Favorite (MOST of them) Memories in 2010 (via photos)

Our first family picture. We had met Caleb minutes before this picture. He was almost 3 weeks old, weighing 3lbs. What a surprise!!!

This picture means so much to me. One of the first time I saw my boy with his eyes open. I have my "Noelle Ring" on, still grieving the loss of my baby girl, while holding my new baby boy.

First Bath

He still has that serious look....a lot. 

6 weeks old

We found out that Caleb's birth mother's rights were terminated and.....Caleb was home to stay. We celebrated with our dear friends and neighbors:) 

Caleb was excited to visit Gramma Kath's second grade classroom

One of my dear, dear, best friends came to visit this summer:) She lives too, too, far away in OR. 

The first time I walked into his room and saw him standing!!

I have an absolutely beautiful sister

Family picture

I love this picture of my brother and sister in law

Found my baby and my dad snuggling together on Christmas 

He is ONE!

Fulfilled a dream of riding an elephant.

Ok, cute picture, right? 

And again, pretty cute. 

So this post is not entirely true. I don't have photos with some of my favorite people, which makes me really sad. Some of my memories are that....memories in my head.  Some beautiful times with friends, family, colleagues and the Lord. My sister's wedding was another great memory..... What a nostalgic time. 

Wordless Wednesday (Christmas Recap)

Today I shed a tear

Because my baby turned a big boy. We have been waiting a WHOLE year for his FIRST hair cut..

One

It is hard to believe that one year ago today I was coming to terms with the idea that God was not going to give us a baby for Christmas. I was struggling through the holidays, with faith, that eventually we will be a part of pursuing God's kingdom by caring for orphans. Just not that year. Holidays can be emotional anyways when you are grieving the loss of someone. In many ways, I was grieving the loss of Noelle, but in more ways I was grieving my prayer life. I thought for sure I had God say we would have a baby for Christmas. I was questioning my faith and whether or not prayer even worked.

Little did I know, an hour a way, there was a scared woman, in labor 3 months early. She had been in the hospital for a few weeks prior to Christmas, but decided (against the advice of the hospital) to leave the hospital, to go home to spend Christmas with her family. She found herself back in the hospital in labor. One

December 27, my son was born. I did not know he even existed at that time. Jon and I were even talking about going through foster care and other means of opening our homes up for children. He was born 3 months early at a whopping 3lbs! It wouldn't be until January 9th that we heard about our Caleb boy, but today, we celebrate his birth!

Today, Mr. Caleb, you are the light of our lives. You mean more to us that we could ever ask for or even explain to you. You have given us such joy and we cannot imagine life without you. We are slowly navigating how to be parents, specifically how to be white parents to an African American boy. We want you to know and appreciate your culture. We want you to love it, it is how God has created you. Wen want you to grow up to be a man that pursues Jesus with all of his heart, a man of prayer and a man that know the Word. We want you to feel like you can always come home, that you can come to us with anything and that your parents will be your support system.

Today....you are almost 20lbs, you are putting syllables together to form words, crawling like crazy, walking between the furniture, LOVING your new Christmas gifts, eating everything, sleeping 10 hours a night, taking 1-2 naps throughout the day, have 2 teeth and a contagious smile.

Today....we are going to cut your hair.

Today.....we celebrate you baby boy.

Back to reality

Now that Christmas is over.....

-planning a 1st Birthday party for a pretty special boy in my life
-cleaning the disaster zone that Christmas left in my house
-WORKING OUT AND EATING FRUITS AND VEGGIES!
-Turning my office into a play room and my laundry room into an office
-Taking Christmas decor down

So, who want to help with the re-decorating?

Wordless Wednesday (An Early Wowzer Christmas)

Traditions

As we celebrate our first Christmas as a family of three, I can't help but think about Christmas traditions. What do we want to be doing this year and have as an ongoing tradition for Caleb to experience and to celebrate with us?

Here are some family traditions that we keep:

Christmas Eve: It starts off early. The sisters and my dad get up before it is light out and head to the HoneyBaked Ham Store, wait in line in the freezing cold to get a scrumptious ham. Once we get the ham we do some last minute shopping with all the crazies:)  ALWAYS going to church, a beautiful candle light, worshipful, musical setting to celebrate Jesus. We come back to my parents house and have hor'durves and wine. Every year we open up 1 gift--Christmas pajamas.Mom always gets a Santa on Christmas Eve. She is collecting them and has some beautiful ones. Maybe I should take some pictures of them this year, Wendi?  All 3 sisters sleep in the same bed waiting for Santa to arrive. Yes, I even have done this since moving out, getting married, and being 26 years old. I doubt that this year will be any different.

Christmas Day: crazy frenzy!!! No one is allowed to go into the family room until mom and dad say it is ok. When we walk in, Christmas music is always playing with gifts galore. No really, Toy's R Us looks poor compared to Santa coming to our house. I will prove it this year:) My mom is a little excited about Christmas shopping. Anyways, we open our stockings and then we get to the gifts....one person at a time. Mom always gets a calendar. We clean up the mess and head up to grandma and grandpa's house (10 minutes away) where we have breakfast with them, my great aunt, my aunt and uncle and cousins. We always have eggs, toast, coffee and cinnamon rolls. Every. Year. Fabulous. After breakfast we open more stockings.Well, the stockings at grandma's are actually gift bags.  And more gifts. Then we clean up the mess and go back to my parents house...and clean up more....and then take a nap. After our naps....we get ready for Christmas dinner, then eat the Christmas dinner and then end up having some great quality family time.

This year: I want to read the Christmas story to my son with my husband. I want to pray and worship together. And...ofcourse, all of the other amazing great traditions!!!

What traditions do you have???