a new teacher in town

I've probably mentioned before that Boden's favorite activity is "school work."  He loves to sit down and do worksheets, practice writing his letters, and drawing and coloring.  Claire has recently expressed an interest in coloring too - mostly just because that's what Boden is doing I think...she always wants to do what big brother is doing.

Apparently, the other day, Boden decided to take advantage of the situation and decided he would be the teacher and he would teach Claire some new words using his flash cards.  I walked into the room and overheard "Claire, say unicycle....c'mon Claire, you can do it.....say uuuunicycle!"

I noted the blank stare on Claire's face, and suggested to Boden that she might not be ready for a word that big.  Maybe we should start with something a little easier.  He went back to his pile of flash cards and returned a moment later saying "Claire...say rocket ship!....you can do it.....say rocket ship!"

I just had to laugh....it was was sweet.  He was so intent on teaching her new words and was genuinely upset that she wasn't saying them.  He loves being a big brother, and I love watching them together.

an afternoon out and about

Hey! Look what we found!!!

Last Sunday we ventured out to explore the area here....and we found a nice walking/jogging/biking trail only about 15 minutes away.  Its called the Great Dismal Swamp Canal Trail, it's an old part of a highway that is no longer used.  It's tree lined and beautiful and has a canal that runs along side of it.   We had lots of fun running around (ok, I wasn't doing a lot of running, but the other 3 were).

yep, there's the belly.  I did try to run to catch up at one point and I'm pretty sure I got laughed at by both Michael and Boden. :)

With about 3/4 of a mile left to go, we got the great idea to let Claire out of the stroller so she could get some exercise too.  She had lots of fun pushing the stroller, watching the dogs pass by, and pointing to all the birds she saw.  It was fun for awhile, but then she refused to have anything to do with the stroller again....and our pace was a little...um..slow.  I think we walked 1/2 mile in 45 minutes.

Boden loved chasing Daddy....looking for bears....and finding all kinds of "treasures" along the way.

the closest thing I got to a picture of the kids together

At last....she finally caved in and agreed to let daddy carry her the last tenth of a mile to the car 

A day at the beach

A few weeks ago we had a beautiful Friday to enjoy at the beach.  It was in the upper 70s and sunny and the kids loved the sand!





Daddy & Claire buried Boden in the sand....



we dug holes with our new sand toys....



made sand angels....



ate some sand... (of course...every kid has to try it at least once, right?)



made some sand castles...





and smashed some sand castles...



that was clearly Claire's favorite part. She went around and smashed every single one. Thankfully Boden thought it was funny and wasn't upset about it.

and for those of you wondering what I'm looking like these days, we did manage to take a photo. I have been terrible about documenting this pregnancy.



We are excited to be living so close to the beach for the first time in our lives. We really look forward to enjoying it this summer when it gets warmer!

mmmm...yummy...

who loves to eat her pizza while in a box?  This girl does -







who needs a booster seat when you have a fun box to sit in?

computer woes

Blogging has been a little tough lately since I have been having some computer problems.  I've always used the memory card drive on my old laptop to download pics from my camera...but now that I've got a Mac, it doesn't have this memory card drive...so I'm forced to find the usb cord for my camera in order to load pictures...which I have NO idea where it is.  I'm guessing in a random box over at the storage unit.  It was working out ok to upload them from the old computer...until about 2 weeks ago when the wireless card on said computer quit working and I can no longer connect to the internet with that computer. And  then a couple days ago I discovered that the power cord to my mac got crunched under a table leg or something and it is no longer doing it's job of charging the computer battery.   Grrr, those stinkers are not cheap to replace.  All that to say, the process of taking pictures and getting them on to this blog has gotten quite a bit more difficult.  So, until then, you'll get to experience the amazing photographic performance of my ipone. Lucky you :)

We had some crazy weather last week.  Tuesday it was 55 and sunny and we went to the park...

Then on Thursday we got 3-4 inches of snow!  Finally, Boden got to build the snowman he's been so desperate to build. 

Mr Snowman happens to be tiny because I was not nearly as excited about playing in the snow as Boden was...and all I could find were my fingerless gloves...not exactly ideal for snowman building.  But we had fun.  At least it was 40 degrees by the time we went out to play so it wasn't bitter cold.  The snow didn't last long though - it was pretty well melted by the next morning.

We enjoyed our 1 day taste of snow, and are definitely enjoying the warmer weather now.  Friday and Saturday are supposed to be in the 60s and 70s! Woo hoo!

ready for spring

We have had a couple days of some nice weather here. Yesterday, while all our friends and family in the midwest were snowed in and freezeing, we had a 70 degree spring day! I had been a little bummed about missing all the snow, but it only took about 5 mintues of my kids getting to run around outside for that feeling to wear off.  Here's what we've been up to:



Boden was supposed to be giving Claire a hug...

excited to finally get to use his big dump truck




I've also been doing some sewing and sewing planning getting ready for spring, now that I've finally got all my sewing stuff back together.  Here's the bubble skirt I mentioned before:



and a cute outfit for my friend Laura's baby girl



This skirt was really easy and fun, it really took less than 2 hrs start to finish - I plan to make a few for Claire for this summer and spring.  I got the tutorial from Prudent Baby, one of my absolute favorite websites (layer cake skirt tutorial here).  They have great tutorials for easy sewing projects and tons of other crafty (non-sewing) projects too.

And now, I've got a couple stacks of adorable fabric just begging to be made into spring dresses and skirts


including these fabulous prints my friend Kelly gave me just before I left Missouri.


I'm excited to get started! Kelly, I think you need to hop on a plane and come sew with me for a weekend!

ABCs

Boden has been working hard at learning his alphabet.  He loves to write and is always asking how to spell things so he can write them.  The other day I decided to see how many of his letters he really knew. I gave him a blank piece of paper and called out the letters one at a time for him to write. 



I was impressed! He did a great job.  I only had to show him examples of I, J, K, Q, R, U, V, W, X and Z.  I thought that was pretty good for 3 yrs old.  So here's me bragging on my boy...

The "Meggie-Van"

Once upon a time I said I would NEVER drive a mini-van...In fact, I think I was still saying that up until about 5 months ago.  I was confident that I would sail through motherhood without ever driving a mini-van, SUVs will do just fine right? When I was in college I used to say this (why I was thinking about mini-vans in college I have no idea) and my roomate always joked that one day I would get a mini-van and she would get me license plates that said "MEG E VAN".  I should have known to never say never :)

We have a 7 passenger Durango that I intended to drive for many more years of hauling kids around.  But I wasn't necessarily intending to need to have 3 kids in carseats at the same time.  When we found out about the impending arrival of #3 we started looking at how we were going to work it out in the Durango.  Boden is on the verge of being able to move up to a booster seat weight-wise, but I feel pretty strongly that he needs to stay in a 5pt harness at least another year.  Getting 3 seats across in the back of the Durango was proving to be a challenge, and climbing up there to buckle them in a challenge as well.  There's the option of using the 3rd row, but that creates a few more challenges.  In order to get to the 3rd row, one middle seat has to fold forward (so no carseat on that seat), and in order for that one to fold, the middle seat can't have a carseat in it either because it prevents the side seat from folding.  So, that means 2 carseats in 3rd row.  Challenge 1 - no LATCH hooks in 3rd row.  Challenge 2 - seatbelts in 3rd row don't "lock" allowing the seat to be tightened adequately.  And finally, Challenge 3 - even if I did get the seats installed in the 3rd row tightly, when the 3rd row up, it's impossible to put anything larger than an umbrella stroller in the trunk.  Not gonna work out well with an 18 month old and a newborn.... and  I love my Phil & Ted's double way too much to not use it.

So, all that to say - we have now ventured into mini-van land!  I was hesitant and kinda had a bad attitude about it at first.  I really didn't want to do it.  But, then when we really started looking at them and test driving them I was quickly sold.  They were just made for moms.  Every detail is well thought out for families with kids. And Boden was so excited to have doors that slide "just like Addie's!"

We went back and forth debating between a Honda Odyssey and a Toyota Sienna.  I think we test drove each one 3 times.  In the end, we went with the Sienna and I'm so happy with our choice.  It's crazy to think it, but I can actually say "I love my mini-van!" lol.  We've had it less than 60 days and already put 4000 miles on it!

Here's my favorite things about it:
 *Automatic sliding doors! This is probably my favorite thing about the van.  No more worries about banging into other cars while getting kids in and out, and I can open/close the door with the button on my keychain.  I'm thinking this will come in even more handy when #3 arrives and I'm juggling an 18mo old, a newborn, a toddler, stroller, and diaper bag.
* Boden can climb in and out by himself - Lifting a 35lb kid up into his seat was getting harder and harder the more pregnant I get.
*Tons of trunk space even with all rows up.
*Built in sunshades on all the back windows.  Even with tinted windows, sometimes the sun is still right in their eyes.  These were great on our roadtrip out to VA.  (we've had the stick-on kind before, and ours always fell off after a few months)
*The 2nd row seats are on a sliding track that allows us to move them closer to the front row, if we need more room in the back, or slide them further back for more leg room/space in the 2nd row when not using the 3rd row.  This was also a huge selling pt for us for the Toyota over the Honda - the 2nd row seats in the Sienna can slide forward, allowing kids to get in the 3rd row, even with a carseat installed on it.
*Back up camera - so helpful to make sure no one is behind me when I'm backing up my big 'ole bus!
*This particular van also has a blue tooth feature that allows me to use my phone hands free - and also allows me to stream music/podcasts from my iphone wirelessly.  So great on roadtrips.

We really love our new van, just like every one of my friends who drives one told me I would.  I kind of laugh now when I talk to a mom who says she'll never drive a van...not that everyone will, but they certainly aren't the enemy I once thought they were. Be careful what you say "never" about! Guess I better see about those liscense plates....

It's A BOY!

Yep, Boden and Claire are going to have a little brother!  And we are all so excited!  This is probably old news to you if you saw my facebook status last week, but I thought I'd share it here too.  I finally found a Dr (well, actually a Midwife) and was able to schedule an ultrasound.  We've been waiting so patiently since we moved right in the time-frame when I would typically have had an ultrasound.  But, our waiting ended last Thursday. 

All 4 of us got to enjoy watching the little guy move around on the screen while the tech measured everything and checked to see that all was well.  He's doing great! Everything measured perfectly on track for our May 17 due date.  It was so amazing to watch him open and close his mouth and swallow, and watch his little heart beat.  Isn't life amazing? God is so cool.


When she moved down towards the legs it was so apparent that this little one was a boy - he wasn't hiding anything! lol.  Both Michael and I knew it right away without her even saying a thing.  I had a feeling this little one was a boy - I'm not sure why, but I've caught myself referring to the baby as "he" rather often. And when discussing names, I couldn't even think of one girl name that I really liked. I had this same feeling when I was pregnant with Boden. With Claire, I didn't have a clue.

Boden got such a big smile on his face and said "I'm going to have a little brother!?!?"  I'm so excited for him.  And I just can't wait to see what Claire thinks about him when he arrives.

I couldn't be happier with our new midwife.  I had originally planned to deliver at a birthing center I had read about online and had made appts there too, but when we toured and spoke to some of the midwives, it was obvious to me that it just wasn't the right place for us.  Thankfully, just before we left Missouri, one of Michael's relatives gave me the contact information for this midwife.  Her sister-in-law actually lives out here and she and several of her friends see her and love her.  Turns out her office is less than 5 min from where we are staying now and the hospital she delivers at is really close too.  And, I went to a playdate this past Monday and found out two of the moms have had babies with her and loved her as well.  Thank you Lord!  I was really discouraged after leaving the birthing center that night, but I knew that we had prayed a lot about where to have our baby and I realize that sometimes God has to shut one door so that we'll walk through the right one.  I'm so thankful for His guidance in everything I do.  And I'm so thankful for this precious new life!

Brown Bear Brown Bear

I think I've mentioned before that Claire has no interest in being read to.  I've tried...Michael has tried...the grandparents have tried...she just won't sit long enough to get through more than 2 pages.  This is so odd to us because Boden will seriously sit for HOURS being read to.  He has always liked being read to, even at Claire's age.

But, the other day we were playing and looking at a new book my parents got Claire for Christmas.  It's "Brown Bear, Brown Bear what do you see?"

She sat on the floor with me and let me read it to her, not only once....but 3 times in a row!!! This is major progress!  I think a lot of it (ok, all of it) had to do with the little secret windows that you open to see what the next animal sees, but still, I was so shocked and excited.  I love reading, and I really want my kids to love it to.  Maybe she's got a chance after all:)

and yes, I know her outfit doesn't match...at all.  I promise we didn't go out looking like that.