life as an ostovic

Check out this video melanie caught of the boys getting into mischief together!
Evan is throwing Cheerios on the floor at Jacks command. It is pretty cute.
Click on the link below.

Jackson and Evan getting into mischief

Jackson absolutely LOVES the movie Cars from Disney’s Pixar Pictures. We were sitting around the dinner table tonight listening to the song “Our Town” by James Taylor from the movie. Melanie and I love this song. It has such a sense of nostalgia nestled in the reality of a changing world.

Anyway, Jackson all of the sudden began singing, and it was one of the most precious moments that I can remember in a long time. Often he will begin singing a song that we had no idea he knew the words to. This one caught us off guard. I do believe there were tears in our eyes. I tried to recreate the moment for you. I hope you enjoy it.

Click below to see the video.

Over thanksgiving while visiting with my parents, Jackson and Poppy (Derrak’s Dad) took advantage of the snow that had fallen over night. Jack was so anxious to get out and play in it. As soon as he saw it right after he woke up, he wanted to be in it!! Unfortunately we were not prepared and had go get him a jacket that fit him. So after being very patient while we went shopping, he finally got his time in the snow!

I love his new hat! I wish I had one that fit me. I sometimes find myself saying that. Is it OK that I sometimes covet my sons clothing? Never expected that as a parent. Ha. You can click on the pictures above to see a large version.

derrak

melanie and evan just before we left the hospital.

derrak and jack enjoying supper in the park this summer.

jackson hanging our at our friend jana’s house in october.

evan growing so big so fast!

click on an image above to see a larger version

Dear Tori and Stephen,

Your mom told us how much you enjoyed seeing the pictures of Evan and Jackson on our web site, so I thought I would post these pictures of your mom visiting with Evan for you to see. (It was so much fun to see your mom.) Both of you are very good friends to Jackson and we cannot wait for you to meet Evan and become his friend too!!

with love,Derrak and Melanie

P.S. We heard you wanted to see a picture of jack too, so here are two from when he met Evan for the first time.

After many attempts to get the labor process going (including a visit with the midwife Sunday afternoon) the only results were painful contractions 5 minutes apart that were not dilating Melanie at all. She had been steady at 1.5 cm the past three days.

Late Sunday night (or rather very early Monday morning) the contractions had become so intense that we called the midwife who suggested that we head to the hospital for more monitoring. As we expected labor was still not progressing.

It was 2am and with a c-section already schedule for 8am, we had two options. 1. take some pain meds a sleeping pill and wait, or 2. have the c-section right then. The only advantage to waiting was the potential for rest. However Melanie was quite certain that she would be getting none no matter what. So we went ahead and had the c-section then. Melanie went into surgery around 4am and Evan was born at 4:21am.

The surgery went like clockwork and now we are doing very well recovering in the maternity unit.

Some observations:

1. The initial poop still looks like you could tar the parking lot with it!
2. He is very sweet and does not cry much at all.
3. He is very cute, as you can see.
4. Many people initially think that he looks like his big brother. What do you think?
5. When you text message 30 or so people, you get a lot of text messages back. (which is good)
6. We are blessed to have so many great friends and family.
7. Wireless Internet in our hospital room is Awesome!!!!
8. When you have not slept much it is easy to switch numbers. This is why the 30 or so people you sent text messages to think that he weighs 6 pounds 8 ounces instead of 8 pounds 6 ounces.

Well that is it for now. I will keep posting things in the coming days. Tomorrow looks to be exciting because Jackson is going to meet Evan for the first time!!!! Give us a call or drop me an e-mail if you would like to visit, we would love throw Evan in your arms and share him with you.

Derrak

I thought this was an awesome picture from our vacation in Emerald Isle, North Carolina.
This was taken while we were on a walk at Bough Fishing Pier.

More vacation pics will be coming.

derrak

It’s a Friday afternoon, which is the day jack and I get to hang out. He is taking a nap so I thought that I would write a post. This is an older picture of jack that I ran across recently. I just love it! (Actually I am bummed because I seem to have lost our digital camera which really sucks!! I can’t believe I let it happen. I am driving myself nuts trying to find it. Anyway we will not have a lot of new pictures for a little while till I find it, or I get a new one.)

I also wanted to let the blogger world know that jackson will have a little brother in July. We found out the sex about a month ago and thought it was about time to put it on the website. I guess that is how things go with the second kid huh? : ) We are very excited to have two boys. A name has not been picked yet. The front runner is Evan, but I need to warm up to it a little more. Why not let us know what your ideas are for the new name in the comments below. It will be fun to see what you say.

I just came back from a missions trip to Mississippi where we took 86 high school students and leaders to work on hurricane relief. I cannot believe how much devastation is still there. It really is a tragedy what has happened. Not only the storm but the lack of leadership afterwards. It reminds you of what is important in life. I hope I never forget. I recommend a trip down there for anyone. You will be changed.
I’ll try to get some picture up for you to see.

Not much else is going on apart from the usual life stuff. Soon we will begin painting our guest bedroom to make it into jackson’s new room. Also we are excited to begin working outside on our landscaping. We just love doing this together. It is so great to get your hands dirty. I think it is therapeutic.

Oh also, we will be heading off to North Carolina for a vacation with Melanie’s family in June. We are very excited to get away to the beach together. It will be jacks first beach experience!

Well that is all for now. I things are well in the blogger universe. till next time.

Derrak