ahhh

summer

I know it is not officially, officially summer but it feels like summer.  

Preschool is over for the year, the temps are warm, we are grilling and traveling.  

One of the things I love about our house is that in the summer we hear the sounds of doves.  We have been in our house three years this past weekend so the first months we spent here were summer months.  

The sounds of the doves bring sweet memories of that summer.  

What says "summer" at your house?

Kelly

dove photo by Adrian

gifts

"A person cannot receive even one thing 

unless it is given him from Heaven."  

John 3:27

random post

Random post but did I ever show you a picture of the groom's cake from our wedding?

Oh yum!  Just ran across this photo and I want to eat some right now.

It was SO good!!!

Cake by Annie's Culinary Creations

photo by Rachel Debell Photography

What I learned in April

Today I am linking up with Emily at Chatting at the Sky

for What I Learned This Month.  

This is my first time to participate and I will admit that a couple of these things I learned last month but who's counting, right?  

the first one is my most recently acquired knowledge and that is that the flu is nothing to be messed with!  My family will be getting flu shots from here on out.  Someone(s) in our family has been sick since April 20th and wow it has really thrown us for a loop and knocked us out!  We are looking forward to being back to normal.

When I was nursing Cora and still eating dairy free I learned that liberally sprinkling dill weed on your baked potato is an excellent substitute for sour cream.  It still provides a zesty taste but without the dairy or if you're watching calories, as a much lower calorie option.  

This last one was a huge ah- ha for me!  I had no idea this existed.  During mom's night out one evening I learned that one of my friends is planning to do embryo adoption!  I am soo excited for her.

Have you ever heard of this?  

Basically, when a couple does IVF and doesn't use all of the embryos that have been fertilized then those embryos are frozen and/or donated for research or destroyed.  

A couple can choose to place those embryos up for adoption to another couple and that couple can then have the embryo implanted into the mom and the adoptive mom can carry and give birth to her adopted child.  How amazing is that?!  

I really love this option both for adoptive couples as well as the parents who want a different option for their frozen embryos.  

Another really neat fact I found out about embryo adoption is that it is the least expensive type of adoption currently.

So what about you, I would love to hear something you learned in April or what you think about one of the things I've learned.  

Kelly

birthday party sneak peek

12 months old

Edited 9/11/15:  

For those of you coming over from Kelly's Korner blog, welcome!

I am happy to share a bit about our hip dysplasia/spica cast journey in these posts. 

spica cast

waiting to get the cast off

such a trooper

post surgery & life with the cast

Two pinterest boards I put together related to the cast:

posts from others related to spica casts

clothing ideas for the spica cast

Please also feel free to e-mail me at the link in the sidebar if I can help you with any questions you may have or just lend a listening ear.  

My sweet Cora is now 2 years 5 months old and we were just told that she no longer needs to wear the rhino brace that she has been sleeping in ever since she got out of her cast!  Her hips are looking really good. 

It was a very hard journey at the time but looking back, God has been so faithful and saw us through it all with magnificence!  

Kelly

lots of eating going on this month!  

You really took off with solids this month - you love them.  

You've started smearing things around on your tray a lot.  Little stinker.  :) 

On March 18th we got your spica cast off!!!  

What a happy day!!!

You got a short leg cast instead but the next morning . . . 

You managed to wriggle yourself right out of it!!!

We had to go back in and get a longer leg cast - still it was WAY  better than the spica!  We are thankful!

You even fit in your regular high chair again!!

You got to go on a morning coffee date with Mama and her friends this month and you sat all big in your stroller enjoying your snacks while we chatted.  

We also went to the world water day party at Mrs. Mandy's house and you enjoyed so much being held by Gigi Elaine!

Sweet friends from church also gave us a gift certificate for Marco's Pizza and it was so nice to be able to go to a restaurant now because you could sit in a booster seat whereas in the spica cast you could only sit on our laps.  We all enjoyed a fun Friday night out for pizza!    

Mama and Daddy celebrated being married for 2000 days (!) and you did a great job staying with brother with some friends of ours so Mama and Daddy could go out.  

Our friend, Mrs. Julie, came and she helped Mama give you your first (and only) pedicure with your little toesies sticking out of your cast and took all of these pictures for us!

Finished!  Cutie toes and eyelet glued onto the cast!

We went on a library date with friends this month.  That was a lot of fun and you enjoyed hanging out with and being taken care of and read to by the girls.  

getting ready for your birthday party!

happy birthday to Cora!

We woke up to TONS of snow this morning but we're having a happy birthday!

Crocus!

"The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it." John 1:5

Water!!!

Okay so snow is really frozen water but how cute is my little 

boy-o shoveling the snow like his Daddy?  He felt SO big and 

was so proud.

But let's talk about the kind of water that you drink. 

Do you remember the past two Marches when we've raised money in partnership with The Adventure Project to not only provide CLEAN WATER to communities that desperately need it but also to provide JOBS and lots and lots of HOPE!!!

This is SUCH an exciting thing to me.  We have all been blessed so very richly and the opportunity to bring Heaven to earth is such a privilege!! 

Once again, my friend Mandy Houle is hosting a world water day raffle.  You can read all about this year's project (and see all of the fun raffle prizes up for grabs!) here but here is a little excerpt.  

"by investing in existing wells, we have the opportunity to 

employ entrepreneurs to become well mechanics, while 

simultaneously providing clean water.  i've always loved 

multi-tasking.

diana keesiga works with water for people.  they believe that 

it is possible for everyone to always have access to clean 

water.  their slogan says it all.

"everyone, forever.""

UM . . . YES!!! 

Last year readers of this blog donated $150 to The Adventure Project to help provide water, jobs and HOPE.

Can we do at least that much or MORE this year???

I would LOVE that!  

Consider it your birthday present to me 3 months early.  :)

Any questions, please feel free to ask.  

Oh and hey, don't bid on the same thing I did.  :)  JUST KIDDING.  You are welcome to!  

AND you don't have to live in Colorado Springs to participate in the raffle.  Many of the prizes can be shipped.

Especially if you have Easter/birthday/graduation/Mother's/Father's Day gifts to buy coming up anyway, what about entering the raffle to win a present to give?  Just a thought.  

Kelly

six years ago . . .

photo by Rachel Debell

This wonderful man asked me to be his wife!

I am so thankful!  It is a wonderful adventure and there is no one I would rather be doing life with.  

Kelly

ten on ten March 2014

flowers left over from the birthday dinner we hosted the night before

kept company by a little lamb from my Mama

I love when I see these trucks around town!  I love the colors and graphics.

Fresh new haircut

All by myself in the car!  Thanks, Mom!

Only 8 more days with the cast (7 now!)

This sweet girl is so ready!  She WANTS TO MOVE!!!

Brother likes to wear his jammies (preferably footie jammies) all day everyday.  They are warm he says.  Clothes are not warm he says.  I've stopped fighting the battle.

He likes to read with me and I like to read with him.

Dinner

This sweetie *loved* her baked beans and pulled pork!  

And is just basically all around a charmer.  

ten on ten March 2013

ten on ten March 2012

ten on ten March 2011

post from March 10, 2010

post from March 10, 2009

more ten on tens from other bloggers here

10 days

Hopefully, we only have 10 days left of this cast.  

I am trying to prepare myself for the possibility that at our appt. on the 18th they will say that the x-rays don't look good enough for it to come off but honestly, if that happens it is going to be a huge blow!

We are all really, really ready.

I wake up in the mornings having dreamt about her crawling and rolling around and being so super happy doing it.  

We are so ready to cuddle her not trying to hug and snuggle around a huge, heavy, uncomfortable cast.

We are thankful, so very thankful that she can be treated and that this cast is making that possible but oh how ready we are to be done with it.

On the 18th we will hopefully/most likely get this spica cast off and also find out if the next step is a "long leg cast" or a brace and what either one of those entails.  We feel like we can only go up from here but neither of those will be a walk in the park either.

I needed a way to process today so I decided to look through photos so here you go . . . 

(these are not in order because I am not in the mood to fight with blogger)

These next photos were all taken 10 days before we found out that we were expecting David!

Our friend Betty and I on a hike in Sitka, Alaska

Soon to be Mama and Daddy

One of my very favorite places, Herring Cove

celebrating Betty's birthday!

This photo of Adrian with one of his nephews was taken 10 days before he came to Dallas to visit me for the first time when we were dating long distance.  Ironically it was also taken 6 years to the day before his daughter was born and 3 years to the day before another nephew was born.

we had been married 10 days and were still receiving wedding gifts in the mail!  Such fun!

This photo was taken 10 days before 2014.  

in this photo David was 10 days old!

This photo was taken 10 days before we moved away from Dallas at our wonderful church there AND the outfit on David's sweet little friend now has been handed down to Cora!

These Easter pictures were taken 10 days before David turned two years old.  

Okay, this is a stretch but I ran across this picture and it is so cute to me.  This was taken 10 days and 2 years before Cora was born.  :) 

This photo was taken the same day and that was also right before we moved to Colorado AND I get to see this sweet friend next to me in just 20 days!!  That is exciting!! 

These two photos were taken 10 days ago!

These two photos were taken 10 days before David's first birthday and 10 days before we found our house in Colorado!

It's funny looking at the moving van photo.  I can spy at least three things we don't own anymore, one that's been painted, etc.  :) 

Once again taken in Alaska, these photos were taken ten days before we would find out that this little boy was going to be a big brother!

10 days before his first haircut

10 days before our first married Christmas

So there you have it.  Major props if you actually made it this far.  This post was really for me to help me get some good perspective and have a way of reflecting.

I am thankful for a beautiful day today. 

I am thankful for sweet parents who baby-sat our kids so that Adrian and I could go on a little lunch date and try out a new spot for lunch as well as a new coffee shop.

I am thankful that both kids are asleep right now (just being honest).  :)

I am thankful that by now when I'm done writing this the day is done and now we only have 9 days left!  Single digits!!  Hallelujah!!  

I hope you've had a good day!  

Kelly