Life is so precious!

As the 1 year anniversary of Andrew's "Angel Day" approaches I have been thinking a lot lately about how quickly life can be turned upside down, how precious life is.  I have heard of a couple stories recently that have made me think about the day Andrew died and our life since then.  A lady in my parent's ward had their 29 year old daughter pass away in her sleep, my brother told me about a 16 month old boy in his stake who died in a household accident, and young father who (from Pleasanton, CA where I grew up) was 27 years old who also passed away in his sleep about a week ago.  Life is so short.  It can change so quickly.  What I wouldn't give to be able to be able to have hugged and given Andrew so many more snuggles and kisses.  He is so perfect!  My heart hurts so much for these families and the hurt they are feeling.   I remember the people who wrote to me that also have angels all said it was so hard but time helps.  It has helped.  The Gospel heals and has blessed us with comfort that  I feel like I have found a new normal.   I'm grateful for this time of year and the opportunity we have to remember the birth of the Savior and work to act as He would.  Please take the time to hug and love and appreciate your kids, spouses and families.  Life is so precious and we thank Heavenly Father every day that he blessed us with being part of Andrew's precious life.

Gratitude

With the daily events of life and being out of town for the whole week of Thanksgiving, I haven't posted in way too long.

We live really close to a little pond and the kids have loved feeding the ducks.

Jared enjoyed watching the ducks and eating the bread.

Trav was more comfortable throwing the bread from a safer distance.

A fun park is right next to the pond that we love swinging at.

We have so much to be grateful for! 

Each of our kids are so perfect and we are so thankful for each one.

I'm grateful for the blessing adoption has been in our life.  We have wonderful birth mom's that we LOVE; they are our heroes. 

 Tanner adds so much spice and fun to our life.

I'm grateful for our girl, Aubree.  The more boys we have, the more I appreciate Aubs.  She is such a good big sister and is constantly helping me with her brothers.  She is such a good example to them and loves playing "camp" with them.

Travis still loves tigers... He is going through a stage right now of 1-2 outfits that he likes to switch off wearing.  Travis is now started to wear a back pack all of the time.  It is one of Eric's old Track ones and Trav can keep all of his stuff in it.  The back pack is almost bigger than he is.

Jared is growing up too fast.  He is almost 15 months and decided to start walking last night.  He is such a sweet boy.  

I'm so grateful for Eric.  He is so so wonderful.  The kids LOVE having their Dad around more.  Each night at bedtime, Eric goes through his mission pictures and tells the kids all about his mission.  It is so cute.  Eric is such a great person, and I'm so thankful for his strength and example to me.  Eric has worked so hard for our family and we are so grateful for his hard work.  Eric and I did our mormon.org profiles and I just wanted to post them both here (ERIC'S & MINE).  

Jared loves climbing in and out of our chairs.

We went to Spokane, to my parents house, to celebrate Thanksgiving.  

The kids loved seeing their cousins.

We are very grateful for our families!

Mary and Leslie (my sisters) came to town too.  I sure love them.  

Aubs in "jail" during our a game of tag.

I love Jared's smile.

I'm also grateful to be pregnant.  We still can't believe it and we excited to have another little boy.  I am now just over 21 weeks and feeling good.  I am going to physical therapy to help ease my hip pain, but besides that, everything is going good.

When we got home from our Thanksgiving trip, we got our Christmas stuff up.  Aubree loves to decorate and ended doing a lot of it.

Trav getting caught trying to sneak a candy cane (NOTE: he is wearing his favorite outfit).

Jared loves to help me load and unload the dishwasher.  He makes the face above all the time when he thinks he is being funny.

Jared loves the Christmas tree.  Whenever he sees it lit up, he says "Wow."  

We wanted to incorporate Andrew into our Christmas decorations, so we started doing some homemade ones, but the next day I saw some at Target that you add pictures to and they ended up looking tons better.  

Christmas has now taken on a deeper more family-focused meaning to us.  I'm grateful for this time of year.  To be able to focus on the life of the Savior and what He has done for each one of us.