Umm...this is akward

Uhhhh....er...hi. I've tried many times to back track and recapture all of the important life events that have passed this blog by in the past s.e.v.e.r.a.l. months, but I am failing miserably at my many attempts. So, I'm gonna stop beating myself up over that and just gonna jump right in where I'm at. And where I'm at is a very happy place.

I am blessed with a hard-working husband who is doing an outstanding job balancing quality family time and LOTS of work. The lots of work is to benefit his well-planned retirement, which is just around the corner AND so that his family of boys, whose stomachs are becoming a bottomless pit lately, can have a fully stocked fridge and pantry.

Here is my spunky kindergartner who just today lost one of his front teeth and is charming the pants off of me with his toothless smile. He is gentle, thoughtful, conscientious, imaginative, sensitive, goofy, creative, rambunctious, adventurous, and curious with an insatiable appetite for learning new things. I am so thankful that the Lord chose him to be the big brother of our family. The role suits him well. He is rounding the corner of kindergarten now and is headed for first grade and I can hardly believe it.

Then, not to be ignored in the least, here is my stuck-in-the-middle 4-year-old whose bound up energy is equal to a small herd of horses. Here he is above strapped in the back of a monster truck awaiting a ride of a lifetime. He got $10 to spend at the monster truck races that came to our town last month and while his brother chose some trinkets from the souvenir stand, he chose to spend his money on an exciting ride in the back of a REAL-LIFE MONSTER TRUCK!  Dude. And what a fun ride it was!!   He is a passionate thrill-seeker, who is determined, spirited, loud, competitive, affectionate, independent, and creative with a zest for life that is unmatched among anyone I know.

Last, but certainly not least, is our newest addition. My sweet-spirited, 4-month-old baby boy that has stolen all of our hearts. He is content and smiley, loves to coo and blow raspberries, and is one of the best tv watchers in the house. And to be honest, the educator in me doesn't give a RIP about that last fact. Hahaha!! My, how things change by the time the third baby comes around. Poor kid. But,he does love to sit and quietly observe all the chaos that often surrounds him. He does not sleep through the night yet (unlike his big brothers) and while this causes me much exhaustion, he has also been an endless source of joy for our entire family.

I am finally emerging from a very rough chapter in our lives. My pregnancy began with a good bit of first trimester nausea, followed by a small period of feeling pretty well, and then in my second trimester I developed a debilitating case of anemia that was extremely hard on all of us. By the time I got that under control, I was well into my third trimester and wickedly uncomfortable until I had my beautiful baby boy around 42 weeks gestation. Almost immediately following the birth our family has been hit with a string of illnesses the past few months that have had us crying "UNCLE!" for quite some time. As a matter of fact, four of the five of us just got hit with a stomach bug in the past week (our last bug of this nature hit a week before the baby was born) that we are all finally getting over!! There are many other yucks that have hit our household in addition to the above, but I don't want to spend any more time reliving those. Glad they are OVER!

All this to say that although we've hit quite a few road bumps in the past several months, I am grateful for the journey that the Lord has taken us on. I know that He has a purpose for me and my husband and our sweet boys and a reason for all that He's allowed us to go through as of late. I am anxious to learn the lessons He has for me and to get back into the swing of being a busy wife, mother, homemaker, and daughter of the King!

I am so very thankful for the countless blessings that He's given me!! And I am praying that I have the discipline to keep up with this blog so that I can look back and treasure these precious moments that happen every day I have the privilege of being the wife and mommy of our household.