Our favorite place to be..

We just returned from a fabulous trip to Seagrove Beach. My family and I have been making this annual beach trip since I was in high school. It is something that we look forward to every summer. My parents, our family, and my brother's family all stay in a house on the beach--no better place to be than ON the beach!

Cade took his first steps at the beach and has always been pretty cautious about getting in the water. It seems that each year he gets a little braver about getting in. This year he really took to the water. He surfed the waves for the first time and loved it!! He and Brody played so well together! They had so much fun, whether they were chasing each other with their water guns, or throwing sand on each other-they had a blast!

Some of our favorite things to do while there is looking for seashells, looking for crabs at night, visiting Pier Park, eating shrimp, looking for dolphins, walks on the beach, ice cream, etc.

We love our time at the beach!! So thankful that we have these times with family to share and we can't wait until next summer!!

Summer has officially begun..

We love our summers!! This year we started our summer with a trip to San Antonio, Texas. We haven't been back in a few years so we were very excited to get to see everyone. Chris' entire family live there, so it was a very busy but fun trip. We ended up staying with Chris' dad and stepmom in their beautiful home. Cade loved it! They have a trampoline and a hot tub. Being that it is so hot there we limited Cade's time outdoors. He would wake up and want to go on the tramp. and end the day on the trampoline.

We spent most of our days visiting family. Chris' mom's side of the family and Chris' dad's side of the family. We were very busy each day. We did spend a day at SeaWorld. Cade's favorite place. We went with Grandma and Navaeh-Chris' brother's little girl. It was VERY hot to say the least, but it was a fun day! His favorite thing this time were the sharks!! :)

Greg and Donna (Chris' dad and stepmom) have two dogs. Cade is allergic to pet dander, but he didn't have a problem being around them, in fact, he LOVED them!! He wants a dog soooo bad! He chased them around and he loved for them to chase him back. It was so cute to watch!

Because of the location of where we were staying, there were many deer around the neighborhoods. When I say everywhere, they were practically just chillin' in the yards. It was so neat to see. So close, you could pet them..Again, this was something Cade was not used to and he loved to look for each day!

It was a great trip..in fact, neither one of us were ready to leave. We hope to see them all again very soon!!

pics to follow!

Heaven...

Well, this past week has been very interesting and hard all at the same time.. It is nearing the end of the school year, in fact, this is our last week of school. We have been busy reviewing with kids, making exams,etc. Chris and I both are anticipating the summer, and not to mention Cade has been counting down how many days left of school.

Everything though came to a halt for me last week, and LIFE took over. We had a student who was involved in a tragic skateboarding accident and passed away due to severe brain trauma. So yeah, everything kind of took a backseat for me, as I pondered how fragile our lives here on earth are. I also mourned for this precious mom who no longer would be able to hug on her son as he came home from school, or watch him play football and soccer again.

My students have been walking around dazed as they continue to grieve the loss of a classmate, and as I sit here and write, I will be heading to his funeral in a few short minutes.

Of course, death gets us thinking about Heaven and about all those we will soon see once again. I can't wait to see my Nana and Papa in heaven. I loved them so much and the Lord called them both home when I was in the 8th grade. Both of them met Jesus within about 3 months of each other. What a great reunion that must have been.

I have had the book "Heaven is For Real" for quite sometime now and never really picked it up to read. My books to read for the summer are piling up, but I thought it would be fitting because of the course of events this past week to start this one. So yesterday I sat and read the entire book. Very interesting perspective of Heaven from a 4 year old and so "matter of factly." As I read, my anticipation grew even more for Heaven. Reading this little one's experience with Heaven made me ponder "if only I had the faith of a child."

It is a great book and I highly recommend it. In fact, our pastor will be going to Nebraska next week to interview Colton and his dad. He will be beginning a new series on Heaven and Hell in the weeks to come. Excited about that..

So this is where my head has been in the last few days.. Cade and I have also had some discussions on this as well, and it is amazing to hear a five year old's perspective on Heaven.. So cute!!

I will leave you with one part of the book that I just loved. Colton was explaining to his dad where everyone was sitting in Heaven.. He was explaining the throne room of God. Colton's dad asked him where he was sitting and Colton said, "I was sitting on Jesus' lap, next to the Holy Spirit.." This just reminded me of how we should view our Heavenly Father, similar to our earthly Father...sitting in his lap comforting us when we become frightened, scared, worried, stressed, whatever it might be. LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!!

April Showers..Bring May Flowers

Where did April go?? Wow..It flew by so fast!! We are getting near the end of the school year and we are all ready for the summer. Cade has been doing great, but he is ready for school to be over. He even told me on the way to school this week he didn't want to go to school. I told him we didn't really want to either.:)

In April, we spent Easter with my parents and my brother's family.Mom and Dad's church had a car show and easter egg hunt, so of course Cade was in heaven! Cade loves to visit Nana and Papa. He also loves his cousin Brody! They have the biggest time together and Cade is so excited about getting to see them once again at the beach.

We have had some pretty bad weather in the last few weeks. Alot of wind and rain, but nothing in comparison to the damage we have all seen in Alabama. My mom and dad were spared also of the bad weather. The tornadoes that touchdown in Ringgold (where Chris and I were married) missed their area by an exit. We were so thankful!!

We have had some pretty days as well and have spent those being outside. We did some landscaping last weekend around the front of the house. Can I just say, I love doing yard work. If you ask Chris he will tell you that I LOVE mowing the grass, and actually a little OCD about it.

May will be busy for us as we finish up the semester, but we are looking forward to June and going to Texas to visit. Cade is so excited to get to fly again and to see everyone.

Cade has his five year old checkup tomorrow, and I am not looking forward to it. He gets 4 shots I think.. It won't be pretty. As far as his eye, we went back to Ohio a few weeks ago and everything looked great. We have to continue using the steroid drop 4x a day for 6 months. This has been somewhat hard, but Cade has done great. He has a chart on his door and he gets a sticker for every drop. At the end of the week he gets a surprise. It has worked so far, so hoping it continues. We might be broke in 6 months as well..:)

Waiting for the summer!

carlee

A Milestone...FIVE

I can't believe that we have a five year old.. Cade has grown so fast..He has grown into a little man from the small 5 lb. 12 oz. baby five years ago. He is our joy and our life. He has been through more than any five year old should have to go through, but he has conquered every difficulty thrown at him. He has taught Chris and I so much about perseverance, about faith, about courage, about fear, etc.

We are so proud of what he has become and we can't wait to see what the Lord will do in the next five years.

Cade, mommy and daddy love you and we are so proud of how you have walked through difficulty the last five years with resiliency and a quiet strength. You truly are OUR WARRIOR and as your papa would say our "HERO."

Happy Birthday Bubba!!

Spring Break

We enjoyed a great spring break a few weeks back together. Chris and I both had spring break off at the same time which seldom occurs. We spent alot of time outdoors with Cade. One of the best times we had together was visiting Edwin Warner Park.
It is very close to where we live, but we never had visited the park before. We had some great weather so we decided to take Cade. They have a dirt park for the kiddos, but Cade wanted nothing to do with getting dirty.. He could care less about the huge mound of dirt and shovels, so we quickly made our way to the creek behind the park. We spent at least 2 hours just walking down the creek and throwing rocks. Cade LOVED it!! We also spent some time to walk the trails of the park, of course Cade leading us up the trails. We reached a point on the trail where a low tree branch was bent over. I picked Cade up to let him hang on it like the monkey bars and he didn't trust me I guess, and his hands slipped. Those would be the before and after pictures below.

We had so much fun at the park that we went back the following day! It was a great week to just spend some time outdoors. We also took him to play putt-putt. His first time to play and he had so much fun!! What a fun week!!!

Here are a few pics from our week!!

Back to Ohio

We left on Sunday back to Ohio for Cade's post-op appointment. The drive is beginning to get old, but thankful we don't have to travel to far and for the great doctors there.
We met with Dr. Holland and Nerad. They had to take the stitches out of Cade's eye. Our only option was to do it in the office, which was down right awful. Cade was a trooper and he did great! We then had to remove the plastic ring out of his eye-also in the office. Again, very traumatic for Cade, but again he overcame another obstacle. It was harder on mom and dad than on him.
No parent should ever have to go through that-holding their child down as doctors work on them.. This is the worst part about Cade's condition for me. I hate how scared he gets and there is nothing I can do about it!! HATE IT!!

I do know that we continually try to calm him down, by telling him that Jesus is with him when he is scared. We tell him to pray when he gets scared. I am not quite sure he gets all of that, but HIS strength through all of these procedures is God-given!

He amazes me daily, and it's not all about his eye. He is inquisitive about everything. He prays for our compassion child-Christian EVERY night and reminds me when I forget. He has a sensitive heart and talks about giving his toys away to children who might not have as much. He goes to bed praying and wakes up praying. Yesterday he woke up and asked if he could pray for his eye. AMAZING! He is not shy about what his eye looks like and tells his friends and teachers all about it. He is one brave 4 year old--almost 5--cannot believe that!! He tells me he loves me to Heaven and back and then explains that Heaven and God are far, far away and that it is alot!!
I am not sure of the plans the Lord has for Cade, but He is going to do great things!

You know through all of this somehow I always go to back to Mary, mother of Jesus. I think probably because in the waiting room in the hospital there is a cross mounted on the wall. After they take Cade back I always come out to the waiting room and see that cross. My eyes stay fixed on it for a while as I think about Mary and what her "wait" looked like. What thoughts were racing through her head as she sat and watched her little boy suffer? Not knowing if she would see Him again. Was she saying to herself, "Let me take the pain, not my one and only..". Knowing He would suffer, but also watching Him suffer. Can you imagine? Watching your little boy suffer and take on the pain of the world? But God had bigger plans right? Yes, He did and Sunday was a'comin'!!! I can relate to her in a very small way with Cade..

Cade does suffer and sometimes we have to watch, and we do question God at times, but the end result as we all know is that we have all been placed on this earth to bring glory to Him. So through all the doctor appointments, surgeries, imaging, etc as hard as it might be we will continue to be faithful and know that HE is the ONE who can heal, and know that HE can do exceedingly more than what we could ever ask!!!!

Sorry, for rambling.. Not even sure this post makes sense, but wanted to share some thoughts from the week!! We have spring break next week and can't wait for some time off!!
Love you all!!