Here is the little guy at 7 months. He is getting is upper front teeth and loves to bounce! He will play by himself with a basket full of toys and loves to be talked to and played with by anyone who will. I know I will be chasing him soon, but right now he is one sweet little man 
I will post more later- but it has been so long, I thought I would post one from Christmas morning. I love the morning look that all kids have in Christmas pictures. My sweet mom made the stockings for them and is hard at work on Cord’s and new baby’s for next year
As I mentioned, we went to see a movie and eat lunch together for our anniversary. It has been 2 years since the last movie and that one wasn’t that great. The last movie night we had was in Birmingham over Christmas break while we were in seminary. Broke and busy, we never were able to go- At last we had a chance and my choice was to see Spanglish. Eric thought Fat Albert would be better (thinking of the good ole days growing up with the show). Needless to say, it wasn’t. We laughed that we spent our money and only movie date night on that one. Perhaps we have been to scared to risk doing that again. So today I chose the movie and we saw Enchanted. I thought it was a great date movie and much better than our Fat Albert choice 2 years ago! Anyway, two years from now when we go again maybe we will choose one that is Oscar worthy, but today a little mindless fun was nice.
Today marks the day that Eric and I have been married for 9 years! Wow- In nine years, we have had 5 jobs (and multiple in seminary), moved 6 times (mulitple in seminary), had 3 children (and one is on the way), lived in 3 cities, and completely changed career paths. We have traveled much (pre-kids), laughed much (pre and post kids), cried much (pre and post kids) and loved much (pre and post kids). If this is the abundance that 9 years has brought, I truly cannot imagine how full and rich life will be in 9 more years.
Today we are getting a babysitter for lunch time and going out to eat. Afterward, we are going to watch a MOVIE- I think it has been 2 years since I have been in a movie theater. seriously. Who knew the daytime date would be the way we would celebrate our ninth anniversary? It just works so much better! Happy Anniversary E-
I went to the doctor today and all was well with new baby. I have another appointment in 4 weeks and thought that they would let me find out then, but I am going back 2 weeks after that to find out with the whole family- week 20 argh! that is so long away. I can tell I am on baby #4 because I am starting to ignore my doctor’s orders. I was supposed to get bloodwork done before I got there today. If you know me, you know I HATE needles and still faint when I get shots and blood drawn. So I just didn’t do it this time. She mentioned the lab work and told her nurse to get me more paperwork and I could go immediately up there today and get it done. I still have the orders for the last one in the car, so I had every intention of going right out and getting the paperwork and then going right back in to the hospital for the bloodwork. Instead, I got to my car and then started it and continued on my day. I really do need to get that done. Someone keep asking me and keep me accountable!
The holiday parties started this weekend for us. I was very thankful to have my mother here for 5 days and on one of the busiest weekends we will have in December. We were able to celebrate Eric’s birthday with a date, eat lunch with friends without our children, go to the staff Christmas party, attend the ladies’ Christmas luncheon, and host the 20’s and 30’s for a Christmas party at our house. The staff party and the 20’s/30’s party included a white elephant gift exchange- There have been lots of conversations about what makes a white elephant gift and these two parties continued to fuel the confusion. Are they nice gifts that you want to steal from others? Or are they useless, silly gifts that you would never buy?
At the staff party, we ended up with a flute in an old leather case. We thought that was a great gift, until we found out it came from the attic at the school and was irreparable and would probably cause some disease if you put it to your lips. (I actually hear this as Eric is putting it to his mouth and trying to play it!) At the party at our house, we ended up with a bread machine! And some of the other gifts were a nice coffee set with 12 flavors of coffee and a 4 pack of kahlua mudslides- I just never know what to bring to that kind of party. I guess one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Isn’t that why garage sales work?
Eric turns 34 today. Yea! We are finally the same age again until April As my previous post shows, he is awesome and deserves to be celebrated much today. The kids and I are making a chocolate cake with chocolate icing and made signs for the door and his place at the table. We bought his favorite candies and a fun card that sings when you open it. His gift was a cordless drill, but we actually got it the day after Thanksgiving because it was on major sale. (He has already happily used it on that big green Suburban sitting in our driveway- hours of fun for him) I have more than I deserve in him and am so thankful that he was born this day 34 years ago.
We are going to be in real trouble! Emma ended up with a wierd rash and fever. She saw a doctor and then went to the ER on Saturday. She threw up that day and then again in the middle of the night, and she didn’t even know it. Gross! Eric had just settled Cord down again about 2 am and checked on Emma. He came down to tell me and didn’t get much help from me- The thought, much less the smell of vomit, at this point in the pregnancy was more than I could handle. So I got the other room ready and eric stripped the bed and got emma cleaned up. He helped her get back to bed and then, in what seemed like just a few minutes, Cord was up for his morning bottle at 5 am. Eric has done so much to handle the night time wakeups and I appreciate him more than I could ever tell him. My prayer now is that I will be proactive and able to do what I can. I constantly waiver between making sure I can handle the day well (which means having enough sleep so I don’t blame my kids for my own tiredness!) and pitching in at all those night time disturbances (knowing that Eric is paying for every decision I make- and not complaining one bit I might add). So many of you have the same set of circumstances that I do, give me some advice Where is Pam Benton when I need her?
We have our first official loose tooth. Yesterday, Olivia and I were reading a new library book. The Berenstain Bears visit the Dentist. Sister bear has a loose tooth and makes a trip to the dentist’s office. At the end of the story, Livy asked if she had any loose teeth. I checked for her, fully expecting to say no and she had one! She was so excited- we are now wiggling it all the time and eating apples to try to make it come out. I think we have a while, but I can’t believe that she has hit this new stage. Eric laughed that there could be a couple of years where we have children constantly losing teeth. We better tell the tooth fairy to start saving up!
