It's soon to be a Year!

It will soon be an entire year since the first time Baby Aine got to:

Be outside for the first time
Ride in a Carseat for the first time.
Sleep through the night without getting poked, prodded, and just plain bugged.
"see" her house for the first time.
Be able to be picked up, hugged, rocked, cuddled - anytime she wanted.

These are just a few of the firsts that will be having their one year anniversary on July 3rd - for that is the day that we brought our tiny little baby Aine home for the first time!

I think back to that day and I actually wonder how we did it. All the lines, all the feeds, the diapers, the unknown tears, the unknown cries, the separation from my kids, and the list that never seemed to stop. Then I think about how grateful I am that we have been given such a wonderful gift - a gift of life to cherish, teach, and help grow into the beautiful little girl that she is growing into.

I also think back to all that both the kids and Shawn & I have accomplished in this last year.
Bringing home a new baby
Learning all we are able to about Aine and what she needs as a baby
Teaching Liam all he wants to know about Aine and the world
Growing as a family
Liam learning to run, jump, swim, roll, and do all the things a kid should know and love how to do.
Aine learning to sit up, smile, giggle, start to roll over, and hold herself up on all fours.
There are soo many other things that have happened in the last year that I can't even begin to write about all of them in this short post - but you have been hearing about many of them as the days and sometimes weeks went by.

Aine's First Time playing in the sand.


Liam showing off his left handed chopstick skills :)


Life is GOOD when you have a dog to rest with


Playing softball with the boys (until Rocky stole the ball!)


Nick MY Boy - I love you!


Mommy - Baby Aine's Broke!!! (Yes - his words exactly)



GOTTCHA BABY GIRL!!! Aine's First Day home - July 3rd 2011! 1 day shy of being 3 month old.



In this short re-visit back to a year of successes in the Casey Household, we would like to thank you for being a part of it. Every smile, laugh, giggle, hug, thought, prayer, tear, fear, and most of all LOVE makes every minute worth it!



Special Prayers for the week:
V - she's a special girl who's waiting for a heart. She's had a kidney transplant and is now praying to stay healthy.
Abby - We pray that you can keep the fever away & keep your white blood count where it should be. Keep smiling!
All the families that have been affected by the storms in Duluth - we send our prayers & good wishes to you!

If you are part of our Facebook - there are some pictures from the 5k we did up. I will be posting pictures here also :)
We liked doing the 5k soo much that we will be doing more in the future - so we will keep you up to date on when, where, and all the details and we get them :)