6 years and counting

I am so thankful to get to celebrate my 6th wedding anniversary tomorrow on the third Sunday of Advent or Rejoice Sunday. Given the happenings of this past week, our anniversary dinner was spent talking about heavy things but it also reminded me that I met and married a man who, through devastating, fearful, exciting and wondrous times, has always been my rock here on earth, has always led me back to joy and has always helped me to find hope. Thank you my dearest and most loving friend and husband.

News

We are happy to announce that we will have a new member joining our family this spring.  The official due date is May 27th but we all know that my kids never show up on time.

  Matt and I are a little overwhelmed at the thought of 2 under two but also overjoyed ; Orson is super excited and talks to the baby in my belly all the time; and Ferdinand is just confused as to why mommy is always so tired :) 

The best part is that I am sharing this pregnancy with at least 2 ladies at my bible study, long distance with 2 of my dearest friends from AmeriCorps and with a few far away friends from high school. Now if only we could all move to the same place and raise the babies together! It will be wonderful to have a group of moms around me for this birth . Of course, that is only if we don't end up having to move unexpectedly in the next 9 months!

Ferdinand Turns 1

I can hardly believe it but Ferdinand turned one a few days ago.  It is true that the days are long but the years short, especially with two little boys in the house.  Ferdinand has brought a new joy to our house and family.  Watching him and his brother play, fight and love each other is amazing.  Ferdinand is a little bundle of opinions, he is a cuddle bunny, a story teller, an eater! and tons of fun.  He has decided to wait to walk (which is just fine with me) but now thinks he can talk up a storm (he says, wow! and ooh! and calls Orson's name at night to get a goodnight kiss, mama and dada and has just started signing more).  He eats everything in sight (especially meat and bread), wants to play with his brother all the time, likes to skype with anyone willing to answer the phone, and has a laugh that makes everyone around him smile.  He is giving up nursing in favor of vanilla soy milk (he wont touch cow milk and it was purely an accident that we discovered he liked soy), can climb the stairs on his own and is constantly into things he is not suppose to be into.

A few pictures from the past year:

 Brand new to the world

 First smiles

His baptism

Super silly

Little sleeper

Cuddle Bunny

World Traveler

 Lover of the beach and anything water

And the most adorable hoarder

For his birthday we had a small celebration at home with lots of balloons and a few good friends.  He really enjoyed the carrot cake cupcakes and especially liked the cream cheese frosting, but also enjoyed playing with all the kids and opening a few presents.  He was so tired by the end of the day that he went up the stairs to bed on his own (can we say Uncle Nate anyone?).  

 I'm one!

 and I really like balloons

 Coloring with friends

Big brother being cute

He grabbed his own cupcake when the singing took a little too long.

 He really liked the icing especially combined with

more balloons.

 playing with Linden

 Opening presents

 Hanging with Dad

We sure are glad you joined us Ferdinand!

Adventures in the National Forest, a small Hurricane and Halloween

We put most of these pictures up on Face Book already but I thought I should write down a few memories to go with them.  It has been an adventurous month!  We went up to Shenandoah National Park twice ,to see the leaves and hike; battened down the hatches and thought that we would have to cancel Halloween (Orson has been asking for a Halloween Party for over a month) for Hurricane Sandy; got to celebrate Halloween after all and had a birthday celebration for Ferdinand (more on that in a separate post).  All in all it has been lots of fun and I think November will end up being a little more boring.

Shenandoah put on a great fall color show for us and we have started being able to do longer hikes with Orson now, which is great.  The first weekend we went up to skyline drive and did a 3 mile hike threw the forest (O man hiked it all).  I used my mom's old trick of "power pills" (in this case Annie's gummy bunnies) to coax O along when he slowed down but he actually kept up great most of the time.  Ferdinand got his first ride in the back pack and enjoyed every minute of being the same height as his Dad.  The next weekend we went to a different part of the forest and hiked up to a small water fall.  This hike was only 2 miles but O had a harder time as it was slippery and he ended up falling quite a few times.  He still completed the hike though and later said he loved it.  We also went for an off roading adventure in the truck.  The clouds for Sandy rolled in around the same time as the drive, so we couldn't see very much but it was a nice drive through the forest and we ended up rescuing a couple of lost bow hunters that couldn't find their truck.  So it was a good thing we went! 

Hike 1 Skyline Drive:

Hike 2 The Lower Falls

and a tired Orson on the way to Off Roading

The next day we battened down the hatches expecting Hurricane Sandy to knock out our power for the week as the last big storm did.  Matt and the boys got ice and gas and I rearranged the freezers and moved the plants off the back porch.  It was good that we did as the winds that came through were pretty fierce and would have blown the smaller plant right off the porch.  We were very thankful to not loss power (although Matt had to go to work which was a bummer!), but school was still canceled and it looked like Orson's long awaited Halloween party was not going to happen.  Luckily for us, the storm turned north and by Wednesday the clouds had cleared and we ended up getting to go trick or treating with Emily and her gang.  The boys had tons of fun dressed up as an Alligator and an Owl. Even more fortunate for O, his school decided to have their Halloween party on Thursday and he got to dress up again!  He choose to go as a super hero penguin.  I love his imagination.  

Halloween

School Party

While we are very thankful to not have been hit hard by the hurricane, my heart and mind are up the East Coast wishing that I could jump into some good old disaster work and help.  It is so hard to sit on the sidelines, when you know that you have the knowledge and drive to be there lending a hand.  I also have been wondering a lot about the kids that we served on Coney Island while I was in AmeriCorps.  I know that their families were not very dependable and I hope that they stayed safe during the storm.  Its funny the memories and thoughts that Hurricanes bring up in me as I know they do it all the people I have served and served with over the years.