Family Portrait

Jessica — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 02:48:21 +0000

We received our free portrait yesterday from last week when we got our picture taken.

I was not overly thrilled with it as Ranen is looking up and Micah is recovering from a blink while saying “Cheesy Cheese”. I am glad we took our own when we got home.

I did a little editing of the picture. I think we will print and frame this one.

What do ya think?

ONE celebration done twice

Jessica — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:35:30 +0000

Our anniversary is now the kick off for our busiest time of year. After celebrating our anniversary, we quickly come to Kaiya’s birthday followed by Micah’s birthday and then Jason’s in December. We also have Thanksgiving and Christmas in the mix ending with Ranen’s birthday in February. So I will have lots of bloggy goodness to share.

We have already talked about our anniversary, now it is time for Ky-Ky’s first birthday. We started the day with getting her dressed in her party dress that Grandma made. Remember this one?

She was checking out all her gifts. After Daddy woke up, we quickly moved on to opening the gifts because Mommy couldn’t wait any longer.

I’m glad she liked the bear I made her. Hugs!!!

And more hugs

This is one of my favorite faces that she makes. She scrunches up her nose and bares some teeth.

The hat even got hugs

Here she is wearing the hat.

She also got a baby doll but I had a hard time prying it away from the boys in order to let Kaiya see it.

Finally!!! She liked to give the baby the magnetic pacifier that came with it.

So many hugs!

Did you notice the Patriots shirt? Daddy couldn’t help himself on that one.

There is that face again.

We were taking alot of pictures. I think I had the camera and Jason had the new camcorder that we got for our anniversary. So I guess the boys were feeling a little left out.

Now it was time for cake. These first two pictures I already posted with Kaiya’s timeline but here they are again.

Yummy!

Now you will have to bare with me because there were too many cute pictures to choose from, so enjoy.

Kaiya got a package from our Boston family. The boys were MORE than willing to help her out.

She got a really soft baby doll.

She also got lots of adorable clothes which you will see later.

Then on Sunday is when we celebrated with Grandma and Grumpa and had a little party.

Grandma made these adorable cakes with fondant that she made herself. She is so talented but I’m sure you already know that from this blog.

This smaller one is Kaiya’s smash cake.

Here she is opening her presents.

And modeling the outfit that Grandma made.

Hooray!

Kaiya impressed everyone with her skills by actually blowing the party favor multiple times.

The boys had a blast with the balloons.

There was dinner served but the kids didn’t eat much. Too much excitement.

Or maybe just saving room for cake.

Here are all the wonderful gifts that Kaiya received.

She thanks everyone for helping her celebrate her first birthday.

God is our Protector

Jessica — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:16:24 +0000

Today, all three kids were playing outside. I had just brought Kaiya inside because it was getting warm and she needed to eat. Jason was taking Micah with him to get an oil change and had just gotten him buckled into his seat. So that left Ranen in the front yarn when I heard something sliding across the pavement. I turned around to see Jason standing next to a big piece of plastic sititng at the top of our driveway in the road.

Jason then was talking to a guy from a car that had just driven by since it was his piece of plastic in the road (from under his car). After the car left, I asked Jason what happened. I guess the driver of the car was about 21-22 years old and he was going about 45-50 mph through the subdivision across the street and ran a stop sign, crossing a busy road into our small little road with a culdesac. I guess he was too busy looking at his phone to stop at the sign.

God was so good to have Kaiya inside, Micah in the car and He protected Ranen from the car, the plastic, a rock or any other possible terrifying options. The car could have been T-boned from a car on the busy road throwing a vehicle into our yard. Ranen was about 10 feet from the incident. It was a great opportunity to reinforce to Ranen why we don’t go into the road. As well as teach Ranen that God just protected him and that he needs to thank God for His protection. We are so blessed.

Family Picture Day

Jessica — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 01:01:47 +0000

Today was a busy day for us. We started with church, came home for a quick nap before our family pictures and then rushed over to my parents for Kaiya’s birthday party (which I will be doing a post in the next few days for).

For the past few years, when we donate to the local fire department, we get a free family photo.

2006

2007

2008

This year, I decided to knit something for the kids to wear. I did a vest for the boys and a dress for Kaiya.

And here is a shot that we took after our pictures. We should be getting the picture next week.

Mega Timeline

Jessica — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:33:01 +0000

(If this is the first timeline you are seeing, scroll down to Kaiya’s Timeline below)

Jason

(Can we say Micah?)

Jessica

BIRTH

Ranen

Micah

Kaiya

1 MONTH

Ranen

Micah

Kaiya

2 MONTHS

Ranen

Micah

Kaiya

3 MONTHS

Ranen

Micah

Kaiya

4 MONTHS

Ranen

Micah

Kaiya

5 MONTHS

Ranen

Micah

Kaiya

6 MONTHS

Ranen

Micah

Kaiya

7 MONTHS

Ranen

Micah

Kaiya

8 MONTHS

Ranen

Micah

Kaiya

9 MONTHS

Ranen

Micah

Kaiya

10 MONTHS

Ranen

Micah

Kaiya

11 MONTHS

Ranen

Micah

Kaiya

BIRTHDAY

Ranen

Micah

Kaiya

Kaiya’s Timeline

Jessica — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:00:15 +0000

Birth

1 week

2 weeks

3 weeks

4 weeks

5 weeks

6 weeks

7 weeks

8 weeks

9 weeks

(Need to pay closer attention to her outfits. That is twice now she has worn the same outfit on back to back weekly pictures…Oops!)

10 weeks

11 weeks

12 weeks

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

Happy Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday Ky-Ky

Jessica — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:39:13 +0000

One year ago today, you decided to enter this world in a unique way. As you got a little too comfortable in the womb and didn’t want to move, you gave us all a scare. But you arrived one day sooner than planned and we could not have been happier.

This past year has enriched our lives beyond belief. You have shown us a side of your brothers that we have only seen through you. You have decided to give Micah a run for his money and given us just as many laughs. We can see a deep, deep friendship developing between the two of you.

You have helped Ranen mature in many ways as your older brother and he is very protective of you. You bring a smile to his face that is so genuine that we can see how much he really loves you.

God has blessed you in so many ways with two tremendous brothers of which I always wished I had. You have made us forget what life was like without you. You have offset the testosterone and added more balance. You are so tender, sweet and affectionate. You have your Daddy wrapped around his finger although he likes to think it is the other way around. You have been unanimously given the nickname of Ky-Ky. I was resistant at first but it just grew and now we all love our Ky-Ky.

On this very special day, we would like to wish you the Happiest 1st Birthday!!!

We love you!!!

The Rest of the Trip

Jessica — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:04:08 +0000

Now that we are home, I am able to update about the rest of our trip before we celebrate Kaiya’s birthday tomorrow.

While at the cabin, we got lots of snuggle time in. This is usually rare for Ranen, so we took advantage of it. Good thing I have a big lap in order to fit all three of them at once.

Jason and I hardly ever get pictures of the two of us. So we set the timer and had a beautiful backdrop.

We even got a family picture.

The boys liked the little face on the tree.

At the entrance of Ashe Lake before we headed up the mountain to the cabin was a little waterfall. We hiked in a little bit to show the boys.

Another “almost” family picture.

This is what Kaiya was doing in the van.

After getting in the van, I tried to take a picture of the boys.

Good thing I got this one at the beginning of our trip.

Here is Kaiya just roaming around. We were truly able to relax because the cabin was so nicely baby-proofed.

More pictures of the sunrises. I was able to see all 3 of them while we were there.

We got a family picture as we all watched the sunrise on the second morning.

Micah admiring the view.

The boys got to drink “coffee” aka hot chocolate with Mommy and Daddy as we watched the sun come up.

On Saturday we went to the New River Zoo. More accurately, it is a guy that has an exotic animal license. It was not very clean and there were not a lot of animals but the boys won’t know the difference.

We DID get to feed the animals though.

These two followed us around quite a bit.

Kaiya was loving it.

After a little warming up, Micah was ready to feed the goats.

We went down a dead end that had a lot of leaves.

So we posed.

Kaiya was ready to get out of the stroller and play.

This was a funny picture as they baked under the lights.

Then it was back to the cabin again. I got some pictures of inside the cabin. It was a little difficult to find the right setting on the camera because the lighting was tricky.

The very last day, Micah decided to befriend the bear that had been sharing a room with him.

We had a wonderful time and we will be definitely going back.

Anniversary Getaway

Jessica — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 02:46:10 +0000

Last year, Jason and I decided that we wanted to have the honeymoon that we never had. We wanted to take a vacation to the mountains just the two of us. As we got ready to make plans, we had to think more seriously about leaving the children and that was something that was just to hard to imagine. So we told the children that they were going with us.

They have been looking forward to the trip for the past month. We added to the excitement by showing them pictures of the cabin and they got to see all the toys and train table that the cabin had which is what they looked forward to more.

The day before, I had the boys begin packing their bags.

And this was a before bed shot.

Yesterday morning, the boys woke up at 6am and when I went into their room at 6:30, Ranen shouted “It’s vacation day”. That was a perfect start to the day until Brockton was not let out soon enough and pooped all over the floor and Micah’s bag.

But once we were on our way, everything was fine. We arrived yesterday around 3pm.

After getting settled in, we were able to get a few pictures before it started getting dark.

The view is absolutely amazing. One side of the cabin is just windows overlooking this view, hence the name “Overlook Retreat”. It stated that it has some of the best views in the area and we totally agree.

I wanted to get some pictures of the sunrise while we were here but I didn’t think it would be after the first night, but thanks to Kaiya, we got to see the sunrise. We had such a precious time with God as we watched His handy work unfold and sang this song during this glorious time.

Then the boys woke up and we ate breakfast. They got to pick what they wanted so they chose shredded wheat, pop tarts with chocolate milk. Since we are on vacation, we have very little rules. (The lighting is a little difficult in the cabin to get some pictures.)

Kaiya ate some bananas.

They also watched some TV this morning which is a rarity at home.

Then some more TV.

Then they went outside for awhile.

Here are some pictures from today in full sunlight..

I just LOVE this picture.

Kaiya doing some exploring.

I managed to get them all to sit still for a picture.

Jason was beyond thrilled with the grill that he found after not grilling for 3+ years after ours died. But his excitement was quickly dashed as there was no propane. But we fixed that.

Kaiya playing games with Daddy as he cooks.

Then we finished the day with a nice full bath in the big soaking tub.

Today was a very relaxing day as Jason and I celebrated our 10th anniversary. What a perfect getaway as we celebrate our marriage and the precious little gifts that God has blessed us with. I think we have overcome many things including the odds of an internet relationship surviving and God has blessed us in so many ways. (I love you Jason, you are an incredible man, husband and father. You have grown in so many ways and I look forward to seeing what God continues to do in your/our lives).

Happy Anniversary Honey!!!

Many Faces

Jessica — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:25 +0000

Kaiya likes to keep the boys entertained while eating.

She takes her job very seriously.

But there is always time for an emotional moment.

But then the world is right again. And you can even practice cheer leading with two grocery bags.

Or go for another round of laughs and giggles.

Not to be outdone, the boys have a face for you too. Micah wanted to try the spiked look. Jason and I actually prefer the Mohawk over the spike.

And Alfalfa here is filling in for the usual Micah hairdo since Micah has a new do.