Remembering our Angel

A heartbeat falls silent.

Tiny eyes close.

A miniature body No longer grows.

Mommy is shattered.

Daddy is sad.

Fate has erased The plans that they had.

Through all of the grief

that leaves their hearts torn,

There's peace in knowing... An angel was born.

I came across this poem on another blog and had to add it to ours. This year throughout the joy that filled my heart I have still remembered Alex. And a touch of sadness has tainted my heart. Even though we may not talk about him much and our family will continue to grow and "move forward", we will never forget him. He is forever our child and holds a special place in our hearts. And thanks to the visions of his godmother, we know just where he is and are sure of his place in heaven...he was surely never "lost".

This Christmas would've been his first... He would've been about 8 months old, smiling and crawling around and probably grabbing at Christmas tree ornaments! I would've loved to have held him, shown him the world. But, if he hadn't skipped this earth and gone straight to the arms of Jesus, we may never have gotten to meet our little girl... and experience this first Christmas with her! We are so blessed to have our sweet Lydia!!! I know he's been praying for his little sister and for all of us... we can feel his love, and we hope he feels ours.

Precious Alex, Know, my love, that I will never forget you. You are my little boy, and someday, I will be able to hold you in my arms.

Recent Pictures

Playing around during tummy time...

Lucy visited for awhile this past Sunday- so much fun, so little time! Josiah was NOT happy that she had to leave! They did great together once again.

"Josiah I have to test out your new sled in the living room, just to make sure it's safe"

Josiah showing off his new John Deere tractor/book that he got from Uncle Ken and Aunt Emily!

Here are some pictures from when the family all got together the day after Christmas... we missed you Andrew, Laura and Lucy!

Jackie's new dress-up clothes... FABULOUS!

All the kiddos having way too much fun!

Josiah has a new "box fort" that, as he explained to Nana this morning, "Mommy made it for me with duckie tape!" ha ha ha. (And Grandma helped decorate it)

Home Depot Boxes... good for so many things :)

Happy New Year!

Sorry it's been a while since I've posted anything... it's just slightly crazy around here, as usual. :)

I haven't taken any new pictures of my beautiful van to post yet, but I swear I will at some point! I just got it back last night because they installed a remote starter... VERY cool. Except I have to remember to actually leave the heat on the ON position so when I start it from the house to heat it up as I'm getting the kids around, it actually serves its purpose! I'm still getting used to driving it around, but boy is it nice. I drove the ol' buick last night and UGGHHHH immediately realized how good I have it with that new van!!! I'm so blessed!!!! I love it, I love it, I love it!

It's New Years Eve... which is weird, because it feels like any other day. Michael and I don't really ever do anything all that exciting on New Years, but I think that's because we have little kids. LOL. And now we're so old and tired that we can't stay up until midnight!! hahahaha. kidding, kidding. But, I think we'll probably just put the kids to bed and watch a movie or something, MAYBE, because right now Michael is kinda stressed. He has to grade all the term papers from his students as well as the last of some other papers by Friday. After that the pressure should die down a little, thank goodness. He doesn't have to teach a class next semester and that's a good thing, because he's too busy as it is. One of these days when the kids are older (or at least not nursing!) we'll get a babysitter and go out and do something fun on New Years. For now, quiet time at home is just as great!

Well, I have some new pictures to post... but I'll have to try to do that later. Lydia just woke up, and cousin Alison is here! Until next time...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas 2008

WOW! Did this Christmas bring lots of family fun and big surprises! WHERE TO BEGIN!? We have all had the MOST WONDERFUL Christmas and are still enjoying family fun.

I guess I'll start from the top... Here's some of our Christmas Eve/Day highlights...


We went to mass on Christmas Eve at 5:30 PM and although we did NOT get there early enough and we watched mass from the gym with a speaker and big screen, we still had a great mass and enjoyed singing the Christmas carols together and praying together too. Just as Michael said, "I'm sorry we couldn't be in the sanctuary, but, it was still nice... you get out of it what you put into it!" so true, and I had a great Mass. During the sign of peace Josiah turned around and shook the hands of the people behind us and said, "We're going to go home and OPEN PRESENTS!" And they thought he was pretty hilarious and adorable. It was cute. After communion I said, "come here Josiah and we can say a prayer" and I tried to bring him near me but he said, "No Mom! I need to kneel too" it was precious. So we knelt and thanked God for His Son Jesus. Josiah was very enthusiastic and after mass we went back into the sanctuary, visited with some friends from church and saw the big lighted Christmas tree on the altar as well as the Nativity scene which Josiah LOVED. We gave baby Jesus a kiss! After mass since the kiddos were in their Christmas best, I had to snap a few pictures. None really came out amazing, Josiah was really NOT in the mood and can't quite hold up his heavy baby sister(!) but they are still pretty cute...








Big Brother Snuggles!
This is Lydia's usual big charming smile... but she's kinda squished! hehe.



12-25-08:
So on Christmas Day Josiah woke up and was ready for "the Christmas party" so we came downstairs and he saw his brand new SLED from Erica and Josh as well as lots of presents from Mommy and Daddy and even one from baby Lydia. He opened his presents and helped Lydia open a couple for her. It didn't take him long to figure out how to unwrap presents, and quickly!
(...Just pay no attention to Mommy and Daddy in these pictures, we're not as adorable as him first thing in the morning! haha)



Josiah opening his first present, books, which he loves!








Josiah went up to Lydia on Christmas morning and kissed her said, " Mewwy Chwistmas Wyitia!"


Josiah beginning to open Mr. Ralign's present...

THRILLED with his new "race cars"!


Josiah wanted a candy cane first thing in the morning... Who can say no on Christmas!? :)



So after Josiah opened all his presents... Michael told me I should open mine. He had placed 10 envelopes on the tree... and told me to open them in order. Each one had a slip of paper that said something special that he loved about me and then a pair of earrings! I was loving it and almost cried several times. When I got to envelope ten... there was a box attached... I thought, "maybe it's a really NICE pair of earrings..." and I think that's what he wanted me to think... really it was...



KEYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's right... KEYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Keys to my new mini-VAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was totally and completely SHOCKED and SO excited!!! I still am!!! I LOVE it, it drives wonderfully and is beautiful!! It's a light kinda "metallic" blue color, 2003 Dodge Caravan Sport. The HEAT actually works.. the DOOR opens... and best of all I don't have to worry about our kids safety anymore in that terrible scrap metal I was driving around. I'm SO HAPPY and so excited!!! (And now we can also have three more kids before we run out of room! hahahaha)

Me in my NEW VAN :) (I will take more pictures of the actual car and post them soon)...

So the rest of the morning was spent assembling things for Josiah.... and playing with all his new toys.

I LOVE this picture! Me and my smiley girl- getting SO big!! (look how LONG/TALL she is!)

Later that afternoon Grandma and Grandpa and Granny came over and we all visited, opened more presents and had a wonderful dinner and then played some more. We had a GREAT and wonderful and relaxing Christmas Day, it's been the best Christmas I've ever had, for many reasons! (And not just because of the new car- although of course that helps...) hahahaha.
Lydia laughing and playing with Grandpa... he always cracks her up!

Grandma holding Lydia while she was chewing on her fingers....

Josiah showing off his NEW Thomas train!!!

Grandpa read Josiah one of his new books, "Finklehopper Frog"... he was VERY animated and enthusiastic while he read, so Josiah thought he was pretty hilarious!

All his race cars had to listen to the story too...

Later Josiah helped me decorate a gingerbread house...

He actually did an amazing job and put M&Ms on the roof one by one in a straight line. He also did the sprinkles on the windows on the roof and some stars along the top of the roof.

The finished product!

We all had a really fun Christmas and also a great day the day after with all my siblings and Josiah's cousins at Grandma's house, and then again today with Uncle Ken and Aunt Emily. We hope you've all been having a wonderful Christmas as well! (I only wish Michael didn't have to go back to work this week!)

Post more soon, God bless you all!!!

- Lisa and family