If you follow this blog at all you’ll know we haven’t been very good at keeping it updated. Life with three has proven to be a bit more time consuming than we realized. Since we don’t keep you updated on a more regular basis we at least thought we could give you our “Family Christmas Update” here….

2009 has been a full year yet we are blessed beyond words. When I reflect on this past year, it’s hard to recall all that has happened because it has just flown by! I do recall it being a challenging year though that has tested my patience for much of it. Being pregnant, chasing two boys day in and day out as well as Kevin being in his last year of school full time was more tiresome and challenging than expected. It is only by God’s grace that we survived the year with spirits still in tact! He is so good to us…

It was last year at this time we found out we were pregnant with our third little blessing. We were all thrilled with the news but I think Ethan was the most excited to meet the new little one to come! Ethan is 4 (5 in February) and is such a delight in the Vile household. He has such a sweet and helpful spirit. He loves people and truly has a kind heart. He is inquisitive of everything. He asks deep theological questions not even realizing it (don’t you just love the innocence of a small child)…. it’s amazing to watch his view of God develop in his little brain…. what a big responsibility on our part… (God, give us grace as we teach him about You!) He loves drawing (which he has gotten quite good at), puzzles, building and playing with his siblings. He is in his second year of preschool and is doing great with his letters and numbers. He can write his own name as well as everyone elses name in the family. Just recently we discovered he needs glasses… you can read about his condition here. It’s hard to believe how big our “baby” is getting. Everyone always told us the years would go by fast… they sure have! As challenging as it gets sometimes, I still tell him to stop getting older! I am trying to learn to cherish these days as I know they will be gone tomorrow. We are praying for God to use Ethan’s kind heart to serve Him.

Our little Lucas just turned 3 (12/17) and he is our little “spitfire”! What a ball of energy Lucas is! He certainly keeps us on our toes but is such a sweet little boy. He loves his big brother and loves to be a big brother! He has a mind of his own and is all boy! He loves sports of any kind, cars, trucks, trains etc. He loves to sing and play the guitar (a sign of things to come???) Some of the sweetest moments I love are watching him in church dance to the worship music and occasionally raise his hands to worship like his Grandma! Lucas is loads of fun! He loves playing with Ethan and really looks up to him. We love spending time with him on his own (without siblings) as he seems to not fight for so much attention. We are praying for this sweet gift from God to grow to know and serve Christ with his life.

And our third little blessing, Alayna, is 4 months old already and has been pure joy in our life. The first few months of her life were a bit challenging as she seemed to have colic. So dealing with a crying baby most days and nights were tough. But having some extra pink in the house was enough to make me smile through it all (almost all). Alayna loves to eat, loves looking and smiling at her brothers. She loves to rock, swing and bounce in our arms. She is definitely the princess of the house! It has been loads of fun watching her grow and change. She is smiling all the time and is currently working on grabbing rattles and switching them from one hand to the next. Life with three little ones keeps us on our toes, keeps us humble and keeps us looking to Christ for grace and strength! We are praying for Alayna to grow to be a strong woman of God.

Kevin finished his Master of Divinity degree from Winebrenner Theological Seminary in August (just before Alayna was born). We are all so proud of him as he worked hard for the past three years! I’ve learned alot from this awesome man of God. His humbleness and wisdom of God’s Word is inspiring to me. God has truly gifted him with a mind for the truth of His Word… (and he would roll his eyes at me for writing this about him… but it’s true :)). I’m proud of you Kevin and I know God is using you now and has a plan for our future in ministry somewhere! I love you!
Kevin’s day job is in computer database development working from home (which is a blessing most of the time :)). The boys love “checking in” on Daddy throughout the day and although we (the kids and me) can be loud sometimes, he handles the “distractions” pretty well. We love him being home!

As for me, my time is consumed with changing diapers, picking up toys, trying to keep mouths fed and working on the never ending loads of laundry. But honestly, I wouldn’t want to do anything different. I know God has given me a huge responsibility raising these kids and loving my husband. And though, I’m not very good at it at times, He is continually growing me and showing me how much I need Him even in the mundane … actually MORE in the mundane. I am thankful for our Father’s unfailing and unending love!

As we celebrate the birth of our Savior this Christmas, may we know his goodness and praise Him for the love he showed us in giving us His son!

Merry Christmas!!!

Categories: Family, Holiday
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We had a wonderful Labor Day evening with great friends and food!! Our dear friends, the Core’s, are moving to Omaha, NE soon and they so graciously had us over to eat the food from their freezer…. Lobster tails and ribs (I want a freezer like that)! Brett and Jenny and their kids, JB and Macayla are not only great friends of ours, they are such a sweet family in our Bowling Green community. Leading the BG Young Life for many years, and working with the pregnancy center and so active in our church. The generosity and the love of Christ that pours from them is amazing and inspiring. Our first “taste” of their graciousness was when Ethan was born 3 1/2 years ago. We were fairly new to the church (or at least we still felt new) and Jenny arranged meals for us to be delivered every other day for a month. She showed genuine interest in the issues of a new mom and helped however she could. Although I know now she was doing only what was natural for her… caring and loving on people. We have watched Brett and Jenny give of themselves, their time and their things over and over and its Christ we see in all they do. It has been amazing doing life with these dear friends and it’s so hard to believe they will soon be in a new community, and in a new church with new friends. But what a great family Omaha is getting. Our prayers are with you, friends, as God opens new doors for you, provides new friends for you and blesses you far more than you can imagine. We love you Core’s! (tears)

Ok… on to some fun memories… here’s our Labor Day:

Check out those lobster tails!

Lucas and Lexi enjoying the cookout

The kiddos

The Ladies

And the Gents

The whole gang

And the Core’s… we will miss you guys!

Categories: Friends, Holiday
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Ha! I can’t believe July is almost over!!! But here are some pictures from our 4th of July celebration. Yes, you will see us all in long sleeves and pants… thanks to our lovely Ohio weather it was rather cold on the 4th of July. Kevin and I were both suffering from 3 week colds that just wouldn’t go away but we couldn’t miss the fireworks at Ft. Meigs! Now that we have kids, it’s more fun watching them watch the fireworks than actually watching them ourselves.

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This post is a little out of order as it happened before Easter but I wanted to include some pictures anyway. We did an Easter egg hunt the week before Easter and the boys got to meet the Easter Bunny. They had fun collecting easter eggs… although Lucas wasn’t quite sure of the huge furry bunny (we don’t blame you kid)… it was a fun morning.

Lucas was putting eggs in any basket on the floor… we didn’t know this little girl.

Ethan busy eating his candy and Lucas not so sure about this furry thing!

Ethan giving a hug to the Easter Bunny

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Hard to believe Easter is over already! And hard to believe we celebrated Easter with snow on the ground! Bleh! Also… did you know that little boys don’t get dressed up for Easter? Yeah, only little girls. Everywhere I shopped (ok, so not the expensive places) there was hardly any choice for boys Easter outfits. Just button down shirts and like 2 to choose from! Oh but little girls… they have hundreds of cute dresses to choose from! I’m not bitter I promise! I wanted a little bowtie for Lucas but ha… no luck!! Oh well.
We had a good Easter. We didn’t get to celebrate with Kevin’s family b/c his mom and grandma have been having some health issues (to sum it up). We sure missed them and can’t wait to visit soon! We’re praying for you guys, we love and miss you very much!
We did, however, get to spend Easter with my Grandma’s family… we had a family reunion on her side. It was nice to see everyone and see the how much the cousins, 2nd cousins, 1st cousins once removed, etc., etc. have grown. The older cousins had fun hiding TONS of eggs for the 3 little ones! They found more eggs than they could handle… or maybe we parents could handle! I’ve never seen so much candy on Easter! But they had fun and that’s what matters right.
Here’s some pics from our day:

I realized we didn’t get a good picture of Ethan on Easter until he was way too gone to cooperate so this is what we get.

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We had a great time ringing in the new year with our friends. We were even able to stay out till midnight since our friends kids gave up their beds to let our little ones sleep. Thanks JB & Macayla! We had a fun night eating, playing games, eating, talking, eating and oh, did I mention eating.

I am looking forward to a new year with new adventures and challenges. It’s pretty amazing how the years go by faster and faster… guess there’s no way to slow it down other than slow down yourself and try to enjoy every moment. I hope this year brings as many joys and blessings as 2007. God is good!

Categories: Friends, Holiday
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After a great visit in Detroit with Kevin’s family we came home and spent Christmas with my side. Ryan and Heidi and the kids came in from Colorado Sunday night (12/23) so we were able to visit with them all week. The kids opened their gifts from Gram & Gramp on Christmas Eve … they had a blast and kept asking for more! Somehow they need to learn they don’t NEED more!… or maybe Gram and Gramp need to learn that. It was fun to watch them tear open gifts and see the look on their faces… so cute. Ethan got a bright, new, shiny tricycle (among other things) and Lucas got diapers and baby food (among other toys). I admit, I asked for those things for Lucas… this is probably the only year he won’t care and won’t know the difference. Actually, he was excited about the food… that was the only thing he recognized and loved.

On Christmas day we went to my Grandma & Grandpa’s house for lunch and exchanged gifts there. It was nice to visit with everyone, as the whole family (cousin’s and all) was there. After Grandma’s house we went back to my parents house, put the kids to bed and we had our own time to open gifts … just the adults. We like to drag it out and spend hours opening gifts, talking, laughing, eating and just visiting. It was great. Mom had lots of fun handing out the gifts this year… she started out giving each of us a gift from our childhood … we had to figure out what it was that we always played with as a kid and was our favorite toy. It was fun going down memory lane and seeing how some of our favorite toys are still around but have changed just a bit. I got a Strawberry Shortcake doll (loved them as a kid!), Kevin got matchbox cars, Ryan got a light bright and Heidi got a sock monkey “Georgie”. Mom really got a kick out of that game. … and so did we. Thanks mom for a fun surprise.
We spent the next few hours laughing and opening gifts and just being together.

The rest of the week was filled with kids, kids and more kids. OH and a baby announcement! Not me… Heidi! I’m going to be an Aunt again! Yay! Congrats you guys!

Here’s some pictures of our week… I don’t have many as we were pretty busy chasing kids to snap photos all the time.

Christmas morning at our house

At Grams: Cousin Annette & daughter, Kaitlyn, Ryan, Heidi, Noah & Ryleigh

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