Three Amazing Years!

Three years ago today Kaelyn Ruth Bonner came into this world and changed our lives forever.  As I have reflected on that day, I am in awe at all my little girl has overcome and conquered.  She is my hero and I want to be more like her.  Three years ago I was one very scared mamma.  Wondering what this life would hold for my 1 lb 11 oz little peanut.  Throughout my pregnancy I tried my best to be "cautiously optimistic", wanting to accept Heavenly Father's will over my own for my little family.  The minute I met Kaelyn, I knew I didn't want to lose her.  I wanted to be her mom.  Now, in this life.  I'm so thankful for the miracles that have kept her here, and that she is not only surviving, but she is absolutely thriving.  She makes our home a sacred place.

We had a wonderful day in Park City with friends.  Kaelyn loved every minute of it!  She even pampered herself and slept in a couple of hours and gave out lots of kisses and snuggles.  How fitting is  it that we get to celebrate Kaelyn's birthday, fathers day and our 7 year anniversary this week, the week we travel to Eastern Europe to meet Victoria for the first time!

Help Needed

Remember our friends the Brady and Nash Murray?  I can't wait for you to meet them!  They have done so much for us in helping bring you home.  They are the ones that made the video about the orphans with Down syndrome.  They shared some exciting news with us yesterday that we want to pass onto all our friends.  Please help us in this effort to help them win.  The national exposure would be so helpful in finding families for the many orphans with Down syndrome and other special needs.

My Dear Family and Friends,

 

As you may already know, Nash and I recently made a 90 second video to raise awareness for Orphan with Down syndrome.  We entered this video into a contest sponsored by Ironman.  I'm excited to announce that mine and Nash's video has made it to the final round of voting!  Out of 105 videos, we are part of a group of 15 finalists!  Starting TODAY through June 18 public voting takes place.  Winners will get to race in the Ironman World Championship as a media athlete which means this will be an opportunity for our story to be shared on NBC's nationally televised Ironman broadcast this year.  This is our opportunity to tell the story of the many orphans with Down syndrome desperately waiting for a family to find them!

 

We need your help!  Please help us in the following ways:

 

-Vote as much as possible each day from an many devices as possible, home computer, work computer, laptop, phone, etc (only two short weeks for voting)(you can vote as much as you like each day by refreshing your browser after voting)

 

-Regularly share the video link to your wall on Facebook asking your friends to Share and Vote daily

 

-Forward this email to as many people as possible.

 

This is so much more than winning a competition. This is our chance to literally have these childrens story reach millions of people!  This is our best chance to help as many of these children that are in urgent need.

 

Here's the link to the video:

 

www.rodsracing.org

 

I genuinely thank each of you for taking the time to Vote and Share this message!

Where did May go?

Yikes, I missed doing a post in May.  In fact I have no idea where May went, but it is gone.  So this is pretty much going to be a photo dump of what we have been doing lately.  Lots of days at home, outings to sporting events, walks and parks.

 Kaelyn was bored the other day so she ventured into Bryn's room and scattered burp clothes all around.  Her little acts of mischief crack us up.

 Bryn is one happy little girl as long as we keep her fed and giver her naps.  

 She is so curious and wants to have everything and anything in her little hands.

 We had a little mommy-daughter date a few weeks ago when Kaelyn went to scouts with dad so we took pictures and painted her toe nails for the first time.

 Notice the pink toe nails.

Just looking cute

 Wayne got attacked by spiderman while doing some I.T. work on my brothers computer.

 At almost 3 years old Kaelyn got her first real hair cut.  Our friend Teresa cut it for her and she was so good.  She just sat and munched on the cape.

 The morning we found out Victoria's country were allowing us to submit our paperwork the girls and I went for a run and stopped for a good swing at the lake to celebrate.  Such a happy day in our family!

 A few weeks ago my friend Shannon and I competed our 20 mile training run with the "Running with Angels" 5k at Thanksgiving point gardens.  There were so many families there running in honor of babies that did not live.  It was a very emotional run as I thought of those days when we didn't think our little girl Kaelyn would be able to survive against all the cards that were stacked up against her.  A close friend of our lost their little girl Sienna who's story was very similar to Kaelyn's.  I thought so much about her and her sweet family.  It breaks my heart to think of all the families who have lost their babies.  I know we are so lucky and blessed to have Kaelyn with us.  I want to make running in this race a tradition, to remind me of our little miracle and how blessed we are to have her with us.

 Kaelyn is our little puppy dog lately.  She loves the wind and sticking her tongue out and feeling the breeze. 

 More hair experiments and finally summer clothes!

 We went on a family hike a while back.  Just a few minutes up the trail, but it was so nice to be out in nature together.

Kaelyn and Wayne on our hike.

 Kaelyn's little cousin Gavin pushing her on the swing at Grandmas.  We need to get one of these for our yard, she LOVES swinging.

 A few weeks ago we went up to Martin's Cove in Wyoming with my brother Bart and his family.  My great-great grandmother came across the plains with the Willie Handcart company and turned 3 years old around the time their came up rocky ridge.  It was truly humbling to see first hand where they crossed and faced such hard circumstances to come to the Salt Lake Valley.  I will forever be indebted to them for their sacrifices.  I look forward to the day I can meet them and say thank you for joining the church so that I have it in my life today.

 We did over a 6 mile walk into Martins Cove, I was so impressed with my nieces and nephews for making the treck, and then even more impressed with all the children that walked across the plains.  

 Yes I look scary in this picture, but I'm standing next to the Molton family, that is my great-great grandmothers family.  They were promised in a blessing that if they made the treck from Europe to the Salt Lake Valley none of their children would be lost.  Miraculously none of their 8 children passed away on the long, very hard journey.  They even had a baby born on the ship from Europe and he survived. Simply amazing, something only God could do.

 This past week I got to play in the USA Volleyball National Championships that where held here in Salt Lake.  I played in the 5' 9" and under league.  It was so much fun.  We went undefeated in the pool play but ended up losing in the championship game.  Despite the loss, it was so much fun.  I played with such a great group of girls that have worked extra hard to succeed in a sport that is geared towards tall women.  Of course I was the shortest one on the team :)  Thats me playing middle back.

 I'm the one in the air hitting the ball, my favorite part of the sport :)

 This is us accepting our 2nd place trophy on the podium.  Our local branch of Mountain American Credit Union sponsored us and helped us pay for the entry fee.

 Me and my girls chilling on the court.  They were such good sports to hang out all day at the gym.  Luckily we had grandma LaJean their to watch them while we played and grandma Amy watched them at her house the day before.  What would we do without grandmas?

After my friend's wedding reception we changed the girls into their jammies, laid them in the back of the car and let them eat while we enjoyed the nice evening weather.  We got this two kid thing figured out, bring on the third :)