Here we are...

Sorry I've not posted much...Our computer will not accept anymore uploaded pictures so we have to get a new computer or a bunch of upgraded stuff so blogging with pictures may not be happening until we decide what we're going to do. Anyhow, this is our Thanksgiving John family picture. Thanksgiving morning I ran an 8k(5 miles) Turkey Trot with my father in law and Lauren (sister in law). I ran better than my goal and finished in 34:20. Later, we went to Nana and Papa's house for our yummy turkey dinner. The Rau's had a tough week being sick and little Ian had to spend Wed. night into Thursday in the hospital for dehydration. He stopped by on his way back home so we had everyone together for a little while. He is eating and drinking better now and seems to be on the mend. We've been sick this week, but everyone seems to have a lingering upset stomach but we're eating some now and fevers are down...We've got our Christmas tree up and had fun decorating it. We're enjoying the Christmas music and TV specials too :)
Hope this finds our family and friends well. Maybe we'll get out of the house soon to see some of you !

November so far...

Here is the first couple of pictures from my parents' visit . We got to celebrate Grandpa's birthday the first night they were here. This is first thing in the morning, so, I'm sorry Dad about including the bedhead :)
We went to the Rau's a few weeks ago and they had raked a huge pile of leaves and the best part was that there was candy in it!! The cousins had a great time finding the candy...and then the leaf pile was great for jumping in!

Here is a sweet picture of Isaac and his Dada :)

Most of you probably know, but Aron's surgery had to be rescheduled due to his cough and various issues. He's rescheduled for Dec. 18th. We are looking forward to a quiet weekend and then to celebrating Thanksgiving.

Air Show

Over a week ago now, we went to an airshow in Monroe. The show was great fun and we got to see all sorts of planes flying, aerobatics, parachuters, a stealth bomber flyby, and a Pearl Harbor re-enactment, which is the picture above. There were some pretty huge explosions and planes flying by toward each other. They did a great job!!

This was the aerobatics plane that did some amazing stunts!

Nana and Papa came with us to the show.

Here are Elijah and Aron in front of the dragon plane.
We have had a fun week with my parents this week and are sad to say goodbye to them tomorrow! A week sure flies by quickly! We will post our pictures from the week next.

October

I decided to just put October in one post since we have lots of pictures that we just got on the computer lately. The first picture is Isaac doing what we call "funny face." He loves to make this face, in several variations, to make us laugh. He even does it first thing after waking up sometimes, just being silly. Next, the big brothers love to climb in Isaac's crib after naps and jump around until I can come get him. The poor crib mattress will barely make it through these three boys! Isaac loves to play with his big brothers, and Aron got him to sit in the dump truck for a ride...The picture of me and my great friends, Kate and Ashley, was take at Ashley's baby shower. She should be having her third baby any day now. We took a road trip up to Raleigh and had a really fun time visiting with their family, meeting some Raleigh friends, and seeing their house up there. Can't wait to meet the new baby Hemphill! Finally, we had an entire rainy day here in October, which doesn't happen too often, but the boys made the most of it and played in the rain with their umbrellas and watched the water rush down the road and into the drain. We're looking forward to Grandpa and Grandma Church's visit from NY this week and Great Grandpa and Grandma Harper will be here too for a day or two. Then Thanksgiving will be here...where has the year gone???

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween in Taylor Glenn...the Rau cousins came over this year to trick or treat and we met up with our other neighborhood friends on our way. The oldest kids were eager and ran most of the way to get their candy. Ian and Isaac weren't all that excited, but they looked adorable :) As you can see, Elijah was batman, Aron was Superman, and Isaac was our little Pirate. Olivia was Rapunzel, Elyse a butterfly (Tinkerbell to her :)) and Ian was Spiderman.
After trick or treating, we all went over to our friends house, the Walsers. They cooked some yummy chili and we all brought some sides and desserts to make a ton of food and it was so good! Thanks Kate & Jeremy for hosting us all!
As you can see by Elijah's face, they got plenty of candy for the weeks to come...Elijah was going through his candy and said, "All this candy makes me so happy!" :)

Cool Fall Days

Here are a few pictures from the past month or so. Our weather has gotten suddenly cooler this week and I feel stir crazy already by not being able to just go out and play all day. I don't know how you guys do it up north!!! Our big boy Isaac has started taking steps alone. He's up to eight steps, yay! Aron is going to have his surgery on Nov. 21st to remove his Lipoma. It is outpatient. He is still occasionally trying the potty...Elijah continues to teach himself to write letters and numbers in his quiet time. I am still amazed at this since I was not sure he'd even sit down to do homeschool with me :) These boys are growing so fast it seems! We are getting ready for Batman, Superman, and our little Pirate to emerge tomorrow night. They cannot wait to get candy! Aron started saying, "trick or treat, I want some candy" yesterday. I think we'll work on dropping that last part :)

Tagged

I was tagged by my dear friend, Ashley, to play this game. I went to my 4th file and 4th picture and now I'll blog about it. This is our little Aron as a baby, after a bath. He's about 9 months here.
This has been a big week for Aron and all of us as Aron went in for an MRI and had to have anesthesia. He has a mass on his bottom that the Surgeon really wanted to get a good look at through the MRI. We just heard back from the nurse that it is Lipoma or a fatty tumor. It is benign, but it's a little larger than average, so I'm waiting for a call from the Dr. to see if he suggests removing it. We are so thankful that it is not something more serious! It's been a stressful few weeks just waiting to determine it's nature. Thank you to those who have prayed for us!

All Dressed Up

A few weeks ago, Jeremy and I went to Mason (his brother) and Michelle's engagement party. I, of course, had to go buy a dress and needed assistance picking one out so Jeremy's mom, Erika, and I got to have a girls night out to shop...Here are Jeremy and I all dressed up. Jeremy looks great everyday for work, but it's been a while since I've dressed up! :) We had a fun evening celebrating with family and friends!

Here is the engaged couple, Mason and Michelle.

Erika and Scott Rau

(Jeremy's parents) Dan and Jacqueline, Erika, and Mason

The ladies in the two families (and Lauren's roommate :)

Happy 1st Birthday Isaac and 2nd Birthday Ian!!

Two weeks ago now, we celebrated birthdays for Isaac and his cousin Ian. They are three days shy of a year apart. We went over to Scott and Erika's for dinner and cake. The main feature of the day was the bouncy house that Jeremy's friend from work let us borrow. It was huge but fit in their driveway and the kids had so much fun jumping, sliding and shooting baskets in the basketball court. Isaac is still working on the walking...not really eager, but does cruise around the furniture quickly and walks around pushing his brothers on the push toys. He seems to be frustrated lately but not sure if it's teeth or just because he can't talk. He just yells most of the day! Hope you enjoy the pictures !

Indoor fun

Our bonus room has turned into a mattress gym...we saved our old mattress for the boys to play on and they love to go up and jump off the stairs and spare bed. Elijah even started doing real flips, which is great as long as he tucks his head!! Isaac is still crawling, but today I found him in the kitchen walking behind a push toy and laughing. He gets so proud of himself :) I was pretty excited about that! He was 24 lbs. 12oz yesterday at the Dr. and all is well for his 1 year visit, which we're always thankful for!

Go Momma!!

I finally got to run my half marathon last weekend. The last one I ran was before I got pregnant with Elijah, but I really wanted to try it again and I loved it!! You all probably think I'm crazy, but I love to run! Not every morning at 6am, but during the race I realized how much I love it! Anyway, I placed 7th out of 140 women and beat my goal time by 4 min. I ran 1:41:49. Jer and the boys came to cheer ("Go Momma!") and Papa and Nana came too. I really appreciated the support and was so happy to see them on the course and at the end! The picture above is before the race, which started at 7:45am in Davidson...early morning for us all! We had a fun day together, but on the way home I got a migraine and got sick when I got home but started feeling better after laying in bed all afternoon...not sure what that was about, maybe dehydrated...not fun whatever it was. I was so thankful to Jer for helping out with the boys all day!
This is where I first saw the fam...mile 10 at the top of a long hill, the course had several steep inclines!

Here I am running through the finish line.

The boys came running to give me a hug afterward and they couldn't wait to wear my medal:)