26 days and counting..

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We had dinner with my family and we finally got to meet my brothers girlfriend, Marie. She is going to be a great addition to the family someday!

We skipped the shopping yesterday, but ventured out today. We didn't go to the mall, just some miscellaneous stores. It was crowded, but not as bad as I thought it would be. We have about a third of our Christmas shopping done so far and ideas for most of the family. We had a lazy day inside yesterday. We were visited by gram, pap and Ty. It looks like pap would have liked a lazy day inside!My husband (aka my 3rd child) has reminded me today that we only have 26 days until Christmas! We put up our Christmas tree last night. I'm a little nervous about having it up for the next month. This will be Baileys first experience with a tree and Ben is much more mobile and curious than last year. They both have been testing their limits with it, but so far haven't done any major damage.

Happy Thanksgiving

When I was in high school, I always heard that those were the best times of your life. How sad would it be if life peeked at age 18? When I was in college, all of the sudden, that was supposed to be the best time of my life. School came and went. I didn't get a job in my major and I don't look back on those sorority parties and think that was the greatest. Life went on. I had a lot of great experiences, but I never thought that this was it---life wont get any better than this.
I still can't say life wont get any better than this, but I can finally sit back and know that I've got it pretty good.
-I have an amazing husband who has provided a great life for our family and loves me with all his heart and makes sure I know it.
-I have 2 beautiful, healthy children who I wouldn't trade for the world (even when I'm dealing with a screaming child at 3am who wont stop spitting up on me).
-I have a dog, who even though she drives me crazy, she will let Ben torment her, fall on her head, you name it and she just takes it and keeps coming back for more.
-I have a cat who just when you think she hates you for bringing in kids and a dog to her house, will cuddle up with you at night and helps keep you warm while purring.
-I have a church family that I love, that I know will always be there for me and that has changed my life in amazing ways.
-I have friends that encourage me, keep me sane and will be at my side in a minute if needed.
-I have a beautiful home, with heat (when we turn it on), food on the table, clothes on my back and all the little extras that we take for granted that some people will never experience.
-I have a nice car that I know my family is safe in and doesn't break down every time I turn around (knock on wood).
-I am able to stay at home with my babies and share in so many laughs, hugs, silliness etc that I'm so grateful for, but so sad that Jon misses.
-I have a "normal" extended family and in-laws. Not many people are that lucky.
-I have my health, a semi-functioning brain and a world of possibilities open to me for the future.
-I have God's love which, among many other things, gives me a sense of peace when thinking about Jon's job and all those little things that go wrong that used to be the end of the world!!!

It's so easy to get caught up in all the wants---a bigger bank account, a smaller dress size, a nicer car, expensive jewelry, better toys---but no one has it all and I wouldn't trade any of what I have for all of the things I could have.
I am so thankful for all that I have and know I'm very lucky! What are you thankful for? What are we all doing to help someone that doesn't have as much to be thankful for?

Tag team

I love my children, but at times, I think they're out to get me! We were sleeping soundly until:

1am: Sam wakes up and wants to eat. Back in bed at 2am
3am: We hear, "plane..yeah, cloud..yeah, nine..yeah" from Ben. He was happily pointing out items on the blanket Gram made that hangs above his bed.
3:30am: Ben has lost his kitty and doesn't want to get out of bed to get it so he whines until dad gets it for him.
5:15am: Ben is mumbling to himself as Jon's alarm goes off.
6am: Sam is hungry again. He eats until.....
6:50am: Ben is awake and crying. He now has a fever and will only be consoled by watching Mickey on mom and dads bed!

When is nap time????

Good bye dairy!

We were on a roll.... Sam was sleeping 4-6 hours each night last week, but it all fell apart last night. Sam got very cranky after church yesterday. He would eat for less than 5 minutes and fall asleep. As soon as one of us moved, he would wake up, spit up and then cry until you fed him for another couple minutes and the cycle kept repeating itself until the wee hours of the morning. Sam has always spit up after eating, but some days are worse than others and some days it seems to shoot across the room. I took him to the doctor today and got some good and bad news. The good news is he is still gaining weight. Our little man is up to 11lbs 5oz. The bad news is he has heart burn. We got a prescription for Pepsid and hopefully, that will start giving him some relief. The terrible news is that I have to cut out dairy for a week. Clearly he doesn't understand how much I love cereal and ice cream. If the spitting up gets better, then I will have to go with out dairy until he's around 4-5 months old. That is when they typically grow out of it. If cutting out dairy doesn't stop the spitting up, we'll have to go back to the doctor and go from there.

Other than that we've had a pretty good weekend. Jon had a boys night out on Friday so I had a girls night in. Its so nice to have grown up time after a long day of Veggie Tales music, play drums and a ride on, musical train! We watched OSU close out the season with a win on Saturday. Ben has mastered "touchdown" and "go Buckeyes." Grandma came to church with us on Sunday and stayed for a pre-Thanksgiving meal hosted by the church. Thats when Sam decided he had enough of being pleasant, and you know the rest.

Here's baby Ella, Sams future girlfriend!

Layla, Bens future girlfriend!

The magic touch

Tuesday night was not a good night for Sam. At 3am, I realized I only had a half hour of sleep. Sam would fall asleep, I'd leave the room, get settled in bed and 10 minutes later he'd be crying again. Last night we went to a friends for dinner to meet his new girlfriend who, by the way, was great. I had a very small glass of wine (my second in about a year). Jon put Sam down around 11pm (its usually a team effort or just me putting him to bed) and at 4am, I woke up and realized I hadn't heard a peep out of him. Jon checked him and he was sound asleep. He woke up an hour later, ate and went right back to sleep. I had to wake him up at 9am to eat again. So was it exhaustion from the night before, did I "drug" my son with the wine, or does dad have the magic touch?? I'm going to go with the dad option. I'm making Jon put Sam to bed again tonight. Lets hope we have the same response. If not, I'm heading to the liquor store tomorrow!!

Today was play group day. I had 2 camera batteries with me and, of course, both were dead. So, no pics from today. The kids seemed to have a good time. Prasti was a great host and was ready with a coloring/craft area. Ben spent most of his time on the play phone and vacuuming. It occurred to us that with the latest prego (congrats Melissa) that in July we will have 11 kids in our play group! That's just with the regulars. Its so exciting to see all these babies and anticipating the 4 that are coming next year. It almost makes me want to have #3, but I think we have a long, long way to go for that!

My cuties

We've been able to spend some time relaxing and having fun with each other the past few days. I wanted to take a minute and show off my "cute baby, cute daddy and cute Ben" as Ben would say.

Organized chaos

Today we had play group at our house. The temperature cooperated, but the rain did not. Everything was soaked so we stayed inside. We had 9 kids, including babies, running around the living room and hopefully having a good time. Somehow, Sam managed to sleep through the entire play group while being right in the middle of the action.
Jon had Tuesday off for Veterans Day. We got out for a little while, but managed to get some rest in too.

What to do???

Its Monday morning at 9:30 and both of my children are still asleep! I don't know what to do with myself! Ben has slept this late maybe twice in his life. Sam usually sleeps all day long, but by this time he's usually been up for a while and has moved downstairs to be with me. The boy had an amazing night last night and is still in his crib. He actually stayed awake for a couple hours before bed time so he went right to sleep when we laid him down at 10pm. He woke up at 3am and again at 6am. Unfortunately, I'm getting used to having very little sleep so after having 5 hours, I was wide awake and couldn't go back to sleep.
I guess this is the perfect time to update the blog! Friday, we went to my moms office. We showed off Sam to everyone then headed to lunch. Of course, all Ben took away from the afternoon was he got to "hit the buttons." (The elevator buttons).

My parents stopped over yesterday to see the kids and brought us some food--thank you.

Last night we went to aunt Corrie's house for dinner and did some Christmas decorating. I know, its a little early, but it was now or never for her so we did it--with Christmas music and all. Ben and Tyler spent the majority of the night chasing the cat. When he wasn't tormenting Sabine, he was fascinated with the microwave!

Thanks for the pics aunt Corrie!

Lots of leaves

We had play group at Prasti's today. The kids had a great time playing in the leaves and burying Melissa in them. Ben wasn't sure about them at first, but once he saw how much fun everyone else was having in them, he got right into it.

Emma took a break to say hello to Sam.

Here's a little bit of the action:

After play group we had another picnic with Jon at his office and watched the planes take off. There were a ton today. As always, Ben had a great time and his love of airplanes has been renewed!

Ben finally let us get some of his drumming/singing on film. Here's his audition tape for the praise band.

Election Day

Well, Jon was at our polling location bright and early at 6:30am. There was actually a line. There is never a line at this location. I went after Jon got back and the line continued to grow. I'm excited to see just how many people are getting out to vote. Its 8am and Good Morning America is already showing lines stretching as far as the eye can see in many states. As exciting as it is, I'm glad its basically over. The commercials, the phone calls, people knocking on our door all day long, the lawn signs etc are getting old. I'm looking forward to some peace again. I think the only thing I'll miss are all the debates with Jon. We don't agree on some things and have had many, many "discussions" to try to sway the other to our side. I don't think either of us succeeded! While I know that we don't need an election to state our case on the hot topics, we just don't seem to have the drive to do so during non-election times.

On a more lighthearted note, Ben has been all about drumming and singing lately. The only problem is, as soon as he sees the camera, he stops what he's doing and says, "cheese." We haven't been able to get the full effect on video. Here is a small sample of how he's been entertaining us. This was towards the end of his production so we missed the intensity on his face that he first showed along with the power and volume of his drumming! I don't think Sam fully appreciates his brothers skill yet!!

Trick or Treat

This year, we had Lane, Melissa and Layla over for dinner (which they so nicely provided) and a little bit of trick or treating. Sam and I handed out candy while the rest of the gang went up and down our street gathering an impressive collection of candy for 2 year olds! We didn't really do a costume for Ben. We put him in a Browns shirt and made him a Browns fan--they still have 1!
Jon and I used to go out to see a scary movie every year on Halloween. We would go to the theater in Middleburg Heights and park next to the cemetery (yes, there is a small cemetery in the middle of the parking lot) to get the full Halloween, lets get spooky effect! However, each year, the "scariness" lingered longer and longer and I think Jon got really tired of inspecting every crevice of our apartment to check for bad guys or anything sinister that shouldnt have been there. We decided to start skipping the scary movies. Actually, I think Jon refused to take me once we moved into our house--we have significantly more crevice's now!
Now that we have kids (and are Christians), we look at Halloween a little differently. I dont know if we just arent putting enough thought into it or if people are overanalyzing it, but I've heard a lot back and forth from parents about how much participation they would allow their kids to have. With all we have to worry about right now--National City, the election, the economy, being a one income family the list could be enormous if you let it--why make Halloween into something it doesnt need to be? Ben got to spend an evening with dad and friends, walking around the neighborhood, meeting new people, practicing his manners (please and thank you) and in the end he got some treats that hes going to share with mom and dad even if he doesnt realize it yet! Thats it. He had a good time and we left it at that. When he gets older and has more questions, wants to participate a little more or know more about the holiday, then we'll sit him down and explain the history and decide as a family what acts/how much participation is appropriate. For now, Ben will enjoy his sugar high and we'll enjoy watching him!