It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

We've been busy around here this month!  The shopping, parties, crafts, baking, wrapping, cards... you know, all the normal "December" stuff :)  We're all so excited for Christmas in just a few days!  Alex is so fun this year!  I love celebrating the holidays with kids!!  

 He told me that all of the animals were lined up to see baby Jesus!  He knows Christmas is "Jesus' Birthday" and can tell you the Christmas story... but, he is of course excited about the presents and Santa too ;)

 Nathan got a hairline fracture in his lower left leg 2 weeks ago when he slipped on a tomato that he had just spat out in the kitchen.  That, of course, has made this a much busier month!  They did not have to put his leg in a cast due to his age and the way the break was.  They gave us this removable brace instead, which I am so thankful for!  The first couple of days he was in a lot of pain, and the doctors appointments and x-rays were traumatic (for us both!)  He didn't walk on it all for a solid 2 weeks and was extra fussy due to the painful leg, frustration over not being able to get around normally, and the onset of some kind of stomach/diarrhea virus at the same time!  He adapted to his leg by crawling and walking on his knees though (it's amazing how quickly kids adapt!).  Yesterday (at two weeks and one day) he finally started walking on it a little bit again!  We went for a follow-up appointment and it is healing nicely.  It may be another 2-4 weeks before he is back to normal, but he is much happier being able to get around more normally and without so much pain now! 

We used this picture for our Christmas card this year!  :)  I finally got them sent out on Monday, which isn't too bad, right?  ;)

 Alex LOVED seeing Santa!  He had no fear this year, he just went right up and sat on his lap!  He told Santa all about the pirate ship he wants for Christmas.  He's been talking about the Imaginext Pirate Ship for over a month now.  We already had a "Santa Gift" that the boys were going to get from Santa (since we do one big gift and stockings from santa - and everything else is from us) but then Alex wouldn't stop talking about the pirate ship!  So, we weren't left with much choice - Santa is giving Alex the pirate ship for Christmas!  Alex has been counting down the days with his Christmas chain and our other countdown calendar and can't wait for Christmas day! 

 This little guy doesn't really get it, but follows his brother's excitement!  He'll repeat Christmas words and has been trying to sing "Jingle Bells"!  He loves the Christmas tree (and taking ornaments off) and has happily done all of the Christmas crafts with Alex and I!  We got a family shot with Santa (which I'll have to upload later using the scanner), so he did ok with that (no tears!).  He wants "Spiderman" for Christmas!  He is strangely obessed with Spiderman - I'm sure having a big brother has something to do with that ;) 

 Christmas will be so much fun with these two this year!!!  I think I'm probably as excited as they are :) 

 Love this sweet boy!!!

 We went to the Zoo Lights downtown this past weekend!  They had a nice train display that the boys absolutely LOVED.  I think they could have stood here all night ;)  We watched for at least 15 minutes, then had to convince them to leave!

It's so fun being downtown at night!  We drove around DC some to look at the monuments and capital building all lit up!  I hadn't seen them at night from close up and it was really beautiful!  The zoo lights were a lot of fun too, Alex especially liked them! 

grieving... but living.

It has been six weeks since our angel left us.  We are very deep in grieving.  Although it has gotten better with time, I am hurting, sad, and angry.  I'm grieving the loss of our precious baby, the loss of being pregnant, and the loss of the plans and dreams we had for the upcoming months and even years.  We miss Jeremiah all the time.  It's hard and it hurts.  I'm clinging to God's promises and rejoicing in knowing that he is in the arms of our Savior.  He skipped all of the terrible pains of this world, and went straight to his eternal home.  But selfishly, I want him here on earth with us.  We love you, sweet angel. 

Through the grieving, we are still living.  We have two wonderful children here on earth and we are still enjoying time with them and making memories.  Since it's been a while, here is what we've been up to the last month or so:

 Alex played in many more soccer games, he loved it!  He made his first actual goal at the last game, and was so proud! 

 We carved pumpkins of course (yeah, it's been a while... haha)

 And the kids loved dressing up and going trick or treating!  It didn't take long for Nathan to catch on and beg for candy! :)

 We went to trunk-or-treat at church, then came home and trick-or-treated in our neighborhood for a bit too.  It was a lot of fun!!

 Alex got a trophy at his end of season soccer party!  He carried it around with him for the next two days... so cute!

 Michelle came for a visit over Veteran's day.  We went to the American History museum and walked around downtown. 

 It was a fun couple of days! 

 She brought her puppy along, and the kids loved her!!

 We decorated our tree really early this year... almost a full two weeks before Thanksgiving!  We had to get it up before Gary's family came for the holiday because we always celebrate Christmas at Thanksgiving with his side of the family. 

 The kids are very excited for Christmas this year!

 Gary's family came for the week of Thanksgiving!  This was Thanksgiving morning when we decided we'd have "Christmas Morning" together!

We had a great week visiting with Gary's side of the family.  The kids especially had a blast with all of the extra playmates and attention!

Keep praying for us through the holidays and as we approach our due date - this is a hard time of year to try to be joyful, happy and thankful in the midst of such pain. 

October

Well, I've avoided the blog long enough.  I guess it's easier to post the happy things than the really tough and painful.  We lost our sweet baby boy, Jeremiah James, on October 12th.  Things have been an emotional roller coaster pretty much the entire month of October, but we're hoping November will bring better days.  It really is amazing and scary how quickly life can change.  We think of and miss Jeremiah every day and wish he were here with us, but we know he is our angel in heaven that we will hold again one day. 

In the midst of the tears and pain we've experienced this month, we've captured many smiling moments with family as well, and of course those are the memories we want to see in the pictures.  So here are some of the fun memories that we'll hold on to:

 Cox Farms with the boys!  They loved the hay ride, slides, animals, play areas, maze, etc.  What a fun day!

 My dad was in town on a business trip and extended his stay when the uncertainty began.  We enjoyed a day at Old Mine Ranch while he was here.

The kids' cousins, aunt, uncle, grandma, and grandpa came for a visit in mid-October.  We enjoyed a day at the zoo together!  

As well as a day downtown... we did some walking and sight-seeing and also went to the Air and Space Museum. 

 The kids all really enjoyed playing together!
 

Last weekend we went to the pumpkin patch to find our carving pumpkin!  I insist on going to a "real" pumpkin patch every year to pick our pumpkin out of an actual pumpkin patch :)  

 Alex was really into finding the BIGGEST pumpkin to carve! 

Another fun day with the kids :)

A day in the life...

I was rereading some old posts from about a year ago, and thought it was fun to read about our "typical day"... wow how things change in one year!  I had a little baby a year ago... and in another year I'll have a third little baby!  Anyway, for memories sake I thought I'd type up a quick "day in the life" today! 
Monday-Thursday are pretty routine around here... with two extra little ones around plus my two, things have to be! 

6:00 - Wake up, make Gary's lunch, Gary heads off to work! 

6:30-7:30 - Nathan wakes up, take a shower while he does blanket time upstairs, snuggles on the couch, and Alex wakes up

7:30-8:30 - Elijah and Asher arrive, watch cartoons, eat  breakfast, get my kids dressed

8:30-10:00 - Play time!

10:00-10:15 - Snack time, Bible story

10:15-11:00 - Project time, letter of the week activity

11:00-11:45 - Independent Play time (one boy upstairs, one in basement and Nathan does blanket time for 30 minutes or so then helps me) while I clean up and make lunch

11:45-12:15 - Lunch time

12:15-1:00 - Play outside if it's nice or do some kind of activity inside

1:00-1:15 - potty, stories, down for naps

1:15-3:15 - Nap time... which ususally consists of me napping as well or watching tv/relaxing!  I'm so exhasuted these days!!

3:15-3:45 - kids wake up, watch a show and eat a snack

3:45-6:00 - Free play, outside play, clean up, make dinner, etc.

6:00 - daddy gets home and kids leave!

6:00-6:30 - Family Dinner!  (And soccer practice or small group for the evening if it's Tues/Thurs)

6:30-7:30 - Play with daddy!

7:30-8:00 - Baths (every other day usually), jammies, stories, bed time

8:00-10:00 - relax with the hubby and usually fall asleep on the couch ;)

10:00 - Head to bed!

That's our "normal" routine :)  Of course the 6 month old that I watch eats a few times and takes a couple of naps in there somewhere, but it isn't really consistent.  We have soccer practice and small group at 6:15 on Tues and Thurs right now and are gone all evening pretty much those nights... and I try to take the kids to the park for a picnic once a week in the middle of the day.  Other than that, this is our normal weekday routine!  Gary is still off every other Friday and on the other Fridays I spend the day with the kids doing something fun :)  I'll be watching the extra kids for a little while yet, but have given them just before Thanksgiving as my "last available date" so that we can have soome time to prepare for baby 3 and enjoy our time as a family before becoming a family of 5 in late Jan or early Feb! 

A great weekend!!!

We had such a fun weekend!  Friday Gary was off and we went to the zoo!  Alex has been asking for the past few weeks when we can go to the zoo again... it was good "zoo weather" because it was very fall-ish.. not too hot, not too cold :)

 It's fun to see how much more into the zoo the kids are each time we go.  The last time we went was a few months ago for Nathan's first birthday.  He loved it then, but was even more into it this time!  He could see animals that were further away, made more animal sounds, and knew more of them by name.

 They're so funny because of all of the unique animals, they always LOVE to watch the ducks!  They stood here a good while and we had to drag them to the next thing!

 Friday night was Alex's first soccer practice!  He has been SOOO excited for soccer... but so far everything has been rained out (the first two practices, and the first game).  They rescheduled practice for Friday so that the kids would meet the coach and get to kick the ball around together before their first game on Saturday!  Alex had SOO much fun at practice!  He did a great job following directions and jumped right in!  He can be timid and we were a little nervous how he'd do, but he did GREAT! 

 After his first practice he came home, put on his uniform and played soccer in the living room the rest of the night!  Then he put his uniform on right after breakfast, grabbed his soccer ball and played again until it was time to go to his game!  He could not wait!!! He kept trying to get us to leave alll morning! 

 He LOVED his first game!  He was the only kid on his team that didn't have a melt down at some point AND the only one who played the whole game without any help from mom or dad (going on the field with him)!  He ran and ran, it was so cute!!  He defninitely wasn't super aggressive in the sense that he didn't really try to "steal" the ball away... I guess he's used to being nice and taking turns haha! 

 He did LOVE to kick it though and played so hard!!  It was adorable :)  I hope he enjoys soccer this much the entire season!