Hope's Birthday Celebration

Here are some pictures from Hope's Birthday. She got cake 2 times in one day. She was in heaven. Thank you to everyone for the gifts and cards.

Hope's Birthday Celebration

Today we just had a family day. We did everything that Hope wanted to. As you can imagine, it was very relaxing. The older kids were more excited than Hope.

Hope's First Birthday

What a year it has been! We put this collage together to help us remember what Hope had to battle in her first month on this earth! She truly was blessed by all your prayers and has turned into a wonderful and healthy baby girl! If you have continued to follow the blog, you know that she is very healthy and has no problems!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HOPE!!!

Another First

Hope decided to climb the steps between our basement and our entryway last night. I guess she doesn't realize that she is not quite a year old yet, or that she was born two months early and really shouldn't be achieving this feat yet. When she got to the top, she was all smiles and was extremely proud of herself. It looks like we might have a fearless little girl on our hands.

Thanks Camden for taking such great pictures!

Crazy Bounce

Yesterday we went to Crazy Bounce in Holland with the Dondits and the Saurs. The kids (and the adults too) had a great time playing on all of the inflatables together. After playing, we all went to Ruby Tuesday and had a wonderful lunch filled with lots of laughs. It was a fun afternoon spent with good friends.

One Year Ago

One year ago today, our lives forever changed. I was admitted into the hospital after having my water break in my 30th week of pregnancy. Needless to say, it was an extremely emotional day for our family. We definitely shed many tears that day as we worried about the precious baby that we weren't expecting until March. Our tears gave way to prayers and "hope" as we welcomed each new day that I was in the hospital and celebrated the additional time our unborn baby was being given to grow and thrive before birth.

During this time we were surrounded by countless individuals that loved us, supported us, encouraged us, cared for us and for Ryann and Camden. We will never be able to thank everyone enough for all that you did and for all that you meant and continue to mean to our family.

We were blessed with an incredible group of doctors and nurses that took care of everything we needed and put up with Brent's constant jokes about foot massages. Dr. Roberts came to see us each day, and we feel so honored that he delivered all three of our children, our greatest gifts. The nurses on 4 Center are amazing. We would not have felt as comfortable on January 3rd last year, or the days that followed, without them.

We could not have gotten through this time without our family members and friends who stepped in and took care of Ryann and Camden and anything else that we needed. We are so blessed to have the families and friends that we do!

My husband is such a wonderful person. He has always been my rock, and was even more so during that time last January and February. He filled the long days at the hospital with laughter and conversation and celebrated each day that passed right along with me. I couldn't ask for a better man to share my life with.

As I look at Hope today and watch her pulling herself up on everything, and as I watch her smile and listen to her giggle and "talk" to us, I know that it was all worth it. Our family of 5 is incredible, and we wouldn't want it any other way.

Happy New Year

We want to wish all of you a very Happy New Year! May it be filled with many blessings, and much happiness, friendship and love! We look forward to a wonderful 2007!

A Wonderful Christmas Vacation

What a wonderful Christmas vacation we have had so far! Our days and nights have been spent enjoying time with friends and family. We have also had plenty of time to just be together. We have built and played with many new Lego things, played lots of new games, had fun with Lincoln Logs and GeoTrax, and read several new books. Every minute of our time together has been treasured, and we look forward to spending the remainder of this week relaxing, playing, and enjoying each other!

Ryann's Christmas Concert

On Thursday, December 7, Roguewood held its annual Christmas concert. The kids sounded wonderful and looked very nice. It is always fun to see all of the kids dressed up. They take this evening very seriously.

This year Ryann had a speaking part. She did a great job, and we were very proud of her! She had quite a fan club in the audience pulling for her. In addition to mom and dad, Camden and Hope, both sets of grandparents came to cheer her on and of course Uncle Brian wouldn't have missed it even though he had just gotten back from a business trip to Hungary less than two hours before the concert started. We are so fortunate to have such wonderful families to love, support and encourage our kids (and us too!).

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

Our family absolutely loves Christmas. We love everything that goes along with this holiday, and we have established some traditions that the Christmas season wouldn't be complete without.

Each year we spend time hunting for the two most perfect Christmas trees we can find (one for upstairs and one for downstairs). We bundle up in our snow pants, boots, coats, hats and gloves and look near and far for the trees that we all agree on and that will look beautiful in our house. Also along on the yearly hunt is Brent's sister Jody and her family. Our kids love having their cousins Ashley and Abbey along for the fun. After finding our trees, we go out for a nice lunch and then spend the rest of the afternoon decorating.

Another thing that our kids look forward to each year is making Christmas cookies with Grandma Bogart. They always come home covered in flour from head to toe, but with enormous smiles on their faces. They are so proud of their cookies and love to each choose a special one to leave out for Santa. Thanks Grandma for making this night so much fun for the kids!