Time to say Good Bye!

My blog is officially coming to an end.  As I start off on yet another journey of my life I leave behind this blog.  This blog was meant as a tool for me to share our life's adventures, trials, joys, struggles, blessings and frustrations in our new journey together as a family of 4.   This blog has been a HUGE blessing to me as a source of journaling, prayer letter, photo album, and a keepsake of all we had done and gone through in 2011.  I apologize for ending it more so in October.  Life got crazy with Sydney's birthday, freak snowstorm and power outage for 5 days, Xavier getting sick, myself getting sick, Thanksgiving, Savannah's birthday, Christmas, and lets not forget the many trips to PA! I am so thankful for the many people around the world that followed and prayed for me and my children through this past year and those who still continue to as well. For those of you who have written comments to encourage and lift me and my family up in times of great need~it meant and still means the world to me!!! 
At this point in my life I am going to keep it a little more private, this is why I have chosen to stop blogging.  I know there has been and still continues to be (due to Facebook) lots of negative talk that goes on about me and things in my life.  There comes to a point where enough is enough with the negative and it out weighs the positive that comes of my blog. I know I have said this before, but I had put myself out there~feelings~life story~emotions, and sometimes maybe it was too much and maybe should have expected some of the negativity.  But I am moving forward to a new time period in my life and like I said, I would like it to stay a little more private. 
If you have a desire to keep updated with me and the children there is always Facebook~even there I am being selective as to which people see what and have deleted quite a bit of people lately.  There's also good old fashion email :)  I will gladly keep you updated with pictures and details if you would like to continue following our journey. If it is, you can email me as the same address as this blog:  thejourneybegins3@yahoo.com
Once again, I thank everyone who shared in our journey with us.  Everyone who was there for us through prayer, encouragement, help, support, and showed us unconditional love.  I can't believe that it's almost been a year since everything took place, but also I can't believe how far the kids and I have come through all of this!  We have gotten so much stronger and closer because of all of this and I WOULD NOT CHANGE ANYTHING!!!  I love my life and I love MY kids with ALL MY HEART!!  My one request I ask of those who read~NEVER take your children for granted!  You don't know how truly precious they are until they are almost taken from you!

<3 Thank you and Good Bye! <3

The day has come.....

Well, the day has come where I was able to read my divorce papers which are being sent out this week!  There are several reasons why it took this long~personal reasons~so I will not state them on here, but in no way was it because I sought hope for Will and I.  As I have already posted in a previous blog, that day I saw Will for the first time in over 3 months~which happened to be Father's Day, I knew right then and there I had no feelings for him anymore.  The damage he had done to me and the children made him more than unappealing to me, not at first, but when reality hit me and I had time to process everything, and friends/family encouraged me to have some self respect I went through the healing process and came out on the other side fairly quickly.  God carried me through everything and He had his reasons for coinciding the two situations with Will and Xavier.  I can only speculate, but thankful He did.  God had a plan!

In a way it sounds odd for me to be happy divorce papers are on their way out to him, because I never wanted/thought I would ever be in this situation.  But in the same regards, like I said above, God has a plan.  My future is and will be wonderful!  It has been quite a journey, but this journey is no where close to being done!


A friend encouraged me to add some songs to this blog post :)

P.S.~Please pray that he signs the papers!!!!

Surfing the web.

Yesterday Xavier woke up from his nap while I was still doing school with Sydney, so he sat at the table with us and played on my laptop.  I just love his facial expressions and his laugh~they just make this video! Here is a quick clip of him:



Perhaps I will send this to E*Trade and see if he could try out for their baby commercials they have! :)

Time to share...

I am thrilled to announce~we are moving back to PA!!!! :) 

God has opened several doors for us to be able to move back to PA!  We will actually be moving to Eastern PA and not Western PA where we use to live.  It's the perfect situation.  We will be less than 4 hours from where we use to live and about 5 hours from our home here in MA. 
I can't even begin to explain how wonderful and amazing God has been through all of this.  God placed some wonderful friends in my life as well as a church family who is making this all possible! I am so thankful to/for everyone who has played a role in making this possible! 
I am not certain on our move date yet, but it will not be until 2012.  2012 is looking up already!!!! :)

8 months!

The time is just flying by now!  When did my little baby boy become a big boy?!?! Xavier is 8 months old today!  I just can't get over the progress he has made these past 2 weeks! He has gotten his first tooth (lower left on September 29th), sitting up completely unassisted, mastered his pincer grasp, claps, getting up on his knees, going into a sitting position from lying down, and his language has even improved!   This little guy is a fighter and won't give up~he will continue to make great strides in his life!  He has bounced back so wonderfully and done it of course with a smile at all times!  His smile just lights up a room! I am so blessed to have him in my life!  God has truly blessed me with such a wonderful son! 

This is the happy little boy sitting up in his crib that I found in the morning.

<3 I love them! <3

Weekend happenings...

This weekend we spent much of our time with my good friend Sarah and her son Eric Charles.  Saturday morning we headed off to West End Creamery to let the kids jump on what look like GIANT air mattresses! The place didn't open til 12, and we arrived at 11.  Thankfully we packed a picnic lunch and just ate on one of their picnic tables.  It was so nice to be out in the nice cool fresh air! The hour passed and we were able to go jump. Since Sarah can't go on them I was chosen to be the best candidate seeing as there were no other adults :).  Savannah loved it as long as she was lying down or holding onto me in some capacity.  Eric only wanted to be on them if I was holding him, if not he was yelling "I all done!".  That didn't last long with either of the kids, so it was off to see the farm animals.  The kids had a great time there, so we continued our fun by going off to Barnes and Nobles to get a warm beverage from Starbucks and check out some books. 
(If you were wondering where Sydney was in these pics, she wasn't there.  She got to spend some quality time with Grammy and Grampy by herself!)
Sunday after church we met up Sarah, Eric, Eric Charles, Grammy and Grampy to go apple picking.   We had a great time and got lots of apples.  They weren't the best looking due to hurricane Irene, but they will be perfect for baking!  We got some great pics in the beautiful outdoors!  Xavier's first time apple picking too and he got to eat an apple! :)

ready to jump



Running with Savannah and Eric



resting :)

checking out the barnyard animals

they were fighting over who was going to push Xavier :)

such a good big sister!

Xavier doesn't seem to sure about all this!

Caught her eating again!

my actress/model

<3 Loves of my life <3

Me and my little man!

The girls with Grammy and Grampy

YUMMY!

Uncle Eric with Savannah and Eric Charles

Checking out the cows and horses.  Savannah loves cows lately!

Xavier wearing Uncle Eric's hat to keep the sun off of his face :)

Someday I will get them all looking AND smiling at the camera?!?!!?

Savannah looks very irritated at Xavier :)

First Foods

Today Xavier turned 7 months old!  What a joy and a blessing he has been!  He is just one giant smile all day! :)  I am amazed by his progress he has made just in the past 2 months!  Typically I would have started him on table food at 6 months old, but because of slight delays with health issues I held him off the progressing food process I have for my kids for 1 months.  Typically I would do cereal at 3 months, veggies at 4 months, fruits at 5 months and table food at 6 months.  It has been funny to watch him "eat" the baby biscuits.  And when I mean eat, I mean eat.  He is not the typical baby who sucks on a biscuit and it gets all nasty and one giant mess, no no, not at all!  Xavier will take the biscuit put it in his mouth and take a bit and start to chew and then swallow like that's what he's been doing for years.  Therefore, today when I gave him food I didn't cut it up.  I handed him a 3rd of a banana and let him take bites.  He loved it!  After he finished the banana, I gave him some pizza~what we were having for lunch. He just loves food~his bottles are a different story :( 
His 7 month old stats are as follows:  weight 16 lbs 15 oz, 27 3/4" long, diaper size 2, clothes 3-6 months, and he is able to sit up from 30 seconds to 1 minute, he rolls everywhere, no teeth, needs a hair cut :), size 2 shoe, 3 naps a day, sleeps 8-12 hours a night, has 3 bottles a day with 7 oz in each, eats cereal and 1 stage 2 jar of fruit for breakfast, and 2 stage 2 jars of veggies at dinner, smiles all day long!



First bite

"What mom, I got this, no problem!" :)

The happiest little boy~even when eating! :)  <3

Had to add~so we never forget~the nicknames:  ZayZay, ZayZer, little Darth Vader, buddy, and of course Xman. 

Love you with all our <3 Xavier Liam!