The Results are in

Well our bags are packed and we are ready to go.  Hudson has been so excited the past few days, I would go so far as to say, he has been mad at us for not making the time pass by faster.  Needless to say we are all excited for our trip this week.

We have had a pretty big week.  We found out that we are having another little girl.  She is a squirmy one, so I'm sad to say I don't have any good ultra sound pictures to post.  None of them gave us a very good picture of her face. The best news of the day was that everything looked just right, and there doesn't seem to be any problems.  We are so blessed!  Now, we just have to pick a name.  Our top pick for the time being is Autumn Jane. We just can't wait to meet her.

We discovered a wonderful new park this week.  It has a huge sand box and a shallow stream that runs through it.  The sunshine and warm weather made it the perfect place to splash and spend the afternoon. We had so much fun we went back the next day for more.   A little bit of sunshine and water felt so nice after so many cloudy days.

I hadn't planned on the kids swimming, but they had other ideas.

 We look forward to seeing everyone soon!

A Very Merry Mothers Day.

The landscape here has changed dramatically this week. Somehow it seems every living thing has decided to wake up from the long winter sleep and come out to celebrate the return of the sun.  If I haven't mentioned it before, State College has more over cast days then Seattle...or so I've been told by the locals.  However, this week, we have all woken early to rays of sunshine streaming through our windows.  The tree lined streets are now covered by a canopy of rich green leaves. Everywhere I look I see spring flowers popping up in planter beds and adorning so many of the trees that the air smells sweet in every part of the city.  It has been heavenly to have the windows open filling our apartment with the smell of fresh cut grass and flowers.  Our apartment has sat empty most of the week because we have so enjoyed being our doors in the glorious weather, and they have the legs to prove it. From toes to hips, their little legs are covered with bruises and scrapes from bike crashes, climbing everything they can find, and sadly from being my children and being predisposed to being uncoordinated. 

 We spent a creepy crawly day at the Penn State Frost Entomology Museum.  Ellie went crazy for the collection of butterflies. She was so funny running through the place yelling "look at this" "look at this"! She was a little disruptive, but I loved seeing her so interested. As exciting as the kids were to look at the bugs they couldn't be persuaded to hold any of them.  I didn't pass up the opportunity though.

Madagascar Hissing Cockroach!

This has been such a special mother’s day to me. My kids are wild and crazy, but I truly love and enjoy them more everyday.  I'm so thankful that I have been given the profound blessing of being a mother.  I have so much gratitude for my heavenly father’s trust of sending me these special little spirits.  Each and every day is a gift I can never repay.  I am so very thankful for my own mothers, and grandmothers, and for all the love and effort they put into raising me.  However, this mother’s day my heart has been especially full of love for my mother in law, who gave me my Jake.  He is truly an angel who was sent here especially for me.  So I must say that the things I have in my life that are most precious to me, are in thanks to her, because she was willing to be a mother.  It has been a happy mother’s day indeed.

This week we got to take another trip to Corning, New York with Jake. Jake spent the afternoon in meetings while the kids and I set out for a little adventure hike. We found a trail head that lead into a densely forested area and made our way through the trees until we came to beautiful little pond. By that time the weather had really warmed up, so we took off our shoes and spent the afternoon splashing in the water and catching salamanders. While at the pond we were visited by huge geese, deer, squirrels, and chipmunks. If Jake had been able to be with us it would have been a perfect afternoon. Even without him we had lots of fun and the kids loved getting really muddy.

On Saturday I got to go with some friends to stake women’s conference. It was fun to have a day with the girls and even more fun to leave the kids with Jake a good portion of the day. I think Jake enjoyed it as did I. He took the kids to a service project run by the landscape architecture department at a local school elementary school. The project was to paint a sundial and some planets on their playground. Luckily the project was at a playground so while daddy worked the kids had a lot of room and equipment to play on. They had a lot of fun and felt the free pizza for lunch was worth the trip. Ellie ate at least two slices herself. The best part of the day was getting to come home and find my three favorite people waiting with hugs for me.

Jake has officially finished his first year of Grad school. Hooray! I feel so proud of him. He worked really hard, and has been so busy this year, but has done such a good job of making time for the kids and I. He is just an amazing guy.

The kids and I are happy and well. This week Hudson completed and passed off a swimming level. He is the youngest kid in his swimming class and it has been so fun to watch him learn to swim. I got the results back on my blood glucose test and they all came back normal, so I do not have gestational diabetes. We all celebrated the good news by eating lots of ice cream! Ellie is still doing a good job of keeping our house full of smiles and laughter. All in all we couldn’t be better!



While Mommy's away the boys get to play!
(I guess if you are a little boy bicycle maintenance is considered play.)



Easter Fun

Today I get to spend my morning at the doctor’s office getting pricked by needles periodically over the next three hours. Unfortunately I failed my first blood glucose test a couple weeks ago, so now I have to endure the long one to determine if I have gestational diabetes. It’s not so bad really. My good friend is watching the kid’s so in a way this time is sort of relaxing, well as long as I don’t look at the needles being stuck into my arm. Cross your fingers for me. I dread not being able to have treats!

We had a wonderful Easter week. The primary kids have been working on a song about Calvary’s hill for sacrament meeting and it spurred a huge curiosity of Jesus’ death and resurrection in Hudson. He has wanted to look at pictures and listen to the Easter story multiple times a day all week. I’ve enjoyed watching him be so focused on the true meaning of Easter and it has brought a special spirit into our home. On Sunday getting to watch him stand in sacrament meeting and sing with all those big kids was truly one of the highlights of parent hood for me so far. I thought my heart was going to burst.

We had a lot of fun with the silly side of Easter as well. The kids loved receiving fun packages in the mail. It was so appreciated. On Saturday we took them to the big community egg hunt. Ellie was quite the little Egg collector, but Hudson was so mesmerized watching the swarming children that the hunt was over before he knew it. He was pretty sad that he only got a couple of eggs. Later we had our own egg hunt inside our apartment and with Ellie being his only competition he fared a lot better.

It was a really fun Holiday, but as always it made me miss family. Holidays just aren’t the same without them!


Ellie was so excited to see a six foot tall bunny.  Hudson wouldn't go anywhere near it!



Could they get any cuter!?!

Most days we make a trip up to the park. Hudson loves to ride his bike and lately Ellie thinks she needs to ride one as well, so we pulled Hudson’s red tricycle out of storage. It has a handle on the back that allows me to push her, so she thinks she is biking like her brother. Hudson has been pretty good about letting her use "his" tricycle. Other kids are a different story. The first few times we took it to the park he guarded it like it was THE most precious treasure. I couldn't even get him off the thing to fly kites! 

The crazy kid rode all the way out into the middle of the field so that he could fly kites without having to risk another kid touching his precious trycile. 

Jake decided I needed to post proof that I was in fact pregnant. So here is a video of the baby bump.



Eggs is the Cupboard

I’m afraid this baby is stealing the majority of my brain cells. I keep finding myself doing absent minded things. For instance, I find the eggs in the cupboard and the crackers in the fridge. Or when Hudson found a permanent black marker and decided to redecorate his room, I could have sworn I put it in a safe place. However, the next day he brought it to me and told me “I found this in my room, it is very bad.” Maybe my forgetfulness is due to the exposure of marker and acetone fumes as I tried to undo his artistic alterations, or maybe its just baby brain. All I know is that I’m forgetting a lot lately.

We had a fun week. After what felt like weeks of constant rain the clouds parted long enough for us to go fly kites. Unfortunately, helping Hudson keep his kite in the air left no opportunity for pictures. He sure loved it! Thanks Aunt Jenny and Uncle Ross for the fun kites!!! This week was also the big blue and white scrimmage game, which is a huge three day celebration with a carnival, fireworks, and of coarse lots of tailgaters. Sadly it rained hard all weekend and since we are not die hard fans…as of yet, we didn’t get out for many of the festivities. The rain did stop long enough for us to take the kids up for one of the firework shows, and we were all pretty excited to see them.

To one little guy the big blue and white game was greatly over shadowed this weekend by the Penn State model train clubs annual open house. The whole bottom level of a residence hall has been set aside for these students to basically play with their model trains, and one day a year they invite the public in to come see their elaborate models. Hudson thought it was paradise. I must say that after meeting some of the clubs members I am praying that Hudson grows out of his train obsession at an appropriate age. It was a little creepy!

April Showers

Today I walked outside to find a glorious warm breeze greeting me. It is lunch time and already 75 degrees outside, but after a week in the 30’s and 40’s it feels like 90 to me.  I’m just hoping the rain holds off long enough for Ellie to wake up from her nap so we can head up to the park for some kite flying.  Hudson has been asking to fly kites everyday for a week and we have had rain everyday.  One day it hit while we were at the park with our friends.  The kids thought it was such fun running home in the rain, but I just thought it was cold.

Ellie has had an ear infection that we just can’t seem to get rid of.  One day last week I took her in to have it checked after another round of antibiotic.  During her check up the doctor thought he heard some wheezing when she breathed and asked me to stay and try a breathing treatment with her.  They brought back a noisy mask that put out a vapor she was supposed to breath.  After 15 minutes of wrestling her and listening to her scream I wasn't sure if she had inhaled any of the mist at all.  I told the nurse I was sure happy I didn't have to do that very often.  I guess I jinxed myself with those words, because the doctor ended of diagnosing her with reactive airway disease.  It is a form of asthma that it aggravated with colds.  So now we have to give her breathing treatments four times a day whenever she is sick.  She sure fought it at first, but has gotten much better at tolerating the treatments as long as I put on a show she likes for her to watch. 

Aside from Ellie’s new ailment, everything is going great.  The baby is getting bigger and stronger and is starting to make sure I know its there, with lots of good kicking I can now feel.  Jake is still busy with school as the semester is winding down.  Hudson keeps surprising me with all he is learning.  I have to watch what I say around him now, because he listens and remembers everything. 

Life is still good.

Corning, New York

Another week has come and gone without a whole lot to report.  Life has been pretty usual with swimming, trips to the park and the kids finding ways to keep the our apartment in a perpetual state of chaous.  One day we did get to go with Jake on a field trip up to Corning New York.  I have decided that from Pennsylvania to New York to Vermont everything looks the same.  They all have narrow winding roads, over rolling hills, covered with trees. It’s beautiful, but all the new towns we have explored are starting to run together in my mind.  Corning is set apart by its large glass factory.  They also have a glass museum that we were able to attend that was actually very interesting even for the kids.  While there we got to watch artists work with hot glass.  It was a very fun trip, but the best part was just getting to spend the day together.  Its so nice that the kids are big enough that they are getting easier to go on adventures with.  I’m going to do my best to take advantage of having as much fun this summer as possible before we get tied down again with a new little one.      

The kids think they are so cool when they wear our sunglasses.



If nothing else, we did a good job of wearing them out.



Everything Hudson does Ellie has to do.
Everything Ellie does Hudson has to do.

My pretty little thing had a rough week.  She smashed her finger in a door so bad it was left purple and swollen all the way to the big knuckle. Then the next day she got smashed in the face with a swing at the park that left her pretty bruised. On a fun note, Ellie's vocabulary has just about doubled this week.  It has been so nice to get to hear more about what is going on in that head.

Hudson got his "daddy church clothes" this week.  I couldn't get him to hold still so I had to hem his pants three times and they still aren't right!
He got to go rock climbing again with his daddy and he thinks that is just about the most fun you can have.

We had a wonderful conference weekend. Jake stayed home from school on Saturday so we could spend the day together and watch the Saturday sessions. Thanks to the time change we actually got to listen to the morning session since the kids napped furring it both days.  Its such a blessing to get to listen to the talks and get a spiritual refocus. However, based on the stomach ache I had last night I think we may have treated it a little to much like the super bowl.  I definitely should have focused more on being spiritually fed and not so much on filling my stomach with such a large assortment of indulgent foods.  We certainly enjoyed ourselves.