this time two years ago.

This time two years ago...
I was in a good amount of pain, carrying a good amount of fear and anticipation.

The pain has come & gone, and come & gone again - the fear and anticipation has come in normal ebbs and flows like it should, but the love has grown, grown, grown.

This year you've become the big brother, learned how to walk and then run and then play and then do it all at warp speed. This year you've learned to dance and to sing and give us all the kisses. This year we've seen your heart become more open to others, more sincere with us. We've seen you play in the rain and we've watched you roll on the floor laughing. You've grown to love cars & trains and your sister and doing the turkey wing.

You've become a ham and a servant. We've waited patiently as you've begun to learn patience and while you've grown to respect our authority and learned in your humanity, to buck it. We've giggled as you've covered your mouth to laugh and tried to breakdance with kids twice your size.
We've tickled you and been tickled by you and we've just been amazed at the love God has given us for you. You are our Ebug, our big brother, our silly goose.

It's been a great year, Elias. And I cannot wait for one more.
Love you E.

thankful thursday, a bit early

Today is the hardest day of vacation - the day after, made even more complicated by some lost luggage (and thus lost clothing, glasses, moisturizer, and phone charger) but I thought my attitude needed a little pick me up. Let's hear yours too!

- I'm thankful that all the kids stuff did make it here. Bottles, clothes, & babies in general. It was a close call on our last flight, Gloriana almost asked to go home with someone else.
- For our bed. I loved staying at my mom's house, but Nick & I have an intense fondness for our king size city with the bamboo sheets. Also - our tv to fall asleep to & our open window to the NW air.
- For Lost on tonight.
- That Elias has been asking for his "Mommy" all day today. Not me - no, no, no. That's what he calls his Nonny because he can't pronounce n's. It's bittersweet, but I love that this trip really solidified extended family in his mind.
- My babes. They're just great. Elias & Glory could possibly be the coolest people I've ever met. Raising them in the love and knowledge of Jesus Christ is an honor & a blessing.
- To have Elias' SECOND BIRTHDAY PARTY this weekend! It has snuck up on me & we have some serious planning to do in the next few days, but it's going to be a blast.
- For this segment on our pastor. I thought it was entertaining. I think they managed to catch every clip of him screaming or talking about sex in seven minutes. I also appreciate Grace playing with the kids in the yard wearing skinny jeans & heels.
- That tomorrow I WILL reply to about six thousand emails I've been slacking on.
- For our assistant & friend Larlar, who held down the fort while we were gone.
- For our new assistant, Carissa, who we've just met but who seems really sweet & efficient.
- To be back at home, where we belong for now. That feels nice.

vacation pics installation 1

It only took me till the last night.
Thanks to Nonny & Poppy for taking the advice of a blog comment and surprising us with a recharged camera battery!

sick day.


cars at chuck e cheese.


twinsies.


human trash can.


who's holding who?


quite possibly my favorite picture ever.


typical bully.


back to being nice.


overstimulated.


Nonny & Glory.

It's Sunday morning and I'm laying beside a sweet little boy who is still enthralled with the Cars movie. In truth, I only put it on just now in hopes that he'd pass out and I could go back to watching Top Chef. No go.

We've had a really sweet whirlwind of a weekend. Friday was our first full night away from the kids together in almost a year and all week I was dreading leaving them while they were sick, but around noon - I was itching to get out! When Nonny was all ready for the babes, Nick and I packed up and started heading to Rock Hill. Three whole hours in the car later, I felt refreshed and just really, really blessed to not have just reached behind me 306 times to grab a passy or fetch a lovey.

Nick had a quick meeting with possibly our favorite pastor in the world, Robbie Fischer, and I got some more reading in. After that, we went to Leland's sendoff for the Navy party that was sad but exciting all at once. Leland is Nick's brother and he leaves this weekend for bootcamp, while his new wife and baby will come meet him when he gets stationed in the next few months. Be sure to pray for them if you think about it - all three of them! I'm sure they'll all do great and I hope this is a really fun adventure for them.

After dinner, we met some Charlotte friends at the greatest Starbucks in America - also known as East Blvd. After some good laughs and catching up, Nick whisked me away - because, come on... we only had one night totally away from the kids. He was really sweet to get us a nice hotel room to enjoy for the night - sort of like a "birthday/Valentines/babymoon/just-because-we-can" suprise and it was really awesome to just pass out on a luxurious bed with no baby monitors in sight!

Saturday morning, after we had sufficiently slept in, I got to meet up with Mere & Etim who had driven in from Durham to hang out and it was awesome to go to lunch with them and just sit & catch up. Back to the hotel to get dressed and.... on to Staci & Tanner's WEDDING!

Oh - this is a post in itself, but the synopsis is - it was beautiful, she was beautiful, & I'm so excited to see what God does in their life together. The only sad part was we had to leave WAY too early - the dancing had just started and we barely got to talk to some sweet friends... but we had to truck it back to Mt. Pleasant to be here when the little ones woke up this morning.

So that's what we're doing this morning - reuniting. And napping. And cuddling.
Our short trip is almost over, but not before we have a BIG chuckie cheese celebration tonight.
YES. more to come!

vacation update.

These aren't very interesting posts, but I feel like I should update.

- The travel day on Wednesday was amazing minus a quick puke session on the way home which kept us from being able to see Leigh & Gray in Columbia.
- Thursday was a good catch-up day and I got some good time with the Walters kids, for which a blog is forming. I also got to go to lunch with my mom, which was very sweet.
- Today Nick and I head off to a little vacation alone for the night. Going away party for Leland, coffee with friends in Charlotte, spending the night alone, spending the day with Mere tomorrow, & Staci & Tanner's wedding tomorrow night! YAY!
- Elias has picked this week to begin having two year old temper tantrums. We've developed our strategy and we're sticking to it, but Lord - it is exhausting. I'm sure more blogs to come on this later.
- Sorry for no pictures on this trip. We brought our camera & forgot our camera battery recharger. Oops.

What goes up, must come down, can go up again?

This is totally unrelated but I have to say, as I'm starting this post my sweet son is writhing on the floor screaming "TRAAAAIINNNNS!" because he is so mad that I just turned Thomas the Train the movie off, to have the inauguration on in the background. I guess he voted for McCain.

...wait...

Fast-forward eight hours later & I'm just getting back to writing this post.

The gist of it is that yesterday & today were the Murphy's Law of vacation. In the past twenty four hours, two separate babies have thrown up two separate times. Seriously, we've had like, three diarrhea busted diapers. One toddler, a bit wobbly from his recent pukage fell and pulled a muscle in his neck - leaving him on the couch in one position for the rest of the day. A few ruined outfits and quick trips to a nearby cheap store because mama forgot to pack a backup outfit when we did venture out. Lots of tears, lots of snot, a few temper tantrums, & not nearly enough naps.

But we've made it through - the puking is over for now and the neck has healed. Tomorrow is perhaps the hardest day on the kids of our whole mini-vacation - lots of driving and many hours strapped into carseats. We had a good word of prayer with the little ones tonight and we're believing that tomorrow will be much better than we expect and they'll just really enjoy their time with their Grandpa Connolly, Leland, Megan, & baby Haley!

Just in case, I'm packing extra outfits.

in a different world.

Sorry if you've emailed, facebooked, or texted... I've been in a different world.
For whatever reason, when I'm at my mom's house - I don't even look at my cell phone. She does such a great job making it feel welcoming, homey, & vacationy all at once.

Friday we hung out at the house all day, family birthday dinner at night.
Saturday morning it was mani's & coffee for Ruby, Nonny, & I. Then Chik-fil-A with all the kids, then the boys went downtown to the new apple store & urban.
Saturday night, mom offered to do a "grands sleepover". Somehow Annajaye, Ab, Abel, Elias, & Gloriana all fell asleep and Katie & Josh got a datenight.
Today we did church at Seacoast, then football all afternoon & night. (Thus my new blog header.)

All that said, I won't bother you with the details for the rest of the week. I'll just say I'm REALLY enjoying my vacation.

how is vacation going?

Well, let's see.

• While our first flight was horrible & we we almost missed our second flight, when we did get on that plane - both kids promptly passed out and we had a whole five-seated row to ourselves. Ahhh.
• Getting off the plane in Charlotte, Elias saw his Nonny and ran about fifty feet screaming with his hands outstretched to catch her. It was about the sweetest thing I've ever seen.
• Both babies saved their travel meltdowns for the last hour of our drive to Charleston.
• Nick got to sleep in on his birthday this morning! (Birthday tribute to come later)
• I've only changed two diapers today! Both kiddos love their aunt CC (caroline) and she actually offers to change diapers. Is that for real?
• I got to go grocery & last minute birthday shopping this afternoon while Nick studied - worry free because I know my mom can handle it all.
• Right now, Gloriana is napping - Ebug is at Walmart with the Non & CC, so I'm sitting in a quiet house waiting for some quality time with my sweet sister.
• Family birthday party for Nicholas tonight with all the bebes. Five kids, one helpful teenage, and six adults. Let's the games begin!

My only question - is this the east coast, or heaven?

this time tomorrow.

I'll be passed out at my mama's house with my babes in a room near by.

If you want to hear a weirdo secret, I actually kind of like the adventure of flying with our little babies. I think I just like spending time with Nick - he makes stuff fun. If you think about it though, pray for Miss Glory. She has three teeth coming in and she is just not really happy.

So, a 6:50am flight and we'll be in Charleston by dinner!
Vacation, here we come!

Two boys & a Girl.

Today was a sweet day.
Yesterday at around 4pm, I tried for the final time to see if there were any cancellations for an ultrasound before our trip this week. I guess I sounded seriously desperate because the sweet receptionist scheduled me one at 9am this morning - when they don't usually start until 9:30.

It was odd going into an ultrasound having literally no care as to what we were having, I just wanted to see all four chambers of the heart, that the ventricles were in tact, etc. etc. etc. We had gotten the call yesterday that the quadscreen that checks for things like Trisomy & Downs came back totally fine so that was just a great relief to know it wasn't a scary ultrasound ahead. We've had a good deal of those, and they're not fun at all.

We're well acquainted with the ultrasound tech at my ob by now, and we know she isn't much for small talk or excited chatter but I still did ask her to humor us and let us guess the sex. Literally, about three seconds after she put the sonogram wand on my belly, Nick and I both said - "It's a boy." He was right in position & showing us all his jewels.



While she spent about forty five minutes measuring and checking every little bit of him, Nick and I just thought about another boy and what that meant. Glory will have two protectors, she'll most likely be our only girl, Elias will always have someone to play ball with. Another handsome boy to look like his Daddy, another sweet son to cuddle with. And - oh, this one is a cuddlebug. In every shot, he is rubbing his face or laying with his hands folded beneath his chin.



He had one little, little minor blockage near his kidneys that they are going to keep checking on - but Nick and I have learned not to freak out when they promise you it is minor. Even if this blockage doesn't work itself out, it would only mean Baby Tres being on some antibiotics for a while to help his little self go peepee.

Other than that, he is just a big, healthy boy. Yesterday we also got my early diabetes check back (and it was good) but when she measured him today her first question was, "Do you have a history of diabetes?" Because he is a biggun. Big head like his older brother and long legs like his sister. I can't wait to hold all probable ten pounds of him:). I'm 19 wks and 1 day, (thought I was 20 wks, 1 day) and he is measuring 20 weeks and 6 days. And at that week's measurement - he is in the 70th percentile for body and 90th for head size. Thank you Jesus that I know I'm having a c-section. I've done 36 hours of labor with a big head and it sure isn't any fun.

So, thanks for your prayers & sweet comments. Feel free to keep suggesting those boy names, and we'll let you know the final decision around June 1st.

accomplishments of the day.

Football is on ALL day. So Nick got a kid day/football day and I got to clean.
- I finally got to organize the kids closet/clear out all their old clothes. Abel and/or Ava have some really nice things coming to them depending on what we're having. For the record, I think Miss Ava Winkler will end up being the lucky recipient. I think Abel will be giving all our boy clothes back:).
- Downstairs furniture dusted.
- Massive section of house that is hardwoods cleaned - for the first time I tried a white vinegar solution & I really liked it. Nick hates the smell though.
- Soon, I will vacuum downstairs & up, clean the bathroom, and tonight I'll take all the ornaments off of our family tree. I mean, it is January 10th.
- I got to send several long facebook messages to my new internet friend, Michelle, thank you miss Sirkie-poo for the connection.

HOWEVER - the real accomplishment of the day is:
Elias finally gave me all the kisses. I give him ALL the kisses all the time, but when I ask for all the kisses - I usually only get one. Today, not once - BUT TWICE - has that sweet little boy come up to me and just covered my face in wet ones. Oh, praise Jesus.

today.

9:30am - I'm still asleep, sort of, because it's my sleep in day when Elias, Nick, and Gloriana come to my bedside. Nick is carrying some coffee & Elias is carrying an acorn. He hands it to me & says "TAIS YOU!". With a start like this, you cannot have a bad day.

10:00am - Elias and I try to watch Beauty & the Beast because, frankly, I'm sick of Cars & Thomas the Train - but he won't do it. Glory doesn't nap so we all go play downstairs with playdough and try to work on our colors. Our focus is blue.

11:30am - lunch does not go well. Apparently, you can have a bad day if you're me. Nick swoops in and helps since Glory is teething like a mammajamma & Elias has already had two spankings.
* seriously - Glory's top two teeth are coming in and it is almost funny how swollen her gums are, you can see the whole outline of her teeth! It will be an interesting few days. *

1:00pm - Elias naps & Glory plays in her pack & play while I finally get to read some Bible words. I love my bible about three weeks ago and haven't been diligent to replace it, today Lauren gifts me with an old, unused ESV of her's & I swear I feel better just by placing my hand on it. Mmmm, I miss you - sweet sword.

2:00pm - Elias is still napping, Nick is at the store, my heart feels better & Glor and I watch Maxie & Spinelli fight on General Hospital. She smells like sour cheese - I'm probably not doing much better. How can it go down hill so quickly in one day? Yesterday I smelled awesome.



I envision the rest of the day looking something like this:
Elias will wake up with a vengeance, Glory will need to nap with a vengeance, they will trade place and E and I will play until I convince him to sit still long enough for me to "go potty", also known as taking a shower. Nicholas will return from his haircut, which I won't begrudge him - since I'm finally going to get one in a few weeks, and we will go on a special datenight. Dinner somewhere healthy & cozy, then to Starbucks so he can keep studying and I can write something for my writing group on Sunday.

ahhh, fridays.

thank you, Jesus.

We are home, at our house, safe & dry.
Our little lot was totally spared and the streets are all clear around us.

I hope I don't sound ungrateful, I'm just psycho tired and still reeling from the events of the last 24 hours! By ten am this morning, I felt like I had been hit by a mack truck - which I have been before (in a really gross car accident), so I speak from experience. (My husband just informed me it was a GMC truck, not a mack truck - either way, it was one big ole truck.)

When I walked in the door of our house at 1pm, I must have looked pretty gnarly because Lauren pretty quickly started baking some banana chocolate bread to help me make it through the day. I couldn't figure out what the heck was wrong with me - I felt like I had the flu and a cold and was in labor... and then I realized, in all the madness yesterday and today I had forgotten to take my thyroid medicine for two days - which is just long enough to cripple me.

Tonight I will be taking tylenol pm and tomorrow I will DEFINITELY be taking my meds.

Thanks Jesus for a dry house & a safe family.
Amen.

baby banana update

info: I wrote this blog on Tuesday the 6th, so pre-flood. Baby is still safe post-flood, however.

I just read tonight that little Tres is the size of a banana now. Ummm, I want some banana bread... to be specific, Lauren's chocolate banana bread.

Anyhow - today I learned a valuable lesson that you shouldn't call your husband from the OB & say "I have good news & bad news". That freaks them out.

My good news was that my four hour doctor's appointment was only going to take an hour since I'm not really showing any signs of diabetes this go round, they don't need to do the full out glucose test. The bad news was that when I went to schedule my ultrasound, my ob was totally booked up this week & next and I probably won't get to find out the sex before we go back to visit family. Otherwise, there was no real bad news. Heartbeat is good, and even though it seems smaller to me than the last two - my belly is right on schedule.

We are in a short waiting period for an all-clear from the genetic testing. We really debated whether or not to do any screening since we went through such an ordeal with Glory getting a really high false positive for a fatal genetic disorder, but our doctor made the decision for us. She felt since we tested so high, we should at least do the primary screening to be sure everything is fine. It's funny - with Glory, I was told I'd hear back in a day or two about those results - but because it was so out of the realm of my imagination that something could be wrong, I thought nothing of the results being several days late and just casually called to check when I found out everything was not totally right.

This morning, I tried really graciously to explain to the sweet lab-lady that I must be called PRECISELY when she said she would call. Not a day late, not a week late, really - like to the minute. But the truth is, I'm not crazy anxious. Not because I know everything will be ok and not because it doesn't scare the poop out of me if something isn't ok. I just feel ok during this little wait because I've learned that when it comes to everything - my plan is so much smaller than His & my idea of problems always seem to be the start of one of His solutions.

But I still look forward to doing a celebration blog post with a wine glass full of orange juice when the sweet lab-lady calls me soon.

we are safe!

It was a normal, normal rainy day in Puyallup.
We had a staff meeting this morning, Elias watched cars, & Nick headed off to a meeting.
On the way to his meeting, he called me a little worried about the rain and the rumored prospects of flooding but locals had assured us it would all be ok.
Around 1:30 pm with Nick halfway through his meeting and almost an hour away, Elias and I were cuddling & Glory was fast asleep. Lauren came upstairs and warned me that downtown Puyallup was definitely being evacuated, but still our neighbors were all staying put.

I casually called Kelly to ask her if maybe we could come spend the night, couldn't get her on the phone, but didn't freak. Thank God Nick had done all of our laundry last night, so I took some fresh clothes for the kids and us and started throwing them in a bag. Lauren had decided to stay and wait it out, I figured we would just go on precaution.

And then - the poop hit the fan. Apparently the levees near our house all broke, (fyi: I have NO idea what that means) and the fire department was saying this would be record flooding - we had no choice but to leave immediately. Literally, the director of our ministry ran in the door screaming "WE HAVE TO LEAVE NOW!". Lauren and Beulah got ready to head to a hotel, but I was feeling a little panicky with my crazy toddler, sleeping baby, & still gone husband.

I won't get into the details of my near panic attack and narrowly-missed premature labor, but an hour later - all four of us were headed to the Cowans, safe and sound.

So now - we're here. Very thankful to them for taking us in & very thankful to the Lord that we aren't one of the families we're watching on tv right now, being air or boat rescued from their rooftops. Who knows what tomorrow will bring - maybe a surprisingly dry house? Maybe a massive mess to clean up? Maybe us bribing the Cowans to stay one more night?

We'll see.
Prayers excepted.

let's see how this goes.

I like to talk to moms a lot about scheduling their kids, etc. because I think it is one of the most important things in survival for babies & toddlers. It makes your life easier & there's too if they are in a place where they really thrive. Our schedule is usually based about 50% around our ease and 50% around their needs and this week, we've had a major shift in that balance. This is what our old schedule looked like:

8:00 approx. wake up
10:30am Glory nap, Elias reading/quiet time
12pm both babies lunch & play
2:30pm Glory & Elias nap
6:oo/6:30pm bedtime

This schedule was pretty convenient for me & it worked for them ok, but lately they started to have some little symptoms of things not completely working out for them. Like, they started waking up at 6am instead of 8am. Also, Glory started getting psychotically fussy for like an hour before naps & by noon, Elias was laying his head down in his lunch plate. We needed a change.

So, we're two days into a new schedule that is amazingly good for them and pretty inconvenient for me. It looks like this:

7am approx. wakeup
10am Glory nap/Elias & mommy 1-1 time
12pm both baby lunch & playtime
1pm Elias nap/Glory 1-1 time
3pm Glory nap/Elias 1-1 time
5pm dinner/whole family time
6:30 bedtime

They've both been way happier & it has been such a delight to have time alone with them. Elias can truly play with his toys and do a lot more one on one learning, and Glory can really play with me. It just looks like they're learning more and liking life a whole lot more. However, I have literally no time without a baby to watch. It's A LOT easier to watch just one at a time for the most part though & I can get a ton of stuff done, but there is no true rest or away time.

So - we'll see how it goes.
I'm going to give it a few more days to see if the pay off is worth it. There will be atleast two or so days a week we'd have to modify, but for our "at-home" days, I think it will work pretty well.

Any other scheduling tips, mamas?

it's gonna be a good week!

- Dinner with Kel & Kalle tomorrow
- Hopefully seeing the Wight's new abode
- NEW TV! NEW TV! TV BACK ON! I am a nerd & I don't care.
... Gossip Girl.
... The Bachelor
... The Office
... American Idol (well, next week)
- Psychotically long doctor's appointment on Tuesday which is mostly exciting because Lauren is letting me borrow her biography of Jon & Kate plus Eight, which I've been waiting to read
- One week closer to seeing family on the East Coast
- Small group starting again on Thursday
- Total Cereal is changing my life
- I'm holding out hope that maybe Elias will learn the number three this week. He is absolutely stuck on the numbers two and ten.
- I'm believing that my kids will also go back to sleeping past six a.m. We are about five days in to their new routine & I want to actually freak out.
- And it's the second week of the new year. What isn't great about that?

while I still can.

I fought him on it, but Nick won out & we will be finding out the sex of baby number three.

This baby has been a bit different in that we haven't been obsessed with knowing the sex or what the name will be, I think because having one of each feels like such a blessing that we would feel blessed to add a boy or a girl.

But all of a sudden, it has snuck up on me & I need to list some names for both sexes while I still can. For the record - I'm thinking this one is a boy, & I haven't been wrong yet.

So....
My absolute faves for a girl: Esme, Rose, & Margaret
for a boy: Cannon, Porter, Simeon, & Theodore

it may be a week or so before we have our ultrasound, so there's still time for suggestions.

my first endorsement

...in honor of datenight...

If I was one of those fancy bloggers, this would be a giveaway - where I make you answer some silly question & you all try to come up with something really creative and then I give away the item that a big company is paying me to endorse.

Well, thankful for you all - I'm just doing this from the goodness of my heart.

A backstory: I have pretty tough skin, but since moving into our little farmhouse in Puyallup & continually showering in well water, my little pores are just hurting. I started noticing a few months ago that everytime I shaved, whether I used a new blade or a totally new razor, whatever body wash I used or lotion afterwards - my legs would just bleed. Ugh, gross. And painful!

I've never put a lot of stock into razors until Nick suggested I try the new Intuition with the lotion & moisturizer built right in. (To his credit, he didn't research it - he just handed it to me in the shaving aisle while I was complaining. He is VERY manly.) I had no faith in the mere $7 contraption. None whatsoever.

UNTIL I USED IT!
No bleeding and that thing works! The razor is sharp and extremely efficient, but you barely feel as if you're shaving! Afterwards, my legs feel great and datenight is made all the better without catterpillar-like skin beneath my jeans. I HIGHLY suggest it, ladies!

Year in Review, Issue #3

My favorite blog posts of 2008:

You all sure seemed to think this one was funny.

This one makes me smile.

Ok - only because it turned out well, is this one great.
But you have to read the follow up to enjoy it.
Update: Enid is still healthy as a horse, she's broken her hip & had surgery since - but she is dancing away.

If you can't laugh at this, you'll cry.

I loved everyone getting excited about this, & I loved eating it.

& this was just plain fun for me.

I hope 2009 will give a few fun blogs. I don't think I'll be giving up anytime soon, but I will be switching to a new blog name - as soon as I get the energy to put it together:)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!