Treasures

March 1st marked what would have been the sixth birthday of our son Micah.  When he died we decided that this would always be a day to celebrate in our family.  A day to celebrate his life and what it meant to us, and a day to celebrate the gift God has given us in our family.  Every year we take the day off from life and just spend time as a family.  I really mean the day off from life too :).  We don't answer our phones, we don't do work, we even pull out of school for this one!  Then we just do all sorts of fun things.  Every year looks a little different, and every year is an adventure that our kids look forward too.  We don't have to go anywhere to have an adventure, it is just that they have no idea what we will do and look foward to each thing no matter how big or small.

What I don't think we realized when we started this tradition, is what is would teach us.  It would teach us to take time out, no matter how crazy life is (like being four days away from major banquets!) and just treasure family.  I realized today as our kids just thrived on all that totally uninterrupted time with us, that we don't do it often enough.   We don't take a break from life and just spend time with each other.  Although I would love to have Micah here with us and the party would have been so much better if he had been part of it, I am so thankful that we learned this through our loss of him.  Our family really is a treasure to us and we praise the Lord for how He has blessed us through our kids and our marriage.

Here are some pictures of the day's events.

The girls watching the rest of us make some brunch of waffles, bacon, and fresh squeezed OJ

The middle man trying hand hand at squeezing oranges

 

 The boys love to make orange juice

  

 We played lots of games too.  One was a new one we picked up called Eye Spy Eagle Eye.  It was fun for everyone.

  

One of the only smiles we got out of our sick little man.

  

 Here was the start of a special birthday treat we made.

  

Here was the yummy finished product

  

 The big man was a big fan

  

 This is seriously how the little man looked all day...very sad

  

The girls kept us well entertained with silliness throughout the day

 

 

So I started this post over a month ago when my back was still very bad.  The three little ones have already changed so much since these pictures were taken!  I will have get another post up quickly with updated pictures, especially now that I can sit comfortably at my computer again.  :)