A Baby Carrier?

 The kids got suspenders today.

 Please know that I do, in fact, know they are not actually dressed for suspenders.  (Nor do Meghan's leggings usually reach her armpits.)  They immediately wanted to wear them though.  Who could say no?

 Meghan immediately went upstairs to get a baby.  Not only can suspenders hold your pants up, but they can also effectively hold a baby.  Or at least a baby doll.

Evan liked the idea of putting the baby in the suspenders-on Meghan.  He just held the baby that Meghan let him use.

The reason for the suspenders is that Evan's shorts and pants keep falling down.  Despite the great giggles it produces, it's not an ideal situation.  Evan is 2 1/2 years old and wears mostly 24 month bottoms (larger tops).  But most do not stay on his waist despite the diaper providing extra bottom bulk.  I really need to get out the sewing machine and take in some of them like I did last summer, too.  This works, too.

Family Weekend

As I shared, we had a few family members (Derek's side) visiting this weekend.  

Donna played with the kids on the computer in addition to the regular rough housing and outdoor play.

 Though the children may have had their eyes on the television, they love to cuddle with Great Grandma and Grandpa J.

 Great Grandma and Meghan

 Three little monkeys

 How cute!

(Evan was finishing his bedtime snack of raisins.)

 Great Grandpa and the kids after church

 The Easter Story with Grandma W.  (This is a very good book!!)

 More computer time with the iPad.  They could all touch the screen at the same time...so it was a big hit!

This weekend was full, and it was full of blessings, too!  We had a great visit with Derek's family.

Initially, I had invited them down in case they were interested in seeing Meghan sing at church.  It wasn't too long before I was wondering how it would work out, especially with Derek's last couple of weeks being intensely busy with school work and me not feeling well.  Of course, it all turned out just fine (even if the house could have been cleaner...and the ham could have cooked as planned.)

We had a great time together, despite Meghan not wanting to participate in singing at church this morning.  It's not because she is shy.  She was just having a rough morning over something trivial to the grown-ups, but not so to her.  

Despite sock problems, our lives are truly blessed.  We're grateful to have spent the weekend with GnG J, GnG W, Donna, Brandon, Steph, and Arden!  (GnG means Grandma and Grandpa.)

Our New Graduate!

 Derek is the newest graduate in our family!

  (Actually, since he graduated from Penn Sate in 2002, and I graduated from Kutztown University in 1998, he was already.)

 Derek has earned his master's degree in software engineering, while working full time.

 Derek began his graduate studies in January of 2006. 

During his second semester Meghan was born and then hospitalized for two weeks.  Thankfully it was an easy semester.  He still managed to earn an "A."

Of course, not all semesters were that easy.  Derek even took a summer class to finish early.

I am so proud of Derek!  He has worked extra hard all these years and has now completed his graduate studies.

(I am also very thankful that we get to have Daddy back.  As hard as it has been for me to parent without him, I know it's even harder for him to spend his evenings at the computer instead of playing with us!  What a sacrifice he has made!)

(And yes, it is rather pathetic that all of the pictures here are from our photo shoot back in October.  I probably should have searched out pictures from the past five years.  But that would require two computers and a lot more work.  Forgive me, Derek?)

Happy Easter!

HAPPY EASTER!

 Cousin Arden was willing to pose for some cute pictures. 

 This was the only dressed up picture of the three cousins.  (More pics to come later from the weekend.)

 We gave the children sunglasses, baseball mitts, and a little candy for their Easter baskets.  More goodies came from GnG W and GnG J.  

 Just in case you are curious how a little guy named Evan might eat a miniature Reese cup, it is in ONE bite!  What a mouthful he had!

Since the day was absolutely beautiful, the children quickly changed out of their clothes so they could play outside.

We actually broke our (self-imposed) rule that we don't use air conditioning until May.  With three small children and nine adults in our home, it was a wise choice, especially with the oven on for a bit.

Brandon and Steph took lots of pictures, so I have more to share, but for now, I just wanted to thank you all for checking in with us!  We're all doing well, and had a lovely weekend celebrating Jesus with our family.  (But, boy, I think we are all exhausted!)


(You may notice that Meghan's hair was wavy.  Meghan had requested that she have curly hair for Easter.  Since she was supposed to sing at church today with other children, I talked her out of her Easter hat.  Instead, she wore her hair in a "crown."  (See here for what I mean of a better photo of her.)

This Does Not Get Old

Though the farm is not directly behind our home, we can see the top of the silos and, this week, the cows.

Though we're not in that rural of an area (though farms, many Amish, all around us), I really appreciate where we live and that our home backs to farmland.  (And with the giant power lines behind us, it is not likely to ever be developed.  We like that!)

I much prefer this view over skyscrapers or even town living.  It's good that we're all different, huh?

Play Time

Not much has happened in the past week, at least nothing share-worthy.  I will say that this is Derek's final semester of his graduate work, and it is really intense.  After sitting all day at his work computer, he has to come home and spend MANY hours on our computers (yes, plural...or at least one is ours and one is from his place of work) working on school work.  He's had many late nights, too.

This evening was nice.  Well, the temperature was near 60, but the wind was blowing like crazy.  We still wanted to get outside, and it was Derek's first time "playing" with us all week outside.  We may not have been outside long, but it was fun.

Evan has started showing this beautiful smile, though incredibly brief, when I ask him for his happy face.  (We learned this from a book-of course.)

 Wow, he's beautiful!  Or I guess I should say handsome!

Meghan is also happy to smile for the camera, but the movement on the swing makes it tough to capture.

 Last spring/summer when Derek built the swing set, I knew I wanted Meghan to be able to pump her legs herself.  It is a continual process, but I think she is doing well.  Of course, she still enjoys Derek's pushes best.

Derek had pushed her for a while on the swing set, but this picture shows her pumping on her own for about a minute or two.  She was still going strong-because she was concentrating.

(Meghan's hair was braided and pulled back because of the wind.)

Last night I cut both of the kids' hair.  I knew I wanted to cut Evan's, and Meghan didn't want to be left out.  I have cut Meghan's hair since she was 15 months old, though we've taken her to the salon twice in the past 6 months.  (Seriously!  I cut several inches of a "tail" at 15 months, and it was still long!)  However, I do believe this is the last time I will cut her hair myself.  Apparently it has just gotten so thick that I cannot cut it straight.  Instead of taking even more length off her hair, I just stopped cutting.  Derek said he couldn't tell, but I know how crooked it is.  The next time I get my hair cut, we'll get hers cut, too, and fixed!  If you want to see successful hair cuts, just look under the label "hair."

I did something different with Evan's hair, though I don't know if you can tell.  Instead of just buzzing it as we usually do (along with trimming the perimeter with scissors), I trimmed his sides and back, but left the top long.  It seems more like a hair cut to me, even if Derek just buzzes his.  It took a long time, but a DVD gave Evan the patience he needed.

I wasn't blogging when Meghan was little, but the collage picture below shows Meghan's hair well.  If you see the goofy picture with Meghan in the green sweater, she is just 16 months old.  The center picture with the pink hat is Meghan just at 2 years.  (Her front and sides were lots shorter than the back, too.)

I did something different with Evan's hair, though I don't know if you can tell.  Instead of just buzzing it as we usually do (along with trimming the perimeter with scissors), I trimmed his sides and back, but left the top long.  It seems more like a hair cut to me, even if Derek just buzzes his.  It took a long time, but a DVD gave Evan the patience he needed.

Some News to Share

Meghan has become our official spokesman.  She would like you to know our news.

And if you want to see more, here you go.  (Evan was miserably sick, so he got to have a special snack on the couch.)


However, we know not everyone wants to watch a video, even if they are so worth watching!
We're having a BABY!  
That's right.  Come October, we'll be celebrating Meghan and Evan's birthdays AND adding a new little baby to our family.

I'm sure that some of our friends and family would have loved to have heard from us personally, but we recently lost all of our email contacts, so we're hoping that someone checks the blog.

Some things you may be wondering...
~ The baby is due on October 20th.  (During the week between Meghan and Evan's birthdays.  However, they were both one full week late.)  God just worked it out that way, folks.
~ I am 12 weeks along.  Yes, we always wait a long time to share our news.  We told no one (not even the grandparents) until we told the kids a couple weeks ago.  That's just what we do.  However, we purposely waited to put it on the blog.
~ No, we won't find out the sex of the baby.  We like the anticipation.  For those who are disappointed in this, maybe you can have your own baby?!  (Said with a smile.)
~ How do I feel?  Pregnant, as expected.  Nauseous (worse in the evenings).  Heartburn.  EXHAUSTED.  I take a rest or nap time most days.  (When I was still teaching and pregnant with Meghan I would go to bed at 7:30.)
~ What did the kids think?  Well, you saw the video, right?  Meghan is what you might call excited.  (The reality is that she wants to be an only child, though.)  Evan is still fairly clueless, though he has been pretending his teddy bear is a baby a lot recently and wrapping it in his special blanket.
~ Do I look pregnant?  Um, I am guessing that people are starting to wonder, if they don't already know.  I have a serious little belly.  (Some might say big for 12 weeks.)  If I wear regular (non-maternity) shirts, I look big.  At 8 weeks along I had to put away my jeans, despite having lost some weight in the fall and winter.  Now it's just maternity pants and elastic waisted pants.
~ I'll be 35 when the baby arrives.  And boy, do I feel it with this pregnancy!  (Okay, so no one was wondering that, but I still shared it.)

Before telling the children, we read this book to the children.

As we thank God for blessing our family with this baby, we hope you will pray for the baby and praise God with us!

This week over at Live, Learn, Love we're having a celebration week with lots of giveaways for fun.  Come visit, if you are interested!

Teamwork

What's going to work?  

Teamwork!

(Below Meghan is posing for the camera.)

 

 When the kids had made it up the driveway singing, "What's going to work?  Teamwork!  What's going to work?  Teamwork!" I ran inside to get the camera.  It was just too cute how Meghan was guiding Evan in helping to carry the recycling bin.  When I got back outside (ten seconds later) they were both sitting in the bin.  ICK!  I didn't get a picture fast enough though.  Meghan popped right out, and pictured below he was climbing out, too.

A Little Gross...

Today I found out why short hair is better.

I was vacuuming.  I had to pull out something when I looked at the vacuum's brush and saw this.

The hair completely covered half of the brush!!  ICK!!  I didn't notice that the vacuum was not working properly.  That is about a year's worth of hair.  Isn't that disgusting?

It took me about fifteen minutes to get the vacuum brush fairly clean.

 This is a grocery bag of the hair.  Ick.

I suppose this is why most people comb hair in the bathroom.  I comb Meghan's hair in the kitchen or living room.  

Lots of Friends

There are five of us girls that try to get together on a fairly regular basis.  We're not always all there, but sometimes we are.  Getting together with different preschool and homeschool schedules is tough, but we try once in a while.  Last week, we had a lovely time getting together.

So did the kids.  Ages 1-7, I think.  Aren't they awesome?  Five families are represented with these ten children.  One of the families has additional children that were not pictured due to being in school.

 The blurry picture below is actually my favorite.  Do you see those smiles??  It was the first picture I took, of course, before I knew I needed the flash.  (I always try not to use it, as you can tell from my many blurry pics.)

I thank God for the friendships we've developed in the past year!