Welcome Sweet Prim Rose

Our new family of five!

Prim has been such an anticipated little one! It feels like we waited an eternity for her, and we're so excited that she's here! Her name means first rose or first love. It's very fitting since it's a name we've had chosen since we were pregnant with Tytus. She's been on our minds since the very first. :) My pregnancy with her was very uneventful and healthy, and I praise God for that! Toward the end of each of my pregnancies with the boys I had complications that could have been very serious, so that thought lingered in my mind as we neared the end of this pregnancy. "What if I miss something? What if she's not growing? What if something's wrong and we don't catch it?" I kept thinking these things to myself until I finally came to a point that I realized only God knows what's going on with her and His plan is perfect. It was big lesson in trust and patience as I chose to let go of any anxiety I had and look to Him to give me peace about how/when she would join our family. Lo and behold she was our biggest baby yet and has been such a sweet and content little girl! She came at 11:49 on April 14 weighing 7lb 4oz. We are so thankful for her! I'm especially thankful for how God showed His power as my faith was stretched in the waiting period. I learned to trust in new ways as He was growing that healthy little girl in me.

On our way to the hospital (Tytus was already at school)

Meeting Prim for the first time!

Finally home with our little bundle

Since we have the gift of Ian being home for several weeks, life has continued at a relatively normal pace. We've continued to do pretty much all of our normal activities each week, and it's been such a special time for our family of five. Prim's gotten to come along on our errands, grocery shopping, church, eating out, birthday parties, walks to the park, doctor visits, gymnastics, school....and the list goes on. She's a pretty easy-going little girl and seems to feel the most comfortable when she's in the commotion of what we're all doing. 

The boys coming to check on her in our room in the morning.

In the audience at Tytus' end of year performance at school.

Mother's Day -  the boys building with Legos and Prim taking a nap.

The boys haven't skipped a beat with her. They love being big brothers! If she's upset about something they make sure to come check on her or ask if they can help. Today I laid Prim down next to Tytus while he was playing and he said "Hey Prim! How are you today?" :) They include her in what we're doing just like she's always been here, and it's really fun to watch how gentle and patient they are with her so far. They are both great brothers so far!

Meeting and holding her for the first time.

Tytus loves holding his sister....he's waited quite some time for her :)

Witten talking and watching her closely once we brought her home from the hospital.

So here's what a typical day looks like at this point:

Mommy and Prim napping

Boys wrestling

Our one month old!

Happy 4th Birthday Tytus!

Singing happy birthday with one of his favorite lunches

On Tytus' birthday we woke up and made a breakfast that he chose as his favorite.....all different kinds of toast. Toast with peanut butter, some with jelly, some with cinnamon, and some with just butter. He loved it! And it was perfect for putting candles in to sing happy birthday! Then we got to open a birthday present with daddy before he headed off to work. Tytus requested a ninja turtle birthday party this year, so we got him a shirt that would be fun to wear at his party. He thought it was really fun and put it on right away.

Opening some presents

Once daddy left for work, we had a fun day hanging out at home together. We made a yummy lunch together....one of his favorites. Recently when I've made a meal that he really likes he's been telling me how yummy it is and asking to make it again. It's definitely keeping me motivated to continue cooking fun homemade things as I'm getting more and more tired reaching the end of this pregnancy. For lunch we made chicken strips, potatoes, and peas. They licked their plates clean! Later that evening we went to Mt. Playmore as a whole family. They have a huge climbing area, food, arcade games, and a place for little ones to play as well. The boys had a blast racing around the climbing area with Ian. It was a great end to our day! 

Eating cookie cake at home

This year Tytus got to celebrate his birthday at his school, too! We made a cookie cake to share with his class and he got to wear his birthday crown all day (and even through the weekend until it was his actual birthday!). And the week after his birthday day we planned a birthday party at our house for all his friends and family to come hang out and celebrate. Tytus loves to throw birthday parties (especially at our house)! He usually starts naming who he'll invite and what we'll do weeks before his birthday. It's really fun to go to the store and let him pick out invitations, plates, and talk about what he'd like to do at his party. He's definitely our little social guy! I think the prep beforehand is just as fun for him as the party itself. Each year I suggest doing a smaller party or maybe having it somewhere other than our house, but a true party to him is one where we invite everyone to our home to celebrate. So, I guess we'll stick to that for now. :)

Favorite Fall/Winter Memories

Tons of leaves!

We love that there are tons of leaves in our neighborhood now! It means more raking for us, but it's totally worth it. We've raked our own piles to jump in, helped neighbors rake their leaves, jumped, thrown, and messed up our neighbors' piles of leaves (with their permission of course!), crunched in them on our walks, and just talked about seasons and how things change as we watch our trees become bare. It's made for easy excitement on a slow afternoon, that's for sure!

our street was covered in them

It's hard to tell in this picture, but Tytus made his own fishing pole
with a string and stick. We walked down to the creek catching "fish" (aka leaves
that would attach to the string) along the way and then put them in the water.

It's also been fun getting to know our neighbors and the boys getting to play with some new friends. Sometimes its just impromptu get-togethers that are the best!

the "big boys"

endless fun in the sandbox

fun friends eating out one night

Roasting marshmallows has got to be at the top of the list as well! Since this is our first time having a fireplace we took full advantage of using it....especially for sweet treats! I did make the mistake of introducing marshmallow roasting the very first time we turned on our fireplace. Oops! It was the day before my birthday and the first really cold day, so I asked Ian if we could show the boys how it turns on and get out the marshmallows. They loved it! But then every time a fire was mentioned, Witten would run to the pantry excitedly yelling marshmallows!

Most of all, I'd have to say that the "normal" everyday activities that we did made our new house feel more and more like home! We took the fall pretty slow and left room for little make-it-up-as-you-go projects, learning to play together and work through arguments, taking long walks just because there's time to, making meals together, and exploring our new area while meeting new friends along the way. It was a great end to a year filled with change.

"working" on some coloring while mommy gets to read and relax for a minute

 playing together in their room

pizza and a movie night!

We're so thankful we get to do all of it together 

Happy Birthday Witten!

We celebrated our big guy turning two by having a really fun day at home. Witten's favorite meal of the day, by far, is breakfast. So we started the day off with birthday candles in some blueberry pancakes. He ate pancake after pancake and would want to put candles in each one as he ate them....needless to say we got plenty of practice singing happy birthday to him!

Yummy pancakes!

Getting excited about singing again....

"Happy Birthday to you..."

I feel like he's a bottomless pit in the morning. He'll eat so much!

After breakfast we got to open presents with Daddy before he left for work. Witten got a play birthday cake that you can cut apart, decorate, and put candles on. It's been fun to watch him use the pieces for different things as he cooks in our little kitchen. He loves pretending to be a little cook at our house and other places, so we thought this would be the perfect thing for him! He also got some big boy underwear that he wore that night and went pee pee and poo poo all by himself....we were very surprised that he did it on his own accord!

The anticipation

Plenty of helpers...Tytus was just as excited to see what was inside :)

New underwear of his own

There's the birthday cake....lots of fun to be had

We had a fun day around the house and celebrated a little bit here and there. He felt very special all day. We made some birthday cupcakes for after dinner and got to share some with our neighbors, too. The boys had fun playing, we had fun visiting, and it was a great ending to our day. Happy Birthday to our big 2 year old!

"God, can we please have a baby sister?"

About a year ago we started having conversations about a baby sister. Tytus would ask me if we're going to have one and I would say " I don't know?" or "maybe" and that would be the end of it. (By the way he never asked for a brother and was always very specific about it being a sister each time this came up.) Sometimes we'd go weeks before he'd bring it up again, but it was never anything real drawn out and seemed like kind of just a random thought that would enter his head.

Then one day at lunch he asked, in a very serious and expectant tone, "Mom when are we going to have a baby sister?" I was a little surprised at his urgency and said that God puts babies in mommy's tummy and he could pray and ask God for that if he'd like to. He immediately said okay and folded his hands to pray so I did the same. We sat in silence. Then he said "Mommy, you pray" and I laughed and told him that if he wanted a baby sister then he could pray and ask God for one! At this point Ian and I hadn't really talked about having another little one because life was quite busy and we were really happy enjoying the stages our boys were currently in. Tytus responded with "maybe later" and we went on eating our lunch and didn't say another word about it all day....until bedtime. We did our whole bedtime routine, read a book, and started to say our prayers. At this age Tytus never really prayed with us. We'd ask him if he had anything he wanted to say or be thankful for, but his response was always pretty short and he never actually wanted to do the talking so we'd do it for him. That night was different. As Ian was praying, Tytus interrupted and said "Oh, I forgot! God, can we please have a baby sister? Amen!" And that was that. Ian was a little surprised because I hadn't even told him about our conversation earlier in the day.

I think this is about the age he was when he first started praying and asking for her

Our next conversation was in the bathroom one day while I was washing my face and getting ready for the day. I wrote this conversation down in my journal (dated Mother's Day 2014) because it seemed so unique and significant. I couldn't believe that he'd prayed and God had answered, but that is the amazing thing about our God! He's alive and answers us...even when we're 3!

Tytus: "Is that where a baby comes out of your tummy mommy?"

Mommy: "No, but do you think God will give mommy and daddy another baby?"
Tytus: "Yes! I prayed and asked God a lot of days ago for a baby sister"
Mommy: "Did he answer you? Did he tell you yes or no?"
Tytus: "Uh....He said Yes!"
Mommy: "Did He tell you when she would be here?"
Tytus: "Oh! Maybe Easter aaaannnd then maybe Christmas!"

There are several significant things about this conversation. It's the first time we've talked about God answering specific prayers, but Tytus replied like he already knew that. Also, at this point we did know that we were pregnant and we knew the due date would be Christmas day. We ended up loosing that baby pretty early and Tytus' response was right in tune as if he knew all along what was going on (even though we never told him we were pregnant). He only brought it up once during that period of loss and he told me that God said "maybe later" about having our baby sister. I also thought his response of Easter and Christmas were awfully specific and random. We hadn't talked about either in great detail recently (since it was May) and really I expected his response to be something more like: a day of the week, nighttime, my birthday, etc.

A couple months later Tytus started asking about a baby sister again and our conversation was very similar to the previous one, but this time when I asked him when God said she would be here he said "at the beach!". I immediately started laughing because the night before Ian and I had booked two plane flights to Florida for a get-away in September. I repeated the story to Ian that night and he too immediately burst out laughing and asked how Tytus knew about that. I have no idea. There's no way he knew! Once September came around we had just found out we were pregnant again. I knew the week we'd be on vacation is the same week we had a miscarriage previously. I remembered Tytus' response and believed that God gave me peace that this time would be different and I shouldn't be worried but just enjoy our vacation together as a family of four. We had an amazing time together!

Once we started announcing our pregnancy and people would talk to the boys about it, Tytus' confidence never wavered. I spent time explaining that it really could be a boy or a girl. He would listen and agree that God makes brothers and sisters, but he always called the baby a she and always spoke as if it was definitely a girl. We were even at Target one day just browsing and he picked out the cutest winter coat and with bright eyes said "Mom, this would be perfect for our baby sister! Can we get it?" We were just a week away from having our sonogram appointment where we could find out the gender so I asked him if we could wait just a little bit longer to buy the baby something. I just marvel at his belief through all of this! He was so sure and steady even through all of our telling him he might be wrong......but he always knew what God had told him.

We did indeed find out at our appointment that he's having a baby sister! We all laughed a little bit and asked if they were sure, but Tytus was totally unfazed. I asked him, a few days after the appointment, if he was surprised. Nope. I asked him if he already knew. Yep. He answered with "Mom, I prayed a long time ago and God told me yes. And I believed Him."

Here are some things the boys and us picked out for her after our appointment :)

Also, her due date is right after Easter! And knowing that both of our boys came 1-2 weeks early, there's quite a chance that Tytus' prediction of Easter could be completely right!

Moving On Up!

Tytus had his performance for gymnastics today. He started going in August right around when school started. Since we hadn't looked into schools for him to go to, we thought this would be a fun thing for him to get to do on his own each week. So far he's loved going each time and enjoys showing off his skills at home, too. Witten has also had fun seeing what Tytus is doing while we sit and watch his class. For the winter set of classes, Tytus will get to move from his Yellow class to the Orange class and Witten will also get to join in on the fun as he starts his first class in his age level. They're both so excited!

Tytus is one of the few 3 year olds that got to move up to the next level, and he did such a great job showing off his skills!

Rainy Days and Fun Projects

Ever since we've moved there has been a good amount of transition time. We don't have commitments we're running to on a regular basis as we're still trying to get to know friends and find what we want to do with our time during the week. It's given us the ability to have some pretty slow days that usually turn into something creative and fun! One of the first days it was really cold and rainy was, of course, a moment to go outside and play in the puddle the roof of our deck created. We had nowhere to go, so I thought "Why not?". Even if they got filthy and freezing, we could just throw everything in the washer and warm up inside together. I was FREEZING just sitting out there drinking my warm coffee and couldn't imagine how they weren't so cold! I kept asking them if they were cold or wanted to go inside and the answer was always a happy "nope!". I really think they could've played out there for hours. The jumped, splashed, went and got supplies to dump and dig, and pretended lots of different scenarios with the toys they found. It was such a fun morning!

One day this week I decided to start fixing a table we got for free. It's definitely old and needed to be glued back together in several places. I first had to take off all the wooden support boards that had been screwed in to hold it all together. I thought it would be a fun thing for the boys to help with, and they loved it! Using real tools is always a hit with them. I decided to finish unscrewing and gluing the main part of the table while Witten was napping one day, so it was just Tytus and I working together. He started taking the scrap boards I had removed and putting them together. He asked me to help hold them a certain way and he used his screwdriver to screw the screws in tight enough so it wouldn't come apart. Then we laid out some paper and got markers out to make his creation complete!

Look mom!

"It's my airplane"

finishing touches

You can see the table in the background. It's laying down so
the glue can dry to hold the boards together a certain way.