Happy Birthday Cody!

Before you were conceived
I wanted you.

Before you were born
I loved you.

Before you were here an hour
I would die for you.

This is the miracle of love.

Happy birthday Cody. I love you so very much. I hope you have a wonderful day.

Love,
Mom

(Be sure and see the slideshow below. These are some of my favorite pictures of Cody. Clearly there could be over a thousand to post!)

Birthday Pictures

I am Woman...

...and I can change out a worn out bicycle tire. All by myself. Without breaking a nail. I am so proud of myself that I was able to make the day of a 6 year old. I got a great big thank you and a hug after changing the tire (by the way... it was the back tire, so not only did I have to take off the rear wheel, then struggled with getting the tire off and back on the wheel, I had to deal with the chain as well!), loading the bike into the Pilot, driving to the nearest gas station, airing up the tire, driving home, unloading the bike and then a quick walk around the park. I was the hero. Me. All by myself. Well... almost by myself. Caden held the bike and handed me the screwdriver. We make a great team, he and I.
:)
~jen

Venting

This is one of those venting posts which I will probably regret later. However, I have to vent. I have just spent the last TWO hours cleaning Caden's room. I'm not done. Thus the venting. How much stuff can a 6 year old have? Let me tell you... too much! So much that you don't even know where to begin. I so wanted to close the door and never look back. I've filled 2... that's 2 of the big industrial strength black trash bags. TWO of them full of stuff. Junk. Broken toys. Toys with missing parts. Every fast food restaurant in town's kid's meal toy. Broken crayons. Dried out markers. Art projects from 2004.

I just found the carpet under Caden's bed. You would not believe what he had shoved under there!

You would think that after 2 hours of cleaning, I'd be done. I'm not done. I still need to dust, vacuum, and strip the bed. Then I'm done.

Next up the hall closet.

While I am venting... can I just tell you my kids are slowing destroying my home. The home that we never thought would be ours. We finally saved and saved to purchase new furniture that is all our own. And now, our 2 children are slowly destroying everything. I won't list all the damage, but let me tell you one or both of our children has left their mark on every piece of furniture we own.

I don't know how to cope. It seems as though every time I turn around something else is broken, scratched, torn, dirty, stained, not working, lost, destroyed.

Enough venting or else I'll really let loose and bring up everything that I've been holding onto since 1992.

~jen

A sonogram and a banquet

Monday I had the privilege of going to Karen's (my sister-in-law) first sonogram. I was so honored that I was asked to go along with her and my mother-in-law to see my niece or nephew for the first time. It was amazing. I quickly went from standing in the back, against a counter, to sitting right beside Karen staring in awe at the monitor above us. Tears filled my eyes as soon as we could see the heart beating. Did you know that the heart starts beating 18 days after conception? 18 days after egg and sperm (sorry to those who just became squeamish after reading sperm... opps, sorry, said it again!) come together, the heart starts to beat. Amazing. Did you know that at 12 weeks this baby is fully formed. All of it's organs are present and functioning (except for the lungs). And at 12 weeks this baby can suck it's thumb! Absolutely amazing and miraculous.

We watched in amazement as this little baby moved his/her arms and legs. It was beautiful.

Thank you Karen for inviting me to go. It was a wonderful experience that brought back memories of my sonos of Cody and Caden. It meant so much to me that you allowed me to take part in that special moment with you and your mom. It was amazing.

Later that evening Mike and I went to Cody's basketball athletic banquet. We were so pressed for time that I didn't get any pictures of Cody before the banquet. He was so handsome in his dress clothes. Here are a few pictures from picking up the dates (we took Cody and 2 of his friends and their dates) and at the banquet:

(Can you see Cody's good friend and team member, Willson, sneaking around behind us to get in our family picture? Crazy Willson!) :)

Even though the majority of the banquet was to honor the varsity teams and the seniors, it was a great banquet. I sure hope it's not our last basketball banquet with Cody. I want to be one of those senior moms watching their child sit at the head table with their Sandie basketball banner displayed behind them! :)

~jen

One Little Monkey

This is what I found our little monkey doing in our living room this evening! Let the countdown begin to our next ER visit! :)

~jen

Happy Late Birthday(s)!

I know I am horrible person to not have blogged about all the birthdays (especially my husband's!) that happened Wednesday. Truth be told... I have been so busy, blogging has been put on the back-burner for the past several days!

So, Happy Late Birthday to Michael, Tiffany, Renay, and Sadie! All four of these special people share the same birthday! I hope you all had wonderful birthdays.

~jen