news shared

i waited a whole week to share the baby news with everyone else. i think that's about my max for keeping baby secrets. and the best part is, in the process, i found out about a couple other May babies! i posted it on fb this afternoon, and it's so great to see so many other people very excited about this little life, too. Thank you for all of your prayers for this tiny one. When i said something like "i think we've told everyone," Evalana replied, "Well, we still need to tell Africa and Antarctica  Actually, you can skip Antarctica since no one lives there, but we'll need to tell the Arctic and Africa and everyone else still."

baby pictures

When i showed Evalana what our baby looked like last week, she said it didn't really look much like a baby. So i showed her a couple other pictures to see how much the baby's going to look more human in a couple of weeks. It's amazing that at 5 weeks the baby has a beating heart, and at 6 weeks, the baby looks pretty baby-like. They wanted to see more, so then we watched this babycenter video. The kids were fascinated with the baby development. It is just incredibly miraculous. I love that the kids are so excited about this baby that they want to tell everyone about it, read about it, and learn more. They're going to be really great big sister and brother to the new baby.
Written 9/26/12

i wish babies liked coffee

Lazarus just napped 10am-11:15am, and i slept that whole time too. i thought maybe i could finish something on the computer for just one minute, but i couldn't keep my eyes open and my head up for even a second, so evalana watched one of her movies, and i slept. i'm impressed with the allergy medicine i got from whole foods. my nose is pretty much constantly running, but my throat hasn't been itchy at all, and that's the one symptom i just really can't tolerate. october 31st is the average freeze date here, and i wouldn't mind if it came early this year. it makes me sad to have the windows closed up in this beautiful weather. Otherwise, though, i'm still feeling great and so very thankful to have another baby!
written 9/25/12

different again

Well, as i said after Lazarus's birth, we plan to do things differently this time around. First, i questioned ultrasounds. I'd read some things about ultrasounds possibly having risks, but I hadn't really done any actual research on it until Wednesday. I expected it to be a tough decision, but i actually very clearly found out that ultrasounds have been proven to cause brain problems, and there were no advantages to the babies who had received ultrasounds. Then i realized that the doppler used to hear the baby's heartbeat is also ultrasound. So with this baby, i'll probably feel him or her move before we get to hear the heartbeat, and we won't know the baby's gender until birth. Of course, if some concern comes up, we can still use this technology for the health of our baby, but, as long as things are just as easy as they were with the first two, i'm looking forward to doing things differently this time.
The other big difference is that, at this point, we're anticipating having a home birth. We still have a lot of questions we need to get answered before we make a definite decision, but i don't want to repeat the awful parts of lazarus's birth when a healthy birth day should be such a beautiful thing. I'm already so excited for this pregnancy (other than no meds during allergy season; i'm dreading that)!
Written 9/21/12. I want to share the news of this baby so badly that i just have to keep writing about it while i wait until i can talk about it more :-)
9/26 addition: i've been taking some homeopathic allergy stuff, and i've been so impressed with it; my throat hasn't itched at all!
1/25/13: just came across this post that has a whole bunch of links about ultrasound, for anyone wanting some further information.

sharing the news

It's so much fun sharing the news of this third baby. It's hard to be patient and at least tell my mom before we tell strangers :-). Yesterday Evalana did tell all the neighbors. I love that she's so excited about this baby that she just can't keep it in. I know many people like to wait a few months before they make their pregnancy public news, but those people must not have older kids or else keep the secret from their kids also and must stay very tiny at the beginning of their pregnancy. Anyway, we're mostly excited to have others praying with us for this little little one. I have to wait until I see my mom at church on Sunday to tell her and Greg. Yesterday morning we got to tell Tompa and Grandma Nancy. Wednesday evening we called Gigi since we won't see her in person for a couple of weeks. Yesterday we also told Meema as soon as we saw her. And we called Aunt Kristen this morning. The rest of the family, we've got to figure out who we're going to be able to see soon and who we need to call.
Written 9/21/12

I started with trying to record everyone as we told them, but people were hard to get a hold of. Aunt Kristen had a funny phone call.

Evalana told meema as soon as we saw her, before we even unbuckled when we met her at Unforked, so i just got a picture afterwards.

feeling it

Well if i didn't know i was pregnant, i think i'd be wondering what's wrong with me. this little poppy-seed-sized baby is using a lot of energy. i'm feeling more tired each day. in the middle of july, i had committed to working out six days a week for 90 days. with three weeks left to go, i gave up today. hopefully i'll still get some exercise in, but i don't think it'll be as intense, and i don't think it'll be every day. it really does amaze me, all the changes that happen right away. as of yesterday, i was four weeks along, but, the way pregnancy is counted, the first two weeks you're not pregnant at all. part of the third week the baby's working it's way to the uterus, so there is a baby, but you're still not pregnant. then, as soon as that insy weenie teenie tiny baby secures itself in the place it wants to spend the next nine months growing, all kinds of changes happen in the mama's body. Every detail of this process overwhelms me with God's greatness.
Writing this 9/20/12

five

this morning (writing this 9/19/12) we found out that i'm pregnant!!!!!! such exciting news--just makes me feel so overwhelmed with God's love. it's pretty incredible to have two beautiful children already and find out that we've been given another! although we never wanted to assume that we'd be given another pregnancy, we've been looking forward to and praying for this baby for a long time. please join us in praying for this currently poppy-seed-sized baby. thank you!

Now i have to save this post and keep it unpublished until we get a chance to share the news with family. Don't worry; if you're reading this, it's now public news :-)

We told Evalana and Lazarus a few minutes after i took a pregnancy test

reef splash party

July 18th westside had a preschool splash party.

colorer

lazarus really enjoys coloring

7/14/12

mo's birthday

July 14th we got to celebrate Mo and Uncle Doug's 60th birthday a month late.
The kids really enjoyed Uncle David's new dog, Schmoogy.

mathamagician

Evalana still loves math and likes to call herself a mathamagician (because she got the word a little mixed up).

7/6/12

cooks

7/13/12

They love helping me in the kitchen. In this picture, i think they were helping me make a graham cracker crust :-)

johnson county museum

June 25th we went to the Johnson County Museum. Actually, we go to this free museum quite a bit, but these pictures are from june.

heading to church

Evalana dresses herself most days. Here we were on June 24th, on our way to church. Both kids love going to church. Evalana was especially excited this day because she picked out all her own clothes (which isn't unusual), and she really liked the bracelet she put on, and she remembered her offering she really wanted to give. i'm so thankful to have a church we all love. So here's the cute little girl, back when she was a three-year-old :-)

lazarus's dinosaur

A couple nights ago, Lazarus told us a great story! It was all his; i just asked him questions to keep him going. While eating dinner, he told me there was a dinosaur in the backyard. I have no idea where that came from--maybe his dad's genetics? anyway, i asked him all about it, and it turns out that this dinosaur in our backyard was hanging out in our pine trees. She's a girl, as big as a house, walks on four feet, scary with claws, and says "roar roar roar roar!" She eats dog food, noses, and goldfish. She stomps on houses, but we're safe. She's green with scales and four years old. And her name was Abnesaurous (i think evalana helped him out with that name).

tlc picnic

On June 23rd we got to go to a TLC reunion picnic with some of my former coworkers. We had a good time with everyone. The kids especially played with Elliana and Mayah. Elliana and Evalana thought it was pretty neat that their names were so much alike and that they were both three years old. We're looking forward to getting together with Shawna's family more.

mahaffie games

June 21st we went to one of the free evenings at the Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop. We played some old games, made biscuits, and enjoyed a nice evening walking around and seeing the animals too. Earlier this summer we'd learned some especially interesting things about the Mahaffie family on a video we got from the library.

 

kale

6/20/12

The kids and i are so glad joshua put kale in our garden this year. we can't get enough of this salad!

fish feeders

6/19/12

These cuties feed the dogs, give Abner his joint medicine, and feed their fish--all by themselves.

hummus and math

6/18/12

fathers day

Lazarus was sick Father's Day weekend, so we didn't do a lot to celebrate Joshua, but here are the gifts Evalana made for Daddy.

   

swim lessons

On June 18th, the kids had their first swim lessons of the summer. We did them as a family through Olathe, Monday through Thursday evenings for two weeks.

bumps

In April Lazarus was diagnosed with molluscum contagiosum (painless bumps on his hands). We put Zymaderm on the bumps, but they kept coming back. i haven't seen any bumps for about a month now, so maybe we're finished with them?

hats and shoes

Lazarus likes wearing hats and shoes. Here's a hat he wore June 27th.

  

tompa and grandma nancy's

June 26th we got to have a get-together at Tompa and Grandma Nancy's. Evalana talked for a long time about how much fun it was to see everyone together!

 

walk

we love playing outside. here are a few pictures of an evening walk June 11th.

 

4yo doctor visit

We finally went for Evalana's 4yo checkup this morning. i'd been putting it off since she's been so awful to take to doctor and dentist visits, but i needed my allergy medicine refilled, so i made an appointment for both of us (i love going to a family doctor). we talked about what to expect (which we've always done before, too), and we prayed and prayed and prayed about it, and i'm so thankful to be able to report that it went well!!!! she did really great up to the point when the nurse wanted to take her temperature under her arm, and then she cuddled into me and told me she was tired. then she said she was really tired, and she started crying. i'm not sure if she just didn't want to say that she was scared/worried, or if she's maybe not sure what worried feels like and really thought maybe she was feeling tired. anyway, the nurse finished up her stuff, and evalana got over that. then when doctor holly wanted to listen to her heart, she started crying again. this time lazarus got worried about her and started crying too, so then she calmed down a little, and everyone was okay. that's all an enormous improvement since our dentist trip a few months ago. I'm so thankful that God calmed her today. And the doctor said i have plantar fasciitis (pain in the arch of my foot after i've been sitting), and i got my prescription for rhinocort aqua. Evalana weighs 55lbs and is 3'7". The chart i had looked at said she was over 97% and the height of an average six-year-old and weight of an average eight-year-old, but the nurse today told me that she's 99% for weight and 96% for height--i think that might be the first time in her life that she's even been on the growth chart. And she seems healthy. thank you Jesus! oh, and i did do my own measuring of Lazarus when he was 20 months old at the end of August, and i came up with 36in (over 98%) and 28lbs (80%), which is the height of an average 30mo and weight of an average 24mo. So thankful for my healthy, growing, loving kids. After our appointment, we Ernie Miller Nature Center to visit the owls and hawk, and then Evalana got a miniature dirt and worms ice cream for a treat, which she says was the highlight of her doctor's visit. 

cubbies

This evening was parent night at Awana, so Lazarus and i got to go visit and see what Daddy and Evalana do on Wednesday evenings while we're at home. I didn't get to take any pictures since my camera's full until we can find a good backup/online storage option for my computer. But we found out that they start with coloring, then they say the pledge to the American flag and then to the Awana flag. then they sing a Cubbie song about being happy all the time that Joshua doesn't like because people aren't happy all the time and it's making all the little kids lie. then a Cubbie Bear puppet tells a Bible story. and then the kids all go to their classrooms and have snack, tell their verse leader their bible verse, and work on a craft. and when they're all done, they play outside and then inside. lazarus can't wait to be 3 1/2 years old so that he can be a cubbie too. The other thing i learned tonight is that Evalana talks a lot! When they were in the classroom, she was pretty much always commenting on something or telling the teachers something or letting people know what she was doing or talking about every question...and joshua said that's normal for her. i think we're going to practice conversation skills. Mo had made her a new Awana bow to match her cubbie vest, and when evalana got home, she said that no one noticed her bow. so then daddy complimented her on it. and then both kids fell right asleep.

dancing on the table

vbs

The kids had so much fun at VBS in June.

the last day, this 3yo decided she didn't want to leave her brother

poor boy got a 3-day fever at the end of vbs

stuff the kids brought home from vbs: