Goofin’ Around

Just some random pictures from us as a family the other night…no real story. Me beating Ethan and CJ in a pillow fight, and a couple of other pics of all of us  together…

 

A pre-birthday celebration

Anyone that knows our kids knows that Chuck E. Cheese is in fact the greatest place on earth. Do they like Chuck E.? No, in fact they are terrified of him…do they like the pizza? Not really… but the games…ahh, the games. It is endless entertainment to play the video games, dump tokens into random machines and try to steal other peoples’ tickets.

That being said, we decided to surprise Ethan by taking him to this palace of fun for his 6th birthday. A little premature, but we were trying to avoid having to go there again, and since we were in El Paso anyways, the moment seemed right. And boy did he have fun! Hours of  “boppy game”, “chooting games” and climbing around the big play gym meant fun for everyone, especially Mom and Dad who got to keep up with all 3 kids at the same time. We even ordered a special cake complete with 6 candles. All in all, it was a great time and Ethan absolutely had tons of fun!

 

Wait! Hold on! Isn’t that MOMMY playing a video game???

And of course, Daddy had to play a game or two himself.

Happy Birthday Ethan!

New Camera

I purchased a Canon Rebel ES for my time in Korea and Italy…we went to the park and I gave it a test run…here are some pics of the kids that I thought were really cute.

Hard at work…or is it play?

 

Ethan wanted to help me build a gate the other day because it was “man work”. He did such a good job helping that I decided it was time for him to have his own tools. I gathered up some of my old tools that didn’t really get used, put them in my old red tool box (that my dad gave me when I was a kid) and presented them to Ethan. He was so excited! He has been out practicing with the hammer and screwdrivers pretty much nonstop since yesterday.

Of course, anything that Ethan does so does C.J. So, he attempts to help Ethan with whatever Ethan is working on (usually this includes screwing and unscrewing the same screw into a piece of board). It is good family fun I guess.

A little peace…

Family,

We wanted to post some pictures to help you all feel a part of what is happening in our lives right now. When we lost Jake last week, I had asked my friend, Shane, to try and find a carpenter that could make a cedar box for us to put Jakes keepsakes and some other little items in. Shane took the task very seriously and immediately went out to find someone who could make something that would do justice for the situation. Turns out, the husband of one of our civilian employees at work is a carpenter, and he would not hear of ANYONE else making the box. In less than a week, he had the box below made out of cedar. When he dropped it off to us, he told us that he didn’t feel that he had the time to do the project perfectly, so he took it to a cabinet shop here in Alamogordo, explained the situation, and that they shut down their shop and worked on only this project for the next 2 days. The owner of the shop actually drove to El Paso (about an hour and  half away) to get the hardware for it. They refused to allow Frank to pay for the box or labor; they only allowed him to pay for the wood. Frank in turn refused to allow us to pay for anything, but wanted it to be a special gift to us from their family.

 

We were so touched by their thoughtfulness and generosity. Frank’s wife, JoAnne, made a beautiful blanket for Jake and allowed us to use it inside of the box as a sort of lining. We then put some different items in the box including a set of clothes, some stuffed animals the kids picked out (the Backyardigans), a football from Daddy, a keepsake box from the hospital and all of the cards and verses that people had given to us at the memorial service. We also put in the special 586 Flight Test Squadron diaper that the ladies from the Squadron made. His urn is the little blue heart close to the middle.

This is the program that the ladies made for the service. Those are actually Jake’s hand and footprints on the front page. We had the words to the hymn “Be Thou My Vision” put inside. His weight and length are on the front also.

Finally, while we were at the hospital, my Colonel’s wife, Jennifer, had made a “plaster-of-paris” imprint of Jacob’s feet and one of our Lieutenants (Bernadette)  painted it for" us. This is the result.

We feel so blessed to be part of such an amazing squadron, and to be surrounded by so many people that love us and have cared for us. We know it has been difficult for most of our family because they could not be here with us during this time, but we wanted to show and share these things with you to help you understand how  well we have been taken care of by those in our military and church family here. We love all of you and would have loved to have hugged each of your necks and cried with you, but we take great comfort in the fact that one day we will be together as a family, for all time. Love you.  

Update…

This is a very difficult blog to write. If you are reading this, then most likely you already know, but I thought I would at least give an update about what has happened in our lives over the past 3 days.

Rachel and I lost our son, Jacob, who was due to be born on April 3rd. He passed away sometime last week most likely, but due to the advanced nature of the pregnancy, Rachel still had to deliver him. I wish that it were possible to describe the agony that we felt during that time, but suffice it to say that it was the hardest moment of either of our lives.

The support, prayer, and well wishes that we have received from so many people has been so important and amazing to us. Our squadron folks here  in Alamogordo in particular have bent over backwards to help ease our situation as much as they can and have been so amazingly helpful, sincere and sympathetic. We are nearly speechless with the way that God has brought together so many Christians at this difficult time in our lives to help us get through this dark hour.

We will have a memorial service for Jacob on Monday evening for family and friends. We would especially appreciate your prayers during that time as I’m sure it will be very, very difficult. We are deeply grieving, but we also have hope…and for now that is enough.