Max, We will miss you!

Well, we went in to feed the guinea pigs today and found Max laying on the bottom of the cage. I moved the cage to see if he would wake up, but the was no movement. And it stunk really bad in there. We told Collette and she wanted to see him. Then she looked at us like we had no clue what we were talking about and said "He's just sleeping." Then we had to explain it the best we could. She took it very well. She wanted to take the box outside and put the dirt on it. Then on the way back in she says "Can I go to Tyler's house and tell him what happened to Max?" So, she doesn't seem to mind to much that he is gone. Here are some pictures of sweet Max. He was the nicer of the two guinea pigs. He was a lot better about letting Collette hold him, the Guinea is. Now we are down to one guinea pig and one dog. I think Guinea is confused about where his buddy went. He seems scared and not himself since we cleaned out the cage. Hopefully he will adjust soon.

Collette's 4th Birthday party

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Here is a glimpse of Collette's Polar Express Party. We had a great time riding the train. Collette loved all of her gifts, but mostly enjoyed getting to spend time with friends.

A view from Collette's eyes

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We bought a kid camera for Collete for her birthday. I know that her bday is 2 days away, but we are having her party tonight. We thought that she could have fun taking pics at her party. Here are a preview of what she has taken so far.

Collette's musical debut

You will need to pause the music player on the bottom of the page before you start this video!

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Collette had her Christmas Program last night. She and all of the kids were so cute. They each had a solo while the rest of the kids did hand motions behind them. We are so proud!

Ode to Collette

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Our baby is going to be 4 years old on Monday. She is so excited about it. It has been such a wonderful thing to see her learn and grow. We have cherished every moment as much as we can. This is to you baby girl...We love you. Have a happy birthday!

Nursing School Graduation!

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Enjoy the pics. I will post more later.

I Passed!!!!!

It is over. I passed Nursing School! Yea! I am so excited, relieved, and a bit tired. All of the hard work, sweat, and tears(no exaggerating) has paid off. I am officially a nurse. So my graduation in tomorrow night at 7PM. We were asked to write a small thank you for graduation and I don't feel like I thanked enough people, so here it goes:

Thanks goes first of all to God. He has lead me down so many paths that I never dreamed possible and I am here because of Him. He pulled me through when I wanted to give up and things were at there worst. Second to my family, Troy, Collette, and Dakota for sticking with me and encouraging me to continue. My family is the other source that I drew strength from. To my extended family...for support and to Dad, Mom, Jeana, and Sharon for helping me care for the kids when I was in a bind. My close friends that stuck with me through the entire process and talked me down when I was having a slight panic attack yesterday...Rhianna.
I also want to say a special thank you to all of you whom I have met at school. What wonderful people I have been blessed to learn along side. There are so many of you who have taught me strength, endurance, and mostly love. I will never forget you guys and I wish you all of the best. Thanks for being a part of our wonderful journey. May God always guide your path.

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." 2 Timothy 4:7

The Gift of Giving

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About a month ago I took Collette and my nephew Tyler to Target to pick out gifts for others for xmas. We originally were going to put these into shoeboxes and give them to a church to hand out to those who need it. Well, Tyler ended up getting strep throat that week so all of our effort went down the drain. Sharon then had a great idea to go to a hospital and let the kids hand out their gifts. I called a few places but kept running into the same problem...it is RSV season and our little germ factors would be too much of a risk for these kids. I eventually remembered about this really neat place that I had done clinicals at last semester. It is the Children's Center in Bethany. The kids live at this rehab center. They have school, PT, OT, Speech Pathology, etc available for these kids. Most of the kids have some form of Cerebral Palsy or mental retardation. We called and a wonderful woman named Heather was so excited for us to come visit. We met with her and she let the kids put the presents under the tree. Then she took us on a tour of the facility. Collette and Tyler were able to meet several kids on the tour as well as see classrooms, the gym, and their rooms.
I was so proud at how well our kids did. All of the kids that they met were in wheelchairs. Neither one of our kids were scared or acted weird about it. They said hi and told them their names, how old they were, etc. It was a great experience, not only for Collette and Tyler, but for Sharon and me as well. I am going to put a link to this place so that you can see how great it is. And if you ever want a great place to visit or take presents to, you can do that also.
God is so good! Merry X-Mas!

http://www.thechildrens-center.org/

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