November and December so far

It's been a full couple months, OK a full year :) Back in September Isaac started his first season of soccer, which he just loved. It wasn't a team with games, just learning basic skills in a fun way once a week. He wasn't very thrilled with the idea when we told him about it, but after the first practice he could hardly wait for the next Monday. The season wrapped up in the beginning of November. Another wonderful means of expending the kids energy is the 13-foot trampoline I got off freecycle! It's in great condition, we just need to fix the net, but so far no one has fallen off :) Don't worry, they aren't allowed to jump without us there! I love freecycle :) My parents came up in November in the middle of the pastors' conference at our church so they could watch the kids for part of it anyway. We had a great time together, as always! Never a shortage of house projects to work on either :) We spent Thanksgiving with some friends here in town since all our families live far away. Plenty of kids to play with and lots of food to eat. We all had a great time, but it's just not the same as being home with all the family! No Black Friday shopping for me this year! All I heard was how crazy it is up here. Well, we did stop at Wal-Mart in the small town near us to buy a Christmas tree stand, but it was just about like normal there. Gotta love small towns :) Then it was on to get our very first live tree! Some friends had told us about a nursery about 30 minutes away that gives you a free tree when you buy a gift card of equal value. So we'll go back in the spring to get grass seed and our garden veggies. We were super glad not to have to pull out every little branch of our artificial tree, plus it makes me sneeze and itch from the dust! The tree is so pretty and smells so good! Another first was having an actual tree topper and not a bare branch! That was an after Christmas deal last year :) Since Luke is into everything we put the tree in the foyer to minimize temptation for him. So far he's only gotten to it once :) And the latest big event was the kids being in our babysitter's wedding yesterday! Sarah has been watching the kids for at least two years, and she's just so dear to us all! She and her now husband came over a few months ago to talk with us and ask about our courtship and such. When we had shared how we so quickly felt sure we wanted to marry the other, and both shared such similar visions and desires for life (including seminary), they looked at each other and said "that sounds like us!" They got engaged the next week I think :) I think Sarah must have told the kids something when she was here b/c they weren't very surprised when i told them they were engaged! So Samy has been counting down the days until she got to be a flower girl, while Isaac, on the other hand, would say, "It's so girlish!" They both made it down the aisle, no stage fright at all! Isaac forgot who he was supposed to take the rings to when he got down front though, causing one of those classic AFV moments when he calls out "What??" as i tried to tell him where to go :) oh well! We were so happy to be part of their big day, but I was totally exhausted at the end of it. Luke was cheery for all but a few minutes of the 5 hours we were there! Thank you kind God!!

October around here

Ah, the first snow of the season. Wait, there are still green leaves on the trees! This just ain't right my friends.  The kids were out having a snow ball fight with a neighbor yesterday.  I slipped on the icy driveway this morning (when I locked the kids and I out of the house leaving for church).  This is just craziness!  But it really is still pretty, though a bit weird to see green leaves with snow on them!

Last night was the Harvest Party at our church.  It was pouring snow all day yesterday and Keith was rather concerned about the roads b/c they were saying it was going to freeze, but we knew the kids would be so disappointed if we didn't go.  So we set out and by the time we were out of our little town there was almost no snow on the ground!  Crazy how different the weather can be just a few miles away.
Samy was Rapunzel and I made her a long braid out of yarn.  (if you look close at the pictures you can see her cast!)  Isaac was Anakin Skywalker, wearing the Jedi cape I made for him and armed with his lightsaber!  Our neighbor was dressed up as Rapunzel too and had her own yarn braid :)

Time to get to church, but hoping to update on the kids later!

Colonial us

It has been a very colonial beginning to our school year! A few others ladies and I decided to make our own little Classical Conversations (CC) co-op at my house rather than shell out the big bucks to do it with the official one. We meet every other week and the kids (five actually doing school and two babies) have a blast! This year CC is focusing on American history, which worked out well with our family vacation to Williamsburg. I made Samy a very simple colonial dress to help her get into it a little more. We read some books about the time period too, but they still preferred climbing trees and playing in the dirt to seeing all the cool historic buildings :) Oh well! We also spent some time at the pool, mini golfing, ice cream eating, and (the kids favorite part) watching Episodes 1 and 2 of Star Wars that we borrowed from friends :) I, on the other hand, LOVED Williamsburg and would love to go every year! They had this fun game called RevQuest where they give you a set of instructions when you check in and special bandannas to wear. You meet your secret informant who starts you off on your secret mission and tells you to beware of spies (anyone not wearing the same color blue as the bandanna). Isaac and Samy liked the secret spy part and kept Daddy from getting us thrown in jail when someone started asking him questions related to our secret mission. Isaac said, "He's a spy, Dad! Stop talking to him!" You are given clues and have to find answers around Williamsburg and then text answers to get the next clue and if you are successful in saving the person from danger by figuring out the whole message then you get a little coin with the year and Colonial Williamsburg on it. It was so much fun, though the clues were way over our kids' heads. I sure enjoyed it :) Well, we completed our mission a little after the time of the ceremony where you receive your coin (you find out the secret time and place when you finish the game), and we were leaving the next morning, which was a big bummer! But God was so kind to allow us to see our "secret informant" we had met that morning and I asked her if it was possible to get the little prize for the kids. She was so kind and met us behind a building and went through the whole thing with us about the mission and giving us all our coins. It was great!

And then we also took a field trip with lots of friends to a colonial farm nearby in late September. We got to card and spin wool, crush grain, make candles by dipping wicks into beeswax, play some games from the time period, and then explore the farm while talking with a farmer's wife (very in character!). We even pulled weeds in the garden :)

Sundays and such

Most of you probably know that we love spending our Sunday evenings eating popcorn, drinking lemonade and watching America's Funniest Videos.  While since the NBA playoffs were on last Sunday evening, we had our popcorn on the front porch, followed by football and tag.  Isaac and Samy were too cute sitting together on the swing talking about Star Wars and princesses I'm sure :) 

Luke is growing like an adorable little weed!  He's grown 3 inches!!!  I haven't weighed him, but I guarantee he's still at the top of the chart.  I caught a few smiles on camera this week and had to share those.

While Daddy was away

Keith got to go to the NEXT conference in Orlando over Memorial Day weekend, which meant me alone with three kids for four days.  So I purposed to do lots of fun things we don't normally do, knowing that my temptation toward anger would be that much greater without Keith here to help.
As soon as Keith left Saturday morning we headed out to pick strawberries!  They weren't nearly as sweet as last year, but maybe it's because it's the very beginning of the season.  Samy had only one strawberry in her bucket at the end of it all because they all went straight to her mouth!  No wonder she had a tummy ache :)  When she had had her fill she started picking flowers instead.  Isaac lasted a little longer, and Luke slept the whole time.  We'll have to go with friends later in the season so they'll be more distracted and I can get more berries!
That afternoon Isaac's best little buddy from school came over along with him mom, and little brother and sister since his daddy had gone with our daddy to the conference.  The kids  had a super time running around and I got some time talking with my friend.  Then mac-n-cheese for dinner (their fav!) and ice cream for dessert.
Sunday after church we went to a little deli for lunch and ran into a couple Keith met through his evangelistic bible study last month.  They were so happy to meet the kids as they had already dubbed themselves Aunt Gloria and Uncle Peter :)
Oh, I should also mention that I woke up Sunday morning with no voice!  It was almost gone Saturday night, but I could scarcely speak by Sunday morning!  Allergies are in full bloom here ya know!  And then I must have pulled something in my back putting Luke in the car after lunch b/c I couldn't get the car seat out when we got home.  I could barely move without shooting pain!  I was finding all this somewhat humorous since Keith was gone when I lost my voice and could barely move :)  God's grace was quite evident that I was reacting in laughter instead of anxiety or anger!

Since it was blisteringly hot Monday I got out the Slip-n-Slide for the kids and they had a blast, though Samy was to afraid to actually slide, she just scooted herself down :)  Before he left Keith had gotten the A/C unit in the kids' room but forgot about the one in our room.  It was an adventure getting that heavy unit to our window, especially with my back out of whack :)  but Luke and I needed to sleep in the cool, it had to be close to 90 in our room!  Again, laughing that we were having a heat wave while my hubby was away, as well as our neighbors, so no help there.
Tuesday Isaac was back to school, which means out the door by 7:30 to pick up our friends' kiddos and make it on time.  Well, getting three kids out the door that early after a rough night (because Luke was in the room with me) was hard enough, and we were already a few minutes late, but then I went and locked my keys in the house after getting everyone in the car!  I called Helen and said I was so late and she took her boys to school.  And I was just grateful that it was so hot that day because I had already opened all the windows downstairs, so I pried off a screen and climbed in :)

Let me just tell you, I was so happy to see my dear hubby that evening :)  But truly, there was so much grace in the midst of all the hiccups in my plans!  I know how I have reacted to such things in the past, with anger and harsh words toward my children (whether it be their fault or not), but the Holy Spirit was working miracles in my sinful heart this weekend!  I truly was finding humor in the myriad of difficulties and seeing all the good gifts of friends and fun and not setting my expectations too high.  It was only by the grace of God! 

Here's some pics of the weekend and lots of little Lukey :)

May showers

Isn't it supposed to be April showers??  Well, we've had rain everyday for 2 weeks I think!  The ground is always muddy, which means so are my children :)  Last Sunday they couldn't resist going out to jump in the puddles (more like ponds!).

And a little catch up since I finally downloaded the pictures from my camera...
Just before Mom left we took her to the local paint-your-own pottery place to make her gifts to say thank you for taking care of us for two weeks/Mothers Day.  The kids each painted a coaster for her and I painted a vase for her new sun room.

Since the sun came out for a while on Monday we all headed to the park to enjoy it.

little tough guy!

beautiful girl :)

precious (and getting so big!) Isaac

he loves his paci, just like big brother did!

Tuesday I began my cloth diaper adventure!  I did it Tuesday and Wednesday with no leaks, but quickly discovered I need more diapers :)  So they are on their way and the other ones are washed and ready to go again.  It really wasn't that much more work than disposable, and a heck of a lot cheaper in the long run!  I even made my own cloth wipes out of an old flannel sheet.  I feel so Martha Stewart, though I'm sure her stitches would be considerably straighter than mine :)

Luke in the sun

Luke and I were walking around outside one day last week, and I couldn't resist the beautiful scene of the rocking chair in the sun.  My neighbor offered to take some pictures of him one of these lovely days soon--can't wait for some more professional looking ones :)  but he's so cute even when I'm the one taking pictures...

For those who like to hear birth stories :)

Oh what a delight to have our little guy in our arms!  Especially after all the waiting :)  A few ladies  have asked about my birth story so I thought I'd share...
We went in early on the 22nd to be induced.  We were only at the hospital a few minutes when we saw (Keith says we were tackled) Cheryl, a nurse in the mother/baby unit who we know from our church.  She was just getting off her shift but said she'd be back at 7 that night.  A wonderful greeting to begin our day :)
We chose Friday the 22nd for a few reasons, one being my favorite doctor (Dr. Jones) in the practice I go to would be on call that day.  She thought I would just need to have my water broken to get things going.  So after my round of antibiotics (I was positive for strep B) she broke it at 9:30.  Things got going but I was making no progress after a few hours (stuck at 2 cm just like the past almost two weeks), so pitocin was started and the contractions quickly got stronger.
Keith was just wonderful through the whole thing, and I remembering commenting that I'm glad I don't have to watch him do this :)  God is certainly wise in assigning our roles!  Before I started pitocin we had alternated walking 40 minutes and monitoring 20 minutes, so at least we weren't stuck in the room, but after pitocin began I was stuck.  Keith read aloud from a book on Jonathan Edwards, and though I have no idea what he was reading, it was soothing to hear his voice.  And he kept me laughing when I wasn't in pain.  As he shared on facebook, the funniest moment was when he pretended to read the ingredients on my IV bag and said high fructose corn syrup was the first ingredient :)  This after we laughed about the nutritional value of all the Popsicles I'd been downing!

Dr. Jones was such an encouragement, even as I made no progress and the hours dragged on.  She was certain I would just progress all at once, which was exactly what happened.  I got an epidural around 5, when I couldn't take the pain anymore and I was still only 2 cm.  The nurse checked me again around 6:15 and I was still 2 cm.  Dr. Jones came in shortly after that, just before her shift ended, and was stunned to hear I still hadn't progressed.  At this point I'm beginning to think I'm going to end up having a c-section because this kid just doesn't want to come out :) but she encouraged me again that she really thought I would go all at once. 
Around 6:45 the nurse checked me again--8 cm!!  Oh, I was so happy!  And within another 15 minutes the nurse had called  the doctor and he was on his way because I was 10 cm.  The doctor now on call was one I had never met and was completely opposite of Dr. Jones. She's very animated and talkative.  He is a much older, quiet, stoic Jewish man.  But he got the job done well!  After about 10 minutes of pushing, there was our precious little BOY!  It really was fun to not know what they would announce.  Since it was after 8, our friend Cheryl was back on duty and she came in to ask if she could take care of us--I was so glad to have her as our nurse! 
We called the grandparents and then I was able to let him nurse.  Then Keith was off to get me some food!!  A huge burrito from Chipotle wouldn't fit in my stomach when I was pregnant, but it was no match for my hunger at the end of that day!   And a Krispy Kreme doughnut too :)  We won't talk about the nutritional value of that :)
Sometime the next day we were about settled on the name Luke.  When Keith brought the kids up just before dinner and Samy says out of the blue "I love Luke!" in her sweet voice, it sealed the deal!
We were discharged Easter Sunday.  Made it home before 1 pm!

Here we are a week later, and I'm feeling good.  Luke is sleeping well, though we had a few really tough nights.  The kids frequently just stop what they're doing and come give him hugs and kisses.  They love when his eyes are open and they talk to him and wave at him.  My mom arrived Monday night and has been a HUGE help!  Don't know what I'd do without her :)

Pictures of Luke

Sorry for the long wait for pictures, been a little busy. I was afraid all those grandparents would be calling to yell at me if I didn't get some up today :) Without further ado...