blog hop

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

blog hop theme: my favorite photo and caption
it was very tricky to pick just ONE favorite picture but I did :)
"don't forget my name"
(i know....lame....but its late and its all I got now!)

MckLinky Blog Hop

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proud to be an American

Monday, July 6, 2009

our holiday weekend was jam-packed full of fun, but then again every day is fun now with Grayden in our family :)
We spent the majority of the weekend at my parents cottage. We went on lots of boat rides, ate a lot!, went tubing, went for a stroller ride and just relaxed with the family!







On Saturday we went to Wild Chef and Grayden loved watching the chef prepare our food and entertain us at the same time


after we finished dinner we headed to the fireworks, again Grayden did really well and slept during the loudest booms!



Sunday we went to church and then headed back out to the lake to finish up our weekend!

Hope everyone else had a great, safe weekend as well! What did you do?

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Happy 4th of July!

Saturday, July 4, 2009


I hope everyone has a fun, safe weekend celebrating our country's Independence!

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Couple of Prayer Request

I have received a couple emails asking for URGENT prayer requests for two sick little girls Rebekah and Kate.....
I am passing the requests on to all you blog readers because I know prayer works...please pray for both of them.

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Happy Birthday Mindy

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Tuesday was Mindy's 22nd birthday. To celebrate our family went to Craigs Cruisers to eat there yummy buffet and have a 'friendly' (meaning- I am surprised we didn't get thrown out!) competition on the go carts!


as you can see I am in the lead here in the blue car! With Kyle in the red car, Mindy in the yellow and Robb way back there in the left green and my dad was spun out at this point I believe! Lisa was on Grayden duty and my mom was the photographer!

Mindy, I hope you had a great birthday and I am so thankful that God blessed our family by adding you as a part of our family 22 years ago! He knew the day you were born that you would have a special part of my life and others too!

now stop crying!!! ;) just kidding! love ya!

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wordless wednesday

Wednesday, July 1, 2009




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what a beautiful ride

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Grayden and I were jamming to the radio this morning just like we always do when we are in the car. And on a rare occasion I switched the dial to the country station because I just wasn't in the mood to listen to the carpet cleaning commercials and hearing about where I should get my oil changed in between the songs I listen to on my regular station.

The song "Life Aint't Always Beautiful" by Gary Allen came on and as I was singing along I thought about how true so many of those words are in life.


Life isn't always what we dream it will be.

I remember going through my teenage years dreaming about my future. And in those dreams I would marry the man of my dream, have a beautiful wedding, get pregnant and give birth to lots of babies that look just like us and all live happily ever after in the huge house we built. Never did these plans include burying our first born, fighting for my life for 7 months, having surgery after surgery, a kidney transplant and walking the difficult road to become parents again.


Even though life didn't go EXACTLY as planned and the road to get here was difficult. I could not be any happier than I am right now. Our journey was long, hard and painful but I wouldn't change it. It all paid off 100 times over because now as I type this I am snuggling our precious son who I can't imagine life without. He is worth all it! Everything I've endured...it's all ok now because we have him.
Life ain't always beautiful
But it's a beautiful ride! Just like the song says.

See! isn't he SO worth it?


And getting back to my revised blog title I added at the bottom "He made something beautiful out of our suffering". I adapted that little line from the song "Resurrection" by Nicol Sponberg
Her words say 'Make something beautiful out of all this suffering'. I prayed that prayer many times in this past year and he answered my plea in the most perfect way!!
Grayden is our 'something beautiful!'



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Need a laugh?

Monday, June 29, 2009




I can't stop laughing!!

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King of the World

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

This year's father's day was the best ever! I was looking so forward to being able to celebrate ALL the special fathers in my life! My dad, my dad in law, my baby's dad, his birthdad and most of all my Heavenly dad! I spent a lot of time thanking Him this father's day, for loving me so much and giving me this abundant life!

There is a song that is sung my the group Point of Grace called "King of the World" about a girl dancing with her daddy. I love that song but the when I hear the words I think of my Heavenly Father dancing me around until "my feet don't ever touch down"
Now, I do get an occasional dance in with my dad :)


but I long for the day when I get to heaven to celebrate and dance with my Heavenly Father every single day! He is the King of the World"

But until then I am enjoying every second God has given me to watch my husband be a daddy to our wonderful boys.

(I love the gentle way he holds our boys!)
He is better than I ever imagined he would be and as a result a better husband! I couldn't ask for more! He is the best! I couldn't wait to see Robb experience fatherhood and never did I imagine it would be this amazing! We love you!

Pictures of our day on Father's day*they are so handsome*






I got this idea from another blog I read and thought it was so cute!! I plan to take their picture like this every year on fathers day!



Hope all you dad's out there had a great day on Sunday and for those men/husbands that have yet to experience it....it's worth the wait and we pray for you as you wait!

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LifeWalk

Monday, June 22, 2009

Saturday morning we participated in the 15th Annual LifeWalk put on by Lakeshore Pregnancy Center. We raised over $700 to support the LPC and there wonderful organization.

We had a great time and hope to do it again next year!

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Storm 2009

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Friday night our little hometown was hit with a HUGE storm. The three of us were doing some shopping at Wal.mart and half way through our shopping trip we heard rain falling down HARD on the rooftops, so we knew right away that we were going to be getting very wet!
This is a picture I took out the car window on our way home!
Water was everywhere, all over the roads and the fields were turning into small lakes. We got home and changed into some dry clothes and watched as the storm continued to roll through.....it was crazy! Around 10:00 we lost power, that was interesting to say the least. With a newborn at home and no way to warm up bottles we realized just how lucky we are to have electricity! Thank you Benjamin Franklin (glad I decided to google that; I first typed Thomas Edison!)
Here are some more pictures from the next morning.
*


*

as you can see there has been a lot of damage here in the last few days. Luckily for us the worst of it was 24 hours without electric but as you can imagine many weren't so fortunate. Please be in prayer for the families dealing with losses and damage.

*photos taken from the Holland Sentinel*

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Frosty for a Cause

Thursday, June 18, 2009


This Saturday and Sunday Wendy's will be donating 50 cents to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption for every Frosty sold!

So go eat some Frostys this weekend and buy some for dad too on his special day!!

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Not so Wordless Wednesday

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

the moment we had been waiting for....
the first time we laid eyes on our beautiful new baby.

God is so good!
I can't even begin to describe the emotions running through our entire bodies at that very moment. In all my life I will never forget that beautiful feeling.

(Where does the time go? That was over a month ago!)

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Makeover!

Monday, June 15, 2009

Thank you so much Patrice for the super cute blog makeover! I love it!
What do you guys think? How do you like the new changes to the blog as much as I do?
Thanks so much for your thoughts and ideas on a new title, I agreed with many of the suggestions to keep it the same, it didn't feel right to change it completely but I did adjust it to fit our life today and our journey to get here.

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Grayden Robert, you are 1 month old!

Friday, June 12, 2009

Grayden~

You are 1 month old today! To celebrate we went to your favorite restaurant, Olive Garden, and you slept the whole time!It has been such a joy to have you in our family, we love to watch you change and grow everyday!

This is what you've been up to lately:

You are still in NB clothing but sometimes Mommy likes to try and make the 0-3 months work b/c your clothes are so cute in that size, but they are pretty big yet!

You are in between NB and size 1 diapers, either will work but neither fit just right!
You are eating about 3 oz every 3-4 hours.
You still like your swing and bouncy seat/other toys




but you would prefer to be either held or in your sling or front carrier
you've spent lots of time at Grandpa and Grandma R.'s Cottage and even played your first ball game there and had your first bon-fire!







you still sleep great, usually from 11:30pm to 4:30am and then up for the morning at 8 am

You love your 'activity time" like floor play, tummy time, and watching a little baby einstein on tv

Grandpa celebrated his 20th anniversary of K&R with an open house that you spent some time at.
You wore your "grandpa's little man" shirt to tell him you are so proud of him and can't wait to work with daddy there someday (but only if you want) 


we think you are a good 9 lbs now


you developed a case of baby acne around 3 weeks old but it never seemed to bother you!
Don't worry we won't show your future wife this picture, they are just so mommy remembers ;)

you had your first trip to the mall with your friend Brooklyn.
you didn't love it as much as mommy did :)


and last but not least.....look at that SMILE!!
you are smiling just recently and it melts our hearts!
we love you Grayden and can't wait for the many more memories we'll make as you grow!
Love,
Mommy and Daddy!

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