December Photos Take 2!

 

More late December photos but I still wanted to share... I had so much fun at Ashton's school Christmas party. I took the day off to share it with him and to supervise the food of course. His room mothers were accommodating to all my picky allergy mom requests and he was able to enjoy the same food as everyone else which I loved!

 

 

 

 

Wes got to come over between his classes too-man, these two look alike!

Ashton's wonderful teacher Ms Wood who we are so very thankful for!!

A random beautiful sunset one night that Wes was able to photo!

Our first family Christmas party at my mom's parents. My grandmother set out her Christmas village with three stools for the greatgrankids! It was so sweet and they LOVED it.

Embry's first Christmas present from cousin Maddie

Sweet Maddie with the bow I made her at kate's shower...more to come later on that!

Embry's first truck!

Best photo we could get of the 4 great grands

Christmas party #2 with the Moore side of the family! Here's my great grandaddy who loves all his boys!

Embry starting to enjoy all these presents!

Denny helping Collin open a playdough truck

My mom and Aunt Jeannie

Only photo I got of my three boys! They're serious about their new toys!

Love this one!! Ashton loves his new binoculars!

Every child's first Christmas photo. He looks annoyed doesn't he?!

Day #5 the day after Christmas when Wes' parents came to visit

Playing with Grandma

After Christmas my brother came up with his girlfriend Catherine. He made the mistake of sticking his head in the boys' supertunnel in the basement and bumped heads with Collin. Tying to be the cool uncle gets your injured!

The boys loved Catherine and wanted her to read their bedtime story!

Some photos from my New year's eve with my three boys while Wes was with his band at the Ourback bowl.

I won't lie. It was a LONG 4 days and I did it last weekend as well but at least I get to look at these sweet faces!

My fun New year's dates!

December Photos Take One!

 

These first photos are from a day we spent with our friends at the Railway Museum! There were 6 boys, 3 mommies, and one baby girl! Had a blastand some trains were decorated for Christmas which made us happy! Here's a new model train exhibit there as well.

 

And the babies...

We had lunch and went to a nearby park afterwards. It was such a fun day!!

Caden

James

Kate and Amanda with babies

Later that day, Embry got his first haircut! He did great and looked like such a little man when he was done!! This photo shows well his poor little draining eye from his blocked tearduct.

The Cow is retiring...

Today is the last day I will nurse Embry (or anyone-haha) again. When I started nursing Ashton, I never thought I would ever be sentimental about stopping (see human cow post), but the day I quit for all three has been sad. It's a blessing to be able to nurse them I have learned as I have had friends who really struggled nursing and I've been heartbroken with them. It just is not an easy thing, but it can be so emotional. It's rewarding to know that your child can get nourishment from you and it can be a source of comfort when no one else can comfort them. This has been the case with all three of my kids. I've used comfort nursing when they have an injury or get shots at the doctor or are scared. I remember Ashton's first Christmas he was so worn out and overwhelmed by all the people. The only thing that finally calmed him down was taking him to another room and nursing him. That is a satisfying, good- mother feeling. When your baby falls asleep and holds your hand while you nurse him, your heart feels so full.When you get home from work and haven't been with them all day, it's good to know you can take those moments to bond with them. But there are the not so good moments too. I struggled in the beginning with each one in different ways and always loved my lactation ladies at the hospital who were so helpful. With Embry, nursing dramatically changed my diet! I gave up my favorite milk, yogurt, ice cream and all foods with dairy for him. A whole summer without Coldstone!! And the pumping...and pumping...and pumping!!! This pump has been my good friend for several years now! I have joked so much with friends about the name, Pump in style! I would spare no money in buying her again if I needed her! She's been the source of laughter between girlfriends and what's kept my babies nourished when I was not able to be with them at work. She's been to beaches and relative's homes and hotels and seen my office more days than I could ever count. Collin calls her "the doggie" because of the whir sound that sounds like a dog barking.  So these are my thoughts as a chapter in life comes to a close. I'm sure one day they'll be so grossed out to learn this, but I'm so thankful I was able to share this experience with all three of my sons for the first 9-10 months of their lives.

Lately...Pictures to come soon!

Please pray for my teenage cousin Taylor who was in a car accident 2 nights ago. He is in a drug induced coma and has a shunt from what I understand. His birthday was last week and I always remember it because it is the same day as our anniversary. Last weekend, Wes and I celebrated 10 years of marriage!! It still has not sunk in that we have been married that long. I made him a slideshow that one day I hope to post through youtube but for now here are some wedding pics I have finally scanned. I hope to post Christmas pics soon too. It's been crazy around here since Wes was out of town after Christmas (sigh-crazy mama alone with three boys for 4 days!!! and a big thank you to my mom who spent the night one night to help keep me sane!) and we have had a myriad of doctor's appts and I realized this week I am about 30-40 hours lacking on medical ed for my license which expires next month so nightly I have been staying up studying. The doctor I work with is teasing me for being a slacker. It is so unlike me to let something like that happen but just shows what a whirlwind we are in over here in Sugar Hill!! It was very nice last weekend to have almost 24 hours alone with my husband to SLEEP and reflect on the past 10 years. (thanks to his parents!) 

On the mommy side of things, here are some things that have made us all laugh lately:
Ashton is getting so big. It seems like his vocab was adult like since birth and the other day he even said, "Mommy I want to tell you something that happened today, which I have already told daddy about." He is also starting to learn to tell time which is amazing to me! He can spell out words and will be reading soon I think!
He is a bigger helper to me daily. He now watches Embry a lot when I need to help Collin or run to the bathroom. It's so nice to ask him to keep Embry out of trouble. Today I was feeding Embry while Collin was going potty so Ashton was able to keep a continual supply of books coming to Collin while trying to poop! How nice! I am trying this week to put Collin on the potty more and saying prayers it is easier than Ashton because I just don't have the time to devote to it with Embry now too. Please pray with me!!

Ashton is also very competitive which we are using to our advantage. He wants to hurry and beat collin with everything, buckling up, getting into the bathtub, running to wash hands. It's helpful because he has been notoriously slow at everything his whole life since he is so meticulous. Now we just play "beat me" for everything!

Collin's vocab although still adorable and babylike has exploded and he can say just about anything now, but still with such a cute lisp. Yesterday he told me, "mommy, I am not going to eat the bottom of the banana (meaning the black spot) because it's poop!"
This boy is obsessed with poop and all things bathroom! He just laughs and laughs. The only problem is, he isn't really that in to going to the bathroom! He still is obssessed with Embry and always providing him with toys and asking if he's "ok mommy?" and feeding him. If I walk away from the table, I catch him feeding Embry puffs!

Embry is into everything and still a delight. He can say "mama and dada and good, good good and yeah! now. He waves and pulls up and cruises and CLIMBS. He's fast as lightning but always joyful. My prayer is that he would keep that joy his entire life. He takes everything in and seems like he just truly loves being here. Please pray for him because he is going to have tear duct surgery soon. We have been hoping his eye would clear up but the eye doctor we met with this week said it was time to do something about it before he gets older.

So as I think about my sweet boys, I truly cannot imagine what my aunt and uncle are going through seeing their own son lying in a hospital bed... unsure of the future. Please pray for them and for God's healing and strength.

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

Decorating the tree with three active preschoolers was so fun but also a little stressful. I realized just how many fragile ornaments we have this year as they dove into each box.

so, so sweet watching them hang these ornaments. Collin loves to say "oh my goodness" at every little thing! He loves the lights I put on our banister.

Even embers is sporting his Christmas bibs

9 mos old and eating a blueberry muffin!

random bed head photo!

Ashton's school play. His class were sheep and they were paired with fourth graders. I asked him if he ran around and he said "no, we walk around and say 'baa' to David."

Last Friday my dear friend Sarah helped me take the boys to the Suwanee Caboose Lighting. Here's Suwanee's mascot, the dog? I'm sure he has a name but I have yet to hear it!



And here it is. We waited over an hour for them to light this thing! I was worried we would be late so I booked it through so much brush adn leaves with the stroller (quite a rocky ride) A man had to help me get the kids out of a ditch at one point, but then we heard every elementary school choir in Suwanee while we waited for the caboose to light and Santa rode in on a tractor pulled sleigh. 

Our boys adore Sarah!

I. AM. SO. OVER. FOOTBALL.SEASON!!!

I cannot believe Wes is still in football season. I know for a fact this was the hardest season ever because when you have three kids under 5, things only get easier (physically at least) as time goes by and they grow. And, this is his first year of his doctorate to add to the craziness. Tonight was the perfect example. The day went well. I had planned on the boys taking early afternoon naps because C and E had doctor's appts at 3. The doctor is close to the Natural Foods Wherehouse so when we go, I try to squeeze in a trip to get some of the foods for Ashton we can't get elsewhere and they have such good deals on his hemp milk, ice cream and cheese. So we rushed there and got our groceries which I will say is getting easier now that Embry can sit up in the front. He doesn't take up the whole cart anymore so stuff doesn't end up falling on him like it did in the past ( a whole other horrible day when a can fell on him). I had brought a cooler for the cold stuff, and then we rushed to the doctor. We got in and out fairly quickly without too many "I want a lollipop" and spinning circles on the doctor's stool. Unfortunately we came out with an unexpected ear infection and a referral to the ophthalmologist for Embry's blocked tear duct that doesn't seem to be getting better. But anyway, then we had to go to Kroger for the Rx (thank God for drive thru pharmacies!!!) While we waited we the boys were watching Pooh and I looked back and a sad part was on and tears were streaming down poor Ashton's cheeks. I felt so bad but then he pitched a fit when I turned it off of course. So we turned on "There goes a plane" which Collin called "A plane goes there" (so cute!) When we got home the neighbors were out. I felt bad about them being cooped up all day so we made Embry a bottle and went over for a minute. Once inside we made pancakes for dinner and then A and C rushed upstairs for bath. Well every night Wes plays the "get me" game where he chases them to Collin's room and they jump on Collin's bed and so they usually ask me to do it too. As I was coming up with Embry I heard Ashton fall off of Collin's bed with a horrible thud. It was awful. So while I am trying to assess him and see if anything was broken, Collin was silently STILL JUMPING!! I mean give me a break and then Embry was of course trying to stand up and climb on the bed (which is all he ever does now...this kid is  a climber!) So I yell for Collin to stop and then try to block Embry from climbing with my leg while I am holding Ashton. Collin starts crying about getting into trouble. Then when I decide to just put Embry to bed, they're all three crying. why does this always happen to me where they are all three crying at bedtime?  I put ice on Ashton's  head which was another horrible battle and then checked out his pupils with my otoscope and I think he's ok but I'll be checking on him throughout the night.

On a happier note, here are some fun things about this Christmas season that I have loved so far:
-hearing Collin say "Chritmas" bear, Chritmas lights, Chritmas book. He LOVES the decorations. Every morning at daycare, our babysitter and her husband turn on all their lights for Collin. She said she's never had achild so excited and she LOVES Christmas and has a ton of decorations.
-Hearing Ashton say the "revival snowman." He remembered from Rudolph last year that he didn't like him and last night we all watched it and he kept reassuring Collin that he wasn't scary and that he was funny and it was "funny that he could only roar and not talk" We know he was just trying to convince himself. Unfortunately...he can now say "nativity" and no longer "activity" set which is what he called it last year. he is loving all the Christmas stuff at school. Apprently they have puzzles and Christmas cars. He was a sheep in a play this past week and then Sunday he sings at church with his class! It's so sweet to hear him sing Away in a manger.
-I have been trying to bake something special every week. Thanksgiving I made a vegan pumpkin pie. The next week I made some baked smores which were awesome and this week I made Oreo "cream cheese" balls-all vegan of course! Some day I would love to share all my recipes and tips and make my blog an allergy free cooking blog but who has time for that now?

Here are some recent photos from November below. Embry had his 9 month check-up today and I really think he'll be walking soon! He pulls up and climbs on everything. He's such a handful but such a delight. We would have never known he had such a bad ear infection. He just got over one but has been acting his sweet jolly self. The NP I saw told me to look with her otoscope and I couldn't believe how bad it was. It looked like a textbook picture! I've been so concerned we were headed for tubes with Collin but now it may be Embry! He is eating more and more table food now. Tonight he loved pancakes. He has also loved puffs and some blueberry muffins I made. He likes chunks of sweet potato and sucking on his apples in his net feeder. I was surprised he is a little pickier than the other two. He really disliked advocado and he'll tolerate smashed peas and ground beef. He made some rough faces with broccoli and my homemade green beans. I've been surprised because the other two weren't picky at all at this stage! Hopefully he'll be in reverse mode.

Rub a dub dub. Three men in a tub! First time!

Thanksgiving day! All three boys have sported the "I'm stuffed" bib now

Our nephew Edwin is so great with our kids and they adore him!

playing piano at Grandma and Papa's

Notice daddy's Moevember beard. I'm so glad it's December now!

I love this photo!! It was a georgeous Thanksgving day!

Playing hide and seek with daddy

Got to see the Siples family briefly on Thanksgiving day

This was our black Friday night!!

Collin before church looking so handsome!

Playing in leaves last weekend

helping to clean the leaves out of their beloved Embry's jacket. They are just too funny always taking care of Embry. I wonder how long before they get in fights with him too!!

So that's my update and venting session. Hope everyone who reads this is having a Merry Christmas season so far!!