First visit from the tooth fairy

Brady hit a big milestone yesterday.  He lost his first tooth!!!  It seems like just yesterday we were so excited that he got his first tooth.  He was very excited to put his tooth in his tooth fairy box and was even more excited to find $5.00 the next morning.  When we were talking about what he could do with the money, I suggested saving it for our next trip to Disney.  All on his own Brady said he was raising money for the Relay for life and was going to put it toward that!  WOW I am a very PROUD mommy.  maybe all my talk about giving back is actually getting through!!  Congrats to my big boy!!  We love you!!!

gone but never forgotten

It has taken me a little while to be able to write this, but I decided that it may actually help me heal to write it all out.

November 13th 2011, We got that double line on the home pregnancy test that we had been waiting for.  Brian and I had decided that we would like to have one more child to complete our family.  The timing had worked out great we were goin gto be due on July 22, 2012.  That was great because Brian isn't too busy with work during the summer and I have less kids during the summer for daycare.  We told everyone the news on Thanksgiving day.  We were so thankful!! We had even decided to tell the boys.  We never thought that we would miscarry.  The boys were so excited.  Brady especially!  It warmed my heart to see how welcoming my children were going to be to their new brother or sister.  We got through the holidays and had our first ultrasound scheduled for Decemeber 29th.  THat day we had Brian's parent's watch the boys and we went for the ultrasound.  After the tech took us in and started the ultrasound I knew right away that I was not seeing a heartbeat.  I didn't say anything at first cause I didn't want to come off as one of the know it all moms.  She decided to change over to an internal ultrasound saying that I wasn't too far along and she needed to see some things better.  I Still had hope at this point, She switched over to the internal ultrasound and I knew as soon as I saw the screen that there was still no heartbeat. I finally asked the tech if we should be able to see the heartbeat. She said yes and I imediatley started to cry.  I asked how big the baby was measuring and she said 8 weeks 6 days.  according to the doctors calculations I shoul dhave been 10 weeks 4 days.  We went up to my doctors office where we discussed my options.  at that point I said I wanted to let it happen naturally but I asked if I decided to have a D&C if I could have one more ultrasound just to be 100% sure.  I waited about 5 days and nothing happened on its own.  It was absolute torture.  to know you are walking around with your dead baby inside of you does something to you.  I also had a tiny little piece of hope that they were wrong, that I was going to go back for an ultrasound and find a healthy baby.  January 5th I went in for my last ultrasound.  my mom came with me and held my hand through the whole the thing.  They confirmed my worst nightmare.  there was still no heartbeat and the baby was still measuring at 8weeks 6 days.  I scheduled the D&C for the next day, but before I left the ultrasound I did manage to get a picture.  Jan. 6 2012 I said one last goodbye to my baby.  never knowing if it was a boy or a girl I think was one of the hardest things for me.  I know lots of people go through this.  I was overwhelmed by the amount of people who reached out to me and told me their story.  I'm moving forward.  This is something I will never forget.  I will always wonder what this child would have been like, who it would have looked like, how the boys would have interacted with a new baby.  how it would have changed our family dynamics. and of course I have gone down the why? road a couple times but have decided that why this happened I will probably never know.  But I know that as a family this is something that we will get through together.

Christmas 2011

Christmas started for us on Dec. 24th as usual when we celebrate wigilia with Brian's side of the family.  I love having such wonderful traditions to pass down to my kids!

the boys exchanging the blessed bread (it has a Polish name but I'm not going to attempt to spell it)

And a kiss!!!

Liam eating like a big boy!

After dinner it was time to open gifts!

Liam loved the paper!

Cameron was super excited!

Brady loved his new scooter from auntie Alyssa

Liam loved his new ball popper

After all the presents it was time for dessert and then we headed home.  True to our traditions we put out our reigndeer food!

Ready for santa

The boys decided that Santa needed chocolate milk this year with his cookies.

We said goodbye to Stewie.  See you next year!

We read The Night Before Christmas and then went to bed!

And the next morning the boys were ready to go downstairs to see if Santa came.

He DID!!

Liam went right for his new train

Cameron was very excited that he got Rock n' roll mickey

but they were most excited for their DS's

After gifts at home we headed over to Autnie Shanna's house where we had lunch and opened more gifts and had fun seeing Grammy and pappa.  After that we headed to Brian's Aunts house where more gifts were exchanged and after that it was time to head home and got to BED!  We were all exhauseted after a full day!  It was a wonderful Christmas!! Thank you to everyone who made it so special!

Tis the season

In the Stack house hold we start our christmas decorating right after Thanksgiving so true to form we did that again this year.

This is the tree in the boys room.

giving back

One of the most important things for me as a parents is to make sure that my children understand how fortunate we are and that there are other people in the world who are less fortunate.  Ocasios Karate school raises money through out the year to be able to out together 450 baskets of turkey dinners for those in need.  Tonight we went to the Haverhill Studio and helped to put together the baskets.  I was a very proud mommy, as you can see in the pictures the baskets we pretty heavy and Brady wanted to do it all by himself and he went through the line as many times as he could until all the baskets were put together.  Cameron although he couldn't carry them he pushed the tray through the assembly line and worked hard too.

Halloween 2011

Although we had a snow storm a few days before Halloween we managed to have a Trick-or-treat.  The weather actually wasn't too cold. Brady and Cameron went as Mario and Luigi (the Mario Brothers) and Liam was a pumpkin.  I figure I better get in all the cute costumes while I can because before I know it, Liam's going to want to choose his own costume.

Topsfield Fair

Brady and Grammy

In front of the giant pumpkin

Cameron and his crazy face

Brady going down the giant slide

Last weekend we went to Topsfield fair.  Although it was PACKED we still managed to see somethings and have a good time.  My parents came with us this year and it was nice to spend some time with them.  They even took Liam around for a little while while we watched the tiger show with Cameron and Brady.  It was fun spending some family time together.

Belt promotion

The 3 of us and sempia Munoz after graduation

Brady holding strong doing push ups!

time for our front kick!

Cameron holding strong!!!!

The little Dragon's class

A little congradulations after receiving my certificate

time for some meditation

This past weekend we had our belt graduation. I received my Orange belt, Brady got his green belt and Cameron got his purple/blue belt.  I am so glad that we are able to do this together.  We all enjoy karate so much and we all look forward to the day when we reach our black belt.