A quick and fun trip to the zoo during our Christmas break!
Pet the snakes!
Emmie thinks she is big enough for the front seat.
Our traditional Lion statue picture.
Mark met up with us and we explored the Christmas lights as well.
We found out in February that the Lord has blessed our family with a baby! We’re continuing to pray that this baby will be a sticky one. So far, so good. I had an ultrasound last week and we saw a baby with a strong heartbeat. Nausea and exhaustion have been my friends for the past several weeks which we are taking as good signs.
I debated on whether to post at all. We have gone through two miscarriages in the past two years and lost three babies. Knowing we had a missed miscarriage in 2015 (where we saw the heartbeat and then the baby later passed) in the midst of all of Emmie’s stuff, we chose to keep silent with the babies in November and December until it was “safe.” It was so very hard mourning in silence. Especially when it was our two babies. I still haven’t been able to put into words a memorial like I did with our baby Isaac.
Recently, I’ve read several articles about how we hide miscarriages. Try not to share pregnancy too early for fear the baby won’t ever be held…I’m not sure why we hide. Why do we need to mourn in silence? In the past two years, we’ve have three babies who are gone forever. But, before they were gone, they were here. They were a blessing and they were our gifts.
Just like our babies we said good-bye to too soon, this baby, is a blessing. All babies are. Something I shared when we found out we were pregnant with Emmie after our hardest miscarriage was this exact fact.
We’re cautiously optimistic with this baby. Anything can happen. Experience has taught us that. But today, we choose to celebrate in our blessing. In all of the exhaustion and nausea. This baby is a blessing. This baby is loved. This baby is wanted. Oh is this baby wanted.
November picture dump, coming up.
It may have been November but we had some wonderful warm weather park days.
Sleeping. With her glasses. Of course.
I thought I had some crazy hair days.
Family movie night with Chinese food and Kung Fu Panda. Yep. Yep. (Okay, I also had the dining room table covered in schoolwork)
Emmie was getting ready for her television debut for promoting the NF Walk. It happened so fast, I didn’t get to grab a picture with the anchor. It was a great opportunity and we are so grateful for all of our news agencies who shared about the event.
A Knight and Warrior Princess! 
After the NF Walk, we headed home for a break and then off to Cracker Barrel to celebrate my birthday. The kids were quite the talk with all the face paint.
One member of our church family is a truck driver. Mr. J came over last time he was in town and brought the kids special gifts from all over the west coast. Needless to say, he was a hit that night! Thanks Mr. J for hanging out with us and loving on our kiddos.
Thanksgiving weekend was spent with Ge and Granddaddy. Always a blast. Especially when we can watch Alabama beat Auburn!
Ace exploded sticks-a gift from Aunt Yaya and Uncle J.
We went downtown (before the game, of course), to celebrate Small Business Saturday. 
Bryant loved his birthday gift from Aunt Yaya and Uncle J.
Emmie was ready for the game.
Silas enjoyed Steak n’ Shake this time.
Our picture life in October was fairly low key. We were focused on getting our school up and going, planning for an NF Walk and just enjoying being a family of eleven.
Have you ever seen the Keva Planks? We saw something similar at a homeschool convention, loved it, and found these planks. We have had them for several years and they go in cycles of wanting to get them down and build everything. Silas had a blast with them on this cycle.
Nothing like selfies with daddy.
When you reach a certain age of dishwashing, there is a rite of passage that goes down in our house. We call it the “YouDid” secret. Because of privacy policies, I can not disclose what the rite of passage involves. I can say that it involves a story of how a simple pot cleaner became known as YouDid. The rest is on a need to know basis.
Emmie sat in a lawn chair in the driveway at our street party. She leaned forward. Her head met the pavement. This bruise made me sick to look at, but we were so blessed that she just had a nice little toddler bump.
Silas loves catching lizards. Thankfully, our property is covered in them!
This is what we did…go to a trampoline park (this was not our first trip). Mark had to leave early for work. As our hour was up, we started heading out. I was busy making sure people had shoes on and buddy hands and all of their stuff. By the time we got to the parking lot, Zoe let out a giant scream. She was going for a split on her last jump and her foot caught underneath her. Leg moved. Foot didn’t. After x-rays and a week of rest, she was as good as new. Once again, she managed to avoid a break. But it was a high ankle sprain.
Zoe let me do her hair! I have to document when these things happen.
Sometimes cuddling on the bed reading, is just what the doctor ordered.
for free doughnuts…
On October 31st, Krispy Kreme gives a free doughnut to anyone dressed in costume. The kids were game and went to work the day before to find things around their house for their costumes. We have Anna (the mama), Alice in Wonderland, Spiderman and a slew of characters from The Wingfeather Saga book series.
I know these guys are probably not familiar to many people, but to us, well they represent hours of audio books in the van. Since we tend to accrue audible credits, we splurged on a four book series called The Wingfeather Saga written by one of my all time favorite singer/songwriters, Andrew Peterson. The kids hung on every word they heard (and Christmas brought the actual books which have been slowly making their rounds among our readers). The fun part of this picture is that we shared it with Andrew Peterson’s Wingfeather Facebook page. He, in turn, shared it with his personal performance page and on the Wingfeather Saga blog. My kids had their 15 minutes of fame. Yes, the doughnuts and this bit of fame definitely made their day.
A bit last minute last year, but we managed to squeeze in some pumpkin decoration before October ended.
While Mark worked on our chosen designs to carve, the kids got to work painting baby pumpkins.
While he continued to work, they started rolling down the hill.
I mustache you if this was a cute pumpkin!
We worked on a pumpkin with a message. The design in the back worked but I didn’t print out the words with enough gaps. So, we had to write out the words instead of carve them.
We absolutely love taking trips to the zoo. And that means I love sharing pictures of our adventures at the zoo.
Feeding some super excited lorakeets.
Touch a snake. I love petting snakes! At least a couple of the kids were willing to pet too.
Sky high kids.
Saying hello to da birds.
Trying to catch a glimpse of sea lions.
3…2…1…SLIDE!
For a change, Emmie got to keep Josiah company at a medical appointment. He had a quick two week post-op follow up.
Come home. Get a haircut.
Silas enjoys helping with vacuuming.
Silas was super excited to wear his vishyvanka (traditional Ukrainian shirt) to his first Sunday at church.
Emmie talked Malachi in to being her dance partner.
Silas found the hair gel. I think he might have used almost all of it.
Blue haired Malachi the day after our Awana Crazy Hair Night.
When your Ukrainian-American requests borscht. You make borscht and a nice cucumber salad for bonus points.
Sliding on the floor. Why? Why not?
Talk Like a Pirate Day means free doughnuts for our crew with more to share.
We dropped off doughnuts to our local fire department and they treated us to a tour of the station. Then the station EMT let us see the inside of his ambulance. Pretty cool. He even hooked up Silas (the only volunteer) to the heart monitor.
Emmie got a little too in to the whole pirate talk thing.
Washcloths on heads.
Stickers on arms.
I can’t believe another ten years has passed since I walked the hallowed halls of my high school alma mater. And yet, it has. In September, we made the trek to our hometown (Mark and I graduated from the same high school) and spent time with our family and some of my classmates.
We attended a high school football team and cheered on my nephew. Ya’ll I have a nephew old enough to play high school football. Emmie had a wonderful time and was cheering and yelling along with us. 
Playing at Papa and Grandmere’s house is always a treat.
We took the kids over to a local lake where we braved sprinkling rain to play on the playground and feed ducks and capture Pokemon. 
Emmie was patting her leg trying to call the ducks to her. They wouldn’t listen.
