Party Highlights

While I am twiddling my thumbs today while the packers are packing (I know, must be rough!) I thought I'd do a little blog updating...

Here are some more highlights from our Going Away Party on Saturday:

Craig's Great Aunt Karen came to visit and was a big help with the boys at the party. Gage "claimed" the balloons that were out in honor of Craig's birthday the day before. Here is dear Aunt Karen taking good care of them for Gage while he is playing.


Our awesome Realtor, Mark Charter, with ReMAx. He has been our guy for a long time now! (Did I mention that our house sold in less than 2 weeks??!!) His wife Katie is so cute! I was not good at getting my camera out soon enough and unfortunately did not catch everyone, but here are many great friends that we love and will miss!

The Dvorak's
The Hill's
The Kincaid's
The Bartlett's
Angie Mowery and Mary Warren (Not sure if they know each other, but both were husbandless!)The Gibson's Mr. Gage enjoying a little ice cream treat!

Saying Goodbyes...

It is becoming more and more real that we are moving away. We are experiencing "lasts" now... Last week we had some of our favorite visitors here:

Aunt Holly and Will. (They do have a husband/father whom we love very much too...he just can't always make it! :)

We will miss their visits. My sister openly admits that she does not drive long distances so we will have to wait until Uncle Craig can come too now...hope that's a lot!!!

Eli had his 18 month check up with Dr. Swanson. It was our last time to see him. I admit I choked up a little on the way there!


Here is Eli with Dr. Swanson at 3 months.

We love Dr. Swanson! We will miss him!

On Saturday we had a "Farewell Open House" with lots of great friends. It was terrible not being able to spend more one-on-one time with everyone, but I enjoyed it anyway. We felt very loved. Oh, we are going to miss friends like these...


Then on Sunday we experienced our last service at church. I really lost it during the last worship songs when I was thinking about all that has happened in that special place over the years...being baptized there, meeting Craig there, dedicating my boys there...and I could go on and on.

It's really bittersweet for us. We have so many special friends and memories in Ames. But we are excited to establish ourselves in a new place. May we do our part to make our new community a better place because we are there!

The Little Patient

Our lil Eli the Great had to have surgery a week ago. He was born with an abnormality that has not corrected itself so they had to surgically fix it, and I'll just leave it at that!

I was absolutely dreading it! The thought of waiting for an hour to go to surgery with a child that does not like the doctor's office, and who could not eat or drink anything, then the idea of watching them take my scared and confused baby away from me was too much to bear!

But if I only knew that this is how it was going to go...


I wouldn't have worried a bit! He was so good in the waiting area! He enjoyed looking out the window, sitting in the chair and walking around. And he made no requests for food or juice. (Thankfully the surgery was scheduled for 7:30am!!)

And then to smile like this when he was dressed in his little gown on a hospital bed...!

Wow! We couldn't believe it! We know it was an answer to prayer, absolutely. The miracles kept coming too...When the nurse carried him away from the holding room to surgery, he did not cry, or even look back at us. What?!! And miraculously since he didn't cry, I didn't either!! I was so worried I would be a blubbering idiot, scaring him even more!

All I can say is, Thank you God!

Surgery went well. They prepared us that he would be crying a lot after coming out of anesthesia. He cried and fussed for about 30 min, then fell asleep off and on and became pretty content in Daddy's arms. We were anxious for his iv to come out so we could take him home. Finally the doctor okayed his release and we were home in time for lunch!

Big brother Gage was very curious about "what happened?" and about Eli's "owie". These pictures are so precious to me.Now if only Gage would share his toys with this brother he loves so much....

We are so, so thankful that this surgery is behind us, and that he did so well. One week later he is completely back to normal and his raring-to-go self.