Merry Christmas

I cannot believe it is Christmas eve! Where has the year gone? This has probably been one of the craziest years of our lives, but also one of the greatest!
We have our little Christopher with us, and he is growing up so healthy and stong! Emily, James and Spencer are the best siblings in the world to him. Every time they come near Christopher, not only do they light up when they see him, but his little face lights up as well, he loves to be near his sister and brothers.
I just hope that we can all look back at this past year with thankfulness, and gratitude for the blessings we have recieved. I think it is so easy sometimes to throw ourselves a little pitty party, and to dwell on all the negative things that have happened to us( Because I'm sure we all have that list)! But, if we really look back we can see all the many ways we have been blessed through the good times and the bad.
We are heading to California tomorrow to be with family.We are so excited! It has been years since we have seen some of them.The kids are so excited to hang out with all of their cousins,Rob and I are too. Robert has the greatest cousins in the world that he was able to grow up with like brothers and sisters.We get to see them all along with all their cute little kids, and we can't wait to play. We of course can't wait to see Rob's sister's and parents too. But all of this goes with out saying right?
Anyways, Love to all of you that read this blog!
Have a Merry Merry Happy Christmas!

Some Holiday Happiness

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Amazing!

I talked with a mom today who is expecting her little guy in 10 weeks. He has Spina Bifida just like Christopher. She lives in Texas which is the crazy thing, how did I get in touch with her? Well here is the interesting story, and you tell me if this is just a random coinsidence or if Heavenly Father maybe had something to do with this.
About 2 weeks ago My friend Lynette called me and said that she just got off the phone with her mother- in- law Diane, and was wondering if I might be willing to talk with a mom in her ward that is expecting a child with Spina Bifida. ( I hope this all makes sense)? Of course I said I would love too, Lynette said "I already told her you would be happy too). She knows me pretty well. So Lynette gave her Mother-in-law my blog, and email and everything else so she could learn about our experience so far with Christopher. At that point I was really looking forward to talking with this mom, because Of course I totally know what she is going through. But, I also knew that she might be so overwhelmed with things that she might not be ready to talk to me. I know I was that way.
Then, Lynette got an e-mail from her m-i-l and said that another person in her same ward talked to this very same mom about us! (what?)! that is way to crazy!!! Ok, I hope you are still following me :] . This other other lady is Bitsy Speirs, I knew her In California. She was in the Stake young womens Presidency when I was in YW's. She was Awesome. all the girls loved her. Anyways, they moved to Texas, which is where Robert, my husband served his mission. He served in their ward, they took him and his comp in and took great care of them while they were there. Rob and I never knew eachother until after he returned from his mission, so it was neat that we both knew Bitsy. Anyways, after his mission Rob's parents have been keeping in touch with the speirs, and so That is how Bitsy knows about Christopher. ( I told you this was crazy)! So, Bitsy gives her all the same info that Lynette's m.i.l. gave her. ( the mom's name is Adrienne by the way :} ).
It blew my mind that This Mom that I never had any idea about was aproached by two different people to contact me. Do you think we were soposed to connect for some reason? I do. Like my sister said, It doesen't matter how big this world is, Heavenly father knows how to take care of each and everyone one of us, he knows what we need when we need it. We can all be instraments in the lord's hands to help him take care of his children, just like Bitsy and Diane did. Hopefully Adrienne and I will be able to help each other out with all our new expierences, and challenges that come our way as mothers of these fabulous little boys.

AGHHHHHHH!

Ok, how do I blog about this? Maybe I will just start and we will see where it goes!
yesterday morning we started off the day with taking Spencer to the dentist at 8 a.m. , Emily didn't want to take the bus yesterday cuz it was snowing so Rob took her. I told Rob to be back by at least 7:40 so I could get Spencer there on time. James had not gone to school yet and Chris was still sleeping. So, I told James to wait until Dad got home before he took off to school. ( he had 1/2 hour still). Rob of course did not remember to bring his stinkin cell so I could'nt get a hold of him, he didn't even bring his wallet so I new he could'nt go far. I was starting to get a little worried too. He should have been home at least 30 min. by now. It was snowy and icy, and all I could do was think about the worst possible things. When Spenc went in to the dentist I started calling James like every 5 min. To see if he was home yet, no, nope, not yet mom! Do I have to go school today mom? Yes James! Anyways, It was 8:30 by now. I started to call the police departments to see if his car was off the side of the road. I called Emily's school to see if she made it there safely (she did). Finally at 9:15 I called James and Rob answered. Do you have any idea what he said? Oh, I forgot about the Dentist, sorry babe! (sorry? whatever)! He was sitting at the freaking gas station reading a news paper!!!!!!! So, I hung up the phone. I thought he was bleeding on the side of the road somewhere! He just laughed at me and thought I was crazy! That's a husband for you right ladies? By the way don't tell my husband I vented on my blog! I do love him very much, but he seriously can drive me crazy sometimes!

Christopher's first braces!

These are Christopher's new braces. They are quite the sweet set up. He is not sure what he thinks of them yet though. They are great, they will help him keep his feet in the right position so he can learn to walk. We need to work on the crawling first though. This kid is so determined to get around, he is scooting and rolling everywhere, he will be crawling before we know it.

Cool Chris!

Just had to post this, he thought he was pretty cool. He totally kept them on once we showed him what he looked like in the mirror

Froggy cake

My friend Colleen is pretty great. She made this cake for Christopher in like 2 hours. It was so dang cute. She just started decorating cakes about 6 months ago too. She does such a cute job. Anyways, we had to do a froggy cake because that is Christopher's " thing" . Thanks Colleen for making it so fun.

Happy Birthday Christopher Rudger Etchells, We love you

Our Celebration of Christopher's first year of life. We are soooo grateful for this little guy. He completes are family and is the last piece of our family puzzle. What a fabulous piece he is too. He has changed all of our lives for the better. He makes us laugh and smile, and he helps us to recognize the simple joys in life. Thankyou to everyone who has kept us in your thoughts and prayers this last year, we truly have felt all your love. What a time of reflection I tell you.