Baby Anna

As you probably all saw on my mom's blog, on February 23, 2012 our family was joined by Anna Elizabeth! We were and are very happy :) - she's a good baby, looks a lot like Esther did, eats well, sleeps fairly well, and is a blessing from the Lord!

She weighed 7 lb. 2 oz and was 21 inches long. She was born at 5:39 PM.

She likes to be with Mommy and Daddy! Esther wasn't too sure when I was holding Anna and wouldn't pick her up...but she's already getting used to it and makes sure we know if "baby" is crying :)

It's hard to believe it's been over a week already! I went into labor in the middle of the night, about 1:30 and since I was already part way along, I thought it would go quickly - however, she wasn't born until that evening! Much more painful than with Esther, but at least this time I'm not as worrried about taking care of a baby - with Esther I was sort of in a daze for a couple weeks just trying to figure out if my life had just ended or not :)

I'll try to post more picture later -

Esther is Still the Baby!

I know everyone else is waiting for the new baby to arrive - so are we - but in the mean time, I'm getting some things done I wouldn't have otherwise - and one of them is posting these pictures of Esther :) There's a lake here in town with a walking trail around it and we've gone a couple times recently to walk - you can't see them well on this picture, but there's ducks in the lake and Esther was pretty excited to see them, which made it more fun for us as well!

"Duck" is one word in her growing vocabulary, along with baby, Daddy, dog, milk, ball, teeth, and "nana".

Esther was pretty tired and cranky when we went to this Christian bookstore, but thankfully they had little chairs and a kids movie playing - she doesn't see a lot of movies, so it kept her entertained quite well while we did our shopping close by :)

Another day we took a picnic lunch to a park in Nashville - they had this old train engine on display - it was huge!

They also have a life-size replica of the Parthenon in Greece - sorry this picture is dark, but it gives the feel of how big it was!

Yes, I know I'm huge! You may pray with us that the baby will come soon!

This is the front of the building, they also had a museum inside, but since we're not really into Greek mythology, we skipped that part...It was pretty impressive to see though!
They had a pond at that park with ducks too -
Grandpa O. gave Esther a "piggy bank" for Christmas, and Aaron gave her some change we had laying around and taught her to put it in the slot. She's had lots of fun with that project! We try to keep an eye on her though so she doesn't put the money in her mouth....
I was trying to get a good picture of her in her new dress from Auntie Rebekah, but she wouldn't stay still long enough...
Playing peek-a-boo, one of her favorite games :)

So Esther's doing well, I actually feel pretty good too and since I tried to get most of the baby things ready like three weeks ago, I've been doing other little things, such as trying some new recipes - the pita bread and overnight French toast turned out well, the squash souffle did not - and reading some books - such as Loving the Little Years, and The Power of Motherhood - both good and encouraging and ones I'll probably reread every couple years. Even if I did end up with a whole list of things I need to improve on after reading them! Aaron's been keeping busy with church work - he did a funeral, and a couple new people have joined the church - and is doing a great job.

Anyway, hopefully next time I post, Esther will be the "big" girl!

Virtual Tour

Hello from Dunkin' Donuts! We've decided to save time and money and just use the internet uptown...

And welcome to our home! This is the living room where you would come in the front door - we normally use the side door ourselves. Those aren't actually our tools - a "handyman" from the man we're renting from came and fixed a few little things around the house. We also had it sprayed for insects this week .

You can tell a baby lives here! We haven't done a lot of decorating, partly because we haven't unpacked everything, and partly because with a baby around, the less stuff the better!

This is the kitchen. Aaron's parents are letting us borrow a fridge and microwave stand. The wallpaper is sort of pastel pinks and blues, so it's a blessing that I have a lot of blue towels anyway!

The other side of the kitchen -

The table (the "window" opens into the Living Room) and Esther's favorite shelf -

The kitchen leads to the laundry room/mudroom and the side door. I'm really enjoying having the laundry area close to the kitchen and the rest of the house!

The other side of the laundry room - it was fun stacking those shelves. At least we know we'll have plenty of jam, salsa, and pickles to eat :)

Down from the Living room/Kitchen is a hall leading to the bedrooms (3), closets, and bathroom.

Esther's room -

The bathroom -

Another picture of Esther's room - I didn't take any of our room or of the office/storage room...So anyway, we're enjoying it and we look forward to seeing you here in person!

Here's a recent picture of Esther - She's been sleeping through the night (wonderful!), and she has 5, going on 6 teeth. She can't walk yet, but I think she could if she tried :) In spite of the fact that her schedule is rather crazy here, she's doing well and is out growing her clothes.
She also has started enjoying looking at books (instead of eating them!) and likes to have us read them to her - over and over and over! Another one of her "new" things is playing with cell phones. It's the only "toy" that she really fusses when we take away from her...
Last Sunday she was playing with my Bible (don't worry, I was watching to make sure she was careful) and I thought it would make a cute picture.
Aaron pruned the trees in our yard. He's also started more of a regular work schedule now and goes to the office to study and has started to make more visits.
Aaron's been talking about buying a trimmer since before we were married and he finally had a good reason too! (the reason being we have a yard to trim....) We took a picture to commemorate this exciting event :)

As for the new baby, we have an appointment scheduled for next week and we've decided on our top boy/girl name and some backups.

I'm enjoying being home more - maybe I'll actually be a better homemaker if I'm home! The church people have been very good to us and we're keeping busy - Hope you all are having a great fall!

No pictues today....

Hello!

No pictures today...we carry our camera with us everywhere, but it seems like we always forget to take pictures - oh well.

We spent last week in Grand Forks - while Aaron was working, I stayed in the hotel and worked on scrapbooking - I'm almost done with our album of before we were married, so now I just have to finish it up, and do our wedding album before the baby is born :)

We also did a little shopping (got a few flowers on sale at Menards) and went out to eat a few times...

As for the baby, it's moving around a lot - I couldn't feel it as early as people say you should be able too, but there's no doubt now!

Also while we were gone, I read a book on childbirth - there's so much to know! Some of it I was familiar with, some things I'd heard of in dairy farm settings, and some things I'd never heard of in my life - so now I'm on a mission to become prepared :) So don't be surprised if I come asking you your opinions...

Yesterday and today we weeded/hoed/tilled our whole garden - it looks like a real garden now, not a swamp!

We're also preparing for the 4th of July - we're having a church service down by the lake (where most of the holiday activities go on) at 9:00 instead of our regular services, so Aaron is going to preach a patriotic message, and we're going to sing patriotic songs, and hopefully it'll be an outreach to the community, so please pray for us if you think of it!

I Thes. 5:16 - Rejoice evermore

Besides Bible study time, the kids had craft time, snack/verse memory time, and outdoor game time. In spite of a lot of forcasted rain, we only had to do games indoors one day - which was a real blessing! Things went ok, but that many people in one building for 3 hours gets kind of crazy!
We ended up with a total enrollment of 32 kids, plus half a dozen junior workers, so we were pretty happy with that.
Friday night was "family night" - it was supposed to be outdoors, but we ended up doing it indoors and it actually worked out just as well. Very noisy, but I think everyone had a good time.
One of the games - we borrowed a "Block Party Trailor" which came equipped with the games and other stuff. Overall we were very, very happy with how things turned out and we're looking forward to next year!
Me by the popcorn maker (it's Miriam's hat by the way!). In case you're wondering, I have gained weight....I had my first doctar's appointment this last week too - would have gone in earlier, but I was too busy and feeling ok, so I didn't worry about it.

Let's see - I'm at "20 weeks", the due date is October 28th, everything seems to be going well. Apparently I'm healthy, which is always good to hear. I'd never had blood drawn before (my hospital experience was limited to getting my wisdom teeth out at age 17 and stitches at age 6) and I didn't really enjoy that part! It left a huge bruise on my arm...Oh, and I've still been feeling well - I take naps once and a while now, which I NEVER did before, and I broke out it hives a couple days last week and still don't know why, but nothing to complain about!

No, we're not having an ultrasound - unless we have to for some reason or other. I was surprised at how many people were shocked by that :) Yes, we have talked about names - we don't agree on all of them, but there's plenty of them that we both like to last for all the children we're likely to have! We've picked out about 3 boy and girl names and you'll find out what they are when the time comes :)

The Announcement You've Been Waiting For...

We're expecting our first child :) !!!!!

The baby will probaby be born in late Oct./early Nov.

We told our family for the first time on Easter, so you aren't really behind on things...

I've haven't been very sick at all, which is a huge blessing!

There's not a whole lot else to say, except we're really excited and you can all be praying for us!

As for other news that we haven't been good at keeping up on - we've been staying very busy and everything is going well. Aaron and another guy put in this counter-top and cabinets in the church fellowship hall. Since we're using the church kitchen, they'll use this for potlucks and things. Recognize these people? We had Amos and Rebekah and their family over for supper one night.
One day we got a good dusting of hail! It was pretty good size for around here, but not big enough to cause any damage.
The only other really exciting news, almost as exciting as the baby...., is that we just got a new used tiller - It's a Troy-built with very little use on it and we got it for a great deal, so even though out garden is still very muddy, Aaron was excited and had to try it out.