Today in Rapid

Here are some pictures we took after getting home from church. Our car said it was zero degrees. As I right this it is -3 and feels like -19. I think the high tomorrow is around 8. I think the snow will still be on the ground when we leave for MS on Sunday. We are counting down the days to some warmer weather!




This is from last night. We had our squadron Christmas Party. It was a lot of fun and we even won two 30 minute massages and two free ice creams from Coldstone. Chris was most excited about the ice cream.

Christmas Photo Shoot

My wonderful friend Jennifer was very nice to come out in the FREEZING weather Sunday to take pictures for our Christmas card. Jennifer found a greenhouse by her house that had a "christmas scene" in the back that could be used free of charge for pictures. Hannah was not really in a picture taking mood. We got a couple of smiles but not many. Of course, I did not post the pictures that will be on our card but here are some of the others that I liked. The last picture is in front of an old truck that has a snowman sitting inside. I guess we are covering him up. I was the only one that wanted to take a picture outside so we only got a couple.
Thank you so much Jennifer for taking our pictures!

Just so you all know, It is freezing here in SD. We are learning about below 0 temperatures. As I type this it is -4. The high today was around 4 degrees. Today was actually a pretty day. Snow on the ground, sun out and roads mostly clear. Yesterday was a whole other story. Snowing, windy, yucky, yucky and yucky. I was very glad to see the sun today. Anybody want to come and live with me this winter? I will pay for you to shovel the snow!!

Christmas T-shirt

I picked up this t-shirt last year just hoping that it would fit. It is perfect. We were planning on going to the Christmas parade so she was all layered up but decided it was way too cold. It was really windy so we were glad that we decided to eat chili with friends instead.
We have enjoyed our Thanksgiving Holidays and were very thankful for the extra family time. In 3 weeks we will head to MS for Christmas and then we are not talking about January. It will be here way too soon.

Awards Day

Today was Awards Day at Gymnastics. They gave all the kids a blue ribbon and their teacher told a couple of things that she liked about them or that they were doing well. She said that she enjoyed Hannah in her class and that she was getting better at doing some of the activities on her own. She loves to run under the parachute and I have to hold her back to keep her from going out of turn. Today they had them lay on the parachute and we bounced them up and down. It was called "fireman". I wasn't sure if Hannah would like it or not but she came back to me and said, "I liked it". She is too funny!

Swimming Lessons

Chris and Hannah started swim lessons on Saturday at the Y. Here are pictures:

Happy 30th Birthday Chris

Happy Birthday Chris! We have had a fun weekend with Mimi and Pops. They got here Wednesday night. We spent Thursday sight seeing and last night we had a small party for Chris. Several of his friends came over to celebrate and we had a good time. Hannah was very excited about the birthday and cake and even helped him blow out the candles!

Hannah and Isabella

I sent Linds our favorite outfit with Hannah so this is a picture of Hannah and Isabella in the same outfit. I just can't wait to hold and love on her in person.

One week Old

Isabella turned one week old today. We think she is such a cutie! Hannah loves getting new pictures.

Isabella Vaughn Kerstetter

I am so excited to announce that my sister and her husband welcomed their first baby into the world yesterday, Isabella Vaughn Kerstetter. She weighed 7lbs 11 ounces and was 21 1/4' long. I can not wait to meet her. Hannah is very excited about her first cousin, "bella". She tries to say Isabella but it comes out Bella. Hannah was so cute last night. Hal had texted me my first picture and Hannah holds my phone and rocks and kisses her. We can not wait until December when we can hold and rock her in person plus give tons of kisses.
Hannah is finally feeling better. We are so thankful for all the prayers that were lifted up while she was sick. Monday and Tuesday were really scary but yesterday she perked up and today she ate her first meal since last Friday. Hopefully, by the end of the weekend we will all be well and ready for a normal week!

Our sick Baby

We had to take Hannah to the Emergency Room yesterday afternoon. She went to the clinic on Friday and was diagnosed with "flu like symptoms". Chris came home sick Friday night with the same thing. We thought she was feeling better on Sunday and then she crashed yesterday. We have struggled all weekend to get her to eat and drink and she just wouldn't do it. We have offered her every thing in the book and she says "no, I not want it" and pushes your hand or cup away.
They gave her some IV fluids yesterday, diagnosed her with H1N1, upper respiratory infection and dehydration. She is still pretty yucky today so please pray that she will drink and get better soon. It is taking it's toll on mommy and daddy. Thankfully, Chris has been here to help and even allow me to go to work for a couple of hours. We have an appointment at the clinic tomorrow morning to make sure she is doing better and does not need to more fluids from the hospital. We will keep you posted.

Slideshow

I was so excited to get the CD of pictures from our Abilene Going Away Party. I am sure you can tell that I was teary eyed in a lot of the pictures. We had such a good time that night! Thanks Jessica for sending the pictures!

Snow

Well, the snow is here. This week started with slushy snow, which was incredibly nasty and yucky. Then on Thursday it lightly snowed but by noon it was gone with sunshine. Today, it is snowy and the highs over the weekend are in the 20's with lows in the teens. I think it will be snowy all weekend. It is nuts. I can not believe it is the first of October and we are having snow. We will be going to Target this weekend to purchase our snow gear. I will try to take some pictures. I took a couple this afternoon but you can't really see the snow blowing around and right now it has not accumulated much on the ground.

On another note, not sure if all of you know that I have gone back to work. I accepted a part time position with Bethany Christian Services. They are a christian adoption agency providing counseling services to birthparents and assisting adoptive couples in becoming parents. I started last week and have already met 3 birthmoms. I am very excited for this new opportunity. Hannah is still adjusting to her new school but I think it will come with time.

Chris is here for now but still staying incredibly busy. We are hoping that he will not have to go on any more trips until deployment but there is one potential field trip to the desert next week. Never a dull moment here.

Happy Birthday Hannah!

I can not believe that Hannah turned 2 on Monday. I guess you say that every year but it just seems like yesterday that we were in MS having her first party. She has grown so much since then. Chris and I gave her a retro red kitchen. She loves it and goes downstairs to cook for us all the time. We gave it to her right after she woke up so not the best of pictures and she wasn't interested in looking at the camera. I was so glad that Chris was able to be home and we got to hang out all day.




I have never really been into character birthdays but Elmo is Hannah's favorite right now. She loves watching Sesame Street but mainly for Elmo's World. When I went to pick out the cake I decided that Hannah would love Elmo so we went with it. She kept saying, "elmo cake, elmo cake".
This is Maia and Hannah playing before the rest of the kids got to our house.

I love this picture. They are just now figuring out that they can be friends.

Hannah got all shy when we started to sing Happy Birthday. Even though she had asked me and Chris to sing it to her all day.

She blew the candle out by herself and did not scare us to death this year by grabbing at the lit flame!






This is a tired girl after a big day of partying!!

We had such a good time and were glad that our friends could come and celebrate with us. We missed our Texas friends and of course our family but it was a great day.

Maggie and Hannah

Hannah loves Maggie very much and sometimes the love is not reciprocated. Maggie has been really nice to let Hannah "walk" her around the kitchen. Today Hannah got the leash wrapped around the table so that she could actually pet Maggie. Maggie was nice to just stand there and let Hannah talk and pet. It was too funny.

Friends

I just had to post this great picture of Patri and me. I could not have survived these past few months without her. She is awesome!

Heavy Heart

I am thankful today for my sweet precious Hannah and that today I was able to wake her up, get her dressed and give her tons of hugs and kisses. I am thankful for my husband. I am thankful for my health. We are so incredibly blessed.
A precious woman was taken home to Jesus today. I was blessed to be able to get to know her and her family through their blog. Technology is so amazing these days. My friend Danielle summoned us to pray for Sarah over 6 months ago. She was pregnant and diagnosed with breast cancer. Danielle would send out reminder emails every Monday with her blog address. Each Monday I would check their blog to see how she was doing. These past few weeks I have been overwhelmed with thoughts and prayers for her as she delivered a precious baby girl and then suffered a stroke which led her back into the hospital.
Today, God took her home. My heart just breaks but I know that we serve an awesome God who is the ultimate comforter and is ALWAYS in control no matter what happens or how horrible it is. I know that God will heal Brad and give him great peace and comfort. God will show Chloe how much her mother loved her even if she was only to spend a few days with her. How great is the God we serve.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18: "Therefore do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal".
Zephaniah 3: 17: "The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing".

I am praying for the Sullivan family and sweet baby Chloe.

Hannah and Dougie

I was trying to take some pictures of Hannah this morning because I thought she really looked like a big girl. I got this one of her and her favorite toy, Dougie! I don't think she could go to bed without him. He has been a very faithful friend for the past 2 years. I can not believe that next week I am going to have a 2 year old. Times goes by too fast!