Fun with the Bakers

A couple weekends ago we had a wonderful visit with my brother Richard and his adorable little family.  We hadn't seen them for over a year so it was sooo good to see them again and meet the new addition to their family, little Maya.  The boys had so much fun "attacking" their Uncle Richard and Luke absolutely adored his cousins Aidan (who is only a few months younger than Luke) and Maya.  He immediately became attached to Maya and loved giving things to her...blanket, pacifier, bottles....  Seeing how sweet and gentle he was with baby Maya got me so excited, he is going to be such a good big brother!  I can't even express how great it was to see family after so long, thanks for the visit Richard and Jessica!  Can't wait to see you all again!

Rockwood Update

This past month has been a bit crazy, here's a recap....On Dec. 29th I tripped over Luke's new Christmas slide...oops...and ended up spending a week in the hospital.  Everything was okay from the fall but my doctor decided to admit me after seeing that the baby had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck three times and also had a heart arrhythmia.  They gave me steroid shots to help the baby's lungs develop and told me to plan on staying in the hospital until I reached 34 weeks, at which time they would deliver the baby.  After a few days in the hospital, the baby unwrapped himself from the cord so my doctor changed his plans...what a relief!  The perinatologist did a fetal echocardiogram and said that the arrhythmia is due to premature atrial contractions and that these types of arrhythmias usually resolve on their own once the baby is born.  This little guy sure has given us a lot of scares!  I'm now having weekly ultrasounds and just had my 24th last week.  The subchorionic hemorrhage is stable and the baby is growing good.  At my 34 week ultrasound he was measuring 6 lbs. 7 ozs. so it looks like I'm going to have another big baby!  I am so eager to meet this sweet little boy!!!

Jeffrey has been so wonderful throughout this pregnancy.  He had a fun week with the boys while I was in the hospital and gained a new appreciation for all that Mothers do!  A few weeks ago he had a couple of interviews in Missouri and decided to accept a great job offer with a Community Health Center in Springfield.  He will be be finishing his time in the Navy at the end of June and then we'll be heading to Missouri.  I am feeling a little sad that our time here in Virginia Beach is coming to an end, but I'm excited to be moving close to my family.  The kids can't stop talking about all the fun things they're going to do with their cousins.  After a couple weeks of getting things ready, our house is now officially for sell.  It's definitely not a good time to sell a house, so we're hoping all goes well.  I'm a little nervous about trying to keep it clean and presentable all the time!

The boys are all doing great and keeping me very busy.  Tyler and Ethan watched all the old Star Wars movies with Jeffrey last week and have become a bit obsessed with Star Wars.  They both love school, playing with their friends, reading books, and wrestling with their daddy every night.  Luke is into EVERYTHING and loves to be in the middle of all the action.  He is constantly dragging our chairs into the kitchen so that he can get things off the counters (something he learned from Ethan!).  He is such a little sweetie and has a belly laugh that never fails to make me smile.  I love my boys!

Fun with the boys on New Year's Eve!

Little Darth Vader

Our Quiet Christmas

This Christmas was our first one to spend with just our little family. We're usually with the Bakers in Missouri or the Rockwoods in Oregon. It was definitely different, but we had so much fun starting our own little traditions. We had a nice turkey dinner on Christmas Eve, had our own little Nativity as we read the Christmas Story to the kids, and then decorated cookies for Santa. As we were decorating cookies we looked out the window and saw Santa himself walking down the street (one of the neighbors does this every year). The kids excitedly ran outside to tell him that they were making him cookies and going to bed. Then they finished up quickly and headed to bed without us even asking. This was definitely a magical year for the kids. Tyler and Ethan woke up at about 6:00 am, eager to see what Santa had brought. Ethan asked for a toy Batman and a robot hand and Tyler asked for a Playmobil airplane. Santa brought little Luke a slide to keep indoors (with hopes that he'll now stop climbing on everything else that he's not supposed to!). We also decided that since we're going to have four boys, we needed a train table, so that was a group gift. It was so fun to see the kids' excitement as they opened their gifts.