#8!!!

Today is Josiah's 8th birthday! I really can't believe it's already been 8 years since I had my little man. The time really does go by fast. He has been such a blessing to our lives and I'm so thankful for the 8 years I've had him and pray we have the rest of our lives with him. :)
Josiah was my hardest labor. The doctor induced me on March 21st at 6am. By noon nothing had happened. The doctor decided to break my water to get things going. The only thing that did was bring on strong labor pains but barely any progress. By 7pm that night I was still barely a 2 and begging for pain medication. My pains were as strong at this point as they were with my other 2 babies at the end right before you push. The doctor finally let me have an epidural; he wouldn't all day because he said it could stop labor. So finally, after a hard day of labor and no progress I got my medication. With in minutes I was relieved. After everyone left, except one nurse, she told me she was going to stretch me to a 5 to get me going. So that she did. I've never heard of this before, so if anyone else has, let me know! Well, that worked. By midnight I was fully dilated and ready to push. After one hour and 9 minutes of pushing I finally gave birth to Josiah, Jeff and my first son. A 7 pound 10 ounce baby boy! Jeff wasn't there for our first baby being born which made it very hard for me but we soon had daddy home with us and started our lives together.
Now here we are in Georgia and Josiah has turned 8. For his party this year he wanted to go skating. Saturday night we took him skating with all his classmates and boy did he have fun! It was his first time to skate so he fell about 20 times, he said. :) I think it may have been more! Tonight I told him he could pick where we eat for dinner. He thought for a few seconds and then yelled out McDonalds!
Here are a few of his favorites...
-favorite cartoon: Tom and Jerry
-favorite food: tacos
-favorite toy: monster trucks
-favorite game: Uno
-favorite outdoor activity: play with friends
-favorite drink: Sunkist
-favorite restaurant: Taco Bell
-favorite movie: Transformers
-favorite food mom makes: taco rice

Happy Birthday Josiah!

No More Passy

Jeff and I have been talking about taking Tara's passy (pacifier :) away for a while now. I kept postponing it for various reasons; moving and then the possibility of moving again. Well, she is now 15 months old and still sucking on that thing. Every day Jeff would bring it up. "We need to take it away. She doesn't need it." I did agree with him but I was very reluctant. She sleeps so good with it...why ruin a good thing? I did a few trial runs earlier this week. I gave in every time to her. I could tell Jeff was getting a little annoyed with me for giving it to her but I just really wanted her to sleep...awful I know. ;) Two nights ago Jeff put her to bed with out it and to my surprise she went right to sleep! What a little stinker! Every time I had tried she would put up a big fuss, but when daddy does it she goes right to sleep. After she did that I decided she was done. The next day I put her down for her nap and she slept! But last night we put her down and she cried for about an hour. I didn't give in that time...mainly because the passy has been thrown away and the other one is behind the changing table which is way too heavy for me to move. So that's it. All done. My baby is growing up. *sniff* I am happy to be done with it though. No more worrying about grabbing it before we leave and no more searching for it if it gets lost behind the crib. Nice. :) No more passy. Now, how to get Gaber off the thumb. ??? Can't throw that away.

I Love Those Kind of Days

It has been one of those days where you feel so blessed. It didn't start that way actually, I overslept and so I had to rush around this morning to get Josiah to school on time. But after that everything has gone great. Tara had a doctor's appointment this morning, which actually wasn't that great but I at least got out of there in a decent amount of time. Then we ran to walmart and picked up the bread and milk and always those few extra things which were not on the list. Got home, started feeding Tara when Jeff walks in for lunch. I love it when he comes home for lunch. It just breaks up my day and plus I get a little help with Tara. Before he leaves he mentions that we will be going out to eat with some friends tonight so that is one less thing I have to do today. After lunch is over and cleaned up I lay Tara down for a nap and then remember I can call my mom because today is her day off. So I call and we chat, which we are great at doing! lol. Then out of the blue, Jeff walks in! He is ALREADY OFF!!! Wooohooo! So I get off the phone with my mom and decide to take Chloe on a walk since Jeff is home to watch the kids. Oh, and just to let you know it is around 70 degrees today, blue skies, light breeze. Uh huh! I take Chloe on a walking trail near our house which I hadn't been on yet. The birds were singing, the squirrels were out playing and I was just feeling so blessed at that point. Chloe and I walked around for a while, checking out other people's homes...I'm a very curious person...gotta see how others are living around me. :) We get home in time for me to go pick Siah up from school. Now I'm home, blogging and enjoying the rest of the afternoon and soon we'll be out the door for supper.
These kind of days don't happen very often, so I just had to blog about it and also thank God for my blessed day! :) Hope your all's was great too!

Nothingness

So not much has happened this week. I've been so tired all week. Its been way to hard to pull myself out of bed at 7am...oh I know, 7am is not early but it is for me. A couple mornings ago my alarm was going off and I was trying to turn it off when I realized I was hitting Jeff's forehead! Finally one of us got the alarm off and we dozed for a couple minutes longer when I realized what I had done! I asked him if he remembered me hitting him and he said yes and so then I told him what I was doing and we both just started laughing!
This week has been nice b/c Jeff has been getting home on time. What a nice change that is! So with him being home for supper I've tried out a new recipe, BBQ Cheesy Chicken aka Chili's Monterey Chicken. It was pretty good, Jeff said it was a keeper.
Tonight we are having our movie/game night with the kids. I think we are watching UP and playing Old Maid. :) We will also order pizza, have soda and I'm making some cookies this afternoon for the fun. I also bought some popcorn, the boys and Jeff love popcorn!
Saturday we will be taking the teens out bowling and then we will eat somewhere. I don't think that part is planned yet. I better ask Jeff! Jeff will be working at the church all day Saturday as well for the men's work day. With all of that going on our weekend will go by way to fast.
I'm so ready for summer. The warm days, pool days, sleeping in days, park days, bubble days. :) I thought I missed winter after living on an island for 6 years, but I've decided I don't miss it after all. I can't wait to wear flip flops and summer clothes every day!

I forgot...

I did a special post for Josiah on his 7th birthday and I wanted to do one for Gaber and Tara but with moving from one country to another and then moving from one house to another, I plain forgot and didn't have the time...I know, excuses excuses.
So I will do pictures threw the years for Gaber and then pictures threw Tara's first year.

Gabriel turned 5 this past November. I can't believe its been 5 years with our Gaber. He has changed so much. I was just looking at baby pictures of him the other day and didn't even think it looked like our boy. He is a sweet boy who is very outgoing and will be a leader someday! He loves to be in charge and he loves attention. He is funny and entertaining, the list could go on and on.
Here are some pics from over the past 5 years...




















Tara turned the big O-N-E in December. She has been so much fun this past year. Having a girl so different than boys, everyone told me it would be. Its funny how different they are even as babies. It is so neat to see how God makes boys and girls different and to see how He makes each one of your children unique. Tara is our sweet baby girl. She is funny, shy, smart and she loves shoes! She is Jeff's "mini me". She looks so much like her daddy and loves him so much. Its all about "da-deeeee". I hope it stays that way!
Here are some pics of the little miss from this past year...

Valentines Day: A Precious Gift

Yesterday on Valentines day we were at church when Tara fell down while trying to walk down a slope by herself. Jeff and I were not there and so she walked to her GAAAAAAAA (Gaber) to be comforted. She laid her head down on his shoulder and hugged him. The best part....Gaber patted her back and let her cry on his shoulder! Wow. Jeff yelled for me to come see and I'm so glad I got to watch as big brother comforted little sister. What a precious valentines gift for a mommy! I hope he'll always be so sweet to her when she's hurt and in need of a hug and a shoulder to cry on. :)

The Circus and Other Random Things

Last Friday night we took the boys to the Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey Circus in Macon. This was my first time going to a circus as well, Jeff had been when he was little but said he didn't remember much about it. We had such a fun time, everything was so awesome! They had everything that I thought a circus would have except it wasn't in a tent...which is actually fine with me since its so cold outside. There were clowns, acrobats, magic, a horse and 3 little ponies, 3 large elephants, 7 lions, funny shows, tight rope walkers and drivers (a man drove a motorcycle on the tight rope!), japanese guys jumping threw blades of fire, and much more! The boys were awed by the performance and Josiah laughed so hard at the clowns. :) I'm so glad we were able to go...here are some pictures...





I have more pictures on my picasa site if you would like to see more.

Other than that, we had a great weekend. Jeff worked at the church most of the day on Saturday for the men's work day. Then we had a teen activity that night. We both really enjoy working with the teens at our church.
It seems everyone is healthy now in our house. Last week we had another bout with a stomach bug. Josiah woke up sick early Tuesday morning and then Gaber got it later that day. Luckily Jeff, Tara and I dodged that bullet.
Tara is now saying or yelling Gaber's name. She says it like, "Gaaaaa! Gaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Its very cute! She will stand at the baby gate yelling for him when he is in his room. I think Josiah is a little jealous of him since she is not able to say Josiah yet. I explained to him that his name is a lot harder to say and that she'll probably be saying that one next. :)
This week I've been trying out some new recipes. Monday I made a nacho pie which was a hit and last night i made salisbury steak, which was ok. Everything was done from scratch, which I don't do a lot. I also made a peanut butter cake with pb frosting, all from scratch. That was a big hit with Jeff. Tonight I'm just making chocolate chip pancakes, tomorrow we are eating out and then Friday I'm making some ribs with potatos and corn on the cob! mmm! I'll let ya know how they turn out.