Summer Fun

We finally made it to the NICU to visit and show alexis to the staff there. Loved visiting the best NICU docs on the planet. 

The girls loved visiting and goofing off with Dr Green and Dr Nystrom. Wish I had taken a pic with the amazing nurses. 

Your old man had another birthday this year so we took him out for BBQ dinner. 

Love these two. Dad and I went out with friends to another BBQ place for date night to celebrate with friends. It was so nice to get out together. 

Adrianne took me out for my birthday to lunch and lots of my sweet friend visited. I have awesome friends. 

Dad and the girls took me to dinner for my birthday. I picked Gloria's. Love me some Mexican food. 

We sure missed Claire at girls camp! :( 

Lexie was really grumpy waiting for the chocolate cake. Since I can't have dairy while I nurse alexis, Dad bought me a vegan Oreo cake that was super yummy. He's so thoughtful. 

The girls begged and begged to paint Lexie's toes. I caved and have to admit I love seeing her teeny toes nails painted. 

She is starting to notice things around her and grab onto them. Her fist in her mouth is still her favorite. 

She's so cute I could eat her. 

We took a trip to Austin since dad took a week off and we stopped in Waco and went to Dad's law school. Here's the Baylor bear statue. I'll look in old pictures to find one we took way back when. 

We did lots of wakeboarding during his week off. Dad is pretty tricky and seriously fun to watch. 

Pretty awesome huh? 

Lexie was such a trooper. 

A serious trooper. 

Here's Claire going off the blue slider. She's getting to be quite the rider. 

I will post videos of Hallie and Audrey soon. They are all such great wakeboarders. Love spending time together. 

Lexie has been sleeping around 7 hours at night which has been amazing. I feel like a new person now that her colick has made a turn and I'm getting more solid sleep at night. Daddy starts at a new firm tomorrow. We are excited to hopefully spend more time as a family. 

I've been missing you so much lately. Been having lots of hard nights and days. I can't even express the emptiness I feel knowing I will spend the rest of my entire life waiting to see you. The part of my heart that is yours will have to wait much longer to kiss you again. 

It's been so nice to spend so much time together this past week. Sure wish you were here. 

Love you like crazy. 

Xoxo

Mom 

Sweet Son

I miss you. So very much. 

Love, 

Mom 

Hallie's Writing Assignment

Hallie brought home this writing assignment and it of course made me cry. I wanted to copy it down so we could post it for you.


Why did this happen? What am I going to do? How did it Happen?

I'd had a brother for about 6 months. He was born too early so he had to stay in the hospital. It had been very hard and difficult for the last few days and we were all worried for him. My sisters and I were in my room when out parents called us. They had been staying with him and I knew something was up. Our parents told us that Caleb had passed away and I did not like those words. I was almost angry.

Before they called I was playing and thinking, "I hope he is okay." We were all crying and my Grandma was comforting us, and I love her for that. I had kept on thinking he would get better because every time we walked into his hospital room he smiled bright and I kept on telling him that I loved him. I could not stand seeing him sad and I reminded myself that he had gone to a better place.

It was the end of his funeral when I started crying again but despite the crying I knew that I was going to get through this hard time. I now know that you never know how strong you are until being strong is your only choice.

By Hallie Fish
4th Grade Writing

Her teachers comments were:
Hallie- You are an amazingly strong person! I'm so proud or you! This is an awesome piece of writing and I love your truism at the end! Way to go!

We love you, bubba!

Quickly

Time is moving so quickly. I guess part of that is that I have 5 kids to take care of, 6 if you count dad. Just kidding. But with lots of children come lots of things that need to be done so maybe that's why I feel like it's moving so quickly.  We are getting close to the day you passed away and it's coming ready or not.

I woke up this morning with a heavy and anxious heart. I've been trying to figure out why. Is it because you're not here? Is it because I miss you and ache to see you again? Is it because I worry about your sisters? Is it because I worry I'm not teaching them enough or patient enough? Is it because even after losing a child I hate that I am impatient with them? I know I'm human and that I can't snap my fingers and be a perfectly patient mother, although that sure would be nice, but I have such a hard time with it. On the one hand I know how precious every moment is, how quickly things can change. But on the other I get frustrated and upset. I guess maybe my heart is heavy for all those reasons. I long to hold you again. I want the best for your sisters. I desire so badly to teach them what they need to know. And I still want to be more patient with them. I think I always will. 

Here's the things we've been up to.

Claire received awards at school for grades and entering a reflections contest.

She is such a smart, helpful, talented and awesome girl. 

It's been fun to hold Lexie in front of the mirror. She's not quite sure what to think. 

Daddy has noticed she likes to be balanced while being bounced and it puts her into a trance if she's tired. It's pretty cute to watch him with her. 

This picture was taken during Lexie's nap. That is sweat from her head. No lie. She is a hot box like you! 

I love that she puts her arm above her shoulders like this. 

I can't believe she will be 3 months old in 4 days. She is giving lots of smiles to us. 

She loves to chew and naw on her hand. She almost had her whole first in there. She's working on it. 

Sleepy time.

Sleepy smiles. 

This week was the 3 year mark of Atticus' passing. The girls wore there super atti shirts! Claire was in bed sick. :(

We went to his grave, sang him a song and doorbell ditched auntie Cindy. We totally thought we got away with leaving the surprise but she saw us through the office window the whole time. Lol

Claire bear took some selfies on the drive.

Love her.

Hallie was working for quite a while on this picture for auntie Cindy. She is so sweet AND talented. :) 

We love Atticus. I told him to hug you for me. Us mammas sure miss our boys. 

I love you and miss you.  

I will keep trying my best. 

Thank goodness the Savior 

promised to make up the rest.

Xoxo

Me  

Memorial Day

We went to visit your grave on Memorial Day. It was beautiful to see flowers everywhere from family and loved ones who had visited. Here are your sweet sisters. 

I loved seeing the flags around the border of the entire cemetery. It was beautiful. 

We went to the Memorial Day picnic at the church and it was just great spending the day together. 

I am so grateful for those who have fought for our freedom. I can't express my gratitude for those that gave their lives for us. The biggest sacrifice of all. My heart goes out to the family members they left behind. I wish I could hug and thank all of them. 

Here was the sky after a huge storm during the day. It was 10 times more beautiful in person. 

I love you, mister.  

Xoxo

Mom 

Lexie's Blessing

On Sunday, May 3 was Lexie's blessing Day. The blessing dress all your sisters wore had seen better days. It was yellowed from each of them spitting up on it and I didn't see a way to salvage it. So I started searching online. Much harder to find what I envisioned than I thought. I finally found one on an etsy shop that they custom make. The crazy thing is that the dress was made in Poland. But I loved it and so we bought it. Dad just smiles and goes along with crazy things like this. He's such a good sport. I made sure Lexie wore a bib after she was blessed so she didn't spit up on it. I want her to be able to use it for her daughters one day.

The morning of the blessing I said to Akexis, "okay honey, it's your day, make it a good one." She totally listened. She was so good not just during the blessing but the entire day!!!!! It was so nice to see her happy and content. The blessing was beautiful.

Here's our 5th little princess. I still am in awe that I have 5 daughters and a son.

Oh how I wish you were in this picture. I like to think you were there.

We had family and friends over after for a bite to eat and to talk. It sure was nice.

I was so happy that both sets of grandparents were here. It's a memory I will always hold close to my heart. We are so grateful for our families. We are so very blessed. It's pretty awesome that uncle Josh and Aunt Carol live in Texas again and that we got to have them come too.

Alexis has really started to give smiles and we take as many as we can get! When she smiles she raises her eyebrows. It's pretty adorable!

Oh I just love her so.

Papa got soooo many smiles out of her. It was just the cutest!!!

Longest time she was happy and awake so far. 

What a ham!

Your older sisters made a spa for your Gram and Granny and they gave them pedicures. It was pretty darn cute! 

Gram said Claire was quite the natural. Apparently Gram and I are both extremely ticklish on the bottoms of our feet on our arches. ;)

Grandpa took a turn holding you but you weren't to thrilled since you wanted to eat.

 Your sisters got to take some half days at school to spend time with grandparents. They, of course, were wanting full days off. Silly girls.

It was so wonderful celebrating Lexie's blessing. Loved having grandparents here. Loved sharing this special day. Sure do love you, Caleb.

xoxo

Mom