Missing Daddy

This picture was taken a couple of Sundays ago at Daddy's request with his two favorite kids. It is very common for him, after dressing Caedmon on a Sunday morning, to pick something out for himself that looks just like what Caedmon is wearing.

Kevin has been on a business trip since yesterday morning and will be returning late tonight. I know it's only one night, but I started missing him the moment he left yesterday knowing that he wouldn't be coming home that evening. I missed hearing the kids squeal with excitement saying "Daddy's Home!" and running to the garage when they hear the garage door opening in the evenings. I missed his kisses of "It's good to home" that are passed around for everyone. I missed the relief of having someone step in and take over with the kids in the evenings...playing with them on the floor, giving them a bath and helping with bedtime prayers. And most of all, I missed the companion last night that I share my bed with that keeps me warm & feeling safe.

I was thankful for the countless phone conversations we had together yesterday throughout the day that came just at the right times and for my mom that stopped by in the evening after work bringing food and just sitting to chat.

Absence certainly makes the heart grow fonder and reminds me of how much I truely love the man that makes my heart flutter everytime he walks in a room. It also causes me to draw closer to Christ and trust that He can meet all my needs and help me through. Miss you honey!

The Girls are Sick, The Boys are Tough

That was the line my husband was teaching to Caedmon this morning as they were getting ready for church. Kaiya and I stayed home from church today not feeling so great. I have a sore throat and Kaiya has had diarrhea for a couple of days. We're rarely sick around here, so this a new thing for all of us. Come on, it's Spring...and we haven't been sick all winter so now after we have the first full week of 70 degree weather, we get sick?? I can't complain too much though because the only symptom of Kaiya's sickness is the diarrhea...she's still up and playing and neither of us is running a fever. We went outside and picked wildflowers in the woods for our center piece on the table and she helped me make a big Sunday lunch with all the extras. Earlier this week when Kaiya was playing in her room for room time, she came out and held up her arm covered with vomit. I said "what's that?" She replied "it's my breakfast." It was the first time she has ever thrown up.

On a happier note, here's a special announcement from the kids:

We're all extremely excited to start the adoption process again and if it is the Lord's will, add another to our family. We've been talking and praying about the possibility for a while and Kevin and I felt the time was right to move forward with #3 while walking on the beach one morning when vacationing in Florida recently.

Caedmon has been praying for a new baby for awhile now and has picked out names already...Oscar for a boy and Kyaxi for a girl. :) We have no idea how long it will take this time, but will keep updating our progress. We've started initial paperwork with fingerprinting, physicals and financial statements and will be having another home study done in the near future. We appreciate your prayers for us as well as the birth mother & baby (possibly growing already), as we go through this exciting and sometimes emotional process.

Soccer

Today was Caedmon's first soccer game and he absolutely loved it. It was so cute to watch the little ones running around sometimes the wrong way and sometimes making a goal for the other team. Whoops. :) So sweet to watch them learn about the game of soccer. It seems lately when talking with friends & family, their comments about Caedmon are "HE IS REALLY BIG." I just nod and agree not thinking much about it, but after viewing this picture today, it really hit me..."OH MY GOODNESS, HE'S NOT MY LITTLE BOY ANYMORE."

This is the very first organized sport/activity that we've had our children in and it has been pretty exciting for everyone. When Caedmon came home from his first practice, he was beaming from ear to ear. He loves sports and was totally in his element. We've had fun getting to know the other parents & kids as well. He has a great coach (with a lot of patience :))and we really appreciate the goal of the Upwards Program that promotes salvation, character, and self-esteem in every child.

We Saved Big Money at Menards

Or as Caedmon would say "save big money at the nards." :) Kevin gets a good laugh out of that.

I found an idea in a magazine for cheap bookshelves for the kids rooms. They both like to look at books when they go to bed at night and I've been looking for a way to neatly store their books beside their beds for a long time.

These shelves are made simply from a rain gutter. We bought a ten foot long gutter at Menards on sale for $4.99 last Friday and Kevin had three shelves made and hung by Saturday. Projects around here just don't get done that fast, so that tells you how easy it was and super cheap...I love cheap! We even found out later that we could send in for a rebate of $3.00 which made it only $1.99 and we got three shelves out of it. We also had to purchase the brackets & end caps which was additional and made them come out to about seven bucks for each shelf total.

And here are some sweet pictures of the kids reading together. We LOVE the library and are usually there a couple times a week. I love seeing their excitement over books & reading.

And finally another verse...Daddy's favorite..."I can do all things through Christ who gives me the strength" Philippians 4:13.

Stop and Smell the Roses

Yesterday while Caedmon was at school Kaiya and I came back home and cleaned the house. It was gorgeous outside and who wants to clean when it's 70 degrees, but it needed to be done so that is what we did. All the windows were wide open so we could at least smell the beautiful air. Kaiya loves to help mommy clean and sometimes I get in my "just want to get it done as fast as I can" mode and shew her away...it may sound silly, but lately the phrase "stop and smell the roses" has been on my mind a lot. Partly because I have a miniature rose plant sitting on the window sill in my kitchen that was blooming beautifully this past week and also because I read in a friends blog that exact same phrase this week. I kept walking past the plant thinking "I should smell those", but several times I had a task on my mind that I wanted to complete and didn't take the time. Finally one day toward the end of the week I took the time and enjoyed their fragrance.

Back to the cleaning...yesterday that phrase spoke to me again as I was shewing my daughter away...probably the Holy Spirit speaking. "Stop and smell the roses...look at the little rose in front of you right now begging for your attention...take the time to include her in what you are doing." I got down at her level and saw her sweet little face and heard her sweet little voice talking to me and thought to myself "I wish I could freeze this stage of her life...her precious little baby face, her sweet little voice using the "t" sound in place of the "c" sound when she talks, her soft curly baby hair and miniature little body...it will all be different in a few years. It's overwhelming at times with all the responsibilities of being a mom and sometimes hard to stop and enjoy those little moments...I wouldn't trade this job for anything.

Here's a video clip of mommy's little helper.

Immanuel

Each year our church has a "missions emphasis" weekend where we host different speakers and promote mission awareness. A couple years ago we heard a speaker that weekend that challenged us that everyone can be a missionary. Many feel the call to go somewhere else, maybe oversees, but the rest of us can still make a difference right where we are. It really challenged Kevin and I that we needed to do something...something we could all do together as a family. We took a few months to think and pray about it and decided to join the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. With the busyness of our young family, I wasn't sure how it would all work out...it's worked out great! We've been mentoring Immanuel for a year now and what a blessing it has been to our whole family. Caedmon talks about Immanuel all the time and looks forward to our times together with him. We usually try to get together every other weekend and this past weekend we went to The Dome (an indoor multi sports center) and played mini golf. I spent most of my time chasing Kaiya around afraid that she would fall in the water and drown, but the boys had a ball hitting balls. This hungry clan went to Pizza Hut afterwards and almost demolished two large pizzas. This pictures cracks me up. I told everyone to make a silly face not expecting little Kaiya to join in...but she did. :)

Out On the Sarasota Town

My nephew Jake turned 16 while we were in Florida and on the night of his birthday, we all went out to celebrate at a seafood restaurant called Shells. The waiter was quite hilarious...a little strange too. The funny thing was, when Clint & Shanna took their family there last year they got the exact same waiter. One of the children's menu items included a drink called "the Shark Attack". The waiter brought out a clear carbonated drink with a toy shark on top then proceeded to pour a red liquid out of the sharks mouth into the clear drink. The funny part was the sound effects that he made as he was pouring...the sound of someone getting attacked by a shark...kind of morbid. We ordered five and after the fifth time, we were all laughing hysterically.

On Wednesday night of that week, we all went to the movie theater. The ladies & children watched "Horton Hears a Who". Very cute movie! The guys watched "10,000 B.C.". The movies played at the exact same time, so it worked out perfectly.

After the movie, we walked across the street for ice cream at the Cold Stone Creamery.

Kevin has two Aunts that live in Florida and several cousins, and on Thursday evening we were thrilled to get to see them all together at a family picnic at the park.There were two new babies that I hadn't met yet. This one is Wynette's baby Joanna at six months old. She was such a happy little baby. It was fun to meet little baby Reece as well. The kids had a blast running all over the playground and I enjoyed catching up with the ladies. And it was great to see Kevin's Grandparents as well who were in Florida for the winter. Happy Anniversary to my Mom & Dad today!!! Love you guys! Our Florida vacation wouldn't have been the same without you!

Two and a Half

Kaiya officially turned two and a half at the end of March and this post is all about her and her life as two a half year old. I shared earlier about her fear of the sand while we were in Florida. Well despite all the efforts by her daddy to help her overcome her fear, she just couldn't believe that there were not spiders in the sand. She had a few emotional breakdowns on the beach (screaming with sheer terror at the top of her lungs as everyone looked on), but as soon as I would take her to the water, she turned into a different girl. So fun to watch her joy as she played in the water...pulling her away was a different story....more tears. Oh the drama of a two year old girl. There is certainly a lot of drama that comes with this cute little girl. She still loves to pick out her own ensemble of clothing and that usually includes something pink, something with tulle and we don't bother with socks because they usually come off only a few minutes after we put them on.

Pink is her favorite color. She loves Cinderella. Counting goes something like this...1..2..3..9. Mommy is her favorite person right now and she declares every night that Mommy is going to put her to bed...not Daddy. She can't go to sleep until we've recited all the verses we've learned so far this year.

Her favorite foods are macaroni & cheese, hot dogs, and any kind of fruit. She turns her nose away from most desserts including chocolate desserts & ice cream. Crazy girl! She loves to give lots of hugs & kisses.

On another note, I love the frozen frappaccinos at Starbucks, but don't like paying the big $$ for them. So in doing some searching online, I found a couple recipes that come pretty close to the real thing. We made this one in Florida and it tasted so cool & delicious.

Mocha Frappaccino

Ingredients
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons chocolate syrup
1 tablespoon granulated sugar, plus
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/3 cup strong coffee
1 cup ice
Directions
1in a blender, combine everything but the ice, and blend until sugar has dissolved.
2add ice and blend until smooth (sometimes you will need a bit more ice).

I also LOVE the Strawberries & Creme Frappaccino so did a search for that one as well and was shocked when I saw how many calories that one includes. A whopping 420 calories and 12 g of fat...yikes! Here is a yummy alternative that I think comes pretty close and is maybe even a little better. It includes soy milk, which I despise but you seriously can't taste it in the finished product. 135 calories and 1 g of fat in this puppy...that's more like it.

Ingredients:2/3 cup frozen strawberries (just plain- NOT in syrup!)

5 oz. light vanilla soy milk

2 tsp. Fat Free French Vanilla Coffee-mate powder (dissolved in an oz of warm water)

1 oz. Sugar Free Torani Strawberry Syrup

3 Splenda packets

3 large ice cubes

Fat Free Reddi-Wip

Place all of the ingredients in blender, except for the whipped cream.

Blend on high speed for 30-45 seconds.

Pour, and top with Fat Free Reddi-Wip.

Strawberrylicious!