Our Friends

Our sweet friends Jim & Emily are in the midst of their Ethiopian adoption. After months of waiting, they have been blessed with a little boy! He's almost 2 years old and beautiful (we had the privilege of seeing his picture over Thanksgiving). Now they are waiting again to travel to see him and go through the court process in Ethiopia. They are the featured family this week on

"Give 1 Save 1".

http://give1save1.com/2012/01/08/new-week-new-family-9/

Go watch their video, hear their story, and pray for them!

Sadie Jane is 5 Months Old!

So...apparently I took the past 2 months off from blogging...oops!

We traveled a bunch for Thanksgiving & Christmas, seeing LOTS of family and friends all over NC & VA! I'll probably share some pictures from those trips later, but will not be trying to play "catch up" on the blog...we'll just start afresh with 2012!

On that note...my mom and a close family friend got in the habit about 10 or 12 years ago of naming the year with a theme. I can't think of any examples off the top of my head, but they always had clever ones. Anyway...2011 was the "Year of Survival" for our little family. We just

had to survive all of the changes and craziness! And we did! The Lord was gracious and kind to us and has shown Himself over & over again. I decided 2012 is our "Year of Settling In". In our 8 years of marriage we have lived in 4 homes in 3 states, attended 2 schools, had 3 children (in 3 different states), 2 dogs, and 7 cars. We have been members of 4 different churches and Josiah has been in 3 different preschools! We have each held various jobs - both full and part-time. I have always had a bit of a gypsy soul and love searching for the next

adventure, but this is a bit extreme! We are ready to dig in, establish some roots, and make this our home. We have a contract on a house in town and, Lord-willing, we will close March 1st! I am SOOO ready to invest in this town, in a neighborhood, in Josiah's elementary school and Cooper's preschool long-term. Therefore and thus...The Year of Settling In begins.

Now for the cute stuff...Sadie Jane is 5 months old today! The past month has been a busy one. Here are her 4 month pictures...

She started rice cereal and a few fruits & veggies. Like the boys, she had no trouble with the spoon and has been gobbling up bowl-fulls since day one.

And here are her 5 month pictures from today. She's growing lots of fuzzy hair (it's blonde. for some reason the pictures make it look a bit red, it's not). She's super-laid back, smiles & laughs all the time (esp. for her brothers), and has her daddy wrapped around her finger. We're so thankful for her!

Happy Halloween!

We had a great, low-key Halloween...perfect for our T-Rex, Lion, and little Ladybug!

We had a pumpkin carving fiesta over the weekend with our students. Josiah carved his first pumpkin! More pictures from that event to come later...

Halloween day started with a parade/party at Josiah's school

Then there was trick-or-treating downtown after naps. A fabulous event for little kiddos!

Everyone was satisfied with 1 piece of candy and getting in bed on time :) It was raining in the evening here, so no trick-or-treaters came to our house. Guess we'll have to eat the candy...darn.

Photo Shoot

We took advantage of some warmer weather and sunshine this afternoon and had a photo shoot! I'm not sure we're going to have many more enjoyable afternoons outside, so we need to use them while we can. So...the title of this photo shoot can either be "Fall Pictures" or "Go Hokies" - you get to pick for yourself!

(the boys are modeling their Hokie sweaters knit by Mimi)

Since sweet Sadie Jane wouldn't really smile for the group shots, I'm including one from earlier this afternoon when I captured her smile. She's snuggling with the doll my Grandmommie made for her (thanks Grandmommie).

Grandparents & Great-Grandparents - don't worry, I'm printing off copies to send you!

to be thankful

Conversation tonight at our dinner table...

Mommy: "Boys, what are you thankful for today?"

Josiah: "My football"

Cooper: "God...and ketchup"

Heehee...at least Cooper got them in the right order. Ketchup is a pretty perfect condiment. :)

2 Months!

I feel like I was just posting that Sadie Jane was 1 Month Old...time sure flies when you're having fun!

Our sweet Sadie Jane is now 2 Months Old! It's hard to believe! She has started smiling, coos & babbles constantly, screams her head off when she's angry (or hungry or tired), and is sleeping pretty well. It's amazing how much she changes every day. She's a little charmer and we're so thankful she's around!

At her 2 month checkup she weighed 11 lbs 2 ozs and measured 23 1/4 inches long!

On another note...Josiah had school pictures yesterday and said he smiled like he did in that last picture...so, be on the lookout for some excellent school pictures :)

Happy

I have been reflecting the past couple days on things that make me happy and things for which I am truly thankful. It's so much easier to focus on what makes me crazy (which is sometimes a lot), that I am trying to deliberately focus on the many current blessings in our lives!

So, in no particular order...

1) I am reading this book titled The Female Brain. It is a fantastic, intriguing, thought-provoking read! Anyway, it states that the female brain actually physically shrinks during pregnancy & childbirth, returning months later to it's normal size. Thank you! We baby mamas are not crazy or "losing our minds" - there is a physical, scientific reason why we can't remember anything or feel like we're walking around in a daze. Our brains are truly smaller! But only for a little while...

2) Sadie Jane is a smiling machine these days. Her smile brightens up her whole face and my day

3) We have sung different hymns to the boys at bedtime and unintentionally landed on a specific hymn for each of them that we repeat. Honestly, I think each hymn represented words and truth we needed to hear at their bedtimes, more than words for their benefit! Anyway, they now request these hymns, but know them as "the Cooper song" or "the Siah song". Cooper's is "O Love That Will Not Let Me Go" and Josiah's is "Be Thou My Vision". I love that they love these, request them, and think they were written just for their little ears! I'm thinking Sadie Jane's might be "Jesus, Lover of My Soul", but we'll see.

4) I've been able to start running again and am so thankful for our Chariot double jogging stroller! It allows me to have 2 very cute training partners...

This past Saturday was the Apple Festival at our Farmer's Market, which leads to several happy things...

5) I love our Farmer's Market

6) I love apples, especially fresh ones off the tree that can now be made into applesauce, apple pie, apple butter, etc.

7) There was a very good bluegrass band playing at the market on Saturday morning. The boys were dancing fools in front of the band - we must have listened for an hour! It was hilarious to watch them dancing...love their lack of inhibition and their love for music!

8) Pumpkin Spice Lattes are back at Starbucks!

That's enough for now...hope you're having a fabulous Wednesday!

Andy's Installation

Not only was this past weekend Sadie Jane's one month birthday and the first VT football game, it was also Andy's installation as the RUF Pastor at VA Tech! The installation was a ceremony where he was asked some questions, given a charge, and officially granted his position as RUF Pastor. It was a great ceremony and celebration.

Some of our favorite people from Raleigh were here - Mary-Brooke and Dan Seale! Dan preached at the installation service and Mary-Brooke came for the App State game and stayed for the weekend. The boys LOVED having them around.

Man, we really miss those Seales...and not just for their superior arm strength :) I can't believe those are the only pictures I got of them all weekend, but they are.

The "commission" crew - pastors/elders who installed Andy

RUF students!

Gram & Pop were here for the festivities!

A family picture to mark the occasion

I'm still getting used to seeing us as a family of 5...

A fun-filled weekend, thank you everyone!

1 Month Already!

Yes folks, Sadie Jane is 1 Month Old already! What a fast month!

Her 1 month birthday coincided with the first VA Tech football game. She was so excited thousands of people descended on our town to help her celebrate :)

Her stats:

She is now 10 lbs 5 oz (77%) and 22 1/4 inches long (85%) - a growing girl!

Go Hokies!

by the way, I am really awful at taking pictures of babies...oh well...

In other news - it has been raining here ALL WEEK! This mama is going a little crazy with her 2 "energetic" boys in the house all week. No children's museum, indoor playgrounds, not even a mall to run around in. It's going to be a long winter! We've been coloring, painting, stickering, reading, building with legos, etc. but they need to run & jump & climb! Let me know if you have any creative ideas for active indoor play.

On Tuesday I sent them out in rainboots and jackets to play in the downpour...here they are modeling their boots (with pj's , of course).

Hoping for a break in the clouds soon!

Lots of Attention

The boys are still enthralled with their little sister. They are always asking to hold her, kiss her, see if she's awake, etc. As you can see below, she is definitely not lacking for attention around here! These pictures are a week or two old, but I thought I'd post them anyway...

First Day

Josiah's First Day of Preschool for 2011-2012!

He is super-excited and so are we. They don't have to take backpacks this year, but they do get to take in a "nature jar" filled with treasures each day. Acorns are raining down on us in the backyard, so that's what Josiah took today. His class has 10 boys and only 4 or 5 girls, so I imagine there will be many slimy and bug-y nature jars throughout the year!

Mommy celebrated the first day of school as well :)

First Bath

Here are pictures of Sadie Jane's first bath

As you can see we had plenty of helpers!

All clean & dry