Road Trip 2015, Day One

In truth, the first day of our road trip was really spent driving these small country roads on a weird route (thanks Google!) with some pretty crazy detours that left us wondering if we would ever come out of the cornfields alive. So, we decided to start with our first day of being touristy. While our ultimate destination for this trip was Kentucky, to visit with Jeff's extended family, we stopped off at some Lincoln sites in southern Indiana first. The highlight of this day was the Lincoln Boyhood National Park. It had a nice museum, and a great recreated homestead staffed with people dressed in period clothing to tell you more about how the Lincolns lived. The boys earned their first "Junior Ranger" badge of the trip, and these "police badges" became a bit of an obsession for them. The things the kids liked best about this visit were using woodworking tools like those Lincoln and his father used, and feeding the cows.

The next stop was a reconstructed grist mill at the location where the Lincoln's brought their corn to be ground. It was a rainy afternoon, and we were the only ones in the mill, so we got a lot of attention from the man in charge. He really impressed Tommy, and allowed Tommy to operate the mill with him, which was a special privilege that Tommy continues to talk about. He may have declared that he plans to grow up to run a grist mill...and we had to inform him that grist mill ownership is no longer an available career path (so back to his equally realistic goal of playing in the NFL). We have the bag of cornmeal that Tommy ground in our fridge, and one of these days I will get around to making him some cornbread with "his" cornmeal.

Say you are in Rockport, IN, and you think to yourself, "I should go to Lincoln Pioneer Village because it was a WPA project recreating the village Lincoln lived in and it must be really interesting and worth the relatively high price of admission." Let me tell you that you really should not. It was sorely disappointing. The museum is a bunch of stuff crowded in cabinets, and with the exception of a piece of furniture made by Thomas Lincoln, there is not much worth seeing. Out back there are an impressive number of cabins, but most of them are just empty or locked up buildings, and the "early transportation museum" is just a bunch of falling apart wagons in a musty barn. The only saving grace of this pioneer village was that Nicolas loved it. No one knows why, but he thought it was really fun, and he did not want to leave...even though everyone else really really did.

Our last stop of the day was the site from which Lincoln left on his first trip down the Mississippi. It only took a few minutes to stop at the spot, and the kids had fun climbing on the signs, and also thinking about standing in the very same spot as Abraham Lincoln.

...Ta-da!

It has been so long since I have sat down and written; I admit I feel a little rusty. We have some big news that I am compelled to write about - a new addition.

Meet the littlest member of our family. SHE is due to arrive November 20th.

I am a little over twenty weeks along. We decided to try things differently this time and keep the news quiet until we had more information from the doctor. Because we have moved since my pregnancy with Kenny, I am seeing a whole new team of OBs and specialists, and the current specialist has been very cautious with his diagnostic opinions. We had hoped to have a good idea about how the baby was doing at 16 weeks, but he was not able to give us a definitive answer at that time. Today (after an hour and a half of diagnostic ultrasound stress), he pronounced this little one healthy. We are very thankful that God blessed us with this new life, and grateful that we will have the opportunity to raise this daughter.

This pregnancy has been a unique experience. I have been feeling much worse physically than I did with Kenny, and more nauseous/ hormonal than I did with Leah, but also much less tired (that pregnancy was very physically draining even before we knew anything was wrong). I have been dealing with anxiety, mostly in the week leading up to my various ultrasounds, but nothing like I did with Kenny. I think it helped not talking about it as much, and it also helped that we were not expecting this particular bit of news (you know you were wondering), and going into this pregnancy without the pressing desire for another baby right at that particular moment did make it easier too as we waited and wondered what would happen. Some days I feel like God is playing a joke on me (and since the ending appears to be happy, it is a funny one), as we decided last year not to pursue pregnancy again, and I gave my sister my maternity clothes when I saw her over Christmas, told my friends I was done with pregnancy, and tossed out my nursing bras...then just a few months later found out things were not going to go according to that plan. I should have learned by now not to make plans, because things never seem to go the way I intend. I'm okay with that right now.

It probably goes without saying, but I am thrilled to be having a girl. I screamed in the poor nurse's ear when she called to tell me. It was so loud I had to apologize, and then guiltily explain that I would have been happy for a boy too, but, well, I already had three. Expect this poor child to be swathed in pink and bows and glitter and tulle. I am so done with blue. The little boys are less thrilled. Tommy and Kenny continue to hold out hope that it might be a boy (despite DNA testing and repeat ultrasounds), while Nic is usually happy about it, as he was rooting for a girl about half of the time.

We would appreciate your prayers for the continued health and growth of our sweet little girl, and my anxiety in that regard, especially when I reach the late third trimester. Although she did not inherit SRPS, we are more acutely aware of everything that can go wrong from here on out. I suppose that is the downside of attending pregnancy loss support groups - you really learn too much. Although I think that once you have been the one in the "only one in ten thousand" statistic, you never feel entirely comfortable with pregnancy (or any statistics designed to make you feel better). Therefore, I can use all the prayer I can get.

If you would have told me seven years ago, when I despaired of ever having a child, that today I would be raising three crazy, adorable boys and be pregnant with another little girl, I don't think I would have believed it. It was very healing to visit Leah's grave this year, pregnant with this little one and hopeful that we would finally have a chance to watch a little girl grow up. I am repeatedly amazed as I watch God continue to build beautiful things out of our pile of ashes.

Seven Years

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

Whale Carrot vs. Pink Mustache

I find it is best to keep a camera handy during meal times, since there's something about the context of a polite gathering that seems to inspire silliness. I don't post nearly as many of these pictures as I probably should - maybe because they don't necessary group together coherently. Anyhow, without further ado, I present The Time Tommy Found a Carrot Shaped Like a Whale and Didn't Want to Eat It Because It Was Too Awesome followed by The Time Kenny Rubbed His Upper Lip So Raw That He Gave Himself a Mustache Which He Wore Proudly For About a Week

Ahab's Carrot

I have a pink mustache

Happy Birthday Tommy!

Sometimes I'm not sure how we got here, but we now officially have a seven year old! We celebrated Tommy on his birthday with his family presents, highlights below include a Lego set and a talking Ninja Turtle card (and, not pictured because he has to pick it out still, a hand-brake bike). Tommy has grown a great deal this year, both in height and personally. I appreciate his helpfulness with his brothers and around the house. Recently I contracted some kind of flu at the exact same time that Jeff had beamtime and was completely unable to help, and Tommy took care of his brothers almost all day. They watched a lot of TV, wore strange outfits, and might have only eaten yogurt and pretzels...but they all survived thanks to his intervention. He was so sweet bringing me cups of water and, when I could finally keep something down, pretzels. The experience, while terrible for us all, certainly demonstrated to me how much he has grown in his ability to handle responsibility.

He continues to love sports, especially football, but he has been playing soccer and baseball. He also participates in Cub Scouts and, of course, in church activities. He is showing much more maturity in these areas as well, and has started asking very good questions about God...and also some strange ones. His school teacher tells me he is a very hard worker, a great reader, and a leader in the classroom. At a conference she told me that she randomly chose him to demonstrate how to have a conversation about a book (an exercise she does every year), and the dialogue she had with him was the best she has had with a student. The book was The Cat in the Hat, and I can't even remember the last time we read it, so I was certainly impressed that he did such a good job. All that said, his favorite part of school is recess. He is constantly bursting with energy, so classrooms are not his natural habitat. Tommy mainly goes to school to socialize, but we are happy that he is learning as well.

Speaking of socializing, Tommy had a friend birthday party too. He loves his birthday, and starts discussing his party and invite lists months in advance (which is nice because it usually starts with "I want to invite the entire school!" and it takes time to narrow it down). I love that he wants to include everyone he knows, even though it is wildly impractical. This year we really hit the jack-pot when Tommy entered a drawing for a free birthday party and won! Thus he got to have his first (and ONLY) outside-of-our-house party. It was at a Karate studio, which was a big hit with the seven-year-old boy crowd. He had a great time, and so did Kenny, as you will observe in the videos. Nic was there too, but wild crowds are just not his style.

Happy Birthday Tommy! We are so proud of you and are blessed to be your parents!

Catching Up Pt. 1: Easter

Here are a few pictures from our Easter festivities - the egg hunt after church, our impromptu backyard picnic (because it was such a beautiful day that the kids begged to eat outside), and our neighborhood egg hunt in the park. It was a wonderful day!