Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving is always a fun time. This year we ended up staying all day and night at mom and dad's. We are not having our Thanksgiving with the Jones' until Sunday. But while we were at mom and dad's I was able to get some real cute pictures of thee kids.

Knotts Berry Farm

So since Veterans' Day is in the month of November, Knotts Berry Farms has a special where any military, active or veteran can get them and their families in for free. So every year we take advantage of that and go. Well this is the first year that Chloe and Max went. It was really fun because Chloe was able to ride a couple of rides for her first time. The first one in the little racecar didn't go over real well because it jerked her around the curve pretty harsh. But the trucks were a huge hit and she cried when she had to get off. But she seemed to have a lot of fun.

There wasn't anything that I could do since I was pregnant, but it was so much fun getting to experience all of this with my children. Since we plan on having a rather large family, it is nice to know that this will be something that will be able to do every year as long as Knotts allows.

So the past couple of days we have started putting up Christmas lights. We have a lot of lights that we bought at the end of Christmas last year, so Brant is determined to use most of them. Well during our little mission, I realized that we were both in shorts and t-shirts with flip-flops on. Then as we were putting them up the ice cream truck drove by so we bought ice cream for us and the kids. As we were sitting there eating our ice cream admiring our lights, I realized, only in Southern California can you put up Christmas lights in shorts and then stop for an ice cream break. I thought that this was pretty hysterical. So I thought that I would share all of that with y'all. And the other picture is of Chloe. She wanted her passy to have a sticker so she put a sticker on her passy and walked around the house for hours with it like that. That was pretty funny too.

It's a boy!!

This past Thursday I had my 20 week appointment. I am halfway there!! Yeah! They did the really detailed ultrasound and everything looks great. The baby is moving and growing fast. Fortunately he is being good to me. I feel great. This has been a smooth pregnancy so far.

We will be having a little boy around the beginning of April. But we have yet to choose a name. We had a girl name all picked out but couldn't agree on a boy name. So we had decided to wait and see what we are having before pouring over baby name books. But now the journey begins.

I do not enjoy going through those books because for some reason the authors must find it really funny to title it 35,000+ names but in all reality about 34,000 of those "names" are not really names. They are just words that they make up and then laugh because you sit there reading through each one individually. But for those of us who do not want our child to end up with a famous name like "Jessica" or "Joshua", We sit there hour after hour reading it hoping to find a real name in all the craziness. Naming your child is difficult, at least in my opinion. It is something that child has to live with for the rest of their life. It has to have an important meaning because you are constantly speaking that over your child. Yet, at the same time like I mentioned earlier you want it to stand out so that they do not share the same name with a million other people. Which then makes me understand the real reason why God made pregnancy 40 weeks long. All of that to say, the journey begins for naming our sweet little boy.

It's kind of a lot of pressure when you name your first son Maximus Ezekiel meaning "The greatest strength of God". I didn't think about that at the time. I didn't know it would make it hard to name my next son. How can I out do "the greatest strength of God"? So as you can see this is my dilemma.

So if you have any names to offer, just let us know. It could possibly save us some time. And then you can take pleasure in the fact that you helped us name our child.

Alabama/Georgia Trip 2008

My new favorite thing

Having two children is so much fun. Watching them learn and grow every day is a blast! It is amazing how fast they pick up on things and learn how to do it themselves. I have two new favorite things that they do and both are so precious. Maximus has learned to clap his hands. And he claps them all the time. Whenever he is in a good mood and playing with his toys he will just start clapping his hands with the biggest smile on his face. I love it! It is almost like he is so proud of himself so he claps for himself!! :) I know that it may not seem like a big deal, but you just have to see him do it and it completely endears him to you. And my second favorite thing is Chloe singing "Jesus Loves Me". Every night before she goes to bed we have a specific routine. First, Pooh & Tigger must be on the tv. Second, she rolls over pulls up her shirt and says "Back, mom, back." That means that she wants you to rub her back, so then I start rubbing and don't dare stop! Lastly she point to my mouth and says "Sing Jesus." That means to sing our little medley of "Jesus love me", "Jesus loves the little children" and "I am so glad that Jesus love me". And before I finish the last song she is sound asleep. Well "Jesus love me" is her favorite and she knows the song. She can not sing it word for word, but you definitely know what she is singing. She even hits the little high notes! We have caught her several times when she is by herself singing that song with everything in her little body.

It amazing that even childrenthat may not be able to carry on a very detailed conversation or focus on an activity for more than 10 minutes, they CAN still learn to worship. She may not know everything she is saying but she does know that Jesus does love her and she loves to sing about it. It really does enlighten us to understand the reason that we were created was to worship the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. That is our sole purpose for being here and even at the age of 1, she is learning her purpose.

New family pictures