There's just no way around it...I miss her. It's been five years (almost 6) since Olivia died and I still have that ache in my heart. I don't expect it to ever go away but for some reason, I'm just feeling really blue lately. I want my baby girl back in my arms.
Maybe I've been struggling because Ryan has been asking so many more questions. Insisting that I give him BACK his sister.
Ryan "where's my sister?"
Me "she's in heaven, with Jesus"
Ryan "but why?"
Me "because she died"
Ryan "but why?"
Me "because there was an accident and she died in my tummy"
Ryan "how about take her to the hospital?"
Me "Jesus already fixed her"
Ryan "and she's not broken any more?"
Me "no, she's not broken any more"
Ryan "how 'bout she comes and plays with me?"
Me "some day"
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
Easy Does It!
It's true. It's true. My little tiny, almost-twenty-pound baby is...standing. It won't be long...
Brotherly Love
Ryan and Gage make such great brothers- they are so different and yet compliment each other so well. It's funny; whenever Gage is awake and Ryan is sleeping, he'll search for him. And whenever Gage isn't in the same room, Ryan looks up at me and asks "Where's my Gage?". They insist on kissing one another at bed time too- and hugs are never few and far between these two proud brothers! I wonder if it'll stay that way...
Little Baby Suck-His-Thumb
It started out 'cute' and then it was 'convenient' but as Ryan approaches his fourth birthday, is it still 'necessary'? Ryan is so attached to thumb sucking that I fear he'll be doing it forever! When I tell him that it will fall off...or ask him to give it a 'break'...he just smiles and says "but I like to" and "I need to". I should say that he is making progress, however- he used to suck his thumb all day long, every day. Now he only does it when he's tired or when we're driving in the car...
It's the simple pleasures, right? Is it such a big deal that he finds pleasure and comfort in his parched, chapped, definitely over-used appendage?
It's the simple pleasures, right? Is it such a big deal that he finds pleasure and comfort in his parched, chapped, definitely over-used appendage? Monday, April 14, 2008
Happy 1st Birthday Gage!!!
April 12th, 2007...27 hours of labor...Gage Alexander McElroy enters the world...and a mere one year later just LOOK at what he's done!
Check out the way he positions his feet when he eats- hysterical!
His new green shirt...
IRRESISTABLE!
Don't worry...he didn't burn his fingers...JD blew out the candle JUST in time :)
Post cake...when only a binki will do...
All tired out...what a day!
Check out the way he positions his feet when he eats- hysterical!
His new green shirt...
IRRESISTABLE!
Don't worry...he didn't burn his fingers...JD blew out the candle JUST in time :)
Post cake...when only a binki will do...
All tired out...what a day!His favorite word is, by far, 'da da'. However he's quickly adding to his vocab: 'ma,ma', 'da' (dog), 'na na' (banana), 'ba,ba' (bottle) 'uh oh'...
He has four teeth...
His favorite food is spaghetti...followed closely by bananas and buttered toast....
He loves to play on his own and flinches when Ryan comes near...
He has been a 'swing' baby from the start- wanting nothing more than to chill out in his swing...
He is drawn to dance...shakes his booty like nobody's business...
He is definitely a ma ma's boy but I think he will give Ryan a run for his money when he's big enough...
He loves to take a bath and suck on wet wash rags...
One of his favorite pasttimes is to gaze through the slider at Sadie and 'talk' to her (okay, okay so he's been know to lick the slider in response to Sadie licking the other side from time to time)...
He does NOT like kush-balls or touching bugs!
He loves to have something soft on his cheek just before bedtime...
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Sunny CA
Okay, so JD and I went to Santa Barbara, California to visit his cousin, Dustin last week. It was a lot of fun and here are some pictures:
This was when we first got to Santa Barbara ...
I just couldn't resist snapping some pics of the palm trees
I'm not sure why, but in a lot of these pictures my husband is man-handling me. What is UP with that? :) I think he was trying to push me off of this cliff...just behind us in the water, we spotted a grey whale! How cool is that?
Wine tasting in the valley...
This picture was taken right after JD asked if he could ask, "a stupid question". The entire place went silent and all eyes were on JD when he asked the attendant if he had any extra corks because his grandma is making a bath mat out of corks!!!! lol. Poor Dustin probably shouldn't have taken us out in public :)
JD and Dustin...doing I'm-not-sure-what.
No clue what this town was called but it was Dutch-ish.
We rented surf boards and wet suits to bit the beach ... here's JD and Dustin carrying the boards.
They are stinkin' 9 feet long!
JD and Dust on their maiden voyage...
JD and myself... you might have to click on the picture to make it bigger in order to see us :)
Surfing was a blast. I was gung-ho (?) on it from the beginning. I'm all over trying something new and JD/Dustin weren't really into it as much as I was. But after we rented the boards and such, they got all excited and I started thinking that maybe I would drown or that a big ol shark would come and bite my leg off. I seriously considered not going once we hit the beach. The waves in these pictures look pretty tiny but when they're coming at you and you have to pretty much dive bomb them, it's a whole different story. Plus, I expected it to be a lot easier. First of all, the boards are very tippy- like a canoe so it was hard to just lay on it at first. Combine that with diving directly into the waves, and it was tough. Then, I'm SUPER out of shape so paddling 43796802456 yards was not an easy task. I got out there in what felt like the middle of the ocean, and told JD that if I tried to surf now I would surely drown because my arms were too tired to swim if I fell off the board. So we're out there just 'sitting' hanging out and I ask JD "What do we do now?". He just tells me that we sit and wait for a wave and whatever I do, don't turn my back to the ocean. Okay. So we're facing these huge oil rigs and all of the sudden, he screams "oh sh**...oh sh**...this is it...friggin' turn around and start paddling lees!!!" At about this time, I start remembering what he was telling me while we were still on the beach, "Whatever you do don't panic when a wave comes crashing down on you...it'll pin you to the bottom of the ocean...but don't freak out....just wait a few seconds and you'll come to the surface...". So that's in my head. I start paddling like a mad woman....trying to save my own life while thinking any minute I'll die and JD is too far away from me to save me. I turn to look over my shoulder and this wave is literally CURLING over me....so I just close my eyes and start screaming. Then all of the sudden, like a dolphin picking me up out of the water, I start...flying. It feels like flying. It took me a minute to realize that what I was doing was SURFING and so I jumped up onto my knees and started giving the rock-on sign with my hands. I tried to stand up but it just didn't work out....so I spent the rest of the time trying to chase that 'I-just-surfed' feeling. I can totally see how people get addicted to it :).It was fun but it would have been a lot funner if I was in shape...
This was when we first got to Santa Barbara ...
I just couldn't resist snapping some pics of the palm trees
I'm not sure why, but in a lot of these pictures my husband is man-handling me. What is UP with that? :) I think he was trying to push me off of this cliff...just behind us in the water, we spotted a grey whale! How cool is that?
Wine tasting in the valley...
This picture was taken right after JD asked if he could ask, "a stupid question". The entire place went silent and all eyes were on JD when he asked the attendant if he had any extra corks because his grandma is making a bath mat out of corks!!!! lol. Poor Dustin probably shouldn't have taken us out in public :)
JD and Dustin...doing I'm-not-sure-what.
No clue what this town was called but it was Dutch-ish.
We rented surf boards and wet suits to bit the beach ... here's JD and Dustin carrying the boards.
They are stinkin' 9 feet long!
JD and Dust on their maiden voyage...
JD and myself... you might have to click on the picture to make it bigger in order to see us :)
Surfing was a blast. I was gung-ho (?) on it from the beginning. I'm all over trying something new and JD/Dustin weren't really into it as much as I was. But after we rented the boards and such, they got all excited and I started thinking that maybe I would drown or that a big ol shark would come and bite my leg off. I seriously considered not going once we hit the beach. The waves in these pictures look pretty tiny but when they're coming at you and you have to pretty much dive bomb them, it's a whole different story. Plus, I expected it to be a lot easier. First of all, the boards are very tippy- like a canoe so it was hard to just lay on it at first. Combine that with diving directly into the waves, and it was tough. Then, I'm SUPER out of shape so paddling 43796802456 yards was not an easy task. I got out there in what felt like the middle of the ocean, and told JD that if I tried to surf now I would surely drown because my arms were too tired to swim if I fell off the board. So we're out there just 'sitting' hanging out and I ask JD "What do we do now?". He just tells me that we sit and wait for a wave and whatever I do, don't turn my back to the ocean. Okay. So we're facing these huge oil rigs and all of the sudden, he screams "oh sh**...oh sh**...this is it...friggin' turn around and start paddling lees!!!" At about this time, I start remembering what he was telling me while we were still on the beach, "Whatever you do don't panic when a wave comes crashing down on you...it'll pin you to the bottom of the ocean...but don't freak out....just wait a few seconds and you'll come to the surface...". So that's in my head. I start paddling like a mad woman....trying to save my own life while thinking any minute I'll die and JD is too far away from me to save me. I turn to look over my shoulder and this wave is literally CURLING over me....so I just close my eyes and start screaming. Then all of the sudden, like a dolphin picking me up out of the water, I start...flying. It feels like flying. It took me a minute to realize that what I was doing was SURFING and so I jumped up onto my knees and started giving the rock-on sign with my hands. I tried to stand up but it just didn't work out....so I spent the rest of the time trying to chase that 'I-just-surfed' feeling. I can totally see how people get addicted to it :).It was fun but it would have been a lot funner if I was in shape...
Happy Easter!
We had Easter at JD's mom and dad's house this year. Here's Ryan coloring eggs...
I can totally picture what he'll look like as a 19 year old from this photo:
I've never had an indoor egg hunt but with SNOW on the ground, it was a MUST :)
Gage wasn't really into getting messy like Ryan was...
I can totally picture what he'll look like as a 19 year old from this photo:
I've never had an indoor egg hunt but with SNOW on the ground, it was a MUST :)
Gage wasn't really into getting messy like Ryan was...
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
How to use your Rebate:
Since I'm an avid yard saler, I thought that this was pretty funny...
How to Use That IRS Rebate Check:
As you may have heard, the Bush Administration said each of us would get a rebate check to stimulate the economy.
-If we spend that money at Wal-Mart, all the money will go to China.
-If we spend it on gasoline it will go to the Arabs,
- If we purchase a computer it will go to India,
- If we purchase fruit and vegetables it will go to Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala,
- If we purchase a good car it will go to Japan,
- If we purchase useless junk it will go to Taiwan and none of it will help the American economy.
We need to keep that money here in America. The only way to keep that money here at home is to spend it at yard sales, since those are the only businesses still in the United States.
How to Use That IRS Rebate Check:
As you may have heard, the Bush Administration said each of us would get a rebate check to stimulate the economy.
-If we spend that money at Wal-Mart, all the money will go to China.
-If we spend it on gasoline it will go to the Arabs,
- If we purchase a computer it will go to India,
- If we purchase fruit and vegetables it will go to Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala,
- If we purchase a good car it will go to Japan,
- If we purchase useless junk it will go to Taiwan and none of it will help the American economy.
We need to keep that money here in America. The only way to keep that money here at home is to spend it at yard sales, since those are the only businesses still in the United States.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)