...in pictures

We continued our tradition of spending Nate's birthday at Disneyland. 

It's the best option for what is a sad, sad day for us.

Once again, we had lunch at McDonald's (to commemorate our days living at The Ronald McDonald House) and then stopped by the party store to pick out our balloons.  We were excited to find "Nathan" balloons this year! 

I can't believe how much the kids have grown since we started this 3 years ago.  Now they are all writing their own thoughts and birthday wishes onto paper by themselves.  It both melts and breaks my heart to read them...

We tell Brady about his big brother all of the time.  Someday he will understand.  I thought that it would be easier to celebrate Nate's birthday this year since I had Brady to fill my arms.  It wasn't.  I love having him in my arms (trust me I rarely let him go), but It was just a constant reminder of everything that we missed with Nate.

 We sang happy birthday together as a family standing over Nate's special brick.  Tears always flow when we do this...from all of us!

Note:  Notice that my hubby is on crutches.  We have had a rough week around here with out of town travels and chaos.  Then, the night before Nate's bday, he re-injured his knee (had knee surgery last December after hurting it on Christmas Eve - yep...we got to spend Christmas Eve at the emergency room last year)!  Another surgery is scheduled for Monday - ugh!

 We let the kids release the balloons this year...

 It was a beautiful sight watching them float away into a beautiful blue sky...

... until they got stuck in the tree --ugh!!! 

The Disneyland employees promised to climb up and release them after the Park closed.  So sad that we didn't get to see them disappear into the sky.  I wonder what the thousands of Disney visitors thought as they passed by that tree on their way into the park.  I wonder if anyone knew what those balloons represented.

 We snuck another birthday cake into the park and had a little celebration in Tomorrowland.  I think Disney should allow you to bring in cakes!

 I'm sure that at 4, Nate would be loving Disney so we bought him some Mickey plates.  I know that he would have been running around everywhere with a huge smile on his face :)

We always get birthday buttons for Nate (and the other kids too). This year, Noah wanted to wear it (last year my hubby wore it). He just LOVED how all of the Disney employees would say "Happy Birthday Nathan" when they passed by.

A special family picture that will go on our calendar next year to represent the month of "March".

I got a new necklace with all 6 kids on it last month. 
Love. Love. Love.

And...I got a heart ring with Nate's initial. 
Love.  Love. Love.

Wear them both everyday...for now.

 We continued our tradition of letting the kids each select a "Micky" balloon.  They keep them in their rooms for the entire month and it's a special reminder that March belongs to Nathan.

 We did it. 
We survived another birthday. 
 It was good. 
It was sad. 
It's not the way that it should be but we're doing the best that we can given that the birthday boy lives in Heaven.

Thanks to everyone that sent us birthday wishes for Nate this week.  It means so much!  So, so much!