Pumpkin Patchin' and Apple Pickin'

Pumpkin Patch Play

Happy Fall

Fall has arrived in full force, and we are loving every minute of it! The weather is crisp and cold in the mornings, but the sun usually graces us with its presence in the afternoon, so we are having some really nice weather. Leaves are beginning to change color, school is in full swing, and change is definitely in the air. Therefore, I decided that this blog needed a little change, too. The biggest change being that I hope to actually start posting again! The purpose of this blog is for me to record our daily happenings for my children to read about when they are grown, and I don't want to regret being too busy with my days, that I did not take the time to record our memories.

Boss is the new principal for the Therapeutic Education Service Center (TESC) here on campus. He is in charge of four teachers, two aides, and roughly 15 students, with plenty of room to grow! Boss LOVES his new job (for which we are so thankful) and looks forward to going to work each day. He is working on getting his Ohio Liscense and is excited about all of the experience he is gaining each day as he works in the world of special education. In his spare time, he has been quite the handyman around our house! He recently finished laying new floors in our basement, so that we could make a playroom down there for the girls.

I am still busy with houseparenting (though we have only had two girls since June) and homeschooling Emma. On Mondays we have ballet classes and I have a Beth Moore Bible Study that evening. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday are school days, and on Thursday's I have staff luncheons and meetings. Our days are full, but I would have it no other way.

Emma is doing well! She amazes me every day with how bright she is. Her reading skills are coming along marvelously and she can now read short stories, though her favorite subject is math. Daily she ASKS to do her math workbook (she is a HUGE fan of worksheets), and she is picking right up on the concepts of money, time telling, and addition. She is still in ballet, though she does prefer a good, crazy, living room dance session every once in a while! She still wants to be an artist when she grows up, and is daily amazing us with all of the pictures she draws and crafts she creates! When I asked her what her favorite thing about fall was, she said drinking hot chocolate, eating chicken noodle soup, and wearing cozy pajamas. A girl after my own heart! Minus the chicken noodle soup.

Kate is still our little spitfire! Some big news in Kate's world is that she is finally potty trained! While it took her a bit longer to grasp than I had hoped, I waited until she was ready and she has had virtually NO accidents. We are so proud of our big girl! Kate is also sleeping great each night. Emma sleeps on the top bunk, Kate sleeps on the bottom bunk, and now that we have started locking the dog in the living room at night, Boss and I are sleeping like we did before we had children! Nice, seeing as all of that will end in around five months. Kate started ballet this year, like her big sister, and she was so excited to get her very own tap and ballet shoes. She is much more social than Emma, and loves all of the new friends she has made at ballet. Kate is the funniest little girl you will ever meet and we are so glad that she is ours.

Our new baby is growing! I am now 16 weeks pregnant, and am feeling great. I was more sick the first trimester with this baby than with the girls, but all of that passed when I entered the second trimester. We have not really bought anything for the baby yet (except for an adorable dresser that I found at an antique mall), but we have cleared out the baby's room, and are simply waiting to know if we will be decorating with pink or blue! Our BIG ultrasound is on the 22nd of this month, and we are so excited to know what this baby is. To be perfectly honest, Boss and Emma are rooting for another girl, but Kate and I are rooting for a little brother. Really, we just want a healthy baby, but it will be fun to find out whose intuitions have been right!

I do believe that catches you up to the most recent happenings in our lives. This weekend we will be going to a pumpkin patch, and coming up we have a Trunk-or-Treat at our church, as well as our children's home Halloween party. Emma is going to be her beloved Tinkerbell this year, and Kate is going to be the pink fairy, Rosetta, from the Tinkerbell movie. Happy Fall, Y'all.

Better Late Than Never, A Birthday Tale

While I am nearly an entire month late, I wanted to write about my birthday for memories sake. This year I turned 27, and for the first time in my life, I feel like I am starting to get old! My friends tell me that 30 is not middle aged, so I am not almost there, but I don't know. When did I become a grown up? It is astounding to me how much one life can change in the span of a single decade. In my 20's alone, I will have gone from being a single college girl, to a married woman, to a working woman, to a mother of three. Whew! But you know what? One thing I have come to realize, is that I would not want to change a thing. I only wish I had known back then, what I know now. I wish I had realized how fast time would fly, and I wish that I had learned to truly savour each unique season of life. But here I am, and I could not be happier!

For my birthday weekend, Boss and I took our little family on a weekend get-a-way to Put-in-Bay. It was beautiful there, and I love exploring new places with my family. We rode the ferry out to the island, rented a golf cart to explore, went through a drive through safari, the girls went on pony rides, and we stayed in a trendy little condo. All fun!




















On my actual birthday, I was lucky enough to dine with many of the people I love most in this world. My mom made poppy seed chicken, and she also made my favorite mint chocolate chip ice cream cake. My sweet girls got me a black necklace with three strands of beads (one strand representing each of my three children), and Boss surprised me with the fire pit that I had been wanting for the back porch.

And last, but certainly not least, my wonderful girlfriends threw me the most fabulous fondue party! We talked (about what I can't say), laughed, ate, and tried on Mary Kay make-up. It was the most fun I have had in a very long time, and I feel so blessed to have found these ladies to be my friends! It was a very special week, and week's like that make getting another year older so much more pleasant.

Finding Out and Sharing the News

For memories sake, I wanted to share here how we found out that our new little one was on the way. Boss and I had decided that we were open to getting pregnant for a third time (after meeting with yet another doctor who said it was perfectly safe for me to get pregnant again), so I guess you could say we were trying to get pregnant. Or we weren't trying not to get pregnant. My cycles are never regular, so I had been taking pregnancy tests for the last few months to see if we were pregnant, and they were always negative. When it came time to test again this month, I was not expecting to see anything different. In fact, I had just taken a pregnancy test the week before with negative results.

One night, we had the whole crew at Wal-Mart, and I decided to take another test. I did not tell Boss (he gets a little mad at the amount of money I spend on pregnancy tests). I sent him off to look at toys with the girls, and I took my little test to the bathroom. Yes, I did....right there in Wal-Mart. I waited and waited, and just before I was ready to throw the test in the trash can, the faintest pink line appeared on the screen. I could not believe my eyes! So, what did I do? I promptly went and bought another test (from the same cashier I might add...she just gave a knowing smile). This time, there was still a line indicating pregnancy, but it was even more faint. I clearly needed a second opinion, so I wrapped those dirty, germ infested, pee sticks up and put them in my purse so I could show Boss. I found him in the Barbie isle where we both examined the sticks for the next ten minutes. Were we pregnant? Were those lines real? Hmmm. There was only one thing for us to do. Stop at Kroger on the way home from Wal-Mart and buy more tests. You didn't expect me to use the same cashier again, did you? I didn't think so.

This time, I bought the digital tests that read pregnant or not pregnant. I rushed right home and took the first test, and to my surprise, it said not pregnant. Looking back, I think it was because I had already used the bathroom so much and it was so late in the day, but I was crushed. I didn't realize until that moment how much I wanted to be carrying another baby. No matter my fear and anxiety over being pregnant again, I wanted it to be true. We went to bed that night confused. I had two faint positive pregnancy tests, and one clearly negative test. It was a long night. The next morning, I jumped out of bed and hurried to take my last test. I prayed that it would be a clear yes or no, so that I would no longer have to wonder. I took the test and right away it said PREGNANT! Hooray! What an amazing feeling. It was almost like finding out I was pregnant for the very first time all over again.

We had originally said we were going to keep the pregnancy a secret for awhile (other than telling our parents), but Emma had other plans. I was on the phone in the kitchen with a person from hospital billing, trying to set up an appointment (the girls had been occupied with a movie), and when I turned around, Emma was staring at me wide eyed. She said, Mama, are we going to have a baby? Her eyes were filled with such excitement that I could not keep it a secret from her. I called Boss in, and we told the girls together. They were very excited! They both hope for another sister, but have agreed to love this baby even if it is a brother. That is very nice of them, don't you think?

I will be seven weeks pregnant this week, and I go for my first appointment August 12th. I would be lying is I said I wasn't nervous. There have been a couple of moments this past week where anxious thoughts have filled my mind over my health, but overall, I feel peaceful and am trusting God to care for what is best for me and my little one. Each child is a gift, and I look forward to growing this new little one inside of me! We love you Baby Z Number Three (who we also lovingly refer to as Poppy)!

* I have taken four more tests since then and all have clearly said pregnant, so we are good to go! And Boss still loves me, even though all of our gas money this month went towards funding my pregnancy test addiction. He is the best.