Happy News!

We're expecting baby #4! 

We've known for quite a while, but because of our recent miscarriage decided to wait before making it widely known.  It hasn't exactly been a secret, but we haven't proclaimed it from the rooftops either (which is hard for me because I'm so happy about it).

So at this point, I'm nearly through the first trimester and everything looks good (except my waistline...fat looking stage).  We had a couple of really scary weeks initially where I went through some symptoms I've never had in any pregnancy before.  We were never able to determine what was going on in my body, but it felt like an emergency.  I really felt like my body was trying to abort the pregnancy.  I don't believe we'll ever understand it in this life.  I am very grateful that Jim was able to give me several Priesthood blessings during those weeks. 

I've thought a lot about our miscarriage in December, and wondered why a lot.  With my first miscarriage, although I was sad, I was consoled with the fact that one miscarriage is very common.  I also trusted in the Lord that it was His will and He knew what was best for our family.  Then I was blessed to bear three children in a short time frame.  I've always been grateful for that blessing.  These little ones are my every day joy. 

Our second miscarriage surprised me.  I honestly expected to never go through that again.  While I trusted the Lord that it was again His will and that it was again best for our family, it was harder for me.  The months it took to conceive again were difficult. 

I recognize now one lesson that experience had in store for me and I am grateful.  I know and love many dear women who have had difficulty or who have been unable to bear children.  I've always felt much sympathy for them, in part because motherhood is so joyful for me and I know I would ache for my little ones if they weren't here.  I've certainly been blessed with fertility and I know at times that has been hard for my friends.  I know they love me, but it is nevertheless hard to stand by and watch while someone receives blessings you desire with all your heart.

As I eagerly hoped each month (months that I recognize were a relatively short time) to conceive, my thoughts were turned toward these dear women whose desires for motherhood haven't been fulfilled or have been a difficult road to obtain.  They were in my thoughts and prayers more than ever and I was able to experience new empathy for them.  After we joyfully learned we were expecting again, not only was I more grateful than I'd ever been for a pregnancy, but these women remained in my thoughts and prayers.  They still do.  I love these dear women and earnestly hope for the blessings of motherhood to come to them.  I am grateful that my miscarriage taught me this lesson.     

Kids Say and Do

First I have to record the 'do' because it was pretty funny, though it could have been an emergency.  This morning the kids were playing in the basement while I was in a different room reading.  After a little while Annie came upstairs crying and saying she was bleeding.  Logan was right on her heels.  Much to my surprise her gums were bleeding a little bit.  When I asked the kids what had happened they told me that Logan tried to pull Annie's tooth!  She was a willing participant of course.  He'd tied a string to her tooth and pulled hard!  They were both pretty upset and had definitely learned a lesson.  Thankfully, her tooth is still firmly in place.  Wow.  I'm amazed at what these kids think of sometimes!

Annie, "Mom, your hair!  It's square!  Square hair!"

Annie, "I don't remember how to lie anymore."

Logan, "Mom, you know what it smells like outside?  Giraffe crackers!"

Logan, "At my wedding party...guess WHAT?  You'll DEFINITELY be invited! (thoughtful pause) Since I'm your son!"

Annie, "Guess what?  When I'm seventeen you won't be able to pick me up."

Annie, "One time I farted.  Even my leg farted.  A tummy fart is real.  Even a belly button fart."  Charming....

Logan when we were talking about singing in the Primary program, "My voice was stuck in the crowd."

Annie, "Farmers are good farmers because they kill turkeys for us."

Annie in a whiny voice, "I don't want to get working!  I just want to get married!"

Shirley Temple For a Day

Last night Annie discovered our sponge curlers and wanted to know what they were.  After I explained, she asked if I would put them in her hair.  I wasn't sure if they would stay in since her hair is so short and thin, but we tried.

 

Bedtime.

Initial curls this morning

Frizzy combed out curls

Finished curls.  Her hair reminds me a lot of Shirley Temple.  She's my cutie. 

Another Logan Project

Logan had so many cool building sets for his birthday.  On Sunday he and Jim built the last one. 

Patchwork Quilt

I've never made a patchwork quilt, but have been wanting to for a long time.  I finally did it!  Part of the fun was creating my own pattern for it.  (Once again, I didn't use a pattern...one of these days I will...)  It isn't perfect, but it was fun to make.  This was for a friend who is having a baby.  I hope she enjoys it.

Harvesting

I have been very pleased with our garden this year.  It cost us about $50 to put in (mostly because Jim built boxes) and we've yielded more than that in produce.  We had tons of lettuce and spinach early on.  We've been picking big bowls of tomatoes constantly (there are still TONS of green ones on the vines if they survive the cooler weather).  We had plenty of carrots, a few green onions, and a few potatoes.  Then there are the pumpkins and the sunflowers. 

 

Because we had some freezing temperatures at night recently, we harvested some pumpkins.  Unforunately our largest pumpkins that were out there have mysteriously disappeared.  :(  We aren't sure how many have disappeared, but I think we are four short.  They were the biggest ones too.  We left four more good sized green ones on the vine.  I'm hoping they'll still be there when they ripen so we can carve them.  Our pumpkin thief is my only disappointment with our garden this year.

On Monday evening, we decided it was time to harvest our sunflower seeds.  We only had three sunflowers grow, and only two developed flowers, but we filled a big bowl with the seeds from those two!  I'm excited to cook them!

Teeth

While we were camping Logan bit down hard on his breakfast and suddenly noticed he had a loose tooth!  He was super excited.  He wiggled it for a couple of days, but it was still hanging on.  The kids were going to have dentist appointments on Tuesday morning, so Monday night we convinced Logan to let Jim get the tooth out.  Jim pulled it out when he wasn't expecting it and Logan was perfectly happy with that.  It was pretty funny to hear him talk immediately afterward because he had a little lisp.  On Tuesday morning he was thrilled to see that the 'tooth fairy' had left him a dollar.

Logan was excited to show the dentist that he'd lost a tooth and Annie was excited to go to the dentist because they color her teeth purple and give her prizes.  Alex was not excited to go to the dentist.  Last time the kids had appointments he cried the whole time and wouldn't sit in the chair.  So this time, I laid in the chair with him.  He did great!  After a little while, I was able to get up and he laid in the chair by himself.  Triumph!

The dentist informed us that Logan had another loose tooth.  Sure enough we could feel that it was wiggly, and it came out Sunday morning (I forgot to take a picture).  Unfortunately, the 'tooth fairy' forgot to come that night because she fell asleep before the kids did.  Logan wasn't too disappointed because he told me he knows who the 'tooth fairy' is.  He's right.  Nevertheless, the 'tooth fairy' managed to take his tooth and leave a dollar when he wasn't watching that morning.

Josh Visits

My brother, Josh, came out for a visit last week.  He is getting ready to start a new job, so he decided to use up his remaining vacation time from his old job and come see us!  Yeah!  He arrived Monday night and stayed until Sunday evening.  We did a lot of hanging out at my house (which suited us just fine), but also got out to do a few fun things.  It was a good balance for what we wanted.

 

On Wednesday we went to some fossil beds.  These are pretty neat. 

Logan and Annie had a good time climbing on the rocks until Logan slipped and cut his leg.  Oh the drama!  He recovered and we went on our merry way.

It was the warmest day of that week (actually the last really warm day we've had) and we were feeling pretty hot on those fossil beds.  So we finished that and walked over to the river where there was shade.  The kids waded for a while and then we found a place to have a picnic and a little hike.

After our hike we decided to check out the visitor's center at that particular park.  It was actually worthwhile.  They even let us bring the dog inside.  We watched a short documentary about the floods that had uncovered the fossil beds and checked out the stuffed wildlife they had on display.  The kids came away with coloring books and other goodies.  They also had some activities for the kids.

On Thursday we decided to go to the Children's Museum.  We were really glad we'd enjoyed the outdoors the day before because it was cold and rainy this day.  The kids earned passes to the museum through their reading program this summer.  Logan worked really hard at his reading specifically to earn this pass.  So this was a big deal.

Our first stop was the grocery store.  All three kids enjoyed loading up their carts.

Josh was their cashier.

The hospital was the next exciting stop.  I loved the tiny scrubs Annie put on.

Logan was pretty excited about the x-ray room this time.

Alex spent most of his time taking care of the babies.

Our third stop was the post office.  We skipped this last year, so it was pretty exciting.

I couldn't get them to stand still for a picture.  Each room in the children's museum has its own mailbox, so they were running everywhere delivering mail.

We then headed over to the laws of motion room.  The kids assembled race cars and raced them down the track.  We also enjoyed the golf ball roller coaster and other tracks.

This picture is super blurry...sorry.  They also loved the train track in this room.

Next was the aviation area.  Josh particularly loved this room.  He spent a long time trying out the flight simulators.  These wind tunnels were new this year and very fun.  We could put balls and scarves in them and watch them race around before popping out at the end.  They were so fast I couldn't get a picture of them IN the tubes.

Alex loved the mini planes.

After that we went to the pizza shop.  The kids had such fun pretending to make the pizzas and serve us.  It made Josh crave pizza which resulted in him buying us pizza for dinner on the way home later.  :)

There were a few more rooms that I didn't take pictures of.  (It became a long day for the grown-ups.)

We did discover a new train room.  There was a cool electric train on display, as well as another play track.

We couldn't miss the Lego room.

 

We made a quick stop in the music room (Josh and I were losing stamina).

Last, we made some projects in the art room, so we left with wet projects.  Next time we go we really need to go to the art room first.  :)  It was a really fun outing.  The kids never decided it was time to move to another room; that was always our decision.  They could play in any one of those rooms all day!

Jim took the day off of work on Friday (although he ended up working at home all morning...) to spend time with Josh.  We hung out all morning and had an impromtu extended birthday for Logan.  He had some packages arrive from Jim's family, so he had another round of present opening.  He was super excited about these gifts and couldn't wait to start building.  So that afternoon while we packed for camping, he started assembling his rocket/launch pad kit. 

 

We camped that night with some other families.  It was at a park we'd never been to, and was a really great spot.  They'd reserved a group campsite that was no where near the main campground, so we had it all to ourselves.  The kids ran wild while the adults visited and then almost everyone slept okay.  (I was the exception, but I rarely sleep well on a campout.)  We lounged around the next morning before finally packing up. 

I didn't take any pictures of the camping part, but I did think to pull out my camera when we found this observation tower on our way out of the park.

We were good and tired (okay, maybe I was good and tired) when we arrived home that afternoon.  After quickly bathing everyone and mostly unpacking, I crashed.  Much to my surprise Jim and Josh decided to go out for ice cream at that point.  Logan didn't want to go with them because he was finishing his Legos, so Annie had her uncle and her dad all to herself (Alex was also napping).  Jim and Josh always like to have some guy time when we get together, and Annie loves the attention, so it was good for them.

Partway into my nap, I awoke to horrible sobbing.  I thought Logan had hurt himself.  He was just frustrated with his Legos; he was more tired than we knew!  He soon fell asleep for a much needed nap.  After he woke, he finished his Lego set in no time!

We hung out on Saturday night and Sunday morning.  Josh came to church with us and then we took him to the airport.  It was a very nice visit.  I'm so glad Josh was able to come see us!