Back to our Christmas Festivities. We left Springfield early Thursday morning, after celebrating with the Millers the night before. We hit the road planning to be at my sisters for lunch. Things didn't turn out quite how we expected. On Wednesday evening we notice Cael had a cough, nothing to bad, but enough for me to mention it. He woke up just find but it didn't take long before he was looking like this......

We noticed he was not himself. He just sat there, not saying a word. He didn't want anything for breakfast, we even tried donuts just to see if we could perk him up. Nothing. We got to Cape Gerardo and decided to stop at Chick-Fil-A. Who turns down CFA, especially when there is a play land to enjoy? Still nothing. We decided we would take him to a Prompt Care, we were headed to spend two weeks with little ones and needed to make sure Cael was okay. We went to several places that told us they didn't take our insurance. Sigh. I was a hot mess. We finally realized we needed to head back to Illinois, thankfully that was only about 20 minutes out of our way. 

We ended up in some small town and a public health clinic was the only thing within miles and miles. Not going to lie, I was a little nervous. It wasn't the cleanest, it certainly wasn't up to date, but let me tell you....they took such good care of us. They made several phone calls to make sure insurance would cover the visit, and in the end they even charged us. He had a fever of 106.1 which they weren't worried about that at all. They took a chest Xray and decided that he had bronchitis. We took a breathing treatment was good to go.

They sent us to get a nebulizer and some meds. Again, there was one pharmacy within miles and it wasn't anything like the Walgreens I am use to. But again, they could not have been nicer. They informed me that our insurance wouldn't cover the nebulizer and it would be $150. YIKES. I told them I didn't think we wanted to to do that. Someone came around the corner and said the owner said they could sell it to me for $50 if that was okay.....SOLD! And then I started crying. I was so excited to get to my sisters house, so the disappointment of missing a half day with them, on top of seeing Cael so sick and then all of our insurance issues, I was done. The employees were so incredibly sweet to me. Before long we were back on the road, with a cow nebulizer, how fitting. 

The health clinic that took such good care of us

He was freezing so we carried him around wrapped in a blanket.

Back on the road headed to Memphis. So sad seeing him like this!

 Cael was a complete trooper, I was so proud of him. He sat in that car and didn't complain at all. We made it to Memphis in time for dinner and enjoyed playing with the girls. Cael was still pretty sick but loved watching all the excitement from my lap. And boy did I love all the extra snuggles I got. 

Benjamin's Gotcha Day

I am having technical difficulties keeping up here! My computer is on its last leg. After a little shaking, pounding and praying I got it to work. Hopefully it has a little more life in it. I also have the rest of my Christmas pictures on Steve's computer, so I am going to do things a little out of order.

Cael has five cousins; one of those is related by blood, two are adopted from China and two are adopted embryos. Talk about a blended extended family! Last Friday we were able to celebrate one of those cousins! It was Benjamin's Gotcha Day, he has been in our family for three years. And he has officially be with us longer than he had been in his foster family. I remember meeting the family at the airport and riding all the way home from Chicago in a party bus. Benjamin just stared at me with those big brown eyes. I remember my heart hurting for him because I knew he had to be so confused, but more than that my heart overflowing with joy that this little guy had just joined our family. I can't believe it's been three years, so glad that God choose him to be a Cliburn! 

Here was out first pictures of Benjamin while he was still in China.
In typical Chinese gear...lots of clothes
 and  boys wearing pink. 

Benjamin's first day in the states. 

First pictures of Cael and Benjamin

 The day Stephanie and Chris got Benjamin they had hamburgers for dinner, so that is our tradition. We went to a bar that Chris' boss own and had our own party room. It was perfect for our three hooligans!

Gotcha Day...3 years later.

Cael and Benjamin were taking this picture

Silly girl!

This boy melts me heart!

Cael took over taking pictures. This is one of his favorites! 

Another of Cael's favorites that he took.

Cael's first time playing pool. He loved it!

Pool Sharks

So thankful for the family that God has hand picked for us! 

We love you Benjamin! 

Miller Christmas 2012

We celebrated Christmas with the Millers a bit early. It was a Douglass year, which meant we were hitting the road on the 20th to head down south, so we did the Miller Christmas on the 19th. Steve worked that day while Cael and I got the house ready to go and packed the final items in our car. We headed over to PeePaw and Grandma's house with gifts and goodies in hand.

Cousins

 It is so fun watching Cael, Benjamin and Lydia's together. Most of the time us adults want to pull our hair out. Trust me when I say that when these three are together things get loud. And chaotic. And loud. And crazy. And loud. Did I mention loud? But the joy on their faces when the see each other (which is usually several time a weeks) never gets old and makes all the noise worth it. We have to play referee and keep the peace at times but boy do these three love each other!

Look how peaceful they look

And now back to reality

Lydia Claus

Benjamin Claus

Cael Claus

Kiddos showing off their ornaments from PeePaw and Grandma.

For months Lydia had been telling me she wanted a Dream Lite for Christmas. I tried my best to convince her that I wasn't able to get her one. She would just look at me like I was crazy and say "Well, you know it's what I want." So she got her Dream Lite....

...as did the other two. They were thrilled! 

We have several pictures with Chris and unicorns, glad to have a new one to add to our collection. 

Cael showing off his present from PeePaw and Grandma.

Cael and Lydia trying out the new crane

For months Sondra has been asking me to take pictures of the grandkids. One afternoon, Stephanie and I took the kids and attempted to get some pictures of them together. Oh my goodness, I don't know how photographers do it.  The plan was for me to take the three of them by myself, I was so thankful when Stephanie got off work early and was able to meet me. A miracle happened and several of the group pictures actually turned out. I made sure to include the "outtakes" when I gave them to her,  some of them were very funny. Sondra had no clue we had pictures for her and needless to say she was pleased!

 Sondra came across this hand print of Steve that he did when he was five. So here is our five year old comparing his hand to his daddy's five year old hand. Love it!

You will have to trust me that John, Stephanie and myself where there. I should have done a better job taking pictures. We had a wonderful evening celebrating together. We are beyond blessed to have such wonderful and generous families!

Christmas Programs

Cael had two Christmas programs this year. One at church and one at his preschool. It was so much fun watching him, especially in his school program. 

He looked so handsome in his Christmas outfit!

At church, all the preschoolers sang several songs together before the big kids preformed their program. The cape that he is wearing has been used for years. Somewhere there is a picture of his Dad wearing the same thing. 

Love this kid!

For years we have been attending Abby and Alyssa's various programs at their school, It's hard to believe the tables are turned now and they are coming to Cael's programs. 

Love us some Southards!

 Cael and his BFF Wesley, and no we didn't dress them alike on purpose. 

Love these two little guys.

The next night Cael had his program at preschool. It was the most precious thing I have ever seen. We love (like really love) his preschool, and we were really impressed with their retelling of Christ's birth.....with over 50 2,3,4 and 5 year olds putting it on. That was a lot of little kids in a relatively small space and they did fantastic. There were only about 8 parts that moved around the stage and Cael was one of them. He and is preschool BFF both were wise men. And you had better believe he was the cutest wise man I have ever seen.

Cael and Sophia, his school BFF

Sophia insisted that she hold Cael's hand throughout the night.

Cael dressed as a wise man.

Cael and Sophie. Pardon the arm and head in the pictures. The place was packed which made for a hard time taking pictures.

YAY for PeePaw and Grandma being able to come watch Cael.

Cael rocked his preschool program. He sang the loudest out of all the kids, did all the motions, smiled the entire time, presented his present perfectly to baby Jesus, and didn't pick his nose. I call that a success. 

I absolutely love being part of a preschool that not only celebrated Jesus' birth but focused on it for the month of December. It was a great reminder that as the hustle and bustle of Christmas was about to hit us, to keep focused on what we were truly celebrating.

Festival of Lights

We try every year to go to Peoria to see the Festival of Lights. I say try because sometimes the weather doesn't cooperate with us. We had a wonderful time as usual, this was Alyssa's first year going and it was a great year to watch Cael's excitement. He loved it! We ended the night at Famous Dave's for dinner (a first for me) and exchanged gifts with the Southard gang. A fun night!

Riding through the lights without a seat belt on was a highlight for Cael. 

We ate dinner at Famous Dave's  we were all a little let down. Not the best food, but I have been told I need to give it another shot. When they heard it was my first time eating there the manager brought out a complimentary bottle of their BBQ sauce. That was nice. He is looking for a place to open one in Springfield, I love me some BBQ so I hope they do head our way. They also gave us tattoos  Cael's is still on after three weeks!

A very random milestone thrown in here, Cael held a worm for the very first time. Yes he is five, yes we need to work on being brave around critters. Thanks to Abby, Alyssa and the promise of ice cream! 

Worlds Largest Rocking Horse

There really are not words to describe this. They say it's the world largest rocking horse. The second we saw it we knew we had "rock". So Alyssa, Tara, Cael, Steve and myself mounted this sucker and rocked away. We laughed until we cried. It was a sight to behold and I felt completely foolish, but how many of you can say you rode the worlds largest rocking horse?

I love these guys!! 

We had a wonderful night together, so thankful for the Southards! 

I'm Back!!

It feels good to be back. I get so frustrated with myself that I let over a year go without blogging. I love the memories we have from the times that I did blog, so it's my goal to keep at it this year. I am not planning on doing a specific picture a day, or even blogging daily, so I moved back over to this spot - My Soul Is Full. 

My Soul Is Full....the thing is, many times this year I didn't feel that way. 2012 wasn't the best year for us, it had some hard moments. I will share more about that later. And 2013 has the potential to bring some more obstacles our way. I hope that seeing the words My Soul Is Full on a regular basis will remind me that no matter what we are going through, to let the blessings fill me up! We have so much to be thankful for, so many blessings, and I hope this coming year to make sure I stay focused on those blessings a little more.

All that being said, there is one problem! The two computers that have all my pictures on them are each in different states, and I currently am in neither of those states. So, until I return to Springfield this coming weekend it's probably going to be quite around here...but I promise, I will be back! 

m

So for now, I leave you with a little glimpse of our Christmas. Happy New Year Friends!!

A Hole In One and Number One. Both Exciting!

I do have a potty update, but something much more exciting happened today. This is going to be a long post so strap in and hang on. Or click that back arrow in the upper right hand corner of your screen, I promise, you won't hurt my feelings. But not until you read the first part of my post.

No I wasn't there, and no I didn't take any of the pictures. But it's still very exciting! My Dad got a hole in one today playing golf with Tim. A HOLE IN ONE!! Here are the stats for any golf players out there. Hole number 17, Par 3, 147 yards with an 8 iron played down hill.

Here is the hole where the magic happened.

Dad has gotten two hole in ones in his entire life. His first one was with his dad, the second was with his son. He said it couldn't have been more perfect! Maybe his next one will be with a grandson! :)

While Dad was taking a nap Tim ran out and got this plaque for Dad. He emailed me the above pictures from his phone and I sent them to Walgreen's to get printed. The plaque has the pictures, the score card and the ball dad shot with. Great idea Tim!

Congratulations Dad!! I know how exciting it was for you!

***

Now on to the potty training. Today started good, got very frustrating as the day went on but looks like we are going to end on a high note.

Cael woke up dry and we headed straight for the potty. He sat there for a hour, yes my friends I said an hour. Diego kept us busy for part of the time and then we read and sang some songs. He ended up having a TBE, so that was exciting!

He had an accident around 11:30. We were playing and he told me he had peed so we ran to the bathroom. There was a very small amount on the ground and kept telling me "I stopped my pee". I was very proud of him for stopping when he realized what was happening. The only problem was he wouldn't go again. I really didn't want to head into nap time without him going again but he just refused. I just knew we would wake up from nap time with a diaper full of pee and poop! To my surprise there was very little pee and no poop.

During the afternoon I tried and tried to get him to pee in the potty but he was having none of it. He sat and sat on the potty but never did anything. Steve came home and he tried a few times to get him to go, no luck. I was prepared (and pretty grumpy about it) for an accident to happen any time. We at dinner and started watching Toy Story 3. Half way in we took a potty break that was going to include some ice cream. Cael got on the potty and soon after Steve's phone started ringing. When I came back Cael said "Mom, I peeing". Sure enough, he was letting it all lose. We had another FBE!!! So exciting!

So for today we had two successes and one accident. Not to shabby if you ask me. I still think he should be going more than twice a day, but I will take what I can get for now. We are for sure seeing progress!

Now, if we can get some poop in the potty. I am going to be SO tempted to take a picture of it.

p.s. Thank you husband for giving my post a title