Where to begin...

I love Christmas. I love being with my most wonderful family. I love the feeling I get during Christmas. I love it even more now that I have a family of my own, though it's still so special to be with my extended family and feel the same feelings while recognizing how much has changed in all of our lives. We've all "grown up" and we are no longer the "kids" at Christmas. I sometimes miss being the kid, but not as much as I enjoy being one of the adults who gets to watch the kids light up at Christmas.

It was a wonderful Christmas as usual. Tate still doesn't completely "get it", but he will soon enough. We hope to be able to raise him to cherish Christmas because of the true meaning, to love to give more than to receive. It's hard not to spoil him though! :) He got spoiled enough from his grandparents...we didn't have to. He got a few small gifts from us and his gifts from Santa and he is one happy camper! Here are some pictures from the weekend before Christmas when we celebrated at Cassie and Paul's in Muscatine with the extended family on my side.

Me and my mommy...

Tate climbed right up on his Great Grandpa's lap while he was eating.

Tate, Lani and Brigg

These two adore Sean.

this is as successful as we could get capturing a picture of all of the Stewart side grandkids

There is blogging to be done...

Lots and lots of blogging. Can't now, but tonight, I promise I will!

Busy...

I have tons of great pictures from our Christmas we celebrated this weekend, but no free time to get them onto my computer.

We left Muscatine a little after 5:00 a.m. yesterday morning so I could get to work in time. Then from work, I headed straight to run all of my errands and didn't get home until almost 9:00 pm. I was beat by then so I headed straight to bed.

Tate is in Muscatine and having a blast I hear. :) We miss him so much already! We are heading back to Muscatine when we get off of work tonight. Pray for safe travels for us please, we hear it might not be the best driving conditions! Ugh.

Then, we will do Christmas on Christmas day in Cedar Rapids with the Peakin side! These next few days will be busy and fun filled! Pictures to come...I'll try to add some before Christmas!

Ready for the weekend!

Tomorrow we leave for Muscatine. The weather is nasty and Sean got out of work early because they closed. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He usually works until 10 pm and he got out at 7:30! I was so happy!!!!! I had a busy night preparing for our weekend and it was nice to have his help. I had some gifts to wrap and lots to pack. Tate will be away from home for 6 nights. When we come back home on Sunday, we are leaving Tate in Muscatine and we'll be back in Muscatine on Tuesday before he goes to bed. I have left Tate overnight 1 other time. That's it. And it was a brief time away from him. I seriously feel nauseaus when I think about leaving him. I know he'll have fun and be totally fine, but it is just not something I'm looking forward to. Plus, he woke up with a lot of green snot coming from his nose this morning. Hopefully he doesn't get more sick.

Hopefully things with the ice will clear up in time for our travels tomorrow. We are anxious to get to Muscatine and celebrate Christmas with the family! Oh how I love Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Little Handy Man

Tate got a Handy Manny tool belt, gloves and hat set from Grandma and Grandpa at our Christmas gathering last weekend. He loves it! It's so funny because he can't get his fingers in the right holes on his gloves yet he insists on wearing them! He's been trying to "fix" everything.

Happy 2nd Birthday Ava!

We got to spend a small amount of time at the DeCook's to celebrate Ava's 2nd birthday! We love the times we get to spend with them. We wished we could have spent more time with them, but enjoyed the short time we did have with them! It was also great to see Kay for the first time in about a year!

I love how Ava's looking at Tate in this picture. She wasn't quite sure about him invading her castle!

Happy Birthday sweet Ava June!

A Special Christmas Celebration

I can never find the right words to describe how special it is to spend time with Tate's birth family. It is beyond any wish I ever dreamed would be realized. It's one of those blessings that you never dreamed you would feel a need for, but once you have it, you cannot imagine not having it. I would have never known what I was missing if I was never able to witness the bond that Tate and Brandon have. I would have never known that there would be something that Tate was missing had I not witnessed this bond. Now I know. Now I see first hand the importance of this relationship Tate has with his birth father. I only pray that someday he'll get to experience that with his birth mother. I always read about the benefits of an adopted child having a relationship with his birth parents. I see it now and it has been also so important and special to us too! And to top it all off, not only is Tate able to see and feel the love that his birth father has for him, but also his birth Grandma and Grandpa as well! There are no words really. They are all family now. I can't imagine life without them in it. I know Tate feels it too. Even at his young age...he knows these times are so special!

So we celebrated Christmas with these special people who we are honored to call family and we had an amazing time! The love they show Tate is so amazing! Tate had a blast! Plus, he got a RIDICULOUS amount of toys, clothes, books and SO many other things! He would be fine not getting a single other item for Christmas! He got the hang of opening presents insanely fast!

Tate loved wearing Brandon's Colts hat. He didn't want to take it off, so Brandon didn't make him! :)

This was Tate's deep, pure joy he had when he opened his Handy Manny...

He couldn't contain himself!

A quick moment with Daddy...

Working on some gymnastics with Brandon...
Deflating a chair he got from Grandma and Grandpa so it would fit in our car.
How many men does it take to deflate a chair? Well, all of them in the house! Tate even felt the need to join in by putting his foot on the chair to help deflate it just like Brandon while Sean and Gary layed on it. I love how Tate's hand is placed on Brandon's leg...so sweet!
Tate's bond with Brandon is so natural. His relationship with him and his love for him is not something that's forced. It's a bond that I am so honored to witness and so grateful he gets with his "first father"!

Hugs and Kisses

Tate had so much fun at our Christmas gathering that he could have stayed there and played all night. He made sure to give hugs and kisses to everone!

Hugging Brandon...

Hugging Mandy...

Hugging Grandma...

Hugging Grandpa...

Best Friends

Tate got a HUGE stuffed Manny from his birth father Brandon and his girfriend Mandy. Words cannot describe the love Tate feels for his new stuffed best friend. It's pretty sweet.

Thank you Brandon and Mandy for such a great gift!

I love him...

TOTAL...

$15,000

That is the total amount raised in a few short hours in a small town in the middle of Iowa. Absolutley amazing!

That's 3 wells!

1500 people with clean water!

Added to the amount of $20,000 already raise, that's $35,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

10 wells!

Thank you to all of you who have stepped out and done something, who have come together for something bigger than ourselves.

Learning about this and really allowing myself to be affected by this has changed me forever. I am not okay sitting on the sidelines anymore when I know that I can make a difference...even a small amount can make a difference.

$10 CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

It feels good to give.

It actually feels good to sacrifice something to give.

This project has made me realize that we have SO MUCH that we do not need. It wasn't even that hard to find things to sacrifice to give to this incredible cause!

Look what happens when many people do just a little!

Lives are SAVED!

Help SAVE lives...it feels so good!

DONATE HERE!

“No one has ever become poor by giving. “(Anne Frank)

Pictures from the party...

Here was the well that was set up at the entrance of the country club. People put their donations in it.

the centerpieces...beautiful (this picture doesn't do them justice)

the sponsors of the evening...aka Mom and Dad :)

Sean and I looking very blue and wateresque...matchy matchersons!!!

Water For Christmas Party...

was a HUGE success! Pictures and totals later. It was amazing!

January 13th

Tate will get his tonsils and adnoids out. I am scared, nervous, worried...all of the above. I know he will be so much more happy though. The doctor was pretty amazed at the size of his tonsils. He said that they are touching now. This is not good. Ugh. Following the surgery, he will keep him in the hospital overnight and then he said it will be a week recovery of I quote "lots of tender loving care at home". I think I can handle that! Please pray he does well, pray for our nerves and for the doctors and nurses that will be caring for Tate. It's a month away, but I won't let you forget! :)

Sneak Peek

I just copied this post from my sister's blog...I didn't have time to write anything myself, but wanted to give you all a sneak peek!!!

Other than great music, yummy food, warm drinks and fabulous conversations, we are having a silent auction.
Just thought I'd give you a sneak peek at some of the items we will be auctioning off.
Really, you do not want to miss this event!
People have been above and beyond generous. It's humbling.
My parents are auctioning off a week's stay at their home in Venice, Florida.
It's beautiful and comfortable and has a pool and hot tub. You never have to leave the house!

The following bracelet was crafted by Kim Burdakin. She donated a couple items that will be auctioned off, but I found this one to be exceptionally beautiful!

And these two items were donated by Muscatine Medical Surgical Associates. 6 sessions of micro-dermabrasion and an Obagi-C Rx system. Both items retail value is over $600!I have no idea what they are, but I am most certain that I would benefit from them! :)

And this amazing necklace was crafted by JoAnn Allbee. It is made with African trade beads that have a very cool story behind them. JoAnn was also gracious enough to donate a couple items and she definitely has a heart for Africa.

My sister (THAT'S ME!) is donating a Clarins skin care package valued at over $900 as well.

These are just a few of our items.

We are so very excited...

and nervous...

and anxious...

and scared.

We have spent hours upon hours preparing for this and we can't wait to see it unfold.

If you are in the area, you won't want to miss out!

Sunday, December 144-7pmGeneva Country Club (you don't have to be a member!)

Just let me know if you'll be there!

Here's to tons of fresh clean water for Liberia!!!

Tate's Art

Tate created this amazing piece of art today. He was very proud of it! :)

Busy Busy

I don't know what he's doing here, but I don't care...he's just cute!

We are looking forward to the next couple of days ahead. They will be a busy, fun filled end to a stressful week! Sean finished his second to last semester of school yesterday. He has been busy working and studying for finals this week and he's now got a much needed 3 1/2 weeks off of school. It will be a busy, but fun few weeks! Tomorrow Tate has an appointment for his ginormous tonsils and we'll probably be scheduling his surgery for January. He is a drooling mess and has pretty bad sleep apnea so we are ready to get those tonsils and adnoids taken out ASAP! It will be so sad to see him in pain, but he'll be so much happier once he's healed and can breath through his nose for the first time possibly in his life!

When I get off of work tomorrow, we are heading right to Muscatine for a jam packed weekend. Saturday we are going to Davenport to see the DeCooks and help to celebrate Ava's 2nd birthday! We miss the DeCooks SO MUCH and cannot wait to see them. Also, Kay will be there!!! I haven't seen her in close to a year I think...I cannot wait to see her again too! We won't be able to attend a whole lot of the party, but we plan to go a bit before so that I can help in any way with preparations and Tate and Ava can see each other and we can see Lora, James and Kay. Then from there, we're heading right over to do our Christmas celebration with Tate's birth family at his Grandma and Grandpa Shingledecker's new house! Tate's birth father and his girlfriend will be there and his Grandma and Grandpa. It will be so special to get together with them...we are really looking forward to that.

Chris, Brenda and Bode will be in Muscatine too and we'll all hang out after the kids go to bed over at Paul and Cassie's I'm sure. Sunday we will all be hanging out (I'm sure it will be busy with preparations) and at 4:00 is the Water For Christmas party at Geneva! It is going to be so wonderful! Everyone involved has put A TON of work and effort into it. There is going to be great music, food, a silent auction, raffles and all for an amazing cause. We cannot wait and hope to see many of you there! Following that, we'll all head home and be back to another work week! Ugh. We'll be back in Muscatine the next weekend for our Christmas gathering too. So many fun times will be had in the next couple of weeks! If only this weather was not so icky!

4 years ago today...

Sean and I were on our 2nd day of a 10 day cruise for our honeymoon. I am wishing I was there right now! I am already so sick of this weather...it's going to be a long winter. Ugh.

Water For Christmas Party!!! (reminder)

This is going to be such a fun party!

Lots of yummy food!

A coffee bar!

Warm drinks!

Great music!

Great silent auction items! (I am donating a HUGE Clarins "Beauty Basket"...I'm talkin' HUGE)

And while enjoying all of this, we will literally be SAVING LIVES!

Please don't miss this, it will be worth your time!

Water For Christmas

(email me if you plan to attend...or you can just comment on this post)

Good times on the potty...

Until Tate decided that he saw a spider in his potty...he was having quite the good time on it. After he supposedly saw a spider in it, he insisted on sitting on the big boy potty.

This was after he decided he couldn't sit on his spider infested potty...

silly boy...
and then he decided to sing a song...

DeCooks posted the funniest video of Ava on the potty the other day...I think that may have been the inspiration of me trying to attempt a potty video as well. Though Tate's video isn't as hilarious as Ava's, it's still pretty cute. As you can see in the video, he tries to convince me there is a spider in the potty...

My Montage 12/7/08

I have a confession to make...

I want a holiday sweater. Like a full on holiday sweater with Santa, Christmas trees or candy canes. I'm not kidding. What is wrong with me?!!!! I confessed this to my sister recently and she thought I was kidding at first. I wasn't. I even looked at some online today. I found a candy cane one I really liked. The model was a more "mature" woman that was completely gray. And I want it. I think it's cute! What is wrong with me?!

GLORIOUS!!!

Call me crazy, but I have never had the luxery of using a "nice" food processor. I have a tiny little 2 cup one that I use and it takes forever to make anything. Cathy let me borrow her GLORIOUS Kitchenaid Food Processor tonight and I made a 12 cup batch of homemade salsa in 7 minutes flat and that is from pulling it out to cleaning it off! I am not kidding...it was like nothing I'd ever experienced! I don't know how I ever survived without it and she will be lucky to ever get it back! Ha...kidding Cathy! Not only did it chop evenly and was clean and held everything in one batch, but it was quiet to boot! I am in love with this...

There's an aura of gloriousness around it...can you see it? I love this machine! :)

my homemade advent calendar

So I was just hanging out watching TV a couple of nights ago and decided I wanted to make an advent calendar. I am not very patient...I wanted to make it "now". SO, I pulled out all my scrapbook paper and tried to come up with a fun for Tate, interactive way to create an advent calendar. This is what I came up with...

This is how it works...

I cut out a bunch of "ornaments" and put numbers 1-24 on them. I also cut out a star for the top of the tree which will be put on the tree on Christmas day.

Each day, I will pull out the ornament with the number on it that represents the amount of days until Christmas and will have Tate color it and then choose where he wants to put it on the tree. I figured coloring was a good thing for Tate...he LOVES to color and I knew he would look forward to coloring his ornaments each day.

I was right...Tate has a blast decorating his ornaments and putting them in the spot he chooses on the tree. He took it very seriously.

I hung the tree on th wall, out of Tates reach. He keeps looking at it saying, "woe!!!!"

Look at his beautiful coloring skills. He is quite the artist! ( I did #25 so he would get the idea) :)

I love that he is so into coloring...I love that he's old enough now to do these types of fun things with!

Comfy in bed

I found Tate laying like this during his nap the other day. I thought it was so cute!

Water For Christmas Party!!!

**NOTE: You do NOT need to be a member of Geneva to attend this gathering!! Please spread the word. And let me know if you'd like me to send you the word document of the invite through email for you to pass along! More people=more water

What: Water for Christmas fundraiser

When: December 14, 2008 from 4:00-7:00 pm

Where: Geneva Country Club

3100 Bidwell Rd

Muscatine, Iowa 52761

Why: Read the following and you’ll understand why…

“The lack of clean water is the leading cause of death in underdeveloped countries...killing more people than even war and violence.4500 children die every day from water related illnesses.And almost within the reach of these children, just below the surface, is the solution—fresh water waiting to be tapped into by the relatively inexpensive and permanent solution of a well.A well costs just $5000 and will provide clean water to a whole village.Americans spend 450 billion dollars each year at Christmas. At the same time, experts believe it would cost one third of that to drill enough wells to give the whole world almost immediate access to clean water.”

So join us for appetizers, warm drinks and great music provided by Andrew Landers Project as we band together to make a difference in the lives of those less fortunate. There will be a silent auction and other opportunities to donate to this amazing cause.

100% of all donations go directly to drilling fresh water wells in Africa…yes 100%!

Check out http://www.water4christmas.com/ for more information.

Please comment on this post or email me to RSVP...hope to see you all there!

My sicky baby boy...

And this time I'm referring to my OTHER baby boy. Sean is down and out now. It's not a pretty sight. He NEVER gets sick, so when he does, he gets REALLY sick! He's been burning up, had cold chills, can't sleep, can't breath through his nose, sneezing, coughing mess. He left work early last night and then couldn't sleep all night and came out to the couch about 2:30 a.m. He ended up going to work today (which he described as "hell") despite the fact that he was burning up. He is still there until 10pm...ugh. I feel bad for him. Tomorrow he has a clinical for school all day with sick, elderly people and he's thinking (and I must say I agree) that he probably shouldn't expose them if he still has a fever. We'll see how he's doing. I hope he feels better tomorrow morning! I can honestly say I have seen him sick like this, maybe 1 other time and aside from that, he's only had slight colds maybe 2 or 3 times. He is usually one healthy boy! I have had a nasty cold too, but luckily I have avoided any fevers. Hopefully we all get this out of our systems and will be healthy for the holidays!