Adalyns Birth

This is a letter I wrote to Adalyn when she was about 6 weeks old.  Her birth was the most Godly experience I have ever had.  Truly a gift straight from God.  I hope I will always remember how amazing it was.


Dear Adalyn,
I will forever remember the day I held you for the first time. With a few short pushes, you came into this world and the doctor gave you to me. It was amazing. You were beautiful. I was in love you instantly. God had created you perfectly. What a gift you were to me. Straight from heaven. I can imagine God designing your beautiful face. It was perfect, especially your beautiful lips. 
You are such a sweet and good baby.  You are a great sleeper and have the sweetest disposition.  You hardly ever cry and, when you do, it's more like a shout to get my attention. At about 6 weeks old, you gave me your first smile. It was the sweetest thing. I love you so. You are beginning to "coo" more and more everyday and it is like music to my ears.  You are my gift from God. Precious and perfect. 
Love, Your Momma

Jaxon's Race Party- Decorating

As any normal almost 4 year old boy, Jaxon is obsessed with all things "Cars 2". When he told me that he wanted a "lightening mcqueen" party, lets just say I wasn't too excited about doing the 100th "Cars" party for the year. But, then I came up with more of a race party theme and my wheels started turning.  We did "B.Y.O.B.", bring your own bike (or trike) on the invites. And because we have a super long and gated back driveway, I thought it would be perfect.  I did have some "cars" decorations but I had  fun with all of the checkered flags and cones.  I knew Jaxon would love it.  

Because it always seems to be scalding outside everytime we have Jaxon's birthday, we decided to set up the tables in the garage for shade.  If you know me, you know Im a little (ok a lot) OCD about having every inch of my house spotless for before a party.  So the garage was quite a cleaning and organizing challenge and I was beginning to wonder what I had gotten myself in to.  But, by the time the party came around, it was practically sparkling.

The entrace

We rented a huge jumper which apparently is a MUST at kids parties these days. And, I must admit, I even tried it out and it was sooo much fun.

We even had a real Lightening McQueen thanks to Papa & Justin. The kids faces were so cute when they saw it.  

Jaxon's Race Party

Poor little boy had had a stomach bug the day before his big party so he wasn't his usual energetic self.  We did all the decorating while he took a nice long nap and surprised him when he woke up. Im pretty sure he thought he was dreaming.

He took in every detail. It was so sweet.

Checking out the cake

Whoa! There's Lightening McQueen! Look at that boy  run!

Adalyn had a fun time too hanging out with my cousin Calisse.

And the races began!

I think that all of the kids had a great time racing & jumping. 

My birthday boy

Even Adalyn got a race in!

Blow out those candles!

Happy Fall!

My little pumpkin

Jaxon is 4!

It is so hard for me to believe that my baby boy is four.  I guess he is officially not a "toddler" anymore.  Makes me sad in a way. Time since I first held him has truly flown by.  I cannot imagine my life without him.  While age 3 had many (and I mean many) challenges, he is such a joy.

Here are just a few of the many milestones from this year:

• potty trained!!  He was officially potty trained at age 3. We bribed him with everything possible: gum, cars, candy... anything. But, we eventually did it.
• vocabulary- this kid had a FULL vocabulary once he turned 3.  We were amazed by the full sentences he was saying at such a young age. 
• swimming!!- granted, its with floaties... but this is a huge accomplishment.  Jaxon is always very apprehensive when it comes to new challenges (like swimming).  He likes to assess almost all situations before jumping in.  So... swimming with floaties was a very big accomplishment.  He was our little fish at the end of the summer thanks to many, many swimming lessons with Papa.
• riding a bike- Mimi and Papa bought him his first "cars" bicycle and he took to it very quickly
• stitches- he got stitches not once, but twice at age 3. Both on the bottom of his chin.  

Some of Jaxon's favorite things:
riding "lightening mcqueen" car, anything that has wheels or tracks (cars, trains, tracks... anything), ranching, swimming, sprite, being read to, golf, dirt, school at church, asking MANY questions, papa & mimi, his blankie, milk and mickey mouse in the morning, the color blue

Moms favorite things about Jaxon:
singing our dinner prayer, I love you's, snuggles at bed time, hool-a-loop dance, sweet kisses, hugs when going to school, waves in the window from class, cars in hands at all times, funny faces

Jaxon loves having everyone together that he loves and gets so upset when anyone leaves. He is very stubborn and is not easily swayed (wonder where he gets that from).  Eating is not his favorite thing to do, unless its something sweet.  He usually just doesn't have time for it.  Everywhere he goes, there are at  least 3 trains or cars in his hands.  He prefers to play with the girls at school (already a womanizer). He is very sweet to his sister as long as she leaves his toys alone.

I am so proud of my sweet, handsome and brilliant boy. Sometimes just looking at his beautiful face takes my breath away.  I am amazed that God blessed me with him. I pray that I can take in every moment of his 4th year. It is truly going too fast.

Here I go!

Ok.... I've decided it's time to jump on the blogging bandwagon. I realized after reading many other friends (and strangers) blogs, that it was a great way of journaling and documenting lives. I am inspired by the idea that my children can one day read all about their lives growing up. I have realized that I have already forgotten so much about Jaxon as a baby and really need to start documenting the joyful moments as well as some of our challenges. We have a website that is mostly pictures, www.fosterfamily4.com , which I will continue to post pictures to. However, I am hoping this will be a more intimate view of our family.

I hope that my children will see it as a gift when they get older. Lately, I have become more aware of how precious this life is and really accepting the fact that our days are numbered. I want to live each day more fully and become more aware of the many blessings God gives our family each day.  Hopefully, blogging will do just that.

So... here goes!