Amazing Surprise from an Amazing Guy

After returning from a 12 day vacation, my AMAZING husband surprised me by having our kitchen remodeled while we were gone. Come to find out, he had been working on this for the past 3 months. With the help of my good friend Donna (adopted mom), my incredible Bible study friends , and few other friends they made my kitchen look amazing! Boy was I surprised! I feel so blessed and honored to have such an amazing husband and incredible friends. Here is the finished product!

Our Beautiful Birthday Boy

It is hard to believe that our little Caleb is 3 years old. It has been great year of lots of growth and development. He is really starting to talk - short sentences now and very strong - an amazing climber! He is so full of love and such a joy & blessing to our family. Next fall he will start a traditional 3 year old class. He was a little overwhelmed with all the attention for his birthday.

Our birthday boy!

Blowing out his candles!

Success - one more though!

Opening the presents!

A little help from the older kids.



A water table from Grandpa

A special card from Sarah. Caleb loves music and musicals. His favorite movie is High School Musical so he just loved the singing card.

Caleb could not figure out where the music was coming from.

Sarah and Emily eating cake and ice cream. Sarah is an AMAZING babysitter who is living in our basement for the summer. She is so good with the kids and a huge blessing to our family!

Our good friends the Van Der Werff's helping us celebrate Caleb's special day.

All the kids (but Caleb -too interested in the gifts) eating cake and ice cream.

A Night in a Castle

I think every little kids dreams of visiting a castle and Caleb got his chance , just not under the conditions he dreamed of. On Tuesday Caleb had surgery in Sioux Falls, SD at Sanford's to have his tonsils and adenoids removed. They also checked his ears and put a tube in one ear (the other ear already had a hole - which the doctor said would need to be repaired when he got older). Since kids with Down Syndrome can have a harder time coming of the anaesthesia and often need oxygen longer we stayed the night in the Sanford Children's Hospital. This hospital was just opened in March and it is VERY kid friendly and helps makes a hospital stay much more pleasant. Even though he was sore and unhappy after the surgery he was still pretty active. Thank goodness for the kids playroom, the amazing murals, the wagons (for wagons rides around the hospital) and cool inactive structural features of the castle to keep the kids entertained. Here is a little peak at this amazing facility.

This is what his room looked like.

The playroom

The lobby

We are now home and Caleb is doing amazing! He has his up and down moments, but for the most part he is happy and acting pretty normal. He is drinking, eating and still very active. We are so thankful for him and God's continued protection over his life and health. He is a HUGE blessing to our family!

Tulip Festival - Part Two

We were so blessed to have sister Sheri and her husband Bob come to visit for the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of Tulip Festival. We had a great time watching Taylor and Brandon clean the streets, seeing the parade, playing games and just spending time together.

Sheri and Bob in the big wooden shoe.

Aunt Sheri with Taylor & Brandon.

Sheri with the Tulips.

Taylor riding a float

Watching the parade

Brandon jokin with Bob - He really enjoyed spending time with his Uncle Bob!

Brandon and Aunt Sheri!

Charlie and Bob playing the "Dutch Spin" -a basketball game where you spin around and try to make a basket.

My turn on the Dutch Spin with my sister Sheri

Kids watching the parade!

We had a great time with Sheri and Bob - sure wish we lived closer so we could spend more time together! Thanks for coming to visit!

Tulip Festival - Part One

Since the college graduation and Tulip Festival fell on the same weekend this year, our involvement was pretty limited. Nevertheless, I was able to find costumes for the whole family so we could all dress up and clean the streets on the first day of the festival. Here are some photos from our family fun.

The whole family

The kids in the big wooden shoe.

The girls.

The boys.

Daddy & Caleb

Brandon

Sweet little Emily.

Taylor

The Boys with their buckets.