One Year Ago...

It was one year ago tonight that we saw our son, Logan.  His heart inexplicably stopped beating a couple days prior, and on Dec. 29, 2011 I delivered him.  I remember those days like it was yesterday.  And a year later, we still miss Logan and think of him all the time!  And we still feel so blessed by that whole experience.  Our son has touched many lives, and we're grateful for our wonderful family and friends who have showered us with love and support!

In honor of Logan and to celebrate him, Steven and I decided that we'd like to start a tradition of eating at Logan's Roadhouse and sending balloons to him in Heaven.  We met Jen, Chris, the girls, and Jim and Linda at Logan's for dinner tonight.  My parents tried to make it down here, but the flights were full and it didn't work out.

Just a little explanation of our seating arrangement...the end that Jen and I were sitting on was warmer than the other side.  It was too hot for Chris and Steven, so that's why Jen and Chris aren't sitting next to each other!

Katie gave us a really special gift.  In school they made angel ornaments out of noodles.  When she brought it home she told Jen that she made a Logan angel and wanted to give it to us!  We were so touched that she thought of Logan and us, just so sweet.

After dinner, we all gathered back at our house.  We had a dozen balloons that we wanted to send to Logan.  It was SO cold outside!  It would've been nice to spend more time out there releasing the balloons, but we were all frozen, so after a couple pictures, we let them go and told Logan we loved him!

Jen and Chris gave us this beautiful "Angel of Embrace" figurine.  Jen said it's how she imagines Logan in Heaven, and we do too!  We know he's getting loved on by lots of angels up there.  :)

My parents also sent us a beautiful flower arrangement and balloon.

Then we enjoyed some cake.  We originally made it for my dad since his birthday is on Tuesday, but when they didn't make the flights today, we decided to have it anyway to celebrate him and Logan!

It was a wonderful day remembering Logan and celebrating his life.  We shed some tears and had lots of laughs.  We received many texts and phone calls and certainly appreciate all the continued prayers!

Christmas Day 2012

Christmas morning Addy woke up to her sunshine on her clock at 7:15.  She quietly got up and went to wake Grandma and Grandpa up!  Once we were all up, we asked Addy if she wanted to see if Santa had brought her anything.  She walked to the tree in the living room where all her opened gifts were from the night before and said, "Oh he did!"  Sweet girl.  We told her she might want to check upstairs.

Once she got up the stairs enough to see the presents she got really excited and started to jump around!

Addy looked at all the presents and noticed that there weren't any names written on them.  We told her they were all for her.  Sweet thing wanted to share them, so she gave each of us a present to hold.  Then she dragged the big one over for herself!  We convinced her to open each of the gifts herself, though. :)

Then it was time to open gifts from her stocking:

Earrings:

Her favorite?  Gum!  Should've known...  ;)

Butterfly puzzle box:

Then my mom had forgotten to give Addy these boots the night before, so she opened them Christmas morning.  Addy loves them!

Poor Maggie, she wasn't interested in watching Addy open presents!  She prefers to look out the window.

But her turn came a little later.  Grandma didn't forget about her and bought her a new bone.  She absolutely loves it!

My mom made delicious bbq ribs for lunch.  Afterward, Addy and Grandpa were playing games on his phone:

After Addy's nap we went over to Jen's house.  Jim, Linda, Shannon, and her kids were there as well.  We visited for a little while before it was time to take my parents to the airport.  When I got back, the process was started to make glorified ham sandwiches!  I love Christmas night for that reason!  Chris and Jen introduced me to these sandwiches a couple years ago, and I'm hooked.

At the end of the evening, the kids showed us their sock art.  They decorated them with markers and did such a good job!  It was really fun to see what they each came up with.

And that was our Christmas this year.  Clearly, we're very blessed with a wonderful family.  We had a great Christmas and are so thankful for all God has blessed us with.

Oh, I forgot...one more thing.  We talked to Addy about how it was Jesus's birthday, too.  She was excited and wondered where His birthday cake was!  Note to self, make a birthday cake next year!  We also sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus at breakfast and again after bedtime prayers, per Addy's request.

Christmas Eve 2012

We had a great Christmas this year, hope all of you did as well!  We were so thankful that my parents came down early to get things ready for Christmas for us.  We got in so late on Sunday night (the 23rd) that we were still trying to catch up on sleep Monday and Tuesday.  They had bought all our groceries for us and my mom even made some extra treats for us!

Our Christmas festivities started with lunch on Tuesday over at Jen and Chris's house.  And opening presents, of course.  :)

We came home for nap time, and then decided to open presents before church!  Our tradition is to open presents from each other on Christmas Eve and open presents from Santa on Christmas Day.  I wasn't sure how Addy would do by the time we got home from church, and I didn't want it to be so late that she didn't enjoy it.

Bean bag:

Games:

Clothes:

And so much more!  Addy was very blessed by so many people and received some very nice gifts.  She was very excited about all of it!

My parents bought us a new recliner for our living room for Christmas, and we should be getting that in the next few weeks.  So nice of them!  They also gave us some new clothes and I got a new necklace, and Steven got a new golf game for the Wii.

Apparently I was very surprised at my new sweater!

Grandma and Grandpa got some gifts, too, but their favorites are the calendar and the photo scrap book:

Then my aunt Carol sent us a very nice package in the mail.  I LOVE her chex mix and she sent a big bag of it!  She also sent a very very sweet gift...an ornament that brought us all to tears.  In a good way, though!  Just such a sweet reminder when we're missing Logan to remember he's with our Savior and had the best Christmas of any of us!

It makes my heart so happy reading that.  Steven and I definitely have our moments missing Logan and each time we feel comfort from our Heavenly Father reminding us He's taking care of our little boy for us.  All is well.

Costa Rica: Day 11

Our last morning in Costa Rica.  We weren't quite ready to go home yet, another day at the beach sounded better!  We got close though, and had breakfast near the beach at Witch's Rock.  One more Paradise Waffle before we left!

Addy found a pretty big shell at the beach yesterday, and we encouraged her to leave it at the condo.  Here she's pointing to where she put it.

Of course on our last day, in the last hour, Addy really warmed up to Aunt Sarah!  They were playing volleyball, and I think Addy could've played with her all day!  And when we got to the airport Addy said to me, "Mom, you know my Sarah in Costa Rica?  I love her!"  So sweet.

Time to go :(

On the way to the airport, which is about an hour drive, Addy told us twice that she needed to throw up.  This is new for her, she's never done that before.  We weren't about to doubt her and risk having a mess on our hands, so we pulled over and let her out.  This picture is the second time we stopped.  False alarms both times, and we think it was just because she didn't want to be in the car anymore...but we don't know for sure!

I remembered that I had my motion sickness bracelets in my purse, so after the second time we stopped, I asked Addy if she wanted to wear them...and she did for about a minute.  Then she told me she didn't need them anymore and wouldn't get sick.  And she didn't.

When we returned the car, I tried to capture how dirty the car was.  The pictures don't do it justice.  At all.

We arrived at the airport plenty early to sit down and have the most expensive lunch of our trip.  We learned our lesson that it would've been a lot cheaper to order the food to go.  They charge a lot for the luxury of sitting at a table!  And this is the only restaurant in the airport...so we didn't have a lot of options.  By the way, this was the first time we got to see the new airport in Liberia...HUGE improvement.  The old airport wasn't enclosed, so it was HOT!

Sweet girl fell asleep on the plane after we took off from Liberia.

Our layover was in Dallas on the way back.  We had about 2 1/2 hours, which was great.  Customs took an hour!  Then it gave us a chance to eat a little dinner.  Our final flight home left at 9:55 p.m. and we arrived home at 11:35 p.m.  Addy didn't sleep AT ALL.  And she was so wired!

I was so exhausted I completely forgot about taking any pictures of her.  My parents picked us up at the airport.  They came down on Friday to get some things ready around our house for Christmas.  My mom was waiting at the bottom of the escalator for us, and it would've been a really cute picture if I would've captured her expression when she saw her!  Oops.

We had such a wonderful trip, and feel so blessed that we could spend nearly the entire month of December with our families.  Pura Vida!