CDH Awareness Day

March 31st has been declared Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness Day in 30 states. I would imagine that most of you have never heard of this birth defect. I hadn't heard about it either, until a good friend of mine received this diagnosis for the baby she was expecting. However, CDH is statistically more common than many other defects and diseases that receive regular attention from the medical community and society in general. It is also one of the least researched!

Here is a link to my friend's blog, where Cadenne Hope's journey with CDH is explained in detail.
http://kariabi.blogspot.com/search/label/Cadenne

This little baby girl is a true miracle, showing how truly wonderous God's blessings can be. It's truly inspiring and awesome to read of Cadenne's short time on this earth ... and the pictures will blow you away, I don't think I've ever seen a more beautiful smile :)

Feel free to visit this page: http://breathofhopeinc.com/ to find out more. The bee displayed on that page has become sort of a symbol of the awareness campaign. If everyone tells ONE person, think about how many more people will have at least HEARD of CDH by next year at this time!

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Easter 2008

We attended church at First Baptist in Wollaston, Rev. Mike gave a wonderful sermon as always! The girls were dressed in their sweater sets that Auntie Vivian gave them for Christmas, along with spiffy new cowboy boots as a tribute to Clyde.

They had a wonderful time at church ... from the "time with the children" sermon to playing in the nursery, and of course the egg hunt on the lawn outdoors afterward!

We then went to visit Uncle Mark at the cemetary, and then to Auntie Nancy's house for Easter dinner. Another wonderful Easter celebration :)

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Maybe this is my lucky year??

Ok, so you know the e-mail ... "enter to win the grand prize!" ... well, I got one from Southwest Airlines ... the "Permission to Play sweepstakes" ... grand prize is a trip for your immediate family to the grand opening of the new water park 'Aquatica' built by SeaWorld. Write a 150-word essay on why your family deserves to have fun!

Now, I know we're busy, but I guess we're actually one of the four busiest families in America ... because WE WON!!!!!! Oh, my GOSH! We are going to Orlando, courtesy of Southwest Airlines and Busch Entertainment!!! I think we're all still in shock! Here's what we're getting ...

6 round trip airline tickets on Southwest Airlines
2 hotel rooms for 5 nights
6 2-day passes to SeaWorld
6 2-day passes to Aquatica
6 meal vouchers
6 "Dine With Shamu" tickets
and a family prize pack!!!

Holy Smokes!! I priced out the airfare alone, for the six of us it would cost about $2000 to fly to Orlando on those days ... and that's with special internet-only fares! EEEEEK! Everyone is stoked ... Katie has a 'ring calendar' and rips off one ring each night ... then she tells me how many "sleeps" until we leave!

One really awesome thing is that the boys are able to go with us :) We had been so wanting to take the whole family on a trip before the boys graduate, but with recent events we weren't going to be able to afford it. Now we are doing it!!! Oh, my GOSH!! I'll update as I get more details :)

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Princess Walls

For her birthday, we gave Katelyn some princess stickers for the bedroom wall. Today we did a good spring cleaning in the girls' room & then put up the stickers. The girls are thrilled over the result ... hopefully it will inspire them to keep their room a bit cleaner (ya right)!







For anyone who hasn't seen the window seat/shelving wall that Shawn built in their room, here is a picture of that as well ...

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I can crochet!

I learned to crochet many years ago, but never really loved it. For some reason I recently decided to re-learn the skill ... and now I *love* it! I started simple, made the girls each a scarf, and then a hat (they have to share it as I used the remainder of the yarn from both their scarves LOL).

The scarves are the same pattern (it's called "snugly scarf"), but I used different color variegated yarn. Here they are ...

I haven't taken a picture of the hat yet.

My next project is a 'prayer shawl' using a really pretty bluish gray yarn I bought today.

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