CUTTING TREE FUN

WE TRY TO GO INTO THE MOUNTAINS TO CUT A COUPLE OF TREES EVERY YEAR... WE GOT TO TAKE OUR NEPHEW TRAVIS ALONG FOR THE TRIP. GRANDMA AND GRANDPA SAUNDERS ALSO JOINED AND TREATED EVERYONE TO BREAKFAST IN LAPORTE BEFORE OUR JOURNEY. I WILL BRING THE SLED NEXT YEAR TO TOTE THEM IN FOR SURE... HOW COULD I HAVE LEFT IT AT HOME! I WILL NEVER FORGET TRAVIS ASKING BART IF HE COULD CLIMB MOUNTAINS WITH HIM. ON THE NARROW BUMPY ROADS THROUGH THE NATIONAL FOREST TRAVIS AND KIRA TALKED OF EVERYTHING FROM CAMPING TO REINDEER. I'LL HAVE TO GET A SHOT OF OUR TREE DOWNSTAIRS TO POST... IT IS PRETTY NICE FOR A COLORADO TREE. MID-WEST TREES ARE SO DIFFERENT- MUCH FULLER. BUT THE MID-WEST LACKED THE BEAUTIFUL MOUNTAINS WE HAVE!

HOPE YOU ARE ALL HAVING FUN PREPARING TO MAKE CHRISTMAS SPECIAL FOR YOUR LOVED ONES AND FOR THOSE WHO ARE STRUGGLING THIS CHRISTMAS. WE HAVE DECIDED TO DO CHRISTMAS FOR A COUPLE OF FAMILIES IN THE TOWN... THE DAYCARE FAM'S HAVE BANDED TOGETHER TO HELP ONE FAMILY OF SEVEN!! THE OTHER FAMILY WE ARE HELPING INSTEAD OF GIVING GIFTS TO BART'S PARENTS. JUST AS WELL WE ARE GIVING BART'S GRANDPARENTS A PHOTO ORNAMENT OF A CHILD WHO IS UNSPONSORED WITH COMPASSION INTERNATIONAL... SENDING FUNDS IN THEIR NAME. WE HAVE ALL WE NEED AND KNOW IT COULD BE SO DIFFERENT FOR ANY OF US. I'LL TRY TO POST SHOTS FROM OUR JESUS BIRTHDAY AT THE WELL'S (FAMILY OF 7) NEXT WEEK. MANY OF US TEARED UP HEARING ALL THEY ASKED FOR CHRISTMAS WAS GROCERIES AND LAUNDRY SOAP! I PRAY THEY FEEL OUR LOVE AND HOPE FOR BETTER DAYS FOR THEM...

Christmas fast approaching

HERE ARE A FEW VERY RANDOM SHOTS. OUR DAYCARE TREE, KIRA + ETHAN ON THE MASSAGER, KIRA'S VISIT TO THE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM, AND SUNRISE... I MISS OUR OLD HOME FOR THE AWESOME SUNRISE AND SUNSET VIEWS.

WE ARE AWAITING THE ARRIVAL OF NANA AND PAPA BY MID-MORNING. THEY ARE COMING BY TRAIN TOGETHER. YES THEY ARE "TOGETHER" IN ORDER TO BOTH MAKE IT TO SEE THEIR LITTLE KIRA EXPERIENCE CHRISTMAS AND KNOW BART AND I SELDOM TRAVEL THEIR WAY. MY DAD JUST GOT WORD THAT HIS DIVORCE IS FINALIZING AFTER MUCH DELAY FROM TRUDY. HE HAS CHANGED SO MUCH FOR THE BETTER SINCE SHE LEFT HIM... STRANGELY HE IS MUCH CALMER AND MORE SOCIAL. WE TALK DAILY... HE DOESN'T SEEM TO MIND THE CHAOS IN MY HOME WHILE WE CHAT... HE DID LIVE HERE FOR A MONTH AND BECAME FAMILIAR WITH THE BOYS:)

NANA HAS ALWAYS BEEN SUPPORTIVE OF MY LOVE FOR KIDS AND HAS MADE IT A POINT TO KEEP ME BALANCED AND SUPPLIED WITH EVERYTHING I COULD EVER THINK TO NEED OR WANT FOR THE KIDS. WE CAN'T WAIT TO HAVE HERE WITH LITTLE KIRA. IT HAS BEEN A VERY ROUGH YEAR AND I NEED MY MOM HERE TOO! WE HAVE MY BROTHER COMING FOR A FEW DAYS AS WELL... KIRA HAS CHANGED SO MUCH SINCE LAST CHRISTMAS... HOPING SHE'LL FIND HER WAY INTO HIS HEART.

July Part Two

One of the kids in my Daycare, ETHAN, was in the hospital for an infection and Kira had a blast jumping on the bed with him and they put the bed in all sorts of positions. You can see Kira has lots of personality especially when she is feeling well.

Our good friends Chris and Emily gave birth to their second child in mid-July. Little Clara Emily Smith is a beautiful, peaceful baby who has shown God's goodness to ll of us. Their first baby was born at full-term but had passed away before Emily was able to birth him. Carter Christopher is missed more than any of us can imagine. They are forever changed. I hear of Clara's peacefulness and wish Kira had more of that when she was young!

Kira's weight was down again and we are following a gluten-free diet since late June and see her hair started to grow, her gums stopped bleeding when we brushed, and her constant diarrhea calmed. She has had bouts of rashes on her trunk and around her mouth as well. Try to imagine caring for 5 or 6 kids and changing Kira's bedding and clothing up to a couple times a day during bad spells. Poor kid, it will smell like she is rotting from the inside out. What strange times we have had with her since she was born. Our Dentist has been very concerned about Kira's teeth trying to figure out why they came in damaged (her first tooth was actually when she was about 13 months). The top four central teeth have awful enamel. He is anxious we find out if the adult teeth are going to do this as well. VERY DEPRESSING to think... he suspects she was critically ill as a tiny baby (which she was) or that we are dealing with a nutritional/mal-absorbtion issue... like Celiac Disease. We have a good friend Mark who deals with Celiac Disease and gave us lots tips and even groceries!
(I will repost with pictures of Clara soon- they are in our mess of recovered photos)

August memories

Bart is sound asleep otherwise I'd get some help figuring why where I place my cursor seems not to effect my picture placement. I KNOW I stink at computers but I just need a lesson again on blogging!: ) I will go back to the spring when I get up the nerve to sort through the wealth of photos from the "recovery" my friend did. The dates attached to the photos are all off... years of photos and copies of photos jumbled together... at least there aren't 30,000 anymore!

SOOO, back in August we celebrated the 100,000 Walker Mower coming off the line. Bart's family have such a neat company... they invited everyone who owns a Walker to come for a huge celebration/Reunion. They have done this years past around our wedding and so we were unable to attend. Thousands attended on the property and we felt so honored to be guests on stage with the rest of Bart's family. His family love the Lord and honor him with all they have been blessed with. They have no shame in sharing their hope and purpose in this world. Literally days before this event we attended the Homecoming service for a favorite cousin, Dan Walker. What a nightmare for his family, we had just had his graduation party from Olivet Nazarene University! He was serving on staff at a Nazarene camp in Colorado and was ready for to be serving Focus on the Family after the summer. He was found to have died in his sleep due to a sort of aortic valve rupturing... it was preventable if only they knew his healthy body actually had an abnormality waiting to give way. He honestly touched more lives than any of you could imagine. We ache for his parents and three brothers. I was emptying recyclables and saw his graduation thank you note staring right at me from June... we taped it and his photo back onto the front of our fidge and think of him daily. His last big conversation with his girlfriend was all about Heaven... his perspective on life at his age was so powerful. One of his brother's along with his wife (Ryan and Emily) left at the end of the Reunion for mission work in the depths of Alaska. I'll try to post more about their outreach soooooon... we can't imagine their level of sacrifice and trust in the Lord in the midst of their heartache!! They are all so special to me, especially after I got to clean their home for years.




During these weeks we also had Bart's brother, Matt and his family in for Reunion. I wish they were pastoring in Colorado already! Kira loves her cousins Kyron and Raylee so much! Right before Matt and family left, Laurel (Bart's sister) gave birth to Bethany Ruth Lalicker!! Laurel had adopted this embryo this past October... I believe it was 15 years old!! She is a healthy, sweet little thing and we are so happy they have the family they've always wanted. God is good.

"30,000 photos you say?"

In an attempt to practice posting and uploading photos I thought I'd bond with the laptop while it isn't being used. You see, Bart has started coursework online with DeVry for his Masters in Information Systems Management and I need MY OWN laptop. I swear he corrupts my efforts to email and blog with his constant changes to the computers in our house. I am so technically disinterested that his experimental changes drive me further from any computer communication. Need I tell the blogging world that Bart accidentally formatted our hard drive with ALL of our photos around late June! No worries we had a backup hard drive in our safety deposit box... oops seems that one went to HELL. He was so upset he waited forever to tell me the bad news. See he is awesome with computers and learned that over this spring and summer with building computers from scratch. I hate to diss him but now we had literally 30,000 recovered photos to sort through. SO IMPOSSIBLE, they were recently sorted with a program one of the Daycare dad's wrote. THANK YOU DAVE!! All of that to tell you I am excited to catch up on months of blogging.
Above you'll find our trip to Illinois for a Birthday/Reunion for my MOM and Kira's 2nd, as well as time with my Dad at Fish Lake. Below you'll see a few shots from our visit with Meghan, crazy Eric, and little Ella born in May.

New inspirations

I have taken a long break from the blog and hope to be back for lots longer. For our own records I will sum up each of the last months with some photos. I know my Dad will appreciate the "catch up" attempt. We have had some good visits with Mom/Nana, Holly, Dad/Papa, a huge Reunion at Walker, and an awesome Marriage Conference in Los Cabos, Mexico. My Mom graciously took care of Kira here in Colorado AND all the Daycare boys while we were in Mexico. She is my HERO. We anticipate Dad and my Mom coming out in a couple weeks for some great bonding with their little Kira. She has no competition and I'm sure she likes it that way!! But if I have any say that won't be forever.

I've begged my best friend Meghan for a blog make-over. She gives her blog a face-lift nearly every month! I want to share more concepts for moms and children. We were given a wealth of resources and encouragement from Family Life to share with our friends and community. I have some ideas along the lines of Foster Care that I'd love to share.


Bart's hoping I'll finish this tomorrow and get some sleep. We're off to cut down three trees in the mountains with Kira and our nephew Travis. Should be very eventful knowing my nephew!! Kira had her boots and coat on forever tonight in hopes we would head out soon. I'll write more tomorrow. Love to all our friends and family who never give up on us!