Cookies, Ice Cream, and Missing Frogs

You know those Mom Blogs where stay at home moms have no creative outlet except to blog about all the things they did with their kids that day? 

Aunt blog anyone?

Bristol and I made cookies today. It was adorable. 

I don't know why 2 year olds baking are so cute, but they are. 

She stirred that batter like her life depended on it. 

Last night we went out to this awesome Mexican restaurant for dinner. Bristol purchased a little stretchy, rubbery frog from one of those machines meant to make children throw fits til you give them your money. She was pretty thrilled about her baby frog. Then, on the car ride home I heard 4 hysterical and slightly frightening words.

"I eat my frog!"

I looked over only to discover that the frog was gone. She had indeed eaten it. If you ask her where it is, she'll say. "In my belly." It was funny, until she decided that she NEEDED another one. "That's what happens when you eat your frogs, honey!" says the Daddy. Am I the only one that thinks this is funny?

After dinner, we heard a sweet melody drifting in from the street. What on earth could that be? 

You guessed it, the Ice cream Truck!

Bristol's friend that lives across the street heard that promising tune too.

And so the fun began...

Bristol's ice cream was mystery flavor. Can you say "Ew!"?

It was a pretty messy feast, so they washed off in the sprinklers afterwards. 

I love the crying pictures. I'm not sure why.

Tracy and I worked some more on our cool craft which I'm going to sell for fundraising purposes for France. I'll blog about it later. I need to take pictures first. Be excited.

I'm now 12% of the way done in my fundraising! That means only 88% more to go. Right now, $4048 seems like a lot of money... a lot of blessing. I'm so thankful for everything that I've already received. It's obvious that people have given sacrificially. It's been really neat seeing their hearts behind it, and knowing that they're not doing it for me but for God. It's a good thing, their investments will last.

Where In The World...?

We should play a game.

 It'll be called 'Where In The World Is Kelsey?'

Because you never really know, do you?

And if you thought my traveling was crazy before....

I'm just gettin' started!

Right now....

I'm in Oklahoma, laughing at the funny antics of my cute niece.

"Muno, toes, Tracy, quatro!"


Gotta love the cream cheese mustache.

Some More Favorites

Well.... it happened. That streak of updating my blog fairly regularly got snuffed out a little bit. I've lost track of the days, and so it seemed like I updated just a few days ago. In reality it's been 11 days.

Eleven.

Eh. There are worse things that could happen I'm sure.

There are so many things I could have written about in the last 11 days, and somehow I didn't write anything at all. And at this point... well there's still lots. But I've decided on some more of my favorites from Wyoming (and Oklahoma). 

Picture by Jon. We had horse visitors at the ranch often. We were trying to get Bristol to smile for the camera, but she was more interested in the horse instead. I like how the picture turned out though. 

This is my cousin Bailey and her little brother Oliver's foot. He thought this was hysterical.

This was Oliver's usual expression. No, his eyes never did fall out of his head, though we did wonder about that sometimes. 

Katelyn giving her Aunt Tracy some kisses. She loves giving those out. Luckily her Mom and Dad finally taught her that kissing is best with the mouth closed and tongue inside the mouth. 

We like each other. A lot. Although I'm not sure how much it counts since everybody likes Kate and Kate likes everybody. 

Mom and I got to drive Jon's car and Bristol from Wyoming to Oklahoma. The drive was pretty much flawless. Bristol was the best behaved toddler I've ever met. She was, however, extremely thrilled to get home to Mommy and Daddy. She immediately dished out some love on them, followed by reacquainting herself with the dogs, kitties, and her toys. 

This is Bristol pretending to sleep in her dog Ranger's bed. She thought it was pretty funny. 

Some other news.... I'm almost 10% of the way with my fundraising for France! It's not a huge amount, but it's a start. And $3,000 seems like a lot to me! God's definitely blessed me through fundraising. It's way more beneficial than I thought it would be.

What are ways that God unexpectedly blessed you?

Favorite Moments

 Here are a few of my favorite moments I captured from the reunion- in no particular order. There were so many pictures, it was hard to pick just a few.

She's really a very happy child, but for some reason I just love capturing these moments.

She wanted to see the dog more than she wanted to ride the horse

Here's Kate putting on her charm. This would be the lady saying, "Wow, she IS friendly!"

Bristol really liked the wings Aunt Kristin gave her.

And Bristol found these dress up shoes. 

Gotta love those Mommy cuddles. 

Note the cousins having a stare down over the chair. You can't see it in the picture, but I'm positive Kate's got a mischievous grin on her face. She won, since her cute little behind is placed on the chair and her cousin's is not.

Thank you everyone so much for your prayers. It was so unexpected to lose Gideon so late in the pregnancy, and we're all still trying to wrap our minds around it. Tracy's beginning to recover very well, though she still has a ways to go. C-sections are no small surgeries.

If you could continue praying for us, we would so much appreciate it.  The reunion's come to an end and most people are headed home tomorrow. Tracy is flying home with either Jon or my Mom on Tuesday, and that will probably be pretty rough for her. I'll be driving the car back with Bristol and either Jon or my Mom starting Tuesday as well. 

God's been faithfully getting us through this, one step at a time. Though I can't understand why things happen the way they do, I know that He is good. 

If I've learned anything from losing Gideon, it's to cherish the ones I have now. It's been a long weekend full of loving on the littles.

Your support and words of encouragement have been so wonderful. I can't thank you enough.

And just so you know Kate smiles....

He's Gone

For the last couple of days I was traveling with my sister and her family. We drove from Oklahoma all the way to Wyoming, with a couple point-of-interest stops along the way. 

(No toddlers were harmed in the making of this picture)

My beautiful niece Bristol was a champ, especially the first day. This was the happy grin that I saw for most of the day. 

This is the baby boy, growing inside my sister's tummy. 33 weeks along, and we were patiently awaiting his coming. I never realized how much he had captured my heart already.

Thursday started off as a bad day. Bristol woke up really early and screamed and cried for the longest time. We finally got on the road and she slept for a while, then woke up and screamed and cried. Then we ate icky food and played in smelly play-places in McDonald's, only to get some more screaming and crying in an hour or two later.

We weren't far from our destination when it happened. My sister said, "I need to go to the bathroom. Now." So she did, and we didn't think it was strange at all, cause.... well.... she was pregnant.

But then she came back out to the car and said, "Okay. We need to get to a hospital. I'm bleeding." And my heart sunk, and I think I knew it then, but I still hoped. And this couldn't happen. Not to us. Not when things were so perfect.

We were 40 miles away from the nearest hospital, and my brother-in-law booked it. He drove 90 mph most of the way. I think I can remember every moment. My desperate prayers, trying to hold in the tears, telling myself that bleeding was normal, my nephew's okay.

My parents and younger sister met us there. I took care of Bristol in the waiting room for a while while we waited to hear what was wrong. It felt like forever. I remember every single painful moment from the car ride and the hospital. It was like slow motion. And then my mom came out of the room and said the words I most wanted not to hear.

"He's gone."

And my heart just broke, and I realized in that moment how much I loved him. Even though I didn't know him. I never saw a smile, heard a giggle, cradled him in my arms, but I loved him.

It surprises me now how very real the situation was to me. Usually when stuff like that happens, you have that blessed ability to be unable to comprehend that something like that had really just happened. But I knew it had, I felt every moment.

I'll never hold my first nephew. I'll never kiss him. I'll never get to know him and see him grow into a man of God. But I think I'll always love him. Because this hurts. A lot.

Gideon Boden is gone. And I miss him more than I ever thought I could miss a person I've never met.

Please pray for my family. Pray for Bristol, as she's seen very little of Mommy and Daddy the last couple  days, and will not see much more of them for the next few days. Pray for Tracy and Jon, as they are grieving the loss of their son. Pray for Tracy's recovery, as this has taken a toll on her body. And mostly, pray that through this we will choose to seek comfort in the only place comfort can be found. We need Jesus, and this is just another reminder.

This is hard. But my Jesus is still good.

A Post on Randomness

Yesterday morning I was eating breakfast when I noticed a brilliant orange glow coming in from the blinds. Pretty much it was beautiful. 

This morning we would have probably had the same orange glow, if not for the crazy amount of smoke that has blown in from Arizona.

It gets weird at night, when it all blows in. The other night it felt like I was driving through really thick fog, except for it was all smoke. We couldn't even see Wal-Mart from around 200 feet away. 

My eyes burn.

My eyes have been burning for about 2 days straight now. I can't imagine what it's like in Arizona. 

Yesterday we had our garage sale. We made $170. I was pretty satisfied, considering we got rid of a bunch of stuff and made money for it. 

Currently I'm sitting in our garage eating a muffin and drinking coffee and watching my mom spill coffee everywhere. It's pretty fun. 

It's only 8:45 and we've already made $100 today. I'm pretty happy about that. France, here I come! 

Last night we helped Patrick and Heather move into their new house.... in Rio Rancho! They've been in the Land of Stink (also known as Texas) for far too long, and I missed them. Patrick and Heather played important roles in my life back in high school. It's good to have 'em back 

After we helped them move in, I stopped by Pastor Dave and Tiffany's for an open house for a woman named Katie. She's going to Madrid in October as a long-term missionary. I love hearing about God's work in Europe, and meeting people who have been burdened in much of the same way I have been. It was also such a blessing to hear her acknowledge that the only way they will see lives changed in Spain is if God does it, and that they must pray and we must pray. It was good fellowship. I love Europe. 

Have I mentioned that my eyes burn?