Relay For Life

Yesterday evening Westphalia ISD participated in the Falls County Relay for Life. The goal is to support and raise money for the American Cancer Society. The main purpose is to walk around the track for 24 hours in honor and memory of all Cancer patients.

This was my first Relay for life event to attend and it was truly amazing. Granted, Tyler and I did last the 24 hours but we were there for a few hours and I was so thankful that we had the opportunity to participate in such an amazing event. Ryan walked 11 miles (he has the blisters to show for it) and he lasted until 3 am. Poor Ryan wanted to stay all night but he had to play the role of Coach this Morning at our last soccer, so I think some sleep was a good idea.
Tyler did not do much walking on the track while we were there because he was too busy playing football with some of Ryan's students. Tyler was loving every minute of our time there and was not too happy when it was time go... I am sure Tyler could have lasted all night, if his Mommy would have let of him.

Last night was truly a wonderful evening as a family and I am truly blessed that we were able to attend and support all of the amazing Cancer Survivors, and those that are still fighting the battle.

And we are done!

Lucky

I was at the park the other day with Tyler and I was standing there watching him spin around on the Merry Go Round with so much joy in his face. There was another Mom standing close to me, and I assume she heard me say something to Tyler because all of the sudden she looked and me at said "Is he your only child"? My heart dropped because I truly hate when I'm asked that question. I softly said "yes". my heart ached when that word came out of my mouth, but we were at the park and there were a lot of families around so I decided I would not go in to our full story. All of the sudden she said, "You are so lucky! I have four kids and sometimes I wish I still had one". Really??!?!? Did those words just come out of her mouth in front of me. I just kind of shrugged and thankfully Tyler moved on to the swings because I did not want to be apart of that conversation any longer.
Lucky....... that word just struck me in such a hard way, because I would do anything to have a house full with our two boys and she is complaining because she has four kids.
I think if that Women knew my story and how I long for the day that I will be in Heaven with our littlest that she might not of called me lucky.
At moments like these when the word "lucky" that I only have one child on earth hits me to the core, I'm reminded daily of all the wonderful blessings in my life. A Heavenly Father that fills me with hope daily, a loving Husband, two beautiful Sons, a Rainbow Baby growing inside of me.... and the list could go on.
I may not think of myself as lucky but I do know that I am blessed and filled with hope.

Stay Off The Roads

Yesterday evening on our way home Ryan let Tyler take a test drive for a little bit. Please note that we were two houses down from our house so the drive was really short and there was no else out on our street.
Not too bad for his first try.... thankfully we have a few years until the real training comes.

Emergency

Ty is still still obsessed with Firetrucks and pretending to be a firefighter. He now has a whole ensemble he puts on any time he gets a call. The phone is a new addition, too. You always have to be available to answer the call of duty.

When Duty Calls Fireman Ty grabs his hat, boots, protected eye wear; which he forgot to put on in these pictures, and as you can see sometimes this little fireman is in too big of a hurry to put on pants. Pants or no pants I still love this firefighter.

9 Balloons

Sending our 9 balloons to Landry in Heaven.

Glory Day

My Littlest,

Happy 9 months in Glory. We love you and miss you so very much, Landry. I know that you are in the most amazing place around, but sometimes I long just to have one more day with you. I was reliving your story in my head this Morning and I remember the Doctor telling us that we would probably have a couple of hours with you, but we got 43 hours. I am so thankful for every single minute and still amazed and humbled by your strength. Landry, your courage inspires me daily and I know you held on for as long as you could. The moments that I was able to share with just you after you were born will always hold a special place in my heart and you will always be my brown eyed boy.

I will love you always and forever- Mommy

Easter

Tyler's Easter basket filled with all sorts goodies this year; Hero the Train, Cars, a Wii Mater's Tall Tales, Beginner's Bible, and Resurrection Eggs. I know I probably went a little over board considering that the true meaning of Easter is celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus, and how he conquered the grave so we could have life, and I truly want Tyler to understand the true meaning of Easter, but I also want to keep some of the Easter traditions around for a little longer.
Easter is not about the Easter Bunny and toys. I am thankful for the meaningful gifts that were added in, and we have already read some Bible Stories, and those moments touch my heart.
We had a beautiful Church Service yesterday and I found myself in tears several times through out the service. I was overcome with a sense of Thankfulness and awe. Jesus rose from the dead, and with that I was reminded that Landry's sweet body is not in his grave. Landry's soul was carried to Heaven by Jesus, who died and rose again on Easter to save us, all of us from death. I was also reminded that I will be reunited with our littlest one day and we will have Eternity together.
My heart heart ached for Landry when I put out Tyler's Easter basket and I did not have one for Landry. There were tears when I saw Tyler in his Easter outfit knowing there would be no Brother pictures, but I have the hope of the Resurrection to comfort me. Jesus has Risen! Oh Glorious Day.
I did get Tyler a special Reese's Egg in Honor of Reese Aleyna Lowell who celebrated 8 months in Heaven yesterday.

My boys testing out the new Wii video game.After Church we headed over to Ghee and Poppy's house for a yummy brunch and Tyler hunted eggs while we waited.

Where's the Candy?Easter Family pictureTyler with his Nana and Ghee

After everyone left yesterday afternoon we really enjoyed just being as a family. Tyler played with his cars for a while, I got caught up on blogs, and Ryan got to take a nap. After our family quiet time we played ball outside and then I decided to take Tyler to our local splash pad that we noticed was open on Saturday and earlier yesterday afternoon. However, they must have turned it off because when I got there with Tyler there was no more water. Therefore, he decided to play on the playground for a little while. When we got home we had dinner and then went for a nice walk/scooter ride.

Considering that Easter was a bittersweet day for us I really felt a sense of peace around me all day, and I think that came from the promise of Easter.

9 Months Ago

Today, Easter Sunday marks Landry's 9 month Birthday. I am having a hard time grasping how fast time is flying by, but I love to remember that 9 months ago today I was holding our littlest unaware of how different our life was about to become.
I was having coffee with a good friend last Friday and she mentioned how special it was that Landry's 9 month Birthday falls on Easter Day, and I have been thinking about that ever since. Easter Sunday truly is the greatest day to remember and honor our littlest. This afternoon after Church and Brunch we went to Landry's grave site as a whole family. My parents and Ryan's parents all joined us as Tyler flew his new Lightning McQueen kite in honor of his little brother. I could not get balloons on Easter Sunday, so we will do the balloons on the 26th. However, we wanted to be able to do something special since we were all together. The wind was just right as Tyler ran as fast as he could lifting the kite as high as it would go.
Thank you God for sending your Son to die for us so that we could have life, and thank you for holding our precious, Landry James safe in your loving arms until we can get to Heaven. Oh Glorious Day!

Saturday

Ready to hunt eggs. Tyler insisted that he get a picture with Daisy (Daisy is the one lying down). We are Dog Sitting this weekend for one of Tyler's favorite dogs around.

A little too late for the hunt, because he was too busy in the jump house and the kids were lined up and waiting until the Easter Bunny gave the ok to hunt. It was a swarm of kids in need of candy. Tyler did find a real bunny that he loved watching.

It was Friday (Good Friday) when Jesus was crucified, and you hear a lot of talk about Good Friday but what about Saturday? I am sure it was a day of complete Hopelessness and Helplessness. But if you really think about it Saturday was probably a day of preparation, because God was engineering a Resurrection. If you think about your yesterday (Saturday) you were probably busy preparing for Sunday. I know my afternoon and evening was spent getting clothes all ready and getting Ty's Easter basket all ready for Easter Sunday.

Our Saturday was also spent with Family and Friends. Ryan's parents (Nana and Papa) came in on Friday evening to spend Easter Weekend with us. Our Saturday Morning was spent at Tyler's Soccer Game. Tyler had both sets of Grandparents at his game, so he was one lucky boy. We celebrated with breakfast at Cracker Barrel and then errands. We come home to prepare for our Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. We had a huge turn out and we loved seeing a lot of good friends. Tyler is scared of the Easter Bunny, so there are no pictures with the Bunny. Tyler's favorite thing was the bounce house, so he was a little late for the hunt. I have never seeing so many kids swarm all over for eggs. Tyler really was not upset, because he would rather be a safe distance away from the Easter Bunny so the bounce was a perfect spot for him.That evening Ryan grilled Hamburgers and we went for a nice long Bike Ride to one of our neighborhood parks.

Our Saturday was a beautiful day as we anxiously prepared and awaited for Resurrection Sunday.

Easter Pageant

On Wednesday after I picked Tyler up from School we headed to the University of Mary Hardin Baylor, which is actually where I went to College and attended their annual Easter Pageant. I have never taken Ty because I thought he was too young but I knew several friends that were going to take their kids this year, so I thought I would take Tyler. It was a beautiful day outside and I had a big towel and Lunch for Tyler so he could eat lunch during the performance if needed since it was during lunch. Tyler loved that we were having picnic.

I was blown by the amount of talent this young people have and their true love of Christ. Tyler did really well, he actually sat on my lap the whole time and watched everything. He really loved that they had a real donkey and sheep. Thankfully, the animals did not stay out the whole time because I am sure Tyler would have been more interested in the animals than anything else going on.

The Pageant did a beautiful job displaying the life of Jesus and all of the events that led up to his Resurrection and the beauty of his empty tomb when he arose from the dead.

Tyler did get a little frightened when they were hammering Jesus to the cross, but that part really stuck with him because he will still tell us how they hammered Jesus to the cross and how he came running out of the tomb. I love the innocence of that sweet 3 year old little boy.

I was in tears at the end when Mary Magdalene was crying at the tomb, because I could identify with her pain. But at that moment when Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene it was so apparent in the words he spoke to her that the Resurrection was revealed to one who was hurting. He never abandons the broken hearted.

Blessed for last Wednesday and that special time with our biggest, and for the amazing sacrifice that Jesus made just so we can have life.

My Desire

I am so thankful for my Hope Mommies, like MaryBeth who had this on her blog today. I have been praying for the word peace a lot today. Sometimes parenting can be a little hard and today we had one of those days where everything was a fight with Tyler. Maybe it was my mood or Ty was just not happy with anything. I felt like I was surrounded by tears, whining, and noise all day and it just made me so tense.
When I have a sense of peace in my heart I know that God has taken control and for that I am so thankful. I am finally feeling a sense of peace come over me and it feels great to just let all the stress of the day and the fighting with my precious 3 year old fade away. Peace in all circumstances is what I desire for my life, and I am even more thankful for a loving God who can provide me with the ultimate peace.

Wednesday

I love this little fire fighter and we had a wonderful afternoon together. Today was his last day of School until next Wednesday. Tyler has off on Friday and Monday.

After School I took Tyler to see a local Easter Pageant put on at a local University in town. It was truly amazing and I will share more about it tomorrow. So thankful for that time with Tyler today, my heart needed it. We ended our day with Soccer Practice and I always love watching our biggest play soccer. Our Season is coming to a end, so soon. Some days my heart just aches and today has been one of those days.

Psalm 86:12-13

I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths of the grave.

What Is It?

Tyler loves his Kindermusik class and every once and a while we have projects that we have to work on at home. There project for Today's class (which I forgot about until then Morning when my friend, Jen reminded me) was to make a bell. I had no clue when the Teacher mentioned this last week at class and I still had no clue when Jen reminded this Morning of how to make a bell. We will just say that Jen came up with her idea, and I kind of copied... I know how unoriginal of me. I will say for myself I don't really have a large creative bone in my body, sometimes I will surprise myself but not too often.

After we came home from playing this Morning I immediately went to work on Tyler's bell. I tried to get Tyler involved, which I thought he would be all over helping me since it involved Ryan's tool box and drill (don't worry, Ryan I put it all back where it belongs, and I did not ruin your drill) but he was not interested. I found a can from last nights dinner, cleaned it all out and then drilled/hammered a hole in the top of the can. I then found some ribbon and little washers and attached them to the string. I was kind of proud of myself when I finished, so I took it over to Tyler so he could try it out. We will just saw that he took the can from my hand and looked at it for a little bit before saying " What is it, Mommy"?

Well, I guess I better practice on my homemade crafts so the person that I am making it for knows what it is. The good news is after I showed him how it works I have heard the jangling of my homemade bell, occasionally around the house. We will see how well it works in class today.

No Words Just Verses

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trails, for we know that they help us develop endurance. Romans: 5:3 Search for the Lord and for His strength; continually seek Him. 1 Chronicles 16:11 My heart is confident in you, Oh God; my heart is confident. No wonder I can sing of your praises! Pslam 57:7

Home Is Where The Heart Is

On Friday evening I had the privilege of attending the JLBC 2011 Spring Provisional Class Sale (Home Is Where The Heart Is) at the Second Hand Rose. Each new class that joins the Junior is asked to put together a class project, which consists of holding a specialty Sale at our Store. They added a special touch to their Sale and asked all Members who attended to wear a apron and then at the end you would donate your apron. I wore my apron in support. This young women are truly amazing and I can't wait to see their growth throughout the years to come as they continue to grow and volunteer in our League. It stills seems like yesterday when my class was hosting our (Back To School) Sale at the Second Hand Rose. I was in the Spring Provisional Class of 2006, and this Spring marks my 5th year of service with the Junior League of Bell County. I am amazed daily by the impact our League is making in the lives of others in our community. I have grown so much as a leader and a individual. Truly blessed to Serve along side some of the most amazing women I know that challenge me daily, and I am humbled that I can call them my friends. The Junior League of Bell County truly is "Doing the most Good".

Count With Me

1,2,3,4,5,6!!! That is how many goals Tyler scored this Morning at his Soccer Game. They all went in to the correct goal, well except one of them... but who is counting. It was too bad that our Coach missed this game and all the goals our biggest sored. Ryan had his LAST CLASS today at A&M for his Doctorate Program!! We are so proud of him and I still can't believe he is almost done!! However, now comes the fun part... writing the Dissertation. One of the other Dad's that stepped in on our Wednesday night practice when Ryan was home with Strep took over today as well. Three of Tyler's biggest fans; Mommy, Ghee, and Poppy were all cheering our little Soccer player on this Morning. I think I have officially become a Soccer Mom, and all I can say is I am hooked. I still need a little help with watching and snapping pictures but maybe when we play again in the fall I will start to get the hang of it. After a successful game we headed to I HOP for a late breakfast and Tyler was treated to a monkey hat. A perfect Saturday with 6 goals for Tyler and Ryan finishing all of is course work. I think I will call today a Successful Saturday.

GOAL!!!