February 2013

In February, Zeke turned 3! We went to Chuck E. Cheese with a bunch of his little friends! We took him to Build A Bear where he built his football penguin named Tux! He is all into sports, dinosaurs, superhero's, cars...all the typical boy stuff! Back when all the flu craziness was happening toward the end of January, we got an offer on our house. Because Josh was soooo sick, he was pretty much totally out of commission so I was dealing with it all myself. We entered into our option period into February and had to leave so many times during that 10 days for inspections, appraisals, they had specialists come in. We were constantly in and out because of all this. 3 hours before our option period ended, the buyers terminated the contract. It was devastating. We were so confused. A few days after that, I began having contractions at just 27 weeks. I was sent to the hospital and ended up being put on bed rest for 4 weeks. Now that all that has passed, I am very thankful we didn't sell the house and when I went on bed rest, we took the house off the market, which was right at the end of February. It was such a relief to not have to keep the house "show ready" which was just getting more and more difficult the more and more pregnant I got.

January 2013

Well, our family spent 2 weeks in January with the FLU...the God awful flu. It was pure misery. It definitely deserves it's own blog post. Josh, the only one who had the flu shot, brought the flu home from work where they were all spreading it around. It started with him, went to Riley (who had it the worst, she had a fever of almost 104 at one point and was delusional and almost febrile...scary), then Zeke, then Aydia. The amazing thing about the whole thing was, Ezra and I escaped it...it was a true gift from God. We prayed and prayed that he would protect us and he did! Of course, I have documentation of the longest 2 weeks EVER!!!

September-December 2012

In September, we found out we were expecting baby #4! We were very surprised about this news as we thought we were done having kids...we were literally 4 weeks away from Josh having a vasectomy! After the initial shock, we were very excited! This photo is what we used to tell Josh's family! To tell the social media world, we used this photo! October was Halloween! I did not go trick or treating, I guess I wasn't feeling well. Josh took the kids, so I don't have great photos of them. I have one from a Trunk or Treat we helped with at our church...it was bright and they weren't being very cooperative so I just took what I got! Riley was Supergirl, Aydia was Barbie pop star, and Zeke was a firefighter! I dressed up as an Indian! November, Zeke got a big boy bed! This bed was his Uncle Andrew's bed when he was a kid! Of course, also in November we had Thanksgiving over at Carol's house! December, of course we had Christmas! It was a fun one this year. All the kids understand and enjoy it! My family came out and that was of course a blast! While they were here, we did a big "gender reveal party" for our close friends and family! Josh and I had known for a few weeks what this baby was and had been keeping it in! It was great to get to tell! We also went to Madagascar on Ice! The photo of Riley is awesome! She wanted a boy sooooo bad! She was so excited! That wraps it up for 2012!!!

June-Aug of 2012

In June, Josh and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary! We had a photo shoot done by Payge Stevens Photography! It was so much fun! We also were able to go to California. Josh's best friend from childhood got married and Josh was in the wedding. We treated this trip as an anniversary trip and tacked on a few days to go have some fun! It was a blast! In July, we put our house on the market. We were asked to lead a Missional Community in Murphy and decided if we were going to lead over there, we needed to live close. We haven't been in our house long, but decided that we would see what happened...it didn't sell and we actually took it off the market at the very end of February...I will get to that! Also in July, we went to Colorado to visit my family! We go every summer and it is always a blast! August is super hot, so what better of an activity than to bathe the stinky dog! The kids seriously had a blast! All 3 of our kids were in a wedding, they were stinkin adorable and did a wonderful job! The girls started Kindergarten (Aydia) and 1st grade (Riley) at Vista Academy which happens to be just up the street from us!

A year has gone by...

I can't believe a year has gone by since my last blog...over a year to be exact. Life gets crazy with lots of kids! I am going to try and do a quick update of our last year or so...it will be in several posts just so I can throw some photos in there. Who wants to read a blog with no photos?! Not me! Here we go, lets start with January-May of 2012. I will warn, a lot of these photos are instagram and therefore won't be the best quality! In January, we started a new healthy way of living. Josh had some health issues and we decided to change our diets majorly. We started eating plant-based. It has worked wonderful for our family. While I have now settled on still incorporating some dairy and a little meat for me and the kids, Josh is still "plant strong"! The changes have helped him a lot...all of us, really! Here is a photo of us 30lbs different from eating healthy and exercising! They were taken about 9 months apart. Also in January, we took a trip to the Zoo with some friends! In February, Zeke turned 2! He also got his first hair cut and with turning 2 came a whole new crazy! In March, the girls donated their hair to Locks of Love! This was such an amazing moment! They had seen a lady that had no hair because she had cancer. They were very inquisitive about it and when we told them about places like Locks of Love where people could donate their hair and it would be made into a wig for someone who had cancer, they wanted to donate. They seriously are so sweet! Riley also turned 6 this month...I can't find photos of that :( Aydia turned 5 in April, I also cannot find photos of this either :( We have done a huge rehaul of our photos and put some of them on backup hard drives and they are on there. In May, Riley graduated from Kindergarten! She was awarded the congeniality award! Josh and I went to Atlanta to see Matt Ward play in a concert in May as well! It was fun...quick, but fun! I think that about wraps up the Spring!