Bella, Gabe and Josiah

For Thanksgiving this year, Gabe decided that he wanted to make the turkey. So on Tuesday we started the whole process. He took out all of the innards and we got the turkey in the brine and then we started waiting. On Wednesday, we found out that one of our friends that was supposed to be coming over for dinner has covid. So that changed all of our Thanksgiving plans. Thursday morning we got up early, only to discover that the sourdough started hadn’t activated, so that meant no rolls. Then we went to breakfast at Gram and Gramps house and Gram lost her crown in her sticky buns. After that, we all ran the Turkey Trot. Josy suddenly decided that he didn’t want to do it, so he stayed behind with Cathy while the rest of us ran. I was super proud of Gabe. He ran the entire thing without stopping (other than stopping to fix his pants that were falling down). It was amazing. After the race, we started working on the turkey. And it turned out amazing!! We did manage to fit in a game or two of

The many faces of a Josy who is two hours past his bedtime, but needed a snack before he went to bed. He’s a little punch drunk… I should note that I took all of these in a two minute time span. He really needs to go to bed… Now he just told me to take a picture of his head…

I was messaging a friend that I haven’t talked to in awhile and this conversation was the last thing I’d sent her. I have no idea if I ever posted it here, but I definitely don’t want to lose it, so I’m posting it again. This was from about a year ago, so Gabe was 5.  G: Mom, what about the guy who had a dream and three days later he died? M: What? G: He got thrown in a well and sold and he had a really colorful coat. M: You mean Joseph? G: Yeah. And then he was in jail and a guy had a dream and three days later he was set free and another guy had a dream and three days later he died and then the king also had a dream. M: Yes G: So what was the lie? M: The lie that his brothers told their dad? G: No, the lie that he went to jail for. M: Oh. Well, there was a lady who said he did something that he didn’t do. G: But what did she say he did?? M: That’s grown up stuff. Suffice it to say that she said he did something that he didn’t really do.

This kid. Now that he can talk, he is hilarious. I’d forgotten how much fun three is as far as their view on the world. He still definitely needs to be translated. He does not say all of his letters right and that’s hard. It took me a long time the other day to figure out that when he was talking about his friend Bark, he actually meant Clark… But he’s using more words and more logic and I figure that the exact pronunciation of all of his letters will come in time. ——- We woke up to snow. J: Mommy. Der snow in my world. ——— J: I wuv Jesus. He is with me. And he is with this umbrella. J: Jesus wuv me. He here to help me. He hear to save me. And he have bones. And a bain. And a mouf. M: How many hearts does Jesus have? J: Two! No, Jesus have one heart like my one heart. ——— The other night I picked him up and as I’m buckling him in, I ask him how his day was. “No! On da phone! I will text you!” ——— J: I need a phone! M: Um, you don’t really need one. J: But I need to text Bam! M: We coul

7 years. How has it possible been 7 years since the whole world crashed around us?? I was 19 weeks pregnant, the baby was falling out of my body, the situation was too dire for a medivac and we were told to go home and wait for him to die. Sometimes it’s hard to process all of the things that happened that week.  But God. God had other plans for my son. And because of that, we now have the most amazing 6 year old. I love that that terrible day 7 years ago, the day that started us on our journey to being preemie parents, began on World Preemie Day. 

I’m glad that Halloween is over. There are too many scary things and my boys get too nervous about them. While we were trick or treating, I was holding Josy’s hand and we’d be walking down the mall and I’d suddenly feel him pulling on me. I’d look over and realize that he hadn’t said a word, he was just making a wide circle around something that he thought was scary. The morning after Halloween, Josy woke up crying. I went into his room and he said he had to go to the bathroom. I took him in the bathroom, but he still kept crying. I asked him what was wrong and he started talking about ghosts. I asked him if he’d had a bad dream and he sobbed harder. So I took him back in his room and we snuggled for a long time. He relaxed, so I figured he’d fallen asleep and went to lay him back down. He stiffened and told me that the monsters were coming. So I took him back to our bed. We snuggled up, forehead to forehead on my pillow. I felt him relax again and his breathing changed, so I figured t

The boys got to have all sorts of Halloween fun. First of all, we went to the family fun night at school. Gabe got to play game (Josy refused) and then we got ice cream bars. Gabe got to try his first warhead… He decided that it was not his favorite… On Saturday we went to a soccer game and then the Trunk or Treat at church. We went grocery shopping after that and there boys were very popular in their costumes… Gabe got to wear his costume to school. Josy was going to, but his teacher got covid and his room was closed that day. It was a lame day to miss, but whatever. Then it turned out that she didn’t have covid, just a regular sickness… Josy wasn’t nearly as excited for pictures as he was the first time he got to be an astronaut… We went out to the mall… Then we had dinner with some friends.  Then we got home just as everyone else was done trick or treating. We hit the three neighborhood houses and then went home for bed. And we didn’t even have to open the giant back of candy I boug