Josh and Jo-Jo

Bonding with Uncle Curtis over grapes and super heroes.

Here Goes Nothing

Back in August, we took care of our nephew Joseph while my sister was busy giving birth to Joshua. Lucas and Joseph were so sweet together and Joseph even slept the entire night in Lucas bed.

After Joseph went back home Curt started talking about wanting another child. This was a big shock to me since for the whole 9 years we've been married he has always said he just wanted one child. Before I was diagnosed with PCOS I always dreamed about having 2 kids. Then not long after Curt and I were married I found out I had PCOS and might have trouble getting pregnant. When I found out I was pregnant with Lucas it was a complete surprise and I was just happy that God blessed us with one child.

People would ask us ALL THE TIME, "when are you having another baby," and we would tell them we were good with one. I didn't think Curt would ever change his mind, and I was fine with that because I didn't want to deal with the heartache of trying to have another child and then not being able to get pregnant again. But then Lucas had to go and be all sweet to his little nephew and suddenly Curt and I found ourselves talking about baby names and I stopped taking my birth control pills.

For some reason I thought I would get pregnant right away and I bought a million pregnancy tests knowing that I would get a positive test right away. When this didn't happen we decided to just have fun and if pregnancy happened it happened but we weren't going to stress about it. Then my PCOS symptoms starting rearing their ugly heads... bad acne, hair growth, weight gain, skin tags, pain from cysts, and no menstrual cycle. I hated to even leave the house some days. So I made an appointment before Thanksgiving with my midwife. I got a referral to another Doctor and on December 30th I walked out with a prescription for provera and clomid. I walked out of the office freaking out because it finally seemed real that we might have another baby.


On the way to drop off my prescription I asked Lucas what he thought about having a little brother or sister. He said he wanted an older brother and would maybe like a little brother. I asked him what he would think if he had a little sister and without skipping a beat he answered, "I'd hate her." Guess it's a good thing boys seem to run in our family. So far my parents have 6 Grandsons.


I still needed a few days for everything to sink in and I started taking Provera on January 3rd. I was told to take 1 pill twice a day for 7 days. I finished the last dose tonight. Now I wait for my period to show up and then 5 days from then I start clomid. So 2011 could end up being quite the exciting year! We will celebrate our 10th anniversary and possibly the birth of our second child.

Dear Lucas (5 years 4 Months),

So here we are and another year is coming to a close. We just had a wonderful Thanksgiving and we have so many reasons to be thankful. It has been so much fun to decorate our new house for the holidays. I'm also thankful that we have more room to have family and friends over more often.

Your cousin Steven has been coming to spend the weekend with us once a month. You really enjoy him being here. He is 12 but he is so awesome about treating you like a big kid. When he was here this time you guys built a tower of books at the Children's Book Festival and built periscopes at the Lowe's kids clinic. When he left this last time you were so upset to see him leave that you cried. It was so sad.

A few weeks ago your Dad helped build a house that is going to be on a show called "Extreme Makeover Home Edition." He helped his co-worker install shower doors and mirrors in all the bathrooms. We went down there a few times to see the house being built and you thought it was so cool because for once you could see "where" your Dad was working. I can't wait to see the episode when it airs in a few weeks! We might have to let you stay up and watch it too!

Last week we got together at your Grandparents' house to celebrate your cousin Colby's 7Th birthday. It was the first time since Joshua was born that all six grandsons were together in one place. Matthew is about to graduate from High School in a few months and Joseph and Joshua may be moving away soon so opportunities like this one will become few and far between.

Before school got out for Thanksgiving your teacher put together a special feast. You guys got dressed up in costumes that you made and sang three songs. Then it was time to feast on things like fruit, cheese, veggies, pumpkin pie, and apple juice. I love times like that when I get to be called "Lucas' Mom" and get to see you interacting with your teacher and classmates.

This weekend we went to Holly Days in downtown Savannah for the first time. You got a chance to play in "snow" and you loved it. You ran around and threw snowballs, made snow angels, and just had a blast. I hope one day before you are grown that we can take you to somewhere with REAL snow on the ground but until then this was pretty awesome.

The other cool thing we did at Holly Days was go "ice skating." Well, according to you it is "board skating" because it was more like you were skating on a big cutting board. You have never roller skated or ice skated but you were a natural. I was worried that you were too young and that I was wasting the $5 renting you skates. You sure proved me wrong, You were a natural! You begged to take the ice skates home with you. I can't wait to take you in a few weeks to go ice skating at the Civic Center.

I just know this is going to be the best Christmas yet. You are so excited and it is rubbing off on me. Before Thanksgiving you were begging to put up decorations. I let you have our little old tree that we used when we lived in the trailer and it is now your night light. Some days you will decorate it with your toys. One day you put a construction hat on the top and toy tools on the branches and one day you had a Super hero action figure tree. I can't wait to see what you come up with next.

Little one, I love you to the moon and back,
Mommy

Joseph's 2nd Birthday Party

Dear Lucas (5 years and 1 month old),

Your letter is a few days late this month because I wanted to include your first day of Kindergarten. The last few weeks I would get a little sad when I thought about you being older. One day I think you could tell I was having one of those moments and you said, "Don't worry Mommy. Remember the book you read to me last year when I was scared about going to school. I will give you a kissing hand and whenever you miss me you can just touch it to your cheek."

I can't believe how fast your first summer off from school flew by us. You loved anything that involved water; the beach, swimming at Grandma & Grandpa's, or splashing around in the fountains downtown. We hit up the new splash fountain in Forsyth Park a few times and it is one of my favorite places to go with you. We live pretty close by and free parking is easy to find. Also, I love that it is a place that I went as a kid and your Dad and I also went there on our first date.

This summer you moved even further up the cousin totem poll when your Aunt Lori and Uncle Tony had their second child. You weren't as excited about Joshua being born as you were about Joshua. You acted like you were thinking "eh, he's cute and all, but he's a baby. Call me in a few years when he can kick a ball or push a train." When Joseph was born you expected him to come out ready to play now I guess you have more reasonable expectations for babies.

You have officially become a cool older cousin. The way that you look up to Shane and Colby is the way that Joseph looks up to you. When Lori and Tony were all busy with labor and having Joshua, Joseph hung out with us for 24 hours. He adored you. Everything you did he wanted to do. Every toy you played with he wanted to hold. You were AMAZING with him. Sometimes when you are playing with your friends you don't want to share but you were so great at looking after him. He even bunked with you and the two of you slept together all night long. I hope it is your first of many more cousin overnights.

David and Gabe are still your best friends. If you go a whole day without seeing them then you go through withdrawals and beg for them to come over or you to go to their house. Luckily they live just a few blocks from us. They haven't been over as much as they usually are since their Mom has been off from work recovering from surgery but you three still got together all summer long. On the last day of summer break there was a heavy rain storm and our power was knocked out. We headed over to their house and your Dad and I played Uno with the adults while you kids splashed around in the giant "lake" in the street.

Monday was your first day of school and you were ready to go the moment you woke up. I jumped in the shower while you were sleeping and when I got out I found you fully dressed with your backpack on your back. Since you are crazy about super heroes lately I got you a batman underoos shirt to wear under your uniform. You loved having a "secret identity" that nobody else at school would know about. You could not wait to ride the bus and didn't want me to take you but you did agree that I could meet you at your school and walk you to your class.

I was standing right there when you stepped off the bus and you were so excited. You loved riding the bus and I guess my carpool duties are over for the next few years (at least when it comes to school.)

You walked right into your classroom like you owned the place and hung up your backpack and sat down in front of a can of blue playdoh. You could care less that I was still there. I kept telling you I was about to leave and you would just say "okay mom, see you later" I was able to sneak a kiss and you did give me a kissing hand and you didn't even notice that I left. You are such a big kid! I am excited that you have a friend from your prek class from last year with you and now according to you Heather is your best friend at school.

The first thing you do when you get home from school everyday is run in the house and start stripping your clothes off. Then you find your Captain America costume and you spend the rest of the night dressed up. Sometimes you even have me and your Dad say lines that you tell us too. Your Dad is usually the villain and I am usually the damsel in distress that calls out for help. You don't go back to being Lucas until it is time for bath, story time and a few minutes of snuggle time before bed.

Captain America, I love you to the moon and back,

Mom

Third Day

Joseph at 3 days old November 2008

Joshua 3 days old today

Welcome to Our Family Joshua Malachi

Joshua Malachi A.

Born today @ 5:49PM

7 lbs 20"

Joshua is Coming Soon

Moore Baby Boy Grandsons on the Way

My sister found out on Tuesday that her second child is a boy. This makes six Grandsons for my parents. I'm excited to have so many little boys growing up together.

Seacoast Easter Egg Hunt

Happy St.Patrick's Day

Oh, Brother!

Lucas: "Everyone I know but me has a brother"

Me: "Not everyone"

Lucas: "My cousins are brothers. My friends at church have brothers. My friends David and Gabe ARE brothers and Joseph is going to be a brother and he is just a baby!"

Me: "So what, now you want a baby brother?"

Lucas: "No! I don't want a baby brother. I don't like babies anymore."

Me: "Good, no worries there"

Lucas: "But I want a BIG brother or a twin brother. You know like another 4 year old JUST LIKE ME."

It's a Wrap

The Sunday after Christmas we went to my parents' house to celebrate with that side of the family. Lucas' cousin Joseph had more fun playing with the wrapping paper then what the paper had actually wrapped.

Dear Lucas (5 Months and 4 days),

It's been such a busy crazy whirlwind of a month.

You experienced real loss for the first time in your life when your Great-Gram died. You've known about other people that have died and seen me be sad before but it never impacted you because you didn't really know them. The day your Great-Gram died Daddy picked you up early from school and told you what happened. It didn't click and you came in the house saying "Mom, Grandma died" like you would say "hey I had a great day at school." Then you looked around and said "Where is Great-Gram" and it was so hard telling you that she was the Grandma that died. After the funeral you asked me, "Mommy, please tell Jesus that I don't want to get old, die, and be buried all alone." When I picked you up from School after you returned from the funeral your teachers said you cried the entire day.

Thank goodness for Christmas. It has been a wonderful distraction for you. We made sure to fill the time with family traditions and new experiences to keep you busy. One of the things you love most about this time of the year is going to see all the Christmas lights. You kicked off the holiday season by going on a Trolley ride with Grandma to see lights. Then a few days later we took you to see the decorations that we have gone to see since your very first Christmas. Next year we should go a little earlier than we did this year. You feel asleep in the car on the way so you were SO GRUMPY when we got there and woke you up. You just wanted me to hold you, which is quite difficult now that you are four and a lot bigger than you used to be.

Another fun thing we did was go to the Westin to see the Gingerbread houses and Christmas trees. Then we hopped a ferry over to River Street and went to the candy store where I let you pick out one scoop of any candy you wanted. You picked gummy worms. We did this last year as well and I hope we keep this up as one of our Christmas traditions.

After seeing all the cool Gingerbread houses I was inspired and for the first time ever we decorated our own. You thought it was so much fun, but what is not to love about a giant bag full of icing, sprinkles, and tons of candy? I'm not sure what people do with Gingerbread houses after they are made. Ours sat in the fridge until I threw it away after Christmas.

On Christmas eve hung out at the house. We baked cookies and then opened up our new Christmas pajamas. Sometime in the middle of all the excitement your glasses broke. The arm just fell off. It was no big deal because you had a spare pair of glasses, so we didn't think anything of it. You put out a plate of cookies and a carrot for Santa and Rodolph, then you climbed in bed. We read a few stories about the first Christmas and then you were sound asleep. Christmas eve is always the EASIEST time to get you to go to bed and fall asleep. Before we went to bed we unscrewed all the light bulbs in the house so you couldn't see what Santa brought you unless you woke us up first. It worked like a charm.

Christmas morning we were woke up to "Mommy! Daddy! It's Christmas! I think Santa came but the lights don't work!" So we screwed the light bulbs in and watch you check out all your Santa loot and then we opened presents from each other. Then when you thought all was opened and unwrapped Daddy wheeled out one more present. You didn't even notice the Bike at first but when you did you got so excited. We spent the morning hanging out in our pajamas and watching you play with your new toys.

The afternoon of Christmas we loaded up the car with presents and headed over to Grandma and Grandpa O's to drop off their presents. Then it was off to Grandma and Grandpa Hunters for dinner and more presents.

Then somehow in all the excitement from Christmas your spare pair of glasses broke. Daddy took them from you to fix them and somehow you thought that you would never be able to see again. You started crying and freaking out. Thank goodness for scotch tape. I was able to fix them temporarily and then after Christmas we got them fixed.

The Sunday afternoon after Christmas we spent at my Parents' house having one last Christmas celebration. It was so much fun to all get together and laugh and eat together and just be a family. You just adore your older cousins and were so excited to get to play with them long into the night. You are officially one of the "big boys" now because you think you are too cool to play with Joseph anymore. The poor kid looks up to you so much and right now you don't understand that he isn't trying to break your toys or cramp your style, he just wants to do what you do. Lately you've started asking for a brother. You told me everyone you know has a brother except you and you need one.... but you only want an older brother. I'm not sure how that is going to work out for you. However, we did find out just a few days ago that Joseph is going to be a big brother.

In just a few days you'll be going back to school. I am pretty sure it is going to be another adjustment since you've been with me for most of December. First we were in California for a week, than you were out of school for Great-Gram's funeral, and then your two weeks of Christmas break. I've loved having all this extra time with you but I have also come to appreciate your teachers at school so much more. Seriously, five days a week they spend six hours with 20 four year olds?!?! Your teachers really are amazing. You can tell that they love you so much. You get to do so many fun things. Your homework project this month was for us to help you make a Snowman.

Snuggle-buggle, I love you to the moon and back,

Your "Mutter"