Christmas Card Fun!

Every year since my oldest was born, I take pictures of the kids and have them printed on Christmas cards.  Each year as I add children to our family and they become more mobile, it becomes increasingly difficult.  This year I worked on the portrait over the span of 2 days...enough said!  I probably took over 50 pictures and in each one at least one of the boys was crying, blinking, picking his nose, hitting his brother, etc. I finally gave up and settled for the above picture, the one below is an example of a reject!  I have a whole new respect for professional photographers!

Baby Boy's Arrival

Our newest addition is finally here and we couldn't be happier.  On November 28th my big pregnant self rolled out of bed the best I could and thought, "wow, I've lost control of my bladder... great!"  When you get to the end of a 9 month pregnancy and you are about 50 pounds heavier with raging hormones and a signature waddle when you walk, not much comes as a surprise, including loss of bladder control.  The more steps I took the more I lost control and it only took me a few steps to realize that it wasn't my bladder, but my water had broke!  I was extremely excited as it was becoming increasingly difficult to await the arrival of my new little man.  We headed to the hospital around 11:30.  I wasn't having many contractions on my own, so around 1 o'clock they induced my labor and the game was on!  A few hours into labor I recieved my epidural at 7 centimeters and within 30 minutes baby boy was born after about 10 minutes of pushing.  There is absolutely nothing like that first glimpse of your baby...NOTHING!

Sunday Morning Secrets

The boys woke up early Sunday morning before church and came toddling into our room to make sure we were up too.  The hubby and I were both trying to get ready so I put the boys up on our bed and turned on some cartoons and they rolled around and played for about 20 minutes.  It melted my heart and this picture says it all.  Amidst all their usual fighting, pinching, hitting, knocking down and screaming at each other, it reminds me that they really do love each other!  Or, they're just forming some sort of alliance before the third boy gets thrown into the mix!

Halloween fun

I'm a few weeks behind on blogging, but I've finally mustered up the time and energy to make a new post!  Myself, the boys and the hubby really got into the Halloween festivities this year.  The oldest boy decided months before October that he wanted to be a pirate and since I love a good theme, I instantly decided they had to go as Peter Pan and Captain Hook.  Since I'm not one of those to make elaborate home-made costumes, and since every store you went into from Septemeber on had a wide variety of Pirate costumes, we went with some store-bought pirate garb that my mother-in-law found on clearance.  Now, the Peter Pan costume was a little trickier.  I looked everywhere and had no luck on a tot-sized Peter Pan costume.  I finally found the perfect little hat at a party store, ordered some green tights on-line and cut up a green t-shirt and brown felt for the rest...and there you have it, an adorable little Peter Pan, red hair and all!  Under my food/flowers/favorites tab you'll see some pics of the spooky treats we made for dinner on Halloween night.

Jack-o-lanterns!

Saturday night we decided to make the best of our pumpkins and turn them into Jack-o-lanterns.  Of course my oldest boy wanted his to be "berry pooky", so we made his have sharp teeth and mean looking eyes, he was thrilled.  The husband and I have been carving pumpkins every Fall since we've been married so it's become a tradition and now that we have kids it is one of my favorite nights of the year!

The Great Pumpkin Hunt

We loaded the kids up Friday afternoon and headed north to take our annual trip to Huber Farms for our great pumpkin hunt.  The day couldn't have been more beautiful for a trip to the orchard.  The only trouble was finding pumpkins small enough that the boys could carry back to the tractor themselves.  Of course they both kept grabbing either rotten ones or green ones, but we weren't in a hurry and it was priceless seeing them run through fields and fields of pumpkins.  The boys ended up finding perfect pumpkins and so did the hubby and I.  And, with a little help from Daddy we all made it back to the tractor with pumpkins in tow.  What a great family tradition!

Beautiful weekend

The hubby had a business trip in Orlando this last week and originally we were all going to head down there with him, but since I'm big and pregnant the doc advised me to stay home and hubby ended up taking our oldest boy with him.  So instead of sitting around moping this weekend, me and the middle boy and B.I.B decided to head up to Brown County Indiana with my mom and youngest sis.  It was such a beautiful day, the leaves are gorgeous right now.  On the way we stopped at a historic Inn and Restaurant and my sis captured this sweet picture of me and my little man swinging on an old tree swing that hung from an old walnut tree.