egg hunting and a beautiful weekend

This past Wednesday I took Luke to a story time at a library that ended with a mini indoor Easter egg hunt. It was an hour of fun starting with Easter books being read by a librarian, lots of Easter songs, hopping, and dancing, a tour of the kids library, and ended with the hunt! This time last year Luke was still not walking so the one Easter egg hunt we went to was pretty uneventful. I can't believe his progress over the past year! He loved picking up eggs.

helping a "baby" get some eggs



doing the 'bunny hop...hop, hop, hop'
The weather has been wonderful this past week and weekend. Greg, Luke, and I are trying to soak up every second we can before Summer gets here. Saturday we went and had yummy Mexican food out on a patio, all took naps, went to the park, then ended the day grilling outside! Sunday afternoon was spend outside too. Here are some pics of our fun in the sunshine!

Sweet Sutton Grant Hamilton aka our baby nephew and Luke's cousin!

March 17 my sister and brother in love welcomed their first born baby boy into the world. Sutton Grant made his entrance weighing in at a whopping 8 pounds 15 ounces with a full set a cheeks! He is absolutely perfect and we are all so in love. I seriously could have held him and kissed his cheeks forever! Luke was very excited to meet his baby cousin, "hold" him, and stare at him. He is pretty good with babies....gentle and loving. We can't wait to get back to Dallas for some more precious time with him. Anna is doing great and had a smooth labor and delivery. God is good, people. Good. I am looking forward to sharing the journey of parenthood with them! Here are a few pics from the special weekend.

a touching little note

Greg's sweet mom sent this to me in an email earlier this week and I thought it was a lovely outlook to have with so much truth....it was written by a lady with 10 month old twins...one healthy one and one with special needs. Hope it touches your heart too!



A Trip To Holland by Emily Perl Kingley



I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability – to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It’s like this…

.

When you’re going to have a baby, it’s like planning a fabulous vacation trip to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans…the Coliseum, the Sistine Chapel, Gondolas. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It’s all very exciting. After several months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, “Welcome to Holland!” “Holland?” you say. “What do you mean, Holland? I signed up for Italy. I’m supposed to be in Italy. All my life I’ve dreamed of going to Italy.”

But there’s been a change in the flight plan. They’ve landed in Holland and there you must stay.

 The important thing is that they haven’t taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place full of pestilence, famine, and disease.It’s just a different place.

 So, you must go out and buy new guidebooks. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met. It’s just a different place. It’s slower paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy.



But after you’ve been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around. You begin to notice that Holland has windmills. Holland has tulips. And Holland even has Rembrandts. But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy, and they’re all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life you will say, “Yes, that’s where I was supposed to go. That’s what I had planned.” And the pain of that experience will never, ever, ever, go away.

The loss of that dream is a very significant loss. 

But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn’t get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland.

 The sooner you accept fact that you will no longer be traveling to Italy the sooner your heart and mind will be free to enjoy and appreciate Holland. Saying that is easy. Doing it takes practice and is a process that I believe will get easier over time but something I will have to work at for the rest of my life.


I love every ounce of this little boy more than I ever, ever thought possible. God is good. He trusted Greg and I to care for him and we are forever changed and grateful. :)

what has Luke been doing?

Doing a little painting




Wearing a new hat



riding the carousel at the mall


playing at the playcastle


Lunching in the backyard on a beautiful day


going to school

Fun weekend with a little bit of Rodeo!

Saturday was a perfect day! The weather has been beautiful so we are trying to soak it all up before the heat starts rising. We took Luke to the park, did some Springtime yard work, weekly grocery shopping, and ended the day with a fun dinner with friends while Luke stayed home with Mrs. Mojgan.



Jesse came to the park too!


I love him so much.
Pure joy.

Greg could work in the yard every single day if he had the time. He loves plants. :)




Yesterday after church we took Luke to the Houston Rodeo! He loves animals so I thought he would be so excited to see so many of them up close. We picked the wrong day to go because with the spectacular weather and it being a weekend the fair part of the Rodeo was SO crowded! The lines were too long to get tickets and ride any of the rides. He wanted to ride the little flying airplanes (he LOVES airplanes :)) but we would have been late getting in to the Rodeo so we passed and I am hoping to take him this week during the day to ride them!

We got the tickets through Greg's company and they were AWESOME seats with free (yummy) food to go along! Luke loved seeing the horses, calves, bucking bulls, and the chuck wagon races!

Ready for church!
His pants might be a little large. Pretty sure they will fit next Spring.



Our friend Hudson came too


Ice cream and animal watching=one happy boy!

so tired ready to go home

Sometimes as I blog about our family, taking time to reflect on our daily life, I get overwhelmed with gratitude. I feel very thankful for this phase of life and the time I have with my family and friends!