Life, Love, Laughter

Thursday, December 22, 2016

Celebrating our favorite person today!

I can hardly believe its been 3 years since I've updated this blog. That makes me sad, its a bit crazy as so much life has been lived in these 3 years. But that's not what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about someone special, the reason we need to celebrate today. The man who gave me my miracles.

The Daddy who is my partner is achieving all of my hopes and dreams and then dreaming BIGGER when our wishes come true.

Today this hunk of a hubby turns 40!!! I can hardly type those numbers without bursting into tears its gone by SO fast! 40 years of life well lived. Not an easy life but he has taken it in stride and worked so hard for the half of those years I've been a part of his life. Our journey started a little something like this circa 1996:

The we got married in 2002 and planned our future. Purchased an acreage that would hold our forever dream home. Bought another house to raise our babies in until we were ready to move to the land that would hold our forever home.
Then we wanted a family and were so excited to bring a child into the world. Our plan wasn't God's plan. Christmas 2004 we announced to our family's we were expecting a baby! We were over the moon and daddy was getting his little boy. The Holub name would be carried on forever. Sadly, Dalton James was born 3/30/05 and passed away minutes later. We became parents to an angel. Why god Why? But we decided losing Dalton wasn't going to define us. We were going to live our life for him and make him so proud. We felt so blessed by this little tiny blessing we created.

We yearned for more after the loss of our baby. Human nature right. So we got a puppy. Our precious Skylar 5/10/2005 who helped this mommy's heart heal so much. And Daddy had his big dog they were the best of pals. But there still was this emptiness, it took a little longer and we were worried we would never get to bring a baby home, we just wanted one more baby that God would let us keep. We didn't know the journey we would be on would be so rough but God said to us, if you obey and take a risk, you will get to keep this baby. We fought the odds for him, we fought people and doctors and negativity and guess what, God provided!

Dylan James. 9/15/2006 born at 23 weeks, weighing just 1 pound 5 ounces.

Dylan's journey was long and hard fought, we were told Dylan had less than a 1% chance to survive and guess what..... We ran with that 1% and prayed and gave it up to God. God provided and saved our precious baby. What broke my heart thru all of this new journey of parenthood, this humble Daddy spent his 30th Birthday with his 1 lb 5 ounce baby in the NICU fighting for his life. We went to dinner with friends that night in Iowa City, the nurses kicked us out of the hospital for some us time and we talked that night, we vowed from that day forward Brad's next 30 years were going to be BETTER! No more struggle, we were fighters and together we were going to change the negative past and live each day and make our life so grand! But God had other plans. Not that God's plans weren't grand, but we quickly learnt that we needed to trust his plan and our plan wasn't always his plan. 20 months later we welcomed our precious baby girl in to this world. Danielle Marie 6/27/2008. Our family became complete. But her journey was hard. Born at just 24 weeks weighing 1 lb 9 ounces, life for her would be different.

Whew we thought thank you Jesus. You gave us a beautiful family, loving parents, life would be GOOD. We could live without struggle, we already had our struggle right. Maybe it was our young ignorance, maybe our faith was ignoring gods voice, maybe we hoped just a little too much. But we had each other and these next 30 years for this amazing hubby and Daddy we were going to make the best 30 years yet. So we lived our life. We Adventured. We laughed and cried. We celebrated. We raised our babies with our friends and their babies. And when things kept popping up trying to kick us down, we fought back. We were dreaming and living and these miracle babies had fought so much just to be here, we were living our life for THEM.

Then life got scary. It came time to slow down even more. We were always aware but it came time to look around and listen and realize that these days were to be lived yet also to realize that as quickly as our little Dalton was taken away from us, it could happen again. We lost my Mom to cancer. Medical issue after issue and surgery after surgery crept up for our girl. We sold our land, our dream home on that 4 acres would be no longer. We faced reality. Our life was different. We moved to town to be closer to her school, to her medical providers, closer for our nurses. Our little Danielle went thru 13 brain surgeries in the last 3 years. A hip surgery. And just recently on Thanksgiving we lost her and my sister and this very brave daddy they went to work immediately together, and saved her life. Britni and Brad, angels, miracles themselves from God. What was god telling us? We fought thru so much. Every single thing our babies need we jump. Every single obstacle we jump over. Every single hurdle we run thru or fly over because as parents, that is what we do. God entrusted us with these living breathing miracles, and our life is lived for them. Being a parent with Brad may look different than a lot of other parents journey's, or it may look similar, but there is no body else I would ever want by my side.

And this Daddy, how can I ever repay him, other than loving him, for saving our girl. Their connection is amazing. Daddy worked so hard for our family for so many years and still does, traveling away from home to make ends meet. So we could give these babies every single thing they need when they need it. And now he is able to be home, enjoying every single precious second with our family. Right where he should be.

These last 10 years have been far from easy like we promised each other. We promised to change the negative and make it positive. We vowed to each other to live each day for just that, the gift that is. We never expected more struggle, more hardship, we never expected to be tested time and time again. But somehow thru it all, with each other we are better, when one is down the other holds us up, when one is weak the other is strong, that is what team work is about. That is what being married to Brad Holub is about. We are amazing at life together. We are blessed by this Daddy more than I ever imagined we would be when we began our life together 20 years ago. We are so lucky he is ours.

So today honey we celebrate you. I am so sorry the last 10 years from your 30th year to your 40th year was not what we promised each other. I am so sorry that we have fallen so many times, but I am so thankful that we are strong and get back up. I am so thankful that I get to live this life with you and celebrate you. I know you don't like anything fancy for you. But there is nothing in this world that could ever repay you for all you've given me in our beautiful family. I know now we are living a life without limits. I know recently we vowed to not live our life in fear, that we would live our days like it was our last. That we wouldn't shelter our babies, that we would live this life with them even more today than the day before. So for these next 10 years until that next big number in life and even from then on, we will do life up big. We will dream bigger than ever before and we will be stronger than ever before. And this 40th birthday may look just as scary as your 30th did, which makes me so super sad, I promise that we will be able to celebrate just like you like. Together with our family. After-all that's what we've fought life so hard for right. Our 2 miracles and 1 Angel.

And while you don't like anything fancy and don't like to be doted on, I WILL get you to Alaska for your dream hunting trip, I promise you that. Its on the tippy TOP of my Dream board. I love that we are dreaming bigger together and I will work so hard to make this dream a reality. So sometime in these 40's babe, count on it, no matter what life brings us that is how we will celebrate you BIG. Your wish and dream will come true.

Happy 40th Birthday Brad, an amazing Hubby and Daddy!

And thank you Dean and Jo for raising such an amazing man that we get to spend all of our days with.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

2 Miracles & 1 Angel- March for Babies

2 Miracles & 1 Angel

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Year End Review....in pictures!

My goodness I've been a little behind the times on this updating stuff. Time to put it in the blogging books and do a little year end review....Picture style!
Fall fun for Everyone!

Swim lessons and playing outside were a few early fall favorites for our crew!

Duct tape day at school during Homecoming week! Can you guess who he is?!

Kindergarten already? sigh, he sure is precious.

Racing day at Newton Motor Speedway! A father's day gift almost a year in the making was finally played out on this afternoon in October! 3 of the most deserving Daddy's I know!

A post race dinner in Kalona at Tuscan Moon! What a fantastic full day with two of the most amazing couple friends in our life. We are so lucky to have them!!!

Pumpkin Patch 2012 in Ames!

AMAZING PLACE! We will definitely make a trip back!

Romp in the corn!!!

Our little 6 year old braved this slide all by himself! WTG Dylan!

Grandpa and me!

Fall day trip up North! Stare off to start!

Cheers.....ice cream style!

In August I threw a bridal shower for Brad's cousin Cassie! She was more than deserving. All of this in preparation for her Fall Wedding!

October 20, 2012, Dylan's debut as a ring bearer! He did a fantastic job!!

Cassie the bride with cousins Taylor and Dylan

Great Grandma Holub and Dylan. LOVE her!!! She is the BEST!

Cousin Kenzie and Dylan. LOVE her too!

Brad's Dad and all of his Aunts and Uncles + Grandma! Great picture!

Danielle and cousin Lucie!

The most beautiful bride I have ever seen!

There is nothing more precious than a Daddy and his baby girl.

One of the most beautiful couples that we know. Congratulations Cassie and Cody!

This family has done SO much from us since day 1 of Brad and I dating 17 years ago. They are amazing people and we are SO blessed to have them as our family. Watching these kiddo's grow up to be model adults like their parents has been touching. I hope Brad and I are at least half of the parents that Connie and Dan are, if we are then I will chalk that up as a job well done. It was more than a pleasure to celebrate with this amazing family on Cassie and Cody's special day.

Fall Fishing!

Birthday's are SO special, especially when you are an adult and you pull off an amazing slumber party!

Craft during the best slumber party ever!

Cheers!

A few of the most beautiful, inspirational women in my life. One lucky girl here! Thanks SO much Tay for the hospitality! And a VERY Happy Birthday Kir!

Pumpkin carving!

Daddy takes this very seriously!!!

Wicked cool!

Loving our Treasure Hunter Pirate!

And our beautiful Poodle Party Princess!

November our little peanut had sudden Adenoid removal and a Uvulectomy. Poor thing had to spend the night with Mommy at the U.

The kids came with Mommy to vote for the President of the United States! He was SO proud to go along!

Here come the Holidays!

Football on Thanksgiving?! Only in Iowa would we get a November heat wave!!

Time for Christmas tree choosing! It was a beautiful day, little breezy but we managed to get a tree cut down and decorated before the snow coated the ground!

It is always a special day when we decorated for big brother Dalton. Dylan was really into helping this year, and making sure everything was just perfect for his big brother. Melts our heart!

Christmas at All Saints! One more thing I absolutely LOVE about our child's school!

We were invited to a magical nite by the ARC East Central Iowa! We had dinner and cookies, Santa even arrived on a train and the kids got to sit on his lap! This even was AMAZING! Only 20 families were invited and we were more than proud to be one!

First Christmas of the season at Grandma and Grandpa's for Grandma Martin's Celebration!

Dylan's Kindergarten Christmas Program! He did an amazing job this year singing and doing all of the motions! It was a beautiful program, we are SO proud!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow! The first snow of the season. He watched out the window for several minutes as the first snow blanketed the ground!

Holiday travel 2012! Dec 22nd EARLY A.M we headed for the 13 hour drive to Pennsylvania!!!

Even our furry family member, Skylar, got to go to Grammy's house for Christmas!!! She was SUCH a good girl, not making a peep for the entire 13 hour trip!

Desperate calls for desperate measures! Yep after stopping in a town during a black out to find ALL the businesses closed....we allowed for a stop to water nature! His first time ever, Daddy was quite proud of course!

Pennsylvania Christmas with my Mom

Morning treatment time to help keep those lungs clear!

My Mom's very peaceful abode, it is literally her sanctuary.

We celebrated after our drive for Daddy's Birthday! Happy Birthday honey! You are an amazing Daddy and Father, thank you for being you. We are SO blessed!

Early morning ventures of Mom's property. A secret around every corner!

A tube slide Britni and her friends put together and love. This absolutely cracked me up!!! Notice she is sliding down on a skate board, LOL!!!!!

We got to watch my sister tear it up on the indoor Field Hockey field. She is an amazing athlete!

Was Daddy ever so proud to teach his son all about the loves of a bow!

Sleeping in Grammy's arms....there is no place better for an evening siesta!

Grandpa Phillips. Love him so much. Little did we know, this would be our last Christmas with him.

He really enjoyed visiting with Brad, giving him bits of history about PA and Cedar Rapids too!

Christmas Eve cooking!

Cousin lovin! Cutest little Christmas kiddo's ever!

Dylan, Savich, Nola and Sayla!

Christmas Eve found us at St. Columba for evening Mass. It was snowing quite a bit and we were quite early so we sang Christmas Carols in the car. Fun times with my festive family!

Spreading reindeer food!

Late night indulgence with family!

Have you been naughty or nice?!

My Mama did such a great job making her home our home for the Holiday's! Love you Mommy!

Reindeer prints in the dusting of overnight snow?? NO WAY!

We ALL get stocking fillers from Santa!

Best feeling ever, being with family on Christmas morning!

Snowman making kit! How fun!!

Love him!!

This picture makes me feel so sad, she looks pitiful....but I ensure you she got plenty of family loving this trip!

Twins 16 years apart?

Two loves of my life

Absolute first love of my life

There is nothing better than having a sister, someone just like you to love and who's always around!

Grammy, Danielle and her new bracelet!

Beautiful girls!

Uncle Chase and his mini me!

Mom got Jesus his very own birthday cake! After all he is born for us! For him...we celebrate!

A Christmas evening game of Angry Birds

Packing up, heading home into the worst Blizzard ever! These kiddos were amazing travelers.

As soon as we saw plows stationed every 2 miles in the median we knew something was up. We hit the worst Blizzard ever. 16 hours later and a LOT of patience on the road we made it home safe. Our Angels were for sure guiding the way.