It's a GIRL!!!

I know this blog is all out of order, but I've been too overwhelmed to catch up an entire summer worth of events, so I thought I would start w/ the newest news and backtrack from there. Today was a momentous day! For the first time ever we "cheated"! And let me tell you, it was a blast! So fun to find out! I have been wrong w/ every single baby, but this time just had a "hunch", purely by the sick factor (I seem to be a lot sicker, a lot longer w/ my girls) that this last baby of ours was going to be a girl. As I was driving to the doctor's office, I chatted w/ several different friends on the phone with the same reoccurring line, "I don't know why I thought it wouldn't be as fun to find out... I'm so excited!" In fact, I was so excited that I actually made it to the Dr's office 15 minutes early...now that's unheard of!

As the Ultrasound Tech walked me down the aisle she looked over my file and said, "Now, what do we have here... one brother and two sisters? Looks like we're pulling for another boy, to even things out!" When I told her I really thought this one was going to be a girl, she said, "Well sit right down, let's take a look!" I was literally almost squealing with excitement! That is, until she lifted up my shirt and said, "Wow! Now that's what you call a big belly!" I was shocked. Thanks lady. Way to ruin the moment. Then she tried to cover it up, by saying, "Well, it IS your fourth..." Even better. So I'm fat, but I have reason to be fat, so it's okay... Nice. But all ill feelings towards her vanished when she started to run the dobler-thingy over my stomach. I mean, how can you be mad when you're looking at a sweet thing like this:
(This is a frontal picture of her looking right at the camera.) I may be fat, but it is so worth it. Amazing really. A perfect little human being, w/ a cute little nose, and sweet little face... Tiny little hands that were curled up over her head while she was sleeping... Precious.

Then it was the moment we had all been waiting for...time to check the gender... It took about two seconds for her to say,"Wow! Now there is not a doubt in my mind, your mother's intuition is RIGHT ON! You've got yourself ALL GIRL here!" And she actually wrote, ALL GIRL in caps at the top of the ultrasound pic.

After the Ultrasound Tech was done I had a doctor's appointment scheduled also. I was bubbling with excitement and talking to the nurse all about how fun it was to finally "know" what we were having, and she said, "Okay, let's get your weight". I immediately got nervous, (with good reason) and found out I have already gained TWENTY POUNDS! Yes, you heard me, TWENTY pounds. I gained less than 25 pounds w/ Madelyn from start to finish, so I'm a little worried. Especially when the baby only weighs 15 oz! Not even ONE pound yet! Yikes. I know I've been eating a ton lately, but I didn't think that much! Looks like I better start slowing down...

Well, it's getting late and I'm super tired. Just wanted to share the newest news with you all. We're all very excited about another "princess" in the family. Even Josiah. He was the cutest actually. He was really rooting for a brother to play with, but when we told him he was going to have another sister he said, "Yay!!! (Long pause) I hope it's like a girl-boy or something!" =0)

A little creativity and a whole lotta fun!

THE RIDDLE OF THE DAY: What do you get when you cross a hot day, with a mommy who has morning sickness and refuses to roll off the couch?

THE ANSWER: A little creativity and a whole lotta FUN!

Almost the entire time we were up at Cedar Springs Camp, I was so unbearably sick, I could hardly get to a standing up position without feeling like I was going to pass out or throw up. It was awful. During this time the kids learned how to make their own lunches, watched quite a few movies (horrible, I know), and well, learned how to be creative...


We didn't have a sprinkler, so the kids made one! They had a blast! Pretty creative I thought! Below are some great shots of how we spent most days at Cedar Springs Camp... eating popsicles, and playing outside.

Cedar Springs Camp... a blessing in disguise.

Towards the end of April, I was planning on heading back to Coeur d' Alene until our house sold. Although the kids and I were having fun, we were ready for our own space. A good friend of ours Peter Blue, mentioned to our Pastor what was about to take place, and our Pastor said, "Why didn't anybody tell me. I had no idea! We own Cedar Springs Camp, and we have 3 empty cabins just sitting empty!" We weren't quite sure what to expect, but we were pleasantly surprised! I was expecting to stay in a cabin for campers. Literally a cement slab floor with 8 rows of bunkbeds, and a bathroom we had to walk to. But instead they showed us 3 little "homes" of retired missionaries that were vacant. We picked the smallest of the three options, because they usually rent out the cabins during the summer. Here is our fun little place.

It had a good sized kitchen, living room, dining room, laundry room, bathroom and a downstairs bedroom where Brad and I slept, and also a large upstairs loft with a queen-sized bed on one side, and two sets of bunk-beds on the other. The best part of the whole situation is that it was FREE! With acres and acres of trails to hike, a park, a miniature golf course, horses, a pool, basketball courts, and free meals if we wanted them at the cafeteria. The drawbacks were Brad had to commute sometimes an hour and 15 minutes, and I think the house had mold, because our entire 3 month stay we never had a solid two weeks where somebody didn't throw up. Or we very well could have had the flu 8 times...who knows! All I know as soon as we moved, the throwing up stopped. All in all, our cabin was a major blessing for that season in our lives. It allowed Brad and I to be together as a family, gave the kids a deeper sense of security (which they were needing...we had some major melt downs!), and it allowed us to save up money, and do fun things that we normally didn't have the money to do. I'm amazed at all the miracles, blessings and gifts that God has given us this past year.

Moving

Tom Noble, a friend at Cda Assembly, gave us a killer deal on a moving truck. I'm laughing looking back at the pictures... this is the original truck we picked up. We thought it was HUGE, and would fit all of our stuff no problem! Hmmm... I think our garage filled it up!

So we called him and asked him what the chances were of us possibly picking up one more truck. He was surprised, but said it wouldn't be a problem. So we picked another one up, shaking our heads that we actually had to get two moving trucks! The day went on, and we were so blessed as group after group of people stopped by at random intervals to lend a helping hand.As evening neared and loads of furniture remained, it became obvious that we would need ANOTHER moving truck! Unfortunately we had close to 20 people by nightfall that were ready to work and no truck to move things into! So we took a break and enjoyed the opportunity to say one last good-bye to so many dear friends - a nice way to end an exhausting 16hr day!

In the morning we picked up the THIRD moving truck and talked Dustin and Eric Hermenet (brothers that were on our youth staff) into pulling an all-nighter driving the moving trucks over to Seattle, unloading them, and driving them BACK that night! Talk about servants! The guys headed over mid-morning, and I stayed behind to clean.

I thought it would only take me a few hours...and I would catch up to them in no time...boy was I wrong! It took forever. Thankfully Amanda had a few minutes and just popped by to see if I needed any help. A huge blessing. After I had finished cleaning everything, I crawled into our 4-runner that was bursting at the seams and looked back at the house only to realize we had forgotten our bench that was on the porch, a fake tree, and our office chair! Ugh. How could we possibly have that much stuff?! We ended up leaving it and telling our friends who were moving in that if they didn't want it to just dump it. Phew! Glad the season of "moving stuff" is over for awhile! It's so much work!

The Nicholsons

Jeremy and Amanda came to visit in May! So fun! We spent one day driving all over the place... downtown Seattle (where I almost ran a group of pedestrians over! Woops!), Ballard, Kirkland, and back to Lake Stevens. Needless to say, the next day we stayed close to home, and did a little shopping at the outlet malls in Marysville. Much safer! =0)