Birthday Boy!

Brody is now 3!

He was trying not to laugh and smile while the family sang him "Happy Birthday!"

It is hard to believe that my sweet little Brody is now three years old. He's such an amazing kid. He makes us laugh in the greatest ways. And he's so loving and thoughtful. Without being asked, he will say "thank you" for the simplest things. Even three days after his birthday, he hugged Jake and said, "Thank you for my birthday party, Daddy." (He repeated with me.) So sweet!!

The party was a success with great-grandparents, grandparents, cousins, siblings, and parents. Brody had a lot of fun. We had a monster truck party, which is something Brody is really loving right now. He got new monster trucks and has been jumping them on everything he can around the house. There's one in particular that has gone to bed with him a few times already.

Brody struggled a bit with the candles. His aim was off. A lot. But it was funny. He got help from his siblings on either side. I'm sure we all had a little spit on our cake. But, they are all so cute, it's okay. :)

Happy Birthday to my Brody-man. :)

Another round of updates

This is the entire Monhollon Family, as of April 2012. There will be another addition in August. Wow. That's a LOT of little kids. They are all under the age of 4. :) Fun times. Loud times. Awesome.

Judah is 4 and will start preschool in the fall. I'm happy for him but sad too. I feel like our lazy times together at home are quickly coming to an end. He will soon be busy with friends, homework, sports, and the like. He's getting big so fast! He likes to make up his own jokes (that make no sense), and he also has learned that he likes to prank others (especially daddy).

Brody will be 3 in August. He is talking SO much lately. Often, Judah has to translate what he says, but it's all so cute. He has been completely potty trained for such a long time by now, and I am so proud of him for that. He likes to do things by himself, but then on some occassions he demands help on the simplest tasks. He's so funny, too. He loves to make others laugh.

Ava is 18 months and ornery as ever. Her newest thing is diving off furniture, head-first. She did this at the doctor's office recently and about gave the doctor a heart-attack. I had her by the hand, because I know better, so she was fine. She also likes to stand atop furniture and jump off to see if she can land on her feet. She's a ball of energy and gumption. She has no fear of anything. With the exception of mommy leaving her behind.

Baby #4 is due at the end of August. Mommy has about 6 weeks left in her pregnancy. Names have been a bit of a problem with this one. We had a boy name picked out pretty easily, but since it is a girl... We just can't make a decision on her name. Jake likes Brooklyn and Finley. I like Emily. Jake hates Emily. Just between us, I keep hoping he will change his mind about it. (He won't. He's pretty stubborn...)

Fun times. Loud times. Awesome stuff.

A New Year

It is a new year, and I haven't updated my blog in a long time! Turns out, it's nearly impossible to do from my phone. I added photos in November, but then I couldn't add any text. It was frustrating. So, from time-to-time, I may just add random photos without much information. It just happens like that.

Ava is almost one, and I can't believe how quickly the past year has gone. She is walking, almost running, everywhere. She is ready to join in with the boys on anything they are doing, including going down the stairs, which she doesn't do well. She is one of the happiest babies I've ever seen. I am truly blessed to be her mom. She brings such joy into our home, and I am beyond grateful to know her!

Brody is really starting to blossom. He is talking so very much now, when he doesn't feel too shy. He loves to laugh, which is really quite catching if you hear his belly laugh. He will often say something (usually something I don't understand), and then follow it with a huge laugh, like what he just said is hilarious! It's fun to watch. He will now randomly just say, "I love you." to everyone, and if they don't understand him, he'll turn to me and say, "(so-and-so) doesn't love me." with a pout. I have to translate for him, and then everything is fine.

Judah turned four in November, and that kid cracks me up all the time. His humor is maturing, so jokes are really fun with him. Even today, he walked behind Jake and mimicked everything Jake was doing, and it was really funny. Judah fell to the floor laughing when Jake figured out what Judah was up to. Judah is also a fantastic big brother. He really does take good care of Brody and Ava. He loves to have that responsibility to look after younger kids.

I am looking forward to a very playful year ahead with my children. I am so blessed. Even through our tough times last fall, I realize how blessed I am. This year, I am trying to be intentional about spending time with my kids and really being playful, to show them that life can be playful and fun!

What will you be doing in the year ahead to be intentional with your life?

Updates in November

Ava at 9 months. She has an easy smile

Catching up...

Ava Nicole Monhollon was born on January 13, 2011 at 1:05am. She weighed 7 lb. 14 oz. and was 21 inches long. The boys were absolutely thrilled to welcome their baby sister into the world.

I don't have internet at home anymore, so I have gotten quite behind in my blogging. I just happened to catch my blog and the fact that I haven't updated it since our beautiful daughter was born.

Life with three is crazy, but fun. Ava is simply a fantastic baby. She is easy-going and happy. She was already sleeping through the night at 2 months old! God knew we needed her to be an easy baby. Let's hope that is a foreshadowing of things to come. Easy toddler, easy teenager...? :)

It's almost Time!

I have 12 days until my due date, and I am feeling fantastic! I have the usual pregnancy aches and pains, so I can't complain too much about that. I am just eager to meet this little girl that our family has been anticipating.

I haven't been blogging much, which has really bothered me as of late. I feel like I'm getting behind! I have so many things I want to write about: my dive into cloth diapers, my sewing projects, pregnancy, the boys.... The list goes on and on.

What I have for now is pictures of the little monsters that I created for Christmas gifts for the kiddos this year. I found a book about how to make monsters, and I thought, "I can do that!" I didn't buy the book, but I made up my own patterns and created these little monsters. After all of the hours of sewing and hand-stitching, I began to think they were going to bomb with the kids. But, I plugged on anyway. Turns out, the kids all loved the monsters! (At least most of them.... I didn't get comments back from everyone.)

These little beasts were fun to make. I believe I made 10 monsters total, which was just enough. I do plan on making more, just for fun, really. Judah loves his little monster (the small blue square one with the backwards arm...). He named it Alphie.

Judah also loved being able to give our little creations to his friends and cousins. He was so proud of the monsters.

More on my sewing projects another time....

Camping on Labor Day

We don't have anything huge to report. Life is moving along at a pretty steady pace. On Labor Day weekend (Jake's birthday), we spent one night camping out. Well...kind of. We set up a tent at Jake's parent's house, and Jake & Judah slept in the tent. Brody and his pregnant Mama slept inside.

Judah was thrilled to have a camp out. We made a little fire and roasted marshmallows and had smores. YUM! Everyone loved that. Judah especially loved putting the marshmallows into the fire. He enjoyed learning about how a marshmallow will eventually just melt and fall off into the fire. At first, it horrified him that his marshmallow was GONE, but then he thought it was cool, so he kept doing it.

Here is Daddy and the boys with the fire in the background. Daddy is holding a smore that Judah made for him. We all had fun with the fire and making smores!

This picture isn't great, but it's merely evidence that I, Mama, was actually there! Brody did great with the fire. He stayed back, even though he wanted to mess with it just like his big brother!

This is Daddy and the boys in the tent. Brody was ready to sleep there, too. He actually fell asleep in the 5 minutes that we were in to say goodnight to Daddy and Judah.

This is another great shot of the boys. I love their smiles. We had a great time that weekend together as a family.

Funny story: Jake and Judah were sleeping pretty good in the tent. It was the middle of the night, maybe around 1:30am. Suddenly, Jake heard the door to the tent unzip pretty quickly, as if someone was coming in. Jake jumped up. Then, our dog, Roscoe, joined him in the tent. He must have gotten his nose in the corner of the doorway and done it just right to open the door. He REALLY wanted to sleep inside that night. And he REALLY wanted to be near his family. So, he slept in the tent with the boys, too.

We will be going camping again in the future. We aren't the rustic type, so I'm sure it won't be much more than what we did that weekend. It was still really fun, and our boys enjoyed it a lot. It was full of star gazing, roasting marshmallows, playing outside, and most of all a close bathroom and shower. :) We all had a great time.

It's a....? Part 2

We were on our way to drop the boys off at Jake's parent's house, and Brody was drinking milk from a bottle. He must have been so tired, because before we knew it, he was asleep. Judah said, "Haha! Look at Brody!" We were all laughing pretty hard for a few miles. He was pretty exhausted after his one-year appointment and getting shots this morning. Poor thing.

On a bright side, he was a really tough little boy when it came to getting shots. He didn't flinch with the first shot, but the second 2 were pretty painful for him. He cried for a quick moment and was done. I was amazed. He was quickly himself again afterwards -- playing and laughing with Judah. He is a tough boy.

We went to our sonogram this afternoon. I was excited just to SEE the baby! Getting to find out the gender was just a perk of actually seeing a real baby in my belly. My belly didn't really "pop" until this past week, so it hasn't felt really real. (Even though I've been feeling some kicks and jabs...)

The question I got most often when people discovered I was pregnant is this: "Are you hoping for a girl?" My answer: "No. Not at all. I'm hoping for a healthy little baby. A boy would be easy, since we have everything for a boy. A girl would be fine, and she would add a little chaos to our little family. But God knows what we need." And I truly felt that way. I wasn't ever hoping for either gender. Just a healthy baby.

The moment the tech put the machine to my belly, I saw the baby. Oh, it was so cool. I will never tire of getting to see a growing baby in my belly. I am always in awe of God and His amazing craftmanship. He knits all these babies (including you and me) together in the most amazing and delicate way. It is just awesome. We got to see baby kicking and moving around. It helped me realize why my side kept hurting: baby feet were kicking away in one particular spot. We have a very active little baby!

The tech kept getting shots of the bottom side of baby, pointing out the bladder, kidneys, and stomach. I just kept thinking, "I don't see any boy parts there." I kept looking at Jake, who was just watching quietly. Finally, the tech said, "It looks like we have a little girl." I was shocked. Happy. A little later, the tech was looking around again, and I said, "Are you sure it's a girl?" She checked again and said, "Yes." Jake chimed in (reminding me), "We've seen a boy on the screen. That isn't a boy."

My mind was having a hard time processing it. Of course I was very happy to have a healthy baby growing in my belly. A girl. I'm having a girl. It just seemed like such a foreign thought after convincing myself it was most likely a boy. I praised God for a healthy little baby girl.

I had my appointment with my midwife afterwards. The nurse took me to get weighed in. She said, "You had your sonogram. Did you find out the sex?" I felt like I was dreaming as I said in a semi-confused voice, "Yes. (pause, because it seemed weird to say aloud) It's....a... It's a girl."

We bought a little pink outfit for her for next summer. I had Judah pull it out of my purse. He looked confused as if asking, "What is this for?" I told him he would have a sister. He smiled. Then he said, "So we didn't get a boy?" I laughed. He is very excited to have a sister, though. Before bed, he asked to see my belly. He leaned over and gave my belly a kiss. Then, after our prayers he whispered, "I love my baby sister." (Universal AWWWWW! please!)

So, that's the whole long story of our day. It's been a blessed day with beautiful weather, fun times with the boys, great news of a healthy baby, and a sunset walk in the beautiful weather!

It's a....?

I can't ever resist putting a cute picture of the boys up whenever I post . . . about anything. Judah is such a fantastic big brother. If Brody is sitting (like here in the picture) and playing, Judah will go and intentionally sit next to him just to be close. I am blessed to have such sweet boys who love each other.

My main reason for writing today is to hear from YOU (whoever might be reading this today...). I go in to the doctor's office tomorrow afternoon for our ULTRASOUND!!! We are all excited to actually see the baby . . . and of course hope to learn the baby's gender, too. We are curious to hear what you think. Are we having a boy or a girl?

I hope you don't fall into the trap that Judah falls into everytime we ask him this question. If I ask it like this: "Are we having a boy or a girl?" His answer is always, "Girl." If I ask it like this: "Are we having a girl or a boy?" He says "Boy." See what he's doing? He just says the last thing we say. It's awfully cute.

So, you have until tomorrow early evening to post a comment and add your two cents. What is your vote?

Don't be afraid to tell me what you think! It's no big deal if you're wrong! You have a 50/50 chance here.

Which Way?

Judah has great faith in Jake to catch him when he jumps off the diving board. He loves to do this!

I love the look on Judah's face here. He is so trusting and fearless. He is having a blast!!

While we are driving, Judah has been very interested in "which way" we will be turning at every intersection. He just wants to know "Right" or "Left." Jake and I tell him, and he's happy to know exactly which way we are going. He doesn't ask why (this is a BIG thing, because he asks "WHY?" to EVERYTHING!!!). Judah is just okay with knowing which direction we are going.

This concept seems kind of advanced for a 2 year old, but we are glad to help him learn his directions whenever he's ready for that.

Not too long after Judah started asking "Which way, Mommy/Daddy?" I heard a sermon in which the pastor just merely mentioned letting God sit in the driver seat. It hit me that I should be exactly like my 2 year old: I should be in the back seat (securely fastened into my seat), and simply ask God, "Which way?" at every intersection of my life. I should also just simply say, "Okay, God." and stop asking Him, "Why?"

I am so thankful for the life-lessons that my young boy teaches me. He just opens my eyes to the way I should be with my Heavenly Father. He amazes me. (Both God and Judah!)