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.

On Belay?

 May I climb?

After a few months of Hudson climbing everything in the house we decided to channel his passion into a more structured approach.  We finally gave in, took him to the YMCA climbing wall and made a family night of it.  He was really excited to wear the harness.  I wasn't sure how it was going to go when up against the wall but Hudson was really brave!  Although his first time up I was worried we wouldn't be able to get him down.  He would not let go with his hands no matter what we said.  I thought Jake was going to have to climb up after him, but after a little more coaxing he did finally release his grip and enjoy the ride down.   



Our little man is quite the climber! 



Ellie has discovered the joy of dress up.  She has started to bring me blankets and say "dress", "Dress", "DRESS"!  I wouldn't say she asks for it as much as demands; but the happy dance she preforms once its on, makes me not mind her sassyness so much.

As for the rest of us:
Jake is pluggin away with school as usual.  Things seem to be going well, but I know he is looking forward to the end of the semester, as we all are!
Baby Piston is doing well.  I'm feeling so much better and back to my old self....Well a more tired and slightly rounder version of myself, but none the less, I'm thrilled to feel like life has been injected back into my system.  We are over a third of the way done and I couldn't be happier!

Good News

What a great week!


Spring has finally found its way to us. Hudson and I decided that it would be fun to have a little party with our friends to celebrate. Hudson’s closest friends are conveniently the children of my closets friends so we both look forward to having them over.

He wanted to decorate cupcakes so we bought all sorts of fun gummy bugs and flowers and various candies so the kids could dress their cup cakes up for spring. I put all the supplies on the table and the kids went to work. The funny thing is that when we all get together the Mom’s get so busy talking; the children are forgotten and sort of become ambient noise.

Looking back I must admit that I have no idea how many cupcakes, let alone decorations, Hudson devoured during our party. All I know is that a few hours later after frosting had been wiped from every surface and all the little pieces of candy had been vacuumed out of the rug, when Hudson looked at me and said “something’s wrong” and grabbed his stomach.  I knew I didn’t have much time to react. Frosting was definitely the nicest thing I had to clean up that day, but I only have myself to blame!

I had my first doctor appointment on Wednesday. I knew I would be having an ultrasound so I was excited but also really nervous about it due to some weird symptoms I had been experiencing in this pregnancy. My appointment was during Jake's class time, but he sweetly arranged things so that he could be there with me. It made me feel so much better knowing that no matter what we found out he would be there. I told the doctor I thought I was about eight weeks along, but when she administered the ultra sound we were all surprised to see a perfectly formed little baby who was a lot bigger then eight weeks. She sent me right over for another more detailed ultrasound and it was determined that I was actually just about 13 weeks! So not only am I nearly done with the morning sickness phase of this pregnancy, but I also get to meet my baby a whole month sooner! The very best news of corse is that everything looks perfect and their doesn't seem to be any problems. I think I may have floated out of the office. Having that weight lifted off me has left me feeling so full of gratitude and joy. Once again I feel so unworthy of all the blessings the Lord is continually sending my way.



 Our new little one should be arriving sometime around Sept 23rd. Hudson is adamant that its a boy and that his name is going to be Piston.  Fortunately, we do have control over one of those things.

Hudson has been surprisingly excited about the baby.  The other thing he has been really excited about, to the point of hounding us relentlessly, is flipping his bed into a big loft bed.  We finally gave in and switched it. It made for one happy little boy.

The kids think this new play area is pretty fantastic.  Not only is it another area to continue the train track through
 but they also think its really fun to use it for watching movies. I never thought I would live in a house with its own theatre room! 

Train Fever
Hudson is starting to get some real competition for the trains.
I sure hope he can learn to share! 

Not So Springy Break

This morning Ellie will not leave my lap so I get to see how long it will take me to type a post with her help.  With one hand on the keyboard and another dedicated to bating away her attempts at pushing the power button this might be an all day project. 

After weeks of looking forward to it, spring break has come and gone. Although, "Winter" break would have been a much more accurate name for it, because spring was nowhere to be seen. Come to think of it "break" isn't a very good description either since Jake kept roughly the same hours up at campus. Actually, the best part of the last two weeks was having Gram Wendy come visit for a week. We didn't get out for many adventures due to weather and my feeling awful, but she did a wonderful job of keeping my kids entertained so I could rest on some of the sickest days I have had this pregnancy. It was such a blessing to have her help. She put in a lot of hours playing trains and reading books and it was sure appreciated.

We did take one day trip to Harrisburg the state capital to visit the state museum.  Harrisburg is a beautiful and historic city with really neat old building, but I guess everything in Pennsylvania is old because I find myself describing all of its cities that way.  Since Hershey was only twenty minutes away we also swung by chocolate world on our way home.  I was so sick and exhausted by the time we got to chocolate world I didn't even think about getting pictures.  Of coarse the kids had a great time.  Who doesn't love free chocolate?!?

You would have thought we were on a train quest as we looked through all three levels of the museum.  Hudson was able to detect them in even the smallest of displays.  This was the biggest of the trains he found.  I was surprised he didn't try to get Gram Wendy to purchase it for him.

Hudson with William Penn

Ellie got in a little mutton bustin practice in the children's section of the museum.

We had to pry Hudson away from yet another train table.

We actually went sledding during spring break.  Its just felt wrong!  Especially after overhearing college kids talk about the warm beachy areas they were going to be heading to.  The snow was so deep it kept stopping the sled.  I think we might have crashed more then we sled but the kids still thought they were having a great time.

It looks sunny, but it was really really cold.

We were sure sad to see Gram Wendy go.  The kids had so much fun playing with her and I got a taste at what it must be like to have a nanny.  Thanks again Mom!