Joy in the Journey: January 2020

The end of December held the boys' children's choir musical at church. James was the lead speaking role and had tons of lines (he did a great job!), James had quite a few lines to learn and a solo (and he did fabulous), and Joah did fabulous with the preschool group that only did a few songs and then went back to the pew with his class and he fell asleep. We went to Columbia a few weeks before Christmas for a whirlwind couple of days to celebrate with the Lakes family, Grandaddy and Nana (plus a zoo trip the next morning), and squeeze a visit with my Grandma Collins before heading home (and James was able to play the piano for her which she loved). We had a Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at church and then celebrated Christmas at our house (and made and decorated lots of cookies in the days before). Some of their favorite gifts this year were: Joah - Rusty Rivets Toys, and Kids K'Nex (preschool version), Jude - Nintendo 2 DS (Mario Kart!) and wrestling arena, James - Nintendo 2 DS and a Dino figure that roars and swallows figures. A few days after Christmas, we traveled to Alabama for our last Christmas celebration with Stephen's family (the festivities with the first family celebration started all the way back in November!) and we rang in the New Year there with a "Noon Year's Eve" celebration at the McWane Center (one of their favorite places!) before coming back home.

January brought back to school (we are a little more than half way done with our year and hopeful to finish our full 180 days before Josie's birth in late April/Early May) and our routine and the start of our first basketball games of the season. James and Jude are both playing. Jude has really progressed so far since last year with his dribbling and shooting, but his league is a little chaotic and none of the kids can really shoot or do anything so far (every time sometimes gets the ball they are immediately surrounded by the whole other team and then it turns over... and over again...). I don't think he's discouraged because he is our pretty happy/go with the flow kid, but I know he would love the chance to score too. James' league is pretty intense. I was proud of him for scoring three goals in his first game of the season yesterday. He is a pretty solid little athlete and definitely gets into the competition of it all. Joah is still not very interested in playing (at four years old), and I'm in no hurry to push him. He is happy to go along for the experience, cheer on his brothers, and maybe get a treat from the concession stand. I also had another ultrasound for Josie this month to see the four chambers of her heart which we were not able to view during the anatomy scan last month. Everything looked great! I am now 24 weeks along (tomorrow). She is super active (like her brothers!) and is measuring in the 88th percentile (which is larger than my other babies but I feel good about my diet/exercise and know my body will do what it needs to do). They also suggested that her due date may be a little off...we shall see! I would be very happy for her to come a week or two early in April so that we space out her arrival just a little with Joah's fifth birthday (which is her due date) because although that is really cool for future years, I know that it would break my heart to be in the hospital on his birthday...But most of all I just want a healthy, smooth delivery and baby whenever she comes. January 9th we also got the privilege of seeing Hudson Thomas (my sister's baby boy!) come into the world! He is adorable and we are so thankful that he did not have to have a long NICU stay like my sister experienced with Emma and they all get to come home together! A huge answer to prayer!