Election Day

Today we Americans have the priviledge of going to the polls to cast our vote for the next leader of our nation, among other important positions that are on the ballot today. Please be in prayer for our great nation that we may choose the best candidate and that choice to be in accordance to God's will. May God be with us.

Post-Halloween post

Except for several pounds of candy still waiting to be devoured, we have survived another one!

Here are the finished jack-o-lanterns, as well as a few items of art on display on the front door! (As you can see, the porch could use a little sweeping and the landscaping a little TLC! All of our retired neighbors have perfectly manicured yards.)


Playing in the leaves. See, if we kept our yard clean, we would miss out on all this fun! (It was not fun cleaning out leaves and debris from Vivian's scalp!)


Halloween is here! All the goblins are ready!


We went to a great Halloween party hosted by members of our church. There was so much great food, fellowship, lots of games and activities, trick-or-trunk, and a hay ride! Here is Billy bobbing for an apple! He won some "toe jam" candy! (Check out Roger Cobb on the right in his mullet wig! I cracked up every time I looked at him Friday night!)


Rebecca as a Barbie fairy princess. (I went to her school party Friday afternoon, but forgot the camera!)


Keeping warm around the bonfire.


Time for the hayride!


This was probably a good weekend for MOST people to have the end of daylight-savings time, but it is absolutely NOT when you have small children. I don't care what time you tell kids it is, their little internal alarm clocks always wake them up at the same time. We've tried the moving-bedtime-ahead-15-minutes-a-night thing for a few nights before, but it never worked. We'll just all have to adjust, and in the meantime, they'll be getting up at 5:30 am for a while...


Today, Billy and the three older kids went to visit Grandma after church. Vivian and I stayed home and got naps! Here they are enjoying some pecans from one of Grandma's trees.

With less than 6 weeks to go...

I've been stocking up on baby necessities and equipment. All the baby stuff had been purged from the house since this was an unexpected surprise. Let's see...

a beautiful bassinet found at a yard sale...check
a gently used infant car seat (in pink) bought from a friend...check
new-looking clothes from consignment shops and a generous friend...check
a hand-me-down baby bath tub...check
a borrowed infant seat...check
a hardly-used baby swing from a yard sale...check
a brand-new minivan that will actually hold FIVE car seats and/or boosters...CHECK!

Now, what have I forgotten?

A name for this sweet bundle-of-joy?

Well, as a matter of fact, she has one!

Our baby girl will be...



Ellen Amanda Woodall!

She is named after a great-grandmother on my dad's side (Ellen), and my mom (Amanda).


Now, I've got to start stocking up on diapers and wipes!

Pre-Halloween fun

Yesterday, Vivian had her 2-year-old preschool party. The kids were all so cute, but you know who was the cutest! :)


Vivian as a French poodle!


Over the weekend, Billy carved all of our pumpkins with the kids. Henry (aka "Messy Marvin") just loves this part. His clothes were just about dyed completely orange. It took a bit of Shout and OxyClean and a couple of washes to get it all out!


I've got to remember to take some pictures of the finished products! With so many jack-o-lanterns, it's a little hard to get to our front door!


We also went to a costume party for our FCC group a couple of weeks ago. I didn't get too many pictures; I think I was too busy taking kids to the bathroom or just keeping them from terrorizing the whole restaurant!

Preschool Field Trip

We went to Tate Farms again on Wednesday for the boys' preschool field trip. Vivian went along as well, even though her class didn't go. Since we had to be there before her school started, that was pretty much all I could do. But, she did great and had a blast!
The boys did great too. They are in different classes now, but their classes toured the farm together. They were so good about lining up with their respective teachers and not clinging to me or whining to me at all. It was nice not to have to watch them every second too. They are finally at the age where they don't just wander off! We went to this place on a crowded Saturday when the boys were 3, and we lost William for more than 30 minutes! That was a horrible feeling to have a missing child. He had wandered off when I literally turned around for 20 seconds, and made his way onto a hay ride! He was in the middle of a pumpkin patch when one of the staff found him!!







Rebecca has her field trip to Sci-Quest in a couple of weeks. I feel really bad that I am not going to be able to go on her first kindergarten field trip with her. They will be leaving the school before it is time to take the boys to preschool and returning after pick-up time, so I have no other choice there either. Vivian also doesn't have school that day. Oh, and I have a thyroid ultrasound that same day, that has been scheduled for a while. I feel like all I ever do is go to doctors' appointments (for the kids or myself)! I have a large thyroid nodule that was found back in spring of 2007. I have been followed by an endocrinologist who has been doing periodic ultrasounds and thyroid function tests. My first biopsy was fine, but he did another one about 6 months ago because it had grown a little, and that time they could not rule out cancer. So, this thing has to come out. But, of course, I've been pregnant for this same time period, so I'm guessing he'll want to have it taken out first of the year. I find all of this so ironic. All of those years of unexplained infertility, I'd always have my thyroid checked every so often (since that can be a cause), and it was always just fine. The second I get something wrong with my thyroid, BAM!, I'm pregnant! Life is always full of surprises.

Update on Rebecca

The tests that were run on Rebecca last week are negative. These were more tests to determine if she has some type of metabolic disorder/inborn error of metabolism. This is certainly good news! I feel like we have at least ruled that out. It's still frustrating not having a diagnosis, but the more serious diagnoses that are ruled out, the better! We'll go back to the neurologist next month to see where we go from here. We have been thinking that Rebecca's cognitive and developmental delays are related to these episodes that she has been experiencing, but I am now thinking that maybe they are two separate issues. That would be a blessing, that she isn't experiencing on-going brain damage from whatever this is. (That would have been the case if she had been found to have a metabolic disorder.) Also, although she is not yet performing on a kindergarten level at school, she continues to make slow and steady progress. She gains more confidence in herself every day and we are so proud of her! Her behavior at school seems to be improving as well. I think she had been acting out at times just due to frustration. She has such a difficult time communicating and expressing her feelings, but her language continues to build on itself, so I know much improvement is to come!

Our baby girl

I had a 4-D ultrasound yesterday. It was so cool to see her facial features and see her moving in real time. She was smacking her lips and stretching her arms over her face. She pretty much had her hands in the way the whole time so the doctor was never able to get a good picture of her entire face. She has chubby cheeks and the doctor could tell by the 2-D ultrasound that she has a lot of hair! Her current weight estimate is 3 lbs., 14 oz., so she's growing well.
He scheduled my C-section for December 8th, so that will be the day unless something happens sooner! We still aren't 100% on a name; I think we've changed our minds about 3 or 4 times already, so I'll just wait until that is settled before I post it here.