Amelia Faith has arrived!!!

Amelia (work of the Lord) Faith(Faith)

Amelia Faith took her first breath into this world on October 19th at 1:27 p.m. She weighed in at 5lb 12 ounces, and 19.5" long. She was full term, and healthy, but yes she is tiny. When the nurse was cleaning things up she said to us "Faith is a great name for her, because things could have gone very bad since she had a 2 vessel cord and a knot in it on top of that." Well that was just the icing on the cake for how much God has protected and provided for her and us throughout the last 9 months. When I have more time I will tell you how from the very beginning Amelia has been a work of the Lord, and how much our faith has grown in the Lord since the conception of Amelia. We have been truly blessed, and I am overwhelmed with joy and thankfulness every time I hold little Amelia in my arms. Our God is an awesome God!!!

Simply a-maize-ing

We had a wonderful day today with our good friends the Bowman's. We went to the local corn maze: Simply a-maize-ing for our 2nd annual trip. What a beautiful day we had to enjoy our adventure. Not only does this place have a corn maze, but it also has a farm where the kids were able to help out with some of the little "chores", and hang out with the farm animals. The owner's goal is to have a place where the kids feel as if they were going to a place like grandma and grandpa's farm. The kids had a blast, and felt totally comfortable running all over the farm with all the animals. They are already asking when they can go back.

playroom makeover

We have these little unfinished attic space rooms in each of the kids bedrooms. I came up with the idea to finish them (cheaply) and turn them into little playrooms for the kids. A big-huge-giant thank you to my parents for carrying my idea out and doing this as a birthday present for the kid's upcoming birthdays. We have mostly finished Avery's room, and will start on Deacon's when mom and dad have recovered from doing Avery's. The carpet guy came today to install the bright color carpet Avery picked out for herself- "dress-up pink", and Deacon chose "grasshopper green".

This is the size of the entrance into the playroom- imagine my 6'5" tall father crawling into and out of this several times...poor dad!

This is basically what it looked like from the start.

and here it is now....

On this wall there is a dry erase board, magnet boards, and chalk board

Here is her dress-up wall

Avery getting ready to draw a picture for me.

Mom and dad hung peg board so Avery can have a place to hang and store stuff on the wall and ceiling.

The carpet man was so nice, and made Avery a little heart rug out of the leftover carpet.

The carpet in Deacon's room. We will finish this room when mom and dad are ready....no pressure :)!!!

I can't wait to finish Deacon's room, but also get a few more accessories to cutesy up the rooms a little bit, any ideas?

New hobby-embroidery

A couple of weeks ago, I took the plunge and bought an embroidery machine. I have had the love of personalized items for quite a long time now, and thought wouldn't it be great to be able to make my own personalized items for not only me, but for others as well. So far, I have loved, loved, loved making and creating fun little gifts like the ones below.

Remembering 9/11

Today is the 8th anniversary of 9/11. Do you remember where you were? I can remember it as vivid as yesterday. Aaron and I were living in the DC area at the time. I had just gotten out of the shower at the gym, after taking a spinning class. As I was sitting on the bench getting dressed a lady rushed into the locker room frantically yelling the twin towers have been hit. What?! What did that mean? I didn't have time to watch the T.V. there, as I was in a hurry to get to work. I remember feeling very confused, what did that just mean? As soon as I got in my little Jetta I turned on the radio, and headed to work. As I listened to the news coverage, I felt sick to my stomach. As if the twin towers attack was not enough, when I was driving down Wisconsin Avenue the news coverage was interrupted with the announcement that the Pentagon had been hit by a plane!! What?! Is this a dream? I was flooded with several emotions. I was very scared, helpless, and most of all in shock. How could they do this? They just killed hundreds and hundreds of innocent people, and what were they going to do next?

I had nightmares for days, and was obsessed with the news, which didn't help matters. I remember how our nation came together to embody our National motto "E Pluribus Unum" (out of many, one)...it's now amazing how divided our nation has become. Aaron and I went up to New York the weekend after 9/11 to be with a friend who lost a few of his friends in the twin towers. I can still remember seeing all the smoke and dust in the air, as ground zero continued to burn. What a disturbing sight it was, I pray that our country will never have to go through that again. My heart not only aches for those who lost loved ones in 9/11, but for the victims themselves. I cannot even begin to imagine the terror and anguish they suffered knowing they were not going to make it.

I get so upset when people think these terrorist deserve rights, and should be treated "fairly"! Did they (the terrorists) give our nation one bit of respect? It brings me to tears with sadness and anger when our armed services, PD and FD fight and die for our freedom, and then they are not supported by our nation as a whole. I feel like respect and gratitude is the least we can show to the many men and women that risk their lives everyday for our safety. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for all you do.

Simple Things

When I was washing off our driveway today, the kids thought it would be fun to strip down to their undies and have some fun with the hose. My first instinct was to yell NO!!, but when I saw the joy in their faces, I thought what the heck, just go with it Sarah. You know, it's the simple things in life that seem to bring the greatest joy (especially through the eyes of a child).

Who needs this, when you can do....

this, and....

this?

Look at the joy in that face (you can't fake that)!

Priceless!!

First day of School

I enrolled Avery and Deacon in The Learning Place this year. It is a preschool that will take kids as young as 2, and lasts for 4 1/2 hours (that way I can get more stuff done). Avery has been excited because her two buddies: Hannah and Joshua are in her class, Deacon, on the other hand has had anxiety, and fear. He has been crying about not wanting to go to school for the last 2 weeks, and in his words, "me not a big kid anymore, me a baby. Me not want to go to school, me want to stay home with mommy." Well, again yesterday morning he woke up crying, and saying those same words. Avery, the little mommy that she is hugged him and told him "It's going to be okay buddy, we are going to have lots of fun, and you will make some new friends". I have been telling him the exact same thing for the last 2 weeks, but did he listen to me? No!! Something magical happened when Avery told him that. He stopped crying. Then, when we were on our way to the preschool he says "me done crying about school, me going to be a big boy." And just like that he was done, he walked right in to his classroom, gave the teacher high five, and sat down to start coloring.
That is Deacon for you. When he makes up his mind he is going to do something he does it. He potty trained himself, by waking up one morning saying "me need to go potty." And sure enough he did, and that is how he got rid of his pacifiers also. He woke up the morning after sleeping in his big boy bed for the first time, and brought his pacifiers down with him, he opened the trash can, looked up at me and said "me a big boy now, me not need my bappy (aka pacifier), bappys are for babies." And just like that he threw all his bappys away. It is awesome to see the determination he has when he makes up his mind.

Avery and Deacon sporting their new backpacks

Front view

Avery and her new lunchbag

Deacon decided he was going to take he and Avery to preschool in his gator

and their off!

Standing outside the preschool waiting for the doors to open

Deacon saying goodbye to me with a smile!

Avery putting her backpack away in her cubby.

When I picked them up, they both said how much fun they had. As Avery put it "I sure do like my new school, we had a lot of fun." Yay!!! I am so happy they are going to enjoy preschool, and I am so happy I will have a few hours by myself-well, until the baby is here :).