Brief Update

I know it has been awhile since I have posted anything. The truth of the matter is I haven't really been in the mood to download pictures, sift through them, and then post them. Being at 33 weeks (7 months) of pregnancy the aches and pains are growing which means I am moving slower. Moving slower means it takes me a lot longer to get anything done and I feel overwhelming behind on all the stuff I need to get done before the baby arrives. But today I felt a little bad about not updating all the family on what is going on, so I it made a priority. The bad news is, like always, Jason has the camera, so I don't have pictures.

The rainy season has finally started here. Makes it difficult to spend time outside, but Josiah and I go to indoor park where he can play with other kids. It has been fun watching him interact with the different personality types. I think he is learning a lot about the world and it is preparing him for having a brother around. He always makes his mommy proud because he is very good at sharing and I never have any problems with him beating up other kids. (I feel bad for the moms that do). Today, bless his heart, he got "attacked" by a little girl. She got excited about the game they were playing and she grabbed a hold of him and pulled his hair and pinched his neck. While he did cry (I think he was scared) he was very quick to forgive and they had a great time chasing each other up and down the slide after the incident. He really is a great, well mannered kid and he makes his parents proud.

We finally got the main part of the house resided (thanks Dad, Jeremiah, Chris, and Adam) and Saturday we were able to paint it before the winter rains set in. It is a yellowish, orange color. It reminds me of a sunrise. I think that is why I chose it. I can be reminded of the sun, even though there will be times when I won't see it for days. We are also finishing up a "big boy" bed for Josiah. We hope to have him in it by this weekend so he can get used to it before the baby comes. My dad built most of it and then we decorated it. Now we are going to polyurithane it before he stick it in his room. After that is completed we are going to back off on the projects for awhile. Jason is busy with work and school and I want him to focus on that so he can get everything done so he can enjoy Christmas break with his family.

I think that is it for the major events in our life at the moment. I will try real hard to get the camera from Jason soon and post pictures.

Auntie Pam and Matt

So this post is a little late. It has been a couple of week since Auntie Pam and Matt came to visit, but thought better late than never. The only day we took any pictures was the day we went to the beach and then headed north to Tillamook to the creamery. There we watched the production of Tillamook's famous cheddar and enjoyed eating their fresh ice cream. All the pictures that I have are from the beach. Even though it was going 60 degrees and the water was around 40, Josiah loved playing in the waves.

Mount St. Helens

The school year is quickly approaching. In fact, the freshman show up on Sunday and a week after that school starts. Since our life going to be wild and crazy for awhile, we decided to take a day trip to Mount St. Helens for a day as one last vacation to end the summer. I have always wanted to go and since it is only a few hours away we decided to go. We had a great time, but we are all a little tired today.

Josiah and mommy at the beginning of the trail.

This is a picture of Josiah and mommy 2 miles later at the end of the trail. We are pointing at the Visitors' Center on the far hill. If you blow up the picture I think you can see it. We were both tired at this point. Josiah had walked about 1 mile or more of the trail. We had the stroller too, but he wanted to walk like everyone else.

This is the view of Spirit lake with Mount Adams in the background that we got at the end of the trail. It was really pretty.

This is a neat picture of St. Helens. You can see some smoke coming up from the lava dome in the middle. When we got back to the visitors center we noticed that there was a earthquake around the lava dome which means that some more lava pushed into the dome.

Daddy and Josiah toward the end of the trip back. Josiah is completely checked out. If the mountain erupted he probably would never have heard it. We know because when we got back to the visitors center we watched a video about the eruption and it was really loud and he never moved.

We had a great time hiking around together. Josiah was still talking about hiking today. Thanks Jason for making it a priority to make family memories. :)

A Hike on Mary's Peak

In past blogs, I have shared my frustrations with my lower back and hip pain on my right side. A couple of weeks ago, I had another checkup and told my doctor my frustration and he gave me some stretches to do to ease the pain. The stretches worked and I have been able to do a lot more. One of the fun things we went and did, since I can now walk again, is went for a short hike on Mary's Peak. Here are some pictures of our adventure.








Jason also wanted me to put up this video. It is a cute video of Josiah looking around the forest. I almost didn't post it because at the end Jason is making fun of my expanding belly. I will post the video anyway, but feel free to bombard him with comments for making fun of a pregnant lady.

P.S. Dad, if you post a comment about me being fat you're going to be sleeping outside with the dogs.

Family Pictures

I have been complaining that whenever Jason needs a picture for the newsletter or the website he always chooses a picture with just him and Josiah. The main reason being we never have someone around to take a family picture or the picture of the two of us together. To fix the problem, one of our students who is working on a degree in photography, took some family pictures of us. Below are a few of the pics. And for those who wanted to see the size of my belly, I think the first one and the last one shows it off pretty well.

Ultrasound Pics

I didn't realize it until just now, but Jason scanned the ultrasound pics into the computer. Here are the first pictures of our second baby boy. They are kind of small because Jason scanned them into the same file. If you click on the pictures I think you can get a better view. The first one is my favorite because you get a good view of his whole body. You can see the little vertebrae on his spine and his feet kicking up. The dark spot in the middle of his chest is his heart beating. The doctor said that from the looks of the ultrasound, he is a perfectly healthy baby boy.

Blueberry picking

I haven't gone through any pictures to post. I keep forgetting and frankly with everything else going on, it hasn't been a priority. We have been very busy praying, planning, and getting things ready for school to start. I feel like God has given a vision for next year and we are excited to see what He has in store for us. It would be great if you could pray for us as we begin our second school year.

I am almost done with my 25th week of pregnancy. While in some ways it has gotten in easier (not so tired and nauseated) in other ways it has gotten harder. I have been having a lot of pain in my lower back and hips. My doctor is out of town so I am waiting until my appointment next week to discuss options for helping it. I have about 2 hours of mobility in the morning before I have to rest with heat on my back so I can walk again. Then another couple of hours in the evening to cook dinner and clean the kitchen. Both Jason and Josiah have been very understanding about my condition. On the bright side, I have been able to help out a lot with planning for the ministry because most of it consists of praying and reading. But despite the pain I am getting very excited to meet our new baby boy. I can feel him getting bigger and stronger everyday.

So to make up for not having pictures I decided to tell a fun story about taking Josiah blueberry picking.

A couple of weeks ago we all went blueberry picking. Of course Josiah was very excited to go because he loves picking everything from veggies to berries. When we first started out he was very good about picking the berries and sticking them in the bucket. But I think as lunch time came nearer, he began to eat more than he put in the bucket. At first he tried to hide himself in a bush so we couldn't see him and he would eat all the blueberries he could until we found him. When we told him he had to stay with us he just continued to eat blueberries instead of putting them in the bucket. When we would tell him to put them in the bucket he would tell us that he would hold on to them. Which means, "I will hold on to them until I eat them." Jason told him that if he didn't put them in the bucket he would have to go into time out. Josiah ate them and Jason told him to sit on the ground and not to move (which Josiah was very upset about). When timeout was over, Josiah was very helpful for about 5 minutes. Then Josiah decided he didn't want to put the blueberries in the bucket anymore. So he picked them, put them in his mouth, and then put himself in timeout since he chose not to put the blueberries in the bucket. I heard Josiah announce to his daddy, "I didn't put the blueberries in the bucket, so I go to timeout." I peeked over the bush and found him sitting in the dirt for his timeout and Jason trying to hide his laughter. It was at that point we realized in was lunch time and you just can't expect a hungry toddler who is addicted to blueberries to have that kind of self-control. So we left and had lunch.