HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I will wrap up the last month of 2009 and make one of my resolutions to post every two weeks. Wish me luck!

So Much to Post!

After Christmas service at church.

I have not posted anything in the last month...it also happens to be one of the BUSIEST months of the entire year so buckle up, it is going to be a long one!

Let's see we should start with a stat that I forgot to post in November, and for memories sake, I am going to post it now:

Miss Rachel began rolling over at 10 weeks on November 23rd. There, is it forever to be remembered.

Moving on.

On December 6th Rachel was dedicated at our church. This a small ceremonial thing that our church has so that parents can publicly declare that they are going to raise their children according to God's word. We invite our parents to join us for this occasion and then go back to our house for lunch.

Here we are at the church.

And here we are at home.

I think Levi loves his baby sister.

That brings me to a little tangent. I have been so overjoyed to see how Levi is taking to Rachel. he is not at all jealous of her. He seems to be very protective of her. He loves to kiss her and hold her. He calls her "Pitty Gural" (Pretty Girl) because that is what we call her. He is treating her the way I always prayed that he would. I look forward to the bond that they will have as they grow up together. As a mom, one of the things that I wish for most with my kids is that they get along (for the most part) and that they love each other. I can already see that bond starting to form because the other day, I was cleaning out the laundry room in order to paint it and I heard Rachel laughing. I went into the living room to see what was going on and I found Levi jumping towards the exercaucer and saying "woo hoo!," then Rachel would burst out in a big belly laugh.
Just watch:

The fun continued as he tried to make her laugh all evening. When she didn't react the way he wanted her to he would go up to her and gently tough her face and say, "You, be laughing." I was rolling on the floor laughing. He cracks me up! I feel so blessed to have such funny/even tempered children.


Here are just a few pictures of the past month that I would like to share:


Here are the first signs of little miss Rachel sitting up. She can only do it with the help of our boppie at this point, but it won't be long... She is very strong like her brother and I know she will do things in her own time :)

We had another addition into the Hymes side of the family. My brother, Aaron and his wife, Kasie had a "little" boy: Isaac Pierce Hymes. I use "" on the word little because he was 12 pounds and 4 ounces!!! I know! He was also 23inches long. My brother said when they pulled him out, Isaac asked for a cheeseburger. The family is doing great and that make 3 kiddos for them.


Rachel posing for her 3-month picture.
She is getting so big! Of course as I post this she will be 4 months on Friday. My how time flies. She is rolling over from belly to back easily and SO close to rolling from back to belly. She gets almost completely turned over except for her little shoulder. It won't be long though. She is scooting on her belly too. Once she gets the strength to pick her body off the ground, she will be crawling away. I love to see her grow and develop. It is just as exciting as it was with Levi. I am also glad that the first three months are over. She is now in a much better sleep pattern. She has always been a pretty good sleeper, but there is something about that four-month mark that allows them to sleep longer at night. She goes to bed between 8 and 8:30 and usually sleeps until between 3 and 4. She then wakes to eat and goes right back to sleep. She will then usually wake up around 7:30. I am okay with this since I have made a commitment to go to bed a little earlier and get up earlier. It's not a resolution, just a decision I recently made.


Levi looking so cute!
Levi is still in the midst of potty training. We have made some excellent progress. While we were on vacation in Nashville, we took the potty and decided to incorporate it into our life outside of the home. I tried to keep my expectations low, but much to my surprise, he did very well. He even stayed dry when we went to the museum. He went pee pee on the potty at the museum TWICE! I know he is physically capable of being potty trained, now I just need to get him to learn to stop what he is doing when he is playing and go to the potty! Otherwise, he is just growing and exploring like any other two year old. His vocabulary is amazing and I can understand nearly all that he says and others can understand about 75% of what he says. He speaks in full sentences and uses polite words frequently. When he wants something he says, "May I have _____ please." Which is so cute...especially when "have" doesn't go with it. For example: "May I have get down please." We are not really correcting that much yet, we just say, "You can just say may I get down please." He will get it eventually. He finished his first half of Mom's Day Out and I think he really likes it. I am definitely going to enroll him next year. I have been thinking about Rachel too (she will be 1). But have not decided yet. I am not sure what I would do with 4 hours a week to myself...I am sure I can find something to do :)


So back to the task at hand. The end of the month brought on a lot of activity as it does for most families. We had the Hymes Christmas on Christmas Eve, ours on Christmas morning and the Ferris Christmas on Christmas day. We enjoyed every bit of it. The kids were more into it this year which made it even more fun. We are turning the tide to it being more about the kids. Levi came away with lots of train stuff. He really enjoys all of it. From the whistle to the Thomas train to the train that goes by itself. He also got lots of fun, new books. He kind of started thinking that opening presents was a new way of life, because since then he will randomly ask me, "More presents Mommy?" I tell him that that time is over for now. That usually works.




The Monday after Christmas we headed down to Nashville for a little R&R. We stayed in a hotel across the street from Opryland. We went shopping at Oprymills, went to the Rainforest Cafe, and made a trip to the Science Adventure Museum in downtown Nashville. The whole trip was a lot of fun. It was really relaxing and the kids did GREAT. They took naps like they were supposed to and went to bed at a decent hour. This was also the first vacation we have taken since Levi transitioned into a big boy bed. We took a blow-up toddler bed that we purchased at a garage sale this past summer. It did really well for us, and Levi slept great on it. I was truly impressed with how well everything flowed. God definitely blessed this trip. Here are some photos from the museum.



If you know Levi at all you know exactly why I took this picture.



And if you know Matthew, you know why I took this one :)

Here we are at the Rain forest Cafe. Levi had a lot of fun and ate really well. However, he didn't care for the storms. He didn't cry or anything, he just wanted to hold someone's hand. All in all the trip was one of my favorites. It was also the first trip where we have had to pick things that would be fun for Levi too. Up until now, he hasn't been old enough to care. So I guess vacations with the whole family will be different from now on :)



Our last stop on our vacation was in Russellville, KY. We spent NYE with my cousins. We didn't really do much, but it was a relaxing way to spend the last night of vacation.


My Mamaw got to meet Rachel for the first time. I love getting to see her and I enjoy watching her enjoy my kids.

Levi had been bad! No just kidding. He put himself in the cage and then asked if I would lock him in...He's so silly!


The only time the entire night that all three kids were quiet and still. It only lasted a few moments and Levi was bored. Oh well, at least I have proof that it happened.


So, what will this New Year bring? At this moment I don't think we will be adding to our family this year. (I like to put at least 18 months between kids). However, we will be continuing to potty train Levi and hopefully be done by spring. Rachel will be constantly doing something new like crawling, eating solids, cruising, walking...maybe even some talking by the end of the year. We will be doing some more projects around the house. We intend to move the play area downstairs and make our 4th bedroom an office. This will take most of the year to complete as we have 3 rooms to remodel in order to accomplish this feat. I am going to continue working at Gymboree, and Matthew is on the never ending journey of owning his own business. We are happy to be very involved in our church and look forward to what God has in store for us there. We will also be trying to get to know our neighbors more. We like to connect with the people that live closest to us. It is always a good idea to know your neighbors. We are blessed to live and work where we do and thank God every day for our blessings that are too numerous to count. These are the tough years and even in these, I say God is SO GOOD!