...Everything as loss...FOR GREAT GAIN

This season is full. Full of sad times, busy times and some great memories made. One thing I truly enjoy is to cook. It is in my blood. My Mawmaw is an amazing cook who then taught my mom who inspired me to cook. All three of us...well I should say four because my sister is amazing too....cook different in many ways but the same in others. It is just the joy of creating. For me I find so much joy in finding new tastes and beautiful dishes. I also find joy in old fashioned cookin. This one all started when we had moved to Indianapolis. It was the first time ever I didn't have a job. I was 7 months pregnant in a new town/state and didn't know anyone. As many of you know I rarely can sit still. I need to be productive.....and this came to mind. Why not create delicious jellies and jams.. Not only is it super cost effective. It is a fun gift to give and a great way to make healthier options for my kiddos. So...can away. Here is this summers first bunch...and I am sure there will be...

No pictures. No sweet stories of my kids. Today I need to write what is on my heart. So many things continue to weigh on my heart. BLAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!       As I started to write the title of this blog I knew exactly what many people would think. It will get better.....     So a sweet couple from our church is begining the fight for cancer in their sweet 3 year old daughter, Esther. A wonderful friend who was a groomsman in our wedding lost his precious son to a terrible disease. Aaron's assistant manager's fiance was in a head on collision in which the other driver died and his 14 year old daughter. His 6 year old is doing ok at Childrens Hospital. Cassie is in the ICU with blood in her lungs, last we heard.....This is not fun to think on. I find myself wanting my four little ones to just enjoy silence for the day so I can gather my thoughts. My thoughts...really? I know that the world wants me to look at these things and say "It will get bet...

 Ok...so before we started baseball season Malachi needed a cut...and it was my crazy idea to try something new...a MOHAWK! He was mostly stoked to try to look like a dinosaur...of course. So here it is pre-first game!  We signed Malachi up for team baseball with the Fort Collins Baseball club and he is on the Liberty 2 team with a few of his classmates...one being Parker...his buddy from church. I love that I captured this pic of the two of them hangin in the field waiting for an amazing fly ball...yeh that never happened.  Ahh the many positions of 1st grade baseball...at least this was the first game. Malachi has played first base and catcher and he's got a great arm. I also had to snap some shots of what the other munchkins did...and sweet Parker's sister, Grace played with Rachel. At the second game it was much hotter so it brought on some troubles....including bees. It was the last hitter and I saw the coach come running off the field with Malachi. He ...

Many people know about Rachel's dance performance...but for those who don't know our sweet girl got to dance and worship our Lord Jesus with the Creative Ministry of Arts class. That night was crazy. We were completely unaware as to how big this event was. She got to go to class weekly for 12 weeks and loved it. So that night we just showed up a little early to find a packed church! There were 172 dancers just in the Fort Collins group...apparently there are at least 2 other places in Colorado they teach/perform. She did awesome. The first video is dress rehearsal where I got the whole song on tape. Then Aaron tried to get the actual show on tape and our space on the video ran out....but enjoy! Ok...that was rehearsal...here's the performance

The typical time out in this house is "stand still with your hands behind your back and nose in the corner. Well, this time it was my bad for leaving some good dance music on while I was cooking...and Malachi was in time out...hillarious!!!! He still doesn't know I got this on tape.

Wow....am I grateful. Where do I begin? First...thanks Dad and Mum for this laptop!!! For real? This is so wonderful to be "up to date" and now so much more capable to doing what I love to do...blog and archive our families memories. For the past months my "go to" has been Facebook, which isn't bad but there is so much more to share and one or two sentences does me no good...and I'm not sure everyone on Facebook wants to know my stuff. Here's a Taylor update and then we are off and running on here again.    Caleb is now in almost 5 months old! CRAZY. He is doing good for a 3 month old and that is what we expect. He weighs in at 11 lbs. 8 oz. and as far as growth...he is tall and has a huge head!!! Just like Malachi! He has done great with sleep until about a week ago and one side effect of being a preemie kicked in full gear. Constipation...and not how we seem to think. I am so so so grateful for our home health nurse, Pat, who is UNBELIEVABLE in her kn...

So we are thrilled at his progress! He is now 4 lbs 11.4oz and last night he drank his whole feeding from a bottle!!! And in 15 minutes...big eater! He is progressing well with nursing and they are just impressed with him...so are we! These pictures are great...and sometimes I forget when I look at the picture how tiny he still is. Yes, those are preemie diapers and they go way way way up his back just to make them fit. He also has been off the cafeine since Sunday and so we are now in the waiting game...it usually takes a week for it to get out of your system and then we will see how his heart reacts and breathing. It is good to come to you with good news and more exciting to hopefully get weeks closer to him being home. We miss him daily. A lot. Lets just say the hospital has been wonderful to us but it is not home. This is his wall...the kids did birthday cards after he was born and then we made a collage of pictures of the munchkins for him to see them. It will be so wonderful when...