Our Christmas trip, Part 1

We spent Christmas day at home in Florida....Tom's favorite part was Matthias with the bow on his head. :) Most of the day was spent eating, playing and packing for our trip!
We were able to break up our trip to VA by stopping at our friends from seminary in Raleigh on the way up. Kylie and Megan were best friends when we were in St. Louis and whenever they see each other they are able to pick up where they left off! It was really good to see the Busbice's.... thanks friends!
My brother and his family were visiting our parents from Kentucky, so the cousins were able to get together and play (which sadly only happens once or twice a year)...they had a really good time together. Tom and I spent the week up there going back and forth between my parents and Tom's mom's place....trying to get as much grandparent time in as possible for the kids. We also got away for a night to celebrate our 10th anniversary!
After NoVA we headed for Harrisonburg...we stopped in to get some of Kylie's teeth pulled and then spent a night in Lexington (with a side trip to Charlottesville)....after that we spent three nights in the 'burg with the Couric family. It's a little tricky for seven of us to find somewhere to crash, and it was such a blessing to all of us to be able to stay with the Couric's...the kids had a really good time with each other and we adults were able to enjoy some good conversation after the kids went to bed.
The highlight of our Harrisonburg time for the big kids was Kylie being able to spend a day with Allison and Josiah being able to spend an afternoon with Barrett. They miss some of those good friendships that we've left and it was fun for them to be able to just play with old friends.

As a side note...I know that I've mentioned my friend, Rachel, to some of you. Rachel is Allison's mother and has been at UVA in the hospital for three weeks now. They are hoping that she will be going home tomorrow, but there is a long road to recovery for her. Please continue to pray for Rachel...for her paralized vocal cord and healing there (she has a 'peg tube'? for food b/c she cannot swallow), she had a defribrillator put in...so she could use prayer for the pain that she's experiencing from both of those things. And lastly, please pray for patience as she continues to recover... for her and Anthony and the kids.

Josiah turns 7!!!

We had a quiet family day at home for Josiah's birthday...he woke up at the crack of dawn, excited to open his presents...he got a new gameboy game and a new webkinz which he was thrilled about and spent most of the day playing. :) I cannot believe my boy is 7!
We were hoping to get him a karate uniform for his birthday (he has to pass a test first)...he's been taking lessons for a couple months now at the YMCA and is really enjoying it. He's the youngest and the smallest kid in the class and is definitely holding his own. It's amazing to be able to remember when my big kids were babies. It's such a bittersweet thing for me. Josey cried for the first six months of his life. I remember in my head how hard it was, but when it comes down to it, I don't really remember how hard it was. I remember people saying to me "this, too, shall pass" and not really believing them, and now here he is....in first grade, still the "sensitive" boy that I prayed for with a sweet heart that loves his siblings. I am excited to watch my son grow up and I am excited for this next year of his life....my prayer is that he continues to grow in his knowledge of Christ - not just with his head, but with his heart most of all.

Twin update...

Before his haircut....
and after!

Leighton was trying to grab the scissors out of my hand while I was trimming Matthias' bangs... sadly her first haircut won't be for a long while. :) Here she is showing off her tooth...although it's too far away to see. She has cut her first tooth and I think her second one is poking through today. I had a hard time deciding whether I was going to cut Matthias' hair...I knew that once it was done he would look so much more like a little boy. We have really been enjoying the twins and every stage that they are going through. I think part of it is knowing that with every stage that passes by we won't be doing it again (Lord willing). It's really helped us to be able to enjoy them in the midst of the chaos of keeping up with two infants.

Ordination and twins!

The ordination service last night was really nice...this day was one that we've been looking forward to for a long time!
The babies are growing up and we are continuing to have so much fun with them. I am on my way to drive my parents to the airport this morning....it's been a good visit.

A-ma and A-kong visit us!

My parents have been in town for a little over a week now....I was hoping to get a lot done around the house, but it's been crazier than I planned. We've gone out to eat a lot and I've gotten a few things done while leaving the kids at home. It's been a nice visit...they're leaving on Monday, which is sad, but we have plans of driving to Virginia after Christmas and I know that will come quickly. It's been in the 80's here most of the week (which is funny b/c we hear it's snowing in Virginia). Sadly, the babies had a cold at the beginning of the week that they've given to my parents...lots of coughing and sneezing going on around here.
Here is Kylie, my fashion queen, doing the cheetah outfit thing with her baby sister. :) She loves the matching thing with her sisters.

Our Thanksgiving week trip!

So, we made the trip to Georgia....we left at 5am last Saturday morning and didn't get there until 7:30ish. What was supposed to be an 8 and 1/2 hour trip ended up taking about 14 hours not only b/c of stopping to eat and use the bathroom, but we ended up having to get new rear tires on the van. It was a way long trip and so good to get there! We visited Perimeter church on Sunday morning and spent time with the Ballard's afterwards (here's Kylie with Mary Alex and the twins). It was good to catch up with seminary friends that we hadn't seen since.

We arrived in Ellijay at the mountain cabin of friends of ours (the Lassiter's) on Sunday night and spent 2 1/2 wonderful days of sleeping, talking, playing, eating...with no real schedule and no where to be. Tom and I realized that this was our first ever trip as a family where we weren't traveling home for a holiday or to see grandparents.





Here we are with the Hathaway's (more friend's from seminary) with all eight of our kids. The kids got along great and we really enjoyed being able to spend time with these good friends of ours. The weather was awesome and we spent the majority of time outside playing ball, throwing frisbee, swinging on the tree swing....actually, a lot of the time was spent either getting ready for a meal or cleaning up after a meal... :) It was a great time....thanks, Shannon and Joel, for spending it with us!!! Oh, the excitement of the week was AJ getting hit in the head with the tree swing....she ended up getting two stitches (it wasn't too bad).
The last leg of our trip was in Crossville, TN where more seminary friend's of ours live. We had Thanksgiving dinner with the Quillen's....four adults and ten kids....we were greatly outnumbered, but we had a great time! It took almost 14 hours to get home (although on the way back we drove mostly at night, arriving home at 3am). We were exhausted by the time we got back...the house is a wreck and we're still recovering from the travels, but it was such a blessing to spend time with friends that we hadn't seen (as a family) since seminary. It was nice to catch up on what the Lord is doing in their lives as well as sharing what has been going on in our lives...and beyond that to just spend time with them. Taking care of so many kids in the midst of trying to visit was hard, but the time was still refreshing to my relational heart. Whew, I'm just glad the driving is over, although it makes me not look forward to the drive to Virginia next month.

Matthias crawling

It's been a while since I've posted, but for some reason I haven't been able to post pictures... and that is more than half the fun of posting! Anyways, here's a recent clip of Matthias on his second or third day of crawling. He really looks like a little elephant....one hand, than another....and then he pushes off with both knees. Sooo cute. It's a little crazy to have these two little babies all over the house. It also figures that the week that Matthias learns to crawl, Leighton is beginning to pull herself up on furniture. I think (since she was born a minute after her brother) that she is trying to prove herself by being a step ahead of him in anything she can. :) Other than babies underfoot all day, there's not too much going on. We have passed a cold through our whole family but Josiah. We're heading to the mountains of Georgia on Saturday for some fun vacation with seminary friends. Hopefully I'll have pictures of that up in a couple weeks.