Happy Birthday My Sweet Angel

To my sweet Olivia,

Happy 3rd birthday sweet girl!! It’s hard to believe it’s been 3 years since you came into our family! In some ways it feels like an eternity, and in many it was only yesterday. I wonder what you look like and what kind of personality you would have. Your two sisters couldn’t be any more different, and I wonder how you would fit in the mix!

I know you are perfect in every way – happy, healthy and at peace. I have met other Mommies who have angels in Heaven. I’m sure you are all going to have a glorious party to celebrate your big day. Be sure and give Papa and Grandy big hugs from us today when they come to the party.

I wonder almost every day why God chose you to be with Him instead of letting me keep you here with me. We’ll never know that answer, but Daddy and I always want to be the parents of special angels that God wants us to be. Only a few ever get this opportunity, and we want to make sure we do everything in a way that would bring Him honor. You must be very special to be chosen by God :)

Here are some pictures of a special party we had for you here on Earth. Ellie Kate couldn’t really understand why we were letting the balloons come to you, but big sister Abby stepped in to help! Abby thinks of you often, and she goes out almost every night to find your star. I’m sure as Ellie Kate gets older, she will tell her all about you and how special you are to our family.

We love you sweet girl – have a wonderful birthday!

Mommy, Daddy, Abby and Ellie Kate

Brain Dump

Sorry guys - I'm in a weird warp here......I don't blog for a couple of weeks and then I do a "brain dump" when I have time. There are 4-5 new posts following........if you're really interested, scroll down :)

Colorado Springs

Stewart and I had a great opportunity to travel to Colorado Springs this weekend (in fact, I am typing from here now :)) He had a student accepted to the ultra prestigious Air Force Academy which is stationed here, and Stewart was invited to tour the campus on a recruiting event. We came up a couple of days early to do some sightseeing.

I've never been to the Rockies, so this was a whole new thing for me! It is absolutely breathtaking! Let me say that the area is not only beautiful, but the people are super nice too! Maybe because there are people from many different areas because it's a military town, but I didn't experience any of the "Southern disdain" that I've seen in other places we've visited. I even got sweet tea (at McDonald's and Chick :))

I had a little bit of altitude sickness when we first got here, but thankfully it passed quickly! We visited the Garden of the Gods, and many other historic sites. We wanted to visit Pikes Peak, but the altitude is so high, they recommend not going until you've been here a few days and are accustomed to the lack of oxygen.

Speaking of lack of oxygen - WOW! I could tell as soon as we landed in Colorado Springs. Denver is about 5200 feet about sea level and Colorado Springs is another 1200 feet up. We were actually winded just talking and walking at the same time!! Pikes Peak is more than double that altitude, so I can't even imagine what that is like!

Here are some pictures. The first ones are of the mountains. The second set is of the beautiful chapel at the Air Force Academy.










The girls have been with Mimi and Papaw all week, so I'm sure they are rotten!! It's been a great get-a-way, but I'm ready to see some babies tomorrow!

Poor Baby!

Poor EK - she has been sick more days than not in her short 23 months! I declare I raise the snottiest kids ever (Dr. Laue agrees!) Abby has had 2 sets of tubes in her ears and her adenoids out. I knew as we started the cycle again this Fall, we had to get a handle on things before the winter cooties set in! What made EK's ear/snot cycle worse was that hers went straight to her breathing and led to MANY rounds of antibiotics/breathing treatments.....no one sleep for months - you get the picture!

So, she had her adenoids taken out and her tubes in her ears checked to make sure everything was working. She was SUCH a handful, poor thing! It hurt her feelings more than anything. It took almost a week for our sweet feisty girl to get back to normal. She was just in a funk - couldn't get any kind of sleeping or eating schedule back on track. There was one night that she had chosen to like Stewart and NOT me (we had the opposite most of the weekend). That night, I was trying to ask her questions and she literally would not even look at me!! Stewart would ask her the same thing and she would turn her head toward him and answer!! She even shot me a few looks like, "Yes, I hear you, but I'm choosing not to!!" One night after rocking and rocking, we finally just put her in the bed. She threw everything out of her room (there's a gate at her door) while screaming, "DADDY....MOMMY!" I promise you should have heard the tone.....it was more like a 13 year old screaming "I hate you!!" As my Dad would say......OOOOOOHHH SSAAAAAAAA (imagine some redneck yoga chant meant to relax, and that's what this is - HA!) It only lasted 10 minutes, and when we were brave enough to peek in her room, she had gotten in bed, covered herself up neatly with her favorite blanket and was sleeping like a peaceful little angel.

Oh me, what we have to look forward to :) Here's the drama queen with her new obsession, BAWOONS (Thanks Mimi!). This was just about an hour after - she looks pitiful.
She is finally getting back to normal, and we hope this helps! Fingers crossed.......

Tate Farms 2010

This year, Jackie and I braved it with 4 kids by ourselves and we had a blast!! Here's the proof!

And they were........

Minnie Mouse

50s Chick

Trick or Treating was a bit odd......of course we had responsibilities at church Sunday night, so we tried the Saturday trick or treating in Aunt Nana's neighborhood. There were a few participants, but mostly we just enjoyed spending time with cousins!

EK & Holden

Brock

Dacy & Cooper

Blue Skies

There are blue skies coming though the skies are dark and gray
Though the thunder and the lightning say a storm is on the way.
We've been promised sweet deliverance if we trust Him and obey.
There are blue skies coming any day.

These are lyrics to a song on a new CD Stewart and I have been listening to. Abby and EK have gotten attached to it and ask to hear it ALL the time. It was just a cute thing until Friday....... I've been on a blogging break. Why? Mostly because I didn't want you to share in the funk my brain was in at the time! Life is busy - that's documented. Life is not fun sometimes - again documented. For whatever reason, my reserves were down (OK - depleted, gone, no more glass half-full, just plain out the window) - this made the normal life stuff harder to handle and the "big" stuff almost unbearable. Hence - I hated for all of you to share in it :) (You can thank me later!)

It was during this time that the girls got obsessed with this song. The first time we heard it was in the Smokies. We had left that Monday only to learn after we got up there that my sweet Daddy was back in the hospital again battling the unknown. He had been sick a couple of weeks and had been in and out having tests run, but when we left, we thought he was on the road of recovery. He wasn't - it was worse than they thought. I remember sitting there listening to that song. EK turned her head and put her hand on my face and said, "Boo skies Mommy?? Boo skies??" I just thought it was cute that she had caught on to the song.

Since then, there have been some not fun hurdles to cross, days to endure - yada, yada. Nothing major to document, but you know how things just start happening and you catch yourself saying, "What next?" We've been there over and over for the last few weeks. During that time, EK would randomly look up and say, "Boo skies, Mommy?"

Friday was the day that I guess it all caught up with me. I was ready to climb under a rock somewhere and wait for it all to pass. Sometimes when it gets like that, I think, "I have endured the loss of my own child. How can I let daily life STUFF get me wound up like this??" Human nature - Stephanie, human nature. That night around 3 AM while I was rocking EK to sleep (she's had several sick nights during all of this), I just sat and cried, mostly feeling sorry for myself. EK looked up, touched my face, and this time said, "Mommy, SING Boo Skies. SING Boo Skies Mommy." I just looked at her. She repeated it over and over, until I finally started singing just to get her to stop asking. Suddenly, as I was singing, I could see that blue skies could be coming. The clouds are still dark and gray, but blue skies are coming :)

Here's Daddy and Abby this weekend at her final soccer game. They finally figured it out, and although he still has some recovering to do, he's MUCH better! The doctor told him there was no doubt the Lord helped them find the problem as quickly and easily as they did - PTL! During all this we had to sing once without him - I've only done that ONCE in almost 20 years and I do NOT plan to make it a habit. I'm SO glad he's on the mend! You Daddy's girls know what I mean! There's NOTHING like your Daddy!! (Check out this post by Kera - you may see me steal this idea one day - SO sweet!!)


So..........I'm trying to look for my blue skies........