Pondering Thoughts

So we took the kids to go see "How to Train a Dragon". Super cute movie! Definitely one to buy when it comes out. Any way there was a scene in the movie that Hudson thought was cute and he said "Aaaawwweee how cute!" loud enough for the whole theater to hear it. He made everyone laugh. Then today our home teachers came to visit and he was telling them about the movie and that the dragons ate fish. They asked him if he ate fish and he scrunched up his nose with a puzzled look on his face and said "Nooooo! I eat human food!" It was hilarious. One of those things I wish I had on video!

Today at church Halle was an happy angel! She was awake for all but 15 minutes. Her personality is really changing she is really starting to laugh. She is a happy little thing, all 12 1/2 pounds of her. She is crawling like crazy and pulling herself up on everything. She loves watching Hannah and Hudson play they really had her cracking up during lunch. There is nothing cuter and more contagious than kids laughing! I love it!

On our way home from church I was asking Hudson what he learned in Primary. He told us that Jesus had blood on his hands and feet from nails and that he was way high up. Then he died and they put him in a little tiny cave and then he breathed again and and came back alive then everything was okay. Wow! He listened and understood?! We were amazed that he went into such detail! It makes me realize that even though I think that he isn't listening and understanding that he really is and how impressionable our children are.

On that note Hudson's story made me ponder the Resurrection and Christ's sacrifice that He made it possible for us to repent of our sins and become more like Him so that someday we can return and live with Him. I am so thankful for the knowledge that we have of the gospel and for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ's love for me. I hope that during this week that we each take the time to reflect on this incredible blessing that has been freely given to us and that we take the time to thank our Heavenly Father and Brother for their love and sacrifice for all of us.

Other News on the Blum Front

Presenting the new Hannah!
Hannah has been bugging me for weeks to perm her hair. She was sick of her straight hair and wanted a change. We finally had the time to do her very first perm tonight. She loves it! Her Daddy even had to admit that it looked good. He doesn't generally like curly hair and had been trying to talk her out of it for weeks. I have to admit that it makes her look too grown up :0(
You look beautiful FiFi!

Swim team practice starts April 5th. Hudson told my Mom tonight that he is sooooo excited! So is Mommy! It will put all of his energy into constructive energy! WOO HOO!!!

We finally got our family 72 hours emergency kits done. Peace of mind!

Hudson's ISR swim lessons (our life insurance policy for him) paid off when he fell off the front of Jeff's parents' boat. Jeff said one second he was there and the next he was gone. He had thankfully had the presence of mind to turn the motor off. As soon as he did he and Hannah heard a thump on the propeller and up popped Hudson floating on his back breathing and not even crying. He had gone all the way under the boat. He didn't start crying until Jeff had to leave him to turn the boat around to scoop him up. He was in full winter clothing and it was super cold. He did have a life jacket on in case anyone is wondering (strict rule with Grandma and Grandpa Blum!). But his instincts kicked in as soon as he fell in and automatically flipped onto his back to breathe. Thank you Miss Stefanie for giving him the skills and confidence!! Just another reminder that children don't typically drown in a swim suit!

We took the kids to Lake Tahoe last weekend to a cabin and to play in the snow with Aunt Jessica's family , Daniel and Kaleb, and my Mom and Dad. It's the first time that Hudson has ever seen the snow. He absolutely loved it. Couldn't get enough! He kept begging to play in the "NO". We were trying to get him to say "S S S Snow" and he said "I want to go play in the S S S...that stuff outside." It was hilarious! It was fun to watch the kids play and have such a good time. Of course the kids all ganged up on the adults in a snow ball fight. I swear Daniel and Kaleb were throwing giant ice cubes! Averi thought it was particularly funny to get Aunt Noel. It was great to spend time with family, have fun and just kick back and relax. Wish Camille, Melissa and their families and Charlotte and the rest of her family could have been with us! We miss and love you guys!

I can't think of any other news. Life is always full of excitement at our house! The kids are always making us laugh.

What Happened to the Last 6 Months?

I'm not sure where the last 6 months have gone! I pathetically haven't had time to update our blog since July. There is so much that has happened since then that there is no way that I can possibly blog everything! So to hit on the big events, Hannah turned 10 in October, Hudson turned 3 in November and Hallie, our foster baby that we have had since she was 10 days old is now 8 months old. Jeff turned 44 in December I had a radical hysterectomy December 17. We spent Christmas Eve with Jeff's family and Christmas Day with my family. I pretty much recovered mid January from my surgery. Jeff and I celebrated our 8th anniversary (which doesn't' seem possible) February 2. For our anniversary/Valentines Day/my 37th birthday Jeff and I went to Lake Tahoe. We left the kiddos with Tamara and Clark, Jeff's sister and brother-in-law (thanks so much Jones'! You guys are AWESOME!!) for Valentines weekend. We had a blast!!!! We got to sleep in without being climbed upon or kicked in the back. We ate when we wanted, showered without the kids standing there and we suddenly remembered that we had names beside Mommy and Daddy. We had no schedule except when we went snowmobiling which was awesome! It was so rejuvenating! I wish we could do that every 3 months or so.
Life has been busy with the kids and work as always. Jeff's boss will be taking maternity leave in a couple of weeks so I'm sure that he will be putting in more hours but also job security. Thankfully he has a job!
Hannah and Hudson will be starting on the West Sacramento Dolphins swim team next month. I am so excited that they let Hudson be on the team. We desperately need something to help expend his energy! He absolutely LOVES to swim and I'm sure will excel at it. Normally the team won't let them start until they are at least 4 but they remembered what a fish he was last summer. Hannah is looking forward to starting swim again. She is a great swimmer and I know will do fabulous this season also!
Hallie is doing great. She has been crawling for about a month and a half and is now totally sitting up on her own and pulling herself up on everything. I hope that walking is a ways off. It is all I can do to keep up with Hudson some days. It looks like we'll be able to adopt her but that will be months or more away. You never know what the biological parents are going to do even though they haven't seen her since she was about 3 weeks old and you never know what the courts will do. She is a sweet little thing and is really starting to get a personality.
I'm sure that I have missed some events, but that is the Blum life in a nutshell.

ALOHA!

Just thought that I would do a quick update. We are in Oahu, Hawaii visiting Jeff's brother Brian and his family. We arrived on Thursday evening and went to the beach where Hudson learned to boogie board. He has absolutely no fear. Friday we went snorkeling and rock jumping. We had a ton of fun. We saw lots of fish and Hannah dove down and touched a turtle. I was really tired and was already swimming to the beach so I missed the 2 turtles that Jeff and Hannah saw. Saturday we had to take Hudson to the doctor. He had a second degree sunburn and huge blisters on one of his shoulders. We had slathered sunscreen on him the day before but he is just so white. From there Jeff took me to the hospital. Turns out I had pneumonia in both lungs from being hit from the air bag in our car accident at home a week earlier (a whole other story). They pumped me full of antibiotics and sent me home with more. I am now feeling about 80% better. Today we went snorkeling and played on the beach. We saw tons of fish. I saw a turtle in the water from the car on the way to lunch. We are going to go back to that beach and snorkel before we leave. Tomorrow we are going the the Polynesian Cultural Center and the Hawaiian Temple visitors center. We love it here the weather has been warm but a beautiful trade wind breeze. Jeff and I went with Brian and Laura to a restaurant called Lei Lei's and had the best seared ahi tuna steak ever! It makes me drool just thinking about it. I know, Noel ate fish???!!! Enjoy the pictures. I have more updating to do about the last few weeks and I will do it soon.

Hannah on the West Sac Dolphins Swim Team

Hannah had her time trials meet 2 weeks ago and did very well. We had forgotten how much work the meets are and then add Hudson to the mix. Can you say CRAZY!!! It was 101 F that day so we were all just toast! Hopefully this Saturday won't be so hot. I can hope right. We decided to leave Hudson with my mom for this meet. The last one he threw his sandal and daddy's glasses in the pool in the middle of races. That's our Hudson!!

We are so proud of Hannah. We watch her everyday becoming a stronger swimmer. She has her first meet against Rocklin this Saturday. I know that she will do her best and that is all that matters. She is turning in to a beautiful young lady. I can't believe that she will be done with 4th grade next week. Crazy!

Hudson's Swim Lessons

Hudson just finished 6 weeks of Infant Swim Resource "ISR" lessons. Thank you Christina for emailing me their web site last year!! Thank you Stefani Norville! You are an amazing teacher! It was amazing to see Hudson learn so quickly how to swim and float to save himself if he ever fell in the water whether in a swim suit or full winter clothing. We worried about him so much with Jeff's parents living on a lake and being at the pool everyday for Hannah's swim practice. Hudson has no fear of the water. The tools that he learned are invaluable! This is our life insurance for our little guy! The pictures and video speak for themselves. Check out the link the I have put on down below.

http://www.infantswim.com/home.html

Just call me slacker!

We have been so buys the last few weeks that I finally looked at all of the pictures that we have taken since Easter. We had the annual Easter egg hunt at Grandpa & Grandma Blum's even though they were in Utah. We all had fun decorating the eggs. Most of Hudson's were his favorite color, blue. We also had a great Easter dinner just the four of us.

Our Sweet Baby Pascual

The last few days have been painful and difficult. We grew to love this sweet baby so very much! It has been an amazing experience for me personally and for our family. We learned that we are a lot stronger than we ever thought that we could be. We learned so much medically on how to take care of all of his needs.

Tuesday I went with Marissa and Pascaul, his biological parents and helped them pick out and urn and then today to the Holy Rosary Church in Woodland to set a memorial service date. His memorial will be next Thursday, March 26th, 2009. It has been a long drawn out and frustrating process due to the county involvement and lack of human compassion. My heart goes out to his parents! I know this has been a very painful and sad experience for them.

I am so thankful for Heavenly Father's insight in placing us all together through this experience. It has given me many opportunities to serve and help Marissa. I have grown to love her. She is such a sweet girl and she needs lots of love and acceptance.

I am so thankful for my sweet Jeff! He has been such a wonderful support and I love his ability to make me laugh and his ability to love. He is amazing! Hannah has shown so much concern, love and compassion not only for me but for Marissa as well. She is an amazing and sweet daughter of God! Hudson my hilarious, terrific 2 year old keeps us laughing and running. I know that he misses the baby. He will go to the crib and ask where is the baby periodically.

At the risk of sounding repetitive I am thankful for this amazing experience and that Heavenly Father entrusted this sweet baby to us. He had, has such a strong sweet spirit and has forever changed us and has helped our testimonies grow so much. I am thankful for the continued opportunity to serve and love his family. I hope that we can bless theirs lives as much and they have blessed ours.

I hope that you enjoy the pictures. A professional photographer offered his services to Marissa and Pascual while the baby was still in the hospital. He did an amazing job. Several of the pictures remind me of how peaceful he looked when he passed. Thank you for all of your prayers and love during this time. All our love!

Sweet Pascual

I know that I haven't updated our blog in a few weeks. Life has been crazy busy. For those of you who don't know two weeks ago we brought Baby Pascual into our home. He was two weeks old with Trisomy 13 which is a extra chromosome genetic disorder. He had a severe cleft lip and palate, a blood platelet disorder, a 6th pinky on each hand, heart and lung problems and his eyes never developed. Because of the cleft palate we had to line feed him through a gastric tube into his little tummy. He was an amazing baby with such a sweet special little spirit! He loved being held and loved on. When he cried we would carress his little cheeks and he would be instantly soothed. We grew to love him so much in such a short time. Sadly Pascual passed away early Sunday morning in our home. We miss him horribly but will always treasure the blessing of having him in our home. It is such a comfort to know that he is no longer in pain and that he went straight back to our Father in Heaven. This has been such an amazing experience for our family and has brought us closer together and reminded us to treasure the simple things. We have learned that service and love go hand in hand. I will add more about this precious baby and experience in the days to come. Thanks for the out pouring of love and support to our family.