calvin matthew branch

Many of you have known or heard of Rebekah's sister, Kim and her husband Josh and their remarkable testimony that has transpired over the last 5 months.  It is a story of hope, faith, trust and incredible love.  To make a very long story short, they came to discover (at 21 weeks) as they were expecting their first child that their baby had a chromosomal abnormality called Trisomy 18.  This is typically a fatal syndrome.  Over the next 5 months something amazing happened. In this unfortunate and unimaginable circumstance they found themselves placed in, they chose to rejoice in the life God had created through them.  They chose to have unwavering faith and hope in Christ's good works.  They found peace and comfort in the storm.  

   

So, on October 15th, after carrying him 41 weeks and after 24 hours of labor, at 6:52 a.m. our sweet nephew, Calvin, was born still.  We, along with the rest our immediate family, were blessed to meet Calvin and to spend time with him, even though it was little.  We have been moved beyond words by this precious, God-breathed life, and have come to experience God's amazing glory through every circumstance.    

   

   

In his honor, they have created a website to share their story and the story of their sweet Calvin.  Please visit their site (www.calvinbranch.com) to learn more, read their personal testimony and to view the slideshow that was so beautifully put together of photographs taken on Calvin's birthday.  It will leave you speechless.  Please join us in lifting up Josh and Kim in prayer as they continue to seek refuge in God's amazing grace.  They have been so rooted in Christ's love during this whole time, that you can't help but see Christ living in and through them.  We'll leave you now with a beautiful verse that they've  so eloquently quoted time and time again:  

The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord. ~Job 1:21b

   

october

we love the month of october for two reasons, can you guess what they are? here are some picture clues: 

  

yep, if you guessed going to the pumpkin patch and visiting the fire station, your right!  there's just something about going to a pumpkin patch on a beautiful, autumn day that is so refreshing, not to mention the kids love it.  and since our boys love firetrucks, visiting the fire station and sitting in all the trucks is always a blast!  

CLICK HERE to see some pictures from these fun events!  

   

   

grandparents day

   

as explained the in previous post and after stealing some pictures from mom snavely, here are some pictures of grandparents day at hudson's preschool.  he LOVED showing them around his new school and he was such a proud little man.  

he showed them all around his new classroom and they got to meet his teachers, too. 

 

  

he even got to do a fun craft with them too, "my grandparent and I, hand in hand", where he traced their hands and his together.  so sweet!

 

oh, what a blessing it is to have grandparents!!!  thank you for making this such a special day for hudson, he still talks about it to this day!  we love you SO MUCH grandma, mimi, and great bumpa!

a long awaited update...

hey there!  long time no blog, right!?!  we have been MIA in blog-world for the last month because our lives have been a whirlwind.  as most know already, we sold our old house and moved into a new one.  during the buying/selling process we decided that there was NO way we were going to risk being stuck with 2 mortgages, so we waited to buy until we were completely sold.  for that reason, there was a 3 week overlap between the time we had to be out of our old house before we got the keys to our new house.  so, to make a long story short, we moved twice! now, you'd think that'd be a pain, but our awesome THRIVE group and family helped us and both times, we were done moving in less than 3 hours...it was AMAZING!!!  we moved our entire house into a storage unit and stayed with mom and dad snavely for almost 3 weeks and then moved again into our new house.  whew, that was whirlwind!  so here's the new place:

   

here are some updates from the last month:

*after having 10 ear infections, we finally pressured greyson's pediatrician enough to get her to budge and refer him to have tubes put in his ears.  he had the surgery at the hospital and did amazing!  and so far so good, no more ear infections yet!!!

   

*hudson is still loving preschool.  we get a weekly report each week and he loves playing in the art, science and math stations.  he loves story time and learning about numbers, colors and bible stories.  it's so cool to see him growing!  he also enjoyed having both grandmas and great grandpa in to preschool to celebrate "grandparents day".  he got to spend the whole morning with them at his school and he loved showing them all around his new school!  pictures of this will come soon (we have to steal them off our mom's cameras).   

*hudson also took his first trip to the dentist.  he was a little nervous at first about going, but ended up loving it!  he did perfectly and he loved holding the big toothbrush and teeth they showed him (see picture below).  he also especially loved getting a prize from the treasure box at the end of the visit.  now he loves going to the dentist! 

*at our new house we have a jacuzzi tub in our master bathroom and the boys LOVE to take baths in it...it's like a swimming pool to them.  well, hudson also thought that the backside of the tub would be a perfect slide and ended up having 5 stitches in his chin after taking quite a spill.  oh yes, the joys of parenthood, right?!?  actually, we can't complain, he barely cried when it happened (thanks to mommy's quick grab of the red towel, so he didn't realize he was bleeding!), he didn't make a peep the whole time we were at statcare getting the stitches and has been fine ever since.  the stitches come out in the next couple days or so.  

    

   

well, about sums up that last month for us.  CLICK HERE to see some snapshots of the boys from the past several weeks!  enjoy!