Life Lately

I have no excuses for my lack of blogging lately... none! Except that finding some down time is difficult and it's even more difficult deciding if I should nap or actually get some things accomplished! Naturally, I chose napping!! :) So, let me update a little on our life lately:

Thomas will be 7 weeks old tomorrow (just 1 week shy of two months!) Where does time go?! I'm so sad to admit that the mom who has over 5,000 pictures of Anna-Kate has been TERRIBLE at taking pictures of Thomas!! Partly because I've got a little stinker (I mean angel) who likes to snatch my camera and take pictures for herself! So, finding a charged camera is rare these days! Another disaster is that I have lost my camera cord so I can not put my pictures on my computer right now! Don't worry, I'm way to obsessed with snapping pictures of everything and way too proud of my cute little babies to keep this negligence up for long! So I beg of you to please bear with me!

A lot of people have asked us how Anna-Kate is adjusting to the new baby. I have to say that she's the BEST big sister! She's been absolutely adorable with him! From the second she met him she's wanted to love on him. We have to really watch her because she'll just walk up to him and start patting his head or playing with him. A few weeks after Thomas was born, we were all going to get lunch out and so I got Anna-Kate and went outside to wait on Derek. He soon followed, closed the door and started to lock it... until Anna-Kate started bawling! Derek had forgotten Thomas and Anna-Kate was not about to let that happen! When people ask if they can take Thomas home with them Anna-Kate always replies very adamantly, "No! My baby brudder!"

Everyone wants to know what kind of baby Thomas is. Especially our friends who know what a scary and tough 3 months we had with Anna-Kate. Poor little girl was diagnosed with reflux after a few very scary episodes where she stopped breathing when she was eating. Derek and I were very prepared to have a difficult time with Thomas in some way or another. We've been very surprised by how wonderful of a baby he has been! He usually has the most content look on his face! He has been smiling and grinning in his sleep since birth and the last two weeks he's been showing us more smiles and grins! He absolutely loves to snuggle and be held! I realized how quickly they grow and really missed that snuggly time with Anna-Kate so I'm eating this up! Thomas does have a temper though. Usually it's when he has gas that just wont get better or if I don't feed him at his first hunger cues. He sleeps good, but nurses every two hours around the clock. This week we had a night with a 4-hour and a 3-hour stretch between feedings, so hopefully we see more of those! I think that he's going to have a healthy appetite like Anna-Kate too! He's quite a chunk! We go back to the doctor in a few weeks and I'll be interested to see how much he's grown! He has to be near 12 pounds already!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! This year we went an hour and a half away and enjoyed a nice dinner with Derek's family. This was my first year to make some things for Thanksgiving! I made corn pudding, broccoli and cheese casserole, sweet potato casserole, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, cherry pie pops and turkey cake balls!! Everything turned out delicious if you ask me! Of course I did make my favorite casseroles! :) I had so much fun cooking too! Anna-Kate helped me with the corn pudding! She loves to be in the kitchen cooking with me!

Derek got some REALLY great news last Wednesday- after nearly a year of searching for one, he has a JOB!! He still preaches on Sundays but now he will be doing some marketing and pr, alongside a copy clerk job for Harding! This is a huge blessing for us. I had been planning on applying for this job but I've had a lot of reservations about leaving Thomas so early. Finally Derek decided to just try it out, knowing that it could lead to more opportunities. Well apparently they were looking for someone who could do more marketing with the job! I'm SO happy for Derek! I know that it's a huge relief for him to have something consistent here in town. Right now we are planning on keeping Derek's preaching job for at least the next year but things could always change! Anna-Kate is going to start going to day school 3-days a week in January and then in the fall she will start preschool! Derek and I had SO much to be thankful for this year!

I plan to start decorating for Christmas this week! Friday we are going to our first Christmas tree farm! I'm very excited for this experience. I hope that this will be something that we can make a holiday tradition! I'll be sure to post about it soon!!