Any Day Now

We are 10 days away from our due date and expecting this little one to grace us with his/her presence any day now.  I am still feeling great just impatient to meet our new addition.  Hopefully we will have exciting news soon! Happy Valentine's Day!

Been a while

It's been a while since I've posted anything.  First I wasn't feeling well because I was in the first trimester.  Then I was feeling better and we've been busy having fun.  I'm now 20 weeks pregnant and feeling great.

Our sweet kiddos continue to bring a lot of joy and laughter to our home.

Tara cleaned off the hutch the other day, which is a perfect dumping ground for everything under the sun.  Since then she has been hard core about nothing going on the hutch.  I set my bible study book there a few days ago and she picked it up and brought it to me.
Her: "Mom, I found this on the hutch."
Me:  "I know, Baby, I put it there to remind me to do my homework so put it back there please."
Her:  (In a respectful yet decisive tone) "No.  Nothing goes on the hutch."

I had to laugh.  She was protecting her hard work.  It's like me, after the kitchen is spotless, telling everyone they can't eat for a while.  So now, it has become a family joke.  Blake and I sneak a rubber band or something on the hutch to see how long it will take for Tara to gasp in horror.  It's quite funny . . . and yes, the hutch is still clean.  I'm scared to set anything on it even when she isn't home. :)

We got to go to California a few weeks ago.  We visited with Tim's sister and family and then our husbands ran a marathon together while we corralled the kids.  It was a great trip, but went by too quickly.  Tim has now officially done 10 marathons.

Our family at the Bixby bridge in Big Sur after the marathon.  Sept 25, 2010

Tim finishing #10

The whole gang (us and Tim's sister and family: Robin, Daniel, Tres, and Emrie)

Tim and Blake strike a pose.

Tara explores the coastline

Tim and Daniel at the start of the race.

Conversations at our house

Last night we were discussing what we should do before summer is over.

Me:  I should take you to the art museum.

Blake:  No!

Me:  Oh, you'd like it.  The paintings are really neat!

Blake:  I'm sure the paintings are (air quotes) neat but I hate art.

Did my child just do air quotes?!!  He was slightly more interested when we told him that one of the artist's cut off his ear.  I am not usually one to go to an art museum either but my daughter likes art so I'm trying to be supportive.


Speaking of supportive, my husband gets an award for being the best husband ever.  After a long day at work, he came home to me still on the couch.

Me:  Sorry, I haven't gone to the grocery store or made dinner . . . or done anything really.

Him:  That's ok, Baby.

Me:  I should probably try to get up and be useful.

Him:  No, I think you should relax and watch TV.  I'll go running and then make dinner.

Me:  Now I'm really glad I married you!!  I was starting to question the sanity of that decision when our son was climbing the walls like Spiderman and hopping around the house on the furniture obstacle course he made.  Because that kind of craziness did not come from me and I was thinking I should have asked more questions before I married you.  But now, I am reminded that you are AWESOME!!

Him:  (laughing)  Good thing you married me before you found out how crazy I am.

Me:  Besides, I actually have been working hard all day long . . . growing our baby.

Him:  See, that is hard work!  You work way harder than me!

We amuse ourselves with our silly reasoning and jokes.  This is a typical conversation in our house.  Which will probably cost us years of therapy for our children . . . or their future spouses that will have to put up with this type of communication.

Pearls of Wisdom

Tonight at dinner, Blake said:  Don't worry, Dad, I will always remember what you told me is the most important thing.

Tim:  What was that, Buddy?

Blake:  Winter is not officially winter, until you throw an unexpected snowball at someone.


So, if my son ever hits you with a snowball, it's his father's fault.  Although his mother can't help but smile.

Baby

We're having a baby!!!  We are beside ourselves with excitement!  Our newest member is due to arrive on February 24th, 2011.

Tara will be 10 and Blake will be eight when the baby is born.  They can hardly wait!  The funny thing is that Blake will turn eight in November which will finally age him out of the car seat.  So we will happily drive around car seatless for the first time in 10 years . . . two months before we put a brand new one in and start all over again!  Crazy!  But we are a wild and crazy family.

Like American Idol

Let me share my favorite all time quote by Tara.  The setting was that she was about two years old and for whatever reason we took her into the church service with us instead of putting her in the nursery.  Afterward we asked her what she thought of "big church".

She said, "The boy sing, the girl sing, it's like American Idol!"

My girl has always been beautiful, inside and out.  She is sweet and strong.  Lovely and creative.  She has a gift of compassion.  She is innocent and carefree.  She is wonderful and we adore her!

If you were a fly . . .

If you were a fly on the wall in our house today you would have heard this conversation.

Me:  Hate to break it to you, Son, but you're not going to break the world record for longest fingernails because mom is going to cut them right now! (honestly, he has been telling me for weeks that he is trying to break that record so I couldn't cut them)

Blake:  No!!!  But I can do all sorts of cool things with them!

Me:  Sorry, Charlie.  (I respond with fake sympathy while the clipping commences. Then realizing he really is bummed about this, I try to cheer him up.)  You'll have to break a different record like how many times you can jump off the stairs before you scare your momma to death! (Understand that he is a little guy and he jumps from eight stairs up and lands at the bottom -- with amazingly no broken bones yet to speak of!)

Blake:  The record is probably like 50 million. (sounding defeated)

Me:  Nah, it's probably way less than that.

Blake:  Then I'm totally going to break that record! (a sly little smile creeping across his face)

And that is why we love him.  Because he is so . . . him.

Blake says a lot of funny things.  I try to write them down on whatever random piece of paper is close by so we can remember them.  I found this yesterday.

       Telling Blake he was funny and crazy like his Dad.  Blake said, "Yeah, because I wasn't very funny  
        as a toddler but then I saw Dad being funny and I learned it from him."  February 3, 2010