8 more days until Christmas

Who's counting? Apparently, I am!  Ha. (clears throat)

Okay, so ever since I set up the Christmas tree. Joanna has been asking if it's Christmas yet. I kept telling her "NO". Then I marked off the days that are over and started the countdown.

I just started wrapping some presents. I thought I was done with Christmas shopping but I am not. I still have one more to go. Plus, I will have to get something for Peter's birthday which is on the 23rd. I.Kid.Not! He was born on the 23rd. My "Christmas" baby. *sighs* Sooo.... with that being said, I'll go shopping for another gift just for his birthday. It's only fair. Poor little guy. I think I will have to celebrate his birthday another day when he gets older and have friends, you know? No one will want to come over to his birthday party if I celebrate it on the 23rd. Come on! Everyone wants to be with family. True.

Then I figured I haven't been blogging. So I decided to change my background to make it fit in with the Christmas theme and blog a little. Being a mother of three small children is a lot of work. My kids constantly need me. They want a lot of attention. Sometimes I have my me time, I usually like to sit down and use my laptop. I LOVE technology. It offers A LOT of wealth of information and all. You know what I mean, right? Like right now, you can use it to read the news, shop online, research... on and on. I love it when my kids can allow me to sit down and have this kind of time. They usually like to play or watch educational cartoons. I always check on them to make sure they aren't doing anything dangerous.... like jumping on the bed (which they like to do) and who knows what?

Not only that, I am kind of spoiled with staying at my in-laws. Yes, we are still living with them. Eventually, we'll get a place of our own. I know it will be hard for my in-laws when the day comes when we do move. My children love their grandparents. When grandma leaves to go to the store, Joanna cries. It is hard for my mother-in-law to leave her. She just can't bear when her granddaughter cries. In fact, she'll cry too. SIGHS. Anyway, do I know when we'll be moving? No, not yet. Not anytime soon since Matt just started working a different job for a couple of months now. Until then...

What's new?  Well, I don't know where to start. Nothing major has happened yet. So there's no big news as of now. But a lot has been happening. Like things my children says and does.  They are changing. Growing. They look different. And when they do, I have to remind myself that we are changing too. NoooooOooooOOooo!!!!!  Whhhhhhhy Oh Whhhhhy?!?!  Why what you may think? Okay, why do we have to grow OLD? Who wants to grow old?  I wish we can stay young looking forever. Yep, wishful thinking. Even though some people think I look younger than I actually am. I find myself looking at products that can keep me young. I started looking at creams and stuff like that already. When I smiled. I noticed my forehead has a lot of wrinkles. I was like... that's UGLY! Goodness. What can I do to minimize my wrinkly forehead?! You'll see when I take a picture.

So I went to the thrift store to buy some cheap toys for my kids. Well, I was in a hurry and pressed the key to automatically closed the sliding door. A lady started waving a me and I'd gestured I couldn't hear her. Then she moved her mouth to let me know that I left my van door opened. I grab Joanna and then Peter and put them in the back of the cart and rushed out the store to make sure I get to my van in time. I didn't want anyone to steal anything. I do have a few expensive items like the carseats, baby carrier and stroller. Then of course, my van. Thankfully, the Lord send that sweet lady over my way. She didn't have to say a thing. You know? So I thanked the Lord for even little things like this.

Little things can add up and for the little things I am grateful. For example: I have been wanting a yellowish-mustard cardigan. They go well with some of my clothing. I like to collect different colors. I am always wearing black and white for the most part and need to start expanding my ware robe. Not that it's important or anything but I do like to look nice. I'm used to shopping at the thrifts. My grandma has taught me well. Anyway, I bought a mustard cardigan for $2 bucks! Then I went home and found a stain on it, I didn't see that stain before. So I took out the "Shout It Out" and sprayed it hoping that the stain will come off. And it did! YAY! The Lord saved this just for me! No wonder no one bought it because of the stain. I love that it was 50% off. He loves me, right?!

Another interesting day... Matt comes home from work. Joanna thought it was her grandma. She listens to the garage door opening and runs over to see if grandma has arrived home from work. Nope. It was daddy. Matt asked Joanna if she misses him. Believe it or not, she didn't! Ha! That little girl is something. She favors her grandma A LOT. And I know why. Because grandma spoils her rotten. Yep. There's a different between being a parents versus grandparents.

So... we are still looking for a church to join. We did find two but now we are leaning towards one. We still are praying about it. Both are good. KJV. Traditional. One has over 100 members and the other has around 30-40 members. In the meantime, we'll be hopping back and forth from these two churches until the Lord gives us the final say.  I'm like... if we get tired of one, we'll go to the other. Visa versa. Hee hee but of course I know better and that's not how it works. I just wanted to throw that in.

Also, today... I decided to purchased Young Living oils. I have my doubts but my friends from Georgia told me about them. I have heard of them before. I was even going to go to a friend's house to learn more about it. I decided to wait. I don't really know what to think about them. I still have my doubts then again I hear good things. The Cheek family use it for many things. I am grateful for Godly Christian friends. I know I can trust them. They have used it. So this will be my Christmas gifts. Thanks to my wonderful sweet thoughtful husband! It is pricey but I hope it'll be worth it. Of course, I'll share you my experience once I've tried it for myself. So.... I can't comment about it yet.

I guess that's about all I have to update you with. Other than, I just took my family pictures again this past Sunday. I'll be sharing it sometimes next week. Okay??

Update on Andrew

Last week, Andrew had his one year check-up. He's now weighting in at 11.5 pounds; 24 inches long. Still very small for a one year old.

For those who doesn't know, he has a missing chromosome:18p-

He is making small progress throughout his speech, occupational and physical therapy. He can't roll over, crawl... just about everything a baby his age should do. Hence, therapy. He can sit up for 2 minutes with assistance. A milestone. That's about the longest he can sit up before falling over. YAY! Go, Andrew! He hasn't babble yet. We've also started getting him to eat rice cereal. Another milestone.

He will be needing eye surgery. His left eye (which still drifts away) needs eye muscle surgery to help keep it align with his right eye. After that, he will need another surgery to lift (I think) both eyelids. That will help him be able to see better so that he doesn't have to "throw his head back" in order to see. Often people have asked if he is sleepy... well, no... it's his droopy eyelids causing him to look that way. That's just about as wide as he can open them.

In short, will you please pray for him to strive and grow? It's the little things we often take for granted.

Thank you to all those who have been praying for him. It means a lot to my family.

Throughout trials, I don't always see the good but I've learned to praise Him for everything because He has been good to us.

Below: You'll see a picture of me with my beautiful yet sweet little guy. And another picture with just my three beautiful children that God has blessed me with.

Andrew turned 1!

On December 3rd, Andrew turned one year old. It's crazy how fast this year has flown by! But then it's like that with all of us, right? ;)

Anyway, we had a busy day.. it started off with taking him to Speech Therapy. Then I waited until my mother in law and Matt got off work to celebrate. My mom stopped by earlier to bring him a birthday cake. Thanks mom! We gave Andrew is small bite of his own cake but he didn't really know how to eat it yet. He's in the process of learning to eat. I've been feeding him rice cereal one time a day. I haven't followed up with his feeding consistently. He is finally getting the hang of swallowing his own food. Praise the Lord!

Well.. it is 11pm on my time. I need to get some sleep so that I can take him to his Physical Therapy at 9am and then later on the same day he'll get his 1 year annual check-up with his pediatrician.

Hopefully I can do an update about what we have been up to lately. Sorry I haven't been able to post like I should. I hope you understand.