year old.  The tears this time are different.

Brayton will never get to go to school, to prom, drive a car, learn multiplication, fall in love, write a love letter or graduate from college.  He won't be there when his sisters walk down the aisle and get married. He won't get to call his mom and say that he has found that special someone.  He won't get to do these things himself.  He will get to do these things - all of them - because he will live on in the hearts of all the Firecrackers forever.  They will carry a little piece of him with them forever.

There is little to say to comfort.  Maybe these words will help someone...

"So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you."  John 16:22

"Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal." - From a headstone in Ireland.

"No cry, mommy.  Baby an angel."  Lauren, Age 3

Where we were...

It has been a couple of weeks since I have posted here...and for good reason.  Along with Grammy, we went on a ten day trip to Ohio.  After a full day in the car (including taking 1.5 hours to go 13 miles), the first half of our visit was spent with Grammy's sister, Vivian, and her family in Wapakoneta.  While hanging with them, we also went to Berlin, Ohio to visit Amish country.  It was a very pretty country and we got to see lots of "neighs".

The second half of our trip started at the Columbus Airport, where we picked up our friend Kristy and her daughter, Addie Shea!  They came all the way from California.  Then we drove a little further south to Logan, Ohio and a beautiful cabin in the hills.  When we got there, there were many of our Firecracker Friends (a group of kids who were born around July 2008) to play with.  Lauren had many new friends to play with - Kyleigh, Tali, Cameron, Leah, Cael, Noah, Alexis, Maddie, Xander, Arielle, and our old buddy Elliot to play with.  Two more friends came to play with us for a day and they were Marley and Alli.  Mommy had Amy R., Jaime, Allison, Beth, Patti, Dawn, Heather, Christy, Nicole, Jessica, Meghyn and Laura and Erin to hang out with, too!  Cousin Caleb went with us and he got to play with Miranda, Chloe, Maddy, Aubrey, Ilish and Kai.  There was even twos toddlers, Lydia and Solomon, and two babies, Kaelyn and Adelyn, to keep us busy.

Then it took us two days to drive home because we were tired and our patience for being in the car was running thin.

Whew...now you see why I didn't have time to post.