It's a...

BOY!!! We are pretty excited to meet our new little boy in September! Mike and I went out on a date this morning to breakfast before our ultrasound appointment at 9 a.m. For the first half of the appointment the baby was in a position where the technician couldn't get some measurements on the spine and heart or tell the gender. The technician had me go potty and lay on my side for 5 minutes to see if the baby would turn over. He did!

In the top photo you can see the baby's hand up by his mouth. In the bottom photo the baby had his legs all the way up over his head. I think he was about ready to do a back flip.

We'll tell the kids tonight when we go out as a family to celebrate (if I can make it without slipping up for that long :). It's a tradition that we go out and pick out an outfit for the new baby!

Little House on the Prairie Reading

We've been enjoying the Laura Ingalls Wilder series for the past month or so. We are currently reading "Farmer Boy". Although it's #2 in the series I decided to skip to #3 and then go back to read about Almanzo's childhood before I continue on to book #6, when Laura and Almanzo meet. These books are perfect for both Weston and I to enjoy together (Grace likes them also)! They are "girl" enough for me, but full of adventure and danger for Weston. I've loved using the books to teach Weston about how life was in the "olden days". We've been amazed at how hard children had to work back then. Survival was not taken for granted!
We've learned about things such as churning butter, making cheese, slaughtering pigs, building cabins, hunting, Indian territory, harvest time, etc, etc, etc. It's made me very excited to read to the kids over the years. There are so many wonderful books to read together!

Little Pigs

On Saturday Weston and Grace went out to "help" Mike and Dave on the yard. Mike sent them out back when he started to spray chemical weed-killer in the front. This is how I found them about 3 minutes later. They managed to find and wallow in the only remaining mud puddle on the entire property. Grace had so much mud in her hair I had to wash it twice. We had to hose off their clothes, rinse them in the sink, wash them with an extra rinse cycle and still there was mud in the bottom of the washer!
Thankfully, we'll at least have sod in the front yard by this next weekend (if all goes as planned). The backyard sod will have to wait until Dave and Julie return from their trip to Ireland towards the end of May.

Soccer Star!

Here's Weston at his second soccer game! Weston is having a great time participating in his first organized sport. We decided to try out a soccer league called Eastside United FC this year. It's been more commitment than we anticipated, but lots of fun. A great opportunity for character development!
All the kids at his level are 5 yrs or will be 5 this summer. They practice once a week and the games are 3 on 3 about once a week. We discovered on Saturday that most of the kids on the opposing teams participated in fall soccer as well. We kept wondering how the other teams were so good at only their first and second games! The team they played against at the first game even had professional-looking jerseys with their numbers on them!
Let's just say our team has major work to do! None of the 6 kids on our team have played soccer before and 5 of the 6 kids seem to have pretty passive personalities. They generally follow the the ball instead of trying to take it away from the other team. At one point the girls on our team were playing patty-cake with each other as the other team went right by and scored! After the other team had scored about 15 goals and we'd scored 1 we finally put more of our players in. They other team was very kind and they even cheered for us when we kicked a goal! I think they were relieved for us! Another time two of their players were distracted at the other side of the field, so they only had 1 player next to the ball against 5 of our players. She still managed to get the ball away and score! 5 on 1!!!
This was a conversation Mike and Weston had towards the end of the first game:

Weston: Dad, who's winning?
Mike: Oh, we don't keep score.
Weston: I think they're winning.
Mike: Why do you think that?
Weston: Because we've only had one goal and their girl put it in our net on accident. :)

Despite the difference in skill level, we are having a great time. We are so proud of Weston having a great attitude and learning to work hard as a team. Although he's the smallest on the team he tries the hardest and doesn't "space out". Of course I'm kinda biased as his mom :)
He also looks pretty cute in his uniform! Notice his golden soccer cleats I found on Ebay for $5. Pretty cool!

Grace the Tumble-Bunny!

Here are a few photos of Grace and Laelie at tumbling class. We signed them up for 4 classes through parks and rec and they loved it! Tonight was our 3rd and last class. We have to miss next week as it lands on the same night as a parenting class for church. The class consisted of 30 minutes of obstacle course to music, trampoline, stretches and the big rainbow parachute. At this age the parents stay with the kids the entire time. You'll notice Grace is wearing her fancy "tumble suit". She felt very big and proud of herself :)
This Saturday Weston will be playing in his second soccer game of the season. I'll make sure to take some photos to post soon. Soccer has proven very fun, but is more of a time-commitment than we anticipated. Mike is also assistant coaching the team.

Woodburn Tulip Festival

Here are a few photos from our visit to the Woodburn Tulip Festival today. My mom came to visit for a few days as my dad is volunteering to build houses near Biloxi, Mississippi for two weeks. My mom had never been to the tulip fields, so we decided to brave the cold and rain for the beautiful flowers. After the festival we ate lunch at Subway and visited the Woodburn outlet mall.
I'm enjoying the fact that all three kids are at the age where we can do day trips without spit-ups, blow-outs, nursing, packing baby food, and unpredictable crying. Hmmm, I guess I'd better enjoy it while I can, I've got about 5 more months!

I thought this turned out pretty good. All the kids were looking in the same direction!

This one's fun. My mom had to hold Elsie up while I took the photo.

I told my mom she should have taken her hood off. She looks a little elfish :)

Bob the Builder Has Some Competition!

We have our raised garden beds built! Friday afternoon Mike was able to take some time off from work and start our garden project. It took us about 2 hours to build our two 3 1/2' X 8' garden beds. We were pretty proud of our finished product (you can see one finished in the bottom photo)!
The next steps will be to level the area where they will sit, set them in place, and fill them up with a special compost/manure/dirt mixture. We also need to build some sort of a frame for our sweet peas, morning glories and sugar snap peas to climb. We have the old gate from the fence that was here when we moved in, but I don't think it's wide enough to accommodate all the climbing things I want in the garden. Once step at a time, I guess!

April Storms

If April showers bring May flowers, what will this bring? Maybe a bountiful vegetable garden?

3 Year-Old Sweetness!

The other night I headed upstairs to say goodnight to the kids and came upon this conversation between Weston and Grace. I was standing outside their door and they didn't know I was listening.

Grace: "When we grow up I can mawwy (marry) you."

Weston (voice exasperated) : "Grace, you can't marry your brother."

Grace (getting upset): "Weton, den who will I mawwy"?

Weston: "I don't know. A boy."

Grace (starting to cry): "But den I won't see you anymore!"

Weston (referring to Grace's wedding): "But Grace, I'll come to the party. Brothers and sisters come to the party.

Grace (still crying): "But I won't see you everyday!"

At this point I had to tiptoe downstairs and tell Mike what I'd just heard. Later I asked Grace about it and she was still upset. She knows she wants to get married someday, but at this point the only boys in her world are Weston and Daddy. It makes her so sad to hear she can't marry either of them! Sometimes 3 year-olds are pretty sweet!

Miss Chippy Tooth

Elsie now has a beautiful, big chip out of her front tooth! Her older brother kindly tackled her yesterday on the laminate flooring (he felt horrible). She cried a bit and her bottom lip was bleeding, but she seemed to be okay. When I got her up from nap a couple of hours later I discovered the missing chip. I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry, but at least it's just her baby tooth and not her permanent tooth! I took her in for an emergency dental appt. this morning and she got a referral for a pediatric dentist.
I searched the floor for the missing chip but wasn't able to find it, and figured she'd swallowed it during nap. Later on that evening I was changing into my pj's and discovered the missing tooth chip.....in my bra! Apparently when I held her to comfort her it fell down my shirt and settled in for the evening :) They might be able to glue the chip back on, so I'll take it to the next dental appt. If they aren't able to do anything, Elsie will just look a little "chipper" for the next 5 or so years!

First Play Dough and Pony-Tail!

Here's a few photos of Elsie with her first play dough and first pony-tail. She has such thin hair that it just looked like a little tiny sprout right on top of her head. Kinda silly :)

She put a big chunk of play dough in her mouth right away and discovered it doesn't taste so great (thus the big tear on her cheek in the first photo). After that she only licked it once in awhile (she's still only 15 months). I don't think I let Weston or Grace do play dough at this age, but third children get advanced a lot faster. She wants to do everything they're doing, of course!

3 Year-Old's Sinfulness Exposed :(

So, if we didn't know it already (we did), we found out tonight children are pretty good at being naughty without being taught. Our 3 year-old daughter (I won't name names :) had a huge pee-pee accident tonight on our sofa. She very quietly emptied her entire bladder on the sofa, chose a toy the same shape as the wet spot (a rectangle...at least she knows her shapes), and then told us she was tired and wanted to go to bed. Luckily, Mike happened to pick up the toy and discovered the wet spot. At least our couch was only $40 on Craigslist and we own a steam cleaner!
We had a long talk/discipline time about lying and sneaking, prayed, hugged, affirmed our love for her, and moved on. A great opportunity to teach her about God's love and forgiveness!
Now, let's just hope our couch doesn't smell like pee-pee for years to come!

Plants on Steroids!

Here's some new photos of our plant starts. Our sugar snap peas grew so fast that the roots were growing out the bottoms of the containers after only a week. If I'd known they were such fast plants I would've just waited to plant the seeds right into the raised garden bed.

Today the kids and I moved all the peas into larger containers and set them outside. I wet the potting soil in a bowl before I started transplanting so the kids had fun playing in the mud with spoons and "helping" me.

Our tomatoes are doing pretty good, but only 3 of my 12 green pepper seeds sprouted. I'm not sure why I thought we'd need 12 green pepper plants and about 45 tomato plants, but apparently I didn't think through quantities very well :)

Our plan is to build the raised beds this weekend. We went to Home Depot and bought the lumber, had it cut, and hauled it home. I'm way more optimistic than Mike in some ways, so I was insisting to him that we could fit all the lumber in our van with the kids. Ummm, he was right. We were only able to fit 2 out of the 8 boards that measured 8'X8"X2". We had to run home and borrow Dave's truck to get the rest of the wood. I thanked my husband for humoring me and trying. Sometimes he's such a dream-crusher, but this time reality was the dream-crusher! :)

We Have Trees!

This weekend was a big weekend for our yard! We finally have trees planted! All day Saturday Mike, Dave, Weston, my dad, and Guy de Lijster worked on planting about 23 trees and shrubs. The trees are all from Dave's tree nursery, Red Barn Nursery, which he owns and operates out in Boring, OR. Weston LOVED being out with the men on Saturday. I watched him walk around with a huge smile from ear to ear all day long. He even got to go to lunch with the men and eat barbecue (a very manly lunch)! At the end of the day he was covered from head to toe in sticky mud and was soaked to the skin. It is so valuable for him to role model the men working hard and just being men!
I am so excited to see all the trees bloom and leaf out!
The next step is to pray we'll get some dry weather so we can grade and level the ground to plant the grass. We'll keep you posted on our progress!

This red tree is very interesting. It's called a Phoenix Dogwood.

The two trees on the corners are different varieties of Dogwoods and the two in the center are varieties of maples (Dave knows exactly what they are, but I can't remember). You can barely see we planted a Japanese Maple up by the front doors.

Here you can see the retaining wall we've built. Before the retaining wall there was just an odd mound right in the middle of the front yard. This was quite the project as each large stone weighs almost 100 lbs. and each small capstone weighs 40 lbs.

I took this photo so we can see the before and after of our grass planting project. Weston doesn't want grass as he thinks the mud is so fun to play in! You can also see we eventually need to replace the fence in the backyard. Part of it already fell down in a strong wind and the guys had to patch it back up for now. Our neighbors also have pit bull/mix puppies. The lady called them lab mix, but it's obvious they are part pit. I laughed and said to Julie, "Oh good, they're only part pit bull! That means they'll only take a bite out of our children instead eating them whole!" Another very good reason to build a sturdy fence!

Planting Our Own Seed Starts!

We have big plans for a raised vegetable garden in our backyard this year! After doing a bit of research on the internet I decided we'd plant our own seed starts indoors to transplant to our garden when they're ready. After a shopping trip at Walmart we came home with several packets of seeds (some were only .10 per packet!), potting soil, plastic seed start containers, and a box of wildflowers to plant in pots. The kids loved our little project! They were very serious about getting the dirt just right, placing the seeds exactly in the middle, and watering. Elsie wanted so badly to be included that we gave her some dried beans to play with. She felt very big and thought she was planting too. She always wants to be included in what the bigger kids are doing :)
After planting all the seeds I had to figure out a way to keep the soil warmer (between 75 and 80 degrees). I came up with a solution I hope will work. I've got the seed starts sitting in a cookie sheet on the oven with our heating pad sitting underneath (set on low). I'll turn it on and off throughout the day and hopefully it will work.
Now I hope we actually get some sprouts! Oh yeah, and I guess we actually have to build the raised bed soon also.

Sickness, Sickness and More Sickness!

Well, we're sick again! It is just us, or have all these viruses gotten stronger and more nasty! I currently am having such bad coughing fits that I pulled a neck muscle and now can't turn my head from side to side!
At least the kids and Mike are starting to feel better. Elsie and Grace both have a touch of cold in their left eye which lends to some pretty nasty green goopies throughout the day (and we all know how much kids LOVE to have their faces and eyes wiped)! Elsie's fever went away after 4 days. We were checking her forehead so often that she just started checking it herself after awhile. She looked pretty cute checking her own forehead for fever :)
On a side note, we now have an ultrasound date for Apr. 29th at 9am. We'll hopefully get to see a healthy baby and also sneak a peak at whether it's a boy or a girl! I was just looking again at my last ultrasound photo and noticed it looks more like Snoopy Peanut is blowing a bubble with gum than it looks like he/she is sucking a thumb :)