Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

I wanted to share our Christmas card and letter here.

We hope you all doing well and are enjoying the Christmas season.     Here is a recap of our year.

The kids are growing up fast – fortunately Denise and I are not getting any older!  Daniel is 16 and a junior; Drew, now 12, is in 6^th grade; and Brielle is 5 and in pre-K.  Brielle loves school and wishes she could go all the time.   Denise and Brielle also go cap of the Stuesse family’s year for 2010.   to Spanish class each week and are learning a lot.   It’s good that Daniel is in Spanish III so he can help them with their homework!  

In June we went to St. Louis to visit my family.  We had a big party with all the relatives and spent time at my sister-in-law’s family cabin on a river.  Brielle went fishing for the first time and told Drew “You got 4 and I got 5”.  Whenever she can “one-up” her brothers she is sure to let them know! The boys had a great time dirt bike riding (except when Drew crashed), shooting fireworks, and having target practice.  We all enjoyed floating down the river on air mattresses and being with the family.  Denise and Brielle also spent a few days there with a group of friends they know through adoption.  It was a good time hanging out with lots of cute Guatemalan born kids!

Our big adventure in July was a 6-day rafting trip on the Salmon River with a group of friends.  The scenery was awesome, the river was exciting, and the huge sand bars were great for camping.  Daniel had a blast kayaking, and Drew and Brielle played hard with the other kids from morning till night.   Denise loved soaking up the sun and reading with her toes in the water.  I had fun rowing but won’t be trading my kayak for a raft anytime soon.  We were all worn out by the end of the week and needed another vacation to rest up.   

Relatively speaking the rest of the summer was more relaxing.   All the hours at the pool really improved Brielle’s swimming.   She is a total fish and can swim the length of the pool!   A new mountain biking park opened nearby which was great fun for the boys and I.  We honored Blake by raising money for the Make-a-Wish walkathon.   Add in a few more camping trips and Brielle’s 5^th birthday and the summer flies by real fast!   Denise also went Vegas with her mom for Alisha’s (her niece) wedding on 10/10/10.  They loved the sun, the Lion King Show, the fancy hotels and hanging out together.

We have a new dog “Lucy”.   Unfortunately Riley died suddenly possibly due to a heart attack.  The breeder was able to give us another dog who is Riley’s half sister.  Lucy loves to be loved!   She can’t wait for someone to sit on the couch so she can snuggle in close.   She rarely barks, loves to play fetch and is always nearby in case you want to give her a treat.   

Denise and I have season tickets for all the Stuesse sporting events.   Daniel’s sports include soccer, ultimate Frisbee and track.  Drew plays soccer and lacrosse.   Brielle plays soccer and will play softball in the spring.   I help coach Drew’s and Brielle’s outdoor and now indoor soccer teams.   Once the cold rains come in the fall its great fun to play indoors during the winter.  Daniel is also signed up for ski bus so he can hit the slopes for several Saturdays this winter with his friends.   

Denise continues to volunteer at Soulumination (a non-profit that photographs children with life-threatening diseases) by making beautiful photo bracelets for mothers with sick kids.  Over the last four years she has made over 300 bracelets. It’s another way she keeps Blake’s memory alive. 

We hope that 2010 has been a good year for you and may God bless you in 2011!

Worried about my mom...

My mom has fallen and is in the hospital.  She had a hip replacement 1- 1/2 years ago and fell on it.  I'm not sure right now what all of her complications are from the fall, but I know she is in pain and dealing with yet another set back.  I plan to spend the day with her tomorrow.  So hard...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!!

Halloween was a lot of fun around here!  Drew went as a fairy princess for his school party, but chose to go as a soccer player trick-or-treating in the neighborhood.








Brielle and Lucy were Bumble Bees!!!

Missing Blake....

Such a sad anniversary-4 years ago today our sweet Blake went to Heaven.  There is nothing as sad as saying good-bye to your own child.  My heart aches so deeply today.  It is the deepest pain imaginable.  I long to snuggle Blake.  He was such a sweet, sweet boy.  

I long for the day when I am with my sweet boy again.  I love you Blake!

1st Day of School!!!

Brielle was super excited to start Pre-K

Brielle at Pre-K

Daniel walking into Eastlake as a Junior

Drew at Explorer with his friends

Drew as a 6th grader in front of Blake's garden

Brielle's 1st lost tooth!

I can't believe my newly 5 year old lost her first tooth yesterday!  She was SO EXCITED to have it out!  I had some friends over and we all cheered when it came out.  Brielle had been working on it for a couple of weeks.  I love the baby teeth and told her just to leave it...but for some reason kids just love to have their teeth come out.  She has another one loose and keeps asking me to pull it out as well!  Very different from the boys who had me pull their teeth out while they were sleeping so they didn't know I was doing it!

Brielle's 5th Pinkalicious Party!!

I can't believe my baby girl is 5!  5 years old just seems to be a big jump in age.  I love being her mommy so much.  She brings a lot of joy into our lives.

 Brielle loves the book Pinkalicious so we chose that for her birthday party theme.  All of the girls and a couple of the mom's had PINK HAIR!

The kids made pink beaded picture frames...

We played PINKO Bingo...

And they went on a treasure hunt looking for pink treasures that Pinkalicious's brother Peter took and hid from the girls...They found their treasures...

One girl at the party said, "I knew I was going to have fun, but I didn't know it would be THIS fun!"  :)

We had a BIG cupcake cake...

More birthday fun...

We had to have PINK food and some green in case we ate too much pink!  Pink popcorn, pink dip, pink M and M's, strawberries dipped in pink 'white' chocolate.

Here are the invitations...

 Happy Birthday Brielle!!!!!!!!!!

Riley

I am in shock and not really believing it.  Our sweet puppy Riley went to Heaven on Sunday to be with Blake.  We had NO idea anything was wrong with her.  She was her usual self...full of love, life and happiness.  Greg took the kids and Riley to a local park/lake to swim.  She swam around for quite awhile as she just loves to swim.  Then she hung out in the shade for awhile and rested.  They started to walk back to the car and her legs became stiff and she just fell over.  I met up with them, we rushed her a few blocks away to a friend's house who is a vet.  She had died.  She actually had died even before I got to see her.  We are all just DEVASTATED. The Vet thinks it may have been her heart as Cavaliers have heart issues.  However, her parents are fine with no heart issues.
 We all loved Riley so much.  She was only 1- 1/2 years old.  We got Riley to help us all (and especially Drew) to deal with our great sadness of losing Blake.  I cannot understand how  we would have to lose again.  We have all been crying for hours.  I REALLY enjoyed having Riley hang out with me in the evenings as she was such a sweetie and LOVED sleeping with her.    She helped me so much with missing Blake's snuggles.  It is just so sad. 

Brielle has said some cute things the past couple of days.  Tonight we were talking about how we miss taking Riley for a walk and Brielle said, "Riley doesn't need a walk.  She is running around up in Heaven and having a great time!"    Today we were walking by a pet store and I was feeling sad.  Brielle looked up at me and said, "We don't need to buy any dog food, cuz our dog died".  Just the facts there.  And last night Brielle was asking about Riley  and who is up in Heaven if she is still down here.  I started to talk about her soul and spirit and she was confused.  I told her I'm not sure I have an answer for her that makes sense, but I'll think about it.  She responded, "But you are a mom, you should know".
Our family is missing Riley so much.  Daniel has stayed home for two days and just read books.  He loves to read and finds comfort in his books.  I know his heart is so sad.  Drew is sad and thoughtful.  He wants another dog to comfort him.  He said he had a talk with Riley and told her that if he gets another dog it won't ever replace her, but just help him with his sadness.  I find myself crying a lot and looking for Riley throughout the house.   We are faced with deciding if we should get another puppy now or later or never.  Many people have said another dog would help us heal.  I believe this is to be true for Brielle, Drew and myself.  Daniel thinks it is all too soon and Greg doesn't know even if he wants another dog.  Our breeders offered us an 11 week old Cavalier.  He is very cute.

I really believe in the old saying, "It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."  I like to think that Riley is hanging out with Blake in Heaven and giving him lots of snuggles for us.