thoughts and thankfuls

this sweet girl was born a year to the week after i met

this sweet girl.

over the past year my heart has done a lot of hurting for the latter.  i missed her, i worried about her, and i prayed constantly for her.  i was both delighted and jealous when other teams would visit Canaan's and someone would tag me in a picture of her or i would stumble across a picture on facebook of someone else holding her.  this should have thrilled me, right?  and it did.  but it also made me jealous - because she was MINE.  I loved her.  and i didn't always want to share her but there was nothing i could do about it - just like there was nothing i could do about getting her here to me or taking care of her in uganda.  even if we packed up and moved there i wouldn't be able to raise her as my own and that's just the way it is.  

it took a long time to be ok with this.  there were lots of tears cried and frustrations voiced to God.

and He gently reminded me that she isn't mine.

she is His.

and i was grateful.

as i thought back over the year during the late night and early morning feedings of Evie the first couple of weeks, i felt many of those same feelings all over again.

and for a moment i wished Sarah was mine like Evie and Silas are mine.

and then the reminder came that they aren't.

Evie and Silas are HIS too.

and i am grateful.

because if they were truly mine - oh what a disaster that would be.

but i don't have to worry about them - any of them - because they are in the best hands.

hands from which no power of hell or scheme of man can pluck them.

and the list of gratefuls continues.

**************************************************

I've not blogged our list of gratefuls yet so there's a good many to share today while I get caught up. We started our list in January.

1. a family choosing to be grateful

2. sharp kicks and elbows from an active baby girl in my tummy (32 weeks)

3. that Silas pooped (finally!) :)

4. the way Silas comforted me when I cried - "No cry Mommy - Silases kiss it all better."

5. the man the Lord saw fit to bless me with and 

6. that he'll come home from work to take care of me when I'm hurt or sick

7. for a bruised butt cheek because that means I fell on my butt and not my belly

8. the Target worker that went out of her way to be sweet to my screaming child not once, but twice

9. stickers at Target for a whiny boy and how they made it better

10. that the Lord puts up with my doubts and questions when I read the Old Testament and yell about how He just doesn't make sense sometimes

11. grocery carts full of food to feed my family

12. nap time and an hour or so to read the Word and be alone

13. a midwife that gives hugs and is a ray of sunshine in an otherwise annoying practice

14. Silas running around the doctor's office in his super hero cape and construction goggles

15. a friend that sticks up for me and gets upset on my behalf

16. heating pads

17. Silas' bedtime prayers "Mommy, say Thank you to Jesus for Micah, Connor, Baby Logan, Uncle Zach, and Aunt Sarah too."

18. again, a husband who takes care of me when I can't

19. GRACE

20. finding our "Hear No, See No, Speak No Evil" monkeys under the covers in our bed because a little boy has been playing :)

21. Ambien

22. the sheer joy on Silas' face when he gets to run on the beach

23. road trips with my little family

24. Dr. Pepper

25. learning to be flexible

26. that He is near to the brokenhearted

27. when Justin and I think/say the same thing at the same time

28. exploring new places

29. Silas' excitement when he got to see a real "hopter-dopter" (helicopter)

30. visiting with friends that we don't see often

31. Justin's on-going freedom from the addictions of his past - thank you Jesus!

32. a pastor that preaches the TRUTH in a straight-forward, no-nonsense, no fluff way

33. laughter

34. that He came not to call the righteous, but sinners

35. Peanut Butter Oatmeal cookies baked with my little helper

36. productive meetings - especially those that point to Jesus

37. a huge ham cooked today that will provide nearly a week of meals

38. 35 weeks of pregnancy and the loss of ability to breathe normal breaths - that means she's almost here!

39. time spent by myself running errands and crossing things off the to-do list

40. Grande No Whip Caramel Frappacinos

41. Starbucks gift cards

42. Silas' tender heart and sweet concern for me - "don't worry Mommy"

43. bedtime prayers

44. tall glasses of milk

45. yellow finches chirping in the backyard

46. 75 degree weather in February

47. long pregnancies that come to an end ;-)

48. beautiful, healthy, perfect baby girls and the reminder that He still works miracles

49. Justin

50. compassionate and funny nurses

51. that nothing is wrong with Justin's heart and that he feels better

52. songbirds

53. having my parents here to visit and help the 1st week home with Evie

54. how sweet and tender Silas is with Evie

55. friendship - Leslie serving us by being with us during labor & delivery

56. meals brought to us for a couple of weeks

57. the means and ability to build an awesome fort for Silas

58. quick and easy post-partum healing

59. NO post-partum blues or depression this time

60. watching Captain America or Thor run around the backyard

61. the sweet scent of freshly bathed newborns

62. an abundance of milk for Evie

63. the reminder the pray in proportion to His greatness and ability - don't limit your prayers

64. that He turned His back on His children ONE TIME - at the cross - so that He'd never do it again

65. friends that are family

66. learning to craft new things

67. the morning - because joy comes and His mercies are new

68. the stone rolled away and an empty tomb

Embrace the Camera 4/5/12

We're embracing the camera again this week!

We've been playing outside a ton since the weather has been so fabulous.  Silas like to "paint" himself with wet sidewalk chalk.  

Tried to get a couple of the three of us with my phone

He's fascinated by the feature on my phone that lets you see yourself while you take a picture.  Gotta admit, I am too. :)  Evie couldn't care less.

Get your EMBRACE on!

What to expect with an epidural

Ever wonder what it looks like to get an epidural?

If you're like me, then yes, you have.  I can't stand not being able to watch, so when my anesthesiologist asked if I wanted Leslie to take pictures of the process I was thrilled! He basically acted like he was teaching us how to do it and it was fascinating (even in the midst of all those contractions!).

Proceed with caution if needles freak you out.

Here's what happens:

First, you will lean over a massage chair with your face in one of those padded holes so you can breathe. It's like sitting backwards on a chair. Usually your spouse/partner/coach can sit in front of you for comfort.

the massage chair

Then the anesthesiologist will clean your back with a scratchy sponge soaked in an antiseptic solution like Iodine.  This will turn your back an orangy-brownish color like a really bad self-tanner and smell like a hospital.

After you are all scrubbed, they'll put a big plastic sheet over your back with a hole cut out at your epidural site (L3, L4 vertebrae). 

The next part is the worst, and by "worst" I mean not-really-bad-at-all.  

You will be given a shot of local anesthesia to numb the site where the epidural needle will be placed.  This burns/stings like a bee sting for a few seconds and then you don't feel anything.  If you are having a contraction when you receive the local, you will barely notice it at all. If not, it really does burn, but not for very long.

Next you will be asked to push your back out (really bad posture) and they will insert the epidural needle through which the catheter that will deliver the medicine will be inserted. You won't feel this AT ALL.

Inserting the epidural needle

Measuring how far to insert the needle

So cool!  There's just a needle chillin' in my back.

I don't have a picture of the catheter being inserted because it was hard to see that part, but after the needle is placed they will run a little catheter (just a little bigger than heavy-test fishing line) through the needle (like an IV).  Then they will give you a test dose of the medicine and ask you lots of questions about how you are feeling - do you feel hot or cold in your legs, etc. 

It takes about 3 minutes for the medicine to start working, but after that time you should start feeling immediate relief. If it is a good epidural it will take away all sharp and piercing pain, but you will still be able to feel a dull pressure during contractions and pushing but it won't hurt- you'll just feel it. 

The catheter has been inserted

Once it is determined that the test dose worked, they will tape the catheter all the way up your back and over your shoulder so they have access to it to give repeat doses if necessary.

All taped up so it can't come loose

At this point you are all finished!  They will have you lay on your back slightly tilted to your left side.

After you deliver, the nurse will remove the catheter and take all of the tape off of your back (at this point you will be really glad that you don't have a hairy back!).  

It will take a little while for you to get the feeling back in your legs enough for you to put weight on them (took me about 2 - 3 hours with my first one, and about an hour with the second).

You might be a little achy at the site of the epidural for a day or so, but that should be the only thing you notice.  If you get a crazy bad headache that won't go away or only goes away when you lay down, you need to tell your doctor immediately (even if it doesn't happen within 48 hours) because that may be a complication with the epidural.

There ya go!  I hope you found the whole process as interesting as I did. :-)

She's here!

Labor started on Wednesday evening, March 7, but stalled out multiple times between then and early Saturday, March 10.  It was a very long 3 days.

I woke up at 4:20am on Saturday with contractions and this time they didn't stop.  They were 3-5 minutes apart from the beginning.  After 3 or 4 contractions that were painful but felt familiar, the back labor started. It was NOT familiar and was quite unwelcome (except for the fact that it most likely meant that we were having a baby that day!).  By 5:45am we were up and packing for the hospital.  My MIL came to stay with Silas and we hopped in the van.  We left the house at 6:30am.

The ride there was miserable because I couldn't move to try to manage the pain and each contraction was more intense than the previous one. I bolted out of the car as soon as we parked because I knew I didn't have long before another one would start.  I had to stop and hug a "no parking" sign on the way in.  Justin was grabbing bags and trying to catch up until I stopped.  

By the time we got inside and to the Nurse's Station I was having another one so I couldn't really talk and just leaned over the counter.  One of the nurses asked what they could help us with and had I not been in the middle of a contraction it would have been very hard for me to NOT smack her.  What the hell do you think you can help us with??  Justin wasn't in labor and he had to work hard at not smacking her too.  After the most idiotic question ever, they asked us to fill out paperwork to which I replied some not-so-nice words.  They decided it might be best if we filled it out in a room.  Yes, that would probably be best for everyone.   ;-)

They put us in triage and checked me and I was 3-4cm.

We spent the next couple of hours doing this:

And trying to stay upbeat between contractions.

The plan was to have a natural birth. This came about mostly because of the craziness that happened a few months after my last epidural.  In the car on the way to the hospital I looked at Justin and told him he couldn't hate me or be disappointed if I decided I couldn't or didn't want to skip the epidural this time.  He told me I could do whatever I wanted and that it was going to be fine whatever my decision was.  I pretty much asked for the epidural when I walked in the door. ;-)  Surprisingly, I didn't feel guilty or disappointed that I wasn't sticking to the plan - which is what I had expected to feel.  Instead I just felt peace about the decision which was a lovely surprise.

Justin applying the really hot rice sock to my lower back and rubbing as hard as he could

Justin was amazing throughout the entire labor/delivery.  He was everything that I needed him to be.

I did not manage the pain well when I had to change positions or be hooked up to the monitors.

After we got moved to an actual Labor & Delivery room the nurse offered to give me something to help me relax and while I was a bit nervous about the baby getting the meds too, I decided to go ahead and get something to help with the pain while we waited on the epidural.  The anesthesiologist was in the O.R. and we didn't know how long it would be before he got there.  She gave me Staydol and Phenergan and I kid you not, about two seconds after I felt the first bit of coolness enter my IV I could feel it working.  I started getting really loopy and I said, "My hands feel funny" several times.  The next thing I know it is an hour or so later and time for them to check me again.  It knocked me OUT and it was wonderful.

"I'm not sure what to do with my hands..." - Ricky Bobby 

About to pass out :)

I woke up when my midwife , Stephanie, got there (she was not on call but had promised me that she'd come be with me and deliver) and I was sooooooo loopy but I was trying my hardest to be coherent for her. She checked me and I was at 6cm.  She broke my water and then we waited for the epidural.  

About 45 minutes after I woke up and the drugs started to wear off the anesthesiologist finally made it to give my epidural.  I was extremely happy to see him.  They had given me something else to help with the pain but it didn't really seem to help much and I was starting to lose it a little. I started getting really scared that I wasn't going to have time to get an epidural and I wanted to have a choice in the matter.  But Dr.Vincent made it.  

He was awesome and let Leslie watch and take pictures of the whole process (I'll post step by step epidural pictures in the next post) and I just really liked him a lot - and not just because he had the good drugs. :-)

**Speaking of Leslie - she was on call to come and be our photographer for the birth.  We had made it clear that we didn't really know how this whole experience would go and that there was a big possibility that she would need to just be a piece of furniture and take pictures and that we might kick her out at some point.  THAT didn't happen.  From the moment she arrived at 7:45am she served as photographer, hand holder, water fetcher, rice sock heater, prayer warrior, and cheerleader.  She was such a huge support for both me and Justin - neither of us know how we would have done it without her there.  For the last stretch of an hour or so before the epidural, I was sitting all the way up strapped to the monitors and I had Justin on one side and her on the other pushing in on my knees (which applied counter-pressure to my pelvis/hips) with all of their weight.  I can only imagine how exhausting that was for them since by this point the contractions were between 1 and 2 minutes apart.   Bet she didn't know being a photographer was going to be such hard work!! We're forever grateful.**

It took 30 minutes to get everything set up and to complete the epidural and when they checked me right after I was 8-9cm.  I didn't receive any Pitocin and I am still so thrilled about that.

That was at 12:35pm (when she checked me) and it was time to start getting ready to push.

Go time!

I pushed for all of 4 minutes.  

My epidural was great because it took away the sharpness of the pain, but I could still VERY MUCH feel the pressure and I enjoyed being able to feel what was going on this time but not being so much in pain that I  couldn't enjoy it. 

I had them bring in a mirror so I could see what was going on and that was really neat (and also affirmed my decision to have an epidural!!).

I started pushing at 1:08pm and she was here at 1:12pm.

Because there was a little meconium present when she broke my water, Justin cut the cord immediately and the NICU Respiratory unit came in and made sure she hadn't swallowed any.  I'm not sure what all they did because I couldn't see her and Justin said he couldn't watch.  Everything was fine with her though, so she didn't have to leave the room or anything.

With the Respiratory people

At some point they weighed her (almost the same as her brother - but they rounded up to 7.11).

I finally got to hold her about 15 minutes after she was born.  I snuggled her for a minute or two and then they had Justin take her so they could do something with me (though I don't remember what it was exactly).

first snuggles

meeting Daddy

Daddy and Stephanie

After we were all situated, they unwrapped her so we could be "skin to skin" and she had her first meal - that lasted for nearly 2 hours! Leslie went and got us all Subway so I got to eat too. :-)

Stephanie was fabulous throughout the entire pregnancy and I'm so glad that she was able to be there with us. She seriously kept me sane that last month or so.

full belly

When she finished eating we were moved to our Mother/Baby room and she had her first bath and got her Hep B and Vitamin K shots and erythromycin ointment on her eyes (we delayed all of this so that she would be able to eat in peace).

In her little hat that Aunt Sarah had made for her. :-)

Aunt Sarah

Aunt Leslie

Since she was born during Silas' naptime, we had to wait a couple of hours to see him.  His first words were, "Mommy has a bandaid! WOW!"  He was talking about my IV.  Then he crawled up on the bed with me and checked her out.

Meeting baby sister

Justin's parents and sister, Uncle Zach, and Micah also visited us on her birthday.

We spent one night at the hospital and were home by 4pm the next day. It was wonderful not having to spend two nights there.  My parents drove in from Louisiana and made it to the house about 45 minutes after we did.

We are all in love with her and praise God for our little miracle.

First photo as a family of 4

She's 18 days old now and is doing fabulous.  I'm doing and feeling great too.  This recovery has been MUCH different from last time (both physically and emotionally) and I am so very grateful.

Sunday Song

Jesus We are Grateful

Jason Gray

Jesus who rescues us from the wrath to come
You are the ark of God who saves us from the flood
You are right to judge my sinful heart
But Your glory is your mercy
For You condescend to make a friend
Of an enemy like me

Jesus who says come forth and calls the dead to rise
You are the Word of God whose breath sustains our lives
I was dead in all my guilt and shame
‘Til You spoke my resurrection
Now You hide my life inside your own
Where You whisper me Your love

Thank You, thank You
Jesus we are grateful
Thank You, thank You
Jesus we are Yours

Jesus who gathers us like children in His arms
You are the Lamb of God who shepherds us from harm
We will follow into family 
And be seated at Your table
Where matchless grace of an orphan makes
A child of God in full

Thank You, thank You
Jesus we are grateful
Thank You, thank You
Jesus we are Yours

M & M Christmas 2011

Every year we set aside a night to celebrate Christmas with our besties.  There's yummy food, great conversation, and presents.  It's always one of our favorite nights of the whole year and this year was no exception.

We love these people.

And how cute are these boys?  I love it!

Sarah blogged about our night together (with more pictures)  HERE.

Embrace the Camera 1/12

At the doctor for a momma/baby check up. You can't see it in the pic, but he swiped a Urine Collection cup (a clean one!!) and that's what is entertaining him. Also, he is wearing his super hero cape.:-)

Embrace with us! www.andersonfamilycrew.blogspot.com

This week. What a doozy!

It has been a helluva week at the Moon house.

As I type, Silas is upstairs in his room whining "Mommy mommy mommy mommy mommy" over and over again and refuses to go to sleep even though it is an hour and 20 minutes into his naptime.  If I go up there he will want me to lay with him which sounds like a simple, good idea until I get up there and lay down (exhausted in a way only a 32 week preggo can be) and he turns into a bull/root hog hybrid and uses every inch of my body as a springboard.  When he is not jumping off of me while I try to nap for just a few minutes (between begging him to PLEASEfortheloveofeverythingholy lay down and be still), he is either picking skin off of my horribly chapped lips (OUCH) or poking my boobs and laughing hysterically.  All of that to say that I'm betting there's no nap for him today which means the afternoon/evening could be very interesting.

Friday I had my bi-annual teeth cleaning at the dentist and because I get pregnancy induced gingivitis it was a most miserable experience leaving me with a headache that lasted the entire day and teeth/gums so sore that I could barely eat (and since I'm pregnant and all the good medicine is banned, I was stuck with taking the most useless medicine of all time - TYLENOL.)  Am I grateful for access to a dentist and that aside from this ginigivitis that will go away right after the baby comes I have never had any problems with my teeth? YES.  Does that mean Friday sucked any less? Nope.

Saturday was fine for the most part.  I had a meeting with my YoungLife peeps to plan out the semester and then I refurbished a rocking chair for the nursery - which turned out GREAT and as soon as I move it inside (read: tidy the nursery and make room for it) I'll definitely be sharing pictures.  I worked on the chair until waaaay too late and when I was done a finally sat down my uterus got cranky (she does that sometimes) and all of the other wonderful aches and pains of pregnancy hit at once.  I hoped going to bed would ease the pain but it did not and Justin and I both had one of the worst nights of sleep we have had in a while.  Also, a bug flew on my face at some point during the night and my reflexes made me bolt up in bed which left my ligaments in my abdomen quite pissed at me.  I never found the bug so even if I had been able to sleep I probably would have been up worrying about it crawling on me again.

Sunday morning finally came and I let Zach know that I wouldn't be making it to practice with the worship team.  Justin got up with Silas and let me try to sleep some more but I finally got sick of trying to sleep while everything on my body hurt and just got up.  We decided to stay home from church (which is always such a HUGE decision to make for us because we truly love our church family and time spent in worship with them) to try and just rest and recuperate.  We hoped to get to go to small group later that afternoon.  That didn't happen either.  Silas barely took any semblance of a nap and was in a MOOD when he came downstairs.  There were lots of fits being thrown and Justin and I were just over it.  At one point Silas was screaming at me about something and then turned and ran head first into the open laundry room door leaving him with a swelling knot on his forehead. He literally screamed for 20 minutes over it.  Oh and also?  He couldn't poop.  This NEVER happens to him (really - I can't remember a single day in his 2.5 years that the child hasn't pooped at least once) and when he was finally able to go he just cried and cried.  Heartbreaking.

STICK A FORK in us, right??

Hold your horses.

Monday rolls around and I am determined to get out of the house and go register for a few things at Babies R Us that we need/want for baby girl. Silas had a meltdown right before we were walking out the door that turned into a 20-30 minute screamfest.  I still have no idea what started it all. I finally collapsed in my chair and started bawling and because he has maybe seen me cry once or twice in his life this stunned him enough to make him breathe and calm down.  He didn't like me crying and I felt bad for freaking him out, but at this point I just needed to cry.  So we did.  And then we picked ourselves up (I cherished the moment when he grabbed my face and said, "Mommy no cry - Yiyas tiss it all better"), re-grouped, and headed to Babies R Us.  We ended up meeting Justin for lunch (hallelujah!) and then headed home.  While Silas was napping I decided to take a long soak in the tub because my back and hips have been aching pretty badly lately and a heating pad can only do one thing at a time.  I stepped into the tub, held on to the wall, turned the water on to let it get warm, swished the water around with one foot to rinse the tub out while it was warming up, and then promptly slipped and fell.  I twisted around to make sure that I didn't land on any part of my belly (and thankfully I didn't) but that meant that I landed on my left buttcheek on the edge of the tub and it was extremely painful.  I just sat there trying to figure out what on earth had just happened when I realized that another pain was hitting my back and butt.  Yeah - that would be the scalding hot water that was now coming out since I never reached to turn on any cold water.  Then my hugely pregnant self was trying to maneuver around a slippery tub so I could simultaneously turn on some cold water and get my butt out of the hot water.  It was awful but now I soooooooooooo wish that someone else had witnessed all of this mess so they could laugh with me.  I'm sure I looked ridiculous.  Mind you, all of this happened in about 15 seconds. When I finally got the water regulated I just slumped back against the tub wall only to be greeted by a contraction.  A contraction that I not only could feel, but could SEE happening.  It freaked me out because even though it wasn't actually hurting me, it was much more intense that my normal Braxton Hicks contractions, and it lasted for nearly three minutes.  I was afraid to move, but eventually I just rolled onto my side in the tub and it slowly eased.  Almost immediately the baby started kicking and making her presence known (like I could forget, right?!) so that was a relief.  I had my phone handy and was ready to call for help if there were any more contractions or it seemed like something was wrong, but it didn't.  I just relaxed for a bit and then let all of the water drain, pushed myself up to where I was sitting on the side of the tub, and basically crawled out of the tub for fear of falling again.  I was in pain, but it was from my bruised butt and the fact that my abdominal ligaments had just had a workout.  Once I was safely in my recliner, I called Justin to let him know what had happened and he said he was coming home even though I insisted that I was really fine.  But the Lord gave me a good one y'all and he didn't listen and came home anyway because he knew that even if I was fine I didn't need to be chasing a very rambunctious 2 year old around the house.  HE WAS SOOOOOO RIGHT.  I skipped YoungLife that night (BOO - missing church and YL in one week was super sad) and then didn't sleep well at all.

Tuesday morning Silas woke up about an hour earlier than usual and I woke up to my left shoulder aching.  It had been hurting all night and I couldn't figure out why, but I realized when I got up that I must have hurt it in the fall because I was using that arm to try and catch myself.  Yeah.  Fun stuff.  On top of me being really sore and moving very slowly all day, Silas hadn't pooped since Sunday evening and he was acting like he felt miserable and would just randomly grab his butt and start crying and run and jump in my lap for comfort. I borrowed some medicine for him from Leslie and prayed and prayed that he would poop soon (oh the things parents pray about!!).  While I was cooking dinner he decided to try and help so he pushed a dining room chair up to the sink.  He reached a little too far and fell off and onto the back of his head.  He scraped his arm and got another knot on that poor head of his.  This led to a long crying spell (bless his heart - now his tummy, booty, arm, AND head are hurting) and while I was rocking him and trying to get him to calm down, I smelled something funny.  Yep.  I had just turned on the burner with my empty skillet on it and when he fell all I could think about was making it better and I forgot to turn it off.  The skillet was smoking something fierce.  Thank the Lord it didn't have oil in it or anything else for that matter. Silas finally pooped (though it was heartbreaking) and once he was in bed Justin and I pretty much collapsed in a heap on the couch.

So that's the way things have gone around here since Friday.  Rarely do we have more than one "bad" day in a row, but this week has been full of them and more than one time I have had to stop in the middle of it all and literally say out loud, "This is not the end.  The world you live in is fallen and there will always be yucky moments/hours/days/even weeks. Get up. TRY AGAIN. HE is at work here and it is worth it." And then I cry out for help from the only ONE who can for the millionth time.  I wish I could say that everytime I cry for help that a calming peace rushes over me and rose petals fall from the sky.  Not the case.  Sometimes I do feel better instantly and see the present stressful situation in a new light.  Other times nothing really changes and I just keep trudging on and wait for it to pass.


{ To trudge: the slow, weary, depressing yet determined walk of a man who has nothing left in life except the impulse to simply soldier on.} - so saith William Chaucer in A Knight's Tale  ;-)


One my goals for our family this year is to have a Grateful Notebook where we each write things that we are thankful for EVERYDAY.  You may remember me doing this for a while here on the blog.  I was inspired by Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts.  Anyway - this is what we are doing and it was so helpful this week to consciously make an effort to find something to be grateful for even in the middle of the yucky.


Sarah sent me a link to a blog post written by another mom and it was talking about how sometimes it is just hard to Carpe Diem every moment of every day.  But she said there are moments every day that are good and cherish-worthy, moments that are on God's time (kairos), and it is these moments that we'll be documenting (along with everything else we are grateful for).  


Is anyone still reading this ridiculously long post?


Thanks for hanging in there if you are.  


I hope it didn't sound whiney and like I was just complaining.  I just wanted to write down what the week has really been like. Another goal is to blog the good, bad, and ugly this year because these are our memories and I need to do a better job of preserving them.


Will you hold me accountable??


I'm looking forward to the end of 2012 and reading back over our list of gratefuls and even this particular blog post and smiling at what the Lord has done through it all - the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Practice...

Aunt Sarah and Baby Logan came by this morning to visit for a bit while the big boys were at school.  Silas was in rare form showing off for her.  I think he was just thrilled to have someone at HIS house and to have her practically all to himself was just sooooo exciting! :-) He got to hold and love on Logan for a bit and did a great job being gentle.  It was good practice.  We can't wait to have Baby Sister here!

Precious boys!  I just want to squeeze them both!

Embrace the Camera 12/1

Friday was Deck the Halls day at the Moon house.  We bought our first real tree (boy those things really are full of sap!) and then spent the next 3-4 hours getting it straight in the stand and decorating it.  Silas was no help at all unless you consider laying under the tree and looking cute helpful. He finally decided right before bedtime that hanging ornaments was actually fun and then got to stay up late so he could help.

Enjoy some pics of the boy and Daddy. :)

"Helping" Daddy put up the tree

Mommy's taking our picture!!

HIDE!!

Ok, just smile for her. :) 

Don't forget to Embrace the Camera and get IN some pictures with your kids!

More Silas-isms :)

*Silas has a flashcard app on mine and Justin's phones that he has been playing with since March.  He now knows how to unlock my phone and go to the app (or any other app he wants for that matter) all by himself. The flashcards are divided into categories, and one of them is Mommy's Things and one of the cards is "lipstick." For months every time he got to the lipstick card he would say "Mommy stick."  Tonight for the first time he said "lipstick" instead. :(

*I think I have written about his before, but every night when Silas goes up to bed, he stops at the top of the stair railing (before it turns into a wall) and asks me to come "tiss" him.  It is my favorite part of the whole day.  Lately he has been asking for Mommy and Daddy to kiss through the railing too and then after we do he squeezes in between us for a "Silas Sandwich" where we kiss his cheeks and say MMMMMMMMMWWWWWAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH really loudly.  If we don't say it loud enough he makes us do it again. :)  Oh - and the other night his Aunt Holly came to visit and after he kissed Mommy and Mommy kissed Daddy, Silas wanted to kiss Holly and then he said, "OTay - Daddy tiss Wallee" (Justin's sister).  It was hilarious and Justin told him that Daddy only kisses Mommy. ;)

These pictures have nothing to do with any of the above cuteness, but they're pretty cute in and of themselves. They are also in no particular order.

Halloween with Daddy - learning to punch

We made salt dough hand a footprints the other day and he had a blast playing with the leftover dough. (We'll be making those again with regular white all purpose flour.  All I had on hand was Whole Grain flour and it had a little too much texture.)

 My back was acting up all of Halloween weekend so I missed out on some fun festivities, but I got to squeeze in some love from the boy before they headed out to join in the fun.

One day he found a ponytail holder and asked me to put it in his hair.  I fixed it like this and put his cape on him and told him he was Super Silas.  He spent the rest of the day throwing himself off of the couch. His hair has since been cut. 

Wearing Mommy's boots. :)

Oh my goodness.  I walked into the living room and found him sitting like this.  What you can't see in this particular picture is that his Daddy is sitting just like him and they are both eating popsicles.  Boys will be boys. And yes, he is wearing underwear over his diaper.