Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. We missed Steve so much, as he had to work. But the boys (Avery and Silas anyway) understood about being thankful. And Avery was REALLY into it. We went to my parents' house and they were very well behaved. And had a lot of fun playing with their cousins.

Sorry for the lack of posts this month. It seems as if things are so busy anymore that I forget to get on here. I'll try to do better, as there are a lot of fun times around the holidays that I'd like to share with family and friends.

My pregnancy is going well. I saw the doctor yesterday and he quickly found a heartbeat. My energy level is increasing too, as the second trimester is here and I'm not too big yet. Key word here... YET! I'm definitely growing and it's becoming more and more obvious. And baby is starting to make some movements that I can for sure distinguish. How fun to feel our little blessing in there moving around! I have another appointment with the doctor just before Christmas and at that time we'll schedule our "Big" ultrasound. And yes... we will try to find out the gender. :o)

Well, it is late, the house is quiet, and this mother is tired. I'll leave you with a couple of pictures:

A sweet and thankful pilgrim! Avery spent Tuesday at school with his dad for the "Thankfulness Celebration." He sure makes a cute one!

Where'd my baby go? Nolan had his first haircut last night. He looks so grown up! But as Steve said... "he looks like one of my boys now!"

Just an update

I realized this morning that I haven't update the blog in a while. To be honest, we've been busy, but very good lately. The boys are growing like crazy, and I pray we can make it through the winter without new wardrobes.

I'm feeling pretty good and starting to get some energy back as the 2nd trimester is almost here! Apparently, having 3 children and being pregnant can be exhausting! Who knew? But besides not keeping up on my housework, I've done fine. I pray that the rest of this pregnancy will be as uneventful.

Steve has had a lot going on. He's had classes that he has both taught and attended for the fire department and is helping his grandpa build a barn. I must say I've been impressed with his skills as a carpenter. He doesn't know that he just got himself into a heap of projects by demonstrating this ;o) I'll try to take it easy on him!

We had a terrific Halloween! The boys wore themselves out with a little trick-or-treating and then the Harvest Hoe-down at church. It was a lot of fun for mom too. I love watching them enjoy themselves! Oh how quickly they are growing! It's both wonderful and sentimental for me to experience. Avery is seriously getting so tall! What happened to my baby???

A Fourth Blessing!!!!

I've waited long enough to add it here! We have a fourth child on the way. This one was a little bit of a surprise, but no less of a blessing to us! I waited until I saw the doctor to share so that we could be sure that things are off to a good start...and they are! Baby is due May 20th (our anniversary.) We've told the boys and they are very excited. Avery insists that we must have another boy. Silas says he wants a sister. Nolan... well Nolan will be 15 1/2 months old when this one is born. They'll probably grow up much like twins! So, here we go again!

I wanted to add these adorable pictures of the boys. Avery and Silas went to Camden's birthday party on Saturday. It was a bowling party and they had a blast! In this picture, Avery is bowling on the left and Silas on the right:

Silas' technique... sit the ball between his legs and heave it down the alley:

Avery is getting it right. He did a great job:

And this last picture is from our trip to the pumpkin patch on Sunday. The boys were in their costumes because we were on our way to trick or treat Grandma and Grandpa early! I couldn't catch the power rangers because they were too far ahead of us. But here is our sweet little Scooby riding in the wagon:

Lessons about God

We were driving in the car the other day when Silas began asking questions about God. His questions usually relate to the things God made. So he would ask "Did God make corn?" "Did God make grass?" And the list went on and on.

Avery started looking out the window adding to the list... "God made sunshine, and the sky, and the rivers...."

That's when Silas asked "Did God even make shoes?"

Avery piped right in... "No silly, but God made people and he gave them the brains to make shoes!"

What a great answer from a five year old! You've got to love when they get it right!!!

Autumn... A time for family

Wow, we've been busy lately, but it's been a lot of fun. We've visited family and been enjoying the fall weather. Sunday, we visited Grandma and Grandpa Shell and the rest of the family down there. I took a few pictures of the boys hanging out with Grandpa and playing on the farm. And in the last one of these, daddy is taking them on a ride on Grandpa's new toy:


Monday, I took the boys to Walmart for some groceries (all 3 by myself :o) And as incentive to be good in the store, I let them pick out some costumes for the Harvest Hoe-down at church. They were so excited to find these costumes in their favorite colors and WITH muscles. We had to have the ones with muscles! And here's the cutest little scooby doo you've ever seen:
Yesterday we went down to Grandma and Grandpa Frye's (our home away from home I think...) We had a great time. Grandma helped me make some grape jelly, which turned out delicious! And then, Avery and Silas helped Grandma make a cake. They had a lot of fun, and I know they are making a lot of memories at times like these!

8 Months Old!!!

Baby Nolan is 8 Months old already! I can't believe how big he is getting. He's pulling up on EVERYTHING! And he's getting very vocal, trying out new noises all the time. I wanted to add some pictures from this morning. I can't believe how big he is!!! In the second one he's only holding on with one hand...



And I thought I'd share some pictures of my VERY dirty boys from the park on Saturday. They spent the day playing at the campground where Grandma and Grandpa were staying. And they brought back so much dirt that they clogged the drain in the shower of the camper! But they had a great day (Grandpa even took them to a festival that was going on there.) Enjoy our blessings:

Fun in the fallen leaves!

The boys had so much fun playing in the fallen leaves at Grandma's house yesterday. Avery tried to rake up a big pile by himself, but found that he needed some help. So mommy came to the rescue and got up a big enough pile for all three boys! It's sort of early for the leaves, but Grandma had plenty in her front yard. Enjoy the pictures of my three little sweethearts:

Back to Life as Usual

We're so glad to be back to life with Steve at home! It's funny how being away from someone can make you realize how much you take them for granted. I haven't wanted to be away from Steve's side since he got home on Friday. And neither have his boys! Today was Steve's first duty day back and you could tell that Silas was struggling with it. He was grumpy and whiny off and on all day. It's really amusing to me how much that little boy feeds off of his interaction with his daddy! They're a pair!

We've had a good week. I honestly can't believe that tomorrow is Friday! Life just continues to speed on full force and we just try to keep up. There's always an adventure waiting around the bend. I guess all we can do is hold on and enjoy the ride!

Daddy's Home!!!!

Steve is in his truck headed home from their cache site on the west side. He'll be home in the next half hour or so. And, as much as I've reported here, now that he's home you may not hear from me for a few days! We're going to be spending as much time together as possible for the next few days, making up for 21 long days apart!!!

The boys haven't been able to sit still this evening. Between Daddy coming home and the cake we HAD to have here to celebrate, they can't wait. But then again, neither can I!!! My husband and best friend is returning to me at last!

Thank you everyone for all your prayers!!! I appreciate them more than you know! You'll hear more from me in a few days...

A fun morning!

Somedays I wish Avery wasn't in school every day! This morning I would have loved to have had him along as we went to the library and then the apple orchard.

We drop Avery off at 8:30 and had a scheduled MOPS trip to the orchard at 10 a.m. So we went to the library in the meantime. We missed Avery, for sure! Here are pictures from the library where we did puzzles, played games, and read books.

Nolan pulled himself up to his knees! Won't be long until he is cruising around stuff!!!

And we had a great time picking apples and having slushies at the orchard. Mommy also enjoyed some time to get to know the other moms from the MOPS group. Here are some pictures of Silas there. Apparently I didn't get any of Nolan, but he enjoyed eating the apples! And he loved the apple cider shushie that Silas shared with him!

And, of course I can't end a post without updating on Steve. They are de-mobilized for sure, and are headed out of Texas this morning. They are staying the night somewhere is Arkansas tonight and then will do the rest of their driving tomorrow. They will be home late tomorrow evening or tomorrow night. Please pray for safe travel! We're almost done with this adventure!!!