Christmas Pics... Part One...

Here is a candid shot of Noah from a couple weekends ago. He ALWAYS wears his cowboy boots and often refers to himself as Noah Cowboy. :)

Collin lined up the chairs and little table and made a fire engine.

The weekend before Christmas, Mom and Dad came over for our annual Cookie baking day.
Collin helped eat them!

Noah helped make them.

The rest of the pics are from Christmas Eve with my parents and Christmas morning at our house.

Collin's MRI

Collin had his MRI this morning, I have already heard back from our Pediatrician and everything is fine. No spinal adhesion's were present and all is well! I seriously just walked in, got Collin something to drink and helped get comfy on the couch and got the call. I cannot believe it. The MRI was only 2 hours ago. Must be a slow day at Children's. Praise the Lord!! :)

An overview of 2008

Well, here we are at the end of December already! How did that happen? :)
I never got around to sending out Christmas cards this year, I apologize to you all, so I will try to make it up to you with this entry.
I will give a brief note about the biggest happenings of each month and I hope to keep it moving, a lot has happened to our little family this year. Hold on tight, it is going to be a bumpy ride.
Jan. - My sister moved to Virginia, she works for Liberty University, in the Law Library and is still there working hard on her Master's degree.
- I had lasik surgery. Great decision with amazing results. Near perfect vision in both eyes!!
- Superbowl Sunday, my back went out.
Feb - Back problem diagnosed. Treatment begins.
Mar - Noah turns 3!!!!!!!!! He had a Thomas the Train party and God sent him a special gift of extra snow. Due to the near blizzard condition's we ended his party with a trip to a local sledding hot spot in our neighborhood. Big fun.
- Back treatment's continue.
Apr - Finish back treatments. Still in pain, concerned, but the doctor said it was most likely arthritis.
May - Collin turned 2!! He had a farmer/ tractor party. We were able to play outside in shorts during his party. What a difference 2 months make. Aaron and I realize we no longer have a baby.
- Back pain continues, no end in sight.
June - Kind of calm. We enjoyed a lot of family fun!
July - Virginia Baby! We went to visit Jenny! The trip was amazing. We went to a minor league baseball game, waded in the creek behind Jenny's house, went to an amazing 4th of July celebration. Most importantly, we spent time with Jenny!
- We went camping with my parents. A dream come true for the boys.
Aug - Aaron turned 30! We had a huge birthday party for both he and his aunt who turned 50 on the same day. It was kind of a mix between, Aaron Dell "this is your life" and a family reunion. It was fun, but very busy.
- Even though we spent the end of the month celebrating Aaron's life, we spent the middle of the month thanking God for saving my life. On the 13th, the doctor's finally diagnosed the cause of the pain I was experiencing. I had a birth defect that nearly ended my life. The did an emergency surgery on my right urerter to hold me over until the next surgery could happen. We were cut to the quick this month and we rejoice that God is not done with me yet!
Sept - The worst month of my life! I had surgery on the 16th. The pain was unbearable, but God sustained me.
- Early in the month we had a hurricane. Crazy winds and terrible power outages!
- My sister came out to help with the boys! My mom took an entire week off of work to take care of me! Aaron took an entire week off of work too. People came out of the woodwork to help our family get through this difficult time. We had a ton of meals made and brought to us and so much help with the boys. I am forever thankful for all of the love and support.
Oct - Aaron and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary.
- Healing continued, slowly.
Nov - I turned 30. I had the best birthday of my life. I think it may have something to do with the fact that I had almost died a few months prior, but it also has a lot to do with the people I love the most surrounding me and showing me their love.
- Collin started speaking a lot more. (Now he won't stop!)
Dec- I finally start to feel better and I can do much more.
- We did not overbook our calender this year, so we had a lot of time to enjoy the season! The kids really learned a lot more about Christmas, Noah especially. This was a beautiful Christmas for us.
When I look back over the past 12 months I am in awe of how good God is to us. Aaron is still heading up the single mom's oil change ministry at our church and God is making that ministry grow leaps and bounds. We hosted 4 oil change events this year and we were able to share God's love with many women. I have loved watching Aaron grow through this ministry and I love watching him draw nearer to God. Throughout all of the pain I experienced this year, Aaron was a rock for me. He kept helping me refocus on God and kept the house running. It always amazing me how the house runs when I am not in control! :) Speaking of my control issues, ;), God is really working in me too. I am trying to give Him the control in my life, but it is a daily struggle for me.
As of mid-December, I am the nursery coordinator at our church. The job is BIG, to say the least. To give you an idea, the woman who formerly held this position told me that she thinks that 3 people could easily share the work. I am still getting my feet wet, but I think I have averaged between 15 - 20 hours a week. I think it may slow down after the hectic holiday church schedule, but we'll see. I do love the challenge of the job and it is really nice to use my brain for something other than conversing with 2 and 3 year olds and working 100 piece puzzles.
In closing, I want to assure you that God is good, His love endures forever and He will NEVER leave us or forsake us!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

First sleep over

Okay, so a couple of weeks ago we invited Peter W. over for a sleep over. It was so fun! Here are some pics of the big event, blogger is being a pain so they are out of order. Whatever! I don't have time to fix it. Anyway, for the record...
We started the night at LaRosa's then made ice cream sundae's, watched a movie, and hit the hay. On Saturday, we ate oatmeal, made ornament's and Santa beards, the boys all crashed, Roxi too! We finished the afternoon by going to our favorite library to decorate gingerbread houses.
I hope you can make sense of the pictures. It was a blast and we can't wait to do it again... someday!:)
By the way, the picture of Noah and Peter holding hands while sleeping IS NOT A pose! Sometime after they fell asleep they started holding hands. It was so stinkin cute!

We have a little engineer on our hands...

This morning Collin was still asleep and Noah and I were cuddling in my bed. Noah said he needed to go to the bathroom, so I told him to go ahead, then come right back when he was done. Well, fast forward 13 minutes ( I dozed off ) I heard the clink of ceramic on ceramic. Oh no! I jumped out of bed, ran to the bathroom and sighed when I saw what he was investigating. There was water puddled on the floor, not too much, the plunger was in a new location, and the back of the toilet was opened. I tried to explain to Noah that if that fell on his had it could really hurt him, but he was too busy defending his case to hear what I was saying. "Mommy, I just had to see how it worked."
Oh boy!

Be careful what you pray for...

Tonight's entry is one I write with a contemplative heart, full of humility and in awe of my Father, the ALMIGHTY God.
Where do I begin?? The phrase "be careful what you pray for" is swirling around my mind at a pace that would challenge the biggest tornado you could imagine. While it swirls around it kicks up "dust" in the form of many suppressed thoughts that I have carefully shelved in the library of my mind, set aside to deal with another day. Well friends, that day has arrived. I am overwhelmed by the intensity of of my thoughts. Don't get me wrong, I am kind of happy and eager to clean house and sort through the many things that cloud my mind and hinder growth.
I have often heard people offer" be careful what you pray for" when big things happen, good or bad. I have even said it a million times myself, but when God does answer a prayer so obviously that it kind of knocks you up side of the head, I am always taken off guard. I know He listens to me and answers all my prayers (even when I don't get what I want:) ) I am still humbled when I see him working in my life.
I remember when I met Aaron and we were still in the beginning phases of getting to know one another. I remember how shocked I was that he fit so many of the specifications I had prayed for a million times when praying for the man I wanted to marry. I remember thanking God for bringing us together. One of the things I specifically prayed for was that "he" would be financially wise. Well, if you know Aaron AT ALL you know he is FRUGAL, okay down right cheap!! Be careful what you pray for!:)
Well, lately God has been knocking my socks off. I have been praying that God would use me, teach me and stretch me. Well, He has taken me up on my prayer. Last weekend I was asked by my Pastor if I would consider taking over the position of nursery coordinator at our church. Well, for those of you who don't know, it is a BIG job and there is a lot of responsibility. The job takes a lot of planning, detail work, scheduling and most importantly showing the youngest people in our church the love of God the moment they come into our care. I have a lot of idea's and I am excited to get started, but let me first tell you that I turned the offer down before I accepted it. Let me explain. Thursday, I went to my Pastor and told him I didn't think I felt called to the position, but when I left my heart was heavy. I felt like Jonah. I felt like I was running from what God had called me to do. It is strange because I when I decided to tell Pastor Mark no, I felt confident that God was leading me to do so. I had prayed and prayed about it and thought I understood what God wanted me to do, however, when I had closed the door of my van after talking to Pastor Mark, I knew I was wrong. I am scared. I feel nervous about all the job requires, but I realize that is because I am trying to figure it out on my own and not allowing God to guide me. I have been praying specifically that God would use me, and now He is doing just that and I doubt that He is really calling me into service. Be careful what you pray for. :)
Now, onto another thought. In church this morning, one of the passages we read was 1 Samuel 12:19-25. Verse 23 says, "As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you." Wow, I was really challenged by this passage. When I was going through all of the medical drama this year I cannot tell you how many people said "I'm praying for you". I often wondered how many of them really were. I don't mean to sound judgmental. I apologize if I offend you, I am just sharing what I feel. I know that I have said I will pray for someone, but how many times did I forget to follow through? More than I would like to admit. I don't think I realized how serious of an offense it was. I don't think I thought about it as sinning against God. OUCH! That one stings.
I wonder when I will start to believe God is the God He promises He is in His word? I do know that I am excited to begin this new adventure and I covet your prayers. As for the "dust" left over from the tornado of thought, well, I am sorting through the rubble and I think I am starting to make a dent. :) One day at a time. Now I am off to pray, I wonder if I will be careful with what I pray for?? You will be the first to know!:)

The Polar Express...

Last Sunday evening we hopped in our van and headed to Connorsville, Indiana to ride the Polar Express! We waited to tell the boys where we were going until we hit the road and boy were they excited!



We have a DVD player in the van, but we only use it on trips, so the boys were totally excited to watch "The Polar Express". Noah also read the book on the trip and was proud of himself for turning pages and staying in time with the movie.



Once we arrived, we parked and walked to the train. It was amazing.

When we got to the "train station" we were greeted by the conductor and engineer. This was a special treat because they were sitting there together and getting to meet them was a special bonus.



The surprises kept on coming for the boys. Their best friends, Peter and James also showed up. Grandma and Grandpa Weldon treated their family to The Polar Express ride too! It was so fun to see Noah's face when he saw Peter.




Here are some pictures of the ride. We drank hot chocolate, ate cookies, sang Christmas songs and enjoyed visiting with the Weldon family. :)








We rode the Express all the way to the North Pole, picked up Santa and headed back to the station. All of our boys loved Jolly Old Saint Nick, even Collin, until he sat on Santa's lap. :)






Peter and his Grandpa were pooped! They crashed on the way back to the station!

It was a wonderful night full of the magic of the holiday season.
It was so much fun to experience this great night! Thank you Mom and Dad for the wonderful gift and for letting us tag along. We love you!

Thanksgiving...

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We sure did. We spent some time with both my family (minus my sister) :( and Aaron's in the evening (minus extended family) :(. I would post pictures, but, I took NONE! I don't know what is wrong with my brain! I used to take lots of pics. We ate too much and spent a lot of time enjoying the family God has given us.
Today, Aaron and I took the boys to the doctor. It was wonderful to have help on this venture. Usually the doc appt's are stressful, but with an extra set of eyes and hands, it was not too bad. Collin had his 2 1/2 year exam topped off with the flu mist and Noah had his flu mist. I'm so happy they don't have to get the shot anymore. Well, during Collin's exam, the doctor noticed that Collin's "birthmark" is located right over his spine. Apparently this can sometimes indicate spinal/ nerve problems so we will be going in a few weeks to get an MRI on our baby. As you may imagine, my heart sunk a little when I found out sweet Collin may have back problems, but I am comforted by the statistics ( only about 10% of the time is something wrong) and by the fact that God has this all worked out in the plan He has laid out for Collin's life. I am not looking forward to having my boy sedated, but it is the only way to give an MRI to a child. I will post the date when we have one set.
The good news, Collin is doing great and the Pediatrician is no longer concerned about his speech. :)

A wonderful week!

Where do I begin???
I want to start by thanking everyone who was a part of my amazing birthday week. I am so thankful for all of the wonderful people God has placed in my life!

Last Friday, my friend Erin came up to visit from northern Kentucky. We had a wonderful visit and our boys got along great. We both have 2 boys and it was great to watch them play together as we played catch-up. Thanks for coming up to see us!!



On Saturday, we celebrated by having dinner at Brio. It was great. We got a sitter for the kiddo's and enjoyed a nice meal with some of our closest friends. It was wonderful.


Mom and I.



Erika and I.


Stephany and I. Thank you for everything last weekend! I love you!



The Weldon family.



Megan and I.



Rosie and I.


Apparently I didn't get any pictures of Aaron and I:( I can't believe it! I also failed to photograph Joshua, Joe, my Dad and Phil! Sorry guys.
The weekend ended with a bang! My parents took the kids, Aaron and I to Connorsville, Indiana to ride the Polar Express! I will post another blog about that later. It was so fun and I cannot wait to share it will you.