Bud & BJ

Mr C has a great set of Sunday School teachers.  Mr Bud and Ms BJ are so friendly, welcoming and make the classroom full of fun for Mr C & Hope-e-potamus!  We are so thankful for them & tell them regularly.  Ms BJ has reinterated several times how Mr C looks just like her oldest son & she always feels sentimental as she watches him play.  I guess their personalities, interests and learning styles are very similar as well, which is incredible.  Mr C loves going to church & I attribute that to both his spiritual life and to his teachers.

Chri-iffic

"Our Christmas tree looks Chri-iffic" 

Hero!

On last Thursday, the kiddos and I were out playing in the yard before dinner time.  Mr C and Hope-apotamus were digging dirt to fill holes dug by our neighbor girl's #4 & 5 dogs, chaining their ladder to the reclaimed wood fort, Ruby was mostly "cooking" in the playhouse, and Eliza was stringing chains from the tree to the tire swing.  It was a normal evening.  Then, it started getting darker and I was wondering where Andy was and if he was heading home yet.  I looked everywhere for my phone {quickly because I just left them out by themselves} and finally came to the conclusion that I had left in the van when we came back from the mini master class that morning.  I rushed out, got it, and then heard Mr C yelling something from the back yard while Ruby cried a little.  I rushed back through the house and came out to find Ruby on the fort!!!!!!  I asked Caleb, who was up there, how she had gotten up there and he said, "she climbed up the ladder, but the ladder fell and she held on to the edge of the fort.  Then, I grabbed her and pulled her up with me!"  I praised him over and over for his quick thinking, his strength, his watchfulness, and so much!  When Dad came home for dinner, I asked Mr C to tell him what had happened with Ruby on the fort.  Then, Mr C relayed the story to him and added, "I'm a hero!"  Our little hero man boy!! 

 

He's quite the LEGO pirate ship builder too!!

My Winter Baby Boy

We found out we were expecting at the end of the school year & I was sick the last two weeks...like running to the bathroom sick.  It was thrilling as well as exhausting.  I had gotten mono at the beginning of the school year, so that year in total was not the best.  It did stretch me and push me to work harder though.  As soon as summer began, I was in "enjoying my first pregnancy" mode.  I felt better and was excited to find out whether we had a boy or a girl...when the baby was delivered.  Everything progressed well.  We were fostering a four year old boy at the time, so I didn't have a lot of time to focus on just being pregnant.  The little boy lived with us until about a month after Caleb was born and then went to live with his bio father {short term, sadly.}  My ob was supposedly supportive of natural birth and in favor of my birth plan.  Then, she decided that I had Preeclampsia and should induce labor soon.  I pushed it off for a week, but she scared me into believing that either the baby or I could come to harm if I continued naturally, so we induced.  About 13 hours later, he was born!  He looked so much like his daddy with thick, dark hair.  We were in love!  Caleb was the smiley, absolutely adorable baby of our dreams!!  He slept well and loved to listen to Mama sing.  He did have trouble with nursing and I was in pain for about two or three months straight, but once we figured it out it was simple!  He was easy to please.  Caleb loved smooches, cuddles, laughing, bouncing on Mama's exercise ball, and so many things.  He was and is a wonderful, wonderful boy!