Mom's 50th Birthday/Memorial Day

Yesterday was my mom's 50th birthday. Concidentally, it was also Memorial Day. This seemed to be a good day as we could remember our troops and also have double reason to celebrate.

We surprised Mom with a birthday party and everyone came over to celebrate with cake and ice cream. I baked a german chocolate cake and all the kids delved into the ice cream. Even the dogs thought they needed some too.

The kids enjoyed the swing set and Masen showed the younger kids how to stand on the top (which we quickly asked him not to). Austen hung out in the fort and tried to stay away from the other kids but Ria and Caleb took to him and would not let him be by himself. This was all to funny because Austen would rather be by himself.

Later Jason, Carrie and kids came over and we grilled out. To bad that it started raining so the guys brought the outside table into the sunroom to eat. Much to say, the siding did not get put up on the house since it was raining. We still made the most of it and it seemed that the kids had fun playing together, when they weren't arguing about 'mine, mine mine'. It was almost comical watching Caleb and Tyson eating their corn and their conversation. I tried to getit in video but it didn't quite work out.

That's all for now....

Our family bio

We are a family of six which includes myself, my husband, and our four children. We have three boys; Colton, Caleb and Christian. Colton will be seven in two weeks, Caleb is four, and Christian is four months. We have one girl; Maria who we call Ria for a nickname. Ria is 6.

Colton and Ria are seven months apart. The boys are our biological children and we are in the process of adopting Ria. Ria has lived with us since September 2007 when she was removed from an unsafe situation.

We live near Des Moines in Norwalk where I grew up. We love the small town atmosphere of Norwalk and the fact that everywhere we go we usually know someone. Our community is a caring community and we love that.

Colton is at the end of first grade. He has been in a looping class the past two years and we just adore his teacher. I hope that his second grade teacher is just as wonderful.

Caleb will be starting preschool in the fall and he is looking forward to that. We have been working on the alphabet and writing letters at home so hopefully this will help him once school starts.

Ria is at the end of kindergarten. She started the year in the DSM school district and in January we transferred her to Norwalk and she has been thriving in her new class which is about half the size.

Christian is a growing baby boy. He does new things everyday and it is always fulfilling to see him smile and giggle. Christian was born with spina bifida which we knew about during my pregnancy. He is a miracle baby! The Lord has done great work in him. We only have a few issues due to his spina bifida right now which are workable.

Charlie is the working one of the family. He is a telephone technician at a small company based in Waukee. He is helping to get the telephone side of the business going and hopefully it will break out and create a long term career for him with this employer.

I, Sarah, am a stay at home mom. I was a working mother until Christian was born in Jan 2009. At this time we decided that it would be best for one of us to stay home with the kids. Between the four kids we usually have at least one appointment a week which would require getting off work early, etc. It is not really practical to have to take time off of work every single week. I am enjoying staying home with the kids. It is very challenging at times, but rewarding too.

thats all for now...