MLK and All That Jazz...

We've had a rough couple of weeks around here. Right after Christmas Zach got the flu and did not feel good for a long time-- culminating with me finally taking him to the doctor and finding out he had a double ear infection and walking pneumonia. Then Lucy caught it and it developed into bronchitis, and then it was my turn. I was out flat-on-my-back-sick-in-bed for 3 days with a fever and chills, which I then kindly passed on to Jonathan who had to stay home from work. We were all hoping and praying it would somehow miraculously skip Leah, but this weekend she too had a fever and cough. Guh. By Monday we were ready to say good-bye to the sickies and get out of the house!

Since Jon and Lucy were both home for the MLK holiday, we needed big plans. Big, BIG plans! Unfortunately, Pinehurst doesn't afford many big plans, so we made due with what we could: Lunch at Panera!

Everybody had the same idea because the place was PACKED! There was not a table to be found, so we had to eat outside on the patio. The silver lining? There aren't many places you can eat lunch outside in the middle of January.

Then Jonathan wanted to treat us all to an exhibition of his new-found hobby, rocketeering. Since he can't go backpacking as often as he'd like (or ever), he discovered an affinity for model rockets and has since built and launched several. When life gives you lemons, make rockets! That's him holding "The Magician," in honor of my dad.

After the big launch we headed to Dilishi for some frozen yogurt. Again, the place was packed so we were relegated to eating frozen yogurt, in the middle of January, outside. Brrrr!

Oh well. The kids were happy and didn't seem to mind. That night we ran to Wal-Mart to do some errands and hurried home to watch a movie before the vacation day was officially over. So, all in all it was a successful outing in honor of MLK. But I am still ready to be done with January!

And for fun, here's Leah, Luce, and Zach chillin' on Sunday afternoon after church. They are so anxious for Leah to start "doing something"-- like, be able to move around and play with them and like their toys, besides just sitting and eating and crying. Now that she's already 12 weeks old, she'll be into their stuff before they know it!

Baby "Weah"

Well, it's about time I posted a Baby Weah update (Zach still doesn't say his "L's" right-- so we hear a lot of Wucy's and Weah's around here)! I see SO much of Lucy in Leah, so I've posted a few comparison pics. See what you think!

Leah at 2 months.

Lucy at 2 months.

Leah, 2 months.

Lucy, 2 months.

Little Leah sleeping during the day-- something that doesn't happen much around here. She is a big time cat-napper, so when she nurses she takes FOREVER because she basically sleeps on the job, and then 45 minutes later when she's done and I try to go lay her down, her eyes pop wide open and she's awake! The trade-off is she does her sleeping at night-- she goes down around 6:30 p.m., and only wakes once or twice until 8 a.m.

Leah (in this picture she actually looks a lot like Zach to me). Doesn't she look sweet all dressed up for church? Too bad I'm still the nursery leader and she has to go with me!

She is starting to get very smiley and happy-- and she LOVES Lucy! When we go pick up Lucy from school, Leah screams the whole way, but as soon as Lucy gets in she stops and starts to "coo" at Lucy. Zachy she is still a little afraid of.:)

This baby thinks she needs to be held 24/7. In order for me to make dinner, Jon takes over and bounces her off to sleep. She is just like a baby kangaroo!

Leah, 12 weeks old.

Lucy, 12 weeks old.

Our sweet little baby riding in the car!

Leah with her binky.

Lucy with her binky.

We LOVE Baby Weah!!

Christmas Catch-Up!

My poor, poor neglected blog... It seems three children have gotten the best of me these days! Since it's officially already 2013 (ack!), here's a little holiday recap to set things straight and start the new year off right.

Jonathan's parents were good enough to fly in the night of December 18th in order to spend the Christmas holidays with us, but as luck would have it, Lucy was still in school until that Friday. Wednesday Zach and Grandma and Grandpa Cardon surprised Lucy for lunch at her school cafeteria and that night we took Lucy and Zach to our gym's Christmas party where they got to meet Santa. Both my kids were SO brave- which was expected from Lucy, but you never know with our homebody Zach. He told Santa he wanted "Captain America" and then kind of just sat there eyeballing him for awhile and didn't answer any other questions.:)

Lucy of course listed off her wishes and then stayed to chat awhile, true to her nature. But now a word about our gym: I LOVE our gym. When we first moved here we joined Gold's Gym, but they were JERKS for sundry reasons, so we decided to take a chance on this little tiny, local, hole in the wall, privately owned gym. I immediately fell in love with the ladies in the Child Care room because they genuinely loved my kids, and then I started teaching 3x a week shortly after joining, and it just kind of became a big part of our lives. And now sad to say, they announced Christmas Day they're closed as of 1/1/13. I am so sad. I gotta find a new job and a new gym, and new gym rat friends (intended with love) to work out with. Ba-humbug.

Anyway, much to my children's delight Christmas Eve finally arrived! We sent Grandma and Grandpa with the kids to see "Rise of the Guardians" so Jon and I could arrange our "Santa" things for later that night without any suspicion. Lucy sprinkled a trail of "Reindeer Dust" (oats with glitter) that afternoon that led to the chimney for Santa's reindeer to follow. I was hoping the rain would wash it away, but... I had some explaining to do the next morning!

We celebrated with Jon's family's traditional Holy Supper that night-- with fish, flatbread, olives, nuts and cheese. Lucy is old enough now where she is starting to really look forward to this tradition to remind her of Mary and Joseph.

Then we read the Nativity Story from the Bible and sang some Christmas carols to go along with the scriptures. Lucy was mad at me that I wouldn't let baby Leah (who was to play the part of baby Jesus) lay in her "manger."

But this little butterball would NOT have fit. Here's a little glimpse of our sweet Christmas baby! She's already fitting into Lucy's 3 month clothes and eats ALL the time. But more on that later...

Back to Christmas Eve-- we let the kiddos open new pajamas (my family's tradition), to which Zach received super hero jammies and was thrilled, and then had Grandpa read "The Night Before Christmas."

The kids then got out a plate of cookies and some carrots and milk, set out their stockings, and headed off to bed. They were both so excited that Lucy even got a tummy ache, but they actually went down pretty easily and quickly. Thank heavens, because I cannot stay awake past 10 p.m.

We let the kids "sleep over" upstairs with Grandma and Grandpa and apparently Lucy was up at 4:30 a.m. ready to see if Santa had come, but she had to wait 3 hours until Zach and Leah were up too.

Hooray! He definitely came!

Zach did get Captain America AND Iron Man AND a Spiderman bike, so he was quite pleased with his haul.

He got lots of candy and some new movies too! Zachy loves Christmas!

Lucy got some La La Loopsy dolls, a brand new big girl bike with NO training wheels, and lots of other cool surprises. She was very happy too.

After we opened presents from under the tree, we helped Grandma get the Christmas breakfast ready (which is my favorite part of the day). She made cinnamon twists, ham, egg casserole, cheese and crackers, and shrimp cocktail (of which Lucy ate 13 without blinking). Yum! It was a merry breakfast indeed.

Later that afternoon, Jon took Lucy out to try out the new bike and she took to the no training wheels like a pro. She got it after the 2nd or 3rd try! All in all (despite finding out Elder Morris (my little bro) was in the hospital with dengue fever while serving in the DR), and thanks to a little Lord of the Rings marathon, we had a fantastic Christmas.

A couple of days after Christmas we decided to take the crew to Myrtle Beach to "blow our wad" (as Jon would say) on the after Christmas sales, which were phenomenal. The kind of shopping that makes you want to be with your mom (an enabler) and not your husband (the iron fist).:) Leah shopped til she dropped too!

Jon's parents finished out the week with us and left early early Sunday morning to fly back to Washington state, so we were on our own for New Year's. And oh yeah, Lucy lost her first tooth! I had to include that since she is always eager to point out that 3 MAJOR things happened this month to her: getting her ears pierced, riding a 2 wheeler, and losing a tooth. It just doesn't stop!

So we celebrated New Year's Eve with homemade pizza, Martinelli's, and ice cream sundaes and then spent the next day "blowing our wad" again at IKEA in Charlotte. Mommy wants a new king size bed, people!! Hope your holidays were as happy and blessed as ours!

Miss Leah

Lucy has always called baby Leah, "Miss Leah"-- I don't know if it's because she's our little Southern belle, but I've noticed one by one we've all picked it up. And it seems to fit because shes's kind of a diva. If she's not eating or being swaddled in a cuddly blanket and held, she's screaming. Our little peanut definitely has a temper, and takes after Lucy's temperament as a baby more than Zach's. And she HATES baths. She'd rather smell like stinky cheese. Yesterday at her doctor's appointment, she literally screamed until she was blue in the face from start to finish until I wrapped her back up and held her again. At least when they're already screaming you don't feel as bad when they get their shots.:) She weighed 9 lbs. 10 oz. and was 22 in. long, which means she gained 2 lbs and grew an inch in one month. Atta girl, Miss Leah!

During Thanksgiving my very kind sister in law Sarah took the time to take these newborn pictures of Leah, and they turned out AMAZING. She is so talented and it's been fun to watch her skills develop the last couple of years. Each of her little expressions is so precious and she's changing so fast it makes me think I'm losing my mind when I see her one morning, and the next she already looks bigger! THANK YOU Sarah for these treasures!