What a Day! Week! Life!

There have been some fun/funny/will be funny in a few years moments happening in these parts lately. The doctor told me at my last appointment that Baby Who is measuring in the 97th percentile for size. That would mean that out of 100 babies who are due at the same time as ours, 3 would be larger. Yikes. I'm praying that he/she went on a growth spurt just before the ultrasound.

Aubrey gave herself a nice little trim with a pair of sewing scissors recently. I hesitate to even put it on here, but I guess it will be nice to look back on and go, "Oh, yeah, we went through a stage like that!" She actually did a fairly decent job. It's good enough that most people think I did it and just messed it up. Nope, that was a self-styling. The best part of this story is that just a few minutes after lecturing her on not doing that anymore, that we never pick up scissors for any reason without Mommy or Daddy knowing, I heard a, "Now don't say anything." Red alarm sounded and I headed in the general vicinity of where that statement was made and Bryant was dutifully standing there while Sissy gave him a haircut. That was not a great day.

We went to watch Daddy fly in the, "Gober Gober," as Bryant likes to call it. He was doing a SAR demonstration at the pier in Astoria and we thought it would be fun to watch him. Did I mention this was day 1 of having puppy? I had dog on leash in one hand, climbing, fearless little man in other hand, and Aubrey standing in front of me on the pier. All was going well until Oscar, the rescue dummy was dropped out of the helicopter. We went from an adorable 3 year old yelling, "Hi, Daddy! That's my Daddy! Hi, Daddy!" to an inconsolable, sobbing 3 year old because she was sure that a man fell from the helicopter. I immediately picked her up (a crowd had formed because of her yelling that it was her Daddy flying) and was trying to console her while holding onto Bryant and the dumb dog. **The dog is not really dumb, but at that stage of the game I was ready to toss her into the river to be picked up by my husband. That would have been a fun rescue, right? A stranger came over and asked if she could hold one of them for me, I said she could take the dog. I meant she could take her home with her, but she was kind and just stood there by me. Eventually she handed Dutch to her daughter and picked up Bryant for me. Did I also mention that I was 20 weeks pregnant and not all that small for being only halfway through? After a play-by-play with Aubrey about every move the rescue swimmer, "Oscar," the flight mechanic, and Daddy and the other pilot were doing, she calmed down. What. A. Night.

I actually did have fun, though, watching Johnny do his thing. My pride swells every time I see him in the sky, whether it's flying over our house or hovering over water while showing other people what they will do should someone be lost at sea.


We lost one of our chickens. It is a relatively long story and I am frankly not quite ready to talk about it. But it was a traumatic day for me and tears were shed over our sassy, talk-back-to-us, independent Lottie. Thankfully the other hens don't seem to be much affected as we are getting 4 eggs a day now. Beautiful, brown eggs. I love having chickens.

It seems that there is more I could document but I can't think of anything else right now. We went to the park tonight and got some fun shots of our sweet kids. They are sweet...we are in a challenging season with our Aubrey girl and Bryant has officially come into his 2 stage, which is one of my favorites but it does come with it's challenges, too. In the midst of the crazy hard days, though, Aubrey will say to me, "Mommy, come in here, I want to give you some loves," and Bryant will wrap his chubby little arms around my neck and bury his head on my shoulder for a bear hug. Children really are a blessing from the Lord. Even if the lady at the restaurant next to you has a panic attack when you sit down and promptly asks to be seated elsewhere, away from your children. Yes, that happened.

Sweet Homecoming

Blake returned home after a year of being deployed. We are so glad this sweet family is reunited.

Enjoy your home together, Blake, Stephanie & Jack! We love you all!

What a Farm Looks Like on 1/4 Acre

So I realize we don't really live on a farm, but it feels like we do sometimes. It's fun and chaos intermixed.

In the last two days we have gathered our eggs (today we had 3!), picked, pickled, and canned 4 pints of beets, made 3 loaves of bread, cleaned out the chicken coop, cut some hydrangeas from our yard, and harvested our carrots. Whew!! No wonder I am tired. Oh, yeah, and today we picked up Dutch, our 11 week old pup.

On top of that there was the daily stuff of John working, kids being kids, and the everyday household jobs that need to be done. Life is full. I read so many of your blogs as well and know your days are as full (if not fuller!) than mine. Life does not get better than this. The days are long, the years are short.

The cuties hanging out on our sunny day here at the coast. Popsicles and sprinklers, life is sweet.

A couple pictures of our sweet dog, Dutch.

A Snoodle's Tale

This is a must watch. It makes my eyes water every time. :)

If only there were some way for us to teach our children to soar like God made us to. This might be a fun tool to use.

Good Girl, Betsy Ross

I don't have a camera because John is using it in Switzerland right now, but I want to document that Betsy Ross, our Wyandotte, is now laying an egg a day. What a good girl she is. :) We are enjoying the fruits of her labor.

It's A...

healthy baby!!! These are mostly for Daddy to see since he is in Switzerland right now. Baby Who is growing well, everything is working correctly, and he/she is as cute as can be.

This is probably the clearest shot that was taken. Baby was very cooperative, letting the ultrasound tech take lots of pictures without wiggling around too much. Can I say that I am praying for a baby like that? :) Bryant rolled around so much the doctor couldn't see much of anything. Aubrey played along until it was time to take pictures of her face. This dear little one just let the tech take pictures to his hearts' content. Thanks for making me look like a good mom, child. I needed that today. :)

So the sweet thing was, I think, sleeping but having very good dreams because he/she kept opening its' mouth and taking deep breaths. There was no thumb sucking, no hands by the face, which both of the other kids did in their first photo shoot. Just sweet, peaceful dreams.

Kind of scary in the eye area but this one shows his/her sweet mouth and nose very well. Such a cute baby.
Baby Who, you have a sister who loves you already and is excited to hold you lots and be a big helper. Some days she hopes you are a girl because she wants a baby sister and other days she hopes you are a boy so she can be the only princess. I think that's a good sign because whoever you may be, your older sister will love you to pieces. You have a brother who has no idea what is coming. He will probably have some jealousy because he is pretty fond of being Mommy's baby and clinging to her. But once he realizes how special you are he will point and say, "Dis!!" many times and he will probably want to show you all of the big trucks that go by our house. And let's not forget the helicopters that fly outside. He will most definitely want to show you those.

We love you so much, sweet baby of ours, and know that you will hold a tender, special place in all of our hearts. Thanks for letting me look at you today. You are awfully cute and I look forward to a few more months when I can see you in color.