Announcing...

Perhaps some of you have been wondering what is taking me so long to get my projects done?  Why not much has been done with my dollhouse?  Why my posts are less frequent than usual?  Well, there is a good reason.  Drum roll, please...  I'm pregnant!!!  The baby is due around the middle to end of September.  Which means the baby could be born anywhere from early September to early October based on my past births, we've had everything from almost 3 weeks early to almost 2 weeks late!

I've been feeling tired (more wiped out than anything, it's hard to get up and get things done), extremely hungry, nauseous, and very very emotional.  So, about normal for me.  Although I don't normally feel this sick to my stomach.  We are hoping that means maybe girl?  If you think about it you could pray for me, I struggle with depression when I'm pregnant and just getting through each day is a struggle.

We are very excited and the kids are thrilled!  They have been telling everyone they come in contact with that we are having a baby.  :-) Another baby will truly be a wonderful blessing!

First Christmas Celebration...

In keeping with tradition, we celebrated Christmas with my parents earlier in the month.  For something new we spent the night Saturday night, went to church with Mom and Pop and then celebrated later on in the day.  It was a very nice time, both my brothers were there with my sister-in-law and niece.

My mom made a great meal, lasagna, salad, and several other sides.  Everything was very good.

Mom also made homemade eggnog.  Micah sure enjoyed his!

After the meal it was time to head upstairs to open the gifts.  Fun!  Mom gets everyone one gift, and we don't do any sort of gift exchange for the siblings (mine).  It was lots of fun to watch the kids open their gifts and play with them for the rest of the day.  :-)   Watching the kids helps me remember how magical Christmas is!

Our Anniversary!

This past week was our 8th anniversary!  To celebrate we had my parents watch the kids for the weekend while we spent some time together alone.  It was so nice!

The first day we spent our time just doing errands and generally enjoying our time together.  On Saturday we drove up to Monument to visit a dollhouse store, fun!  I was able to get a few mini's for my dollhouse too.  :-)

On Saturday night we went to Red Robin for dinner, Yum!

Then we headed over to our hotel for the night.  We stayed in a hotel at the north end of the springs.  Because we almost never get up to that part of town it felt like we were in another city!  :-)  We had so much fun at the hotel, they had a waterslide that we spent a lot of time on!  There was also a free breakfast, always so nice!

The dollhouse store was also a toy store.  Mark won this puzzle by completing a similar one at the store in under 5 minutes!

We stopped at Goodwill on our way to the hotel and picked up this 3D puzzle.  After the pool closed at 10 we came up to our room and worked on it till 2 in the morning to get it done!

We had such a wonderful time celebrating our anniversary!  We picked up the kids Sunday afternoon and it was great to get back into the swing of normal life.  I'm already looking forward to our anniversary trip next year!  :-) 

State Fair!

On Monday we headed down to the State Fair for the day!  We got there around 10 a.m. and didn't get home till after 1a.m.!  The kids had a blast!

We met Mark's brother and his family at the fair and spent the day together.  The kids always have so much fun with their cousins.  :-)

The first item of the day was watching the "hog races".  Those pigs were fast!  Here, the kids are waiting for the show to start.

Next up was all the animals and 4-H exhibits.  The kids always have fun looking at all the farm animals!  And the bean sandbox can't be beat!

While walking around we stopped to get this picture of the kids.  A few kids are missing, Elijah didn't want his picture taken, he was too busy exploring the cab of this monster tractor.  And Josiah, poor kid, had somehow been left behind at our last building.  So, we had to go back and get him.  He was still within sight of us so it's not as bad as it sounds.  :-)

And finally, the rest of the day was spent doing the carnival rides!  Fun, Fun, Fun!

By the end of the day everyone was exhausted.  Micah and Jeremiah crashed in the stroller by 9 p.m.  And the rest of the kids were asleep shortly after we loaded up and left.  We all slept in the next day and the kids are already asking about when they will get to go again! 

4th of July Weekend

We spent the Fourth of July weekend with family, both mine and Mark's.  On Sunday, we went out to my parents house after church.  We had a lovely barbeque with lots of good food. Both of my brothers were there and one of our family friends, so it was almost all of us together, so nice!  Mom and Dad set up a large table in the family room for all of us so we could all eat together.

Another one bites the dust!

So, anyone who knows Mark knows that he attracts bad drivers like a magnet.  And, true to form, this week Mark was in another accident.  :-(   The front of the bug is sooo smashed, it looks so awful.  Fortunately Mark wasn't hurt.    We are trying to figure out how to pay for another car, because the other driver didn't stop.  We have uninsured motorist coverage but that will not cover another car.   

Look Mom, I'm Standing!

Micah has started standing on his own and taking steps!  He can almost walk all the way across a room without falling!  When he does fall down he just gets back up and keeps going, he's very determined.  :-)  He'll be running in no time!

Anniversary Party!

Mark's brother, Michael, and his wife, Jessica, celebrated their 10th anniversary this week!  Michael put together a surprise party for Jessica to celebrate!  So sweet!  Yet again I forgot to take pictures of most of the important stuff, but here are the pictures I did take.  It was a lovely time and so touching to see them together and still in love after 10 years!

THE CAKE ... Yum!

My sister in law, Jessica, (in flowered dress), talking with  her friends

I missed out on pictures of the cake cutting, and of Michael and Jessica together, bummer :-(  Somehow, I'm always busy watching kids and can't seem to find time to take pictures.  Hope I can change that in the future...

Awana Award Ceremony

We attended the Awana Awards Ceremony on Wednesday evening.  We were all sick but didn't want for the kids to miss out on receiving their awards, so we just tried to stay back from everyone else, hence the Far Away pictures.

Here Josiah and Emmaline are singing with their Cubbie group.  So Cute!

 Josiah going up for his Cubbie award.

 
And Emmaline going up for hers.

 Then came the Sparks group that Elijah was in, singing a song.

Easter

Our Easter was lovely!  We started out the day by giving the kids Easter baskets.  This was the first year that we did this and they seemed to enjoy it.  Mark has fond memory's of Easter baskets when he was growing up and he wanted to give the kids the same good memories.  We bought all the "filler" at the dollar store or we had it on hand already, so we didn't spend much at all, always a nice bonus!  :-)

Good Friday

We started out the day on Good Friday by making a red velvet cake! Yum!!! It was for Easter, but I wanted to make it ahead of time because we were planning to be gone most of the day Saturday.  The kids had so much fun licking the beaters!

 We went out to my parents house in the afternoon to celebrate with them.  My mom had almost everything all ready and we had a good time just hanging out.  :-)

At about 4 I helped my mom make grebble.  Perhaps you don't know what grebble is?  A little background might be helpful: my mom is 100% german and her grandparents came to America in the early 1900's.  It is a german tradition to have snitz soup and grebble on Good Friday.  Grebble is sort of like a donut but also like bread, deep fried.  And what, you may ask, is snitz soup?  Simply dried fruit, cream, butter, and allspice made into a soup.  I like it a lot but Mark thinks its not so good.  It must be an aquired taste...

Josiah's Birthday

Are you ready for lots of pictures?  Yes?  Okay, here they are!

We started out the birthday with breakfast, donuts and milk, Yum!  Despite the look on his face Josiah did enjoy them...

 Josiah got dressed as quickly as possible, then sat in the living room waiting for us to finish up the dishes so he could open his GIFTS from us.  He was more than somewhat excited.  :-)

 

This is just what I wanted...

Then came . . . Party time!!! Here is a picture of his cake.  I made it.  It was supposed to be a fighter jet but somehow when I put it together it looked more like a regualar plane so I just went with it.  It was one of my easier cakes to make, only requiring about an hour and a half.  It helped that I wasn't picky at all this time, who cares if the frosting isn't smooth?!?

 

And then the fun part, blowing out the candles and EATING!

 

Then came more gifts... for those of you wondering, we like to give the gifts from us before the birthday party.  That way the kids have a chance to enjoy them before everyone else comes over.

The Big 3 0 ...

Sorry I missed posting last week, I was very busy celebrating....my 30th birthday, wow!  I feel so old, despite what everyone else tells me, "you don't look old, you're only as old as you feel, 30 is so young, etc., etc., etc."  So, here are some pics from my multiple birthday celebrations.

On Wednesday I went out to my mother-in-laws house for a birthday tea.  It was so nice!  We get along well and both love tea so it was a great day!

On Thursday I was super-blessed to be able to spend the whole day with my sister, who flew in from California especially for the occasion!!!  It was so great to see her and get caught up on all the news!  We went out to tea at a local tea shop and then did some shopping.  It was a wonderful time of fellowship!