A Little Boy's Dream

Check out the big surprise that Nathan found when he walked into his room on January 3rd. Corey spent the first part of the new year building a custom shelf that's sole purpose will be to send Corey's childhood O'Scale trains (along with a new Thomas the Train O'Scale Edition train and cars--courtesy of Christmas 2007) circling around Nathan's room with a simple flick of a light switch near his closet. This is just the beginning of it all, but I wanted to take a couple of pictures to show you all. He still plans on caulking, staining, and adding rope lights to really make it all pop. What more could a little boy ask for?

Smoothied

For dinner tonight I opted for cereal instead of a sandwich. While Corey and Nathan were eating and watching "Horton Hears a Who" I opened the fridge to get some milk to go with that cereal. In some crazy way I instead flung a cup half full of triple berry/vanilla smoothie (one that I made this morning for Nathan that he wanted to save for who knows when...) all over me! Seriously...it flung into my left eye, covered my entire left ear and all my hair on that side, it left huge spots all over my pink (berry pink-luckily!) sweater and jeans, it also covered the floor. It reminded me of that show from the early nineties on Nickelodean where kids would get "slimed". Corey grabbed the mop and told me I had to look at myself all the while Nathan in all of his "empathy" said moarnfully, "Ohhhh, I really wanted that smoothie!"

Inspiration

So, I was reading a sweet friend's blog today and realized something happened that was pretty special to me. Megan introduced me to the blog world a year and a half ago or so and I am so glad that she did. She is an amazing writer and I love checking out what she is up to or what she is thinking about through her blog.
Well, I was reading it tonight and her most recent blog is about how she is celebrating her blog's third "birthday" on January 2. I think it is fitting that I started my blog around the time of this little celebration since she was definitely an inspiration for this one! Thanks, Megan! (oh...and... Happy Birthday!)

Remember 2008 as a year of firsts

I wanted to reflect on 2008 for a moment. We had many firsts this past year that I don't want to forget to acknowledge some of them.

January: We moved out of our apartment in San Marcos and moved in with dear friends while our house was nearing completion. At the very end of the month we were able to move into our new home!

Nathan hanging out in his room in our apartment.

February: On February 7, our second child was born. Kate Elizabeth, 8 pounds 1.8 ounces, 20 1/2 inches of beauty at 7:11 p.m. What a whirl wind that was, but God was so good. He gave us two weeks to settle in our house and my labor with Kate was free of complications, plus my mom and Corey's mom came to help out. During this month we were given fabulous meals made by sweet, dear friends from my prayer coffee group and church.

The morning I checked into the hospital to deliver Kate.

Kate, the morning of February 8th.

March: Potty Training with Nathan nearing completion...Yeah!!!I had to include this photo. It was just too cute for me not to share!

April: First road trips with two kiddos. We drove to Waxahachie for a baby shower for Kate. We also took Kate to her first conference--a Youth Ministry Conference with Doug Fields as the speaker. (I misplaced pictures from this month, but we had a great time.)

May: First Mother's Day with two children.

June: Kate was dedicated at church (the first dedication in the new building, so it was extra special). We also noticed in June that she her right leg seemed larger and longer than her left leg. We began meeting with her pediatrician thinking that she had had a reaction of some sort to a vaccination. Turns out she had different thoughts about it and referred us to a genetist in Austin at Dell Children's. Our appointment was scheduled for August 18.

July: We celebrated Nathan's 3rd birthday by visiting the San Antonio Zoo with our family, having a party at home with friends and also celebrating at Mimi and Poppy's house in Waxahachie--party all month for the this kid!

Happy Birthday, Nathan!

Kate, Rylie (cousin) and Nathan.

I drove Nathan and Kate up to Oklahoma to visit Gigi and Papa, my two sisters and their sons. The kids did great and we had a lot of fun.

I tell you what...it is tricky to get a good picture with all of the different ages. I took what I could get!

August: Took Kate to her first appointment with a genetist where it was confirmed that she had hemihypertrophy on her lower right extremeties (right leg). We were told that she would have to have blood work done every 3 months and an ultrasound on her abdomen every 3 months until age 4 (to check for Wilms tumors that are associated with hemihypertrophy). Then blood checks and ultrasounds will slow down to every 6 months to a year until she turned 8 or so. We had already researched so much about hemihypertrophy--so it was not a shock. She may have to get a shoe insert or shoe lift when she begins learning how to walk. She may also have to have surgery to help correct the leg length when she is a little older. We were incredibly blessed to know a sweet friend who has this same thing and has journeyed through life amazingly well and has had a very active lifestyle. God is sooo good!
In August, we also took a family vacation with Mimi, Poppy, Allie (Corey's sister), Jim (brother-in-law) and Rylie (their daughter). We all stayed in a beach house on Crystal Beach (near Galveston). We had such a good time together playing in the sand and the ocean, sharing great meals (mostly prepared by our awesome chef of a brother-in-law, Jim) and watching the Olympics on into the evenings. Sadly that whole area was destroyed a month later by Hurricane Ike.

Kate and Nathan at Crystal Beach in August.

September: Our church opened up a "Mother's Day Out Program" that I am directing underneath our fabulous Children's Minister--Melinda Hall. It was definitely a great undertaking, but I am thankful to be a part of this ministry.

October: First Halloween with two children. Spiderman and a Tulip Fairy...need I say more? Also, Kate started crawling this month so life became a lot busier around our house.



November: First Thanksgiving as a family of four. We have so much to be thankful for this year.

A picture of Nathan (A.K.A. Elf) and Kate (A.K.A. Angel) before the Dallas Turkey Trot.

December: First MDO Christmas Program--big success. Nathan sang and did all of the motions. It was great! We were so proud of him. Kate's first Christmas. Nathan, at age 3, definitely got into the spirit of Christmas. We had so much fun this year.

Christmas with Santa at Centerpoint Station, San Marcos. If you have never been there--GO! Delish!

I am grateful for all of the firsts that we had in 2008 and look forward with anticipation to what 2009 holds.

Happy New Year! I am experimenting with blogging this year--getting out of my comfort zone a little bit--trying something new. I named my blog, "A Gracious Time" which seems fitting as this is truly a time in my life that I know is temporary, but one I want to enjoy to its completeness as a mom of young children staying at home. I know this time is fleeting and although there are times when I can fill overwhelmed with exhaustion from it all I can also stand back and feel incredibly thankful for the time that I get to spend with them. I am going to use this site to record moments in our life, thoughts and ideas. This will also be a good tool to help me stay updated with what is going on in your life as well, so please keep in touch. I would love to hear from you!