How Long Will This Last???

Last Sunday our niece Karis celebrated her 4th birthday. She had a "Bitty" Party and each of the guest were to bring there own doll! Well Gabe happened to be the only boy as that side of our family isn't very big. Karis was very sweet to share her boy Bitty Doll with Gabe so that he would have a doll. Gabe was all to willing to carry around the boy bitty to make his cousin's special day special! But it has to make a mama think, will Gabe continue to enjoy going to these parties where he is the only boy or will be go through the girls are yucky stage??? For now I'm happy that he is so easy going and is willing to do things to make people happy. He loves his cousin very much and had lots of fun at her party, playing with her new kitten and the toys. The picture below I'm sure will be graduation bulletin worthy someday! Happy Birthday Kari!

School Party & Trick-or-Treat

The day after Gabe's surgery was his school's Halloween Party. We had sent cookies in with him on his last day of school before surgery because I didn't think there would be anyway that he would be able to attend the party. However, he had other ideas. He didn't wear his Pastor outfit to the school party as we decided to go at the last minute so he went as a patient wear a hospital outfit that the nurse gave him from when we had to stay overnight in the hospital in November last year.

There was a wide range of costumes in his class and I don't think there were two alike!

When we got home from the party Daddy was raking leaves so Gabe decided that he needed to make a "Leaf Angle". That boy is always thinking of something. After a couple of "Leaf Angle's" it was time to head in to rest for awhile. Trick-or-Treat 2009

This is Pastor Gabriel Fuller ready to hit the streets!

First stop the Downs House (which is our real Pastor!) after a few other special stop Gabe was ready to head back home so that he could hand out candy. He went to a couple of houses but wanted to go back home so that he could see all the "kids". I use that term loosely as we had more BIG kids then little.

All set up and ready to hand out candy!

Enjoying a little treat from his bag! I was so worried that he wouldn't be able to trick or treat this year because of his surgery. But worry for nothing is all I did, he should have been dressed at Superman because the way he bounced back after surgery is exactly what he is!

Surgery

Today was surgery day for Gabe. 5:00 am came way to early especially for a mama that probably wasn't looking forward to this even more so than her child. This child amazes me more and everyday. Here he is watching a movie all ready for the doctor to come in for the last check before they take him back. They had just came in and given him some medicine that would make it so that he wouldn't remember anything that was going on. As you can see this makes you very, very silly. He would just start laughing. At one point he looked at his grandma and said "Hey Grandma there are two of you!". This medicine is not only good for the child but it also makes it much easier on the parents so that you don't have to watch a screaming kid being taken away from you.Here is is all loaded up in the wagon that would take him to the operating room. Daddy asked him if he could "Pound it" which is what they are doing. Gabe thought this was very funny.I must say that when they start to pull your child away from you down hallway, it is the hardest thing EVER! I did very well while I was with him as I didn't want to cry and make him upset but once they pulled him away and then I had to go out in that waiting room to just wait. FORGET IT, all I could do was cry. We had a great pager that would update us with each step of his process but it still was so very hard. We also had a friend of the family that is a nurse and she was in the operating room with him today. She was so very kind and came out to let us know as soon as things were done that everything had went great and that the doctor would be out soon to talk to us. This is my baby in the recovery room. He was such a trooper and I must say that the Power of Prayer is the most amazing and wonderful thing. I believe with all of my heart that everything that Gabe has gone through and done would not have had the same out come with out all of our prayers and the prayers of all of our wonderful family and friends. You each bless us so much everyday and we love you all very much. Gabe is now home and recovering as if he never has had surgery at all. I expected him to be sore and lazy and all that he has wanted to do is PLAY Mama, Play!

Friends Are Great

Our family has been blessed with good great friends. Today's blog goes out to our friends Ron & Becky Glenn. Ron is a volunteer Fire Fighter and loves little kids. As we are approaching Gabe's surgery we didn't want him to go to Daycare and Becky being the great friend that she is said that she would watch Gabe for us on Monday. Becky decided that since her husband is a Fire Fighter it would be fun to take Gabe and another friend to the Fire Station for a visit. Not only did Gabe and Cooper get to visit the Station but they also got to go for a ride. The pictures below only show a glimpse of excitement that these boy had during there morning out. Thank you so much Ron and Becky for not only being friends to John and I but for also loving our son. Boys and their toys!
Becky also is a wonderful photographer and when a mom can't be there for a moment like this it means the world to her to be able to be a part of it by the wonderful way she captured the moment.

I'm thinking that it doesn't get any better than this for a four year old. He could not wait for me to get home from work to tell me all about it. I love the complete joy that is on his face in this picture. Without friends this world would be a very sad place and we are so thankful for ALL of our friends and the way that each one of them bless our lives.

Trunk or Treat

Last night was Trunk or Treat at our Church. This is the first Halloween that my child hasn't been an animal and I must admit it was a little hard. But he has a great imagination and this year he decided that he was going to be a Pastor.This is Pastor Gabriel Fuller getting ready to head to the Church.Pastor Dave with Pastor Gabe just before Trunk or Treat was getting started. Nothing better than a good friend! This was our car all decorated. We got 2nd place for the best carved pumpkin. Thanks Papa!
Gabe with his Ms. Kelly.

Halloween Cookies

Because of Gabe's surgery next Wednesday he is going to miss the fun Halloween stuff at school. So Wednesday night Gabe and I made cookies for him to take to school on Thursday. He loves to do this and I always think it's a good idea before we start!! We do have fun but I will say making cookies with a four year old can sometimes be a challenge. Here is is cutting out some little pumpkin, to which he thought looked more like apples.Our cookies getting ready to go into the oven.Ah the fun part! NO Gabe you can't lick the knife, NO Gabe you can't lick your fingers and then touch another cookie. Now go wash your hands. Yep I think I did those two things about 10 times before it was finally bed time! But oh how he loves to decorate. He is really focused on what needs to be done. If you notice in this picture he is wearing the shoes from his Halloween costume last year!

Our finished product. We had, Pumpkins, Apples & Leaves. He colored some of the apples brown so they were caramel apples. Seriously I don't know where he comes up with this stuff!

Dreams

On November 15, 2002 a girlfriend of mine set me up on a blind date. Little did I know that I would be meeting the man that I would be spending the rest of my life with. During our dating time John asked me what were somethings that I've always wanted? Wants, dreams, wishes. Now keeping in mind that we hadn't been dating for very long I thought "well let's see what this guys has" as I had been asked these questions before by other people and let me tell you they can make people run real fast especially the first to.
This was part of the list I have give him:
1. I wanted to get married on Mackinac Island (more than anything I wanted to be a wife & a mother)
2. I wanted to have children
3. I dream of going to Hawaii someday
4. I dreamed of going on a cruise

Now this is only a few things on the list but little did I know that this man had every intention of making those wants and dreams come true. You see....On August 15, 2003 we were married ON Mackinac IslandI instantly became a step-mother to four great kids.On April 3, 2005 I also became a Mommy to a wonderful little boy who I can't imagine life without and who makes me laugh, smile, think, be in awe and yes can make me angry all in the same day. But he is mine. We found out about this great deal for a cruise that some good friends are going on. My friend kept saying are you sure there isn't anyway that you guys could come with us. What could we do to raise some money so that you can go?? As soon as I heard about it I told John "I would do just about anything to go on that cruise. I promptly went home and started cleaning out old craft stuff that I hadn't used in years and started selling it. We started cleaning out the basement to have a garage sale and we made almost $200.00 in one weekend. I think that was the point when John knew I was serious about wanting to go on this cruise. Now of course that wasn't enough to pay for it and I was trying to not get my hopes up. But on October 17, 2009 my husband informed me that he had already booked our spots on the cruise and we will be going on a 6 night 7 day cruise in March 2010 with our friends!!!!

I don't know about you but to me having 3 out of 4 major things on a Dream/Wish list knocked off by one person is not only amazing but it's a complete and true Blessing that I could have only gotten for God when he gave me John. Hawaii was in the plans for 3 years from now but now that will be moved down the list of priority as we have decided that we have something else that we would rather do in about three years instead of going to Hawaii for our 10 year anniversary. More on that to come later!