Antonio Turns 21!!!

Antonio had a birthday this week!  I don't know why this birthday was so hard for me this year but truly I am just amazed.  How did this child of ours get so old so fast!!!  21!!!!

He was just a little guy when we adopted him.  23 pounds at almost 6 years old!  We quickly started working on getting him evaluated for a G-tube.  Until then we used an NG-tube through his nose to feed him extra calories.

He quickly started to put on weight, grow and get healthier.  Praise God!

I know he is very tired in the picture below but I wanted to include it, to show how sweet and kind he has always been to all of the other children.  Here he is holding Zeke's little hand.

Antonio was a very medically fragile infant and child. (He was a 23 week preemie)  He had so many issues, surgeries and hospital stays his whole life.  I can't even count the times or amount of days he has been in the hospital since he has been with us but he is so worth it.  He is such a miracle and it is by the grace of God he is here and so healthy today.  God is faithful!

He has always been such a good boy. We have all loved him as one of our own from the very beginning.

William and Antonio have always had a very special bond.  They still do to this day.

William would do anything for him to make him happy. 

He is a genuinely happy soul.  He encourages others and prays for everyone he knows.

He could not be a better son!  I have hardly ever had to discipline him.  He is a very easy going, laid back, young guy.

He truly is a great blessing to us.  We try to find ways to include him in everything we do and take him everywhere we go.  If it is not wheel chair accessible, we don't go.

He has always loved all his siblings so much.  Being one of the oldest children in the home, he has watched the middles grow up from little babies.

Antonio has really enjoyed having young children in the house again, with our newest additions.

Antonio felt well on his birthday and wanted to go out to eat to the Hibachi Grill. Then we came home for cake.  He wanted Aunt "S" to make him a cake with Oswald on it, like Timothy had, so she did.  He loved it.

 Thank you Aunt "S" and Uncle "B" for making his day special!

You are a wonderful gift from God and such a blessing in our lives, my sweet Antonio!  May God bless you with health and happiness every day of your life!

Psalm 91:16  With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

Love, Dad, mom, Stephen, William, Carolyn, Zeke, Elizabeth, Billy, Timothy, Kinsley and baby "A"!!

 

Decorating Cookies!!

I try to help the children decorate cookies this time of year, every year.  Last year I was not up to it.  I was a bit overwhelmed with the toddlers behaviors and Kinsley was a baby.  I still did not really feel like attempting it this year, with baby "A" needing my attention so much right now.  The older children begged me for weeks.  I finally told William, if he made the cookies the day before, I would help the younger children frost theirs.

I was very impressed to see William up late, rolling out sugar cookie dough and using cookie cutters one evening last week.  I did not have to do a thing.  He even cleaned up the kitchen when he was finished.  :)

The next day I made a huge batch of frosting and the children used it and food coloring drops, to make little bowls of all the colors they wanted to use.  I had also bought decorating packets of colored decorating frosting and candy, to decorate with. 

Billy and Timothy have been very into the gingerbread man story lately, so they picked out gingerbread man cookies to decorate. 

I let them each decorate their one cookie and then proceed to eat it!

Carolyn and Elizabeth had spent the previous Saturday, at my sisters, making cookies all day.  Carolyn did not feel like decorating any cookies that day and helped Kinsley decorate a circle cookie.

Antonio's has a teacher that comes to the house one day a week.  She was at the house this day and helped Antonio.

 Elizabeth and William did the bulk of the decorating.

Now..William can be a bit creative and has a mind all his own.  All of the gingerbread men became Mega-man, Superman and lego characters and the round cookies became lego ninja faces...

Zeke had a cold and did not want to help or participate.  He also can not have wheat or dairy so could not have eaten any he made.  So he did other things.  I did get him to come in the kitchen toward the end, to sit and talk with us a bit. 

I just had to include this picture below.  We don't have candy in the house very often and Billy ate a red hot for the first time in his life.  He thought it was one of the M&M's.  Bless his heart!

I pray everyone had a wonderful season of Thanksgiving and has their heart and mind on Jesus Christ and His miracle birth, all the year long!

Psalm 47:1 O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.

Blessings,

susan