Winter Greetings!

It is cold and rainy here but we are having a nice day getting things ready for Christmas. Things have calmed down a bit since the arrival of little Nicholas and I am beginning to feel a little better. For those of you who were wondering the delivery went great. I had been in early labor on and off for two weeks, but I wasn't sure it was doing anything and I was starting to get tired and discouraged. I went in Tuesday at 1:30 for my 40 week appointment and the midwife checked me and told me I was 4+ centimeters and going to go soon and very fast. She was right because as soon as I got home I realized I was in active labor and called Casey. We got back to the birth center around 4 and he was born at 5:30. I only had to push for 20 minutes, which was nice after the other two.

He is doing great, already up to 8lbs 11ozs at his last checkup. He is a pretty quiet baby and eats and sleeps well. He looks a lot like both his brothers, but especially like Jackson. The older boys love him and enjoy helping with him and holding him.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Make a Smilebox postcard

Welcome Nicholas James!

Nicholas James was born at 5:30 PM on December 9th. 8lbs. 8 oz. 21 inches long. Mother and baby are doing fine. Here are some of the first photos:

Bless the Baby Jesus

We were able to continue the advent tradition we started last year, by going down to the Cathedral yesterday for the "Bless the Baby Jesus prayer service" with Cardinal Rigali. The Cathedral is beautiful and it the kids really enjoyed it. It is not always easy to find activities during advent that focus on preparation and by the time Christmas arrives and we are ready to celebrate, everyone else is done. Anyway, it was a really special day and I am glad we got to attend and Casey got to join us for it. The Cardinal even gave the baby a special blessing!

Baby Update

Well, the due date has come and gone and no baby yet. I am sure he will come when he is ready, although I am anxious to see when that will be. The good news is reinforcements have arrived! My mom came Thursday to help with the boys, dinner, grocery shopping, etc so that has been a huge my relief. We were trying to wait as long as possible to have her come down, so she would be sure to be here when the baby comes, but with Casey starting exams tomorrow, I was running out of stamina. Anyway, here is what I hope will be the final photo of me in this enormous state!

Happy Thanksgiving!

A little belated but here are some photos from Thanksgiving. We spent the day in NJ at Aunt Lee and Bill's house. Casey's brother Erik was in town and we all had a nice dinner. You can see the Casey and the boys have begun a Thanksgiving Day football tradition. Francis seems to have a gift for it. He just puts his head down. grabs Jackson around the waist and takes him down.

November Update

Time is flying, I can't believe November is almost over! The boys finished their art and music class (it was pirate themed) and I have included a picture of some of their handiwork. Jackson is enjoying hockey as you can see from the videos and both boys are enjoying their home school lessons. We are in a group of homeschooling families and they have various sports activities and recitals. Most recently it was a poetry recital, which is what inspired the video below of Francis singing "Itsy bitsy spider." Jackson decided he was going to do "Oh where, oh where has my little dog gone?" which I was a great idea, but he quickly changed his mind to wanting to do the Our Father in Latin! I give him credit, he is very ambitious. Unfortunately, I could not help him since I don't know it, but by the day of the recital he had memorized more than half. Unfortunately we got lost on the way there, and by the time we got there was already a big crowd and he was too intimidated to do it. He did agree to put on a performance for us, which we video taped and I will post it soon.

As for the newest member of our family, we are are all anxiously awaiting his arrival. I am still feeling pretty comfortable, (although I don't look it) so I would guess I still have some time. I have begun a frenzied sort of "nesting" which is good because I am getting a lot done while I still have the energy. In the last week I have washed everything in the house, roasted two chickens, baked a ham, made three kinds of soup and made a lasagna!

Finally, as you can see we had our first snowfall. It was just a dusting, but enough to get the kids excited.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Francis begins to sing Itsy Bitsy Spider:

Jackson's First Hockey Game

Here is Jackson in his first hockey game playing for the Hawks with the jersey number 45. His mother's number was 46, but he likes the number 45 because he just turned from age 4 to 5. Notice how his skating has improved from the beginning of the season (view his earlier skating here). He no longer relies on his stick to keep balance. Here he is warming up before the game.



In this video, he plays some defense deflecting a shot on goal.

Jackson Hockey Check

Jackson is in white and blue here. He is wearing his mommy's hockey jersey, "Gillern #46".

Happy Birthday Jackson!

It is hard to believe that Jackson is 5! We celebrated his big day with his friends at a local bouncing castle, followed by pizza and ice cream cake back at the house. The theme was Spiderman, of course and it turned out to be a great day.

Now that he is 5, he is extremely busy not being 4. He has tried on most of his clothes and all of his hockey equipment to make sure they still fit and refers to anything he hasn't done in the last few days as "stuff he did when he was 4. " It is cute but he has a point, 5 does feel like quite a milestone.

Anyway here are some photos of the birthday boy!

Trick or Treat!

It was perfect fall weather here today, after a week of miserable rain and wind. Most of the city was downtown for the Philly's parade and Casey had the day off, so we went to a nearby orchard for hayrides. After that we came home for dinner and then went out trick or treating with some friends. As you can see from the pictures, Jackson and his friend Paul think alike, even when it comes to costumes. Francis was a spider, the "ispy bispy spider" as he kept saying. We went out for about an hour and a half and they must have hit at least 45 houses. By the end poor Francis was begging to go home to bed.

It was comical, on the way to Paul's house Jackson said he hoped no one filled his trick or treat bag with rocks! I told him that I thought there was little chance of that happening but he still wasn't convinced. I reminded him that last year no one put any rocks in his bag and he responded "what if they don't like me this year?" He was obviously heavily influenced by the Charlie Brown Halloween special.

Baby Shower

Here are some pictures from the baby shower, a couple of weekends ago. It was great to see so many people. Thank you all for coming and for the gifts. Just a little more than 5 weeks to go until my due date! I am really not that uncomfortable yet, although I am huge! The baby seems to be on track and is almost to term, which is great. Everything is basically ready and the kids are starting to get really excited.

Happy Fall!

Fall has arrived and it is beautiful. The leaves have just begun to turn and it is starting to get into the 60's and 70's during the day. I am not anxious for Winter, but I couldn't wait for fall.

As some of you may know, we were going to send Jackson to Pre-school this year but decided not to. We all had some reservations and we thought having to switch schools would make the pending move more traumatic. Plus, I wasn't sure how I was going to get him there once the baby arrived! Anyway, I am doing a pre-school curriculum here at home and it is quite an experience. Francis joins in occasionally but mostly it is just Jackson and I. I like the focus of the curriculum very much, but it is a lot more prep work than I had anticipated. I am sure I will become more proficient as time goes by, but right now I am a little overwhelmed.

On the other hand, I am grateful for the chance to do this with him. I initially feared that some of our power struggles would carry over to the "classroom" but so far it has been just the opposite. He sees school as such a positive experience and because I am able to share it with him it actually seems to be strengthening our relationship and making him more manageable otherwise.

It is certainly comical though. The other day we traced outlines of them on butcher paper and then drew in their clothes, hair, eyes, nose, etc. Jackson was deeply concerned about accuracy, so rather than just draw his mouth he drew in every one of his teeth, his tongue... Finally he insisted on drawing in his "bum" and then asked what I thought. Francis responds by telling him it looks like a cow's bum and a huge fight erupts... Teachers must have some stories!

Anyway here is a picture of the little hockey player in full gear and a more recent video of him at practice.

Hockey Fever!

Hockey fever has swept through the Khan house. Jackson has joined the local hockey team and he loves it. He has had two practices so far, one at 6 am and the other at a more civilized 7:30am. Lucky for us the rest of the practices will be Saturdays at noon! His skating gets better every time he goes out there and he is starting to be able to participate in the drills. He has even been practicing some passing and shooting. (By far his favorite thing to do)

Casey and Francis have also gotten into it, going to public skate on Friday mornings. Francis skates pretty well pushing a chair and even a little without it, but his first love is the video games. He is becoming quite a little "rink rat". His favorite is one of those claw games where you try to grab the toys. They have one that is play until you win for $.50, so he does that until he gets it to dump out some cheap plastic choking hazards. He calls them his "bad guys" and never leaves the house without a bag of them.

Here is a video of them skating for the second time a few weeks ago.

All About Baby

The baby is doing well and getting big, although the Dr. keeps saying "he has plenty of room". If that is the case I wish he would share some of it with me, because I am starting to feel pretty crowded. I am huge! By 28 weeks I had already gained more weight than I had at 35 weeks with Francis, if that gives you any idea. Strangers have gone from asking if I am having twins to telling the kids it looks like they are going to be big brothers "any day now".

We are starting to get really excited as we enter the final 10 weeks. We set up his "room" which is actually more of a corner in our room and started pulling out some of the baby clothes. Here is a picture of his current "room" and future "room".

Ice Skating

Lately, Jackson has developed and interest in ice hockey. It started when he found some skates I had purchased for him at a yard sale in MI and he has been talking about it non-stop. I guess it was inevitable since my father, brother and I all played ice hockey. Anyway, it turns out there is an ice rink down the street so today they tried skating for the first time. I figured it would either end his obsession or fuel it, in which case we would sign him up for hockey.

Not only did Jackson love it, but so did Francis! They went out there armed with bike helmets, knee pads and mittens and they had a great time. Jackson took to it right away, but poor Francis spent the first 15 minutes in a perpetual fall. He liked the ice though, so he finally gave up on the skates and crawled. After a while he figured out how to get himself up and did really well after that. Here are some of the highlights:

Wow!

Much has happened recently. For starters Casey received a job offer from the firm he worked with this summer. It was a great offer, and he enjoyed the firm so it looks like our next stop will be VA. Now all he has to do is finish law school and pass the bar.... The job will start October of 09, so we will be looking to relocate early next fall.

In other news, Jackson is now proudly riding a two-wheeler with no training wheels! Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of him because he is much too fast for the camera! Francis has also been doing some biking and has become quite proficient at peddling his trike. Not to be left out, our other little guy also seems to be practicing his skills. His kicks are packing quite a punch these days and it is fun to see him already responding his big brothers. Just 13 weeks to go!

Family Vactaion

Casey finished up his 10 weeks in Washington and we went down to pick him up and then headed to the beach for a little relaxation. The kids kept us all busy with swiming, fishing, boating, etc. We had a nice week there and we were met by some more friends from MI, who traveled back to PA with us.

Fun at the Amish Farm

Some friends of ours from MI were visiting family in nearby Hershey, so we met up with them at the Amish Farm. The goats were a big hit, as was the playground. Here are some pictures: