2 Years of Wonderful!

Faith Kinder Sanderson, born on December 20th, 2005

Her first birthday came so quickly!!

18 months old and such a pretty girl!!

Faith turned 2 years old last week. It is so hard to believe that she's been with us for that long and yet it feels as if we've always known life with her! (To be honest, we do have pretty fond memories of life before Faith when we go out to eat at restaurants....we NEVER imagined what a gift that was to dine together without any distractions!!)

Here are a few things we LOVE LOVE LOVE about our precious 2 year old, Faithy....

Her smile....it lights up a room as well as our hearts! Her giggle is even more infectious!!
She LOVES her Daddy! My favorite part of the day is when Murray comes home from work. It used to be just so I could see him and hug him but now it's also because Faith drops whatever she's doing and RUNS to Murray yelling "Daddy, Daddy". I can't describe the joy it creates in our home but we all LOVE seeing Daddy!
She LOVES her brother, Eli! EVERY morning she starts the day saying "Shhhh "I" sleeping" (she calls Eli, "I") she immediately does the sign for sleeping and then says "shhh" again. When Eli wakes up she RUNS to him and says, "Morning "I", "I morning". It's so cute. She showers him with hugs and kisses all day long and doesn't mind (too much) when he pulls her hair. She LOVES to share with him which we've discovered isn't always a good thing as we've had to quickly remove chicken nuggets and playdoh from Eli's mouth.
She has started to care for her baby dolls. She wants to diaper them, feed them, clothe them and read to them. She seriously teaches them as she reads. She'll say, "Baby, camel see. Baby, camel." She'll pick up her baby so the baby has a better view of the camel if she's not convinced the baby has understood her.
She loves to read and do puzzles. Her favorite book to read is her Rhyme Time Bible. She flips through her Bible for 20 minutes or so and "reads". It's SO cute. She even gets more passionate as her lesson goes on (we're still trying to catch this on video). Her other favorite book to read is the church's pictorial directory. She LOVES to look at pictures and name the people she knows. She'll sit and flip through the directory for what seems like ages in toddler time.

She LOVES her cousins. We are blessed to live near many of them and she talks about her cousins and asks for them nearly every day.
She LOVES her cousins in Texas too. Being the only girl, she's had to learn how to hang with all the boys (she has two older cousins Bennett & Briggs). It was SO FUN to see her play with them. She really gets along with all of them and loves to play chase!

*she is quick to apologize and does the sign for "sorry" when she's apologizing. The cutest part of her apology is that she ALWAYS apologizes to Aunt Kimmie. If Faith has screamed at me, I'll say, "Faith, we don't talk to Mommy that way." She'll immediately say, "Sorry, Kimmie". I'll say, Aunt Kimmie isn't here. You need to tell Mommy you're sorry." Her response is, "Sorry Kimmie. Kimmie sorry." We are happy to see a tenderness in her heart! We smile at her "Sorry Kimmie" all the time!

*she RUNS everywhere she goes. I hardly ever see her walking. She is super fast too! We're getting prepared to sit through a lot of track meets in the years to come.

*she loves to label things by who they belong to...."I's paci", "Faith's diaper", "Daddy's shoes" All day long she goes through and labels things she sees!

*she LOVES to dance. Her favorite song to dance to is "Superstar" by the Go Fish Guys (check them out at gofishguys.com if you've never heard of them. They have "great music for kids that won't drive their parents bonkers." We all LOVE their music and DVD). She calls the song "Na Na Na" and does her hand in a dancing motion like the guys do on their video.

*she loves to sing. Her favorite songs are "If you're happy and you know it", "Head shoulders knees and toes", "Patty cake Patty cake". "Jesus loves me". Her friend, Annika recently taught her "The wheels on the bus" and she likes that one too.

*she loves all her grandparents...."MaCa" (her great grandma she named her MaCa), "NayNay" (my mom), "Nana" (Murray's mom), "Grandman & Mimi" (my dad & stepmom) and "Granddad & Granlyn" (Murray's dad & stepmom). Lots of grandparents and she enjoys them all! We feel blessed to have so many grandparents loving our children!

*she's always been a great sleeper! She takes naps well and goes to bed without any fuss (most of the time). It's been a blessing for all of us!

*she loves sweets. She'll ask for a sucker. I'll say no. Then, she'll ask for a cookie. I'll say no. Then, she'll ask for candy. I'll smile big and still say no. Then, she'll ask for a treat. I try to convince her that yogurt or graham crackers could be her treat! She sometimes will fall for it.

*there are, of course, many many more things we LOVE about Faith but those are treasured up in our hearts and I'm certain we couldn't find the right words to describe those things so we'll leave them bursting in our hearts.

Faith Kinder Sanderson you are dearly loved!

6 More Months of Wonderful!!

A year and a half ago, we presented "6 months of wonderful" when our precious daughter, Faith, turned 6 months old. How is it possible that now our little boy has given us "6 more months of wonderful"??? He was just born the other day....wasn't he????

We can hardly believe that Eli has been with us for 6 MONTHS. He has been a delight to us in SO MANY ways! He is the most smiley child we've ever seen. A friend at church recently told us that he has an "infectious smile". We totally agree. No matter what mood I'm in, a smile from Eli melts my heart and brings a smile to my face as well. He smiles at EVERYTHING!!

Eli Burkhalter Sanderson, born June 12th, 2007 at 3:59 p.m.

Thank you God for giving us 6 months of wonderful-ness in the form of Eli!! We LOVE LOVE LOVE you, baby boy!!

Mommy & Daddy (and Faithy)

Cute kids

The weather has turned colder. I LOVE this picture of Faithy in her fleece pjs, tennis shoes and hat. She still LOVES going outside....even if it's only to get the mail.
Faith loves being in the pack-n-play with Eli. Here she is eating a graham cracker in front of him.
Eli decides he'd like to have a bite!
Faith figures out how to save her cracker without much incident. (How sweet of her to decide to hold her brother's hand!!)

Look-alike meter....Eli

I saw this on Amanda, Jennie and Kelli's blogs. Thought it looked fun. Not sure how accurate I think it is. Most say equally like both (or close to it). I'd be interested to see some of my friends' meters who have kids that definitely favor one parent over the other (CNS, BT, Holly O., Laura S., Ramona, Chelsea, Becky B.). I'll be checking your blogs to see if you tried this!!

Look-alike meter--Faith

Where's Faith???

Where's Faithy????? (Doesn't this picture remind you of when you where a kid??)
She's inside her indoor fort with her Daddy reading her favorite books!
A picture I just couldn't resist!!!!
While Faithy plays in her little fort, Eli practices rolling around.

Nana's visit!!!!

We had a great visit with Nana last week. It was so nice to get to spend a whole week with her. We got to go to a lot of really cool places and enjoyed spending a lot of time at home with Nana too! Mommy got a lot of items checked off her "to do" list while Nana took care of us. Here are a few highlights.....Going to the Indianapolis Zoo. We saw a swimming polar bear, lions, giraffes, kangaroos, elephants, dolphins, a tiger and so many other cool animals!!!
Faith and Daddy with the penguins
Eli really enjoyed his "Nana time"
Faithy loved looking at pictures on Nana's camera. She also liked all the stories Nana read to her.
Thanks, Nana for a great visit! We love you!!

A day with Aunt Kimmie

We had a real treat yesterday! We got to spend the afternoon with Aunt Kimmie! Eli LOVES spending time with Aunt Kimmie!

We had lunch at Red Lobster. Aunt Kimmie talked Eli into touching the lobster.

Faith, on the other hand, preferred to keep her distance.

Faith can now say "Kimmie". It's SOOOOO CUTE!

Thanks for the fun day, Aunt Kimmie!

Trick or Treat

Here are the highlights of our little bugs' Halloween....
The cutest little bugs on the block!!!!
Precious little bee

Faith had this dazed look on her face during this set of pictures. We couldn't get her to smile and it wasn't b/c of the candy. She hardly touched her sucker....but she LOVED to hold it.

Nana arrived yesterday, just in time for trick or treating!
NayNay came out for our neighborhood Halloween parade last weekend.

My nieces came out for the parade too. They are both cheerleaders (Haleigh is a Barbie one and Brielle is a gothic one. Brielle lost her "real" costume top so I had to make this one on the fly).
Grandman and Mimi also stopped by for the parade.

Faithy loved the pom poms.

Hope you all enjoyed taking your little ones around or passing out candy to the neighborhood kids. I think it's so fun to see all the costumes.

Clowing around again....

We are back home, and Eli is ready to "clown around" again...Isn't he the cutest baby you've ever seen?????

Hey everyone, good news! Praise God, Eli is home!Thank God, the tide turned quickly this morning as test results came in, and the pediatric infectious disease specialist got a good look at Eli's records and Eli himself. Except for one test that we don't yet have results for, Eli's bloodwork showed no signs of concern. Bottom line, the infectious disease doc felt that he could send us home with a powerful oral antibiotic that would fight the infection in Eli's foot, which at this time appears to be staph (not MRSA, but some type of staph). He saw no advantage to keeping us in the hospital for observation, and the IV antibiotics did not contribute very well to Eli's rest and/or recovery. (or ours! He had 5 things hooked up to him...)


When the docs examined Eli, they were confounded by the number of health issues he has faced in his 4.5 months; they place their greatest confidence in kids who exude health & energy by outward signs in addition to test results which show no real reason for concern. Thus, even with his history, they really don't feel he has a problem with his immune system or any problem with his blood / bloodstream. Praise God!


We have two follow-up appointments and we will of course be watching Eli closely. For now, he and Faith are resting comfortably here at home with us. God is good, and He is the Great Physician and Healer. We have Him to thank most of all. We also thank you for lifting us up to the Father. We owe a debt of gratitude to the incredible hospital staff (nurses & docs) and the infectious disease guy who "spoke with authority" and let us come home today instead of Thursday.



Thanks for your concern & your prayers. We still need your prayers that Eli will heal from this staph infection, and that he will experience many months / years of good health. As we move forward, we'll keep you posted about Eli's progress, and hopefully it will be a long, long time before he experiences another infection.

We were, of course, SO EXCITED to have Eli home. I'm not sure we could top Faith's excitement though, she L-O-V-E-S her baby brother!!

A BIG Thank You to all for your phone calls, emails, comments, visits, meals, etc. We feel TOTALLY BLESSED to have such wonderful friends and family!!

We have some other REALLY GOOD NEWS to share......

We are also SO EXCITED to report that our sweet buddy, Bennett, has gone home with his Mommy and Daddy. After 70 days in the NICU, precious Bennett, was released to the wonderful care of his parents. We are THRILLED beyond words and appreciate you all praying for him!!!