AMA

So we'll see who's reading my blog.

Yep, I'm officially AMA. That means I'm pregnant and 35. So I'm old. Advanced Maternal Age. (AMA). Baby #4 is due at the beginning of February. We are very excited!! But I have to admit I'm feeling old this time too. The nausea sends me to bed, and, well, okay, pretty much anything sends me to bed these days! So, sadly, the other 3 have spent lots of time in the play room amusing themselves. (And sometimes screaming at each other too.)

But yes, we are excited! The kids are happy too. Emma and Caleb are both pretty vocal about wanting it to be a boy. Emma says, "There is a boy baby in your tummy". Very cute. Elizabeth doesn't really care either way, I think, although she does not want to share her bedroom with ANOTHER girl!

So as August begins and I look ahead to starting school with Elizabeth and Caleb in the next few weeks, I think, "Am I nuts?!" But clearly this baby, which we did plan for, has already been designed by our heavenly Father. And I may be (or go) nuts, but it will be worth it!! =)

My kids crack me up...

Caleb is often saying things that crack us up. He's not intentionally funny, it's just his comments about life, etc.

Tonight he and I had finished eating dinner and he was anxiously asking for dessert. I told him that he and I were the only ones finished, everyone else was still eating. And he says, (complete with accent), "High five, Girl." I'm surprised he didn't suck his teeth at me.

Elizabeth, on the other hand, didn't crack me up, just made me kind of shake my head, when she said at dinner, "Mommy, I learned about hydrophilic and hydrophobic things today, and surfactants." She proceeded to then define them accurately and give examples of them all. How does my homeschooler learn these things without me knowing? By watching Fetch on PBS. It's a great show. And when she says stuff like that I'm sometimes kicking myself thinking that I could be teaching her so much more because she can obviously learn so much more. But she's okay where she's at right now, and I am working on it for next year.... And she does still love to learn.

And right now, it's too late and I need to sleep...

I'm Back! (Or am I?)

So it's been super-long since I've blogged. Yes, Facebook has eaten away at my computer time. But so often when I'm on there posting pictures or whatever, I'm wishing I could add a bunch of commentary to what I'm posting. So this is where I do it, right? Well, I'll try....

Okay, was that my 2-year-old who just came out of her room from her nap mostly unclothed because "I couldn't get them back on." Why did she take them off? No answer.

And was it Emma 2 nights ago crying for me at 10:30 PM from the bathroom, again unclothed and with her hair soaked and the hand soap pump in her hands and lots of soapy, lathery bubbles in her hair? Why? "Because I couldn't get it out."

Sigh.

Somehow though, (because she's the "baby"?) I don't get angry with her, and I manage to make it all right for her again. Because it's easy right now. Putting clothes back on, washing hair in the middle of the night, praying the monsters away -- that's all easy. And as tiring as it may be, I have this feeling that it's nothing compared to the things that she'll need to be made right in the future. Things that maybe I can't make right for her. But that's all down the road. So right now I'm enjoying her sitting on my lap, watching me type, smelling her sweet (clean!) hair, and even her whining for some apple juice ("Pretty please?")

So I'm off. For apple juice.

More Poconos...

One afternoon most of the family went to Tobyhanna State Park for a hike. (I stayed back for Emma's nap and Lydia stayed to nap too). Luke and Jeremy took turns hauling Mario in the backpack. Caleb picked wild blueberries and enjoyed eating them all! (Reminds me of Blueberries for Sal. Anyone else remember that one?) He did bring home a couple in his pocket to show me, and he also showed me sadly that one got smooshed. Caleb also became "the Tobyhanna Ninja" and stopped everyone from passing him until they told him their favorite color. He loves being a warrior....

Almost every evening we were able to swim in the indoor pool in the community center. What a blessing! All of our kids loved it. Two mornings we ladies also went to the pool for high impact water aerobics. We younger ones were surprised by how sore we were! Ha! (Most of the ladies at the class were probably 60+) =) It was very fun. In these pictures are Aunt Kate with Emma and Elizabeth and then Caleb floating on his back, which is quite funny. He always closes his eyes.

One morning we went horseback riding. The kids were all too young, but thankfully Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Rachael volunteered to stay home with them. Since Elizabeth and Caleb got to ride horses just a couple months ago, I didn't feel too badly. I loved riding the horses through the gorgeous PA woods, enjoying the ferns and other trees and plants. Sooo much more beautiful than California. At least to me! We got to ride the horses across a stream, too, which was fun. Here's Luke on his horse, Sarge.

Our Pocono vacation - part 1

We just returned from a 10-day trip to PA/NJ. The majority of the time - 1 week - was spent at a huge, beautiful rental home in the Poconos. Luke's grandmother lives in the Poconos and invited us all to her 90th birthday party, which she began planning 3 years ago. So Luke's parents thought it would be a perfect time for us to have a big family vacation there.


We started the trip with 4 of the 5 of us (not me) having the stomach flu. Yuck, yuck, yuck! Luke, Caleb and Emma all threw up on the plane. But by the time we landed in Philadelphia and were picked up by Luke's sister Kate and her husband Josh to drive to their house 1/2 hour away in New Jersey, everyone felt much better. (Unfortunately we must have still been carrying it and passed it on to several more people that week...)

Sunday we went to church at Kate and Josh's church and then drove up to "the big white house that's sometimes yellow", as we called it all week. It has 6+ bedrooms, a 72-inch T.V. a pool table, hot tub, an amazing kitchen and many levels of decking. The next morning we discovered a deer in the backyard with her fawn. She seemed to be waiting for something, so....we fed her. Which made Luke very mad. But the kids liked it. =) She came back daily at mealtimes hoping for more.


We spent lots of time hanging out at the house - the kids quickly became addicted to playing the Play Station on that huge T.V. Lots of games were played and most nights after the kids were in bed various ones of us hung out in the hot tub. What great times those were - talking, laughing, and sharing.

One of the best things about the week was getting to meet our first-ever nephew Mario, brought home from Guatemala by Papa Jeremy and Mama Lydia only 2 weeks before! He is 1 and such a cutie with smiles and hugs for everyone! Here is Luke with Emma and Mario. He's bigger than her, I think!

More to come...

I love summer weekends

Last weekend was almost the perfect summer weekend for me. On the Fourth we headed to Tulare, CA for a birthday party with friends including a wonderful pool to swim in and delicious tri-tip to eat. Okay, if you're not from CA, you probably don't know what tri-tip is, so it's a specific cut of beef and there's only one on a cow, it's kind of like a steak and when we looked up a definition online, it said, "most cuts of tri-tip are sent to California" So we greedy Californians get to eat it all. Then we headed west to Hanford, CA to see our usual fireworks show. To hold to tradition, the kids ate snow cones, and shared them as you can see. I love to see Elizabeth being a little mother and sharing with Emma to make her happy. It was a gorgeous day, only about 92 degrees, so by the time it got dark, it actually felt cool! Emma screamed when the fireworks started, but I put my hands over her ears, and then she was okay. The kids loved the fireworks and so did I, as usual.

Saturday I headed up to Shaver Lake, CA with a group of 15 women - some on W.I. staff and some from the community - for a one-night camping trip/mini-retreat. There is a retired couple who built a beautiful home and on their property also built a camp area for people from the inner city to experience camping. There are 3 tent cabins with cots and sleeping bags; an outdoor cook tent; and these amazing showers that are open to the sky. How fun it is to take a shower and be looking up at the incredibly blue sky and towering pine trees... Our host also has a large pontoon boat and took us all out on the lake for a few hours. He always takes us to a cove that it only accessible to boats so there are way less people. We hung out and swam, jumped off rocks, sat in the sun, etc. We also had awesome worship times and a "God date" on Sunday morning.

What else can you ask for on a summer weekend?

Summer is upon us...

This week Elizabeth and Caleb are going to VBS - although at the church they're going to they call it VBB - Vacation Bible Blast instead of School. They explained why once, but I can't remember now. They are having a great time, and this year I did not have to peel Caleb off of my leg on the first day. He's getting older.... Tomorrow is the last day, and tonight they are having a dinner for the families to eat hot dogs and come and see what they've been doing. I don't really want to go (Luke has a meeting of the Police Chief's Advisory Board), but the kids are very excited, so we probably wlll.

I can hardly believe that my little watermelon is big enough to climb the ladder to the slide all by herself. Ahh, it is bittersweet as they grow. Wonderful for them to be able to do more on their own, but so sad as they leave behind their cute, sweet baby ways. Just now as she was playing in the kitchen she was singing, "hug-a-baby, hug-a-baby" in a very cute voice, sounding like all one word. The things I hope to remember...

The heat of summer has hit us off and on, this week it is only in the mid-90's. That means it's nice and cool at night and in the mornings. I am glad for the kids to have activities like VBS - oh, VBB - and swimming lessons to keep them somewhat occupied. This has been the first summer that I really have felt like Elizabeth needs SOMETHING to do other than hanging around home asking me what she can do all the time.... Although it was also nice last week for me to have a "week off" from kids' activities. No driving, rushing out the door, etc. I am hoping to re-charge and be excited for new curriculum for school in the fall and have some new ideas for creative ways for Elizabeth to learn next year...

Our own Kit Kittredge

After Elizabeth's ballet performance - for which her hair needed to be in a bun - she declared that she needed to have her hair cut - it was just TOO long and hot for summer. So when I asked her how short she wanted it cut, she said, "About here, like Kit Kittredge." For those of you without a girl of the right age, Kit is an American Girl living during the Great Depression and also the subject of a movie coming out this summer. Elizabeth has read pretty much all the American Girl books, some series twice. (Felicity is a particular favorite of ours.) So here she is, looking amazingly like Kit. (check out www.americangirl.com if you want to see the real Kit)