I know it has been a long time...well here is our precious O. She is doing well. She's a good baby and we are really enjoying her. Now, life with 3 is a different story. Wow, there's never a dull moment. All I can say is, laundry is out of control. My friend Gangsta G had her 3rd about 6 months ago and she is constantly talking about her laundry ever since. Now I know why. For one, it's just another person to add to the laundry pile, but you also have no time to do it. I hear ya G. Mommy (that's me) is doing good for the most part. It's definitely day to day balancing everything. I'm more relaxed this 3rd time around with the baby. But meeting the needs of 3 is a challenge. I need wisdom, wisdom, wisdom. And I need to be praying more for my children. I've been more and more convicted about that. It has become more evident to me that they each have different needs and different ways I need to love on them and try to meet those needs. Motherhood is constantly challenging me and showing me how much I need Christ's love to shine through me so my kids can see it. That's hard on those toddler tantrum days!

I think

I have officially hi-jacked Di's blog (cue evil maniacal laugh)! She was born Thursday, November 20, at 12:42 pm. She was officially named at 1:05 pm. We had a little indecision about what the final name was . . . She was 7 lb. 14 oz, 19 inches long with dark hair and puffy eyes. The doctor let me announce whether it was a boy or a girl, and, after incorrectly identifying body parts for about 20 seconds, (it's not as easy as you may think) I told Di "it's a girl!" Turns out Di was fully expecting a boy; I think I was expecting a girl. She has a much softer cry than J and M, but she does share the "natural gas" trait with them. (Whenever M passes gas, she looks up and says "toot toot" - it's hilarious) So we're now sitting here in the hospital, trying to wake O up so Di can feed her. This will be our life for awhile, so I'm sure Di will post something when something in our life changes - which may be awhile. Here's some pics of the kids and the newest edition to the madness.


Here's the kids before O entered the scene
- they seem so much bigger now!-


The newest little peanut . . .

Momma and O immediately after the surgery


Our latest family portrait


Curious kids

4 and counting...

Tonight is one of my last of four for a while that I will get to enjoy a quiet evening doing what I want to do. This Thursday at noon we will welcome into the world kid #3 of the Rambo Place household. So, we all know the games will begin of sleepless nights, feeding schedules (arghh, keeping track is so fun!), nursing (doesn't come easy for this chica), understanding the different cries, hormonal decisions (good thing I have a non-hormonal husband), and life is just a blur for a while. With the upcoming holiday season of Thanksgiving and Christmas I have been thinking about what it will be like with a newborn. I love the holiday season! Shopping, decorating the tree, making cookies, listening to Christmas music, being with family, and eating, eating eating. What can I say...we're Italian. My prayer has been that I will enjoy this next month with a newborn.

Little side note: This stage is probably the hardest for me. I am a schedule person when it comes to certain areas of my life. One of them being with my babies. I try and get them on a schedule. But, it takes time and much effort. So, the unknown if they are hungry, tired, or wet can drive me CRAZY. When the schedule formulates, it's much easier for me. Because it's all about me, right? Learned THAT lesson early in motherhood...

I am hoping that this baby will stop and make us really reflect as a family on what Christmas is about. You all know, it's so easy to get all wrapped up in present buying, seeing Christmas lights, going to parties, etc. None of these are bad things. But they have consumed us as Americans. I just read a statistic on this website that we (Americans) spend 450 billion dollars on Christmas. That is crazy!!!! Put it this way, this organization is saying that it will only take 10 billion to provide clean water for people around the globe that don't have it. Now that is sobering. We take clean water for granted. We have no idea what it's like to not have clean water flowing from our kitchen sink, but yet we still use Brita's. HA! I know, I sound like I'm going green or something. I'm rabbit trailing. So, I've really been challenged to simplify things at Christmas and this year we have to. I have no choice. The first weeks of a newborn living in your house makes you do that. There are a few things Jon and I are praying about changing with how we celebrate things at Christmas. Just things we've been challenged with to help us bring our focus back on worshiping Jesus and teaching our kids that. When we come to a conclusion about it, I'll share. But this year a few things like a baby are making us simplify and I am so thankful. Please pray for us as we embark on this journey. I don't want sleep deprivation to rob my joy of this precious gift of a baby and the most precious gift of celebrating Jesus Christ's birth. Check out her blog. Some good things to think about with simplifying during the holidays. Thanks Cottage Girl for posting that!

My post about M a few weeks ago talked about her crazy hair. Well, here she is with her new hair style. I went in for a trim and it didn't get rid of the mullet in the back, so we did a bob. Now it will all grow in evenly. Thought you would enjoy the update.

Worth every minute!

Here is a clip from Youtube that my friend TP posted on her blog. This is so powerful. Not only because of the message of partial birth abortion, but Gianna's passion for Jesus is so contagious. Don't you want to be like that? I do.

oohhh, yummy candy

Here are some pictures from Halloween! Ever since leaving camp we have carried on the tradition of roasting hot dogs over a camp fire and then heading out into the neighborhood. I was praying this year for someone to let us borrow a 4-wheeler so we could take the kids on a hay-ride through the neighborhood (a long time tradition we did at camp...so many memories) and give out candy, but none became available. One day we'll have one. My parents and the Fox's joined us. We had fun and the kids had a blast! My J and H were so excited running from one house to the next. Lots of yummy candy. Not good for a woman in her 9 month trying to not gain any more weight...arggh!!!

J was suppose to be a pirate, but decided at the last minute he wanted to be a baseball player. I was in no state to say no (rough preggie day). We had everything, so what did it matter? He's wearing Braves attire and we're not really even Braves fans. I guess we are now!




Soon our two families will equal 7 kids. We over doubled in size in less than 2 years. Figure that one out.

Finally got M to put a pirate hat on.

My little girl

I decided to title this post by her full name because I don't get to use it much and I think it's a beautiful name (I'm biased). But also her name has special meaning for us. Her namesake is representing my mom and Jon's mom. M is my grandmothers (my mom's, mom) maiden name. The story behind the name is that my great grandfather grew up in an orphanage (so did my grandfather, but that's another story). When he got to the orphanage he came without a name. So, they named him after the orphanage. It's Italian and I'm proud of that heritage. Her middle name is taken from Jon's mom. M has two Godly grandma's. Grandma's who pray for her. Grandma's who would give up most things to spend time with her. I'm so glad she carries their names.

With the upcoming birth of our son or daughter, I've been thinking about how M will no longer be the baby. We call her "baby girl" alot, so what will we do if we have another girl? I'm sure we'll think of something. But, I decided to have a post dedicated to her before she becomes the middle child. Plus, after your first, each one after that gets the shaft a lot. J had hours of video taken of him. M..., well not sure. I just got her one year pictures done (she's 17 months). I wish I could post it (no scanner). It came out great!

Here's some highlights of what she loves to do or a glimpse of her personality:

• Loves her dolls - it's fun to see her be a mommy to them
• Talking a lot and repeats everything you say
• She LOVES to dance. This girl shakes her booty every time she hears music. Even if she hears some type of beat and it's not music.

• Loves her daddy - a daddy's girl and I love it. She lights up when he walks into a room or she hears his car.

• One of my favorite things she does right now is if she doesn't know where I am she'll yell, "Momma, whe a ooo?" interpreted: Momma, where are you? Love it!
• She's got crazy hair. It's calmed down a lot, but now it falls into her face. Her first hair cut will be soon.

She is a fun little girl and makes us laugh all the time. I've been praying for her little heart for when the baby comes. She'll be trying to figure out who's this alien that came into our house. I know she'll be a good big sis. M, I love you sweet girl! You are a joy to us.

Pancakes and Pirates

It's hard to believe that J is 4. It has been fun to see lately how he is growing into a little man. So many things he does on his own: fills his water from the fridge, completely picks out and dresses himself (finally not putting his clothes on backwards), getting up at night (all by himself) to use the potty (out of pull-ups!!!!!), helping me around the house, holds M's hand to get her to a certain place and so much more. And now and then, still a 2 yr. old temper tantrum. Will he ever out grow that? It's fun to watch him grow and really wonder about the world around him. So many great questions have been coming from him lately. He even keeps Jon and I accountable with our devos...seriously.

J really understood his birthday this year and it made it really fun. I asked him what he wanted to eat for dinner on his actual birthday and he said pancakes. So, a pancake dinner it was. My parents came, along with his cousins J & H. They were a surprise and he loved it!!!!

J's buddies/cousins

Saturday was his pirate party. We combined his and D's (my nephew) parties. All the kids dressed up as pirates. It was a blast. The boys loved it and so did the moms. I was completely exhausted and I am still today recuperating from it. 3rd pregnancy is way different than the first and even the second.

J (4) and D (3)

We had fun dressing up as pirates! Even Mimi and PopPop dressed up - sorry no pics.

Game master "you're still the one" (see previous posts) led the kids in "walk the plank" and "treasure chest toss". His motto was "all kids are winners" - which means all kids are losers. A fun token they got to make was a pirate telescope made out of toilet paper rolls. What 3 & 4 yr. old wouldn't love that!

The party ended with a bang smashing the pinata! Go M. A tradition that "you're still the one" and I have is the making of the birthday cake. It all started with J's 1st cake. It wasn't until that night of decorating his 1st cake that I realized I married a cake decorator. Aren't you girls jealous? Well, here is the 4th bday cake. We have fun planning what we will do and then it always takes us way longer than we think and by the end of decorating we are annoyed at each other. It has happened every year. But, it creates memories!!!! We love it!

Read 2nd post first...bear with me.

I couldn't figure out how to do it, so I posted it on it's own. J loves playing in the backyard. There's nothing to play with, but he has a ball!!! My theory that kids are more content with nothing than with everything becomes more true everyday.

Rambo Place

Rambo Place

The kids love playing on the front porch and there is a swing on left
side of porch that you can't see.

Living room/den as you walk into house - room to left is dining room, room to right is "reading room"

"Reading room" - you can see it from previous picture

From "reading room" walking into kitchen

Well, here is my first post. Please bear with me as I begin this. It has been long coming. Being 8 months pregnant slows the process down tremendously. I also did not have much support from "the one who will remain nameless". My first post will be of our new home. As most of you know, we moved in the first weekend of Sept. Which, by the way, is exactly 2 years to the weekend that we moved in with the in-laws in 2006. The Lord completely dropped this house into our laps. It is everything that we prayed for, including the rent being very affordable. Another amazing thing is the same week the house dropped in our laps, our church offered "the one who will remain nameless" a job to be on staff there. So, many changes have taken place. We are also 5 minutes from the church. So, here are some pictures of the house. It is in a historic part of town. Beautiful trees, houses with lots of character, and train tracks about 2 miles away that we hear all day. It reminds me of my childhood in NY (my grandma lived close to the Long Island Railroad). Thanks for reading. Posts of the kids will be coming soon. Oh yeah, and who doesn't want to live on a street called Rambo...
p.s. I tried to post another picture of the backyard, but couldn't figure out how to add it to the end of the pictures. It kept going to the top...any suggestions?