1st lost tooth!

Keara lost her first tooth today during school! She was wiggling it as we were reading from our book. She didn't even cry, instead she got up, rinsed her mouth and came and sat back down to listen to the book. She is very happy and excited as the tooth fairy will come and visit her tonight! She looks so cute with a missing tooth!!! Here are some pics for you to enjoy! She is growing up WAY too fast!!! :)!!!

Cathi

60 years together

We got the honor to go to Minneota, Minnesota today to spend time with family. Herman and Annie (Jason's grandparents) will be celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary tomorrow. All the grandkids/great grandkids made it there today to celebrate and have pictures taken. It was so good to see family and spend time with all of them. Time was way too short, we had to leave early due to the weather and the condition of the roads. But even though our time was short we still enjoyed ourselves. So here are some pics of today! Enjoy! I only hope that I will one day get to celebrate 60 years with Jason, what a blessing that would be. :)

Cathi


Our family with Herman and Annie Bottelberghe


Herman and Annie with our whole family


Jason and his cousin Jeremy


Keara with Great-Grandma Annie


Colby with Great-Grandpa Herman


Herman and Annie with their grandkids


Herman and Annie with their great-grandchildren (there were a couple of grandkids in this picture holding their children) :)

Let the countdown begin.....

With all that has been going on in our lives lately we have been given the opportunity of a lifetime and we are jumping on it! We can use some laughter and joy in our lives these days and this is just what we have been given. On February 24th we will be getting up very early in the morning and driving down to Omaha to board a plane headed for warm, sunny Florida for a week. The company that Jason works for is sending us down there for some R&R, which we all need right now. We are totally excited for this new adventure. We will be flying (yes, I will probably have to man handle Jason to get on the plane) and we are all very excited! Briana and Mikayla haven't flown since they were 5 and 3 months old. Colby and Keara have NEVER flown so this will be a new experience for them. We are so grateful for Bob and Jeanette and our Sunkota family for sending us on this trip. Words can't even begin to express our gratitude. We will be taking our video camera, photo camera and the girls I am sure will be packing their camera's as well. It will be memories in the making and right now that is what matters the most, those memories. Things to cherish for years to come. So we are starting out coutdown to Florida! We are excited to get away from the snow and cold for a week and enjoy some sun and warmth! So here is to warm, sunny Florida February 24th!!!!

Cathi

Happy 7th Birthday Colby!

Well I am a few days late on this post. I have had A LOT on my mind lately, literally! So anyway...I wanted to update and post some pics from Colby's big day on Sunday. Because it was a chemo treatment weekend, we just had Grandma and Grandpa over to celebrate. Which is a good thing, I was not very social. I did have a great conversation with my mother in law and at one point started to cry, it was nice to have a motherly pair of arms wrapped around me in my sorrow! Thank you so much Char for listen and giving me your shoulder to lean on. It has been a roller coaster to say the least but I keep marching forward. I keep my head held high and take it one day at a time. I am reading my bible and spending some time with my Lord each day. To read the bible is comforting to say the least. Much I am getting out of this. I am journeying through the Bible in one year. I am in Exodus and Matthew. So many things I learned in Genesis and am learning now in Exodus. Things I knew already but many many things I didn't know. Each day is something new and each day there is a hidden blessing. So anyway....happy birthday to my lil man! And here's to many, many more! Enjoy the pics!

Cathi

Happy New Year!!

Welcome 2010!!! May this be a glorious year in the Bottelberghe household. I haven't blogged much lately except the randome stuff here and there. Nothing much going on in our lives. We went back to school on the 4th and we are STILL trying to get back into a routine again. Hopefully this week will be better. The middle two kids will go back to "school" at Anita's house 2 days a week starting tomorrow. I am still enduring chemo every week for 2 weeks and then a week off. Our CT scan showed great progress so far and that is such a huge weight lifted off me. This weekend has been a weekend of staying warm and relaxing as much as possible. I have broken out in some sort of funky rash on my cheeks and my hands. Thinking it is from the chemo but not really sure. It is sore and red. Looks like a very dry skin that is trying to heal after putting lotion on it but not sure. My brother, his wife and 4 kids paid us a visit yesterday and spent the night and left around lunch time today. I haven't seen Mike in a year and 1/2 so it was nice to spend some time with him and "catch" up! I got to see Jodi and the kids this summer but it was nice to see them all together and hang out! We were amazed at how well our kids just got into their groove together. You would never have guessed that they hadn't seen each other in a few months. They always get along so well and really enjoy each other's company. It was so fun to hear the laughter/giggles from the little people this morning. Thanks for coming to visit us and catch up Enright's!! Next time it will be us coming that way for a visit!! :) We went to Dells this afternoon to see the movie Alvin and the Chipmunks the Squekuel. What a cute movie. The kids really enjoyed the movie and so did Jason and I! It was a nice break to the day. We are all tired in this household tonight and so it may be an early night as we have school tomorrow. Hopefully I will have some exciting stuff to blog soon. Who knows! For now, know that we are still around, we are just busy with "life". I hope you all had an enjoyable weekend!

Cathi

RIP Daisy: July 10, 2009-January 2, 2010

The children are learing about the cycle of life the hard way around here lately. Another of their kittens has died. Daisy was sick, and I just knew she wasn't going to survive the winter. Wish I had taken her to the vet a couple of weeks ago but didn't. Not many pictures of her and many of them are from this fall when she was smaller but we wanted to pay tribute to her here on my blog! It is a sad day in the Bottelberghe household :(. She will be missed! She is up in Heaven frolicking with her brother, Prince!! We are now down to 5 cats around here. All of momma kitty's kittens she had this summer are gone. 2 have died, 1 ran away and the other went to Mikayla's friends house to live, Coco's 2 kittens are still around, they were born around the same time as momma kitty had her liter. Sad, sad day!

Cathi




Daisy is the kitten facing the camera with her eyes closed. her momma is on the bottom step.

Blizzard 2009

Look at all this snow we got for Christmas! We went sledding down our "hill" today! It was a good time but very tiring for me! Oh well it was worth it for the laughs and good time we had together! Enjoy!

Cathi

Gingerbread House

I have never bought one of these before but this year, well this has been a different sort of Christmas for our family, so on Tuesday when we were getting some groceries they were on Rollback at Wal-Mart so on a whim I decided that we would try it this year and see how it went. It went very well overall, the kids had a few moments where they were fighting over who got to do what and where. So this house is all them! I think they did a fine job and they really put their creative juices to work! So from our house to yours, may you all have a very blessed Merry Christmas!!!