Baby Update, Pumpkin Carving, Halloween, Samhain oh my!

I hit 18 weeks on Wednesday! I can't believe I am almost to the half way mark... of course if I go early when there will be a full moon in March I could be half way now. I am not noticing a ton of belly growth the last few weeks but baby must be getting bigger since on Friday I was able to hear the heartbeat for the first time!Now I know you are probably thinking that I should have heard that already but we no longer use dopplers to listen to the heartbeat. After reading far too much controversy over them being just as bad (if not worse viewed by some) as ultrasound I just don't see the point when I know if I wait a few weeks longer I can just hear it with the fetoscope. After all the heartbeat doesn't tell you much this early on and considering I could see my belly growing and could feel baby moving I think it is safe to assume it had a heartbeat. Even with my first two babies my Dr. wouldn't use a doppler before the 2nd trimester and would often use a fetoscope after 20 weeks which was pretty cool in my opinion. You rarely see MD taking those kind of natural precautions!

But anyway back to the heartbeat. I was surprised to hear it this early though since with Ozzye I didn't find his until I was almost 22 weeks along. I honestly wasn't expecting much when I sat down with my fetoscope on Friday but there it was, clear as day! It is such a sweet sound so I don't blame other mamas for wanting to hear it as soon as possible. Ozzye did come out a little peanut though so maybe he wasn't big enough when I was 18 weeks with him. Or maybe my placenta was in the way, it was up very high with Oz. Or maybe I just didn't quite know what I was looking for.... although it isn't like I had never heard a baby heartbeat before. But whatever the reason I won't complain, I loved finding it just after 18 weeks!

Sat. night after Dave got home from work we carved our pumpkins. It was much later than we usually do. I think Dave was hoping we could skip it all together but that would just be silly.Dave put the bright idea in Kain's head that he and the other kids should go as Kiss this year. Brody didn't care, Aubriel really wanted to do it, Kain was thrilled and Gage... well Gage was talked into it only to change his mind just a few nights before. So our Peter Criss left the band......to become a hippy. Ozzye was suppose to go as Ozzy Osborn but we never were able to find round sun glasses for him. So due to a lack of anything else to wear he got to wear his black coat with the infamous cows pants and hat of Kain's. Dave and I came up with a list of things he could have been going as but nothing was overly appropriate for a 2 year to be for Halloween.This was suppose to be the kids group picture but Ozzye ran off. I found the picture to be completely hysterical though. I think it might be my favorite from Halloween this year.
And now that all my little ones are tucked in fast asleep from their sugar comas I can quietly celebrate Samhain. It is the Pagan new year and a perfect time to reflect on that last year's lessons and blessings. I tend to become rather introverted anyway when I am pregnant so this is the perfect season to gestate a new life.

I wish I could write all about how this year was better than the year before but that just isn't actually the case. Different yes, but better is up for interpretation. It continued to be a struggle for us to settle into this home and make it feel truly ours... and I suppose some days that struggle continues but I do see the light emerging in that respect. It is certainly slow coming but after one full year here it is getting easier to find all the things we love about our new location, surroundings and neighborhood.

Most of our painful lessons I did not even write about this year, and probably contributed to me not writing much at all. I of course did note the passing of David's beloved Grandmother but I did not write much about the six months prior to her death. I didn't talk about her battle with cancer or about our continued personal emotional battle his other loved ones during her last months. Some of it might be due to the complexity of it all, or perhaps the amount of pain that was involved with all of it.

It continues to this day to one of our hardest life lessons but both David and I try to trust daily in the fact that it will serve us in some way, in some time... hopefully soon. We know in our heads that the sooner we can see that blessing in disguise the sooner the healing will begin in our hearts. I guess maybe that is why during some of our darkest hours while we are sorting through all of the sludge of emotions we are givin very obvious and joyous blessings to help us along.

It is certainly not ever over looked for one minute that this beautiful year brought us the gift of the new little life growing within me. We hold onto that and are oh so thankful after all we have been through that we can still receive such perfect sparks of this universe. It definitely gives new meaning to taking the bitter with the sweet, which I will be trying to balance within myself in this next year to come.

5 year old in the house again!

Our little Brodric turned 5 this weekend. These pictures are very over due since we had quite the busy weekend! Dave's mom came in from AZ for a visit for the first time in a year, so needless to say the kids were extremely busy occupying her time... it actually happens to be her birthday as well today. My nephew's birthday was last week so there was a party for him as well and Kain tried out for basketball. We are still waiting on news if he made a team or not.

Brody first requested an ice cream cake with an apple on top of it but later changed his mind to having it topped with an ice cream sundae and a peanut butter sandwich. Due to his brother's allergy to peanuts we opted to leave the sandwich part out but did honor Brody's request for a sundae... and of course a monster truck as well seeing as how he LOVES them!Here are just a few other fun pictures of Brody from this year...

He is so incredibly fun loving and animated. I truly can't imagine my life without my daily Brody laugh and snuggles. He has a horrible temper when something sets him off but he is by far our most loving child as well. I love the things he comes up with... I love him!

Happy Birthday sweet boy of mine!

Football 2010

Today is the first day we don't have football practice since the beginning of Aug. And the first day besides Sunday that I don't have to run kids somewhere (although I am quite sure that will not last long). This was Kain 3rd year playing pop-warner football and Gage's first year.

It was kind of a hard year for Kain #87. The past two years he has been recognized by his coaches for having great hands and always put in a receiver position. This year for whatever reason that didn't happen and he ended up playing offensive line. Which would have been he very last choice had he been given one. Perhaps it is due to the fact that he is always the oldest on his team and with that sometimes comes with being the biggest, although Kain's build certainly doesn't lend itself to being a linebacker no matter his age. Maybe it was due to how his offensive coordinator ran his offense. They only had 3 ball handlers and all three kids played both wide receiver and running back. Even Kain will admit he is never the fastest on his team. He has great hands and certainly isn't the slowest but not really running back material. But whatever the reason he played the game with his whole heart as always. He is a football player through and through. He loves the game. Bottom line.

And lucky for him he does love this game otherwise I am not sure what would have kept him coming back week after week for more. It was certainly frustrating for him at times. Definitely frustrating for Dave and I as parents trying to support both Kain and his coaches but they did not make it easy this year. While his head coach was amazing, his offensive coordinator even told the kids that in the 3 years he has been running his offensive this way he wasn't won a SINGLE game.... and this year he kept his streak alive. Team Chuck Norris finished their season 0-7. He did awesome though and will be playing again next year for a different league (due to his age not our disappointment with pop-warner). His Dad once told him he plays golf like a football player... I guess that is because that is just what he is.

Gage #29, ironically enough got put on the line as well this year. For several years now, despite the fact that by mid march before the ground is even thawed he is asking to get out on a golf course and hit the links, he claims he wants nothing more than to play football like Kain. This year proved that Gage plays football like a golfer. He did great at it. Rarely complained. Showed up to every practice his health didn't keep him from. Always listened and gave it his all each and every game. But has said he will not be returning for more next year. Even though unlike Kain's team, Gage's team finished the year undefeated!
He played in a different division than Kain so they never played against one another (which was probably a good thing for mom and dad). I have had several other moms ask if I was ever concerned about them playing full contact football but honestly with having four boys it doesn't seem much different than our daily play at home so I am just happy they have helmets and pads on when they do it now! But I think watching my boys play against one another may have been too much to bare. The Wildcats had an awesome set of coaches and I am grateful Gage had a good first year of football especially since he decided it really isn't his sport. At least this way he knows for sure what we kind of expected. We are also grateful we had such awesome weather this year! I remember freezing at so many games in the past towards the end of the season but I think we only had one mildly cold day this year! Next year we will be happy to have a more relaxed schedule of more golf in the summer and slightly less football in the fall!

Now we will be moving onto basketball for the winter....