a few movies

http://community.webshots.com/album/576127398VfJJIF?vhost=community

Pictures

A picture...more later

Gray quotes

Gray (looking at and angel Joshua was coloring): "Oooo! It's the angel that telled Mary, 'Don't be afraid. I'm with you and I'm going to talk to you'.... I want the angel to ride in the race car."

Matt: I love hearing you boys talking.

Gray: And I love hearing you and Mommy NOT talking.

Gray: Who turned on that light? Daddy?

Me: No, Daddy's not here. I turned it on.

Gray: Whatevah! Daddy turned it on.

Also, I can't remember how he put it, but this morning he told me and Matt that the baby was going to come out when it got bigger and got a head and a nose.

OB update

Don't get too excited. Nothing to report. The only exciting thing was I only gained 1/4 a pound, somehow despite all the holiday eating. The doctor just did the baby's heartbeat and asked me a few questions and said since my cervix was checked last week, there probably wasn't much different so we could skip that part if I wanted...I debated, but decided to skip it. So now we still wait, which is fine since I feel okay, but it would be a lot finer if it wasn't so convenient for the baby to come soon, as Mama and Daddy and Matt are off all week. I think Matt's giving up and going back to work tomorrow so he doesn't go stir crazy!

A very Merry Christmas!

The boys and their cousin, enjoying one of his Christmas gifts!

Matt got medicine balls for the gym!

Joshua and Pa playing a game that was a real hit for Joshua

Gray loves smiling for the camera!

Joshua and Cranky the Crane

Books!

Books!

Handsome husband

Gray squealing over the frog!

Excitement over stockings

The Jesus birthday cake...before all the red and green ran down the side!

Hope everyone enjoyed celebrating Christmas! We have really had a good month of celebrating and everything went well at the end too. We decided to take the boys to church for the Christmas Eve service and were glad we did that. Joshua stayed in the service with us and it was very kid friendly and fun, plus really helped focus us on Jesus and set my frame of thought for yesterday. I spent Christmas Eve evening mostly laying on the couch drinking water and hoping the baby wouldn't come yet! I've been getting some contractions at night, but not really amounting to anything--it was probably mostly in my head because I didn't want to spend Christmas Day in the hospital and miss all the fun here:)

Christmas morning started with our special family breakfast. The boys got up around their usual times and Joshua didn't even notice our little pile of presents under the tree! Once we read the last paper on the advent calendar that told the boys they were getting 3 gifts like Jesus, he was wired though!! We made it through breakfast and they enjoyed opening their stuff and stockings. They each got books, a movie, and another part of their train set. Gray's favorite gift was a frog sponge I put in his stocking! He wasn't too into opening presents and liked to just hang out with the frog. Later, Matt's parents brought more gifts and Joshua really enjoyed playing a new game with Pa.

We spent lunchtime at a family brunch with some extended family of Matt's and the boys really enjoyed playing with their cousin, who is about a year younger than Gray. We had dinner at Matt's parents and it was good to be with family and eat more good food and end our day with a birthday cake for Jesus.

I took a few pictures and a few movies, which are linked below if you want to see the boys on Christmas morning (probably not very interesting, but that's up to you!). Hope you have a good weekend!

http://community.webshots.com/album/576051517vZtXon?vhost=community

Christmas Adam Bonfire

A few years ago, Matt's parents started a Christmas Adam tradition, Adam being the man who came before Eve, thus it's the 23rd of December. I think the first year we did taco salad and a bonfire and that was before we had a bunch of toddlers in the family! Each year since then has been a little different and we haven't been there for all of them, but this year we went back to the bonfire and had hot dogs and smores. The 5 kids that are 4 and under did really well. Guess they are getting older and easier! Gray spent a lot of time sitting on his little seat and of course eating! Joshua liked being with the dogs at first and then playing with a huge stick in the fire. I didn't get that many great pictures, but you can get the idea!

Like Father, Like Sons

I think as parents, we don't realize how much our kids pay attention to us. When you think of Matt (if you know him), something about fitness probably comes to mind. Lately, I have noticed how much that is spilling over into the boys' lives, even though they are so little still.

It's now quite common to hear random comments from them like, "I've gotta go do my workout now." or "Whoa that was a hard workout!" When I told the boys about our trip to Raleigh the other day, Gray say, "I'm going to eat pizza and then I'm going to eat donuts and then I'm going to work out!" (He remembered when we went to Raleigh for a CrossFit thing a few months ago.) I often find them practicing their push ups (this is pretty funny to watch) or trying to do handstands and last night, Gray told us he was doing a hard workout and that consisted of him holding on to the side of the sink and jumping as hard as he could...with no clothes on!

Now Matt does let them come in the gym sometimes and jump on boxes or hang from bars, but mostly I think they just see that working out is a routine activity for our family. I feel like, because this has been established in their minds as little kids, they will always see exercise as just part of normal life, as opposed to a necessary evil the way some of us view it! I'm thankful to Matt for starting these healthy habits in our boys!

Something new

Some of you know this news already, but last week our church announced that one of the pastors would be leaving to plant a new church...in Hillsborough. We were immediately interested, yet it would be a big decision to leave our current church and many of those we've become friends with. We thought, prayed, still felt excited about the opportunity, and then talked with the pastor. Now we have officially decided we will join the plant!

So what's it going to be like? Well, the church was already started by another pastor, who has now left, so there are a handful of existing members who we have never met. And then there are a group of families from our church that will join us, most of whom we know at least a little bit. 3 of the adults are Joshua's Sunday School teachers (and I think 2 more were his teachers in his old class) and most all of them have young children. I think there are 8 or so kids from Joshua's class and a few from Gray's. We'll start the new church in mid-January and will begin by just organizing and getting to know each other well and planning. I'm sure there will be lots to do, but we're excited to be a part of it.

We will miss our small group and the other families we've gotten to know, though. At least we aren't leaving Durham so we can still see them! We had a fun Christmas dinner with the adults in the group last night (Thanks, Stacy, for babysitting!) and I was reminded of what a blessing it has been to have joined the group in the Spring. It occurred to me the other day that this new church will be the 7th one we've been a part of in our 6 years of marriage, due to all the moves. Guess that makes it not quite as hard/weird to make this change, but hopefully this will be the last one for many years!

OB update

Had yet another appointment today and not much news again. From when I was checked 3 weeks ago, I am just slightly more dilated and effaced, so things aren't moving too quickly yet. The baby is really low, which is progress...and I can definitely feel that when he/she is moving around a lot at the end of the day. Everything else was fine. Definitely gaining more weight now with all the holiday eating! Had to put all the sweets in the freezer today so I won't get sugar overload. I should probably not have signed up to bring to dessert to every function we've had this month! Well that's about all the baby news. Will have another appointment on Monday (can you believe that's after Christmas?) and I expect I'll still be pregnant then.

A few Sunday morning pictures

Yep, I'm getting bigger and bigger...good thing we're at the end or I'd be in trouble! Also tried to get some good pictures of the boys by the tree, but one couldn't be still and the other was scrunching up his face instead of smiling!

Snow and Gingerbread Men

The snow stuck around yesterday and the boys (all 4 of them) had a great time playing together in the front yard...mostly wrestling and throwing snowballs. I came out a couple of times with a camera and hot chocolate, but mostly let them have their fun in the cold!

Last night our Christmas activity was to make gingerbread men and that went okay but the boys got sooo messy with the flour and it was bedtime and bathtime and all that so it was a little bit hectic. Cute pictures though!

Fun Feast

We did make it to Raleigh yesterday, despite lots of snow and sleet, especially on our way home. We had pizza at 2 Guys on Hillsborough Rd (right by NC State, for you non-wolfpack fans) and then went to Krispy Kreme and ate donuts. Some of the highlights:

-Hearing Gray asking, "Ah we in Wah-wee?" (Are we in Raleigh) was definitely a highlight.

-Gray fell out of the booth in his booster seat at the restaurant. He wasn't hurt, but of course had very sad, dramatic tears.

-While we ate, Gray managed to put 4 or 5 crayons in his cup through the straw hole when we weren't looking. I also caught him sticking a crayon in his nose.

-When we got ready to leave, Gray did a dramatic face plant on the restaurant floor and cried his heart out. Why? Because we told him we were going to put on his coat. Horrible parents, I know! Thankfully, we were the only customers so only the workers witnessed his display.

-We got turned around trying to get to Krispy Kreme for the 2nd year in a row of this 2nd annual trip! Guess we should add riding around Raleigh looking for donuts as part of the tradition. Matt did a great job safely driving us in the winter mess though!

-Gray picked the red striped donut at Krispy Kreme, and as you can see below, he was absolutely covered in bright red food coloring...and loving every minute!

-Joshua did a great job at both places and has gotten really easy and fun to take out.

-We helped a guy stuck in the snow get back on the road on our way home.

-All in all, it was a fun trip and we'll be excited to do it again next year!

BRR!

So everyone has probably heard it's supposed to snow today. It's in the 30's and a fire, hot chocolate, and lots of blankets are sounding good to me. But how does Gray spend his chilly morning? I walked into another room and came back to find him eating cereal in the nude! And he cried when I made him get dressed after breakfast! Silly boy.

Can someone please invent...

...a device that tells you whether or not your child is really sick? It would work something like this: Your son comes in your room at 5:30am complaining that he can't sleep and actually wants to get in the bed with you (first time ever!) and sleeps restlessly the rest of the morning, eventually whining that he doesn't want to eat and he's sick. He moves to the couch later on and sleeps awhile longer. You're thinking, "Is it a stomach virus? Do I feed him? Does he just not want to eat his leftovers from last night? Should we cancel our trip to Raleigh and will we have cancel our weekend plans too? Is he just tired?" Then you pull out your handy dandy sick-o-meter and stick it on his forehead and, after some computing, you hear "Ding ding ding! You have a healthy, but manipulative child who does not want salad and chicken for breakfast!"

But all of the above DID happen this morning EXCEPT I did not happen to have the sick-o-meter, so instead of going about our day as usual, I ended up catering to Joshua as he weakly called from the couch for me to do this and that for him. Finally, when he started bossing Gray around from the couch while Gray was playing in the next room, I figured he must not really be sick. Sure enough, when Gray went upstairs to play, Joshua could not STAND to lay around not knowing what his little brother was playing with and whether or not he was playing with it the "right" way so he ran upstairs to supervise. So now we're planning to head to Raleigh for pizza and donuts as scheduled (a Matt-invented Christmas tradition) and will hopefully go early enough to beat the snow.

Have a good weekend!!

Finally starting to feel like the end..

All throughout this pregnancy, I keep thinking, "When I get to (fill in the blank #) of weeks, then I'll feel like I'm near the end." But I get to that magic number and it has still felt like forever away until just recently. Now I've got under 2 weeks til the due date and I'm starting to feel it..the drowsiness, heaviness, weird pains, and waddling. Relative to the other pregnancies, still feel fine, but I can tell we're getting closer now.... Off to take a nap while I still have the chance:)

A few pictures from today

Gray in his silly hat and our decorated tree...

World Relief

Some of you have probably heard that I'm going to be volunteering with a group called World Relief, but for those who haven't, here's a little synopsis. World Relief is an organization that helps refugees come to the US and settle into life here. These families have had to flee their countries because of ethnicity, religion, fighting, etc and some have no place they can safely move to and gain citizenship. They come to Durham (and of course lots of other places in the country) with very little in the way of possessions and often speak no English. The goal of World Relief is to "welcome the stranger", as Jesus told us to do, when he said "I was hungry and you fed me...I was a stranger and you welcomed me."

Anyway, a few moms from church and I will be sponsoring a family in January. We think it will be a Burmese family of 5. One of our jobs will be to furnish their apartment before they arrive, providing everything from beds to decorations to food to silverware to toys. We are asking members of our church to donate their used items, but if you have ANYTHING you need to clean out and will be seeing me sometime between now and mid January, please bring the stuff to me. Or if it's after mid-January I can still take the stuff to World Relief, where they store it for other families coming in. I really wish I had known about this before we did our mass clean-out a few months ago because we took our things to a Goodwill type store and it just seemed packed full of junk, so who knows if it really helped needy people. But if you donate to World Relief, I know it will be used for these refugee families, as we have heard from the guy in charge that they are really in need of donations and some families move in to pretty bare apartments because of lack of household items being donated.

38 weeks and BORING!

Well we waited 40 minutes to see the OB for my check up today. Stayed in there about 5 minutes so she could measure me and listen to the heartbeat. NOTHING exciting to report from last week. Gained a few pounds, which I figured from not having a great eating week...blood pressure normal...measuring normal...baby heartbeat normal. That's it. No news. Guess that's good news, huh? The boys did get a piece of candy from the doctor, so guess that made it all worthwhile to them. Back for another thrilling appointment Monday....

Ugh...boys!

We got back from the grocery store this morning and the boys wanted to play outside while I put away the food. I told them about 5 times in 5 different ways (just to be sure they got it) that they could not play in the water and mud because they had their nice clean shoes on. Went inside and left the doors open so I could listen out for them while I put the food up. They seemed to be playing nicely from what I could here, though I wondered what they were doing since I could see out in the fence that they didn't get out any of their toys. Didn't think much of it and finished up inside. Went out to find them standing in a pile of mud where Joshua gleefully announced, "Look, Mommy! We're painting ourselves with mud!" Yep, they had sticks and were covering their clothes and jackets in nice gravelly mud and dirt. So now instead of watching a fun Christmas movie as we planned, they are up in their "room time", hopefully feeling remorseful, though from Gray's happy banter about 30 seconds after I fussed at them, I don't think he cares a bit!

Crossfit Games

Most of you know that Matt's gym in our garage is a "CrossFit affiliate", meaning he is part of the international CrossFit group. Every year, CrossFit has what is called the CrossFit Games, which allows athletes to compete in some really tough workouts and crowns the winner the "Fittest Man/Woman Alive." For 2010, there will be a series of competitions the athletes must do well in before they can qualify for the final games. Matt is planning to participate in the first qualifier, which for him is a North and South Carolina sectional competition, in March. Guess the location? The booming metropolis of Fort Mill! Pretty funny they'd pick my home town. It is right in the middle of the Carolinas, but there isn't an affiliate there or anything and it's pretty small. Anyway, so Mama and Daddy, we'll be headed your way in early March for this event!

A tree!

With Matt in the gym many nights, plus a few extra activities in the last few weeks, we are just now getting our Christmas tree! We decided not to brave the sharp needles of the ones in our woods this year and ended up with a small one from Home Depot. Tonight I put 2 strands of lights on, which covered it well, and some ribbon I had tied up last year. Think it took about 20 minutes to decorate! Just thought I'd do plain and easy this year. I'll let the boys put on ornaments tomorrow and we'll get some pictures. Sure was nice not needing hand protection to decorate!

We also enjoyed seeing some friends for dinner tonight. Their boys and our boys got pretty loud and silly, but had a great time. Now for some sleep, as Matt has an all day CrossFit event tomorrow and the boys and I have a Christmas party at church for families sponsored by Pregnancy Support Services. Hope you have a good weekend!!

Too...much...cookie...dough!

Well I'm stuffed, but we made it through Christmas cookie-making today! It's a tradition I really look forward to, at least til I had kids to "help." I don't know about you, but messy crafts and preschoolers/toddlers kind of scare me, which is why we don't do them often around here. But I let the boys each make some cookies and decorate them and then, like a wimp, I sent them to room time so I could make all the rest in peace! I enjoyed listening to Christmas music and having the cookie dough all to myself:) I told the boys it could make them sick, but it didn't stop me from pigging out once they weren't around to witness it! (I did let them eat sprinkles!) I have a new cookie glaze recipe I'm going to try once I have a missing ingredient and I'm really looking forward to decorating the ones I made tomorrow.