The A-Team

Play doh!

Snuggling with mommy

Building train tracks

Very proud engineer

Sheet changing day = super fun play time!

Fun hat play

being a stinker while watching Word World

Trying on mommy's boots

Cheese!

Building with blocks

New closet organization for the boys' room!

Loving on mommy

This was one of Abel's last nights in the high chair - this is him trying to look at the picture I took

Daddy grew a beard anticipating a "cold" winter...oops!

Attempt at a hug

Mommy and Daddy self portrait

This was our January including celebrating my 34th birthday. I didn’t feel great at all during that month…thankfully I am feeling better now!

This system ROCKS!!! I love having my nails painted but despise the time it takes only to have it chip off in the next day or two. I have been on a quest for some time to find something that would last but NOT require a salon visit for Shellac or something. Enter Red Carpet Manicure!  This is an at home gel nail polish kit. I saved up some birthday money and waited and waited until I saw this back in stock at drugstore.com and was able to use a coupon code. I bought the professional kit because the portable light uses batteries and it takes longer. I weighed the pros and cons and felt this was the better deal.

Last Wednesday, February 8th, my kit arrived! That night after the kiddos were in bed, I got out the kit and went to work! It is rather simple. I followed the directions and also used some tips and hints I got off of youtube. It took me maybe 30 to 45 minutes to complete this manicure. I took my time and didn’t rush it. Lighting was a huge hindrance until I put on a headlamp! Woohoo! Seeing really is important. Anyway, I completed the manicure and did the final step. I had some color come off which was not expected but as I had read, it usually meant my last cured step wasn’t done right. I looked back at my nails and could see where the “brillance/sealant” was missing. I reapplied, re-cured and it was perfect! Here 1 week later my nails look AWESOME still! Not one chip or scrape – just growth which is to be expected. This system is truly awesome! I can’t wait to buy more colors:)

This is my 1 week photo...amazing! Looks like I just did these nails!

Excuse my non-professional manicure skills but this is a close up to show NO CHIPS!

This is just one of the many reasons to offer your child the best option for life! I am not saying that I will be the most amazing teacher ever. I am actually prepared to have many failures BUT I am not allowing the government to step in and flex control over my child’s life. I am protecting them from that beast. We already refused social security numbers for the kiddos and we plan to hold out as long as we can (even at the end, we will fight tooth and nail). There are too many things in this world that are well, evil. This may seem small but I think it is a HUGE step in the wrong direction for public schools – where will the tyranny end?

http://myfox8.com/2012/02/14/nc-preschooler-fed-nuggets-because-packed-lunch-wasnt-healthy/

I hit the halfway point this past Thursday. I had the “big” ultrasound that morning and it was great to see this little girl wiggling all around!

I am feeling great, just tired. But hey, I am growing another human being while chasing around my 2 little boys! We are taking days easy and just enjoying the nicer, warmer winter:)

Anyway, Abilene is growing like crazy! She is measuring about 1 to 1.5 weeks ahead of dates and she weighs 15 ounces! For those that don’t know, most babies at this age (20 weeks) weigh in at 9 ounces. I am glad she is big because she helps to justify the 4.8 pounds mommy has gained! The doc says she looks great and we are OFFICIALLY scheduled for delivery on 6-18-12! It is nuts, it will be here before I know it! Yikes!

Here are a couple sweet pictures. Enjoy them:)

Here are her sweet feet!

This is a profile shot. The placenta is on top and she is staring "up" at it.

Roger was taken off life support late Friday night and passed shortly thereafter. It is not an easy thing to comprehend or even begin to have feelings about. I am thankful his body is no longer suffering but I fear for his soul. But more than anything I ask for prayers for comfort for my mom and my brother. They are the ones hurting the most and need the most comfort. Pray that I would use the right words (God-given) to reach their hearts for Christ in this time of pain. I have learned so much about the relationship my mom and brother had with this man that I truly did not know. I want to be there for them because this is very tough on them especially since it looks like Roger knew he was very sick and possibly dying but chose not to tell anyone or get treatment.

They have begun the process of cleaning out his house (which is the house I grew up in) and have tons and tons of work ahead of them. As of tonight my mom claims they made it through 80% of the valuable things. Roger’s actual blood family made the decision to give everything to my mom and brother since they were his “family.” Of course some of the items my mom has come across, she wants to pass to me since they are from my childhood. It is crazy to think he still had any of that stuff!

Pray for peace for me as I deal with my own emotions and issues as I approach the day for Roger’s funeral. I know it will be a difficult time and much will be expected of me. Pray that I am strong enough to get through that day.

Thanks for listening and most of all for praying.

Yep! I hit 34 on Monday. I must say it was probably the WARMEST birthday in recent memory!

Abraham was sick for the previous week leading up to my birthday and so plans were cancelled for the weekend. I did manage to get out a couple days and enjoy some yummy food!  Then Abraham felt better come Sunday and we spent the afternoon with my mom and grandmother (whose birthday is today!) and we had a very nice visit. Then Monday came along and my in-laws were so kind to come down and watch the kids for us for the day! Aaron and I went out and saw the new Mission Impossible movie, ate snacks, went shopping, just had a great time together with NO KIDDOS! That may seem terrible to say but Abraham has been a NIGHTMARE to deal with. We have officially hit “war of the wills.” We will see him through this with God’s guidance!

All in all, I had a great birthday! I even got to feel my sweet new baby girl kicking on the full bladder a couple times on my birthday! What a sweet present:)

My Cake!

To all Mothers: I loved this post. I love my children but parenting is so like climbing Mt Everest! My daily prayer will be to ask God to allow me more kairos moments and less chronos! Enjoy reading!

http://momastery.com/blog/2012/01/04/2011-lesson-2-dont-carpe-diem/

Today we had an OB appointment. It was SUPPOSED to be routine – a simple in and out visit with a quick check of the heartbeat since we are only at 15 weeks and 5 days. Well, this little baby of ours does NOT like to have her heartbeat found, EVER. At my last appointment, I almost ended up in ultrasound because there was no heartbeat. It took the nurse about 15 minutes to find it. Thankfully she did. This time it was the doc checking for the heartbeat (he is a very busy man) and spent about 5 minutes hunting. He then said, “you are going to ultrasound.”

At this point, I am having extremely mixed emotions. I am excited to have an ultrasound and yet COMPLETELY freaked out that something is wrong. I will explain a bit more on that in a minute. Anyway, I shyly ask the doc if we can find out the sex if it’s possible. He was all for it!! YIPPEE!!

We are taken right over to ultrasound (Sara our tech is AWESOME – she did Abel’s ultrasounds) and we get to hear the heartbeat immediately! It was strong and steady at 148 beats per minute. Now for the fun part. Sara was super excited to help us find out the sex too and within about 5 minutes or so she confirmed GIRL!!!

Abilene's ultrasound pictures

My placenta is quite large and anterior which has made heartbeat detection and movement detection difficult. But she was moving and squirming the whole ultrasound. It was great to see her move around and to know she is a SHE!! I have “known” this entire pregnancy that it was a girl. Don’t ask me how, I just knew. I wasn’t the least bit surprised. I think if Sara had said “boy” I would have been shocked. Aaron I think was much more surprised by the outcome but he is happy to have a healthy baby girl growing!

Confession time: For basically this entire pregnancy I have been having an incredibly difficult time. Not with illness or anything, just emotionally a really tough time. I have been surrounded by the loss of SO many babies. There has been tragedy after tragedy and it has been wearing on me so much that I built walls around myself to protect me from possible hurt. These walls were so thick that I wasn’t really “bonding” with the child inside me. Sure, I would acknowledge my pregnancy because I am NOT getting fat again…it really is a baby. But I never felt close or even excited. I was petrified to be honest. I was scared that at any moment I would lose this precious baby. Fear gripped me so much that I couldn’t even voice these feelings to my husband until New Year’s Eve. Once I was able to FINALLY put my feelings to words and share them with someone, I was immediately released! I felt this huge weight lifted from me because in discussing my fear with Aaron I realized that there is absolutely nothing I can do to protect this child (aside from eating right, sleeping, not over doing it and not getting too stressed out). This child is in God’s hands and I need to leave the baby there. I can enjoy the time I have with this child and rejoice at knowing that I will see this child in either this life or the next! Whew! I know that seems incredibly simple but it was revolutionary for me and this pregnancy. And hopefully that explains a bit as to why I was freaking out when they couldn’t find the heartbeat earlier today.

So to sum things up, Abraham and Abel will be joined by Abilene in June! We are excited and I am having fun thinking of buying a few pink, yellow and purple things for our new baby girl!

This is an annual tradition. Aaron and I used to go pre-kids. It is always so much fun to see what new cars are coming out. It has been fun taking the kids and this year was no exception. They had a BLAST running around climbing in and out of the cars! They did get a little out of control and were starting to get too rough in the cars so we had to go. That did NOT go over well but at least nothing was damaged and nobody was hurt!

Our future driver...YIKES!

This one is NUTS about real cars

Papa in the seat of our "future" car...The Ford Flex

Both kids in the TRUNK of the Flex!!!!

We were very blessed to see so many family members for Christmas. Of course there were many we didn’t get to see but we wished them a Merry Christmas through our cards and letters.

This year was fun to watch Abraham really get excited about handing out gifts from us. He was shy but he did a great job! He was also very polite with the opening of his gifts as greed hasn’t totally set in.

Abel was also fun to watch this year. He enjoyed opening the presents as well. He was having more fun with the paper than the actual gift! He would tear his wrapping paper into the smallest bits possible! He was still quite the handful this year as he is in the toddler phase. He wants to do what he wants to do and really doesn’t care what mom or dad say. Thankfully, most of our Christmas celebrations with family did NOT include a meltdown! Yeah!!!!

Now that the celebrations are over and things are starting to get back to our normal routine…I find myself fighting Abel with his sleep schedule once again. He wakes around 5 am and isn’t really ready to wake up but can’t go back to sleep either. It is so frustrating and exhausting for mommy. Normal wake up time is 8:30 am so this is a big shift for me! We will get through this. I know some of it is his teeth along with our crazy running around for the past couple weeks. Now that things are slowing back down and he will get his GOOD afternoon naps, hopefully things will get back to normal!

Enough of that, enjoy the pictures of our Christmas!

This was at our dentist’s office on Saturday, December 17th.

We don't "do" Santa in our house...and this will probably be our last picture attempt

We went to my Dad’s for Christmas later on in the afternoon of Saturday, December 17th.

Abraham playing very nicely with his cousin Nikolas

The boys enjoying Chrismas at my Dad's

Ham cheesing while playing with ABEL'S new piano!

My Rockstar...guitar and all!

This was Sunday afternoon, December 18th at my Grandpa Shinkle’s.

Abraham posing nicely at Great Grandpa Shinkle's

One of the ONLY face photos of Mr. Taters

These are hilarious pictures from home…

This is his response to "cheese"

This is his next response when asked to take out his binky and cheese!

Love these two

Abel may be a veterinarian when he grows up...look closely Ark is in there too!

I had to open the cage up, thankfully he can't lock it!

My other rock star and Taters getting tossed by papa

This was Christmas with my mom (Grandma Jean) on Thursday morning, December 22nd.

Abel with my mom...see that look, he gives that to me A LOT!

All three were looking in the direction of the camera!!!

Opening presents! Their favorite past time!!!

This was our Christmas Eve celebration in Muncie with Aaron’s extended family.

This was the cutest. Baby Isla just LOVED Abraham!!! She would giggle and smile for him! Ham thought she was pretty cool too.

Abel found "bells" on the door - He LOVED them!!!

More wonderful presents...mater and finn were in these along with 2 new buddies!!

This is Christmas morning at home…

Christmas Morning with stockings!

Even the dogs got a present:)

Ham got Gordon! His favorite!!

Abel adores this dollar store recorder! Best buck I've spent in awhile!

Abel got Animal for Christmas

Ham so proud of Moon Sand!

This is at Christmas morning service…what a neat service…of course I spent most of it chasing Abel around out in the cafe area.

Best shot of the boys at Christmas service

This was Christmas with Grandma and Grand-dad Daniel right after service.

Love this face

Abel REALLY wanted the camera

Boys with Grandma Daniel

The only picture of US!

This was Christmas with my Grandma Brown and my extended family after we left the Daniel’s.

This little boy LOVED the motion-activated Santa because it would play music when you walked by. See the bear, Abel ends up tackling him and running into the main room with him later on in the day!

And this was Abel’s present, a shiner! He was goofing around at his grandparents house and walked into a table corner. Yeouch! THANKFULLY we did NOT end up in the emergency room. It blossomed immediately to a bruise and I knew it would be bad…I just hoped his eye was fine. It was and so no visit! But it sure looks ugly!

Abel's Christmas Shiner