another day...another pet

meet tony the frog. he was our pet of the day on saturday....along with 3 butterflies, 1 slug and a dozen tent worms. i post this picture, because last summer Dylan would scream like a little girl if you put a frog anywhere near him. the fear is now gone, and one of these days i'm afraid he's going to catch a snake.

believe it....

yes, we were quite surprised as well!!!

I must admit, my emotions were all over the place those first few weeks after finding out. At first there was shock...and then of course panic set in when i assesed the lifestyle changes that need to be made.... but finally the reality sank in-

WE ARE TRULY AND UNBELIEVABLY BLESSED! Praise the Lord for this gift!

So... in about 29 weeks, Lord willing, we will welcome a new little baby into our family. Yes, that calculates out to November~ so thats 5 kids all born within 2 months of the year!

She's definately making her presence known already. Last Sunday we spent the afternoon in the ER due to heavy bleeding and what felt like contractions. It turns out I have a subchorianic hemotoma that is 6cm in size surrounding the babys sac. Not a good thing since it's about twice the size of the baby right now.

Per my doctor, there's not really anything we can do but "wait and pray." So that is what we are doing. She told me to "take it easy" because she knows that bedrest with 4 kids isn't very practical, and most likely would not help anyways. So... we wait and pray and "take it easy". I go in again in 1 week for another ultra sound so i'll keep you posted.

We usually like to keep this kind of information to ourselves so early on and with such uncertainty, however we needed to tell the kids so that they would understand why "mommy doesn't try very hard when we play baseball" and "why won't you jump on the trampoline mom?"

They were happy! Tim showed them the ultrasound picture and asked if they knew what it was. It was funny b/c right away Austin and Sydney said "It's Stella in mommys tummy". Tim told them they were close, so they went down the line guessing....Austin? Sydney? Dylan? Dylan thought it was a picture of a rock :)

Their initial reactions....

Ausin couldn't get past the detail of November and the possibility of sharing a birthday.

Sydney she just giggled and said yah

Dylan just said "I want it to be a boy baby"

Stella has no opinion as of yet, we'll see if that changes :)

For the record- I'm calling girl and Tims calling boy. I have my reasons, but thats a topic for another post. Tims been 4 out of 4 so far so we shall see! My record on the other hand is not so good.

Taylor the Turtle

so the frozen "pond" behind our house has melted (with a little help from all the non- stop rain) into a little explorers wonderland. the kids went "frog hunting" this past weekend. the catching wasn't too difficult, it was the "keeping" that was tricky since they were using a lacrosse net :)

however, syd did manage to snag a very terrified turtle named Taylor. We kept her for the day and the kids made a nice home for her, not missing any details. she was lovingly cared for, watched, held, and smothered. did you know that turtles hiss?....its true they do.

okay, so i just think this ones cute. perhaps we should change her diaper more :)

this beauty is for sale!

Can you see yourself camping in this beauty? Are you looking for an affordable way to create some family togetherness this summer? If you answered yes to either of these questions look no further. This sweet tent on wheels is for sale! If you know of anyone who would like to take her off our hands before we hand her over to Craigs List let me know....

her stats...
*she's a 1991 Mustang Palomino....that's right, she's the mustang of popups
*1 king size bed and 1 queen size bed, the table also folds down into a bed
*she is 12 foot closed and extends to 22 feet.
*some of her ammenities include ....a portable toilet, icebox, enclosed storage area, sink, detatched and slightly broken stove, roof vent and dome lights :)
*she's in pretty decent condition for being almost 20 years old- the canvas needs a little tlc, and it is missing 2 latches that can be replaced.

i leave you with a few pics of the good times she's seen throughout the years.....

the fort that dyl built

thank you spring....this boy needed you!
and yes, those are fossils from dinosaurs and baby whales on top of his door if you didn't know.

random spring break fun

We didn't visit any far away warm places for spring break, but we did create our own fun. The week actually flew by in a blur of playdates, library visits, shopping, and more playdates. By Thursday the kids actually began sleeping in :) On Friday afternoon Tim took off work so we decided to visit Meijer Gardens.

On Saturday we headed to Chicago to celebrate Easter. We visited Lincoln Park Zoo, and of course no trip downtown would be complete without me taking us the long way out. Austin wanted to pose with the crocodile.

The kids once again had a blast playing with their cousins.
I'm not sure why, but everytime we tried to get a picture with Stella and the twins, she would start screaming.Meet "Stubby"....he comes to the door every night between 6 & 7pm for his handful of peanuts. Slightly odd, but kind of cute.

Happy Easter!

kitchen remodel- part 2

As promised, here are some pictures of our kitchen remodel. Tim took a week off in March and worked day and night to get it to a place of completely functional and township approved. Since then we've breathed a big sigh of relief and taken a break from it all. It's good. It's such a burden lifted not to have to work on it in every spare moment of time.... now we just sit on the couch and i chat at Tim :) It's also so very refreshing that splinters don't happen in the house anymore! There's still alot that needs to be done.....but really, who needs trim?

no toby mac, just pictures this time....

before

and after....

our new sitting area....i could use some more furniture :)

the future home of my built in desk

our new garage entry....our next project is to finish out the mudroom

and, after 1 year and 2 months and much to the kids dismay....the excavator has left our property.....