Salvation

Today (and everyday), I am so thankful for my salvation. I am in awe of the number of times God remains faithful and continues to love me, even though I continually fail Him.

Chad

Today, I am extremely thankful for Chad. 8 and 1/2 years ago we married and I guess I never knew how my life would change. Not only is he a wonderful father, he is the best husband I could ever ask for. Honestly, God has blessed me beyond words for giving me this gift. I love the fact that we have so much in common with each other and actually like doing the same things. It is interesting though how certain likes change based on who you marry. For example, I never watched golf before we got married, now I actually ENJOY watching it (well, I enjoy watching Phil Mickelson). I also now cheer for the Celtics (not as much as the Bulls), Giants (not as much as the Bears), and UNC mens basketball. I am so thankful I have a husband I thoroughly enjoy being with. He is a godly, loyal, trusting man and I love him so much!

Kian

Today I am thankful for Kian. He makes us laugh everyday with his larger than life personality. He is very different than his brother, but I love that about him! He is not intimidated by anyone and isn't afraid to go up to anyone. He is extremely tunnel visioned. He also is our snuggler. Kian often is more content to play by himself than Aiden and loves running around and having fun. He adores his big brother, but at the same time is mischevious and loves to push Aiden's buttons. I love cuddling and singing with this little boy. He loves his family, but is a bit more of a momma's boy than Aiden. Chad and I often laugh at how often he ends up falling on the floor, but he doesn't cry and he picks himself right up. He has a few favorite phrases that he loves to use: 1. "Dat's what I'm talkin' about." (so cute with his little lisp) 2. "Why, mom?" (He's probably said this hundreds if not thousands of times).

A few of his favorite things:
1. His blanket. Not just his blanket, Kian is obsessed with tags, such as the tag on his blanket. He will say, "where's my tag" when going to bed and will hold his blanket by the tag as he falls asleep. He also hold the tags on the inside of his pants and sides of his shirt. I don't know why, that's just Kian.
2. Trains, cars, and trucks...typical boy stuff
3. French fries, however, he doesn't like other potato items.
4. Pasta... I think he's part Italian.
5. Taking showers. I think he would prefer to take a shower with me over taking a bath. He loves to stomp in the water.
6. His family. This was already stated but Kian loves being with his family.
7. Kian asks to go to the mall. I love it! Of course, he really wants the playland which is in the center of the mall, but still, I'll take it!

I am so thankful for this little boy. I love both of my boys to death. Here are a few pictures of Kian since birth.

6 months old.
8 months old

1 year. His personality really started to come out when he turned 1.

18 months or so.

2 years old!

2 and a 1/2

a couple of days ago. Once again, time flies!

Aiden

Everyday this week I want to blog about someone I am thankful for. Today, it's Aiden. It's hard for me to believe that he is almost 5 years old! I am so thankful for this little boy. He has grown so much this year. He is polite, obedient, structured, and active. I could not ask for a better big brother. I'm not nearly as nervous to have another baby because I know he will be such a helper and will love this little girl with all his heart. He is close to reading and enjoys writing letter and numbers. He loves his family and is a bit of a daddy's boy.

A few of his favorite things:
1. He loves doing anything active. He loves punting the soccer ball, tackling with his brother and dad, riding his bike, and running. He actually golfs with Chad now too. Chad takes him to the golf course and he actually has had par putts on par 3's! It's kinda weird to think that my 4 year old is better than me at golf!
2. He loves playing games. His current favorite in Uno and Memory, but we got him the Game of Life for Christmas and I know he will love it. I think he would be obsessed with video games if we had an x-box or anything, so at this time, we don't have any of that.
3.He LOVES pasta. I think he would eat it for every meal if we let him.
4. He loves his teacher, Mrs. Rose and I think would run into the wall if she asked him to.
5. He loves singing.
6. He loves being with people.

He is such a joy to our family! Here are a few photos of him through the last 4 years:

This was a couple of days ago in our backyard.
Aiden was 3 1/2 here. I love his natural smile!

Just turned 3.

I think he is about a year and a half here. I loved those curls! He still has curly hair, but it's so thick now!

7-8 months old.

A week old

Time flies!

sickness

When any of you were pregnant did you struggle with being sick? It seems as though I catch everything right now! I was not like that when I was pregnant with the boys. I have had a lingering cough for 5 weeks now! That has been a source of frustration as of late. Other than that, the pregnancy has been pretty typical to my other ones. She doesn't seem to move around near as much as her brothers did. I had an ultrasound about a week and a half ago and she is already 1 1/2 pounds! I have been asked already if it's about time for me to deliver. Not so much fun when I am only starting my 25th week! YIKES! I am trying not to worry about that. I get pretty big with my babies. Most people just think that if there's a pregnany lady around, they can say whatever they want and it won't affect me. I do think I've heard it all. I'm just trying to focus on the fact that Lord willing, there will be a healthy baby girl at the end to make it all worth it! We are trying to think of names for the baby. Right now our frontrunner is Eden and we'd probably call her Edie (or Edy). The only issue is it sounds a lot like Aiden. With Chad being a teacher he has some sort of association with lots of names. I may like a name, but if he has a bad student with that name, it's out.
Basketball has starting and Chad is enjoying coaching again. He looks to have a pretty skilled team this year and is very excited about the season. Aiden and Kian are doing great. Last week was quite rough in terms of behavior. We are really trying to crack down on discipline and be super consistent. As my mom says, "Deal with it now, before they become teenagers." When one child is struggling, it's one thing. When both are consistently struggling, it's a whole different thing! I was praying for a lot of patience last week! I can't wait to see how a little girl will change the dynamics of our family. Aiden especially is sooooo excited for this baby to come! He will be a great big brother. Kian is warming up to the idea too. He kisses my belly to kiss the baby, but still seems pretty clueless as to what's going on. I'm super excited needless to say!

chicago trip

Once a year, my sister is able to come to Indiana for a few days (thanks Russ!). We try to go to Chicago for the weekend just the 3 of us. We had a great time! It's been forever it seems since we have gotten together and we generally laugh quite a bit when we are around each other. The picture above is Shannon and my mom (and I) in Panera right before going to Nordstrom's Rack. We spent Saturday going to the Schaumburg mall, Ikea, eating at Cheesecake factory, and watching a movie back in our hotel room. Sunday was spent in downtown, walking from store to store. I am so thankful for the time we were able to spend together and I am thankful for our husbands for allowing it to happen!

trick or treat!

What a great night trick or treating was for our family! In Auburn, all of the stores in the downtown open up an hour or so earlier than trick or treating hours and the kids go from store to store getting candy. It was PACKED! Chad's mom had the opportunity to be with us. It was great weather and boys boys were stoked to get candy! Aiden was a Star Wars character and Kian was Captain Hook. Kian most of the night kept all of us laughing by the looks and one liners to said. He is hysterical. Aiden never stopped going. We probably walked over 4 miles and Aiden was ahead of us most of the time. He loved going up to houses and saying "trick or treat". Aiden also loved looking and commenting on everyone else's costumes. Kian ran up to each house too, but in the meantime, was in the stroller or on dad's shoulder. It was such a fun night!

One of Kian's looks. He LOVED the mini sword we got him and he tried to stab everything with it.
One of the boys favorite things to do: sword fighting. I'm still waiting for that trip to the ER.

Aiden's outfit. Such a good boy!

Our little Captain Hook. His costume was a hit with many of our neighbors.

This is what we had to stop Kian from doing most of the night. Stabbing cars, hitting houses, etc.

Aiden getting candy from one of the stores in town.

So funny.

About 2 weeks before Halloween, we decided to try our hand at carving pumpkins with the kids. Chad had actually never carved a pumpkin before. It was a messy, but fun process! The boys enjoyed pulling out the nasty inside of the pumpkin. Kian enjoyed it I think a little more than Aiden (Aid generally doesn't like to get all dirty). I guess I never realized that carving a pumpkin is hard work!! I also didn't realize that the pumpkins wouldn't last more than a week. By the next week our beautiful pumpkins were rotten and moldy! Oh well, it was a learning experience.

The end result! Happy trick or treating! (our other pumpkin was a cat, but I forgot to take a picture of that one!)