Stefan is TWO!

We are enjoying a nice vacation in Iowa with my family. We have had limited internet so I wasn't able to post on Stefan's birthday. It is hard to believe that he turned two years old on Sunday! Wow! What a big boy! I will post more later when we are home and have access to internet, but for now you will get an idea of the little party we had for him. I made him a train cake. He exclaimed "Choo choo" the second he saw it and he was thrilled! I'll have to post a video later. It was so much fun celebrating with his cousins!

Three wonderful years!

Today we celebrate three years of married life! In many ways it is hard to believe it has been three years, but when I look at everything that has happened it seems nearly impossible that we fit that all in to three years. The irony of life, I guess! By God's grace we have each completed a Master's degree (the 2nd one for Brian), we have lived in three states, four homes (well, we are about to move into our 4th--we have the keys!), we have a handsome, nearly two-year old son, and a daughter on the way. Those are just the "biggies!" I thank the Lord for the many lessons we have learned together. God has brought us through many joys and some trials, and has grown our love through it all. I'm thankful for the leadership Brian has displayed in guiding his family through these past three years. I look forward to this next year--a new daughter entering our family, and being in a wonderful church where we can grow as a family from the fellowship and Godly leadership.

God is Good!

Other baby news!

Our nephew, Zacharie Christian Bixby was born Wednesday, December 16th in Pessac, France to Tim and Ruth! He is such a cutie, I had to post his picture. I wish I could give him cuddles!

Baby Bump ~ 30 Weeks

Here I am at 30 weeks. I wore the same shirt as I did for my 20 week picture so you could see the difference. I'm definitely popping out.

Christmas in the basement!

With hopes of moving into our house in time to decorate for Christmas slowly fading, we decided just to plan on Christmas being in the basement we are staying in. My wonderful husband braved the storage unit where our stuff is and found the tiny box that contained our little miniature Christmas tree. This was the tree I had bought for our honeymoon so it has some sentimental value! We were pleasantly surprised to find out that I had packed it with a strand of lights and small bulbs in the box! We haven't put it up since our honeymoon so I had forgotten that! This afternoon we had some nice family time decorating our little tiny tree. It feels like Christmas now!

Enjoying his first ever cup of hot chocolate!

Stefan really got into it and had so much fun trying to put the bulbs and candy canes on. The tree was just his size!

Stefan and Mommy goofing off -- and Daddy captured it on camera! --can you tell we were excited to put up the tree?!

Snow, snow, snow!

It has been snowing since yesterday morning and is still snowing. All the kids here got snow days off from school. It is a beautiful snow, but boy is it blustery cold out there. Brian took Stefan out for a few minutes to get a taste of playing in the snow, but since the wind is pretty blustery it really was too cold to be out for long. All of Stefan's good snow gear is packed in a box somewhere so Lacey loaned Stefan Baylee's coat and gloves. A little girly, but thankfully Stefan is young enough that he doesn't care. Some day he'll probably groan when he looks at these pictures, but for now ignorance is bliss. Who says purple and pink are only for girls?!? Even though it is beautiful out there, we're thankful to not have to be out in it and are thankful for warm shelter!

Cake decorating!

Last night Stefan got to decorate his own little cake. Making a mess and eating a lot of frosting were the main things that were accomplished, but he has his own little cake now which he is quite proud of! Maybe I'll let him have a bite of it today. Yesterday, he had had enough sugar with the frosting alone:-)

Here he is with Rhianna, Reagan, and Baylee decorating cakes. (Peyton had already finished hers) He has so much fun with these girls and they are so sweet to him.

Random :-)

Patience and the boys--a few weeks ago at Patience's school concert.

What happens when Stefan gets into Mommy's mascara!

Thanksgiving 2009

We drove up to Minnesota to have Thanksgiving with my brother Dan and his family. We had such a nice time together. Brenda laid out a delicious feast. And not just for Thanksgiving dinner...it kept coming all weekend! Stefan got completely spoiled and had so much fun. Thanks for having us, Dan, Brenda, Elise, Ben, and Isabelle!

Backyard Fun!

Stefan has been enjoying the Berryman's backyard. Of course, it helps that there is a lovely slide and swing, and sometimes some playmates! The four girls have been so kind to Stefan. He gets excited now when he hears them home from school!

Apple Orchard fun!

Today was such a beautiful, sunny day that we did not want stay inside! So after Stefan's nap we decided we would go visit a popular apple orchard. Bob, Jennie, Patience, and Corban met us there and we had a great time. The kids had so much fun playing (Patience and Corban led the way since it was all new for Stefan!) and we of course had to get apple cider, and hot apple cider donuts! So yummy! Stefan got to enjoy climbing the tractors, the petting zoo, and all sorts of fun things.

A visit to Galena, IL with friends

Yesterday we got to spend the entire day with our very good friends, Michael, Liz, and Viviane Cole. It was SO nice to visit with them (I was going to say chat, but Brian informed me that men don't chat!) and we also got to see the quaint, scenic town of Galena. We first toured the home of Ulysses S. Grant. After the tour Michael and Liz treated us to lunch at Vinny's Italian Restaurant. Oh boy was that yummy! The garlic bread...don't even get me started...I could have had my entire meal on that! After lunch we walked Main Street and enjoyed looking in all the little shops. Well, the ladies enjoyed the shops. The men pushed the strollers and philosophized--no doubt about theology! We ended our time in Galena with a stop at the Chocolate Factory where we all enjoyed a delicious treat. Pretty sure it is a dangerous thing to send two pregnant woman into a chocolate shop!

Thank you Michael, Liz, and Viviane for a great day!

Catch up!

Phew! A lot has been going on and we haven't had much of an opportunity to post on the blog. Hopefully this will catch you up a bit to what has been happening.


Shortly before we moved from New England, we were able to make one last trip to Vermont to see Chris, Lydia, and Cooper. We had such a nice time with them and got to enjoy the beauty of Vermont in the fall one last time.

Moving day! We were grateful for the men and teen guys who helped us. I know it appears that the teen guys did nothing but eat pizza, but they were the ones that did all the running down the stairs. Here they are eating while the men tried to solve the puzzle of fitting things into the truck. It was pretty packed and every square inch was used. Stefan enjoyed playing in all the empty cabinets!

We also got to visit Erik and his girlfriend Bethany. We were glad to meet Bethany for the first time. We met in Albany, NY at the NY State Museum. We enjoyed touring the museum (the 9/11 area was especially interesting and sobering), as well as visiting and getting to know Bethany. Stefan got to go on his first carousel ride!

Baby Bump!

We have reached the half way point of the pregnancy! Yipee! So exciting. Baby Girl is very active already. She kicks and moves around and distorts my stomach in all kinds of strange ways. I love her already and can't wait to hold her in my arms instead of my belly!

I hope you all have a great weekend. We are off for a quick trip to Vermont to see family. It should be a beautiful drive this time of year. I'm especially excited about leaving the boxes for a couple of days. We'll be back Saturday night and load the truck on Monday. We will probably have limited internet access once our computer is packed. We don't have a reliable laptop:-( I'll do my best to post when possible, but no promises!

Breakfast this morning:-)

When it's quiet...

This is what I found after a couple of minutes of a too quiet house. Apparently I left the brownies a little too close for reach.

Climbing to great heights!