Checkups

Miles and Marcus both had checkups a couple of weeks ago. Just wanted to show the numbers.

Marcus Miles

23 pounds         16 pounds 4 oz

33 inches tall 23 inches long

3 % for weight         not even on the charts for weight

I just thought it was so funny. These boys are like night and day. The doctor told us that we need to start giving Marcus ice cream every night to fatten him up. I'm sure that will fatten us all up, who can pass up ice cream? Hmm... maybe I should just start nursing Marcus again! What do you think? I think I may have just thrown up a little! :)

Holidays in a nutshell

We had a great holiday and hope that everyone else did too!!! This is the first time that we have not been able to go "home" for Christmas. I had very mixed feelings about the whole thing, but it turned out great!! Of course I missed being with my family and doing all of our traditional Christmas activities. We did all the same things here in PA and even started a few new things of our own. Thanks to lots of packages, letters and most of all for Skype I wasn't AS homesick as I thought I would be. My family is awesome and just wanted to say thanks! We felt your love clear across the country!!!!!!!!!!! 

We always have a Christmas Eve picnic. We decided to put some sheets over our table and have our picnic in the manger. The kids loved it and it really led to some great discussions about Christ through our dinner. 

Then we of course opened our Christmas Eve pj's!!!

We let the kids all sleep together on a blow up mattress downstairs in the family room. They were so excited about their "kids party" and kept asking me and Justin when we were going to leave. Believe it or not they stayed up really late and Marcus even made it until about 2am. The funniest thing was that Marcus kept sneaking upstairs to sample some of Santa's cookies. Here are a few pictures of the kids with their Santa gifts.

Our happy little boy!

I think this was the boys' favorite present! It is hilarious to watch them run around the house in these!!

We had a great time and just relaxed at home all day. We didn't even get dressed - just lounged around in our pj's. Who am I kidding! That is what I do everyday, right?! We had the kids in bed by 6:30 that night and they all slept like babies!! 

What a tank!!!!!!!

Just wanted to add a few pics of Miles and the kids. He is so dang big! I love it and wouldn't have it any other way. He is so squishy and lovable!!! The kids just absolutely adore him and love getting right in his face! He doesn't seem to mind, he just grins and deals with it. Last week I took him in for a quick hernia check and he weighed 14 pounds 12 ounces. He is only 8 weeks old! Of course he is a hit everywhere we go, between the chubbiness and the hair people can't seem to keep their hands off him. This first picture is almost 2 weeks ago. He has double the rolls now! Love it!!!!!!!!!!!

Catching up!

We had an awesome Thanksgiving! We just had it with our own little family, and had a great time. We missed everyone at home, but made the best of things! We didn't waste any time getting out our Christmas decorations!! In fact we didn't even clean up any of the dishes after we ate, the kids were just too excited!!! We got our tree up, and we think it looks pretty great. The kids have been getting ornaments from their great-grandma every year for Christmas, so we decided to get a real tree for them to decorate. We went to a tree farm where you can cut down your own tree. The kids thought that was so awesome!! It was pretty cold, but they were troopers. We just got a tiny tree, we don't have too many ornaments yet:) I have to admit, it does look pretty ghetto, but the kids had a great time and I definitely think we'll do it again next year.

Back to Reality!!!

A big thanks to this guy for giving me another beautiful baby boy! Love you Justin!

This post is late in coming, but I am adjusting to four kids, give me a break!!  I just wanted to thank my family for coming out to help, especially my mommy!!:)  I seriously don't know what I would have done without her.  Recovery after my third c-section was much harder than after my first!  She took care of everything around the house, including the kids.  That really allowed me to have some great bonding time with my not so little anymore Miles.  Now that she is gone I appreciate even more the quiet times we had alone, because now I still have time with him-but they are not alone or quiet!!!  She did all the cooking, cleaning, bath times, play times, laundry,  and still found time to take care of me and the baby!  Not to mention the crafty touches she added to my house!!!  I really love my mom so much!  She is my best friend and I am her #1 fan.  My kids are so lucky to have a grandma that loves them so much.  I don't know how I got so lucky to get you as a mom - love ya! 

(Please come back, we need help!)

OK this is a crazy picture, but one that describes my family perfectly!! Did you ever do this when you were little?  If you can't tell they have taped their noses up.  We were laughing so hard I was crying!  It made them look like the Who's on the Grinch.  Sad to say this is the only 

picture I got of the three of them!

This is also the only picture I got of Nicki, what was I thinking?  I think all the other pictures are on my dad's camera.  She is so good with my kids, and any kids for that matter.  She is so creative and always had something fun for them to do.  One day they were watching "The Bee Movie" and she had them all make bee wings out of brown paper bags.  They were so excited to show us and were buzzing around the house all morning.  She is going to be the best mom and I love her so much!  Thanks Nicki, we love and miss you!  We especially miss all your energy!  Thanks to her husband Brad too for letting her spend the week with us:)

This is my dad.  He was so kind and generous to give me his wife for a month.  Dad, I will be forever grateful for that!!  He was my personal handy man while he was here, fixing all the things that Justin doesn't have time to do.  My kids love and adore you, but not as much as I do!! Thank you so much for everything!!  A special thanks for teaching Kade what you did! (wink,wink!)

Well this has turned into quite the tribute to my family, hasn't it!  What can I say?  I really have the most amazing family and I love them so much.  We will take visitors anytime!!  We love and miss you all so much and can't wait to see you again! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Blessing Day

First of all, I know there are two of the same pictures on this post, but I'm retarded and couldn't figure out how to change it! We blessed Miles on Sunday and just wanted to share a few pics. It was a great day and so fun to have some of our family here with us. I can't believe how fast 3 weeks has gone by already and how much he has changed. I wish they could just stay little forever! He is such a good baby and he has brought so much joy into our home. We love you Miles!!!!!

Happy Halloween!

Here are a few pics from our adventures last night. The kids had a great time and got loads of candy. This is the best picture of the three of them, despite Kenley's closed eyes. They had had enough picture taking by now and trick or treaters were starting to come. Huge difference from Halloween last year-the kids were not shy at all. They actually spoke to people when they answered the door! It was a lot of fun and no complaints about the walking from any of the kids. I was especially impressed that Cinderella walked the whole time in her high heels without any problems:) I think you could hear the click clack of her shoes in the next county! She loved it though and even got to wear a little bit of mom's make up. Mr. pirate had a permanent grin on his face the whole time. He was so proud of his whiskers! Our not so baby anymore giraffe wanting to eat every piece of candy he got as soon as they put it in his bag. Thanks to grandma for staying home with Miles so we could go out together!