My brothers and sisters

Being from a big family is such a blessing to me. I am the oldest of six children, and have loved always having someone around. As each of us has gotten older we have had our differences of opinion, but at the end of the day we all love each other so much. As of right now, five out of the six of us are all living here in Massachusetts, but sadly by this fall that will all change. My brother DJ and his wife Lyndsea will continue to live in florida, my sister Deanna is moving to Texas, and my brother Dennis and his wife Johanna are moving to North Carolina. It will be hard to not have either of my brothers around, my kids love their uncles so much as do I. Each of my brothers has married and will probably be starting families of their own within a few years. My sister Denise is married to Ron, and they have three kids and one angle baby in heaven. My sister Doreen has a beautiful little boy named Darius, who has been on here before. All this to say I am just incredibly thankful for my siblings. God truly has blessed me tremendously with them.

This is the 6 of us in 2008 (shortly before I had Sophia), when Dennis was on a break from a tour of duty in Iraq

This is our family in 2009, at the graduation party that we had for my twin sister's Deanna and Doreen

And this is the 6 of us on thursday morning, prior to my doctors appointment and DJ's return flight to Florida.
As I have been going through my pictures I have realized we don't take enough pictures of the six of us together:-(

Easter pics (FINALLY)

Goodness it seems as though lately I just can't keep up with this blog. Now that the warm weather is here we have been running what feels like all day every day. WE are so loving the sunshine and warm weather, I am starting to come out of the constant nausea stage with this pregnancy, so we are chomping at the bit to get out and enjoy the beautiful creation that God has given to us.
Easter this year was fun. My mom decided that it would be fun to have everyone dressed in purple. And so all of us (sadly minus DJ and Lyndsea though) wore purple. We actually got some family pics too:-)

Cousins:-)

We got to have Darius over for the night last night. Sam absolutely loves him. It is so awesome to see them together. Both Sam and Sophia have been saying things like "I have a new baby brother and sister." to which everyone is completely suprised/confused. But they have claimed Darius and Danay as their own siblings. It is awesome to see how compassionate and protective Sam is of babies. When Sophia was born he was only 20months old so he didn't really understand "the big brother role."

I have a beautiful new niece!!!

I have a new niece that was born today! I am so excited, however I am so so disappointed that I didn't get to see her be born. I unfortunately didn't get the texts/phone call until this morning at six! So sad that I missed it. But oh is she precious! Seeing how my babies are always early and on the scrawny side it was so wonderful to snuggle this baby. I couldn't get over how wonderful she felt in my arms.:-) If only I could grow a baby like that!!
My sister got to the hospital around 1 in the morning and delivered her at 3:24am. She was 8lb11oz and 20inches long!!! A TON of silky black hair

Winter Fun

Today Matt, the kids and I all went over to my parents for the afternoon. We had a great time. There is so much snow right now that the kids can't even really walk around in the snow. So at my parents house in the backyard my dad snowblowed a large part of the yard into a huge pile. Matt then built steps into the pile and made a trach for the kids to sled down. Sophia went once by herself and then didn't want to go again, except she went with Matt. Sam went several times and had a wonderful time.

We also got to spend some snuggle time with sweet Darius! He is smiling and cooing now. It is so amazing to see my little baby holding a real baby. It feels like so long ago when Sophia was tiny, and then to see her holding Darius, :-) Makes me wonder how she would be as a big sister

The recovery process....STINKS!!!!

Sunday was a good day for Sam. Matt and Sophia came to visit which was awesome. It was so nice to actually be a family again. It wasn't too long before the kids were arguing and we were having to referee them. It felt so comfortable:-) I miss being a family and having us all together. Don't get me wrong I am loving spending the one on one time with Sam, and having the time to spend in the evening with my best friend, but I am a wife and mom and I miss being JUST that right now:-)
Monday my parents came to visit which was really nice too. They commented about how thin Sam is, and I guess I hadn't really noticed. I have been complaining recently at the last few doctors appointments that he had been losing weight but I had been reassured that he was ok. But after my parents left I put him on the scale, he has lost almost five and a half pounds! I know that doesn't seem like a lot but he was really thin to begin with, we can see all his ribs, when he sits on my lap he feels frail and boney.:-( Unfortunately this weight loss is probably going to continue for another week or so. He is now down to 32lb and is four years old!!!
Monday evening and night Sam got a little irritable before bed, he woke up twice last night in terrible pain. There was nothing I could do for him to help. I was praying, rocking him, singing, but he was just hurting too bad to notice. I called the doctors office, and they said that increased pain at this stage is completely normal. I am not sure if I agree but I am going to wait another day and see. The poor kid is so irritable. It just seems to me that if plain tylenol was able to manage his pain all last week when we had the surgery, why after a week is it not able to cut it anymore? Ugggghhhhh!!!!!!!!!!
Please pray for my boy tonight. That he is comfortable and pain free, that he can sleep well and feel better tomorrow. And also (the nurses informed me that day 10-14 are the biggest bleeding risks after the first 24hrs) that there will continue to be no bleeding. Thanks!!!

Tomorrow...

Tomorrow is the day
The day of the surgery
The day I have been praying for
The day I have been terrified about
The day I have been dreading

Tomorrow is
The day that God's will will prevail
The day that Satan's fight for Sam's health will be defeated
The day that I will rejoice for God's healing
The day Sammy will be able to breathe
The day I will be able to focus on God
The day we will be surrounded by love and prayers
The day that God will reveal Himself in a bigger way
The day that the Lord has made

The surgery is tomorrow afternoon. We will go in early so that he can get IV medication to help his blood function better to help prevent bleeding. I am so blessed to have the prayers of so many surrounding us, and also to have a support system of people coming into Boston, taking care of Sophia, and praying. Thank you to all of you! We couldn't get through this without all of you!!!

On New Years Eve we got to have Darius over to watch. Sam absolutely loves him! He wanted to hold him constantly. Sophia on the other hand, was jealous and didn't want me to hold him at all.







Phillipians 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Christmas

Christmas morning was spent here at our house. Matt, the kids and I had a nice morning together as a family. They each got something that they each were really excited about: Sam got a remote control tank (I think Daddy was excited about this too:-)) and the other thing he was really interested in was the Operation Game (he had played it the last time he was in the hospital) and Sophia got a lot of dress up clothes and a "Bitty Baby" which is a sweet baby doll made by the American Girl dolls. She seems to really love her baby, whom she has named Baby Jess/Jessie.

Sophia also got a tutu, which she put on immediately before opening anything else


Princess Sophia


Sam and Daddy with the new tank


My parents came over to spend some time with the kids. My mom has talked about how when we were all young how her parents always came to see us so we could be at home with our new stuff. I think that I am starting to feel as though I don't want to drag the kids all over the place trying to see everyone, so I think that I will request this in the future. That people are more than welcome to come to our house. If you have both sides of the family close how do you divide up the holidays?


After spending the morning at home, we went to Matt's parents in the afternoon for Christmas Dinner. By early afternoon Sammy had gotten a fever and had frequent coughing. I gave him albuterol which seemed to help the cough. We went over and had a delicious dinner. Shortly after dinner Sam started complaining that he was sick and had some diarrhea. His fever then got higher and he fell asleep. He slept for quite a while. Once he woke up he perked up and seemed to be feeling better.


Sophia taking Baby Jessie with her. She wanted to bring Jessie's high chair too:-)



Grandpa and Sammy cuddling on the couch


Cousins Naomi and Andrew


Sophia and Chris


Sophia and Andrew


Sammy, Daddy and "Baby Jessie" taking a nap

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve this year was a busy wonderful day. Unfortunately Matt had to work so he was unable to join in the day with us. We started the day by going to my mom's, where four of my five siblings and spouses were. Unfortunately my brother DJ and his wife Lyndsea were in florida so they couldn't join us. We had a great time at mom's playing with friends and family.

Sammy with Dennis and Johanna's snake "Moses"




My beautiful new nephew Darius Jeremiah


Sam and his friend Kaedan


Sophia and Sydney

We left my parents house and then went to a church that we had not attended before. Our friend Joan was actually singing several songs and invited us to see her. The kids did really well. They got loud occasionally but they did a really good job. I was so thankful to attend.
After that we went to Matt's grandmothers house. It was super busy there this year. The kids had a blast playing with their cousins, Allayna, Jacob and Ava. "Nana" read the Christmas story to the kids, and then asked them questions about His birth. It was really cool to watch. We then sang several songs, and Sophia was thrilled with the singing.
It was close to 10 when we got home. The kids went to bed and then the Christmas morning preparations began...

Luke 2:10-11
10And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.