Introducing the newest member....

Sebastian Travis Will!!!
born 4:20 pm
7 lbs 14 oz
20 3/4 inches

He's a healthy boy, thank you Jesus!

success

Thank you all for you encouragement and advice regarding Oliver and whether or not to continue with martial arts. We did decide to make him go the rest of the month to see if he would warm up to it and told him that either Travis or I would accompany him on the floor till he felt comfortable. It worked!! He did great the first night with me on the floor with him and then the next practice Travis took him and just sat and watched and he had no problem going by himself. He is excited again about going and learning and we are so proud of him.
It was a hard decision to make and it could have gone either way, but I believe we did make the right decision and hopefully he learned something from it. It is always hard to try new things. It is always easier to run away when things are uncomfortable. But their is value and rewards to sticking to it and "persevering" which happens to be the theme for his session.
So hopefully we are done with this saga, but maybe a little bit more prepared for the next one that comes.

countdown

12 days left!!!!!
nothing new going on down there, still 1 cm dilated. Measuring 39, which isn't too much bigger.
The closer it gets, the more excited I am. I feel I haven't really been able to get excited about what is actually happening, my head knows but I haven't taken the time to let my heart. But not now, I am getting more and more excited to see this little one and for his brothers, who are very excited, to hold him.
And to top off the excitement, all of my sisters will be here at the same time and my mom will be coming for a week. How fun!!
I am so looking forward to seeing my boys play with their cousins.
It will be chaotic and loud, but what a priceless time.

mother like son?

Well we had Oliver's first karate class tonight. All weekend I had been worried about it and hoping he would enjoy it and take to it right away. We talked about it all weekend and how proud we were of him and how much fun he would have, we even watched the dvd they give you, which was way over his head. He was excited to go and learn, but I could tell he was apprehensive( and yeah, he used that word) he kept asking, "what are they going to teach me?" But we all kept our fingers crossed.
All went well until they started the warm up in class. It was a complete meltdown. I was torn between feelings of anger and just feeling sorry for him. He wouldn't do the warm up moves with the assistant helping him or if Travis went out there with him, he just stood there and cried. It wasn't an outloud cry, but a sad, kinda scared tearful cry.
He came out and talked to me and just said he didn't want to do it and wanted to go home. I tried to explain we can't just leave and come back when we want to, we need to stay and finish the class even if he just watches from the side. He didn't want to, he wanted out of his uniform and to go home. So we did.
All evening we kept talking about quiting and what that means, but he still says he doesn't want to do it now or ever. I even tried to make him feel bad by saying that I have to call the instructor and tell him that Oliver is quiting. So now Oliver keeps telling me, " aren't you gonna call that guy?"
I guess I am disappointed a little, we thought it would be fun for him and he was so excited about it. But more because I let fear and embarrassment make me quit things growing up. There are many things I look back on and wonder "what if" I didn't quit, what if I got over my fears of looking like a fool or wondering what everyone thought. I don't want Oliver to live his life like that, even though he is only 4, I see similar traits in him. I pray God will give me the wisdom to help him overcome this stumbling block to live a life without regrets.

La de da....

We had an amusing time watching Oliver tonight attend a safety class held by the ATA martial arts. Before I tell the story I will say he has never done anything or gone to any function outside of the home besides sunday school. Anyway, the class was to teach kids how to defend themselves if a stranger ever tried to abduct them. They broke the kids off into 4 stations to learn how to hit the predator in the soft tissue points of the body. (Very interesting for women to know as well)
Oliver was hilarious. It's like he was taking the class from an instructor who spoke only Japanese. He was clueless to commands as simple as "put your feet together" or "go to the back of the line when your through" he couldn't even catch on to how to keep the line moving when he managed to get in-line. Travis and I were laughing so hard we were crying.
Who was this child?
Who are his parents?
Where did he come from?
And Travis asked me why I hadn't taught him how to stand in line before, well.. let me think.. oh yeah, why would we ever need to stand in line at home?
It was a little embarassing to be truthful, but that's just pride, there's nothing wrong with him and we know the more he's in the situation he'll catch on to the routine.
But again, another moment not captured on camera to share the memories down the road.

Baby name

I know everyone is holding their breath for the unveiling of the name...heehee...sorry we haven't decided yet. I will tell you that it's between and Emerson something and Sebastian Emerson Will.

Good News!!

Doctor visit today went wonderful!! The baby is perfect. Every concern we had recently showed up normal in the ultrasound, normal brain, normal amniotic fluid! Thank you Jesus!!

he weighs 6 lbs 3 oz. I am dilated to 1 cm and everything else is normal.

To top it all off the doc agreed to induce me early. yeah for me.

So mark your calendars for the 28th and hopefully with an easy labor, we will see our little guy.

Oh check out the new name to vote for.

Thanks for all of your prayers and concern when we didn't know what was going on. God is in control of everything and we are so thankful that He has blessed us with another healthy baby.

flag page

Travis and I just did something fun together to help better our marriage and I thought I would pass along the "fun." We saw a speaker a couple of months ago who has been a great encouragement to us and how we understand each other and what our true heart motivators are. He has you check off characteristics about yourself and then you have to rate their importance. He organizes it onto a flag page which then tells you what happens when your best traits combine and also when your worst ones combine. He offers materials to buy to help further understand yourself and your significant other. It's fun to learn more about your mate and where their heart is, because sometimes it's hard to see, especially if he/she is like mine-quiet. So I encourage anyone, married or not to check this out.
http://www.laughyourway.com/
or
http://www.flagpage.com/

Can anyone guess what my top motivators are?

Pregnancy

I talked to one of Travis's cousins the other day who also is pregnant. She and I have very different stories when it comes to fertility. It took them 2 years to get pregnant, Travis looks at me and i am pregnant. It was so cool to visit with her and talk about our perspectives of being with child, we complained and laughed at the usual scenerios but at the end she very seriously said, " I am so glad I got a chance to have this experience. It is so cool!" I guess it's something I have felt but I have never said it out loud. Of course I am thankful that God has blessed me with my children, but I will never know the extent of hers or anyone else who deals with infertility issues. Her comment made me feel a little more appreciative of the gift that is inside me. Thank you Lord!

Green-it's the color of the day

Since yesterday's art project with the brown stuff I thought I'd tell you Thatcher moved on to a new color of green. As in his nose and eyes are secreting (that word just sounds gross) green stuff. I was so excited we had made it through most of the winter with no big colds or ear infections, but I was wrong. Thatcher hasn't gotten over his cold from two weeks ago and now, I believe, it has turned into a sinus infection.(after searching online his symptoms suggest this) Poor kiddo!!

Chocolate or the other brown stuff?

So I put the boys down for a nap today and was very excited to be able to nap myself for a little while. I could hear thatcher talking to himself and trying to talk to Oliver, who was being a good boy and ignoring him. After about 10 minutes, Oliver bolts out of the bedroom and yells, "Thatcher has poop all over his hands!"
True enough, Thatcher is standing in his crib with both hands covered in his own poop. I thought I was having a deja vu moment because he looked exactly the same after eating his chocolate cookie after lunch-minus the eating part- I pray!!
He decided to finger paint his crib with it, what a masterpiece it was!!!
I wish I had my camera on hand to be able to freeze these moments-I know it would make great blackmail down the road, I am thinking future girlfriends would love to see this stuff. Haa haa!!!
Oh and the best part of the story is we ran out of wipes this morning so I had to clean everything with wet napkins. Luckily I found some antibacterial hand wipes!!!

joy in chaos

I thought I might explain my blog name a little bit. Finding my joy in my chaotic world is something I have been struggling with lately. I didn't always know I was lacking it, but recently God has shown me through various quiet times with Him, other moms, and random stories of people finding joy in every situation. I am trying to find joy in the little things I do everyday:

getting breakfast for my two little angels (they just woke up so they haven't had time to do anything naughty), playing the same thing over and over everyday-usually dino's and cars(thank you Jesus I can play with them at all), listening to my 4 year old Oliver talk non-stop about anything and everything (at least he wants to talk to me) washing the dishes, making meals for my family, and all of the unrecognized things a mom does. But especially in the times where everything seems to be going wrong all at once, kids crying, screaming, fighting over toys, messes everywhere, you know the drill. Where is my joy?

This is my ministry and I can't wait for something bigger to come along. I am the only Jesus my children will know growing up. Will they see the joy I claim to have?

here we go

So here we go.... I am going to attempt to blog on a regular basis. Going by my track record of diaries and journals, this should be interesting. But I have been encouraged by friends to start doing this and read others blogs to be encouraged, and don't we all need that. Well, I think that's enough for my first one, whew, I think I need to lay down