Friday, November 27, 2009

Some things we're thankful for

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! This is always a great time of year to reflect on your life and the people who make it whole. Today I was downloading some recent videos off of our camera, and thought it would be a great opportunity to show you some things that we're truly thankful for. If you get the blog update via email, its probably best to visit the web version of the blog to see the videos - www.ncslaviks.blogspot.com. Make sure you turn up the volume on your computer!


Will's infectious giggle (and hiccup)

Luke's infinite sense of daredevil-ness

Will's drive to communicate and vocalize

Luke's ability to go, go, go... and then sleep!

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Rewind to September

We've got a couple of months worth of activities to update on, so I think the only way I can tackle that is to break it down by month. So... here's the update for the remainder of September. When we last left you, Oma and Opa had returned to Texas and we had spent a lovely weekend on the Outer Banks.

In late September, we decided to travel to Binghamton to surprise Papa Joe on his 60th birthday. Its a long drive for us, but we broke it up over two days. On Thursday night, we drove to Harrisburg PA, and on Friday, we drove the last 3 hours in the morning. The boys napped while we unpacked, and Nate ran down to Wegman's to get subs. Oh, how we miss Wegman's in North Carolina!

Around 4 in the afternoon, Papa Joe rolled into the driveway to see a tan van from North Carolina parked there! He was totally happy and surprised when he walked through the door and was greeted with his two smiling grandsons.

We were soon joined by Uncle Pete and Aunt Char, and headed down to Endwell Greens for Papa Joe's second surprise, a family get together to celebrate his big milestone. It was great fun to see everyone, as it has been since last Christmas that we really saw a lot of the Slavik family. Luke truly enjoyed opening and closing the front door, welcoming everyone when they arrived. Will seems to have a tough time with a lot of noise around, so we didn't stay too long. Just long enough to catch a golf cart ride and to remind ourselves that just 6 short years ago, we were celebrating our wedding at exactly the same spot!

On Saturday, we went to a local apple orchard to pick some apples and enjoy the fall weather. We got some great photos before we were chased out by the rain.




We headed home on Sunday - the full drive in one day! Without any stops, the drive takes 9 hours. But with the boys, we stopped every three hours to get out of the car seats, stretch legs, change diapers, eat, etc. The first time we stopped was back in Harrisburg, at a local mall. Will was very happy to be held for a while. Luke only had eyes for the escalator, and threw a full sized temper tantrum when we had to leave. The second stop was at Cracker Barrel somewhere in central Virginia. The boys did amazingly well there, and we hit the road for the last 3 hours. We were all happy to see our house at the end of the journey!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

The big reveal!

We had our 18 week ultrasound today. Cart is looking really good! Measuring at exactly 18 weeks, all organs intact and functioning, moving around quite a bit. After about an hour of ultrasound activity and prodding, Cart had enough and about-faced, face first into the placenta... clearly telling all of us to leave him alone.

Yes, that's right... I said HIM.

Cart is a boy! Just call Nate "Fred MacMurray" because its going to be like My Three Sons around here in the next couple of months! Sorry if you're so shocked and looking for photographic proof, but I'm not going to embarass Cart in advance of his birth by showing a photo of his little baby boy parts on the internet!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Response from the deep

I know, I know... a long time has passed since our last posting! You truly wouldn't believe how sick we have all been. Since the boys started preschool in August, someone has been sick every day. Things have progressed from moderate congestion in Will - to a full blown stomach virus that had me, Luke and Will all sick at the same time - back to me being the only one with an ear infection. Thankfully none of us ever got H1N1, but its been a long couple of months.

In between being really sick, we've traveled to New York to help celebrate Papa Joe's 60th birthday, spent a fun afternoon with friends at the pumpkin patch, traveled to Florida for a Loss family wedding, tried our best to celebrate Halloween, and just got back from a weekend at a cabin with friends in western Virginia. I will do my best to post some pictures of all of our adventures in the next couple of days.

The boys are both doing remarkably well in preschool. Will's face lights up every morning when I tell him we're going to see Ms. Tasha (his teacher). He gets even happier when we walk into the room and hears her voice. His appetite is finally starting to pick up again after being sick. He lost 2 pounds while he was sick, and had to miss a full week of school because he had a fever that would not quit last week. We're working hard to put those pounds back onto him! Dropping Luke off in the morning has gotten a lot easier since he's been feeling better. Each morning, he's so excited to see his teacher, wash his hands, and cut paper. It is certainly making our mornings a lot easier to drop off happy boys at school!

This week, I hit the 18th week of my pregnancy. I've been feeling pretty good and actually (finally) felt Cart kick for the first time today. Apparently Cart likes cheeseburgers from Red Robin. On Thursday, we have our 18 week ultrasound, and we'll be sure to pass along Cart's gender at that time! Just don't expect us to divulge his/her name any time before his/her arrival in April.

Nate has been giving me progesterone shots in the behind every week for the past 4 weeks. He's been doing well and - dare I say - looking forward to administering the shot every week!

Its been a long couple of weeks for us here... but hopefully things calm down a little bit before the holidays!