La Famille Armstrong

It was a good Thanksgiving. So much has been going on in both of our lives that it was nice to have a day to just sit back and do nothing in particular - besides changing diapers and feeding kids at least. I'm feeling so tired today that I'm sure I'm not portraying what a blessed time it was. Overall, the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving have been nothing but going from one even to the next, taking care of one task and running to the store for something... I feel like since we moved in I haven't had an hour to just sit!! I'm either exhausted and trying to recoup my energy or taking care of mailing something or cleaning more bottles. I would like to say that things might slow down but that's never true this time of year. At least we both love Christmas so hopefully the busyness will be fun!

I've got a few church events coming up, which means planning and arranging details this Sunday, Wednesday, Friday and then of course the Wreath making on Saturday. Mark is playing at the Calvary Chapel Coffee Shop tomorrow, then leading worship next week which means his evenings are full and he'll be gone Thursday evening.  Then, cookie exchange, Armstrong Family get-together and other yet-to-be-planned activities... I sure hope I have some down time in January! But, I will probably be doing a photo shoot with a few models and makeup artists then so I'll be busy planning that. I'd love to be able to buy the studio equipment to do it here but so far, I'm about $1000 short... yeah, I've got a bit more to save. But, I also have some photo shoot ideas with some interested people and I might be able to make it happen by mid-January so I'll be attempting to arrange getting that taken care of which also involves clearing out the garage and finally unpacking everything... I'm tired just writing all this! But I'm grateful to be busy (most days) and hope that this whole mother-of-two things gets a bit less hectic... Cole isn't quite the scheduled eater and sleeper that Asher was... but he smiles a TON so it mostly makes up for it!

Well, enough about busyness, here are a couple cute photos... I love the one of all the boys... Mark watching Asher watching Cole watching his hand! I don't know why they always look kinda grainy when I upload them... ugh, another day's work! Stay tuned for more updates... hopefully within a couple weeks at least :-)

He can turn doorknobs and lately, when I start fixing a bottle for Cole, Asher will run to Cole's room and go right in... he loves to help with everything! He also loves to help push everything... the stroller, the shopping cart, the broom and mop, anything that can go! And he loves going. Whenever I put on a sweatshirt or socks he asks if we're going. He runs through the house and the yard and it's the funniest thing ever - mainly b/c he swings his left arm really hard but his right arm just kinda hangs out, up in the air barely swinging - he might not have inherited my athleticism. He's really good at telling you what he wants and he's pretty patient if you let him know it's on the way... like his toast this afternoon. He didn't even want fruit snacks, he wanted a 2nd piece of toast... he kept crying "toe, toe?" But once I told him I was making it, he just sat there waiting for it without a peep.

Not to say he doesn't have his moments, b/c oh boy, he has plenty!! But he's been getting a lot of teeth too so we try to cut him some slack without compromising on what rules are a must. This morning while he was screaming I noticed that he actually has one of his 2 year molars! Whoa! I knew he was getting his last 2 bottom teeth and that his top kanines had just broken but I was not even looking for molars... poor kid. He loves the new place though and already seems to know what happens where. I'm always amazed at the things he learns without me teaching him - I feel like Mark and I are always laughing about the things he figures out! He also recently started calling me "mom" sometimes instead of mama. If he can't see where I'm at he just shouts "MOM, MOM" until he finds me. He also just LOVES little Cole... it's so cute to see him look at his brother and just smile. We love these boys, even though they are a handful!

Well, here's a photo of him in the new backyard... he's growing up so fast!

Well, I decided to take some photos of Cole during Asher's nap... enjoy! Hopefully I'll get some pics of the new place once we've had a chance to pack away some of the boxes :-)