So long coming...

I have not been great about getting this updates this holiday season! I still don't have any pictures uploaded so a description will have to do for now. We sure had tons of fun with the boys this year. Cody is of course onto the reality of Santa but says he still wants to believe. Fine with me! He got more stuff than 5 kids need. But he is such a great kid- he deserves it. Maddox was really into opening his presents himself this year. Though he wasn't the tear through them all type like Cody. He prefers to open one and then tell us to open it open it open it until it gets out of the box so he can play with it. He eventually got them all open but it took several days. He is a sports but already so I think his favorite gifts were a t-ball set and a soccer goal that he lugs around with him everywhere. He is such a funny boy. I promise to upload pictures soon. Our annual trip to my in-laws family in Greensboro is always highlighted by a visit from Santa. Maddox was super curios when the bells started ringing coming down to stairs. But when Santa made it to the door he was running for me with open arms saying HOLD YOU HOLD YOU HOLD YOU!!! It was priceless. My mother in law happened to get a photo so when I get a copy I will get it posted. He did warm up to him eventually - though only enough to get close to get his presents- not for a lap visit.

We find out what this baby is on Jan 12 so check back for our big news! Whatever it is -this is the last baby I will carry. If our family grows larger than 3 kids it will be through adoption- not through me carrying anymore. I am done being pregnant.

More later....

Siblings

I have a picture of the boys in my house that says "Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a super hero." I believe that statement could not be more true for Maddox and Cody. Maddox waits by the door for Cody when he comes home. Actually he checks the door several times a day saying- Cody...cool bus...soon. I love it. The relationship they have is so sweet. Not to say that Cody doesn't pester him sometimes but Cody NEVER gets tired of having Maddox around. Maddox is always going in Cody's room or just following him around and Cody loves it. I hope that this relationship helps Maddox adjust to another baby around the house. He will have Cody to entertain him when I can not. And we all know that Cody is more fun anyway!


Cody takes the batteries out of the 2nd remote so Maddox can "play" with him.

This is an every weekday occurrence around here. Maddox has to have Cody's pencil and paper like Cody so he can do his "homework." How sweet is that?

Actually he usually takes every pencil Cody tries to use! Yet Cody just laughs if off and gets another pencil.

Crazy weekend

Thanksgiving weekend was simply crazy. We had lunch with my wonderful in-laws (yes they really are wonderful!) then traveled to Georgia for a couple days then back home for one night and then to Greensboro for the day on Sunday. It was hectic but great to see so much family. The pictures are of Maddox helping me cook on Thursday morning. He is so much like his brother. Cody sat on the counter like this with me for years. I just love it!

Cody was measured for a hearing aid yesterday. It will be here for him on Dec 11. I am excited to see what a difference it makes for him but sad that it has come to this. He has his moments of hating it then moments where he is excited. I think he felt better after he was able to try one on yesterday and see that they are not that big and noticeable. Hopefully he does fine when it comes next Thursday.

Oh and I know the song on the playlist is kind of a sad one. Our church band played it this weekend and I just love it.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! If I can talk Cody into letting me take a picture of his hearing aid next week I will post a picture!





At least he likes to clean up as much as he likes to mess up!! He says clean up,. clean up e-body when he is doing it. Too cute!!!

Drink it in....

These days are flying by way too fast. I still don't feel good so many days I wish would go faster but then I look at my boys and how fast they are growing and I try so hard to just slow down and

drink it in.

I want to remember Maddox and all his silly little words and how much he simply LOVES life. If we could all view life as we do at 18 months things would be so much better. He has such an incredible sense of wonder. He is such a fun little boy. He is now teaching himself to drop kick a ball and to toss a ball in the air and hit it with a little plastic bat. He has such a natural knack for sports. It will be fun to see where that takes him.

Drink it in

I want to remember Cody changing into a young man. Starting to like girls, caring about his hair and clothes, getting more involved with so much at school (book clubs, geocatching, etc). He is in all gifted classes and does so well. God truly blessed me when he gave me that boy. He is such an easy child. He starts basketball again next week. Other parents are always telling me how much they love to watch him play basketball. He is a little spit fire. I want to remember that so badly.

Drink it in

I want to remember the first sings of a new life growing inside me, even when it makes me feel terrible. I want to engrave all the details of this last pregnancy in my mind so when I am old and grey I can still imagine that little flutter inside and the growing excitement of what is to come.

I pray that this holiday season I , along with you, can just slow down for a minute and

Drink it in...

Fun with leaves!

We have a ton of big trees in our back yard which we love! All of those big trees produce thousands of leaves that fall everywhere in the fall. Luckily I found a blower at a yard sale last year so getting them out is not near as big of a job anymore. Mark blew them all out the back fence gate and Cody had the best time jumping in them. Maddox wanted nothing to do with being in them but sure thought Cody was hilarious! He stood behind the pile and would yell out READY___ SET___ GO!!! It was so cute!

This pregnancy is rolling along. I feel some better these days, except in the evenings. Whoever coined the phrase "morning sickness" must have been a man! But I am almost 11 weeks now so hopefully that is almost over.

Such a big vocabulary!

People (including Mark and myself) are always amazed at how much Maddox talks. I have never met at 17 month old that speaks in full sentences but he does. He says things like I need help, or Get shoes go side. His latest thing the last few days is saying Go Panthers, which he does at least 20 times a day. He also has been saying, I cute and I funny. It is adorable! He is such a lovable little one. Let's hope we can hit the jackpot on a third child with a good disposition!

He is a complete blankie (or jankie as we call it) baby. He asks for jankie and milk usually twice a day and turns into a major snuggle bug. I just can't get enough! He just walked in here and saw this picture and said Hat - Jankie. So smart!
He wears this Panthers hard hat all the time, walking around with a football saying Down Set HUT HUT HUT. Then he runs somewhere and says touchdown and GO PANTHERS! He is just a boy after his dad's own heart! When I showed him this one he climbed into my lap and said set, hut, and want my football!

Baby boy and big boy costumes....

The difference is amazing. Maddox looked so cute and sweet dressed like a chicken! The suit was fluffy and warm and he did great letting me take pictures. Cody on the other hand was dressed like... well like a 10 year old boy. He had this crazy scary clown outfit. Luckily Maddox is not one bit scared of those masks and thought Cody was funny in it. We only took Maddox out for a little bit and then Cody and I stayed out for several hours while Mark put Maddox to bed (what a great daddy he is!). We had a good time. I know this is probably the last year I will get to pick Maddox's costume so I enjoyed dressing him so cute. But then next year we will have another baby around to dress up how I want : )

One more pumpkin carving for the big day.

Cody is on the left. His good friend Brendan (Darth) came over to go with us.

Yes he carries that screwdriver with him everywhere, including trick or treating!

Growing up....

Replacing the batteries on my toy He loves to "cook" too.

I am so bad about posting these days. I just feel terrible. The morning sickness this third time around (holy cow- 3?? really??) has been terrible. Mark says it is because I am carrying a girl : ) others say it is because we are having twins! We don't know either of those for sure and I guess we won't for awhile. I just do the best I can and try to keep up with Maddox. His latest craze is playing with his daddy's tools. he loves to fix everything. He is so cute! Cody is finishing up soccer this week and then we move right into basketball. He just loves playing sports- any sport really.

While I have been typing this Maddox climbed up in my lap and had to look through all the pictures. He loves them. He says Co-ey and he calls himself a baby in pictures. Mark always tell him- You're the baby! So now he says I baby! He won't get to be the baby for long though! I still have trouble wrapping my mind around the whole we will be outnumbered thing. It will be interesting to see how Maddox takes it : )

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Fall fun!

We went to a local apple harvest festical that we go to every year in York. The boys had the best time. They loved playing in the hay for some reason. Got some great pictures of course! I love the last one here. Cody is such a fantastic brother. Sometimes I am struck by how selfless a 10 year old boy can be. He loves Maddox so much (the feeling is mutual). They are too cute together. Maddox just wants to be wherever Cody is.

Life

What??? Am I not suppose to climb in here?

Our official due date is June 17. That will put this baby right between Maddox (May 25) and Cody (June 23). So for the rest of our lives we will have 3 kids birthdays in 4 weeks. Crazy! Cody is super excited about having another baby around the house. Though we do argue over whether it will be a boy or a girl : ) I am already outnumbered enough around here, even our dogs are boys! I realize I never say much about Mark and me on here. We are just not as exciting as the boys I guess. We are doing fine. Mark is doing his own General Contracting business and so far it has gone smoothly. He passed his exam on the first try which was a big deal. I have signed up to be a sub teacher at Cody's school and have been able to do that a few times. It helps that Mark has a very flexible schedule now. Other than that we just live life and try to enjoy the craziness that our boys produce. We wouldn't have it any other way.

Zone defense

For the last 16 months Mark and I have been able to run man to man coverage as we like to call it. He can handle one child and his needs while I handle the other. It all runs pretty smooth most days. Except for Maddox not being a very good sleeper (STILL!) we have 2 pretty fantastic kids. Well that is all about to change. We found out that we are expecting baby #3 in June. We will now have to switch to a zone defense because we will be out numbered! I thought this would be a good post to include a few of my old favorites. The first 2 are from the day Maddox was born and the third one is from our beach trip in Aug 07.

Our fall tradition

Halloween is by far Cody's favorite holiday. We always get pumpkins several times and he loves to carve them. We did our first one last night. We go to a big pumpkin festival in York every year to get our second round of pumpkins . We will have lots of great pictures of that - check back for that after Oct 18th. This one will be rotten long before Halloween. I love things like this. I know Cody will remember this for as long as he lives, carving pumpkin after pumpkin every year. Maybe he will even do the same thing with his own kids one day.






Maddox had to get in on the action.
Can you tell what it is ? A vampire on top biting a girls neck. It looks better in the dark with the candle but those pictures don't look as good.

Haircuts and Soccer!

Sometimes his cuteness is more then I can take!

I know I don't get as many pictures of Cody on here as I do Maddox but this is what I get when I try to take Maddox's picture- Cody just runs away! and yes Maddox has caught the PB bug from Mark and me.

Maddox got his first haircut this week. He was as unhappy about losing those curls as his mommy was!!

This is Maddox at one of Cody's soccer games. Those blue eyes are going to melt some hearts!
Cody is onto soccer now. He is loving it and it really good. He is so fast! Mark is coaching his team and I think he is so proud of that fact he can't stand it. He tells everyone who will listen.