My 33rd Birthday

was on Friday the 13th- almost a week ago and it was WONDERFUL.  Nate brought me coffee in bed and made me breakfast.  The kids wished me happy birthday.  My friends at my Mom group wished me happy birthday and we had a great time.  I talked to a great friend from college who I don't talk to often enough.  I picked up Nate and Olivia and got to see her Olivia's Valentines from school.  We drove to my parents house and LEFT THE KIDS!  Nate and I went to Starbucks for their date afternoon.  Then we went to Olive Garden for dinner and used a gift card we have had since I was pregnant with Isaac!  Then we leisurely made our way to our NorthEast Winter Conference with the Navigators at the Southbridge Hotel and Conference Center.  Check out the website for the conference here:  http://www.northeastnavigators.com/winter-conference.html

A friend met us with a few special birthday/valentines days present and Nate and I got to chill before the conference began.  We connected with old friends and got to praise God along with 300 other students!  It has been 5 years since I have had the chance to be in a sitting like that, worshiping God without a child in or on me and it was WONDERFUL.

Along the way many friends sent text messages, voicemails, cards and Facebook messages- I felt extremely loved and cared for.  Thank you to all of you!

As I reflect on this year thus far I feel like I am in such a wonderful space.  In my marriage, as a parent, in ministry, in friendships!  I am excited for what this year will hold and hope I can hold onto this hope the whole year.

A special message from a long ago friend stood out:

Nicole and I spent many hours together serving ice cream and fried dough at Hampton Beach Summer project back 2001.  A summer that changed my life in so many ways!

Starbucks Date

We made it- without the kids!  I haven't felt so carefree in years- THANK YOU MOM AND DAD!!!

6/52

The week in reverse- this is from this morning- the boys and I went to our friends house and Sam enjoyed the ball pit.

 This morning before school- of course I cant get all three of them looking at the same time.

 These lasted for two seconds- then he uses his mouth to put them off.

 Zooming his airplane around!

 I get a one eye look- waiting for the rest of us to get ready...

 He really is starting to crawl!  Carrying his purse and all!

 Brothers enjoying lunch.

 Our friends at the AFC enjoying the lunch I brought in this week.

 Sam was reallly quiet in the kitchen- I found him like this- asleep!

 While I got our friends baby to sleep...  and then I sneezed :(

 Ballpit fun on Tuesday.

 Nate shoveling off our cars.

 At a friends little blue truck birthday party last Saturday.

5/52

Sam fell asleep after snack...  Off to bed he went.On saturday Olivia and I attended a jam berry party where she got play with some fun friends.

isaac celebrating tr Pats win!

snow Day!  While sam slept the big kids climbed mountains of snow with our neighbor friends.

A happy Olivia!

Before sam got shots...

A bagel date with the boys before storytime at the library

4/52

Last Friday Nana and Papa came to visit and as you can see- Papa is a very popular guy with all the kids.

Sam decided to scoot on his box...

So all three kids wanted to follow suit and found something to scoot on.  But we may not see pics like this for long- yesterday Sam crawled the whole length of our hallway- twice!!!  And again this morning... So I think he will be crawling and walking before too long!

Saturday Morning Nate went to a wonderful memorial service for Dana Roberts so the kids and I headed out to play in the snow with our fantastic neighbors.  They had built a hill to "sled" down on a boogie board.

Sam went on his belly and kept wanting to go again!

My attempt to eat healthier...

Sunday Morning around 7:30 the kids wanted to go outside and play in the snow before church- instead of making our neighbors hate us, we built a "hill" in our living room- these cushions have been moved ALOT since then!

JUNO arrived...  but was kind of a dud out here.  We maybe got a foot.  But  we did get outside and made maple candy!

Our intern sent me this pic captioned "College"  I married a good one!  And earlier this week a student thought I was a student- so we are feeling younger than our sleep deprived selves feel!

3/52

Truck Painting at the Amherst Family Center- we visit at least once a week, often more

Also a popular toy at the AFC

ChickFila for MLK day- also the day we used our last two free coupons:(

After ChickFilA we visited Nate and the returning UMASS Nav students who were meeting to dream about the semester.  Sam slept in the car, but these two were being very sweet with one another :)

I finally let him just sit in the snow and he loved it!  Until I let him play in a puddle an he was freezing... oops!

A water pipe for our complex broke on Monday so we didn't have any water all day :(  the kids are heading over to watch the water gushing out of the fire hydrant which I assume was part of the process of restoring our water.

Shakers

We are going to try to have dinner on campus once a week with students.  Sam kept grabbing Nate's arm and saying "hi" and gave the biggest grin when Nate turned to look at him.

Isaac's favorite activity at the moment is to eat snow/ice- no matte how old or dirty it may be.  This was leaving the library today after a fun coffee/bagel date and story time.

Sam- 16 Months

So at some point yesterday I realized it was the 13th which meant that Sam is 16 months old- WOW.  What blows my mind the most is to think how much of a baby he is and how pregnant I was with him when Isaac was this age... not sure I wrote that right, but hopefully you catch my drift!

On to Sam- at his last appointment a month ago he was at least 27 pounds.  He was 97, 98, and 96 percentiles for all height, weight, and head size- something like that.  They don't write the actual numbers down for me so I forget exactly- but suffice it to say- he is a proportionally big dude all around:)  He wears 24 month clothes- but he and Isaac could almost wear the same clothes and sometimes do if laundry is in disarray.  He is no longer nursing- yeah!  And he sleeps through the night!!!  He takes between one and two naps a day- but most days now, just one.  He loves to eat!  Shocking I know.  He screams in glee, sadness, to get attention, to get food...  we need to work on talking so we don't all go crazy!  He does not crawl.  He has amazing flexibility and if you have seem him you know he has this amazing scoot- he is fast.  And since Christmas he pulls himself up and cruises- he will be walking soon I am sure.  Although most days I think he looks so old, yesterday he was still my baby.

And some brother shots- what happened when I asked for them both to smile together...  Isaac received matching sweatshirts so I gave one to Sam- I am pretty sure the tag on both was 3t and they fit both boys...  who knows about kid sizes!  haha.