happy birthday to our littlest boy :: {ari turns 5!}

Five years ago today, in the early morning hours, Jason and I sat quietly together in the dimly lighted living room of our home in Belgium. I was full of belly with our third child, our third boy.

Contractions had started coming on earlier the evening before and were becoming more frequent, but remained mild. So we sat waiting, waiting for them to start to come on stronger and longer. I instinctively felt the time was nearing to welcome our baby boy, but my water hadn’t broken like it had with our other two. There was no true sign that told us to go to the hospital. However, I remained uneasy and unable to calm myself enough to sleep.

It had been a fear of mine since becoming pregnant while living in the big city of Brussels that I would go into labor during the daytime when traffic was always horrendous and Jason was a good 25-30 minute drive away. In my mind, nighttime was when I had hoped to deliver our baby. Finally around 3:00am Jason said he would call for our friend, Carmen, to come and stay with the boys. The first two births were fast ones and he was a little nervous about making it to the hospital once I started progressing.

Carmen arrived in a flash. Excited for us, she said not to worry about Alex and Andy, wished us luck and we were out the door on our way to the hospital. Driving there we were hoping they wouldn’t tell us to go back home because it wasn’t quite time. We arrived at the hospital, parked the car and we walked (I waddled) holding hands in the rain through the emergency room entrance of the hospital.

Things got underway pretty quickly after we checked in…

William Ari Zolton was born on January 13th @ 7:25 am. He was 6.5lbs and 20in at birth.

He ranks third in comparison to birth weight and height of our four children.

Today he measures taller than Alex and Andy at 5 years.

Ari is no longer the youngest of the family, but he will always be my baby boy.

Happy 5th birthday to our green-eyed love!

xoxo,

Mel

one from the archives :: ari {feb 2012}

In anticipation of Ari’s birthday tomorrow, we’ve been having some fun looking at photographs. Here’s one of our littlest guy taken a month after his first birthday.

 

xoxo,

Mel

red, white and blue

Happy 4th of July!

xoxo,

Mel

one from the archives :: three boys in the tub {2011}

Throwing it back to 2011. The boys trying out our new claw foot tub, shortly after moving into our new house in Germany.

Even now they enjoy taking baths together. Usually only two at a time since they are bigger. When they finish and are all clean, the floor is flooded with water from practicing swimming techniques and water fights that break out. I take a deep breathe and think to myself, “That’s one way to get the floor washed!”
Ah, these fleeting childhood years.

xoxo,

Mel

this moment :: 8 may

I just keep falling in love…

We’ve got a celebratory weekend ahead of us. Starting with Andy’s birthday party with friends tomorrow. On Sunday we will celebrate a special Mother’s Day as it falls on Andy’s birthday this year! Steak, cake, and gifts!!

Wishing a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend to all the nurturing, amazing women I am blessed with having in my life.

xoxo,

Mel

{joining :: soulemama}

this moment :: 1 may

We wrapped up another swim session yesterday.  Each session consists of eight classes given for an hour three times a week.  Parents are not allowed in the pool area during class.  The last day of the session is reserved as a ‘show’ day.  On that day, we can go in the pool area and watch the class to see progress made.

I always well up with pride when I see how dedicated and how hard the boys are working at becoming better swimmers. Ari, especially, looks to his big brothers for encouragement.  In this photo, Andy is cheering him on.

Happy May Day!  Wishing you all a lovely weekend.

xoxo,

Mel

{joining :: soulemama}

April wrap up

April started off slow as we began the month enjoying a little break from our routines and celebrated Easter. Then life picked back up and the days seemed to fly off the calendar. Now, here we are already at the end of another month! Before we say goodbye to April, here are a few snapshots from our month.

This year the boys got a lot more creative with their egg coloring. We then headed outside and played ‘egg hunt’ for several hours as they took turns at hiding the eggs.

Despite the snow, the annual County Fair Kinderfest & Egg Hunt put on by Jay’s work was a huge success again this year. Yes, storm troopers and the Easter bunny!

Our fruit trees are in bloom. I am hoping for another great harvest year. It is really something to go into your own yard and pick apples, cherries, berries, and plums. A young walnut tree was planted into our yard this year, too! Despite my failed attempt to transplant them last fall, the Peonies are standing tall. It has become one of my favorite flowers.

The photo on the left was taken by Ari from his perspective. We call it ‘Bump in the Sky’. I can barely see my toes now as this bump gets bigger and BIGGER! Back aches and difficulty bending over are just a few of the joys of third trimester. I keep telling myself, ‘almost there’!

Andy will turn 7 next month!! Here he is being silly wearing Harry Potter glasses.

It has warmed up enough to enjoy one of our favorites eats, flammkuchen, at the castle on the hill above our house.

We encountered a flock of sheep grazing on our way to swim class. To see them up close like this is truly cool.

I was feeling kinda crafty one afternoon and decided to complete a project that has been sitting in the garage for awhile. More on this in an upcoming post.

Sending much love to all of you.

 

xoxo,

Mel