Home Sweet Home

After a week of traveling, nothing feels better than being home!

We had a great time with all three of our families! Jeremiah's parents were with us for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We had a blast playing Agrivation, Scrabble, and Poker every night after the kids went down ;) The day after Christmas we headed up to Roanoke to visit with our Via family. We loved seeing everyone and getting in on the family togetherness. Meme and Popee babysat the kids for us and we went on a double date with two of our closest (and most missed!) friends, Josh and Tasha. We went and saw I Am Legend - Great movie! Then Thursday we headed up to my parents in WV. Once we made it there we ALL headed to my grandparents in MD to have Christmas with all my aunts/uncles/cousins, etc. It was great crazy fun! Jeremiah got to meet some of my family that he never had before. And he got to play Santa Claus =) You can check out a picture of that below! Then we spent Friday just chilling out with my family. I got to go out and have lunch with just my Mom and Dad...that was special. Then Saturday morning we headed back to VA to visit again with the Via's. We finally made it back home Saturday night late. Whew...what fun...but we are all sooooo wiped out now. We are looking forward to a quiet New Years Eve here =)

Update...

So, I was right. Ella has an ear infection. 24 hours on an antibiotic and she will be a new little girl. Ezra just has a cold. Not much you can do for that at his age. He did seem a little better this afternoon and ate more for me. Now, the sad thing is that Jeremiah seems to have some kind of stomach bug this evening =(

Also, my family's dog,Levi, passed away early this morning. It is sad, but he had the best life a dog could have had. He was loved and he will be missed.

Blahhh...

My kids are sick again ;-(

We head out to the doctors in just a few minutes. I'm glad they were able to work us in...especially since it is a Saturday. And the Saturday before Christmas at that. Ella still has a lingering cough from a cold 2 weeks ago and her nose started running again yesterday. And she complained that her ear hurt her. I'm sure it's a sinus/ear infection. If it is an ear infection it will be her 1st one since she had her tubes put in last January. I won't complain about that, considering that she had 6 double ear infections in Nov/Dec of last year. We can handle one. Poor Ezra woke up yesterday with a really snotty nose and drippy eyes, was not eating good, and not his usual happy self. So, it's off to the dr's for us. Hopefully we'll get some good drugs =) Especially since we will be traveling all next week. I hate when my kids are sick. Blahh...





Check out that attractive line of snot coming out her nose =)

The Farm

We have a student at our church whose family owns a 42acre farm on the outskirts of Durham. In the past they have always generously offered the use of it to the student ministry for our Hot Summer Nights program. Jeremiah would always talk to me about how incredible the setting was and wouldn't it be a dream come true if one day we could live in a place like that. Well, to make a long story short,through a series of God-ordained events and conversations we now have the opportunity to move to the farm. A lot has to happen before we can move(selling our house-yikes!) and nothing is
set in stone yet, but Jeremiah and I both know that the Lord is in this. We are so excited about the opportunity to raise our children in this kind of environment. The house is everything we were looking for, having 4 bedrooms and a full finished basement...enough room for even my whole family to visit =) There is also so much opportunity for us to use it for ministry. Talk about getting the desires of our hearts!




View from the sunroom













Ella walking one of the many trails











The backyard leading out to the pond












The driveway

My parents have a plaque on their mantle that says...

"All because two people fell in love"

Today marks my parents 31st wedding anniversary...

Wow!

My Mom called me this morning and told me that one of their dogs, Levi, was at the vets office and was very sick. My Mom and Dad had originally had plans to spend the day together and drive up to Pennsylvania. We'll, being who they are (for those of you who don't know them, their love for animals is only beaten by their love for children) they canceled their plans to make sure Levi was taken care of. I started to get sad for them because their special day was "ruined". But then I thought about their 31 years together...31 years of caring for animals and children and anything else that ever needed care and love...and changed my mind about their day being ruined. No, they are doing just what they love to do, and doing it together.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

p.s. Levi is really sick with an auto-immune disease, but doing better after a blood transfusion. If he continues to improve he gets to go home tomorrow.

Sharing...

Ella and I had fun this morning making Christmas cinnamon ornaments. I know I am always looking for new things to do with her(preferably things that are cheap, easy, and relatively un-messy!)and thought I'd pass on the recipe:

1 cup ground cinnamon
4tbsp. white glue
3/4 to 1 cup water

Mix all ingredients together. Roll out dough to about 1/4in. thick. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters. Poke holes in the tops of them with a straw. Dry on waxed paper at room temp - turn 2x a day for 4 days. Or to speed dry - bake in a warm oven for 2hrs.

Enjoy!

Fun with Daddy

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Hidden Talents I never dreamed I would have:

1 - I can sing EVERY single lyric to EVERY single Dora the Explorer song (go ahead, I dare you to test me!)

2 - I can simultaneously burp Ezra, turn on a humidifier with my toes, and wipe Ella's nose - Just found that one out today =)

3 - I can sense when Ezra is crying even when the tv is on and the a/c AND dishwasher AND dryer are running and there is no possible way I can actually hear him crying

5 - My hugs have the power to dispel Ella's fear of trash trucks

What's in a name...

Ella never attached herself to a stuffed animal or blanket as a baby. However, in the past 3 months she has formed quite a bond with one of her baby dolls. She puts its paci in and out, takes its clothes on and off. It's been diapered and colored on. It goes to the grocery store with us and she sleeps with it most nights. She isn't quite to the point where she HAS to have it in order to go to sleep, which is just fine with me =) She gets asked about the baby dolls name a lot and she never had a reply...until today. She informed me and Jeremiah this morning that her baby dolls name was "hawk-moley" as in guacamole. I thought maybe it was just a fleeting thought of hers, but she has continued to call it "hawk-moley" all day. Baby Guacamole...hmmm, has a nice ring to it.

A record-breaking day

Between Ella and Ezra I changed eight poopy diapers and six outfits yesterday. No wonder I felt like I hadn't gotten anything done but had been busy all day =)

Like Daddy, Like Son

Everybody keeps telling me how much Ezra looks like Jeremiah. While I agree, I didn't see it quite as much as everyone else...until I looked at this photo =)

Ahhh...sleep

Yea!!! I (hope) I can officially say that Ezra is sleeping thru the night for us!He went down for the night at 8:30pm, I woke him up to feed right before we went to bed at 10:30pm, and he got up this morning at 7:30pm! I had forgotten how blissful it is to sleep for longer than 3 hr stretches =)

It be good...

When I asked Ella what she wanted for breakfast, she said, "Diego Yogurt...it be good in my "mouf" and my belly"!

The tree is up!

Probably one of our favorite parts of Christmas is getting the tree. Only a live one for us...or else I think my Dad would disown me! When I was little my Dad sold Christmas trees at several different lots throughout Montgomery County, MD. One of my favorite childhood memories is going with my dad to the lots. It would be so cold outside and my sisters and I would run around the trees and make up all kinds of games. When we were frozen,or at least thought to be frozen by my parents, we'd go inside(be sent inside)the little trailer and warm up with hot chocolate. Good memories!

Now that I have a family of my own, putting up a tree is even more special. Jeremiah loves the whole Christmas tree thing just as much as I do. Our 1st married Christmas it was all I could do to keep him from putting one up before Halloween! This year Ella was a lot of "help" in decorating the tree. She kept putting her ornaments on the same limb...nevermind that there were hundreds of empty ones around it! Ezra loves to stare at the lights =) More good memories!

Parenting = Agony

When Jeremiah read my previous post about parenting having moments that are "agony" he told me that he thought that was a pretty strong word to use. Well, I think after the past week he agrees with me that parenting can be agonizing at times. We left for Myrtle Beach to spend Thanksgiving with Jeremiah's family last Wednesday and Ezra had what we thought was just a cold. Ella and Jeremiah had both been sick, so we just thought he was next in the rotation. But each day his cough was getting worse and worse and he was eating less and less and sleeping more and more and I knew something was wrong. So, we came home Friday and took him to the dr's only to be sent to the hospital and he was admitted with "suspected pertussis" or whooping cough as it is commonly known. Poor guy! He was so pitiful with his coughing spells and you could just tell he was miserable. It was so hard for Jeremiah and I to watch and feel so helpless. Definitely agonizing. He stayed in the hospital for 24hrs for them to monitor his oxygen levels and make sure they stayed up during his coughing fits. He was treated with antibiotics and we had to stay quarantined for several days...but, Praise the Lord, we think he is over the worst of it! He isn't coughing much at all anymore and his appetite is slowly returning (good thing he had plenty of fat reserves to spare...The boy weighed 13lbs at 10weeks!). He started smiling like crazy this week and even trying to laugh. We are just so glad that our happy little man is returning! Thank you Lord!