Go, Fight, Win!

A couple of weeks ago, Brooklyn decided to sign up for a cheerleading clinic offered through the high school. She loved it! They practiced on a Wednesday and Thursday, and performed at the football game on Friday night. It was interesting when she came home both evening and didn't remember a thing from practice. She was able to hold her own for the "performance."

Sort of. If you notice in the picture, she is the only one not doing the same thing as the other girls. Oh well, she had an awesome time!

October 11, 2001

Jack's Birth Day. He came into this world weighing a whopping 9 lbs. 12 oz. Now he's 8. It doesn't seem at all possible that we could have an 8 year old...that's halfway to getting his driver's license!

I wanted to be like one of those people that puts a baby picture on here, but I don't know how to scan a photo in...so you'll just have to imagine...chubby little legs, big brown eyes, a round little face, etc... Cute as a bug!

He had a great birthday party. We did the party with his cousin, Emmy, who turned 7 a week after Jack. My sister was in charge of the cake...didn't it turn out awesome!

It was nice to get everyone here and celebrate both birthdays at once. The kids thought it was awesome, too. We had a Dr. Seuss themed party...very fun and appropriate for both kids.

The pinata was a big hit (pardon the pun ;) It started off as a pull-string pinata, but ended up as a traditional "hit it as hard as you can" pinata.

Jack's favorite part of turning 8...he "legally" doesn't have to use a booster seat anymore! Ahhh, the freedom.

Alleluia!

It pains me to say that I have been without a computer for over a week. I haven't been able to blog about so many things...Jack's 8th birthday, a train trip to Chicago, another unbelievable thing that happened to us, etc... I'm hoping to get to these posts soon, but I'm spending time getting to know a new computer. Our other one got a nasty virus. My naive self just kept thinking, "It's a virus. It will go away one of these days!" Not so much. It was going to be $400 to make the virus go away. No thanks. I'll just buy a new one! Stay tuned....

Here it is!

As promised, I went out this morning and took a few pictures of the headstone. The sun was at a bad spot, so the pictures aren't great. It's still as gorgeous today as it was last night, though!

The Front:

And the back...

I should have taken a close up of the etching of Olivia. There is a man at Wyoming Monument that does these by hand. We were so incredibly nervous that it wouldn't look like Olivia. We couldn't have asked for better artwork!

Ups and Downs

What a couple of days.
We had a wonderful weekend. On Saturday, my mom , the kids and I went to the 2nd annual Peoria Buddy Walk to help raise awareness for people with Down syndrome. This year, as a fundraiser, families could get "buddy bands" saying "I'm ________Buddy." One family that we have come to know asked if they could be "Olivia's buddy" this year. We were honored and excited to get some buddy bands in the mail last week saying "I'm Olivia's Buddy." How awesome. We were only able to stay at the Buddy Walk for a short period of time. It was too hard. All those beautiful babies, kids, and adults sparked the emptiness in my heart. It was so awesome to see the accomplishments of so many of the kids, but just made us miss Livvy a whole lot.
So, on to the scenic drive. It was chilly, very muddy, and misting a bit. We still had a good time and made a few purchases, though. The rest of the weekend was spent working around the house and we actually got a lot done. Things are progressing nicely...
Today was a great, great day. I went up to the PICU for a visit. They had Olivia's calendar picture from last year blown up and framed. It's hanging right outside of the room where she spent a whole lot of time. It was so, so good to see everyone. It's amazing how much I miss them. For 2 1/2 years, I spent entire days (both good and bad) and even some nights with those nurses and doctors. I consider a lot of them my closest friends. It was just really good to see them. And the picture of Olivia...gorgeous!
To add to all of that excitement-I went out to visit Livvy tonight and her headstone is up. Her absolutely, unbelievably, perfect in every way, beautiful headstone. I was so overwhelmed by the perfection of it that I actually started laughing and telling Olivia how awesome it was. This is going to sound really strange, but the feeling I got was similar to what I felt when Olivia started crawling and feeding herself. Or when the big kids started walking, talking, or riding their bikes. It was just a great feeling-a monumental one. One that needed to be documented! I'm hoping to go out tomorrow and take a picture of it (hopefully that's not too weird) and I'll be sure to post it so you can see it too. It's just perfect.