Abel {7 Months Old}

Abel turned 7 months old about a week and a half ago, so I'm a little late on this post.  Anyways, Abel is just the sweetest baby!  We had to go to the doctor right after his 7 month birthday for an ear infection and the croup, and he was almost 18 pounds!  He's a little porker.  He's still on a breast milk only diet, besides baby food and some table food, and he still loves to eat!  It's becoming more of a challenge to nurse him because he's so worried about his brothers.  He loves them, and hangs on every single thing they do.  He's rolling over like crazy, grabbing his paci out of my hand and putting it in his mouth, sleeping on his belly, reaching for us, and is just happy all the time (when he's not sick).  He also loves to babble and play in his jumper.  He's definitely a mommy's boy, but he loves cuddling with Andy and pulling on his beard.  He's also started giving kisses, which is about the sweetest thing ever.  Anyways, he's growing like a weed, and I really wish time would slow down!  Here are some pictures from the day he turned 7 months old. 

Fall 2016 Bucket List

Happy first day of fall!  It definitely didn't feel like fall today, and I'm really tired of this ridiculously hot weather.  While I love Christmas and everything that goes with it, fall is definitely my favorite season.  I love all of the fun traditions, and I can't wait for Abel to be included this year.  Due to adding our sweet baby to the mix, and just the season of life that our family is in now, I've scaled down my typical fall bucket list a bit.  I'm really hoping we'll have a drop in temperature soon, and that we can jump right into the fun!

• Paint/carve pumpkins
• Go trick-or-treating
• Visit a corn maze/fall festival/pumpkin patch
• Play in the leaves
• Make hot chocolate
• Make s'mores
• Go on a hayride
• Updated pictures of the boys
• Go look at the leaves as they change colors
• Trunk or Treat
• Have a bonfire
• Make homemade soup
• Make fall art with the boys
• Make Halloween cookies
• Watch a Halloween movie
• Decorate for fall

Life Lately

It's been a really long time since I've sat down and wrote about what's going on in the lives of our family.  I don't think I've done that since before Abel was born, so I figured this little update was about due. 

SO MANY THINGS have happened it the last 7 months, and I've spent a lot of that time feeling like it was all I could do to keep my head above water.  Here's a little rundown of what's been keeping us busy and slightly stressed out since February. 

• On the day Abel was born I had a c-section, a baby, and a hysterectomy all in the span of 3 hours.  We both spent some time in the hospital for that, then headed home for a long recovery.
• After we recovered from that we moved churches.  Our church was the only church I had attended my whole life, that was a MAJOR adjustment for me and a very emotional time for our family.  
• Shortly after that, Cooper got extremely sick for about a month, had two ER trips and countless numbers of pediatrician visits, and was admitted to the hospital for almost a week.  It took forever to figure out what was wrong with him, and it scared us to death.  The best guessed verdict from the doctors was that he contracted a parasite... it was horrible.
• Right after Coop got released from the hospital, I had to go back to work, and I switched jobs.  The job change was a complete work of God, but during the week time frame that everything was taking place (right at the end of school), it was very stressful and caused lots of anxiety.
• Nothing major happened during the summer, but it seemed like every time we worked through a sleeping, eating, or reflux issue with Abel, another one popped up.  Infants are hard!
• At the end of July/beginning of August I started my new job, left Abel for the first time, and Cooper started kindergarten.  This life transition rocked our world a bit, and took some major adjusting on everyone's part.  The beginning of the school year always gives me a lot of anxiety every year, and this year was no different.  Everyone started getting sick at this point as well, which leads me to my next point.
• Clark had a seizure on August 14.  Abel had been recovering from his first double ear infection, then got a rash and virus, so I took him to the doctor that Sunday morning.  Clark was fine that morning, but when he woke up from his nap, he had a fever.  We went up to my parents, and I stupidly let him play outside, even though he was burning up.  Thankfully my dad was outside with the kids, and quickly found Clark lying unconscious on trampoline while all the other kids were flopping him around, oblivious that anything was wrong.  Let me tell you, I've never been that scared in my entire life.  When my dad carried him inside, he looked like he was dead.  I can't describe the way my body immediately felt when I saw him, but I pray that I never feel that way again.  We called an ambulance, and thankfully he regained consciousness within a couple of minutes.  He never quit breathing, thank God, but it took us a few minutes to conclude that he probably had a seizure due to his fever.   We first thought he had a major neck injury or that he had broken his arm.  All the other kids saw the commotion and the paramedics, so they were scared to death.  We got him to the hospital, had a ton of tests and x-rays done, and they concluded that it was febrile seizure due to a spike in his fever.  He was about back to himself by the time we got home, besides being exhausted.  I still don't like to let him out of my sight if he goes outside, and I'm a nervous wreck if any of them feel the slightest bit warm.
• The day after his seizure I took him to our pediatrician to get checked out.  He had whatever virus Abel had, and it held on a few more days.  We were back at the doctor the next day with Abel because he had a high fever, and I wasn't taking any chances.  So, all together from Sunday to Tuesday, we were at the pediatrician's office 3 times, and in an ambulance and at the ER once. That week was absolutely terrible, and caused lots of major anxiety issues for me.

Once we got everyone better (we've still got some colds hanging on for dear life), we traveled over Labor Day Weekend, and then I turned 30.  To say that 2016 has tested my faith, and sanity, more than any other year in my life would be a major understatement.  With everything that's happened this year, I've never been so grateful for family and friends.  There's absolutely no way we could've survived this year without my mom and dad, my siblings, other family members, and our friends.  People rushed in and took care of children when we needed, came to the hospital every time we've been there, brought us countless meals, checked in on us, and prayed for us.  We jokingly say that Andy's the only one who hasn't had something bad happen/spent time at Erlanger this year for a major medical issue, but I don't know if I'll be able to rebound if something else happens this year.  Through all of this though, God has never left our side.  Our faith has been strengthened, and we've been able to give God all the glory through these trials.