Happy Birthday Dad!

Andrew Frank James....my dad,

toils with hands and heart, to make his families lives complete

He quietly braves the winter cold, and endures the summer heat.

My father's life is busy, but there's always time for us.

He boldy faces the ups and downs, and seldom every fusses.

Since the day that I was born, He has been a guiding light;

The one I can always turn to when things aren't going right.

He is generous with his time when I need a helping hand:

If sometimes I'm neglectful, he quietly understands.

You've been my inspiration, as the years have come and gone;

A gentle loving Father, whom I can depend upon.

So on this special Day I state my thanks for all you do;

For few, if any, in the world deservesMore happiness than you.

-My Dad--

He's proud of my triumphs, but when things go wrong,

My dad is patient and helpful and strong
In all that I do, a dad's love plays a part.

There's always a place for him deep in my heart.

And each year that passes, I’m even more glad,

More grateful and proud just to call him my dad!

Thank you, Dad...
for listening and caring, for giving and sharing, but, especially, for just being you!

You are one of my heros, the quiet type, No marching bands, no media hype,

But through my eyes it's plain to see, A hero that God has sent to me.

With gentle strength and quiet pride, All self concern is set aside,

to reach out to your fellow man, And be there with a helping hand.

Heroes are a rarity,A blessing to humanity. With all they give and all they do,

I'll bet the thing you never knew, My quiet hero has been you.

Even though you’re...
‘Only a dad’ with sometimes tired face, Coming home from the daily race, Bringing little of gold or fame to show how well he has played the game; But glad in his heart that his own rejoice to see him come and to hear his voice.

‘Only a dad’ with open door, one of ten million men or more plodding along in the daily strife, bearing the whips and the scorns of life, With never a whimper of pain or hate, for the sake of those who at home await.

‘Only a dad’, neither rich nor proud, merely one of the surging crowd, Toiling, striving from day to day, facing whatever may come his way, Silent whenever the harsh condemn, and bearing it all for the love of them.

‘Only a dad’ but he gives his all, to smooth the way for his child and grandchildren small, Doing with courage stern and grim the deeds that his Father did for him.

This is the line that for him I pen: Only a dad, but the best of men.

And so…
I ponder the love that I saw in his eyes, A Godly love, given without compromise....

I recall many times that he stood by my side, and prodded me on with dedicated pride.

His voice was quiet, confident, firm and yet fair,

( almost ;) )Always speaking with patience, tenderness and care.

The power and insight of his mind was so sure,

I knew there was nothing we couldn't endure.

It's true, a few others provided insight,

Yet, he laid the foundation that brought me back to being upright.

He's a leader of men as he lives on this earth,

Although he's not royal by stature or birth.

He's a man of great dignity, honor and strength.

His merits are noble, and of admirable length.

He's far greater than all other men that I know,

He's my Dad, he's my mentor, my friend and hero.

Father, these are poems I have come across and ‘changed slightly’ to suit my purposes in describing you. I love you so much and believe I have truly been blessed by God in the fact that he did give me a hero and leader in you as my father. Thank you for standing by me through every year, from the times that I cried as a baby to the times that I fought against love as a young adult, to today as I experience life with my own family.

You are special, loved and mine.

Thanks for being our dad.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Love, Sara

Sierra the babysitter

We do not want to overwhelm Sierra by asking her to care for Casendra, but she is so amazingly good with her, that we enjoy it when she takes on the job of her own volition. She'll sit patiently with her even if she is crying and today as you'll see in the pictures, she got her out of her stroller and brought her in, burped her and carried her around even though Casendra was fussy and wanting to be fed. Sierra really wants me to bottle feed her so that she can help in that area too. (It's just so much work for me to do that...but it'd make it easier for me to leave her at grandma's one day :)!!

I thought it was cute that Sierra even took her to answer the door when her friend stopped by to ask if she was available to play, so I snapped a photo.

Casendra and Me!

My most common view of Casendra...she always seems a little suspicious or maybe its determined.














Just a picture to prove I do exist here in this life. Bit of a weird angle, but its still me!

The many faces of Ethan, well 4 of them at least :)

Ethan wanted me to show some pictures of him so we took several. Here are 4 of them...the first one is a real cry...but taking and showing it to him helped him stop crying after he knocked his head into the door (he does things like that a lot, kind of scatterbrained like me...doesn't really watch where he's going.)














Sad :(














Scared!














Frustrated (in his own words!)

Sierra's first lost tooth!

Well it isn't lost, but it sure is gone out of her lovely mouth, and if you look at the 2nd picture you can see that the neighboring tooth is not far from leaving either, especially as Sierra is happy to work at getting them out. She is awaiting the tooth fairy to come on Friday night after she's shown grandma the tooth :)

sleeping baby ... I usually sleep with Casendra in our king size bed and have asked John to sleep in one of the kids room so that I can care for her without waking him up or causing him stress by having her in bed with us.















Sierra is a great older sister, who didn't know she would be :) Here she is helping Casendra settle as I get ready to load them all up so we can drop Sierra off at school . She wants to help bathe her this afternoon as she already has the ability to carry her, put her in her swing, pacify her with soothers and coddle her on her own. Better make sure I make this happen.
I just wrote a long paragraph of praise for John and erased it. So, in short, this is what I said...John is an awesome dad, taking amazing care of his kids, learing to balance life with them and doing great at it. He wrestles, plays, jokes, disciplines, teaches, reads with, encourages and loves each one of our blessings. He is willing to learn and change his ways to accomodate what is best for family. Now this takes time for both of us to do, so any prayers are always coveted (in a good way, not a breaking of the 10 commandments way)
Thank you John for all you do (including changing diapers and burping Casendra while taking such joy in the looks she gives you)
By the way he has said she is grounded as soon as she turns 16 for spurting poop on him while he attempted to change her diaper first thing one morning :0 ) Very funny!

BATH TIME :)

Casendra isn't overly fond of baths, but this time she did very well...no crying, just the occassional grunt (she grunts and groand all the time) Grandma Tina took this photo for me.

Then I wrapped her in her new hooded towel from Phil and Kim and Julie and let her have a restful nap on my bed...so adorable to watch. (I did put a diaper on her first, cause she's dangerous without one!)










Here we have Nelson trying to get a perfect picture of the smiles Casendra seems to give John the most. They did this for a long time so I finally had to get a picture of the three of them. (for those of you who don't know, Nelson is our international student from China, our new 'son' so to speak while he is here at school. He's been a great asset to our family, helpful and witty and funny when not playing shy. He's also very handy in the kitchen and always ready to pitch in while we're cooking.














Casendra as I often see her, staring up at me...what is she thinking? Any ideas?

By week 2 the kids had begun to play "baby" but thankfully they've passed that stage (hopefully forever) I'm not good with pretending anymore :)

Grandma Tina was down for my 2nd week which was soooooo helpful. She helped the kids continue transitioning and spent alternate nights with each of them so they all felt special. She did dishes, cooked, did laundry (lots of it) and let me sleep or run errands while she cared for Casendra. Thank you Grandma Tina!!










I forget to get pics of Ethan and the baby so here is one. He is very gentle with her still and gives her sweet kisses on the top of her head (I forbid them to touch her face or hands as both kids have been sick and have had pink eye!) They are doing well listening to those rules. Only once has Ethan requested that we "make the baby be quiet, I can't hear" while he tried to watch kids shows.