Some Christmas Photos

Maddy and Sam in front of our Christmas tree.

Sammy helping daddy cut down the Christmas tree

Maddy showing her gingerbread man she decorated.

Sam showing the gingerbread man he decorated. It didn't last very long as a whole man.

Helping daddy decorate the gingerbread house.

Maddy in her Christmas dress.

Showing off her dress.

Maddy was an angel for her pre-school's Christmas program.

Maddy with Aunt Cher, cousins Kyleigh, Hannah and Noah and brother Sammy on the floor.

Maddy with Grammy and Grandma.

Our family.

Me and baby boy.

A child's prayer

The other day we were sitting down to dinner and Anton was helping Sammy say the prayer. This is how it went:

Anton: Okay Sammy, say, "Dear Heavenly Father"
Sam: "Ma Ma"
Anton: "Thank you for this day"
Sam: "Ky-Ky" (My niece Kyleigh who the kids, especially Maddy, absolutly LOVE)
Anton: "Please bless the food"
Sam: "Vroom-vroom" (My brother Marc whom Sam calls vroom-vroom. My brother takes Sam on motorcycle rides, hence the name vroom-vroom and Sam LOVES it.)
Anton: "In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."
Sam: "Amen"

We now can see what Sam is truely thankful for.

Sam is at such a fun age, he is starting to talk more and show a more stubborn side, although is still a very easy going child. Some of his favorites are:
-Spider Man, cartoons, shoes, shirts anything with Spider Man on it.
-Monsters, he has a couple of shirts with monster-like characters on them and he prefers to wear them over anything else.
-He loves recognizing his letters, we had no idea he knew a most of his lettters, until one day he started pointing them out.
-Some of his favorite books are, Dr. Suess's ABC book, I am a Bunny and Goodnight Moon.
-He loves his sister and is so excited to see her when we pick her up from pre-school.
-Sometimes when Maddy isn't with us Sam will say, "Mehmeh." (Maddy) in a really sad voice. He misses her when she is not around.
-He gives the BEST hugs.
-He loves our next door neighbors who are an elderly Iranian man and his wife. He gets excited to see the husband and he will run up to him and give him a hug. Our neighbor and his wife know hardly any english, but it is cute to hear the older man say, "Sammy!"
-Sam has such a love for life and people.

Brought to you by the Letter M

Every week Maddy's pre-school studies a letter of the alphabet. Each monday they are supposed to bring something from home that starts with the letter of the week. The other day while driving Maddy to school she said, "When we do the letter M, I will just bring myself to school!"

Announcing.....

We are having a little BOY!!! Our ultrasound tech pointed out the "apple with a stem" to us, but it was VERY obvious to us what this little baby is. No modesty there. I really thought I was going to have a girl, mainly because everyone I talked to thought for sure it would be a girl. I was slightly disappointed at first, I knew Maddy wanted a little sister, but that quickly went away when I remembered what Maddy was like from 18 months to about 3 1/2 years old (although she still has her moments they are less frequent). I think Maddy and I will bring enough womanly drama into this household.
Anton was very excited to have another little boy, that is what he was hoping for. Since I don't really plan on having any more babies, I was going to use the name Lydia if it had been a girl. I have loved the name since I was about 8 years old. My first doll was named Lydia. I would have used it with Maddy, but it just didn't seem to fit her. So that name is now up for grabs :) Now I just have to think of a boys name. I have a few in mind...

A quick conversation with a 4 year old

Madilyn was looking at a picture of Christ we have in our living room:

Maddy: "Is Jesus alive?"
Me: "Yes."
Maddy: "Who went up to Heaven?"
Me: "Jesus did."
Maddy: "No, who went up to Heaven to take that picture?"

I explained to her that it was just a painting of Jesus, but it was pretty cute. I love how everything can be so literal at this age.

Halloween!

Our "spooky" family

Sleeping Beauty

Superman

Mugatu (from Zoolander)

Sleeping Beauty sleeping

Getting ready 

Showing off her princessness

Carving pumpkins

Halloween was fun this year. I made everyone's costume, which did not end up being cheaper but it was fun to do. Sammy was Superman, Maddy was Sleeping Beauty, Anton was Mugatu and I was a nerd. Maddy was so excited for Halloween we had to make a Halloween countdown chain. We went trick or treating at some local stores and the kids had a lot of fun. Sam was happy with the first piece of candy he got and could have been done at that, but Maddy wanted to get lot's of candy.

Oh Baby!

Yes, I am with child again. This is the third, and perhaps final installment to our family :) I am about 15 weeks along and am feeling pretty good now. This last weekend Anton and I ran our second half-marathon. We were quite unprepared, but we finished. It almost felt like that parable of the ten virgins, the five who had enough oil and were prepared and the five who were unprepared and did not have enough oil. I felt like one of the unprepared virgins (although unlike the parable I am obviously not a virgin, being with child and all), I couldn't borrow "oil" from anyone else. In the end we had fun, the course was beautiful and I am glad we did it.
Maddy is excited for the baby to come, Sam is clueless. Maddy is convinced it is a girl and wants the baby to sleep in her room. One time, during Sam's nap, I told Maddy that mommy needed a nap because the baby was making her tired. A little confused she asked, "Is the baby biting you?"  It was pretty cute and I guess if there was a baby biting me it would make me tired :)