Choo Choo...

Graham has been VERY train obsessed lately. He loves them so much. The first toy he wants out every morning is his train set. He plays with it most of the day. We've gone to the Cincinnati Museum Center to see their train display, to Entertrainment Junction (a model train place with a great display of trains) and his Grandpa Lowery got out his cool trains over Christmas. Graham even got to watch the trains out Grandma & Grandpa's front window over Christmas weekend. He can hear those trains even when noone else in the house notices!

Here are a few pictures of Graham playing with the train at his Grandparents house!

Untitled from Willa Armstrong on Vimeo.

Some Christmas Photos

We spent Christmas at Willa's parents home. We had a great time! On Christmas Eve the whole family got together and shared a fun evening of pizza (much to my mother's dismay), cheeseballs, taco dip and oodles of cookies! We then were able to read an abbreviated version of the Christmas story (a children's edition) and celebrate by giving presents. The presents were opened in about 2 minutes...record speed for sure! It was a lot of fun for everyone!

A picture of all four kids...Graham, Porter, Suzanne and Ellie!

Cute Graham Moments

I just wanted to share a few cute moments with Graham recently. I know if I don't write them down that I will forget them, so I need to get busy writing! :)

On Saturday we went to our church's Christmas production of Unwrapped, an original musical. It was really good. They provided childcare during that, so afterwards we went to pick Graham up. He happily came out to greet us in the hallway. Then he quickly ran over to a bulletin board that had cute little gingerbread men that the preschool children had made and decorated. Well, I told him to say goodbye. I meant to say goodbye to the nursery workers, however he looked at the gingerbread men and said "Goodbye Curious George!". The gingerbread men were brown and I could see the resemblance. It was pretty cute.

The other cute moment happened this week. We transitioned Graham to a toddler bed and he has been doing wonderfully with it! We're really proud of how good he's been. We haven't had one single issue, he loves being able to climb in and out of bed and is so excited about it. We know that this could change and he could suddenly decide not to stay in bed, but for now we are showering him with praise.

The second night of sleeping in his big boy bed, we were hosting Bible Study at our home. Our study started at 7, and that was a bit early for his bedtime. Ellie was already in bed and not other children were here, so we told him to play in his room for a little bit. We put his train set in his room and he played nicely for about 15 minutes. Then he started to come out. I decided to go ahead and put him to bed. I allowed him to put his trains in bed with him, but he wanted more of the train set. I said no. So, he went to bed without any fussing, however a few hours later right before I was going to bed I checked in on him.

Sure enough...every single piece of his train set, plus the plastic storage bin we store it in were in his bed with him. He was sound asleep, however one single movement by him would've sent it crashing to the ground. We quietly picked it up and put it back on the floor. The next morning when I went to get him out of bed everything was back in his bed with him. We never heard a peep out of him, so it must have been the first thing he did when he woke up! Too cute! :)

Baby Dedication

Ellie's baby dedication was this past Sunday, November 27th. We were excited to have her dedicated and looking forward to that special time at church. The name Eleanor means 'light' and her middle name, Kate, means 'pure'. We wanted to pick a verse out for her that would reflect the meaning of her name. We finally settled on Matthew 5:16 "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.". Our desire for Ellie's life is just that. That she would grow to love the Lord and to serve Him, and in doing that others would see Him through her life. That she would reach others by her faith and actions!

We were surprised by my mother on the day before Ellie's dedication. She called and asked if it would be ok for her to come down! Um...YES!! So, she came down and joined us for the special day. It was great to have her here for a visit. We made a trip to the park and had a lot of fun just hanging out at the house. The kids were sad to see her leave, but we were all so thankful for the short visit and that she could be a part of Ellie's dedication.

In other news, Ellie was sick recently. We believe she had Roseola. She had a high fever for several days, then broke out in a rash. She was miserable during this time and just laid around. It ended up being about a two week time frame from the time she started coming down with it until she was back to her normal self. However, it seemed to then be overnight that she began crawling, could sit up on her own, could go from sitting to crawling and vice versa and also began cutting teeth!! She literally grew up overnight it seemed! We're so thankful though that she's back to her happy smiley self!

Here's a few pictures from Ellie's baby dedication weekend!

And, yes...Graham did try to escape! ;) He was very quiet, but a little on the active side while on stage!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

As I sit here this Thanksgiving morning, I have a lot to be thankful for! First and foremost I'm thankful for a God who saw fit to send His only Son to this earth. He sent His Son as a sacrifice for my sins that I might be saved. Wow...sometimes it's hard to grasp that. He sent his Son for ME?!? But, He did...and He sent Him for YOU too! How thankful I am for that gift!

I'm also thankful for my family. For my husband. He's wonderful. He's become such a Godly leader for our family. He helps me out so much, more than I could ever ask for. He's currently prepping the Thanksgiving turkey! :) For my children. I do not take for granted how much of a miracle they are. The Dr's didn't really think Graham would make it...or if he did he would be born SUPER DUPER early. He wasn't....he was born almost at full term, and he was healthy! I'm thankful for God's protection during those days (and all the days to follow!). Both Graham and Ellie are such a delight in our lives. We count them as blessings and cannot imagine our lives without them! For my parents. They were wonderful examples to me growing up. They loved us and raised us to love the Lord. For my father-in-law. I wish we could see you more!! :) Your love for our children and the light in your eyes when you see them is so special to me! For everyone else...we love you so much! :)

From our family to yours...we hope you have the most wonderful Thanksgiving Day! Blessings!

Just a few pics

These are all new pictures from the past week. We haven't been up to too much, but Ellie did have her 6 month check-up. She currently weighs 16lbs 5oz (50th percentile) and is 26.5 inches long (75th percentile). This is the first appointment where she weighed in less than her brother did at the same age! The Dr said she looked great, not that we needed her to tell us that! ;)

Here's a picture of our sweet girl.


Graham wore his first tie to church the other day. He looked pretty sharp!

Ball Game

Ok, I know...I have not been very good about updating here lately. No good excuses, although we have been experiencing some sicknesses around here, again! Graham came down with a nasty cough, fever, runny nose. You know, the whole nine yards! A few days after that Ellie started to show signs of the same sickness. My normally sweet little baby girl was very fussy. We finally decided to take her to the Dr after her eyes became puffy and red. Sure enough she had pink eye. After a few doses of antibiotics she's much improved, just a lingering cough. Phew...it's only the beginning of November. This could be a fun winter! ;)

We recently bought a few pom poms to let Graham play with. Initially I was going to cut a hole in the top of a tupperware lid and let him slip them in. We did that and he loved that. However, now he wants to do additional 'games' with his pom poms. He likes to sort them by color, line them up, stuff them in the back of a dump truck, etc. They've been worth the dollar they cost. Here's a couple pictures taken the other morning while he was playing his 'ball game' as he calls it!

He had to test out putting the bowl on his head...