Forty Weeks - Thankful for my Children

This weekend we went downtown Rockford to take some pictures. My plan was to take Addisen's 9 month photos and Brody's 4 year photos - however, I didn't plan on it being a Penn State Pep Rally :)

Today I attended a memorial service for my friend Erica's daughter (I wrote about her a few months ago). They were only able to hold Grace in their arms for 1 day before she went to God's arms. Standing there today looking at the family of three, reminded me so much of Jim, Brody and I before Addisen was born - this really could have been us that had to experience the heartache. I truly am so lucky to have my children and grateful to get to hold them everyday. There are definitely moments in the day when I feel like I could scream because Brody is running around like a madman or the house has toys thrown everywhere - but in the end I am so thankful that my house isn't perfect everyday. I hope we can all learn a little bit from the loss of Grace - don't forget to look around you and realize how lucky you are.

It was a bit of a challenge to get Brody and Addisen to smile and look towards me at the same time. Overall I think that the pictures turned out pretty nice.

Addisen started crawling on Wednesday! It was so exciting because she crawled towards Brody (to get his sword, but still towards him). He was so happy to run and tell Jim and Addisen had crawled to him for the first time.

We now have our hands full trying to keep her corralled and get the housework done - it was so much easier when she stayed sitting in the same place!

This morning Jim was up with the kids first and he told me that he set Addisen down on the floor and turned a TV show on for Brody. Before he knew it Addisen was crawling full force towards the TV and turned it off - I wonder if she knows that she is already tormenting her big brother!

When we were downtown on Saturday morning they were having "Harvest Days" and had a station where you could make your own Scarecrow. Brody picked out the clothes - including the scariest sweatshirt I have ever seen! He was very impressed with the "bad guy" superhero that he built. We placed it in front of our house and every time I walk by the window it takes me a minute to realize there isn't a person standing out there!