Winter Wonderland

I have had three snow days in the past week or so. We've enjoyed our time around the house and have taken the boys sledding at my grandmother's house right up the road from us. Today Logan and I went out during Mason's nap and made a snowman or "snowboy" as Logan called him :)

Holiday Cheer

Christmas and New Year's was a blur, as always. We had a wonderful time celebrating with family and have enjoyed a relaxing break from work. Here are a few pics from the holidays.

Blessed

Our family received an extra special Christmas gift this year. Adam and Kristi's little guy, Aiden, arrived on December 24. He is precious and everyone is doing well. We are so thrilled to have another nephew to love.

Countdown to Christmas

I am really longing to be home with the boys and Mark for Christmas. Mark and I are both off for a couple weeks and are looking forward to Christmas in our new home, visiting with family and friends, spending time with Logan and Mason, and finally getting a chance to breathe! It feels as though we've been in the middle of a rat race for the past month and a half! We have been busy with Christmas-y things, too. This morning in church our choir performed a cantata and it was wonderful. I LOVE Christmas music and there is just something about being in the church I grew up in at Christmas time. The Christmas Eve service is one of the highlights of the holiday season for me. Around the house, we've been making cookies, wrapping gifts, chasing the cat out of the tree....... My grandmother is heading to Georgia for Christmas this year to visit her husband's kids, so we celebrated Christmas early with her last night. Mason got to open his first Christmas gift and he was much more interested in the paper than anything else!

One and a half days of school this week and then the real fun begins. I can't wait :)

Holiday Spirit

We are in Christmas mode around here. The tree is up, our home is decorated, all that is left to do is wrap the gifts. We are so happy about spending Christmas in our new home. The boys LOVE seeing Christmas lights around the neighborhood and we took them down to Herr's Foods last night to see the display. Logan is totally into the "Santa" thing this year and informed me the other day that Christmas is, in fact, "Baby Jesus' birthday." Ah....that does a mom's heart good :) Logan's preschool Christmas program at preschool is on Friday, so we're so excited to see what the Winkie Bear class has in store for us!

We're In!

We moved into our new home on November 7 and are settled in. The boys have had no trouble adjusting, and we love the open space and quietness. It is good to be back in Cochranville!

Here is a pic of the exterior of our house. Visit our Prokay House Under Construction blog for more photos.

Here is Logan and our nephew, Shane, laughing it up. Our new neighbors are my brother, Eric, his wife, Christie, and their two children, Sidnie and Shane. We are LOVING that!

Mason continues to grow inches by the day, it seems. He is SUCH a joy. He loves to smile and is constantly entertained by his brother :)

Fall Fun

Last night we took Logan to Solanco's Halloween Hallways to trick-or-treat. We met Mark's brother, Rob, there with our nephew Cole. Eric and Christie also brought Sidnie and Shane. They had a blast! Tonight we took the boys trick-or-treating in Rob and Jen's development.....maybe an annual tradition?! It seemed fitting that Logan and Mason were Batman and Robin :)

Busy week ahead --- MOVING!!!!!!! FINALLY!!!!!!! We are sooooo excited, but also a little anxious as our current house has not sold yet. Please keep us in your prayers as we start this rather thrilling yet "uncertain" adventure.

My Guys

Just thought I'd post a few new pics that I took today. They are growing up too fast!!!

Buddies

Logan is REALLY appreciating Mason now that he is starting to do things like laugh, roll over, reach and grab things, eat baby food, etc. Logan constantly wants to hold him and tells Mason that he loves him over and over. Undoubtedly there will be times when they'll fight like cats and dogs, but for now we're enjoying the adoration that Logan shows to his little brother.

On a different note, I think I'm finally starting to get used to the short hair. There are days when I wish I could just put it up, but overall I think it suits me.

The house is REALLY coming along nicely (trying to get my brother to update the construction blog.....stay tuned......). We are looking at a completion date of November 7. Needless to say, we will be very busy over the next couple of weeks.

Lovin' our evenings and weekends!

Good times, good times. Although
we are busy right now with work,
planning for the new house, running
here and there, etc., we're finding
time to enjoy ourselves. We watch
a lot of football in the fall -- PSU and
the Steelers mostly, but tonight we
are heading to Qville to watch my
Solanco Mules take on Elizabethtown. Logan is very excited, even though he thinks he is going to watch the Steelers (same team colors). He is LOVING preschool, Mason is growing by the day and doing new things. Fun, fun, fun.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Life is good. We are seeing exciting progress with the house almost every day and are right on schedule for it to be completed on November 7. Mark and I have also fallen into a fairly good routine in the evenings with the boys. We do the "assembly line" bath/shower thing every night and we're fortunate that both Logan and Mason are great when it comes to going to bed. Both of them are fast asleep by 8:30 on most nights. That is such a good thing for me because I had been very concerned about having to still get up during the night to feed Mason and try to work all day. I am still managing to fit in some lesson planning and grading in the evenings and a workout session in the mornings. I'm so thankful that God is taking care of me :)
We are trying to sell our house. It has been a challenge due to the market not being very good right now as well as about six other houses in our area also being up for sale. We are praying that we get some activity soon. There was a showing here tonight and an Open House is scheduled for Sunday the 28th. Please keep your fingers crossed for us! I will try to post some new pictures when I get the opportunity.

Hard Life Lessons

This weekend provided for me and Mark the latest challenge in parenting - explaining death.
On Friday, Logan had his preschool orientation at Maple Grove Church. We took the opportunity to visit his Aunt Missy's grave while we were there. For those of you who don't know, Mark's sister died of cancer in 2006 at age 34. Logan had a hard time understanding why he couldn't physically see Miss. We explained that she is now an angel in heaven who watches over him but he still didn't quite understand.....what a tough one for kids to "get." This was also a pretty emotional visit for Mark and I, because we realized that Logan had, in fact, remembered Missy and her "pretty red hair" as he said.

This morning, we found Logan's pet fish, "Blue", dead. Logan said, "But I don't want Blue to die, I want him to swim." It was completely heartbreaking. We had a little service for Blue at the toilet and Logan did the honors of flushing. Now, however, he doesn't want to use the potty for fear of "peeing on Blue." Sigh........... No one ever said parenting is easy. On a happier note, Mark took Logan to PetSmart to pick out a new fish. This one he has affectionately named "Batfish."

Are you ready for some football....and a sleepover?!

We've had an eventful beginning to our Labor Day weekend. Our niece and nephew, Sidnie and Shane, spent the day with us on Friday and then stayed overnight Friday night. It was Logan's first official "sleepover" and they had SO much fun despite the rain that kept us inside. This weekend also brought with it a Steelers' game and PSU's home opener. Mommom and Poppop (Mom and Dad) were at the game, of course, so Logan enjoyed scanning the crowd on TV to look for them :) Now that I am back to school, I'm really cherishing the weekend time that we can spend togehter. It's awesome! On a different note, we were in Cochranville today, as well, to check out the progress on the house. It's amazing how quickly things are moving! We purchased furniture for our Great Room today at Wolf's and love it!

Back to School

Where did the summer go? One minute I'm HUGE, nine months pregnant and saying goodbye to my students on May 9. I blink, and it's August 24 and the eve of the first day of school. We've had a wonderful but very busy summer with the addition of Mason and getting our house off (or should I say "on") the ground. The boys continue to grow like weeds and our house is framed already! The shingles arrive on Tuesday! We have a very exciting year ahead of us - moving into our new place, the arrival of Adam and Kristi's little guy.....lots to look forward to. I will have to keep telling myself that when I'm in the midst of the chaos of what teaching is today. I often feel like if I could just go to school and teach, my job would be rather easy. Instead, teachers today are also playing the role of parent and social worker in a lot of cases. It's tough. I try to take it all in stride and tell myself that God will never give me more than I can handle - both professionally and personally. Every day is an adventure :)

My new do!

I took the plunge today and had 13 inches of my hair cut off! I guess I just yearned for a change. After close to 16 years of having long hair, I was growing tired of it. These pictures aren't the greatest (I actually have red highlights now), but they work :)

A smile that can melt your heart

Sigh.....this child is going to be a heartbreaker - no doubt about it. Every time he smiles at me I can't help but think, "Am I really this lucky? Is this beautiful child REALLY mine?" A baby is truly the perfect example of God's hand at work. Simply amazing.