Thursday, October 7, 2010

Our Pun-kins!

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Before we get into the fun of Saturday’s Pumpkin Patch day, I need to share a few things that I had forgotten from the last post:

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1. No, that is not Hatch in the background of the picture of the tiny pumpkin on my belly from our last post. That is our good friend Kyle (known to William as “Mister Kyle” . . . much to our dismay, William will not address anyone else as Mrs. or Mr. except for Kyle!) who was crouched down because his son, Grayson, was running back and forth between him and G’s mama (who was taking the picture)!

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2. Grayson picked out the tiny pun-kin and gave it to us for Baby Anna, which was very sweet. Because there is only one baby Anna, we only bought one tiny pumpkin. We neglected to remember that Baby Anna has two big brothers who do not like to share “Anna’s Punkin,” so we had to move her pumpkin indoors and up on the mantle for all to see and for none to touch!

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3. We have just started reading with the boys about becoming Big Brothers. They are very excited! :) They know where Anna’s room is in our house, they know that anything pink belongs to Anna, and when they see my bare belly they scream “Anna movin!” . . . and, every so often they ask to give Anna a pat-pat or a kiss. They are very sweet! We also talk about how mommy and daddy are going to go to the hospital so that the doctors can help Anna be born and so we can hold baby Anna and see her tiny toes. They love to scream “Anna BORN!” when we drive by the hospital . . . we talk about how Mommy, William, Hudson, and Uncle Christopher were all born at this hospital, too! We are so eager to see how they respond to Anna . . . it is going to be very fun and quite interesting!

(Anna’s BIG Brothers)

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I’m so sorry for the delay in the pumpkin post, but William has had a high fever for a few days and has strep throat. Our nights have been sleepless (I told Hatch last night that a newborn, in theory, should sleep more than 60-90 minutes at a time, so it has to be better than what we’ve been dealing with this week!) as our little man wants to sleep with Mommy and Daddy . . . and Mommy is already sharing space with Daddy and Anna and can only share space with William for about 3 hours at a time. It has been wild. And, very tiring. Please pray for full healing for William, for protection for the rest of us, and for SLEEP! PLEASE, SLEEP!

Now, onto our sweet pumpkins . . .

We love Saturday adventures, and this one was no exception . . . we went to pick pumpkins with Daddy and several of our friends!

Our morning started off with a hayride, which was fun for all (yes, I was the most pregnant person on the hayride! ha ha!)

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H was most interested in the straw!

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But, he really loved seeing the tractors up close and in person . . .

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Searching for pumpkins in the fields was great fun, too . . . this was H’s first treasure . . .

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Daddy and his helper/director

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Eventually, the boys spotted this . . .

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I love these . . .

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checking out the scene . . .

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A pumpkin conference with Eve . . .

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Where’s William? IMG_3002

Picking and Choosing with Daddy . . . IMG_3010

Mommy loves the green ones!

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Daddy and his William (who we are trying to train to look through his glasses and not over, like a little old professor . . . we go back for a check up next week!)

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We went to the Ashland Berry Farm, where I grew up going with my family to pick pumpkins. (By the way, they have AMAZING homemade donuts there. Oh, a pregnant woman’s dream! Pumpkins and donuts all in one place!) They have a great deal: $20 for all you can carry, and I have vivid memories of my dad wearing overalls to the pumpkin patch so we could stuff pumpkins in the bib and pockets . . . every year, we came home with an absurd number of pumpkins! My very strong husband carried our pumpkins this year! I didn’t have a picture because it was my job to get the lady to watch him take his 3 steps, but he handled it without a problem, of course. (As a sidenote, the boys LOVE the weekends when Daddy will carry them both down the stairs in the morning and after naps . . . and they either say “Daddy STWOOOONG” or “HEAVY boys!” . . . hilarious!)

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Hudson and Mr. Kyle pushing our cargo . . . Mr. Kyle is very patient. :)IMG_3028

We were all very excited to add the job of "pickin’ pun-kins” to our list of favorite things to do . . . it is definitely up there with picking up sticks. HOW FUN! IMG_2879 IMG_2881 IMG_2883 IMG_2887

Happy Punkins, everyone!

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Sunday, October 3, 2010

36 weeks . . . and counting . . .

This past week, we hit the 36 week mark!  Hoorah!  For many, this week may come and go, but for me, 36 weeks is a big one . . . when I was pregnant with the boys, our goal was to make it to 36 weeks (at our hospital, if your baby/ies are born after 36 weeks, they don’t automatically go into the NICU!).  It is crazy to think that I am entering into a new, unknown territory since I’ve never been this pregnant before!

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This was us right before the 26 week mark last time . . .

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You may remember the Christmas tree frenzy of 2008 . . . I was obsessed with having a Christmas tree (with lights on it) before the babies came . . . and, I wrangled my two brothers into going to pick it out with us.   This year was the year of the pumpkin frenzy.  (We did get our pumpkins and the crazy squirrels are munching them and I am going to have to do something about it because it is making me insane!)

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So, as we hit 36 weeks and 2 days (the time during which the rascals were born), we began to reminisce . . .

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Oh, my snuggle bugs!

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Oh, so cute!

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Daddy with his boys!

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This week, we also realized . . .

  • our boys are now 22 months old!
  • Baby sister will be here in no more than 2 weeks from tomorrow!  (She will likely arrive one day after her dad’s 30th birthday!)
  • We will then have 3 children under the age of 2 . . .
  • And, we will have 3 little ones in diapers and 3 in cribs!

We are so thankful for our sweet boys and are thrilled about the blessing of little Anna!  While we may not be ready, we aren’t really sure we’d ever be ready . . . and, we are just so excited to meet our little sweet pea!

Friday, October 1, 2010

Oh, Jenny! (From July!)

Our sweet friend Jenny was kind enough to take some 18 month-ish pictures of our rascals this summer!  {And, yes, if you live in Richmond, you could probably beg her to take pictures of your adorable children, too!}  Jenny took these shots in July {hence the pink cheeks and wild curls on the boys}, but I have been hiding them from you because I wanted to use one or two as gifts for the grandparents without them having seen them before!  Now that the birthdays have passed, here is our 18 month debut . . . I love these pictures so much, I had a really hard time choosing which ones to show you.  Enjoy!!

The boys:  William, Hudson, and Gray {they are best friends, you know}Reppard Photos 426

OH, MY HEART!  {this one, I think, will be framed in baby sister’s room!}

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Pucker!  W was making this face non-stop that day! Reppard Photos 081  Reppard Photos 098 Reppard Photos 109 Reppard Photos 119

I LOVED the giggles in these! Reppard Photos 173 Reppard Photos 193

Mama’s belly and her babies . . .  Reppard Photos 209 Reppard Photos 212

Where it all began . . . 7 years ago! Reppard Photos 245

I think these next two perfectly capture these rascals’ personalities! Reppard Photos 264 Reppard Photos 303 Reppard Photos 329 Reppard Photos 368

Kisses for Anna!

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and mommy . . .

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I ADORE this one!

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Thank you, thank you, Jenny!  We love you!