Ordination Pictures

Baptism Pictures

A guy who plays on the worship team at church is also a great photographer and just sent us a bunch of pictures that he took of Zac's ordination and Brody's baptism. We were so excited because all of the pictures that were taken on our camera turned out really poorly :(.

The boys

Wow, I cannot believe it's already Christmas eve tomorrow!

I am so glad that Brody has joined our family, but having him right before the holidays sort of changed the focus around here. Our world has been filled with feedings, doctors visits (for me and Brody), and sleep deprivation. Not exactly good preparation for Advent. Still, I am trying to focus on what's important.

Here are some pics of the boys. Needless to say, I've been a bit distracted. As I was making dinner the other night, Joel was sitting at the table coloring, Brody was napping, and I realized Jesse was awfully quiet in the playroom. Yep, he found my lipstick. Talented guy he is--it was in a zipped up pouch inside of my zipped up diaper bag.

One example of my sleep deprivation is that I also decided to take away Jesse's pacifier for good...cold turkey. I just decided it was messing up his two front teeth and so it was time. Our sweet Jesse, usually so mellow and fun, but also has a streak of fire in him, reacted just that way. He was fiery and mad for about 10 minutes while trying to fall asleep, but has been pretty mellow about it ever since. The jelly beans we got at the store as a special treat for giving up the pacifier helped!

Then there is Joel in all of his 4 year old cuteness (his birthday was officially yesterday).

And poor Brody (and Mommy). We both have been suffering through terrible cold for the past 4 days and getting little to no sleep. It's very hard, and it breaks my hard to hear him struggling to breath and eat at the same time. I actually cried about it last night as he was flailing around on my lap, snorting and gagging. I told Zac that is was "so hard because there was NOTHING more I could do to help him". As I was praying for him and reflecting on that before bed, I realized that was probably the first of many times I will cry tears for my children and say that very same phrase. Lord, have mercy on us and them in the days and years to come:).

Life goes on...

Well, I feel like I am really flying solo now and that our life is resuming a new sort of "normal". It's nice, although I do feel really panicky at moments, wondering how I am going to have the energy and patience to sustain life around this house :).

Went to the dentist--got teeth cleaned and a cavity re-done. Apparently they wear out. That's annoying.

And, while the big boys were in preschool yesterday, Brody and I tried to knock out the rest of our Christmas shopping. We did pretty well, amidst several feeding breaks (for Brody). Newborns aren't very efficient. :) But, I like that I have to stop and "smell the roses" (or poop or milk or spit-up, that is) 8 times a day while I feed him. It's sort of like forced relaxation and my body is thankful for it, I'm sure. He is still waking up two times at night--he's been on the exact same schedule at night since he was born and I keep thinking any day now he might drop one of those feedings. That'd sure be nice!

We are having a new family from church over for dinner tonight, I have a Christmas brunch tomorrow and another one on Friday. Then Sunday Brody is being baptized and we are celebrating Joel's birthday with the family. Maybe things haven't gotten back totally to normal, but I like all of the extra celebrations. 'Tis the season!

Maybe after Christmas I'll find time to write a Christmas letter. I have to get it done sooner or later because Zac and I take the easy route and make our Christmas letters serve double duty as birth announcements. We can't forget poor little Brody...you know, the 3rd child syndrome. :)

Sweet baby Brody

Brody is an incredibly sweet, happy baby. I am not exaggerating when I say that he doesn't cry for more than a total of 5 minutes each day. And I can say how incredible this is because I had one child who was on the extreme opposite of that end (cried for 8-12 HOURS a day). I can't believe I have at least taken the time to post this because it is just so incredible. Zac and I take time every day to thank God for his temperment, because if he was an especially needy baby, I'm not sure I could handle this.

He is quite big, despite difficulty eating. He's not a great nurser and frequently grunts/chokes/coughs/gags/burps while he is supposed to be nursing. After two weeks, he hadn't really gained any weight at all and so I had to start supplementing with formula (I also have a notoriously low milk supply). I am continuing to do so because of his lack of decent nursing still, and also a difficulty drinking from a bottle too. It's considered successful if it takes him less than an hour to drink 2 ounces from a bottle...sigh. But--I am not complaining because he is so precious in every other way, and despite all of this, he still weighs 11 pounds, 8 ounces at only 5 weeks old. He's also grown 2 inches since he was born! He may be the biggest of my boys yet!

He still gets up twice a night to eat--one of those feedings is usually much more difficult than the other and I'm often up for an hour each time. I am tired, but surprisingly not exhausted like I remember being with the other boys. I was a little worried because for the last nine months I was sleeping for 9 hours a night and taking a nap most afternoons with the boys. Maybe I'm using some stored up reserves :)

A shot in the eye.

Yep,that was the highlight of my day :). I went in for a routine visit with my eye tumor doctor and it was discovered that the fluid and swelling are still increasing in my eye. Not so good. So...I received an injection of an experimental medication in the eye to try and help counteract that. It wasn't the most comfortable experience so we are hoping it was successful and I won't have to keep doing it. Our next treatment option is doing some laser therapy. I'll keep you updated.

I'm also getting either an MRI or PET scan before the end of the month (routine checking for cancer spread and so we're praying for a continued all clear on that front!

He's 4 (almost)!!

We celebrated Joel's 4th birthday a tad bit early so that Zac's family could be in on the celebration before they had to leave. We had a very impromptu party with 20 people and it was great!

Joel had a ball and it's so fun to see him soak up all of the attention...he is our consumate extrovert! I was a little busy during the party and we only got 1 picture. Zac did get some great video so we weren't total slacker in the documenting department.

Joel has made some HUGE strides this year, in terms of facing the autism, and we are so proud of his growth. Of course, there are always things we are working on, and new things will come up, but he is learning to face more of these challenges head-on and we can see God so graciously continuing to heal him from this awful disease.

You can call him Reverend.

That's what I keep trying to get Joel to call Zac. Or even "Reverend Daddy", I think that would be funny too.

In all seriousness, Zac was ordained on Sunday in a beautful service. His whole family and mine were able to attend and it was a very special time. He even has his own official robe. I'll get more pics of the event to post later, since Kelley was the official picture taker and they are on her camera.

Zac has worked so hard for several years to prepare for this and I am so proud of him. God has clearly brought him to this point, and also placed in a great church to serve. The people here are really wonderful and have been so kind and supportive of us this past year and a half. So generous in too many ways to tell...but we are continually blown away.

Here is the one picture I got. So proud of Zac.

More pics

There were several pictures in the last post of Brody receiving his treatment for jaundice (sunbathing and lying in the bilibed...which he didn't love). He was on it for 3 days--24 hours a day and that was sad. But, his jaundice did eventually resolve itself, and finally, at 5 weeks, even his eyes aren't yellow anymore. Yea!

The first one on this posting is my niece...so cute. Sam, do you think she looks like Gabby in that picture or is it just me?

The boys all wanted to be swaddles together when they saw Brody...he was red in the face, taking care of some other business, I think.

Joel got an early Christmas tricycle and Jesse enjoys "trying it out".

I'm back!

So I've been getting subtle hints from family members that it's been quite a long time since I've blogged. I didn't intend to break for this long, but in all fairness, we've had quite a bit going on. We've had family in town staying with us almost non-stop since Brody has been born (which I love, incidentally), and so I didn't want to seclude myself in the office/playroom on the computer. Plus, we've celebrated Thanksgiving, Joel's birthday, Zac's ordination, another friend's birthday, surrogate "grandpa's" birthday (my sister-in-law's dad), had 9 doctor's/nurse visits (Brody's had a few minor "problems"), several other holiday parties, whole/extended family professional portraits (10 days after Brody was born, nice...)and a couple of doctor's visits for me...yeah, blogging hasn't exactly been a priority.

But, now it is all coming to an end (after the 2 parties and 1 concert we are attending this weekend :), and I plan to stick to more of a schedule around here--until Christmas which is in two weeks.

But for now, I'll just post some pictures of various cute boys in my house (and some not so cute ones with mommy in them).