Pictures for Any

It's been so long since I posted last. We keep busy all the time. The kids are definitely much bigger than the last post. Here's a few recent pictures of my loves. ;)

                                                             Last week at the aquarium

                                                             Finally lost that front tooth!

                                                   Luke- one of our cool dudes- 26 months

                                                          The faux-hawk brothers

                                                    Nathan's silly angry face..ahhhhhh!!

                                               This summer when Uncle Jr came to visit.

                                                            Having fun this summer.

Olivia bought the boys ice-cream from the truck! I love this picture because Luke looks so chubby!
O.k. now if you enjoyed this update leave a comment so I know and I might post more! 

Snow Day

Whoo-hoo! We had about 2 inches of snow Thursday night. Around here that means "No School!" The kids were so excited to go sliding and play in the snow on Friday. However, I've decided that we are going to go buy some good snow gear even if it only snows once a year. We didn't stay out for more than 45 minutes. I was freezing! 3 degrees out there!

Nathan loved seeing the flurries and walking around on what had accumulated overnight. He sled once with me, but didn't venture out on his own or with his sister.


Luke was the best dressed for the snow minus the all important gloves I never bought. He loved sliding and cried when we went inside for hot chocolate. We let him slide all by himself twice. You could tell he thought it was so funny!

Olivia loved sliding and would have probably across to the neighbor's yard if we would have let her! She was so proud that we let her slide with Luke. He just sat and grinned the whole time.

Hee, hee. I look like a chipmunk! Greg went into work even though I had wanted him to wait a little because of the icy roads. Turns out his work parking lot was icy so he didn't make it even half-way there and he got the message to come in later. So he returned with a Panera chocolate chip bagel which I had just taken a bite of when Nathan said he would go sledding with me.
It was great to be at home and have a "free" day to play, watch movies, color, play trains, and drink hot chocolate. Sort of like the old "baby days" of last year. A snow day. A gift of time. A gift of days gone by. Loved it.

Twenty Ten: A journey. Not a destination

Wow! It's been over four months since my last post. We are so busy all the time that posting all we've done would be too exhausting! 2009 was a great year for us. It started out with me still at home with the kids and ended with us all going back to school. Nathan and Luke have done extremely well. They both love the crafts they create at school and love their teachers. We do too! The boys are learning not only academics, bible, and social skills, but they are being loved the whole time they are there. We are blessed to be able to send them to N.F.C.A.
Olivia continues to do well in school. Her reading level and comprehension skills amaze us and we are so proud of the mature young lady she is becoming. She is so helpful with her brothers and has started doing some chores around the house. Olivia has also entered the "deep questions" stage. While I enjoy our conversations, I can see that we better be ready for future questions.
Nathan is a joy. He has the best personality making us all laugh constantly. He is so sweet, but can be stubborn at times. Nathan is surprising us every day with how much he knows. His speech is so clear. His vocabulary increases every day. He loves to build different routes with his train tracks and play Thomas and GeoTracks. Nathan is learning to share with Luke and can be such a good big brother. He and Olivia like to play, read, and dance. The three of them have tons of fun. They can be very rowdy at times.

Luke is blossoming into a toddler. Eeek! I'm not ready. Although, I guess I have kept him a "baby" longer than the first two. He (and Nathan) still deals with eczema so I've let him keep his paci. Plus, once that paci goes so does my "baby." He has started talking more over the Christmas break and I am thankful to have been home to witness it firsthand. He is so proud of himself!
Greg is still driving 45 minutes to another county to run the newspaper there. Although we don't live in the community he has become well acquainted with the community. He enjoys his job even though he sometimes works very long days.

I went back to work as a 1st grade teacher and I LOVE my class. I have 22 great students and their parents are so supportive.
We also got a puppy. His name is JoJo. Olivia and Luke LOVE him. Nathan could take him or leave him. Most days he'd rather leave him. :) JoJo still jumps up on you when he first sees you so Nathan being low to the ground already, does not appreciate JoJo's eagerness when greeting him.
Balancing work, the kids, JoJo, home, and Olivia's extra activities can be tiring at times, but it's all worth it. We just have to plan ahead and still just live one day at a time since weeks seem to be packed with so much.
To add to all this we have started visiting other churches in our area. We had been wanting a church with a better children's program. The area we live in has SO many good churches. It has been hard to get the boy's to stay in the nurseries since they are so young. We were impressed with how quick one of the churches' children pastor was to invite Olivia back to church and to their Wednesday night program. She has been attending their Prims program every Wednesday since September and loves it. The children's pastor's wife is so organized. Her lessons run so smoothly. It's been exciting to listen to Olivia share with us all that she has learned.
This year we will hopefully find a church where we feel at home and can be a vital part of a church family.
In the midst of all this we have goals we want to achieve for our family. Most of them are long term, but the kind of goals you have to work on daily. I bought a frame that sums up how I think I should deal with waiting to reach those long term goals: Life is a Journey. Not a destination. So for 2010 this will be my quote to live by.
I don't really know how this blog will evolve in 2010. I started last year as a daily blog to capture moments and share them with Greg who was at work. With all of us being gone it might just be a reflection blog for myself to reflect things we have accomplished as we live our busy lives. I might have to change the blog name as I leave my "baby days" behind.
One thing is for sure. 2010 will be a year we will grow closer as a family. I also feel that there will be lots of new things in store for us. What they are I don't know, but I do know that I am open to anything. "Enjoying the Journey" all the while!
Happy Twenty Ten!

Weekends

It's looking like the weekends will be when I breathe! Since going back to work the week days have been packed from morning til night. We play a little when we get home the days we aren't running to dance or cheerleading. We try and squeeze in some reading with the kids before bed.
I do enjoy my one on one time with Olivia on the way to and from school. We pray, sing, and talk.
Also, the hugs and kisses we get from the boys when we pick them up from their school make being away all worth it. Otherwise I wouldn't hear : "Mommy! I missed you Mommy!" -Nathan, of course.
So, going back to work? Not all bad, but definitely looking forward to those weekends!
This past weekend we went away to celebrate Greg's b-day. We had an AWESOME time!

Over

I'm so sad that my "Baby Days" are over. We had a blast this year. I will never forget or regret being a "SAHM" this year. These are just a few pictures of the boys the first day of school.



Olivia and I have been hard at work getting my class ready.


21 kids so far this year and still counting!

One

It's hard to believe that our baby is 1! We are so blessed to have "Baby Wuke" (what Nathan calls him) in our family. He is so special to each one of us. The kids were so excited to celebrate his 1st birthday.

Una semana MAS!

We have had so much fun with Mami Elia here and now she is going to get to stay for 1 more week! This weekend we went to Townsend and to Cades Cove. We saw so many bears, deer, turkeys, birds....just so many wildlife. Mami Elia was laughing because we were going crazy excited at how much she got to see. These pictures aren't so great because they were taken with my point and shoot. Man, was I spoiled with our nice camera. I CAN"T WAIT until we buy the D90 until then my little camera will have to do!

Snuggling with Mami Elia.

The water was ice cold so Luke just stuck his feet in the water.

Nathan wore his new swim trunks with the cool shark floatie shirt.

Mami Elia- just hanging!

Eating some Mayfield ice-cream. That's how we got them to leave the river!

We saw a bear cross Cades Cove Loop. Some crazy, no stupid people were right up on it! Not us!
The field where we saw 4 bears!

This deer was munching on some greens and then this ignorant lady feeds it some people food! Hello?! Read the signs about feeding the wildlife lady!

In front of one of the Cades Cove buildings- church.

Old school backyard pool party!

We're going to have to buy another pool if we want to do this again since this
little pool sprouted a hole!

Mami Elia reading her daily devotion.

Luke had his own little pool.

Hey there!

Yum! Sandia!

Beautiful girl

Two peas in a pod!


What will we do next week?