Christmas 2012

This was our year to stay in Nashville. And I will say it's the first time we've stayed home that I have NOT being totally bummed out about staying home.

I uploaded a bunch of pictures to a web album instead of cluttering up the blog. Here's the link:
https://plus.google.com/photos/112591439210333200236/albums/5841868957243579713?authkey=CNPzwOyNv4fFuQE

Thanksgiving 2012

Maggie's school district had the entire week of Thanksgiving off, so we spent it in Phoenix with Tyler's family. It was a blast! Maggie and cousins Alexis and Gabby played together all week - James tagged along as best he could.

We enjoyed LOTS of sun, some shopping, I did a lot of sewing (Christmas presents). And it was just a really great time. 

We did family pictures while we were there.

We stopped at Lowe's on the way home from the airport to get our Christmas tree. Gotta get the most out of it! Maybe some day we will go to a tree farm...

Brian got hitched! (November 2012)

My youngest brother, Brian, got married in November. I uploaded a web album because I had so many pictures. I took James with me and flew to Seattle a week before the wedding to help mom and Rachelle and Brian with all the wedding prep. I even got to do the flowers. It was really great.

Anywhoo, here's the link for the album.
https://plus.google.com/photos/112591439210333200236/albums/5841860175017398129?authkey=COS247OAr_vArgE

Well that's embarrassing! Here's Halloween 2012

I just realized I haven't updated the blog! Wow. In the spirit of getting caught up, here are some Halloween pictures.

Maggie posing with her pumpkins. We were running out of time when I finally picked some pumpkins up, so simple faces it was. And she loved them just as much as the years when I've done fancy ones. It was a win-win!

Tyler and I organized the Fall Festival this year. He had class Halloween night, so I took the kids by myself. They did great. You can see here Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf.

My beautiful babies!

And here they are with a redneck Grandma! Did you know that mumus are found in the "active wear" section of Goodwill?!

Just like his sister, the duck pond was James' favorite.

With his best buddy, Zeke!

Mmmm, homemade donuts!

Facepainting!

His "I'm cute" pose.

At the end of the night, the costume got too hot so we just ran around in our shirt and shoes. The Plinko board was  a big hit!

A close-up of Grandma's wrinkles. I did them last minute with the make-up I had on hand. Turned out pretty good, eh? And I must say I am channeling my Grandma DeWaard with the foam rollers.

The view down below. Gotta love $0.50 stockings from Wal Mart.

Little Red Riding Hood got photo-bombed by Mary Poppins!

Little Man Got His 'Do Did

James' hair was getting too long. The curls are super sweet, and I love them, but Daddy said it was too long, and when he took a bath it really was past his shoulders. So off to Great Clips (I know, so high class).

Last looks at those lovely locks. I love that curly hair!

 Here we are getting situated in the chair. Still novel at this point.

 Spray bottle and combing - ok.

 And the first snip - no going back.

 He's messing around with the comb the girl gave him to keep him occupied. Not holding still.

 He was about done at this point, the girl was 75% done cutting his hair. The cape came off 2 seconds after this picture.

 Some of the damage. Maggie's first haircut was LITERALLY 2-3 snips to get rid of her oh-so-wispy mullet. She didn't need any shaping, anything off the top or sides. James got about an inch trimmed off everywhere except the very top.

 Mr. Handsome in the flesh! He looks so cute with his trimmed up hair. And I am so happy to report that the back and sides do still curl up. And with the wispy ends cut off, it feels really thick now!

Healing. Rejoicing. Crying.

Job 1:21 The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.

I want to thank each and every one of you who have reached out to Tyler and I as we deal with the loss of our precious baby. We are healing. Physically it is taking a long time (in my mind) to recover. The doctors said it would take three weeks (!) for my body to regenerate the quantity of blood that I lost after the miscarriage. So I can’t walk up my own stairs without becoming short of breath, I can’t pick up or carry James, can’t carry in groceries, and I have to sleep a lot. It is hard to have to rely on my mom, friends, or Tyler to do everything for me when I am the mama at this house and I’m supposed to do all those regular things.

Psalm 34:18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

So many of you have been praying for me, for us. Thank you, we still need your prayers. The Lord God has been so merciful and gracious to me throughout the miscarriage and following days. He has brought me peace with losing the baby, and I am reassured that s/he is in the presence of Almighty God, without spot or blemish, pain, or suffering. I think Tyler is still more concerned with my recovery; the possibility of losing me was more scary to him than losing the baby. Maggie is learning to deal with the sudden little waves of sadness that pop up at random times. James, well, he’s James. Still running around, making messes everywhere he goes. He is a good distraction and minute-by-minute reminder of the grace the Lord has previously shown, and continues to show me.

I am still sad, and I still cry a lot. And that’s OK, it will probably happen for a while. When we told Maggie about the baby, I reassured her it’s OK to be sad and to cry. We miss our baby because we won’t get to watch them grow up, we won’t get to know them and love them more. But we have assurance that the Lord is in control, and all things work together for our good.

Psalm 34:1 I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

It is with a heavy heart that I have to tell you all that I lost the baby Friday morning. I will write more soon, but know that I am comforted so much by my dear husband, by my loving family, by our wonderful church family who have lifted me up in prayer, and especially by God, who has granted me amazing peace despite extremely difficult circumstances. My hope is in Him, who wipes away every tear, and will heal my broken heart.

First Grade!

Maggie's first day was August 10th. Yes, the 10th, a Friday. And school was only a half day at that. A little silly, but whatever. I continued the tradition of taking her picture the first day.Note to self: do not let her pick her own outfit for the first day of school. I liked having a picture of her in the same outfit on the first and last day, to see how she's grown. She chose clothes from LAST year to wear, and they are already a little small! They are going to look pretty funny next May if she keeps growing like she has.

Here she is with James. Those two are crazy - it was hard to get a picture of the two of them both looking at the camera at the same time!

And at her REAL desk this year. She was really excited about that.

She's been in school for about 3 weeks now, and she still doesn't like 1st grade. "It's not as fun as I thought it was going to be. There's a lot of work and papers and it's boring!" The class is still doing review work: writing letters properly, easy counting an addition that they worked on last year, etc. Nearly every paper she brings home is done perfectly, any mistakes I see are from laziness not from not knowing the answers.

My hope is that once we move past all the review and her teacher gets into new materials Maggie is more interested and invested. Currently her favorite "classes" at school are snack time, recess and lunch. And sometimes the "specials" class - things they have once a week, because "those classes are at the end of the day and then we get to line up for the bus."

She has also made it very clear that she wants to ride the bus both in the morning and home in the afternoon. James cries nearly every morning when she heads out the door. It's very sweet. 

4th of July

Ok, well, actually the 3rd, Maggie came home with Poppy & Meme and Tyler turned 35. I am married to a middle-aged man, can you believe it?! Underneath that white frosting is a pink cake. Tyler's favorite cake is cherry chip. This is a hard flavor to find in Nashville, so after searching all over town, I ended up making a strawberry cake. He loved it.

Here is Maggie doing crafts with Poppy. That was pretty funny.

4th of July we went to the local park for the fireworks show. James pushed his stroller all over - with Poppy right on his heels. James was just starting to walk at this point, and it was so super cute to see him up and around. Let it be known it was so stinkin' hot that weekend - 100-107 the WHOLE week.

Here is my super cute boy before the humidity worked up his adorable curls.

Poppy treated us all to glow sticks before the fireworks started. They were so much fun - James and Maggie loved them, but I thought they were pretty neat, too.  

Fireworks! Our little town puts on a great fireworks show, it would be nice if they coordinated it to music better than they do - just running patriotic music end to end until the fireworks stop.

So while my dad was here I put him to work. I had him build an arbor for a wedding I did. He did a fantastic job in scorching heat!

Meme took me and the kids to the zoo. It was hot, but a lot of fun. Maggie really enjoyed reading the map this visit.

Here's Sylvia (Meme) and Maggie in front of the flamingos, Meme's favorite birds.

And here I am with James, I had Maggie take this picture to commemorate James' FIRST word (that I heard, anyway). "GOAT." Not Mama, not Dada, goat. And then he quickly said "duck" when we went to see the ducks.

We had a great visit with them!