One year.... hard to believe

Very hard to believe that it has been a year since our sweet little angle passed away. Though she spent only 30 precious minutes on this earth, Myah Lee touched our hearts and the hearts of many unknown.

Chris and I spent the day together... we talked and just spent time with each other. When the kids got home from school we went to a local store and each picked out a balloon to release. It was raining so the balloons would not go up! :-( We decided that we would do it on Saturday in hopes the weather would be a little nicer.

We all went to dinner together and enjoyed some good family time. The boys made a toast to Myah Lee. It was sooo sweet! The boys sooooo love that little girl even though they never met her.

After dinner we had to go get Schuyler some new base ball cleats.... here is the funny part. When we came out from buy the cleats.... Chris opened up the back of the truck completly forgetting about the balloons. Two of them took off, there was no stopping them. The ironci thing is when we had Myah's celebration of life we let balloons go, and we had one that got loose in the church and took 3 months to come down. At frist the boys were upset, but when we got home I was like ok lets send the rest of them! Off they went, it was like they were in a race to see who could get to Myah first.

I want to thank all our family and friends with the love, support, thoughts, and prayers! As the years go bye I know this will become easier... not a breez, but easier.

Sonja's senior pictures

Hard to believe that Sonja has been here almost 8 months. It is also hard to believe that she will be leaving us in 3 months. Just does not seem possible. We have had a great time getting to know her and the German cultures. She has been a blessing and a great addition to our family.

As a part of her experience in the US she is treated as a senior at school. She is able to participate in senior prom, graduation, and have her picture in the year book as a senior. Sooo being as cheep as I am, Sonja and I went outside on Saturday and took lots of pictures. They turned out very nice even though it was VERY windy. It does help when the subject you are photographing is very pretty as well. I am including a few of the shots in the post.

Hope this finds everyone well - we have lots planned over the next 3 months. I will keep posting and adding photos as we enjoy our last few months with Sonja.

12... I can not believe it

Schuyler is 12! I can't believe that 12 years ago I held this very big boy in my arms. He is so smart and really enjoys life. At times he tries to act much older than he really is, but is quick to remember he is just a kid. I know that he has great expectations for himself, and we will do all we can do to support his aspirations.

I pray every day that God will guide him through his life. I pray that his dreams will come true and that all his hard work turns into great blessings!

What a week... My best friend Raina's little boy fell from a tree and hit his head on a rock. He has a hair line fracture on his skull and bleeding on the front of his brain. Praise God that he will be ok, but Raina is finding out how hard it is to keep a 7 year old from playing to hard! This coming from a women who on presidents day fell while roller skating and broke all three of her ankle bones. 2 plates and 12 screws latter she is going through many weeks of PT.
Between all the medical stuff our family went through last year, and now everything my friend's family is going through... I am ready for a quite rest of the year.

The funny thing is, I say this after buying my child a new skate board for Christmas this year. I think I have asked my self hundreds of times since WHY! Just this week Connor went flying ac cross the drive way and next I see the skate board flying all on it's own. All I was thinking is, really, if he has a broken anything I am just going to crawl into my bed and sleep the rest of the year away. LOL Needless to say no broke bones, but I am for sure a lot more jumpy since my friends son fell.

God has blessed us so greatly, and I know he will not give us more than we can handle. I will be honest, there are days I really wonder.

I hope you are all blessed, and you will remember all the blessing God does provide.

WOW.... I really have not done very well at keeping up with this Blog. I am really going to try to start doing better.

Since my last post we went on vacation to Florida. Went with friends from church and also took Sonja as well. Spent 3 days at Disney with our friends and two more days on our own. Chris's parents work at Disney so it really helps with the cost. We had a great time. Really enjoyed the time we spent with the in-laws and our friends.

Our exchange student Sonja has been in the High School musical - "Susical the Musical" they did 4 productions of it. They did such a great job! I will post some photos. Both Sonja and the rest of us are glad it's over. Really took a lot of time and really cut into our family time. Looking forward to spending some quality time together. Hard to believe that she will be leaving on July 9th. Time has flown by. We will miss her greatly.

We also adopted the cutest little miniature schnauzer. Her name is Sienna! Very quiet and for the most part well behaved. She is VERY active and is great for our kids! She loves to cuddle and is a complete bed hog. I will post some pictures of her as well.

As I said, I will try to be more diligent on posting at least a few times a month if not more.

3 Months... Wow can it be?

Wow, it has been over three months since our exchange student Sonja arrived. She has been such a blessing. The boys love her as do Chris and I. It's hard to believe that we only have a few short months left with her. We have already started to wonder if we will have another student? Really I can't believe we would have one that is as great as she is.

Sonja has made so many friends and is really enjoying "American" life. She is excited that Christmas is around the corner and just lights up with joy as she hears all the traditions our family does. We are looking forward to sharing ours with her and her sharing hers with us. Thanks giving was AWESOME... she has never experienced it and really had a great time eating and visiting with family and friends.

Not only has Sonja brought joy to our life, she has also filled a little bit of a void that I know I feel not having Myah. I can't say it replaces what we have lost, but it is a good distraction. Chris and I are talking about adopting, but the cost is high. We have a few options we are looking in to, but not 100% sure we are ready. Chris is really the one on the fence but, we will continue to pray and see where God leads us.

Please enjoy the attached photos of the kids.

First day of school.... and more

Sorry it has been sooo long since I last updated. So much has been going on. We have added to our family... well at least for the next 10 months. :-) We have a foreign exchange student from Germany. Her name is Sonja she is 15 (will be 16 in December) we LOVE her. She is great with the boys and really has just "fit" right in with our family. She is playing soccer with the JV team at our high school and has made many friends.

Schuyler, Connor, and Logan all went back to school on August 18th. It is strange to have the house empty for 30 minutes before I have to leave for work. Chris is enjoying the peace and quite on his days off with everyone in school. However, he has no excuses now to get the honey do list done. :-)

One of the things we have to do as an exchange family is include Sonja in our family outings. Well... our first official family outing was a camping trip. (IN A TENT) We had a great time, however, waking up to 43 degree temps one morning and having 70 mile an hour winds the next was CRAZY. Chris and I both forgot how nice it is to just set around a fire and not do a thing!!!! I am sure we will do more camping next summer, but I am voting for a camper!

Soccer for the boys is in full swing and we are crazy with practices and games that will be starting this coming Saturday 9/11/10. The crazy thing is we have 4 games every Saturday between now and the end of October. Going to be busy around here. I hate to say it, but I am looking forward to winter months because it is much calmer around the house. But I truly HATE the cold and snow.

I will attach a few pictures and try to get more up from our trip and soccer soon.