OH.... The Excitement!

This Christmas season has been one of much excitement at our house. The boys are VERY into it this year. And tonight, Christmas Eve, is the epitomy of excitement for them. We had dinner with Grandma Darlene and Papaw Bobby and then visited Daddy at the station. Daddy had presents for them to open! Their new pajamas and slippers!!! Our Christmas Eve tradition.

After we left the station we headed out to see some Christmas lights. Now that we are home, it's comical to listen to the excitement spilling from their room! At current count, Silas has been up 3 times to "see if Santa has come!" No matter what I tell him, he just refuses to believe that he has to sleep for Santa to arrive. He's a night owl anyway, so I may have a hard time outlasting him tonight! :)

Steve and I have had several conversations lately about how Christmas means so much when you have children. Of course this excitement is much of it. But I can also imagine the excitement that Mary and Joseph felt that first Christmas. Awaiting the birth of their baby boy, The Miracle Child from God! Despite the exhaustion from travelling to Bethlehem, the discomfort of staying in a stable because the inn was full, and all that goes along with being "with child," our Savior was born this night. And Christmas is special because Christ was born! WE ALL HAVE SOMETHING TO BE EXCITED ABOUT THIS CHRISTMAS EVE!

God bless you family and friends and Merry Christmas to you all!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Merry Christmas from Our Family to Yours!

I love the holidays! And sharing the holidays with children makes them incredibly more exciting! I mean, driving past a house with Christmas lights on it is like winning the lottery when you are 3 and 5! And to me, it's a great reminder that life is about living in the moment and making the best of what you have. What better moment is there than hearing your children say "oh wow! Look at that!" ?

We had a fun family day on Friday. We went and picked out our Christmas tree, ate out together at one of our favorite restaurants, and then came home to decorate the tree. The boys watched The Grinch and had hot chocolate while we got the lights on the tree. Then they helped decorate it. They did a great job. Here's a picture of our beautiful tree:

Another one of my favorite things to do this time of year is to watch the specials on television. Tonight a Charlie Brown Christmas is on. I love to watch these shows with the boys because I still remember the excitement in watching them myself when I was their age. It's so fun that the same classics stick around! And it's so cuddly to have the house all cozy with Christmas lights and decorations while you sit all cozy watching it together. Life seriously doesn't get any better than that!

Saturday, the boys and I had a day in at home. We stayed in our pajamas all day, enjoyed our Christmas decorations, and did some fun things together. Here the boys are decorating some cupcakes we made with sprinkles:


I told them not to use too many sprinkles, so our cupcakes instead of being covered in sprinkles, have 3 or 4 sprinkles each. Oh well! They were still delicious! After this, we made ornaments to hang on our tree. Take a look:

Avery's tree was very pretty. He hung his on the tree first! (that becomes useful here in a couple more pictures)

Silas hurried to color his after he saw Avery hang his on the tree. It's still just as special. Then Silas rushed to hang his on the tree. This is where it gets funny...

When I went to see where they hung them, this is how they looked. (sorry the picture is dark) I laughed and laughed. When Avery ran in to see Silas', Silas said to him "I made them friends Avery. They are friends now!" Oh, the sweet innocence of a three year old! This made my day, and the ornaments will be around for years as a reminder of this day and the fun we had!

And what makes Christmas even more special this year is that Avery and Silas understand very well that it is not about Santa or presents. They know we celebrate Christmas to honor the birth of Jesus Christ, our Savior and King! And to hear them remind me and each other is something that makes my heart jump for joy! Dear God, please don't let them ever lose sight of the true meaning of Christmas! They are such wonderful little boys!!!

I'll finish with a few pictures of my 10 month old! We cut his hair the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. You'll notice the difference in the pictures below. Notice also, what a happy boy he is!!!

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!