My thoughts to my boys...

My boys and their cousin Anna

Recently I have been thinking that I needed to sit down and record some of my thoughts about my sweet boys. Time just goes by too quickly and I want them to be able to read this someday and know what they were like as children and know that they are loved by their mother.

Caleb…Oh how I love you. You are such a sweet and tenderhearted little boy. You are quite sensitive of other people’s feelings and you don’t like to see others sad or upset. You are a wonderful big brother and I LOVE to watch you and Kyson interact and play together. You play trains together, read books together, and line up cars together. One of your more recent activities together is bouncing balls and chasing them together. Tonight Daddy and I were watching you and Kyson play together and we talked about how we really hope that you can grow up and always be great friends. Kyson is lucky to have you for a big brother!
One of my most favorite things about you is your laugh. I have always loved to hear you giggle. I remember falling in love with your laugh when I would make you giggle as a baby. You still have that same contagious laughter. It’s just too bad that most of the time when you really giggle is when you are doing something mischievous!
You say some of the funniest things sometimes! One of my most recent favorites happened a few nights ago. You were frustrated about something and you said, “Darn it!” I don’t love hearing that come out of a three year olds mouth so I asked you not to say that. You replied, “Why, it’s Daddy’s job?” Ha, ha we all got a good laugh out of that one!
Starting in January you started going to Primary and you are a Sunbeam!!! I have substituted in your class and played the piano in Primary and it is fun to watch you. I remember the first day we took you to Primary and I had tears in my eyes as I left the room thinking about how big you are getting! I can’t believe that next year you will be turning five years old and will probably start school! You are growing up!
Thank you for being such a good little boy Caleb! I know I was blessed to have you first. You are very helpful and help me out with all kind of things. I have learned so much being your Mother and I’m sure you I still have many things to learn from you.

Kyson…Where to start? You are so different from your older brother! One of the biggest differences is you are a very outgoing little boy and LOVE people. From a very early age you were able to get everyone around you to smile. I love watching how you get people’s attention and make them smile wherever we go. You are also a very good talker. You aren’t even two years old yet and you have a huge vocabulary. You are putting a lot of words together and even say some sentences! I love to hear you say prayers and read scriptures. Your sweet little voice repeating all the words is so precious to me!
You have turned into a good eater although I would be willing to bet a lot of money that you are one of the messiest eaters EVER!!! Recently you’ve become quite independent and want to feed yourself and sometimes I go crazy watching you fling food ALL OVER THE PLACE!!! I’m constantly reminding myself that I just need to be grateful that you are eating and gaining weight…how many of your heart friends have to be fed through Gtubes or NGtubes?…most of them! It is truly a blessing that you are eating so well.
Speaking of your heart…watching you each day it is so easy to forget that you have a broken little heart that still needs a lot of mending. You are quite active and love running around with Caleb. You do seem to tire quite easily and you often have blue fingers and blue lips. It will be interesting to see what this 3rd surgery does for you. I’ve been told that you will have more energy and you will be a lot pinker. Hopefully this is the case!
I have always loved that you are a little snuggler! You still have your pacifier when you go to sleep and one of the reasons I don’t want to take it away is I can give it to you and you will snuggle with me and sometimes even fall asleep in my arms if you are tired enough. I love that! I love holding you and watching you sleep. You are growing up and really aren’t a baby anymore so I cherish these moments with you.
Kyson, I want you to know how much I love you! I know Heavenly Father sent us one of His most precious Son’s and I feel so blessed to have you here. Life has not been easy for you but there are reasons why you are here! Heavenly Father has performed many miracles in your life and He needs you here on earth for a reason. I hope that as your Mother, I will be able to teach you the things you need to learn so you will become the person your Heavenly Father wants you to become.

Addyson

My cousin, Emily, had a baby girl just a few days before my sister had Anna. You wouldn't know they are so close in age by looking at them though! Addyson is a chunky monkey and Anna is a skinny minny:) Either way they are both absolutely adorable!!! Emily and I were trying to get together earlier to get some pictures of her sweet baby but she got sick and had to be in the hospital for about two weeks. She got home just before Christmas! They are all doing well now so we took the time to get some pictures of her sweet chunkiness!

Ethan's Heart Run/Walk

I am VERY excited about this upcoming event and wanted to let you all know about it. If you have been a follower of my blog for a while you probably remember me talking about a sweet boy named Ethan who passed away last summer. His mother put together this heart run/walk in honor of him. All of the proceeds will go to The Congenital Heart Foundation at St. Joseph's Hospital & Medical Center. I think that is so awesome!
We will definitely be there that day. I have already signed us up for the one mile run/walk. (I was contemplating doing the 10k but I don't think it's going to happen this year. I think it's going to be an annual thing so maybe I can make it a goal for next year:) It would be fun if any of you would like to join us. Let me know if you do sign up. I really think it'll be a fun day for all who participate!
For more information about it and to sign up click HERE
***If you register by Feb. 7th you will recieve a t-shirt and the cost is only $12 for adults for the fun run/walk and $20 for the 10k. After that day it goes up another $5 so go sign up now:)

Holiday pictures!

Well, the Holidays are over and our life is getting back to normal. It's been fun, crazy, and full of activities. I love it all! We had a wonderful Christmas in Show Low with all of my brothers and sisters. It was fun to all be together. We really enjoyed Christmas especially with our kids getting older. Caleb was so excited for his new scooter! Both of them were spoiled with all the presents they got but they had fun.
Between Christmas and New Years we had so many fun activities. Rather than try to tell about it all I just decided to post some of my favorite pictures.

My blue-eyed Caleb!

How I love these boys!!!

New Christmas jammies!

Christmas Eve family picture


My sister Katie plays the violin and Caleb wanted to try playing it.


Ha, ha, this pictures makes me laugh whenever I see it. The boys in my family were having a contest to see who could do this certain "exercise" the longest. Caleb was watching them and decided he wanted to join in on the fun.


We spent a couple days out at my Grandma's in Queen Creek over the Holidays. My boys loved riding the four wheeler! They also loved riding their scooters and bikes around and playing with cousins.


We took our tree down last night so I took some pictures. I am always sad to take down Christmas decorations because it is my favorite time of year!





I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year! 2009 was a wonderful year for our family and especially Kyson. We had no surgeries and really no other procedures besides the normal cardiology check-ups. It was so wonderful to not have to worry about any of those things with our sweet boy. This year we will definitely had a heart catheterization and that will tell us when to plan on surgery #3. It will be interesting to see how it all works out.