3D ultrasounds

I don't know if any of ya'll have ever had a 3D ultrasound done before. I got my first one yesterday! I had to go back for a followup on the baby's heart. Last month, she wasn't cooperating and they couldn't get a good picture, so I came back this month for a followup ultrasound. My doctor's office had updated their sonography machine 2 weeks ago and they are learning how to do 3D ultrasounds, so after the regular ultrasound was done, the technician wanted to practice with the 3D part, so we got these really cool pictures of the baby! (normally, I wouldn't get this, but it was for free since they are still practicing how to read it. It is a little different from a normal ultrasound!) I was very excited to see the baby, not just the bones and organs!

This is the baby's profile. Isn't she cute?

Here is a picture of her arm in front of her face.
(the other arm is complete, the picture just cut it off, don't worry..)

Carina wanted me to post this one. The baby is making the peace sign!

So 16 more weeks left! Time is flying by quickly! I have so much left to do!

Carrots!

We are proud to announce that we grew 3 Carrots this summer! Sister Reber, Jared's primary teacher gave him a package of carrot seeds in the spring and we planted them in the flower garden. Surprisingly enough, despite our not watering, planting them to deeply etc... we had a harvest! Jared is so proud of his 3 carrots! Daddy cooked them up in a turkey soup on Sunday and they were yummy!

Jared with his carrots!

James holding a carrot too!

Oatmeal and sleeping

I am proud to announce that James learned how to sleep in the toddler bed just fine. It only took about a week of sitting by him till he fell asleep. Now he is back to his normal routine. We just pray and put him in and off to sleep his goes! I love it!

On another note, I have to make another round of Oatmeal packets. Amazingly enough, my kids have scarfed the 36 packets I made last time. They wouldn't eat oatmeal before willingly and now they are asking for it. Packaging it up in small baggies makes that worthwhile!

Uncle Ern's Visit!

Uncle Ernest came for a brief visit Labor Day weekend. We had lots of fun. We all went to the UWG football game (which was hard to watch around all the frat boys and soriority girls standing in the way). It was the first game at the new West GA stadium. We really liked that. Although next time, we have decided to go sit on the visitor side. You can see better there!

Everyone enjoyed several games of Run the Bases with Uncle Ern and Dad. Ernest also gave everyone a ride in his new truck! VERY NICE! Come again soon, Uncle Ernest!

Instant Oatmeal Packets

I made instant Oatmeal packets on Monday. My kids love to eat to eat them and they end up costing so much money. So I looked up a few recipes online. The one I ended up doing was at http://www.stretcher.com/stories/00/001009e.cfm

I did do a few variations on it. One thing I did differently was on the dried apples, I added only 1 tbsp. of chopped apples. I also added instant powdered milk to every packet, it sneaks in some calcium for us!

I ended up making 3 flavors. Apples and cinnamon, cinnamon spice and a plain brown sugar. We ate them for breakfast this morning and it was so yummy. So hey try it! It makes a nice change from cold cereal!

Lost things

This week has been a fun one for me. Monday, I was working on the computer and left my wallet in front of it while I ran into my room for some papers I needed. When I got back, James was happily playing with my now empty wallet. I removed my possesssions from him and went on with what I was doing. A few minutes later, I realized that my all of my debit and credit cards were missing. This started a massive search of the living room. I looked in the couches, I checked out the vents, I even moved the TV cabinet and looked under it. Of course, no luck.

I did find them about an hour later. James had shoved them into the DVD drive on our Mac. Oh no! I called Michael in tears and he nicely came home to comfort me. We ended up having to take the computer into the Apple store where they were able to remove them, and they did it without laughing visibly in front of Michael. (His supervisor laughed ALOT!)

Of course, last night right before Pack meeting, Peter can't find his cub scout belt. We search the entire house and find all sorts of interesting other things... but no belt. I did manage to find it this morning after doing another search of his room. It was stuck in the space between the wall and his dresser! No wonder we couldn't see it when we looked under the dresser!

The good news, is that I can look back and laugh now. However I propose that we now only find things, not lose them!

New bed!

Now that we know what we are having, we decided that it was time to move James out of the crib and into a toddler bed. The kids were very helpful and cleaned the old crib and toddler bed as we were trying to get them all set up.

James is very excited about his bed. He very happily points out the moon and stars and kicks any eager siblings out of his bed. He was very excited till it was time to go to sleep that night!

Now I spend every naptime and bedtime next to his bed waiting for him to fall asleep. Last night, I think I beat him! I fell asleep first! Dark, quiet room... tired Mama.... you get the picture! I think I miss the crib, but once he is adjusted, life will be easier again.. I hope!

It's a....

We went to the my OB today to have an ultrasound done. Michael and I had taken Jared and James along with us. It went well, everything looks great! Jared looked at the ultrasound machine screen and declared, "It's a dinosaur!"

So there you go guys... You have the big news! We are having a dinosaur in January! I know you are all so excited for us! How often do you really get to have a dinosaur?

Any guesses yet? Okay, I'll tell you...

We are having a baby girl!
(I know some of you were hoping for the dinosaur option.... sorry!)

School Morning

Today is the first day of school. As is tradition, we got up, got ready and had our back to school Father's blessings. Than off to the bus stop where Mom, armed with camera was ready to go.

The elementary school kids are ready for the bus!

Annie

Peter

Kathleen

David
(note all the beautiful smiling faces this morning....)

Carina waiting for her turn to go to the bus stop at home

Carina showing us her real feelings about waking up for school!
Have a great year kids!

Fun in a tent

Once upon a time there was a tent built by a big brother. Everyone couldn't wait to come and play in it. So all gathered around and crowded into the tent.

And then they decided that they were tired of pictures so they closed the flap!

Nature in my yard!

I have been enjoying my little gardens this summer. This is the first year I planted flowers from seed and I have been thrilled at how well they have done! They have done much better than the seedlings did that we planted in previous years. So I am showing you some of my favorites!

I love the colors on this marigold!

This Cosmo had this moth on it and I was able to get a picture of it.

This was a cool 2 colored cosmo. They normally don't split like that, the ends would be a lighter shade of pink, like the previous picture, so I thought it was neat.

One morning we went out on our porch and found this cicada. Pretty cool huh! It makes lots of noise here at night. The kids think he is really ugly, but I haven't really had a chance to see them up close before. I have heard them all my life because they are very prevelant here in the south, but haven't really seen them!

Amazing!

I know... You'll never believe it.. I'm 35! I had a birthday! It was a pretty quiet day for me. I got my presents in the morning and the kids gave me my birthday cupcakes in the afternoon. Kathleen baked them for me. We ate them at snack because the boys had twilight camp and wouldn't be around for dinner. But I made myself a good birthday dinner anyway!
Chicken Enchiladas!

David lighting the candles for me!

Happy Birthday to me!