Disney World

Matt's parents took the family to Disney World for Christmas. We had a wonderful time and hope to go back soon. There were 16 people total, 8 adults and 8 kiddos under the age of 8! Each family had their own cabin which was so nice. We could just let the kids run around and not have to worry about them being too loud. We were able to go to all 4 parks, plus both Universal Parks. Nate had his picture taken with several characters, but his favorite was definitely Spiderman.

OMGoodness! The cutest baby on the plane! I am obsessed with these flowers. The bigger the better!

Our Cabin

Hollywood Studios with MiMi and PaPa


Nate did the Pirate League at Magic Kingdom.
He wanted his daddy to get his face painted too.

Nate with Spidey. Too Cute!

The cousins. Aunt Alissa made them shirts that said "Thing 1,2,ect.."
Nate wore "Thing 6" and EG "Thing 8" representing their birth order.

We piled in two of these bikes and raced around the Boardwalk. The kids loved it.

Ok, so did the adults!

A cool dessert at one of the restaurants

What a wonderful daddy!

Newborn Pics

Ellie Grace is such a good baby. At 3 months, she was 50% in height and 30% in weight. She wakes to eat around 5:00a.m., so I am sleeping really well. She hardly ever gets upset, even when her brother is squeezing her checks together. She is cooing, laughing, smiling, sitting with assistance, pulling toys to her mouth and rolling to her side. We are enjoying every minute with this precious girl.

Father/Son Camping Trips

One of Matts favorite childhood memories is going on Father/Son camping trips. In October, he and Nate went on their first trip with some other dads and boys from our church. They had a blast!

My Boys

Setting up camp

Nate shot a gun and a bow

Nates best buds: "E" and "N"

Hutch caught a big fish!

Spiderman

Nate was spiderman for Halloween. He continues to wear his costume everyday and some day several times. I think I got my monies worth. We went to Haunt the Zoo with some friends and then Nate and I went to Trunk or Treat at church.

Brotherly Love

Nathan LOVES his sister! He calls her his sunshine and tells her all the time how much he loves her. When she cries, he tells her not to be afraid that bubba's here. Our prayer is that they will be great friends and treat each other better than their best friend. Here are some sweet pics:

All I want for Christmas is...

2 bathrooms! Where does a 3 year old boy go potty when the toilet is clugged? The garage of course! Yes you read that correctly, my son peed in the GARAGE. At least he went in the back corner.

The Delivery

I must say the second time around is much easier. We decided to induce on September 25 after sitting at a 4 and 60% for a week and having zero contractions. When we got to the hospital that morning I was a 5 and still nothing. The only part of my experience that could have gone a little better was the IV. I knew it was going to be bad when right before the nurse started she said, "Let me get a towel, this is going to be bloody." What? Are you serious? She then started the IV, but I could tell that things were not going well. Next, I here, "Shoot, I blew it (my vein)out." I can't believe this is happening! She tells me she's sorry and that I'm going to be in a lot of pain. Really? She gets another nurse. I knew she was trouble when she couldn't find a vein. She picks a spot halfway up my forearm. She to is having trouble and then I feel a sharp stabbing pain and she says, "I'm sorry, I quit." They both leave and we never see them again! An hour later, the day shift nurse comes in and has no trouble with the IV. It's now 8:00am, and we start pitocin. At nine, Doctor breaks my water...I'm at a 6. The doctor comes in at 10:00 and I am at an 8....she orders the epidural. To be honest, I didn't think the contractions were unbearable. I think I could have done it without the epidural, but I'm afraid of the unknown (not knowing how long labor will last. At 11:00, the nurse checks me and says, "Oh, you're having a baby don't move." I ended up waiting about 30 minutes for the Doctor (twice the nurses thought they were going to have to deliver the baby) and only pushed 4 times and out she came! So quick and easy and a wonderful experience. I took a shower that night, left the next day, and didn't need any pain meds. Such a different experience than Nate. Ellie Grace weighed 7lbs and was 20 inches long.

Update...LONG

Well, a lot has happened since my last post.

Nate turned 3 and we celebrated with a great party at Orr Family Farm. During the train ride, he looked up at his dad and said, "This is so much fun!" That little comment made this expensive little party worth every penny.

Nate started swimming by himself (with a life jacket, of course)! One day he decided that he no longer needed me and basically let go and off he went! He would spend hours in the pool swimming back and forth from the shallow end to the deep end. I was thrilled and he was so proud of himself. So, I started doing what every good mother would do....sun tanning poolside! :)

Pregnancy is going great. I cannot wait to meet this precious little girl. Nate can't wait for his little sister to get here either. Every time we go to the Doctor he asks if the Doctor is going to take Ellie Grace out today. Towards the middle/end of August I started having some preterm labor (more like false labor) so they did several Brethine shots (horrible!) and finally just sent me home with the pill form of Brethine. I took this until I hit 36 weeks on an as need basis. So of course, I had convinced myself that she was coming early. However, here I sit 38 weeks pregnant at a 4 and 60% with pretty much nothing happening. Shouldn't I be in hard labor screaming for an epidural right about now? I saw the Doctor today and she said I could be induced on Friday or come back on see her next week. So, after talking it over with Matt we are praying hard that she will come on her own by Friday, but if not she will be here on Friday with a little help! :) We do not like the idea of being induced, but I am so tired (and cranky).

Nate moved into a twin bed a couple weeks ago. He handled this transition like a champ. The first night he slept in his new room, he actually jumped up and down with excitement. He loves his new room/bed!

We also had to put our boxer down a couple weeks ago. She developed a neurological disorder and loss the use of her back legs. It was so hard to see her look so happy yet drag herself around. We were so worried about how Nate would react. I thought a new room, baby sister, and losing a dog might be too hard for him to handle so close together. We finally decided on what we were going to say. We took Nate outside and took some pics and then broke the news to him. He said, "Ok, bye-bye Brindi!" So, he continues to amaze us with how "big" he is. We have now realized that our Lab is also sick and probably won't be with us much longer.

Matt surprised me with a trip to San Antonio (ALONE). We had a wonderful time spending some much needed time together. I absolutely love spending time with my best friend! Thanks Babe!

Happy 10 year Anniversary!

Wow! I can't believe we have been married for 10 wonderful years. I am so lucky to have Matt for my husband. He is kind, patient, loving, understanding, gentle, generous...just to name a few. He is so good with Nate and willing to help out extra when I have had a rough day. I couldn't imagine my life without him. He is constantly reminding me of God's faithfulness and encouraging me to trust Him more. I am grateful for how hard he works so that I can stay home and experience each growing moment with Nate.

Matt I love you so much. Thank you for how you protect your family from outside influences, how you provide for us financially, how you challenge us to not be satisfied with our walk with God, but to continue to look for ways to be more like Him and less like the world, how you lead us in being faithful and consistent in attending church. In hopes that meeting with other believers will become like breathing to our children, that they will never ask us if we are or have to go to church today, for loving me the way I am, for encouraging and supporting me. I have absolutely loved our life together and am so thankful for where God has us right now. I look forward to many more years together. I look forward to walking this journey with you and seeing where God leads us over the next 10 years.

Your The BEST!
Jamie

So embarrassing...

Nate and I went to the zoo and then headed to McDonald's for some lunch. After we ate, I let Nate play on the play equipment. There were quite a few big kids there so after about 10 minutes I told Nate he could go down the slide 1 more time and then we were leaving. Well, he decided to climb all the way to the top and perch himself in a car. He had no plans of moving or leaving. He would occasionally look down at me, but did not move an inch. One man tried to help by telling his son to have Nate follow him down...no such luck. Another lady offered to climb up and get him. At one point, he started coming down, but then he saw me a climbed back up. Finally, a worker said she would go get him. How embarrassing!! So this sweet little worker has to climb up and pull my son down. Nate thought it was so cool. On the way home, we have a nice little talk about how the workers job is not to rescue disobeying little boys. All he said was, "that worker stretched out my shirt." I don't think we will be playing at McDonald's anytime soon.

Fun in the Sprinkler

The other night Nate was playing in the sprinkler.

Matt joined in on the fun.

I couldn't resist playing with my boys....

and I guess the neigbors couldn't either!

This is Nate with our sweet neighbor JoAnn

Riding a Bike!

Nate has been learning how to ride his bike. He can steer and pedal, but still has a little trouble stopping. He still puts his feet down instead of using the pedals to stop. I guess it helps to have long legs. He looks so big with his helmet and elbow pads (he insists on the elbow pads). Sorry the video is not the best. I still need to video him riding down the sidewalk. Enjoy!

Lesson Learned

One night in April, Matt and I were in the living room when we heard a pinging noise. Matt went into our office to find that our computer hard drive had crashed. I started crying b/c all of our pics from March 2006 are saved on that hard drive and NO WHERE ELSE. Nate was born in July 06. Since then, our sweet friend Daniel has been trying to recover pics from our memory cards. I now have all my pics of Nates birth!!! Yeah! We are still missing 3 months in 2007 and 6 months in 2008. Sadly, I have zero pics from Nates 2nd birthday, Halloween 07/08, family vacation to Destin (this one makes me sick), our getaway to NYC without Nate, and many fun pics of just everyday life. We are now trying to decide if we should pay to try to repair the Hard drive. I guess there is a 50% it could work.


I get really sad if I think about losing these pictures. I try to remind myself that these pictures are an earthly treasure (not a bad treasure, but they are still not eternal) and that I still have the best gift, Nathan. And hopefully, Nate will surrender his life to the LORD one day, and we will get to spend eternity together. There are people leaving this world everyday without Christ and I'm worried about pictures...sad.


Still praying that we are able to recover the remaining pics, but trying to have the right perspective along the way.

Ellie Grace

I had an ultrasound the other day to see if my placenta had moved. Placenta is good, but I have to have another ultrasound in 4 weeks b/c she is measuring a little small. So basically, baby small, but mama ain't! I just loved looking at her. She has found a comfortable position and not wanting to move. About 2 weeks ago, I noticed that my belly was lopsided and that I could feel a hard round thing. I thought it was her bottom, but it turned out to be her head. The tech made me get in all these different positions to try to get her to move (b/c she was blocking the view of the placenta), but she wasn't budging. She finally moved just long enough to get a good look and then back she went. What's funny is with Nate, my belly was lopsided to the left.

Here's a pic of Ellie Grace showing off her muscles. I think she did this to show her big brother that she's pretty tough too.

Ice Age

We took Nate to his first movie last night with our Sunday School class, Ice Age 3D. We do not allow Nate to watch anything but G, but decided to make an exception (which we will not do again). The movie was cute, but I don't understand why they have to have crude jokes and use words that most people don't allow their children to use. Anyway, we had a great time and Nate did to. The movie was probably 2/3 of the way over when Nate said, "Lets go do something else." Afterwards, we went to Falcone's with our sweet friends the Websters and then for some yummy ice cream at Marble Slab. All in all, it was a wonderful night with family and friends.