January Fun

We have been having fun this January...especially since Upward basketball started again! Thought you'd all enjoy some pictures of our future WNBA stars! :)

Happy Birthday Kaitlyn!

WOW! Where does the time go?? With the craziness of the holidays, I put off this post until I had more time to process what just happened....my daughter turned 10! That's double digits, one 'e' away from TEEN! Six months from YOUTH GROUP!! AH! It is just not possible!! Jeff and I kept telling her that no one in our house was allowed to turn double-digits...to which she replied 'you're double-digits!' :)

All of the sad, sappy mommy stuff aside...there is NO OTHER ten year old anywhere I would rather have as a daughter than my Kaitlyn!

She is so full of kindness, compassion, love, generosity, the list could go on! Last year she had to grow up more than any other 9-year-old should have when she had to help take care of me after my severe back issues. I will always be thankful to her for that, but will always feel a sense of guilt that she lost some of her childhood there. I am trying to help her regain that this year, helping her to relax and just be a kid!

With the holidays and basketball and other things that are keeping us busy, she can't have her normal sleep-over birthday party. So, we have decided to take her and her 3 best friends to Chunky's for dinner and a movie! Thought that might be something special for a special 10-year-old.

Even now, it is so hard for me to write...10! I know, stop being so sappy! :)

I truly am excited for what is to come with Kaitlyn! She is such an amazing young lady and I cannot wait to see what God has in store for her!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY 'BABY' GIRL!!!!!

Happy New Year!!

Wow, can it be true, is it really 2010???

This year seemed to fly by, but then again, they all do, don't they?

We had another great year, filled with good times and bad, happy and sad.

Here are some things I will remember about 2009:

I will remember it as the year my 'baby' turned 10! (ack!)

I will remember it as the year I finally reached my weight goal...NEVER in a million years thought it would happen!

I will remember it as the year Caleb's speech blossomed! We had been praying for that!

I will remember it as the year Hannah finally learned how to ride her bike without training wheels.

I will remember it as the year Jeff and I celebrated 11 years of marriage! SO thankful for him!

I will remember it as the year the Scott Family reunion happened -- first time we had all been together in a LONG time (want to say over 15 years??)...what a wonderful opportunity!

I will remember Disney World with my family, Sea World with my kids, getting dizzy at Six Flags, and all the other fun adventures we had.

I will remember the Kleppinger Family Christmas -- it had been 3 years since we did that!

I will also remember it as the year we said good-bye to one of the most wonderful, Godly women I know--my grandmother, Lois Scott.

There were tears of laughter, tears of joy, and tears of sorrow and sadness. There were times we wondered what God was doing, and times we saw those answers.

I do not know what 2010 has in store for our little family. I can only hope and pray it is again filled with joy and laughter! I also hope and pray that God would continue to shape our little family into the family He wants us to be. May we be more loving, compassionate, steadfast, trustworthy, faithful, self-controlled, patient, peaceful, kind, hopeful, and gentle to each other and to those we come in contact with everyday.

Our prayer for you is that the God of peace, joy, hope, and love would bless you and your families during 2010! May you come to know Him better this year!

Agnus Dei

This year for the first time all FIVE of us were in the church Christmas musical! What a fun time it was. Jeff and I sang in the choir, we both had solos, and all three kids were angels!

The kids did a great job...although, I think Caleb and his cuteness stole the show at times. He really was the cutest little angel!

Caleb and Hannah played the bells each night before the performance, I had the privilege of directing them again. It was fun! The first two nights Caleb was ringing his bells with such gusto, they went flying out of his hands. The last night he managed to hold on!

We are already looking forward to next year! Enjoy some pictures!

MERRY THANKSMAS!

We were SO blessed to be able to spend a wonderful Thanksgiving/Christmas with my family in New York!

Since we were celebrating both holidays the kids decided you couldn't call it Thanksgiving....so, they came up with Thanksmas! I loved it! They were so funny about it too, making everyone a Thanksmas card and wishing everyone a Merry Thanksmas!

The weekend was filled with joy, laughter, presents, food, and even some tears. We were SO glad Pap Pap was able to be there, but saddened that Grandma wasn't able to join us...although, I am sure she was watching all that went on with a smile on her face! It was so wonderful to be able to make some special memories with Pap Pap -- the kids just adore him!!

We also had the opportunity to get some family photos done...trying to get 11 people to smile and all look the same way proved to be almost impossible, but we got some GREAT pictures! And, we got some great smiles -- thanks to Dave's pants! (Want to know what that's about, you'll have to ask him!)

It will be different not being together for Christmas, but I wouldn't trade this special event for anything!!

We trust you and your families had a blessed day as well! Enjoy this season, remember to stop and make some new memories!!!

Happy Birthday, Hannah!

Wow! It is amazing at how quickly time flies....Hannah turns 7 tomorrow! It is hard to believe. So much of what happened 7 years ago is SO fresh in my mind, but then other moments seem hard to recall. It really is amazing when you think about how God has been watching over Hannah all these years, it just reminds you how faithful and loving He is!

Seven years ago today I headed to the OB to have an ultrasound to figure out why I was measuring big...I was 37 weeks, measuring 42 weeks -- that's not normal. So, we had the ultrasound and the technician was eerily quiet. She asked us to wait outside so she could speak to the doctor, and I knew, I just knew something was wrong. I do not know how long we sat there, but the longer we sat, the more I knew we were about to get some bad news....Jeff just kept trying to reassure me that everything was going to be ok. Little did we know in a few minutes it would be hard for us to even breathe. The doctor came around the corner, a doctor I had never even met, and said 'we need to talk.' NOT words you want to hear! He told us Hannah had a condition called 'duodonal atresia' -- meaning her stomach wasn't attached to her intestines...he then informed us that with this condition came many other conditions and it was unknown if she would survive after birth. We were devastated! I just remember thinking 'if the baby doesn't survive, how do I explain to a 3 year old that her baby sister died?' You don't want to have those types of conversations. My parents were in the car and at our house faster than I thought possible, they were going to go with us to see the specialist, they didn't want us to be there alone. Little did we know they would need to be at our house to watch Kaitlyn -- I went into labor that morning!! I was SO overwhelmed, I hadn't seen the specialist, we had NO idea what was going to happen, what we would see, etc. I was SO scared, but SO at peace! It was a peace I had never known! It was God's way of protecting me - for I did not have to fear the diagnosis, that's not what Hannah had! Hannah was born and we were told she'd need to be sent to another hospital to be evaluated by specialists...so there I was in the NICU alone, having just said goodbye to my newborn baby girl, not knowing if I would ever see her again - and said goodbye to my husband who was going to follow the ambulance...it was the most alone I have ever felt! Luckily, my mom came in minutes later and spent the night with me.

Hannah arrived at the hospital and we found out she did NOT have DA, she actually had an ovarian cyst - the size of a baseball in her abdomen. She had surgery when she was less than 24 hours old -- and today, is the happiest, healthiest 7 year old you'd ever meet!

That incredible peace stayed with me through that time, I just remember fully believing that everything was going to be ok. I could sense God's presence with us throughout that whole ordeal. I knew God was holding Hannah in His arms in that ambulance ride and during her operation -- He was holding her when I couldn't. There have been many other times during Hannah's life that God has had His hand on her...many other instances of His healing in her life and we are SO grateful!

Hannah truly is our Thanksgiving miracle and is a daily reminder to me of just how much we have to be thankful for!

Happy Birthday to my little Cub!

Hard to believe he is FOUR YEARS OLD!! Where has the time gone?? It seems like yesterday we got the news that the doctor would induce, that my pelvis had indeed separated too far and delivery was necessary. I remember the day as fun, Jeff and I joking around, playing cards, walking the halls...it wasn't until the last 2 minutes that everything got intense and crazy! We were truly thankful the Lord had his hand on Caleb from the very beginning...there was a time the doctor's weren't sure I would actually carry to term...and then, he was born!

His little life has been filled with one hurdle after another...seems like that is the path all of my children have followed. But, once again, God was faithful and watching out for our little Cub. We finally found the right doctor, at the right time, asked the right questions, figured out the right plan of action and Caleb began to grow like a weed! Once being in the 2nd percentile for height and weight, then jumping to the 60th...only to have to face yet another obstacle! But, God was faithful before and will be faithful again!

Our little Cub is a special little boy. Filled with so much laughter and personality! There was a time we prayed that we would be able to understand what our son said, now the things that come out are absolutely hysterical I cry from laughing just about every day. Including yesterday, his 4th birthday. I baked him some allergen-free cookies (he'll get a cake on Saturday at his party) and Jeff asked him how his cookies were...he replied "SCRUMPTIOUS Dad!" Too funny!! Not 'they're good, they're yummy', nope, scrumptious!

My dad came up on Monday to put together the new swing set my parents bought the kids for their combined birthday present (all of their birthdays are with in a month or so of each other!)...the kids were SO excited they couldn't wait until the set was put together, so Pap Pap did what grandpa's do and set the slide up on the stairs so they could try it out!!

We will celebrate again on Saturday when some of Caleb's little friends come over to sing "Happy Birthday"...it will be another fun day of celebrating this little gift from God! We are truly blessed to have Caleb in our lives and truly blessed at the way God continues to touch his little life. We look forward to seeing what God has in store for him in the future!!