23 weeks and Perez Family!

The Fair

Last week after school we went on an all boys trip to the Dixie Classic Fair here in Winston Salem. The boys enjoyed seeing the animals, riding the swings, the giant slide, and having their first funnel cake! They slept well that night!

The

Jacob the Kindergartner

Here's a video of Jacob's site words that he can read!

14.5 weeks

As promised, here's pictures of Ashley and baby. 

And just for fun 

Pictures of Summer

What have we been up to? 

Hmm. We bought a house in April, and closed May 20th. Then we went to Tennessee to be with the Pughs from far a wide. That week Thomas went to the Hospital for asthma. We've got that hospital visit down to a science. He has now visited ERs in four different states. The doctors gave us some new medication-this time for allergies, which we think was the trigger for this flare-up. He handles everything like a trooper. He is so. darn. cute. 

Here he is in Green Pond, NJ on the Fourth of July, spraying the smoked ribs with apple juice. 

Here he is carrying his minion to the movie theater to see Despicable Me II. This movie and its minions have been a large part of our summer.

We moved into our new house on May 26th. Unbeknownst to us, Ashley was already pregnant! She is currently 13 weeks. I will make sure to take a picture of her belly and the sonogram for a post later this week.

Here big brothers Jacob and Thomas stand by the "12 week" model of a fetus at the Science Museum.



After Grayson Camp, Ali camp, Pa camp, Science camp, and Daddy camp, the boys were ready for Vacation Bible School. Jacob once chided his fellow campers for not paying attention during rehearsal.


A great part of the summer was spending time with world-famous uncle Luke! Here we are getting Fro-Yo.




Ashley also started a new job in May. She is the Nutritionist at the WIC Clinic in Mocksville, NC which is about 30 minutes from our new house. She loves her job, the work that she does, and the people she works with.

Since she just started, she got no time for vacation- so we made time. On July 20th we took the whole weekend to visit Ashley's BFF from high school Ashley Eckert and her parents, who spoiled us all. Here is Jacob, Thomas, Kennedy (Ashley E's daughter) and Ashley.




So happy to take a brief vacation together.



On August 1st, I traveled to Chicago for the Justice for Women consulting committee meeting. I asked KD and John and Eric and Megan if any of them could make the 3 hour drive to the city- and they all did. Here's a picture of my favorite little Roman drinking chocolate milk. It made her well- happy.




Here his her little sister, Berkeley, with her momma.

Last week we decided that the boys were growing up too fast, so we started a "measuring wall" The top mark was where Jacob was, right above 3ft. Thomas, the wonder-boy who weights the same at 2.5 as he did at 8 months, took a while to measure due to squirming and trying to get an accurate reading through all his hair. 

Now that Little Pugh is on the way, I'll make sure that we blog more regularly. This has been Ashley's venue in the past, and will be again once she's up for it, but between her job and being pregnant and the boys, she's beat. She has fallen asleep every night this week on the couch before 10pm. In general, she feels pretty good. She's had some cravings lately, which are a good sign. For a while nothing sounded good for dinner. Now that she's in the second trimester (13 weeks as of this posting), the nausea has dissipated somewhat. The heartburn ( like with the other kids) is still there. She is showing, and i'll take a picture soon, but hasn't gained much weight. 

The next sonogram (with potential to know the sex of the baby) is September 13th. Little Pugh is due on Valentines Day, 2014.  

Ashley is such a joy to be parent with. Her knowledge of motherhood is vast and deep, her understanding and ease of caring for our two boys is uncanny. 

I am excited to enter this phase of life one last time, looking to the miracle of birth to count my blessings on those little fingers and toes. More soon!

Journey South

After Holy week, all 4 of us were itching for a chance to get refreshed following the eventful season of Lent and Easter. We loaded up and headed to GA for a night with Emily and Josh, then to Mississippi to visit our beloved Chase, Steven, and baby Wake (just about 8 wks old at our visit). While the camera was never where it needed to be to catch the 'good stuff', there are a few nuggets.

Things I learned on our trip:
-We have amazing friends and family.
-Seeing anyone transition to parenthood is so special and being able to visit Steven and Chase (seriously, having a family with 2 young kids come stay at your house when your firstborn is 8 wks, WOW) was something we 4 are so grateful worked-out.  Little Wake is getting some awesome love.
-And last but not least: I get way more stressed-out with 2 noisy, curious, sweet but rambunctious boys when I'm overly aware of every single move they make. As in the case of not being at home. Whew.

On APril 6th Jacob turned 5! We'll do a devoted post on that sweet boy.

On April 7th my sisters(Emily on the left, Grayson on my right) and I ran the tough mudder. It was 11 miles and 25 obstacles. It was the muddiest location that they do...and it. was. epic.  'Ma' was our cheerleader and photographer; the spectators didn't really get to see the mud as it was all in the woods. We army crawled through mud and under barbed-wire, we ran through dangling electrically-charged wires, and we climbed over 8' tall walls.  And we bruised, we laughed, and we showered several times before the water ran clean.

Pre-mudder

Mid-mudder

Tough Mudders!

 I would absolutely do it again- gotta have a team, though. Gotta love my Chellax team.

That's just about catching us up on life!

Home sweet home...in 3 weeks.

We NC Pugh family of 4 close on our first house on May 20th (because everything will just go as planned, right?!)

From the front:

 Hallway with doors to the 4 bedrooms + 1 bathroom + wall closets:

 Little boys doing their thing in the "office":

 

Boys being 'proper' (close as it gets) in the dining room:

(family room is room to the right while double doors behind Jacob lead to screened in porch)

 JDP and Mosty's rainy-day playland. Our garage/basement:

 Backyard plants getting roughhoused already:

 

We are SO thrilled about finding and miraculously getting this gem of a house. Is it move in ready, oh yes. Did it pass inspection with flying colors. Yes it did. phew.

Great neighborhood within 1 mile of both boys school(s as JDP's elementary school is even closer than their current preschool!).

But, lest you think we might be bored, there is this gem to share.

 

and this

 

(That apricot-ish color is not the lighting but the actual textured paint color.)

 

We are so excited to get going on making it our own home and thankful for all those who have helped us get to this point!!

Getting back

Learning how to post with the iPad. I realize it is unhealthy how long it is taking, but truthfully, there isn't enough time in a day.

We'll work to be more like the intentional bloggers of our past. Lots of exciting things on our front including buying a house (we close may 20th and will have a separate post about this), 3 job interviews in 3 weeks for me plus a recap of our recent past including a trip down south to visit family and friends so-close-to-family and LOTS of mud.

Apple changes everything.

To explain the title of this post: we entered the world of apple products. Our laptop and our notebook computer both died/broke within the same week in January- days before Daniel was headed to Florida for a week-long conference. We researched and after much discussion (apparently I take awhile to make decisions and I am fine with that), the iPad became our newest family member.

This is all relevant, I promise. There are 2 ways it affects the blog; first, we don't take as many pictures on the camera but rather the iPad and the pictures we do take with the camera, we can only upload to our desktop via the printer. So many steps. (Yes, I hear the laziness, too). Secondly, most of the people directly badgering us for pictures or updates also have apple products and frequently receive messages with pictures and videos.

All this is to say that we want to keep this blog going, we're just learning how to do so with where we are in life (and technical endurance for figuring out all the quirks).

With that being said....how do I get pictures from the iPad onto the blog? Hints?

Thanks for bearing with us!

How we roll....

I know. It's January 14th meaning more than a full month since the last post. We had a busy and great holiday season (including family together for Thomas' birthday, first Christmas at our home, and Texas time with the entire Pugh family). How about a quick but cute, silly, informative Christmas recap?
 I doubt Jacob gets this happy about this kind of gift during his next 15 years....

Thomas just wanted to eat, kiss, or pet all of his gifts.

We all had a lovely Christmas morning in our house shared with Ma and Pa.
Thomas received the gorgeous birth sampler hand-made by his Great Aunt Lois; as seen below, he adores it. It now hangs next to Jacob's birth sampler in the boys' bedroom and Thomas frequently requests assistance for a closer look or touch.

Jacob got some Mario paraphernalia and was quite the happy boy!

After a brief respite in Raleigh, we began the Texas portion of the holiday. Words don't even describe how much giggling, chatting, playing, dancing, and bubble-bath enjoying occurred. (Unfortunately just the kiddos got the bubble baths).
We got 5 of the 9 in for racing their Didi to the finish line (me). Clearly the ultimate goal for each kiddo was different!

We're missing Samuel (5.5yo) but here we have the boy cousins Parker (4), then Mos, Caleb (2.5), JDP, then Colby (4.5). Clearly, they had been playing hard and were worn-out!

Everyone was such a good sport during the trip. For instance, Uncle Trent was a pony. And since there were 9 kids 5 and under, these two (Thomas and Sofia) saved time by 'riding' together.

Not pictured: Between Thomas mounting Trent to the next picture, Trent carried both kiddos around the room and got loads of giggles along the way.

As Jacob received a Mario game for Christmas from his Didi, for better or for worse, all the cousins have now heard of and seen Mario in action.

While highly abbreviated, perhaps this post will suffice for now? I do aim to get more pictures and videos up soon as these boys are growing and changing fast! Thomas is now actually 'conversing' with people and Jacob is fast approaching 5 years old, also known as the age where he just knows everything but is still cute enough to not completely be ridiculous. Fun boys!