Christian's 14th Birthday, Jimmer's visit, and Melissa and Sara visit too!!

May 9th was Christian's 14th birthday. I cannot believe my little boy is 14!! Time flies entirely too fast. I remember when he was born like yesterday and I don't remember it like 14 YEARS ago. God absolutely blessed me with my Christian. He is the reason my faith started to grow stronger and stronger. It started out very slowly but as soon as I saw Christian I KNEW there was a God. The questions were gone. I was only 19 when he arrived but man did God know just what I needed. Through the poor decisions I had been making God saw fit to use my poor judgement to grow me into the strong Christian woman I am today. Finding out I was pregnant with Christian was one of the toughest trials in my life. I did not have a clue what I was going to do or where I was going to end up. Never in a million years could I have prayed for such goodness in my life as of today. Christian came into my life weighing 7 lbs 9 oz and then almost 18 months or so later God saw it fit to bless me again!! That is when Clay followed....we married when Christian was 2 and he adopted him soon after in April. God has blessed me multiple times and beyond measure really since then. I have since been blessed with Cullen and now Clara. I never dreamed God could have made my life so wonderful.....a true fairy tale! I don't know what the future holds but I am giving it all to God. He has done a WONDERFUL job so far and I know I cannot even pray for such greatness!!! You go God!!! You are the MAN!! Thanks for blessing my life more than I ever could have deserved!! Here are some shots of celebrating the wonderful blessing that is CHRISTIAN!!

We headed out to Meemaw and Pawpaw's to celebrate the day. We brought Blake, Madison, KK and Josh along with us and met up with Tanner and the other Star boys who live next to Meemaw and Pawpaw. It was a glorious day and the weather could not have been more perfect. If you cannot tell his birthday cake is supposed to resemble an iPod Touch which he wanted. He has since bought one with his saveings and birthday money. The cake was "Too Much Chocolate" Cake from http://www.allrecipes.com/ with chocolate buttercream frosting.

The guys enjoyed tubing. The Stars ended up getting their boat out which is better able to handle more than the waverunner. Their boat got all 3 innertubes hooked up so all the kids could ride at one time. They had a BLAST!! We followed them in Pawpaw's barge.

You think Blake is lovin' it?? I can hear him screaming now.

Madison is barely hanging on. Madison lives 2 houses down from us. Christian and her also take gymnastics together. You can tell they are gymnasts by looking at those arms!!

Clara rode the wave runnre with Daddy. She was almost falling asleep on it.


Christian, Madison, KK, blake, and Josh on one of the tubes.

We had 2 captains on our voyage while watching all the kids tube. Clara helped Pawpaw drive the boat and also learned how to honk the horn!! She loved honking the horn over, and over, and over and over, and over (you get the idea) again. =D




The beautiful sunset!

Jamie (Jimmer) came in to visit!! Jamie is Casey's (Mike's wife/my sister-in-law) sister. She was trying out for the Women's Olympic hockey team again and did not make it this time around. She won bronze in 2006!!! =D God has different plans for her. It was nice to talk to her and hang out with her even though it was too short! Here are a few shots from her visit.

Meemaw took the boys tubing again and this time with it being just the two of them they caught some major air!!! Then they went alone and went even higher!!! I posted some videos on YouTube so check the videos up at the top of the blog on the right-hand side. It is amazing!! They had a blast!! Jimmer went tubing with the guys too. I think she enjoyed herself and wore herself out at the same time. ;)

I know, I know...I am cramming a LOT into this post. My cousin, Melissa, came in to visit this past week too. She had her daughter, Sara, almost a week after Clara was born. I remember being in the hotel room with Clara in Utah when I got the call from my mom that Melissa had her baby too. Melissa is legally blind and Sara's dad is too. I cannot tell you how proud I am of Melissa and what a wonderful mom she seems to be. It is most impressive to watch her care for Sara and to love her so well!! I enjoyed the visit Melissa and hope to do more of it in the near future! They live in Oklahoma and are a good drive from us. Her dad or mom has to pick her up and drive her back down for visits and then back home again. So to say visits are not often enough is an understatement. Sara is a sweetie and I don't think she knows a stranger. She would just come to us and cuddle with us. Clara could learn a thing or two from her in loving others and not just hanging on Mom's leg.....=D ( I wouldn't change it for anything. I always said I wanted at least one of our kids to be a Momma's girl and I got it!!!) I am downloading video of Sara and Clara playing in the pool. It is taking forever but should be up sometime tonight and fairly soon I would hope. It is too cute to watch the two of them together. Just check the top right-hand corner of our videos to view it.