8 Months!!

Where has the time gone???   It seems like just a few days ago we were bringing home our biggest baby yet - Caleb was a whopping 8 lbs. and 5 ozs. compared to his next oldest brother at 5 lbs. and 2 ozs.!!  You can imagine we were quite surprised to have such a butterball.

But now, 8 months later, we have a bouncing happy baby boy.  Caleb is crawling everywhere, pulling up on everything and cruising up and down the couch.  He is so proud of his accomplishments and loves it when Drew and I notice what he is doing.  Sometimes, he even claps for himself and forgots to hold on to the couch and falls on his little bottom!  :)

Caleb really gave Drew a surprise yesterday and said "da-da" for the first time.  Since then, he has been saying it over and over.  Now, I'm trying to encourage Caleb to say it in the middle of the night when he wakes up!  :)  He's also trying to say something like "ah-duh" for all done.  

In the teeth department, Caleb is a little behind his brothers' records.  He now has 3 teeth - two on the bottom and his top left tooth in the front.  He is vigorously chewing and drooling to try to work the top right tooth through.  

Because of his dairy protein and soy allergies, we have to be a little creative in the food department.  Caleb pretty much enjoys all of the foods he has tried with some of his favorites being mango, peaches, pears, applesauce, sweet potatoes and squash.  He also eats bananas, plums, apricots, white potatoes, pumpkin, green beans, broccoli, rice, cheerios and crackers.  I have to be very diligent in reading labels - have you ever looked to see how many foods have milk or soy products in them???!!  I have been reading online in the evenings to find alternative options for food products that we can use.  It's mind-boggling, but I am trying to make sense of what foods will be the best for our little bug in the next few months.

Happy 8 months, Caleb!!

Mommy

Bountiful Blessings

I know this is the Christmas season, and Thanksgiving was a few weeks ago, but we have had some wonderful blessings in the last week that I thought I would share.

Some of you know that Drew was laid off in April of this year.  Since then, he has had some side work, but nothing steady.  The construction industry around our area has all but come to a grinding halt.  We were hopeful that he would get a position with a commercial construction company before the end of the year, but the company has postponed making a decision about offering the position until sometime in January.  So, we were kind of bummed about that, but we are continuing to trust in God's timing to provide for our needs.

Last week, one of the pastors from our church called and said a few people at church wanted to do some things for the kids for Christmas.  So, I gave him a few ideas and thought maybe each of the kids would get a couple of things.  When we arrived at church Sunday morning, he said that there were some items in his office that we needed to take home with us.  We were absolutely overwhelmed!  Each boy has several packages to open in addition to a large gift bag for each boy containing clothing items (and much needed dress shoes for church!!) that they needed!  As if all of that was not enough, there was an envelope simply labeled "Merry Christmas."  Curious to see what was inside (and if anyone had signed the card!), I opened the card and found not one, but two $100 gift cards to Walmart.  The thing is, we needed groceries (okay, we really needed groceries!) and I had no idea how I was going to pay for them until we were given those gift cards.  Also - hang on for this one! - the battery on my van died, completely died, Monday morning.  Drew was able to jump the van off for me to drive it to Walmart to have the battery replaced, again using the gift cards.  And as a quick side note, they had one battery left that fit in my van.  Call that coincidence?  Neither do we!!

And if all of that was not enough, there's more!!  Thursday was Zachary's last day at school before Christmas vacation, and Friday was Justin's.  Both boys' school bills were two months behind, and the schools have been wonderful in working things out with us.  But, they both wanted one payment before Christmas vacation started and the entire bills caught up before the end of Christmas break.  We had absolutely no idea how the bills were going to be paid, and we had actually been praying about whether I should homeschool the boys beginning in January.  Then, Thursday morning when I was at the boys' Christmas parties (and Drew was home sick), I got a phone call from Drew.  A good friend from church stopped by with a gift from our Sunday school class.  They apparently collected some money, and it came to almost $2000!!!!!  We were able to pay the school bills in full and also pay some other bills.

We are so grateful and thankful for our friends who extended themselves to help us this year.  Drew and I are continuing to trust the Lord that He will provide for our needs in His timing.  May each of you find God's blessings in this Christmas season!

Nancy

Sneak Peek

A couple of Saturdays ago, Drew and I decided to take some Christmas pictures of the boys.  These are a few of my very favorites.....Enjoy!!

Zachary is growing up so fast I can hardly believe it!  He had to be the cool, calm unruffled sure-I'll-sit-here-if-you-want-me-to-and-show-the-others-how-it's-done one of the bunch. :)

Justin is such a sweet boy.  He loves to have his picture taken and is more than willing to pose frequently!

Melt my heart....need I say more?

I know he's not smiling, but this is absolutely the most adorable, just-have-to-pinch-his-cheeks picture I have taken of Caleb!

Can you believe we got all four of them to actually sit still, look in the same direction and all of their eyes were open at the same time???  Oh, and they actually are all smiling, too!

Pickles and Chocolate

You know, the funny thing about pregnancy is that you never know what sounds good until you are actually eating.  Or, at least it's that way with me.  I absolutely LOVE pickles...any size, shape or flavor.  When I was pregnant with Caleb, I probably consumed more pickles in 9 months than the rest of my family put together eats in an entire year.  Guess what?  I cannot even stomach the smell of pickles right now!  Justin has been enjoying bread and butter pickles on his cheese sandwiches for lunches the last few days, and it is all I can do to open the jar and toss a couple of pickles on the sandwich before I feel like I am about to be sick.  I am so sad that I am not enjoying pickles right now.  :(  But chocolate?  Ahhhhh, the love of my life....... :)  At least I can still enjoy chocolate!

Nancy

Teeth

Zachary is thrilled to be able to say that he lost his 8th tooth at lunch today!  Unfortunately, he really did lose the tooth somewhere in the cafeteria.  He was a bit worried that the tooth fairy might not give him a fair exchange, but his teacher and I reassured him that it would still be okay.  Now I have to remember to prompt the tooth fairy........

Caleb, on the other hand, is still working on his teeth.  He has been somewhat crabby off and on the last couple of days, and he is chewing and drooling like a, well, like a baby!  The next ones to come in are his top front teeth, and his poor gums are so swollen.  Maybe by this weekend he will get some relief!

This tired Mama is heading to bed....y'all have a great night!

Nancy

Catch-Up

Okay, so it's been a while since I last posted.  A thousand pardons......but there has been a lot going on lately!

To start with, Zachary had a red letter day at school today!  His day started off with a smiley face this morning for doing his papers correctly last Tuesday.  Yeah for Zac!!  But the very exciting thing is that he was moved up to the red reading group (the middle group)!!!!  We are so proud of Zachary working hard on his reading and showing so much improvement since the beginning of the year.  Here's Zachary's quote for the day (said while he, Justin and Aaron were cleaning up their balls in the living room), "Justin, don't pick up the balls you can see; pick up the balls that you can't see!!"

Justin also had quite a start to his day.  We were the second car in car line this morning, and as the car in front of us exited the line, I started to move slowly forward.  Well, Justin caught sight of Sara Kate and opened the car door to jump out while the car was moving!!!!!  I snagged the back of his jacket as I hit the brakes and we managed to avert any potential disaster.  Needless to say, I think he missed Sara Kate over Thanksgiving break!  He said they had a fun day at school and played together at play time.

Aaron has been his cute little self today.  In fact, I told him this evening that if he got any cuter I'd have to send him back.  He told me "You don't send me back.  I Aaron; I stay here."  :)  According to Aaron, our dinner was "some getti" (anyone want to guess?), and he ate lots of it!  Aaron also spread his pants out on the floor to put them on and told me "It's [the pants] like a swimming pool!"  When I asked him why, he replied "You just dive in!"  Too much!

Caleb has been crawling and exploring all over the house.  Unlike the other boys, he seems to like having something in his mouth constantly.  He spent the better part of the evening crawling around the kitchen with a washcloth hanging from his mouth.  He was perfectly happy - snorting and giggling.  Other objects that he enjoys carrying in his mouth are his small stuffed squeaky frog and pieces of plastic food from the play kitchen.  It is really cute to watch; I guess when we took the pacifier away, he came up with his own versions!

And for the last piece of news, for those of you who may not know, we are excited to announce that we are expecting Baby #5 in July!  It will be a while before we find out this baby's gender (or in other words, confirm that he is a boy! :), but we are eagerly anticipating this little one's arrival.  It will add a very new dimension to our household since Caleb and Baby will be only 15 months apart.  We were VERY surprised since we were not even thinking about thinking about trying to get pregnant, and in fact were trying NOT to get pregnant, so this one truly is God's timing!  We'll keep you posted on how things are going for Mommy and Baby!  :)

Nancy

Give Aways

A couple of my  blogger friends have gotten into the holiday spirit with contests for free stuff on their blogs.  Brittany is giving away a One Step Ahead Tummy Time Safari Mat for babies.  It is super cute and would be a great addition to our baby collection!  If you know of anyone who would be interested, just hop on over to her blog and leave a comment under this post here to enter the contest.  It would be perfect for a Christmas or shower gift, or to keep for yourself!

And MckMama is giving away Canon Digital Rebel XSi prize package!  This is a camera that I would love to get my hands on, one way or another!  :)  Plus, all donations made (suggested donation is $10/raffle ticket) benefit 3 charities that are super special.  String of Pearls is an organization to help parents deal with a fatal diagnosis for their child before or shortly after birth.  The other two organizations, No Hands But Ours and The Ellison Project support and assist in adoptions of special needs children from China.  So, if you are interested in a way-super-cool camera (with lots of extras) as well as benefiting some great charities, check out this post by MckMama here.  Or, click on the Canon Rebel icon on the right side bar of my blog to enter.

Nancy