2008 in review

2008 in review

(here is a summary of our blog from the past year if you want to see pictures you have to look back at the blog pages)

January

It was the start of another tax season. I came down with a crazy rash called Pityriasis Rosea. Ben was enjoying preschool at Sunflowers and going to Cubbies. He was starting to be able to play with his brother a little more. Jacob – had no hair crazy considering how much hair he has and has had cut off since last January

February

Jacob turned one. The boys and I enjoyed some fun in the Sun in Marco Island with Gigi, Pop and Omi

March

We added walls to the bathroom in the basement in preparation to list the house. Ben also attended Miranda’s birthday party where he insisted that he needed to bring her flowers.

April

Jacob finally started walking. We all got the flu. WE had lots of dinners outside to help keep the house clean while it was for sale.

May

We sold our house!!!! I am still amazed by that one. Ben had his sunflowers closing as well as his last day at Sunflowers. Carolyn had an amazing surprise birthday party for my 30^th Birthday.

June

Jacob had his first haircut at Larry the barber. We moved out of our house into a storage unit/mom and Dad’s (if anyone is keeping track I think the official move out date was June 15^th). Jacob was at the prime of his reading career.

July

If you look at the blog in July it looks like lots happened. We tried to stay busy while at Mom and Dad’s. The 4 of us were all sleeping in the back room. Jacob took bath’s in the sink. Mom’s house was always a mess. Ben Josh and Grandpa got some fishing in at the lake. Both boys stayed awake for the fireworks at Lincoln park on the 4^th. Ben started his dreaded T-ball class that he hated. Ben also had his first MRI. We enjoyed some time at Comerica Park J The boys played with Charlie and Sarah quite a bit. The boys got a house for their bithday’s combined. Ben went to bug camp at Cranbrook which was awesome. I want to sign him up for a few weeks of that next summer. Ben celebrated his birthday with the Coats side of the family late in the month.

August

Basically August was full of birthday party fun for Ben. We had a small party with some of his friends and also celebrated at Comerica part as well as at the Nast’s house. I was suddenly feeling very tired and pretty nauseous all the time. Baby #3 was on the way!

September

Ben and Josh continued their tradition of going to the Grand Prix (it won’t be in Detroit next year so they will have to go to another race together). We visited the state fair which is always lots of fun. Ben started preschool at Woodside and loved it!!! And Jacob was just as silly as ever. This is when the picture with the goggles is from.

October

We finally have a house!!! (we closed October 1^st) I don’t remember the exact day we moved in but it was a few weeks after that. Lots of painting and re-carpeting and repair work was done during those two weeks. It was also nice to be on our own again and I am sure mom and Dad were glad to have their house back. I really did enjoy the time at my parents house. It was pretty fun and full of lots of good memories. Ben also had a field trip to the apple orchard with preschool on probably the coldest day of October. Of course we went to the Zoo Boo and had an awesome time walking the neighborhood for Halloween.

November

Josh was overwhelmed by the amount of leaves that fell in our backyard. He is going to have to get lots of rakes for the boys for next year J We found out that the baby is another boy. He will be called Caleb Joshua. We took a long weekend and spent some time up north at Shanty creek. It was so much fun. We also had thanksgiving at our house this year with the Nast’s. I love having people over so it was lots of fun. At one point the turkey was stuck in the oven. We literally could not get the door open, thankfully that didn’t take too long to do and we all had an amazing feast.

December

December started out with a bang and has still not slowed down. Mom and Dad flew Allie and I to Alabama to be there as Meg and CT got engaged. It was an awesome time and I am so thankful we were able to be there. As soon as I got home we got our new windows installed and I had my nursery workers over for a Christmas party. There was a huge snowfall with almost 2 feet in one day. We had amazing Christmas celebrations with all of our families and are so completely blessed.

2008 was full of tons of amazing blessings. We have an awesome family and I love the amazing blessing that God has given to us. I am so excited to see what God has in store for our family in 2009.

Christmas at the Coats'

Christmas afternoon we headed over to my parents house for another celebration. We have lots of fun and were again spoiled by all the gifts and love. The Crowley family joined us for an amazing dinner that Mom made and we had lots of fun laughing and enjoying eachother's company. Here are some highlights from the day.

Ben made mugs for his grandparents. Here are Gigi and Pop showing theirs off.

My job of the day seemed to be putting stuff together. Ben was pretty intense with the getting things ready to play with idea.

Jacob and the grabber which seemed to be rather dangerous

The guys playing Mario cart way past Ben's bedtime

Christmas AM

Christmas AM was lots of fun this year. Ben was so excited to see what Santa brought and Jacob was sort of into opening the gifts (if Ben would let him). It was nice to have a relazing AM with the family and enjoy each other and the toys the boys got.

The boys waiting to come downstairs and see what Santa brought for them.

Ben super excited about new camp cards for his camp game

Santa brought the boys a Playmobile Noah's ark. Isn't Santa amazing

Jacob opening a gift

Jacob's new Rar Rar

The attempt at a family picture in front of the tree. It did not so much work.

Christmas at the Nasts'

Christmas at the Nasts' was lots of fun this year. We were able to enjoy our time together and even put the kids to bed so Josh and I could play some games with the family. We were as usual spoiled with all the love and gifts. Here are some of the highlights.

Ben "helping" Jacob open a gift

Jacob reading his new book

Jacob wearing the crazy/cute hat Aunt Heather got for him

Hello Starwars guys

Grandpa reading to the boys

Westcott Brunch

We went to Pine Lake for Brunch the Sunday before Christmas. It was lots of fun to see the whole Westcott family (minus those in NC). We had some great food and lots of fun.

Jacob didn't stop eating the entire time

The family

Our cute family. We never have any pictures of the 4 of us so it is nice to have this one

Ben and CT

Mom trying to hold both boys at the same time (that is 45lbs on one side and 35lbs on the other)

Big Snow

Here are some pictures of Ben playing in the snow after the big storm. He had lots of fun. Jacob isn't so much of a fan of the snow. It was too hard to walk in and too cold for him :)

Santa

We went to see Santa on Saturday at the outdoor mall in Rochester. (May I add that this is an awesome place to see Santa. There was virtually no line and it was totally free). Anyway the boys (well Ben) were excited and had their lists ready.

Below is Jacob's instant reaction to being placed on Santa's lap. We have a great picture just like this of Ben that I will have to dig up as soon as I find the power cord for our external hard drive.

Ben felt the need to touch Santa and make sure he was paying attention to him and his Playmobile book.

Since Ben would like everything in the book he wanted to show it all to Santa

Finally posing for a picture

As we were getting ready to leave Jacob gave Santa a high five. Too bad I didn't quite get it all on Camera

Here are my three favorite boys with the reindeer that brought Santa to Rochester

Alabama

This past weekend I had a great opportunity to go to Alabama to see surprise my sister after she got engaged. It was tons of fun!!! Allie and I arrivedjust as she was heading up to my parents room to show off her ring. She knew there would be ton's of people there but had no idea that Allie and I would be there as well. She knew the ring was coming but kind of thought it wouldn't happen until Christmas. It was so fun to be able to be there and enjoy the moment's with our baby sister.

Here are some pictures to help describe our trip.

Dad somehow talked his way into getting the presidential suite at Ross Bridge (the resort my parents always stay at in B.ham Alabama). I think that it was bigger than my old house. It made for a perfect party place after the ring was on Meg's finger.

Here are all the girls including Meg's new Mother-in-law and Sister-in-law to be

My sisters!! before the post engagement dinner

Meg showing off her ring

Everything in Alabama is closed for the Iron bowl (that is when Alabama plays Auburn) so we went to Meg's future sister-in-laws house for a party. Todd and Josh were so impressed that Allie and I flew hundreds of miles to watch an entire football game. It was very fun to get to know Meg's new family. Allie fell in love with the dog.

Dad had to take me on a tour of Ross Bridge. On our tour we stopped for lots of pictures

Here we are with our newest brother-in-law to be

The Bride and Groom to be

And here are some pictures of the Presidential suite. Dad asked that everyone call him Mr. President for the weekend (I think he would like that to continue however)

More pic's infront of a pretty tree

Dad and his girls. None of us will be (Coats' girls in a few months)

I was so thankful to be able to go and spend time with the family. I am so thankful for Josh and all the other people that helped out whit the boys over the weekend.

Shanty Creek

Here are some pictures from our recent trip up north. We had lots of fun and it was great to be able to relax and enjoy the beautiful snow.

And the name is . . .

Well before I reveal the name, here is some background info on our boys and their names. Josh and I both desire to raise boys that will become amazing Men of God. It is our desire that they will seek God with their whole hearts and we pray that God will bring them to a saving knowledge of Himself at an early age.

When I was pregnant with Ben, we struggled to figure out a name that we both agreed on. The one thing that we did agree on was that we wanted to name him after a man of God who was displayed in the Bible.

Obviously we decided on Benjamin (I think while I was on the delivery table). Here is a little background of the Benjamin of the Bible.

Benjamin

The Biblical baby name Benjamin is Hebrew in origin and it's meaning is son of the right hand or fortunate. Benjamin was the youngest son of Jacob and Rachael, and a grandson of Isaac. Rachel, who died during his delivery named him Benoni, "son of my pain". This was later changed by Jacob to Benjamin. Benjamin was the founder of one of the twelve tribes of Israel.

When pregnant with Jacob we wanted to continue the tradition of a Biblical man of God and we came up with Jacob (again after he was born but still on the delivery table)

Jacob

Jacob was the second son of Isaac and Rebecca, and the twin brother of Esau. He married the sisters, Leah and Rachael. He was given the name of Israel by God. Jacob had twelve sons who founded the twelve tribes of Israel.

While I was pregnant with both boys we played with the idea of Caleb but it never stuck until now. We both agreed quickly on the name and decided to just tell people what it is. Our next son will be named . . .

Caleb Joshua

Caleb was the son of Jephunneh. He was one of the twelve spies sent by Moses to survey the land of Canaan. He and Joshua were the only two spies whose reports were favorable. Later, Caleb claimed the land of Anakim and cleared it of the giants.

Until recently I felt strange about telling people the name of the child until they were born. Here is my reasoning for telling at this point. Most importantly the little one inside my belly is in fact a growing baby that deserves a name. Even if something were to happen at this point our baby deserves a name and will always be cherished and remembered in our lives. Secondly we both agreed on a name and are so tired of playing the name game that we just wanted to decide and be done.

Please pray for our Benjamin, Jacob and Caleb. Pray that they would live up to their Biblical namesakes. Pray that they would lean to love God above all else.

It is a . . . .

BOY
It's official. Nast boy #3 is on the way. We are so excited to see how all the boys grow up and relate to each other. They are going to have a blast together (and get into lots of trouble I am sure).

Baby boy looks healthy and perfect. Another 20 weeks or so and he will be here.

Oh, he also has a name. More on that later however.

Leaves, leaves, leaves

Josh raked/blew and bagged leaves all day. Part of the joy of having lots of beautiful trees :)
At the end of the process the boys went out to play in the piles. Here are the little bundles of joy.

Jacob's first leaf experience

The only picture of both boys

Daddy and Jacob

Daddy and Ben

Ben on the police car

Jake in the police car

Jacob helping Daddy one leaf at a time