8 Years...

It was 8 years ago today that we last held our first son, Jacob Tyler. I must say, the day ended up being harder than I had anticipated. In fact, it was a bit harder than in recent years past -- not sure why. I had hoped that having Samuel here with us would ease that a bit, but I think it had a different effect. It ended up making me think of how things would have been had Sam's older brother been here with him. Gotta love the craziness of all of this!

We had a very low-key kind of day. In fact, we didn't even leave the house. I had planned on doing a little balloon release in Jake's honor, but it ended up raining so I scrapped that idea. We just soaked up our time with sweet Sam and remembered his big bro and talked about what this day meant. Before bed, I did go ahead and grab a few pictures of Samuel with our Jacob Bear (from Molly Bears). I love that we have that sweet bear...a bear that weighs the same as what Jake weighed. It's crazy to see how big Sam has gotten and how huge he looks next to our Jake Bear...

Sweet Sam...he will always know of his older siblings. While we may be more subtle in our ways of remembering them as time passes, they will forever be remembered and in our hearts...

We love you, Jacob Tyler!!!!