Thanksgiving Week

Last week was full of travel and family. We headed down to Corpus Christi to visit Nathan's mom. She hasn't seen Eliana since she was about four days old, so needless to say, she had changed a lot since then. The boys were so happy to see their MoMo! While we were in Corpus, we visited my brother Patrick and his family. This was their first time meeting Eliana. We had fun visiting and the boys enjoyed playing video games while we were there.

A couple of MoMo and Eliana

MoMo with her Grandkids

Hanging out with Uncle Patrick & Cousin Jennifer

Jennifer & Eliana

The Friday after Thanksgiving we made a trip up to Killeen to see my grandparents. Here are some pictures of my MaMa and PaPaw with Eliana.

Introducing Solids

Introducing Eliana to solids has been a bit of a challenge. I'm not sure what she dislikes - if it's the act of spoon feeding, the texture or taste, or if it's just not fast enough for her. A friend suggested we let her explore it on her own. I thought that was a pretty good idea - let her suck it off her hands & fingers, let her mouth the spoon, etc. That way, she can get used to the taste & texture and hopefully get a little bit of something in her tummy as well. We may go this route for a few days and see how that goes. For obvious reasons, this will have to take place before bathtime! Here are a few pics of our experiment. Isn't she precious?!

Halloween Post - a month overdue...

Time has flown by so fast, but I wanted to be sure and get some Halloween pics up. I know, it is almost December, right? Better late than never!

This was the first Halloween in our new neighborhood and we had a blast. The neighborhood was crawling with kids and families. One neighbor even had a tractor from his contracting business to give everyone hayrides. We spent part of the time trick-or-treating with our neighbors and then we walked to the other end of the subdivision to visit Mimi. It was exhausting and fun and the kids raked in a ton of candy. Eliana's flower costume was a hit, of course. The boys still like to play in their costumes, so I think we're getting our money's worth this year!

Here are a few highlights of the night:

Group photo of the kids

Eliana in her ride

The superheroes! The boys with Spongebob

Our Sweet Joshua

A very special story was told about our Joshua this past Sunday at church that I felt warranted a very special post. Our Joshua is a one-of-a-kind little boy. Everything he feels, he feels BIG and with all of his heart and soul. He's super silly, affectionate, sweet, and sensitive. When he gets angry, he gets really angry; when he gets his feelings hurt, your heart breaks for him; when he loves you, you definitely feel loved and when he's laughing, it's absolutely contagious. Joshua is also very special in that he has always had a special interest in God - who He is, what He looks like, how big He is, etc. When we weren't going to church regularly, it was Joshua at the mere age of 2 years old that was urging us to go. When we sit down to eat at the dinner table and people start eating, Joshua is the first one to say "But we need to pray!" When anyone gets hurt or is sick, he immediately asks if we can pray to God for that person to feel better. I've always felt that because of his passion, heart and trust in God at such a young age, that this little boy must be destined to something that would bring Glory to God.

Well, Sunday's message was given by the youth and children's ministers. Pastor Andy is the boys' teacher in children's church and he told Nathan that he was going to be talking about the boys in church that day. So, we wondered what antics he was going to share with the congregation about our boys. The story he told was about our very first day to visit HighPoint for church service. In children's church they pass the offering basket around the class. My boys had never given an offering - our old church didn't do offering in their class and I wasn't used to giving them money before church. When the basket got to Joshua he said "I want to give my heart to God." Pastor Andy thought that was sweet and just sort of moved on, but he noticed after a few minutes that Joshua was looking pretty upset. Andy went back to him and said "Joshua, what's wrong?" He said "I want to put my heart in the offering!" So, Andy's response was to grab the basket and hold it in front of Joshua. Joshua reached across his chest in a motion as though he was taking his heart and placing it in the offering basket. Andy's thought was "wow, now I could really learn something from Joshua here today." So, every Sunday Joshua and Jaron place their hearts in the offering everytime the basket comes to them.

Nathan and I had no idea and we both looked at eachother with tears in our eyes. We also heard sniffles from others throughout the congregation. So many things come to mind when I think about that story. One is how upset Joshua got because he really wanted to give his heart in the offering to God. I mean, how special is that? That Joshua felt so strongly about what may seem to an adult to be a very small "action." The other thing that comes to mind is how that's all God really wants from us...our hearts...for us to love Him and feel as strongly for Him as He does for us.

Later at the dinner table we asked Joshua how he came up with that idea. He told us simply "my heart...my heart just told me to do it and that's what my heart wants me to do everyday."

2He called a little child and had him stand among them. 3And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:2-6

Book Character Parade

The boys have a book character parade scheduled at school this morning. Jaron is Cat in the Hat and Joshua is Peter Pan. Unfortunately, Joshua woke up with fever and has to miss out on the parade. We have a doctor's appointment scheduled for later today. He still wanted to wear his costume though, so here are a few pictures.

Cat in the Hat

Sick Peter Pan :(

Cameron Park Zoo

The boys had a three-day weekend for Columbus Day so we decided to use one of the days to go to the zoo. We had a blast hanging out as a family and checking out all of the animals. Here are a few of my favorite moments of the day:

The following Monday we just spent some time hanging out at home before heading to parent-teacher conferences. Here are a few pics of the kids.

I just love this one!

Such good big brothers!
Jaron's come a long way from when he didn't want to hold her :)

Eliana's New Toy!

Eliana and I went with my mom to Katy this past weekend to spend some time with my sister-in-law and niece. We saw Julie perform in her marching band competition, went out for Chinese food, went to church, had lunch at Panera Bread, ate LOTS of pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting (for my birthday) and went shopping! Aunt Sandy bought Eliana a new Exersaucer. She absolutely LOVES it! Here is some video of her in it.

My-oh-my have we been busy! I can't believe the boys have been in school for over a month and that Eliana is about to turn 3 months! Jaron and Joshua are loving Kindergarten and seem to be adjusting well. We have no problems at all getting them to go to sleep at night - they are exhausted! Eliana is sleeping through the night and putting on the weight! I just weighed her this morning and she was at 14 lbs 2 oz. She's holding her head up strong and high and we love to get her giggle box going! I think her favorite people to laugh at are her brothers.

Here are some pictures from the last month:

Our first homework assignment - decorating their "Me" t-shirts

The finished products: Jaron's is on the left and Joshua's is on the right

Happy Baby! I "think" if Joshua could claim her as his very own, he would. He just LOVES her!
Jaron giving his baby sister a kiss

We are SO blessed!

And here is one of our cat, Ivy sleeping peacefully against the window...probably dreaming of her next evil plan to irritate Nathan.

First Day of Kindergarten

It totally amazes me that this day has finally come--the first day of Kindergarten! I was a mess yesterday - so emotional about everything. I wanted their lunch to be perfect, their clothes to be just right, a great breakfast to start their day... I tucked them in last night and went back before I went to bed to give my "big boys" extra kisses while they were sleeping, tears streaming down my face. They never saw me cry and they genuinely seemed excited about starting their first day.

Of course, the morning didn't go off without a couple hitches. Joshua was upset that he didn't get the #5 locker, so that kind of started his day off on the wrong foot. Hopefully he's over that by now :) Jaron was great right up until I said "ok, let's go find your seat and sit down." All of a sudden he had some doubts. Luckily, Nathan was there to help turn things around - introducing him to some kids at his table and putting him more at ease. There were no tears, that I'm aware of, and I can't wait to hear all about their day and see the comments from their teachers.

Here are a few pictures from our morning:

Jaron & Joshua in front of the school

Daddy & the boys walking up to school

Joshua, Monica & Jaron in front of Joshua & Monica's class

Joshua as soon as we got out of the van

Daddy putting Jaron at ease in his class

Our "First" Child

Nathan and I were talking the other night about how we hadn't posted pictures of Trooper in a while. For those of you who don't know, he was our first baby. I adopted him when I was in college - about 19 years old. He's now about 14 years old (give or take a year since he was from the animal shelter). So, when Nathan and I married, Trooper and I were a package deal. We are convinced that he is THE best dog ever. He has the most patience of any animal I know and has put up with two very active twin boys and is now getting to know Eliana. He is almost human in so many ways - the way he gives and asks for affection, the way he can't hide when he's done something wrong, and the way he acts has my second set of eyes when I'm home during the day.

One of my favorite stories to tell about Trooper is how he once ratted out Jaron and Joshua for leaving the yard. One afternoon when I let them out to play, I let Trooper out with them. After a while Trooper starts barking at the back door - I thought that was strange since he typically doesn't bark if someone is outside with him. I looked and realized the boys were no longer in the yard and they had gone out the side gate. Rather than following them out of the yard, Trooper knew something wasn't right and let me know the boys had left the yard. You should've seen their faces when I called them back in and told them that Trooper told on them!

Sweet Trooper getting some hugs from Nathan

Eliana checking out Trooper