Back in the land of the living.

Everyone is finally starting to feel better in our house!!! I am so thankful for that! Thank you for your prayers and well wishes. Aidan doesn't have his appetite completely back, but he is starting to be his ornery and mischievous self again. I cannot begin to express how happy it makes me to hear him laughing and playing again. :) David kind of overdid things today when we were playing. He rode his bike on the little walk we went on this morning with our friends around our neighborhood. He crashed pretty badly once (he hit a pothole at the bottom of a hill--I had been warning him to slow down, but he wasn't paying any attention), but he stood up, shook it off (after crying for less than 1 minute) and got back on his bike. He's a trooper, that one is. :) After he practices riding his bike again with the training wheels on, I think we're going to try and have him learn how to ride the bike without them. Maybe he'll get it before he starts kindergarten?

Aidan.

He looks so little lying on the hospital bed...

Sleeping with his Larry the Cucumber doll while covered in the quilt his Grandma Kris made.

Aidan and I got back from the emergency room at Montgomery Regional Hospital between 2:30 and 3:00 this morning. Aidan has had the flu since probably late Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning. Rob took him to the Carilion Family Medicine after-hours clinic this evening and was told that if the little man didn’t drink 1.5-2 oz. of PediaLite every 10-15 minutes over the course of the evening, we were going to have to take him to the hospital so he could get an IV to rehydrate him. Well…the little stinker didn’t want to drink anything (he might have drank 1.5-2 oz. over the course of 2.5 hours…), so I was the one elected to take him to the ER. He did amazing and was told by his nurses that he got the best patient award for the evening. He didn’t cry at all when they took his blood or when they set the IV. Actually, he only cried when he would wake up and not remember where exactly he was, so I would hug him and cuddle back with him on his bed until he would fall back asleep. He liked having one of my ear buds for my iPod in one of his ears while he was drifting off to sleep so he could relax to some of his favorite, familiar tunes.

Me, on the other hand, didn't do as well as my brave little man. I almost passed out twice. :( I really don’t do well with needles, and found out this evening that it is even worse for me when I see one of my kids having had it done (I didn’t watch—otherwise I would have been lying in a bed myself!). Leave it to the mom to be more trouble than the patient. :)

While we were having tests done, the doctor decided that he wanted to do a strep test as well. Come to find out, Aidan not only has the flu, but he has strep throat on top of it. And, with him not wanting to drink many fluids, he had become a bit dehydrated. Yes, that would be the 2nd time this winter that he has had strep--he had it once in December…and it makes a grand total of 7 strep cases (possibly 8, Rob goes into the doctor for himself tomorrow…) in our family since mid-November.

He seems to be doing a bit better this morning. More energy. Expresses his opinion about what he wants to wear or watch on TV. Actually sits up on the couch instead of lying there like my little rag doll. The antibiotics should kick in by tomorrow, so we should be seeing more improvement then.

I am so proud of him and how well he did last night. I was so scared to take him in. Not sure what to expect...I prayed the entire drive to the hospital that everything would go smoothly. I prayed for God's hand to be upon not only Aidan, but also upon myself. I asked Him for courage and strength and for Him to take my anxiety away from me. God is faithful. Granted, it was still a bit scary seeing my baby lying there hooked up to an IV, but I was so thankful that we were in a place that would help him start to feel better. So thankful that we had a doctor and nursing staff who were taking care of him (and me too). Now, I'm going to be continuing to pray for His healing hand to be upon our house. Please be praying for us all as well.

Miscellaneous Monday. (a day late)

Here are 3 miscellaneous facts about me. :)

1). I had almost every major in the College of Business and Economics before switching over to elementary education studies.

2). I only had 3 wisdom teeth (my brother only had 1--so between us, we had a full set!).

3). I read 2 novels in less than 24 hours (between Sunday night and yesterday evening)...honestly, I just couldn't put them down!

Craziness.

I have been backing up photos from our old digital camera (and have been going through some to print--I can't believe that I have very few printed from Aidan's first year...David has an entire box of photos that I have to scrapbook still since I shot with a film camera when he was a baby). I came across these ones of David--a range of him only being days old to almost 2 1/2. He pretty much looks the same now, but has some bigger-boy features (and the attitude to go with). :)

He will be 5 next week. He is my baby, yet at the same time he is my big boy. Time has sure flown!

Give it All Away.

I have fallen in love with this song on Aaron Shust's album Anything Worth Saying. I hear it at least once a day on Spirit FM, and from the first time I listened to this song I could feel my heart stirring.

Search my heart, search my mind,
search my soul
Make me clean, make me new make me
whole

All of my plans, all of my dreams, I lay
them down before Your feet
All of my time, all that was mine, I now
submit to Your design
'Cause You are the one who can make
my life complete
You are the one who can give light to my
feet You are the one and only one who dared
to give it all away for me

You are my strength, You are my God,
you are my King
You make me laugh, You make me
dance, You make me sing

Everything inside, everything outside, I
give it all away
You never change, but You rearrange my
heart more everyday

Everything that I am and everything that I have is truly His. God gave up his one and only Son so that I wouldn't have to pay the penalty of death for my sins. Jesus took care of that for me--for everyone. God loves us so much. I want to make this song my lifesong. I desire for Him to change me from the inside out so that I can radiate His glory. God is the only one who can make our lives complete. He is our ultimate source of strength--our pride often prevents us from drawing from it. We feel that we are too independent and self-sufficient, but honestly, without Him, we can do NOTHING!!! Thank you Lord for daring to give it all away for me.

Christmas Overview.

I am still in a bit of a state of disbelief that today is actually Christmas day. Other than the presents we have opened, the traditional dinner prepared and eaten and the Christmas tree up, it doesn't feel like it should be Christmas. But, alas, it is indeed December 25.

Last night we opened our presents. It was wonderful chaos, and also really gave Rob and I glimpses the distinct differences between our boys' personalities. When it comes to unwrapping presents, David wants to jump in and help to open everybody's presents (in a hurried fashion). Aidan, on the other hand, will open one present and want to go play with it awhile before coming back to open more. I almost think he was a little bit overwhelmed at all of the excitement, the presents and chaos since he sat back for a little while quietly playing. The train table that we bought with their Christmas $$ from Grandma Kris and Grandpa Mark has been played with pretty constantly over the last couple of days. The table has allowed us to set up track that can actually stay set up (not like when it had been set up on the family room floor and I would make them tear it down and put it away each time). They got a wooden castle from their Uncle Dunny that has been a huge hit as well. :)

After we finished opening presents and let the boys play awhile longer, we put them to bed and went downstairs to watch Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, the movie I got Rob for Christmas. Aidan went right to sleep, but David was wound up tight--too excited to even think about falling asleep. At one point in the evening, I went upstairs to check on him (because I heard a suspicious noise) only to find him playing with his plastic Revolutionary War figures and canons upstairs in the bathroom! He had a little battlefield set up on the counter next to the sink, next to the crust from the piece of pizza he had pilfered to snack on while playing out the big battle.

This morning was fun. Aidan woke up first, of course, and wanted to go downstairs to watch "Bob" (which means, I want to watch VeggieTales). Rob coaxed me to get out of the warm comfort of our bed so I could see Aidan's reaction to his "Santa" gift, a Little Tikes car. Well, Aidan didn't even care that there was a car sitting in our living room. The first place he went was to the train table to go play with the trains again. Rob worked pretty hard to get him excited about the car and about the filled stocking inside. David woke up more than an hour later, so we got to see his excitement over everything later (after he had dumped everything out onto the couch to inspect).

Overall, today was really relaxing. The boys played and watched their new movies. Rob finally got the present I gave him to start working, and I fixed prime rib for dinner...yum! Sydney thought the prime rib tasted good too. While I was upstairs giving Aidan cuddles , and Rob and David were downstairs playing and watching TV, she jumped up onto the counter and pulled what was left off of the cutting board and carried it into the living room. I came downstairs to see her lying in the middle of the floor gnawing on it--as soon as she saw me, she knew that she was in trouble. Rob had to throw the rest of the meat away (I'm so sad...no stew or French dip sandwiches now), and I had to clean up the garlic cloves that were strewn across the floor. Syd's punishment was banishment out into the rain and she will have to sleep in her kennel out in the garage tonight (well, that's also in case she ends up getting sick again like she did when she dug the ham out of the outside garbage can earlier this year). Bad princess!!!

Well, I need to go give a certain 4-year-old some night-night cuddles. Hoping you and yours are having a very Merry Christmas and that you all are experiencing the joy of Jesus this holiday season.

You know it's time...

...to potty train when your 2-year-old takes off his diaper immediately after he goes #1 or #2 and tries to parade around the house. Yeah...that would be Aidan. We never had anything like this happen with David. Frankly, when it was time to potty train that child, we had to convince him that it was his idea. Otherwise, he wanted nothing to do with the venture. Maybe Aidan will potty train more easily? We can only hope and pray! :)

Music Makers.

David standing between his buddies Noah (left) and Mason (right) during their Sunday morning performance.

David's digging for bats in his cave...

David in front of our tree before heading out for this evening's performance.

Music Makers is the name our church has given its preschool choir, which just by chance, happens to be an all-boys choir. 9-15 boys between the ages of 3 and 5. As you can imagine, they must be angels and really easy to handle. From what I have been told, they can be chaotic, but they're cute and have been doing well at learning their songs. The children's music program was held this evening at the BCM (Baptist Campus Ministries) building on campus. The Music Makers choir started things off and the Praise Kidz (elementary choir) performed their musical immediately following.

Rob took David this evening since he had not yet seen our little man perform. I stayed at home with the sick boy (Aidan) and frosted cookies until he finally awoke from his nap. He woke up this morning with a little stomach bug but seems to be doing much better since waking from his nap--yay!!! Rob said that David did a very good job tonight and that he was tapping his toes and bopping his head to the beat of the music.

Sunday morning, when he performed at church, he walked out onto the stage digging for bats in his cave (aka his nose) and ended up eating it! YUCK!!! After they were finished singing the second song, David told someone sitting just below the stage (while holding out just one finger), "We have one more song left!" He said this quite loudly and ended up getting the audience to chuckle quietly. He was also fascinated with the microphone and tried to stay behind to talk for a bit: "Okay, okay, okay..." he said before being coaxed off the stage by one of his leaders. One of my favorite parts Sunday morning was when Noah put his hands in his pockets and yawned (audibly) as soon as the last word of one of the songs was sung. It was done in perfect time with the music!

I'm looking forward to their spring performance!

So sad...

I think I'm allergic to my Christmas tree. :( Last night I noticed that my sinuses were getting plugged up, I felt really sleepy (like I do when I have other pollen allergies "hit" me) and felt like I was just getting a nasty cold. Well, I took a cold and sinus med earlier today that really helped clear my nose and got rid of the headache; however, when I was decorating that beautiful 7' tall holiday house visitor, my eyes started to burn and my nose started to run.

This is the first year that I have ever noticed an allergy to any sort of Christmas tree that I have been in contact with. It makes me so sad to feel miserable when I love getting a real tree. I love driving out to the tree farm. I love walking (or running like I do when I chase the boys) through the rows of trees looking for that perfect one. I love taking pictures of Rob and the boys cutting it down (and then having to pause to hold it up so it doesn't fall over on any of them). I love bringing it home and having to work over a period of 2+ days to make sure that it is not leaning in one direction or another. I love taking out all of the ornaments and reveling in the memories that surround each one--ones I have gotten as a child, ones we have bought for the boys or for each other, ones I or others have made...it is such a sentimental moment. Lastly, I love the smell of a fresh evergreen permeating through my house. However, that beautiful specimen (it's a type of fir--a frasier maybe? Reminds me a bit of a noble) just doesn't agree with me. Oh well. I'll enjoy the beauty of it while it is here. Next year, we'll probably break down and get a fake tree. I shouldn't be allergic to that. ;-)

Mara.

This girl had me in stitches with her silly antics yesterday afternoon during her photo shoot. Having clients like her totally make my job fun! We had a lot of "silly" poses, laughter, pretending to be sad and some semi-serious ones too. There are so many good shots of Mara, that it was really difficult to find just 3 to post.

Prost!

We went to Oktoberfest out at Mountain Lake last Saturday. Man, it was so much fun! The photo collage is a compilation of images taken from that evening of our rowdy group. :) 8 adults crammed into our 7-passenger Tahoe (one of those times that I wish that we had actually gotten the bench seat for the middle row instead of the captain's seats, yes Rob, I'm admitting that you were right!). Rob drove. All you can eat food that was mighty tasty. Plenty of beer (or cider/coffee/water) for all. Fun times all around. Some of my favorite quotes of the night were when Jan kept insisting that he was Swedish, and when Horst was telling everyone about why the cows wore the cow bells--still laughing over that one.

One of the women in the band came up to me afterwards and asked how I became so lucky to be the only girl amongst all of those dashing young men in our party...It was a hard job, but someone had to do it. ;-) Thanks guys for a great time. Ready to go again next year? I know that I am!

Learning and growing.

That's something we're all doing right now--learning and growing. The boys are learning more each day about how the world works, more about God, his creation, academic related things. They are growing like weeds physically (well, Aidan is a slow-growing one), and above are a couple of pictures to show how big they have gotten. I'm learning and growing more as a parent, as a wife, as a friend, as God's daughter and whatnot. I'm growing more in Him (and am trying not to grow bigger physically). :)

I had a MOPS meeting this morning, and let me tell you, it was awesome! My friend, Jennifer, posted a little bit about what our speaker talked about (as well as someone the 3 of us had listened to at the Extraordinary Women's Conference in early September). During the meeting and while reading Jenn's blog, God gave me a little nudge, or maybe it was more of a swift kick in the pants, and made me realize that I'm not ministering to others the way He wants me to. I'm holding back in fear. Fear of saying or doing the wrong thing. Fear of rejection. Fear that I will inadvertently turn things around to what is going on in my own life. Just plain fear of being stretched or made uncomfortable. Some of this fear is definitely due to my trying to stay somewhat guarded and protect myself from being hurt. Really, I should be handing that over to Jesus and be walking in his strength, compassion and power.

Jesus, train me how to live today. Teach me to be there for others. Help me to be a better friend and to not be afraid to reach out and befriend others. Thank you that we do not have to fear because you are with us, you are our God and will strengthen us and help us and uphold us with your righteous right hand (Isaiah 41:10). Train me to be more like you Jesus--I am giving my fear to you Lord. Mold me into the woman you want me to be and may people see you shining through me in everything. Amen.

Punker.

That's the name David bestowed upon a beautiful Monarch butterfly when we were up at Pandapas Pond this morning. I was playing fetch with Sydney, allowing her to swim and retrieve--two things she does quite well, and all of a sudden David comes up to me, ready to show me his prize catch. He was holding it gingerly by the wings and had this look of sheer bliss and delight upon his face. The butterfly was given the name of Punker because she was orange like a pumpkin (and I call him punkin) and he likes to have an 'er' sound be at the end of a lot of his made-up words.

My boy cried when Punker finally decided to fly away. It was hard seeing him so heartbroken. Maybe we will find more when we walk to the park later? This time we will come prepared with butterfly net in hand. :)

Photo Monday.

I was a busy girl Monday afternoon/early evening. :) Vicki and Jeff came over to have their photos taken--they just got married last week!!! And, Rob needed to have a picture for his webpage, so we got his done too. David had me take a few of him in his Halloween costume too, but I decided not to post any of those. He does make a pretty cute storm trooper though!

The sessions went really well overall; however, I had to do more editing than I had hoped since my lighting was a little bit off. Thank goodness for photoshop though! The proofs will be in tomorrow, so I can see if any color corrections need to be made, or if I'm good to go. Since Rob calibrated my monitor, I haven't been having too many problems though--unless it happened to be by user error. :) Like that would ever happen?!?! (ha ha ha)

Fall is in the air.

The air is beginning to get cooler, crisper. I can almost smell the change of season in the air. Leaves are beginning to change color. Signs of fall are showing up everywhere I look. Soon the mountain sides will be painted in beautiful orange, red and yellow. Leaves, as they begin to fall, will crunch underneath feet (and will make for lots of autumn fun!). Fall...one of my favorite seasons.

Getting in the groove.

This past week, David and I started doing preschool at home. After the 2nd day, as we are trying to get our lessons done before bedtime, I was thinking to myself, "why in the world did we decide to start this week since I had other things planned?" Then I thought, "well...this is a good test to show that we can do school when we get the time!" I found this curriculum online called ABC, I Believe. Each week we learn a memory verse (this week it is Proverbs 6:6 as we are studying about ants), and we have different craft ideas, math, reading, and penmanship ideas (as well as some other things too). David loves having school. Well, he loves everything except penmanship. I think he would truly prefer to just write the letters whatever way he chose and however big he thinks they should be. Stay between the lines? I don't think he thinks that he should have to do that. :)

Well, school work is calling to us. I'd better not keep my little man waiting. We've got some new sounds to learn for reading and more penmanship practice.

Oh, the photo I posted today was one I took looking down Acorn Street in Boston. I had tried posting it with my entry about our trip, but was having problems posting photographs that day.

Sweet angel.

These photos were taken a couple of weeks ago--my first photo shoot done at the new house. Malik was very cooperative and truly was every bit of the angel that he looks like in these photos. I love looking at how peaceful he looks in these pictures. Peaceful and sweet.

Chaos.

That is the word that completely describes our house right now. Boxes are piled high throughout the house, waiting to be loaded onto and off of the moving truck this coming Monday morning. Thankfully, we have hired a company to move the boxes and furniture for us, so packing and unpacking is the only thing we will have to do this time around. The kitchen will definitely be the first thing I work toward unpacking. I always feel a sense of accomplishment (and organization) once that particular room is out of the way.

Our Boston trip was so much fun! I really enjoyed getting to tour the city, to learn even more about American history, and of course, getting to visit with my brother Dustin and his girlfriend, Melinda. The weather was hot while we were there, and we walked LOTS! The boys liked the Children's museum, the Tadpole Park and Frog Pond at the Boston Common, their excursion to the zoo with Nana and Uncle Dunny (especially the lion roaring at them--Aidan is continually giving us his impression) and getting to see the seals outside of the aquarium. Then again, David also enjoyed climbing onto the fire hydrant he saw when we walked onto Harvard's campus, they both enjoyed seeing the various painted cow statues peppered throughout the city and getting to ride on the busses and choo-choos. My favorite parts were when Mom and Dustin took the kids to the zoo leaving Rob and I to be able to walk The Freedom Trail together and our last full day in Boston--going to the Boston Public Library with Dustin and seeing all the different exhibits, walking down Marlborough Street and through the Public Garden and then going to Revere Beach to see the sand sculptures from the previous weekend's competition (and to play in the water, but only Melinda and I ventured to do that). After leaving Revere Beach, we took the subway back to the Prudential center to go on the skywalk. The skywalk is on the 50th floor of the Prudential Tower and gives you an amazing view of the city, granted that the audio tour is geared for the daylight hours and not the dark, but oh well. :) Dustin and Melinda lastly took us to Finale, a wine and dessert restaurant that was so good . We all enjoyed getting to visit with one another, and Rob and I enjoyed getting to see a different aspect of the city that we hadn't seen up until that point. We took the subway and bus back to the hotel and settled in for the night before driving all the way back home the following day.

Well, I had better get back to cleaning bathrooms, one down and one more to go for this evening.

Beautiful baby girl.

I had my first newborn photo shoot yesterday, and here is one of my favorite photographs. I saw this idea for a photograph on a photography studio supplies website and was anxious to try it. Newborn shoots bring with them their challenges, but babies are so adorable, I don't mind. :) Thankfully Heather was willing to let Gracie be my guinea pig (thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!!). I learned so much yesterday. Truly, each session teaches me something new and different, and helps me to grow. This new adventure I'm embarking upon is so exciting--that inner artist is really emerging.

We're leaving for Boston tomorrow. Well, actually, we will be spending the day around Lancaster, PA at Dutch Wonderland and will drive the rest of the way to Boston on Saturday. I'm really excited to get to see the city, and am even more excited about getting to see my brother--the only thing that would be better is renting a house on the beach for a week and just getting to relax and be. Maybe next summer...

New do, movies and s'mores...

what can be better than that? :) This morning I had my hair cut and highlighted--had to try and hide all that gray hair that seems to be popping up all the time. My stylist was actually kind of surprised that I asked her really spontaneously to cut more than an inch off of my hair. Initially, we had agreed to cut maybe 1-1 1/2 inches off, but I think I had her take at least 2 or more inches off total. It's still just below shoulder length, so it's still long hair--I didn't do anything super drastic. :)

After I got home, we ran to farmer's market to check out the goods. Aidan helped me pick out some fresh garlic. David picked out some granola and we also got some cherry limeade and margarita/spritzer mix--yum! We ran into our friend Shannon at the lemonade stand (Aidan was trying to help himself to more, and he couldn't really reach the container--it was funny). I'm trying to plot a peach-picking adventure with my fellow peach loving friend so we can both have some to freeze/can to use until next year. After we get back from vacation, right? (I'm saying this here so neither of us can forget!) We also drove out to Crow's Nest to see what their hours were and to find out what they have available for picking right now. I need to get more blueberries and really want to get raspberries this year. David is finally eating jam with his sandwiches, so I can make some this year. Yeah!!! I don't know exactly what made him start liking jam, but he does now and that is a good thing.

This afternoon, post-farmer's market, was nice and quiet. Aidan went down for his nap, David and I pounded through 3 reading lessons. Oh, he is doing so good with our reading lessons right now. We're going through Siegfried Engelmann's Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and are at about lesson 32 right now. I really like the method outlined in this book, but have had to modify it to help keep David interested in what we are doing. I don't think he really saw the point in the beginning exercises since he already knows the basic sounds of his letters (thanks to the Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD!), but now that he is reading various words and short stories, the excitement is really starting to show. He is even starting to sound out words he sees on signs or around the house--it is so cool! Well, after reading, we watched a couple of movies that came today via Netflix, then we picked up dinner and headed out to France and Pierre's (the couple's home we are watching while they are out of town) to let the boys and Sydney burn some energy. They all love getting to play in the woods. I think the sticks, dirt and other treasures are what the boys like the most. Well, that and the fact that we got to roast marshmallows in the fire pit to make s'mores. While we were making s'mores, I was singing the VeggieTales "Marshmallow Song" to the boys. "Graham cracker, graham cracker, chocolate bar. Sitting by the campfire under the stars...Marshmallows, Marshmallows, sticky and sweet...put them all together and you've got a treat!" Aidan was giving me big smiles and was dancing along to the beat of the music. It's definitely a catchy tune.

Oh, but after giving Aidan his s'more, he wouldn't eat it! He got marshmallow goo on his mouth and hands and started saying "Mess! Mess! I make mess!" and was trying to clean off his hands. He doesn't like getting food on himself or spilling it on the table. He will literally stop eating whatever it is until you get him something that he can help clean it up with...he's funny, I know. David devoured his s'more though. Nothing stopped that one. :)

Yikes--it's getting late and we have to get up semi-early to go to church in the morning. Have a wonderful weekend!