Fun Moments with Family

The snow has just stopped falling. It was really pretty, but no accumulation on the account of it being so warm here in OH. My dad has spent this morning playing with H3 and it's been fun to watch. H1 and H3 came upstairs a bit before me. After I showered and made it up the stairs, I heard her giggling from inside the pink castle tent my parents gave her for Christmas. Sure enough, I also heard my dad's voice coming from inside!



Right how she's trying to get him to play grocery store. Apparently, we need to get onions and cookies. She likes the latter, but not the former, so not sure why those are on her grocery list, but it's funny! Moments ago, my dad was humming the theme music to "Jaws" and chasing her around the living room with a couple stuffed animals. Her giggling is hilarious to watch! She thinks it's the best thing ever. I love watching my daughter play with her grandpa! My mom hasn't been feeling the best this time around, but H3 is still enjoying seeing her. They read books together and play with her new toys. It's cute!



We've gotten to take a few drives to see the Christmas lights people still have out, and that's been a fun family activity. H3 loves all the lights and so does Grandma!

Our home inspection is set up for next Monday, January 2nd, at 4pm. We're heading back from OH tomorrow afternoon, and we're planning to have a fairly quite New Year's weekend. I'm trying to plan something fun for celebrating H1's birthday. I'll let you know what I come up with!

~H2

Merry Christmas!

We've had a very busy Fall season, thus the lack of posting on here. I'll try to get back to that, but we'll see. As a part of this season of giving, I want to add two things that I'm thankful for that God has given us this year. First, given that the inspection and appraisal go well, H1 and I will be closing on our new home on February 10th! We found out just a couple days ago that our offer was accepted, and that completely took us by surprise. We made an offer on a house that we really liked, but we offered a significant amount less, expecting the owners to counter our offer. They didn't. They accepted the whole offer, including payment of closing costs. After four years of renting in this area, it looks like our little family will finally have a home!





The second event of thankfulness is more monumental. I'm happy to announce that our family is growing! We are expecting the arrival of H4 in July! This has been a difficult first trimester for me. All the worst possibly symptoms of pregnancy hit me full force from the 4th week and continue unabated. I'm really looking forward to the hopeful decline of some of these issues within the next few weeks. We've been in to the doctor several times so far, including the ultrasound. Our little H4 seems to be doing very well and so far my general levels of bloodwork are stable. They are concerned about my thyroid, since the pregnancy and birth of H3 caused quite a few issues for me. For now though, we are giving thanks to God for this little miracle, whom we had been praying for!

In the beginning of December, H3 and I made a trip to Florida to visit a dear college friend, Kristina, and her husband. We had a wonderful time catching up and getting the house ready for the birth of her little one. She gave birth a week after we left to a beautiful little girl. My friend and her husband work at a Christian boys ranch, called Teen Challenge. H3 and I spent a lot of mornings walking around the property. The days were in the 60s and 70s while we were there, perfect for our walks. I'm so thankful that God paved the way for us to make that trip.






The Christmas season finds us in Ohio, visiting my family. It's quite chilly up here, but beautiful as always. My parents are having a wonderful time watching H3 with all her little antics. If I could ask for prayer for 2 things before I close out, one would be for our precious baby, and the other would be for my mother. Her health has not been good, and right now she is waiting for surgery on her right shoulder. She also needs a left knee replacement and reconstructive surgery on her right foot. Multiple falls over the past couple years are responsible for these complications. She's been having difficulty getting around. The shoulder surgery is scheduled for February 15th at this point, given that all the pre-op stuff goes well. This looks to be a long year coming up for her, and prayers for her recovery as she goes through these will be much appreciated. Thank you.

In the midst of everything this season, don't forget the reason for celebration, of His Gift to us! Blessings and Merry Christmas to you!

~H2

Birthday and magnets

This past weekend was H3’s 3rd birthday! On Friday night, my college roommate, Amber, met us in Newport News and came back to spend the weekend. We met at McDonald’s and got a cookie for H3 and let her open a couple presents that night. Saturday was her actual birthday and we started out the day with square pancakes (i.e. Belgian waffles) and then proceeded to let her open the rest of her presents: a beautiful pink fluffy skirt that Amber made for her, a mini keyboard from H1, and then the Loving Family Dollhouse from both Mommy and Daddy. H3 had a wonderful time playing with her dollhouse!



At 11:00, we headed out and picked up a friend’s daughter so we could go get lunch and then go to the Portsmouth Children’s Museum. Sam’s Club pizza sounded good, since H3 loves eating there. The girls enjoyed their pizza!



We arrived at the Portsmouth Children’s Museum a little before 1:00, and that’s when things got interesting. H3 had looked a little tired at lunch, but as far as we knew, that was from a very long week with me working (substituting) at the school and less sleep than usual on Friday night. As we were in line at the museum to get passes, H3 started throwing up. It was a mess. She got so sick there. The museum staff were very kind and let us hang out for about an hour as I was in the bathroom cleaning up H3 and H1 went to get some Tylenol for H3 and a change of clothes for me (the museum is over an hour from home and I was covered in….stuff). Amber stayed with H3’s friend and wandered around the museum until her mom got there to take her home. We went back to the house and H3 spent most of the afternoon asleep. She got up for dinner, but didn’t really eat anything. She did perk up to see her cake though, since I decided to still give her some if she wanted it. This is a batch of chocolate chip cookies baked in a pizza pan with butter cream icing on the top. H3 blew out her candle and then ate all the icing off her cookie. Silly girl!





Because she was sick, H3 and I stayed home from church on Sunday. She was so disappointed when Daddy when out the door without us. She loves going to our church and asks about it every time we pass the building or even go on the same road it’s on! To help with the time, we sat and read a new Gigi book that she’d gotten from Amber for her birthday and then watched the dvd that came with the book. I’d heard of Gig before but never seen it. It’s rather cute!
It’s Tuesday now and she’s almost back to normal. She’s run a low-grade fever for the last couple days, but mostly just acts more tired than usual. This morning she seems to have a lot more energy!


I’ve always had lot of magnets on the refrigerator. I’m not sure why, but I just like them there. H3 does too, and she has her own sets of magnets. This morning, she brought me each letter of the alphabet, said the name of the letter, the color, the sound(s) that the letter makes, and an example word for each letter. It was a little game she made up herself, and I’m happy to say that she only missed the example word on 2 of the letters. I think I also enjoyed seeing the extent of her vocabulary, since she was trying out a lot of new words this morning, words that we’ve been seeing in books and she’s slowly been learning.



Tomorrow morning begins a new routine for us. A friend is having surgery in the morning. She normally babysits two children while their mom teaches at a school in Smithfield, 40 minutes away. Due to the procedure, she’s not allowed to lift or do any type of strenuous activity for 5-6 weeks. I’ve volunteered to help this mom by babysitting the two kids, so H3 and I will be making a trip to Smithfield daily for the next few weeks. I know H3 will be a little tired, but I think she will enjoy seeing these two. We’ve met them before, a little girl around 15 months and a 3 year old boy.

Posts will be sporadic this fall, but I will try!

~H2

A few pictures

So here are a few pictures from the last couple weeks!


I've mentioned many times that it's hot in VA. I moved the slide that my mom gave H3 to the lovely indoors.


We've also been doing a lot of puzzles!


Checking out Harborfest in Norfolk. This is a group that does musical instruments out of plastic. It was pretty neat and H3 loved it!





I love my daughter's hair after a french braid!


Dinner earlier this week. Steak and veggies baked on a cookie sheet.


The cookie sheet: Steak in the middle, stuffed mushrooms, zuccini, green beans, bell peppers, and potato wedges


Playing at the park on a slightly cooler day.




H1 shaved his beard.


I was working on something in my bedroom and came back out to H3 passed out on the couch. She slept for a good hour in that position.


H3 and her great-grandma (H1's grandma)


That's it for now!

~H2

The Beginning of the Trip

Our home has been a whirlwind with packing and trying to get every last thing in before the big trip to NY. We have been visiting friends, going to festivals like Harborfest in Norfolk, and trying to assemble all the needed items for our cabin. One of my recent craigslist purchases was a bed rail to attach to H3's twin bed at camp, since she's no longer small enough for a crib or pack-n-play! Our little miss will have her own twin bed this year! I'll be taking pictures once we get that room set up, of course.

On Friday, I began a massive packing endevour. In the middle of it, in the middle of the day as well, the 18,000BTU unit in our bedroom stopped. I tried a few things to get it to restart, to no avail. That unit has breathed it's last. We only have one other large unit in the kitchen, and that one in our bedroom was responsible for the living room as well. Needless to say, the house was toasty on Friday. Thankfully, my landlord has agreed to replace it (he didn't have to, according to our rent contract) and he is going to do so while we are up in NY at camp. The new unit should be in when H1 returns August 1st!

Saturday morning we finished packing the car, took a deep breath and prayer, and started our long drive. It was a very long day. H3 was having a harder time in the car than usual, so we had to stop frequently. We finally arrived at my father-in-law's home at 9:30 in the evening. He is in Germany at the moment, so we are alone at the house for this weekend. On Monday (tomorrow) we'll head up to see H1's brother and his family for a day, and then make our way up to the camp on Tuesday.

My posts will be hit-and-miss, and I'm not sure how many pictures I'll be doing, but I shall try! Summer blessings to you!

~H2

Sunshine and Summertime

Have I mentioned that Virginia is a tad warm? It was pretty hot in Lynchburg during the summer, but this area we live in now is downright miserable. I’m so grateful that in less than two weeks we’ll be heading up to camp! Today’s forecast is sunny and 98. It’s been like that all week so far and tomorrow is more of the same. H3 and I’ve been playing outside in the mornings for a while, but we head in by 10:30 since the temps have already hit in the high 80s at that point! Ugh. And the mosquitoes! My word! There is a drainage ditch in our backyard, and since the town doesn’t keep it cleared, it’s rather clogged and is a mosquito breeding ground. H1 has thought about trying to clear it, but that was before we saw all the poison ivy back there. Forget it! If we owned the house, maybe, but definitely not going that far right now!

When H1 came home from work yesterday, he told me someone had left something for me on the front porch. Yep, he sure did leave something for me!


Our new shed. H1 and I spent a few hours putting this thing together earlier this week. I’m so grateful to have it. Now I can get the carport cleaned out so H3 can play in the shade some days!


We have two little pools. This is her old one that I got for $6 a couple years ago. It’s great for convenience, but she prefers the inflatable one we got her last week. I am relocating that one to the carport, so that’s why she’s using this one at the moment!



Now I'm going to go hide in the AC and plan out some INDOOR summertime fun.

~H2

Yikes!

Well, suffice it to say that blogging in May completely escaped me! We spent the entire month running. I have 0 pictures from our anniversary, May 20th, but we did have a good evening together. My father-in-law surprised us with a visit on Thursday, and he stayed through Saturday so he could watch H3 while H1 and I went out to dinner. I thought that was really sweet of him!

Then on the following Tuesday, H3 and I drove to West Point to see my friend Robyn for a couple days and let H3 play with her girls. Robyn and I got talking Tuesday night and stayed up a little too late. We realized it was 4am and decided to save our chatting for the next morning! It was so nice to hang out, and I even got to sit in on the youth group meeting that was held at her house--a thoughtful bunch of high schoolers, and very energetic!

H3 and I came back from West Point on Wednesday late afternoon, then packed for our trip to Ohio to see my parents. We got home Monday evening around 10pm, and H1 headed back to school the next day. Now we’ve got a little over 2 weeks left before going to NY for summer camp.
Ok, I think that about sums up May in general. The good news is that I took a few pictures during the month, so here we go!



Air show at Langley Air Force Base, May 14th. I was volunteering for emergency crew standby, so H1 and H3 hungout for the day together.




Jared's 3rd birthday


Blue-barb pie! Mmmmm.


H3's first slumber party with a friend, Tamar (age 5). Pancake breakfast in the morning!


Robyn and Julietta in Robyn's office


Jules and H3 being silly!


Up in OH, at Chagrin Falls


My dad making fried chicken--so amazingly delicious!


H3 making french fries to go with the previously mentioned chicken


H3 got a new slide, so we took it out front to play on


My mom, with H1 in the background


Giving Grandpa a kiss


H3 playing at a McDonalds



H1 pointing out that parents can play too (in reference to previous pic)


On the way home!


New slide in our backyard.


Grandma got me a new bow!



~H2