Anyone still here?

You know you haven't visited your blog in a long time when typing in the url you say to yourself, "Now what was the name of my blog again?"  So I guess anyone reading now hasn't forgotten!  It has been a very busy holiday season and this has been the last thing I have thought about.  Of course being pregnant doesn't help either.  Naps are not optional for me right now.  And you know what?  I'm completely okay with that because I know in less than 6 months sleep will be a luxury!  Thankfully, the second trimester has proven to be much better in terms of fatigue and sickness.  I was finally able to return to a normal routine around Thankgiving, which was perfect timing! 

In family news...the boys are doing well.  Thomas and I started doing "school" again the beginning of the month and I could tell how much he had changed just in the six weeks we had taken off.  He understood directions quicker and our activities seemed to "click" with him.  Thomas LOVES to do school.  In fact, he asks most weekends if we can do school. I guess when school consists of playing games, using blocks and magnets, and jumping around any kid would want to do school!  He does know all his letters now as well as the short vowel sounds and most common consonant sounds.  I am debating on whether or not beginning to teach him to read in the spring.  He is eager to know and the book I have seems fairly simple and easy lessons of around 10 minutes. 

Josiah has changed a lot too.  He is into everything!  Thomas was not a climber, but Josiah climbs on everything.  A couple of weeks ago, I found him sitting on top of the train table with all the trains and tracks thrown on the floor shouting, "Mama!"  He knows how to climb up, but has not mastered getting down.  Even though he is into everything, he still does NOT walk independently.  *sigh*  He will walk holding our hands and practically runs behind a push toy, but refuses to let go.  Josiah is a very stubborn (but lovable) child and when he doesn't want to walk, he just lets his legs go limp.  The ladies in our church nursery call him "noodle legs."  We go back to the pediatrician next week for his 18 month well check and I'll see what he has to say. 

Baby Culbertson is doing well.  I'm 17 weeks pregnant and everything is normal.  I haven't felt movement yet, but it should be soon.  I have an ultrasound scheduled for Monday, January 10th.  We are hoping to find out the gender, as long as baby cooperates.  Thomas is convinced he is having a sister.  In fact, the past week he has been saying there are two babies - a boy and a girl!  I hope he isn't prophetic about that last statement!

Well, I've rambled long enough.  Below are a couple of pictures from Christmas. 

The boys listening to Josh read about Jesus' birth on Christmas morning. 

Josiah looks like "Ralphie" from A Christmas Story! 

Future Employee?? This was the gift they both loved the most. 

Another Addition!

If you are friends with me on Facebook, you already know our good news.  We are expecting again!  Baby #3 is due the same time Josiah was due - the exact same date actually (June 8)!  I'm really hoping this baby decides to come a few days before his birthday, because I really want my kids to have their own special day.  Of course, we are very excited and a little nervous too about being outnumbered by kids! 

Thomas is very excited, although doesn't completely understand what is going on.  He thinks the baby should be here now.  We were talking about the baby earlier this week and he said, "Mama, you just pretending."  When he does refer to the baby he always says, "she".  We don't have a preference either way, but I would be thrilled for the boys to have a sister. 

While baby is doing fine, I feel awful.  I think the worst part is the fatigue.  Nausea was something I dealt with in the other two pregnancies (and still feel with this one), but the fatigue this time around is overwhelming.  I honestly have never felt this tired in my life.  Right now, it is all I can do to take care of my boys, cook dinner, and do the laundry.  Thankfully, the boys still take a nap every afternoon which allows me to nap as well.  Any other ladies experience such fatigue with third pregnancies? 

I do want to post some pictures from our trip, but I have to find the energy to go through 400 pictures.  Hopefully, in the next week or two, I'll get them up.  Don't expect much activity on the blog until the 2nd trimester comes. 

Vacation & Sermons

I have been MIA on the blog for a couple of weeks because we had the pleasure of going on vacation last week!  It is such a tremendous blessing to get away and we don't take it for granted.  Josh and I both talked about how blessed we are that the Lord allows us time to rest and gives us innumerable gifts we don't deserve.  When we think about our brothers and sisters around the world who are suffering in ways we can't even imagine, it is even more humbling to think of the blessed life the Lord has given us. 

We went to the mountains of North Carolina and the leaves were at their peak!  It was absolutely beautiful.  Most days we had clear blue skies and beautiful fall colors surrounding us.  Thankfully, we were able to find a cabin to rent, although I learned my lesson to begin looking for a place more than 3 weeks before we want to go!  The cabin was on a mountain and our first trip up there was a little harrowing, but Josh figured out exactly how to navigate and the rest of our trips were smooth.  We were able to do some fun things with the boys as well and they had a great time.  Thomas' Missions Friends teacher told me that he couldn't stop talking about how he went to the mountains tonight. 

I'll try to post some pictures in the next couple of days.  I have been so busy trying to get back in the routine of life, that I haven't even taken pictures off of the camera.  In the meantime, I wanted to tell all my blog readers who aren't Facebook friends, that my husband's sermons can be found online if you are interested in hearing him preach.  You can listen to two different ways:

1.  Go to http://www.npbcfamily.org/ and click on "Resources" and then "Sermons" and they are all right there.
2.  You can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes.  Just search for "New Prospect Baptist Church." 

Blog I Follow

There are a couple of blogs I read on a regular basis, but aren't on my sidebar and I wanted to highlight them for any of my readers who might be interested. 

1.  They Are All Ours - This blog is written by a sweet couple who served at a church I attended during my Junior & Senior years of high school.  He was my youth minister and she was his sweet, godly wife who had three children (all fifteen months apart) at the time.  They were both such an encouragement to me to continue to fight the good fight and I was thrilled when I found them on Facebook a little over a year ago.  I was even more excited when they finally started a blog a couple of months ago.  Mostly, Joy writes out of her triumphs and failures of a being a pastor's wife and mom of eight children.  Since I just began this journey of being a wife and mother, I find her blog very real and encouraging.  Joy is one of those women who I wished could be a Titus 2 woman in my life.  I would love if she lived right down the road from me, so I could come over and just observe and learn from her as she cares for her family.  I encourage you to check out her blog - you will be blessed! 

2.  Elizabeth Esther - I found this blog through another blog.  Anyone else ever do that?  Someone that I enjoy reading (and who is a believer) recommended her blog and I decided to take a look.  Elizabeth Esther is a woman with a large family as well (5 children), but she comes from a very harsh and abusive fundamentalist background.  There are MANY things on her blog that I disagree with, but I read it because I need to read things I disagree with as well.  I remember my OT professor in seminary, Dr. Daniel Block, telling us, "For everything you read you agree with, you need to read at least two things you disagree with."  The comments in Elizabeth's blog are always lively and she intentionally brings up subjects that are tough.  She is Catholic now, but really wrestles with her past.  One of the other reasons I enjoy reading her blog is because she is an excellent writer.  Check it out if you want to read something you are likely to disagree with! 

4 Years

Josh and I celebrated our 4th anniversary last Thursday, September 30th.  We decided since we didn't have a newborn and we weren't on a family vacation (both of things have happened for at least 2 of our previous anniversaries) to take an overnight trip.  My parents were kind enough to come from Georgia and watch the kids for us (we certainly didn't have to beg them to come!).  I was able to get my hair cut and fixed on Thursday afternoon before we left.  I don't know if you are like me, but the hair stylist always makes my hair look better than I can.  She curled it really cute and sprayed half a can of hairspray on it, but Josh loved it and so did I. 

We didn't go too far for our overnight trip.  Thankfully, we have a beautiful city with a great downtown not too far away and decided to go there for the night.  I have always wanted to stay in the Westin Poinsett on Main Street because it is a gorgeous hotel.  We checked in around 6pm and then went to dinner at a great restaurant right across the street.  It was so nice just to have time alone without any interruptions.  If you have/had small children then you know interruptions are the norm, so it was especially lovely for us to talk and even hold hands!  I forgot how much I miss holding hands, but with two small boys we never have a hand free.  After dinner we walked down Main Street and ended up in a nice toy store where we gathered some ideas for Christmas (can you believe it is less than 3 months away?). 

The only downer to our trip was our room at the Westin.  We had turned on the air to 73 degrees when we got there around 6pm and when we came back around 9pm, it was at 75.  Josh turned it down to 66, but two hours later it was still on 75.  After calling the front desk a couple of times, we asked to move to another room because we weren't going to stay in a nice hotel and burn up.  Unfortunately, they didn't have another room available with a king bed, so we were moved to a room with two double beds.  We both were really looking forward to sleeping in a king bed (we have a full size at home). Thankfully, they willingly reduced our cost. 

We are so thankful for the chance to get away.  It really is great for our marriage to have time just to be alone.  It feels like we are dating or newlyweds again (especially considering Thomas was born a month shy of our first anniversary).  Most of all, I'm thankful for my wonderful husband.  God gave me more than I had even prayed for in Josh and I'm honored to be his bride. 

Josiah's First Haircut

This morning I finally relented and decided Josiah could have his first haircut.  He has been called a little girl a little too much lately (although if he were a girl, I already knew the perfect place to put a little bow in his hair!).  Originally, I had said he had to walk before I would cut his hair, but at 15 months he still isn't walking.  Any tips from my readers about how to motivate a child to walk?  He will walk if we hold his hands, but he really just wants to crawl.  Since he is 23 pounds now, I'm really hoping he walks soon. 

We took him to the sweet girl who cuts my hair and Thomas' hair.  He sat on my lap because we knew he would be squirmy.  Turns out he wasn't as squirmy as he was upset.  He cried through most of the haircut!  Thomas has such a laid back personality and when we cut his hair at 13 months, he sat perfectly still without me holding him.  However, Josiah has a completely different personality than his brother and while we knew he wouldn't sit still, we didn't expect him to cry.  Below are some pictures that tell the story. 



This was his move throughout the haircut!

Looking to Daddy and Thomas to save him!

Still not happy, but looking like a big boy *sniff, sniff*



Amy let him touch the "peanut" that she was about to use around his ears.



Josiah's reaction to the "peanut."

All done, but still not happy!





Preschool

For a few months now, I have been looking for ideas to start doing preschool activities with Thomas.  He just turned 3 in August and my plan has been to start a more structured learning time with him at three.  A couple of months ago, I was reading Money Saving Mom and she was giving her top 15 picks for home school aids.  One of her top 5 was the Letter of The Week curriculum by Confessions of a Homeschooler.  I clicked over to see what it was all about and after reading some things and looking through some of the material, I was hooked! 

The Letter of The Week curriculum has activities designed for your preschooler for every letter.  A short list of some of the things I have done with Thomas for letters A - E (we are on letter E this week):

• Puzzles
• Lacing Cards
• Magnet Pages
• Floor Numbers
• Do A Dot
• Color Puzzles
• Color by Number
• Cutting
• Graphing
• Patterns
• Letter Matching

There is a wealth of activities and Thomas never gets bored.  Every morning he says, "Mama, are we are going to do school today?"  And when we have finished for the activities for the day (she also has pre-made lesson plans for each week), he usually says, "Mama, can we do just one more?"  What I love most about it is how much he is learning.  His letter and number recognition has improved dramatically (especially numbers) just by playing fun games using numbers.  He is also learning the sound of each letter to prepare him to read. 

This wonderful program only costs $10!!  You download everything and then print out what you want to use (I have used just about everything for each week).  I did buy a Xyron 9" Creative Station on Amazon (I got it really cheap with some gift cards) to laminate most of the material since I plan to use it again with Josiah.  Of course I have had to replace some ink cartridges, but again I got a great deal on a big pack :-). 

Whether you are homeschooling preschoolers or older children, I really think you would enjoy the Confessions blog.  She has tons of resources and I have found so many other things I want to buy to help Thomas learn. I'll try to get some pictures up sometime soon of Thomas working hard!