Dan was right, argh!!!!

So we are having a BOY!
I figured I would throw a picture of my belly in there for Annette since she keeps asking me how big I am!
Dan said all along it would be a boy, just because he wanted one so badly.
The Ultrasound was so amazing, seeing him move and open his mouth, seeing his heart beat and his little spine. Seeing his feet and hands floating about. It was seriously one of the coolest things I have ever seen and he is growing inside of me! What the heck!
It was very obvious that it was a boy, I wouldn't let Dan post that picture I figure he needs some privacy!
Dan and Zeke have said from the beginning they wanted a boy, now they are both really excited, Zeke said the baby could share his bed and that we should name him Zeke also!
Poor Sofia she will have to be tough!

Kids say the darndest things!

So if you don't know my son he is pretty funny, he keeps us on our toes and is constantly cracking us up. In the last month he has said some things that we have chuckled at. The problem is he does not have what we call a "filter".
Here are some conversations from the last month.

Setting: Winco shopping for food, we are in a long line, Zeke has just learned that I am pregnant and it is a source of constant conversation. A lady walks right next to our cart, she is a little bit overweight.
Zeke: (in a very loud voice)Hey mama does that lady have a baby in her tummy too???
Me: Shhh Zeke, everyone comes in different shapes and sizes, that lady is just bigger, please don't ask that about other people it could hurt their feelings.
1 minute later
Zeke: (pointing obnoxiously)what about that lady mama does she have a baby in her tummy?

Setting: our bathroom
Zeke:hey mama I have baby in my tummy too, it is a huge cat and its name is Imogene.
(Our friends Steve and Karen also have a cat with the very same name!)

Setting:Our backyard, Zeke is chatting with our nice neighbor next door.
Me: Hey Zeke it is time to come in for dinner
Zeke: ok I was just talking to the old lady, bye see ya (she was still out there)

Setting: Dan and Zeke on the couch wrestling and talking together
Zeke: Hey daddy why you have yellow teeth?
Dan: cracking up laughing
Zeke: did you get the yellow marker and color them?
(dan has 2 teeth that lost their enamel in a childhood accident)
We cracked up about that one all night long

Setting: Driving in the car passing a retirement home
Zeke: hey mama what is that place?
ME: that is a place where people can live when they get older and can't take care of themselves
Zeke: like who grammy and grampy and nana and papa?
Me: no they are not that old, when people are much older than that
Zeke: my nana can live there
Me: no she is not that old Zeke
Zeke: yes she is, she is a pretty old girl
(sorry Carol)

You just never know what he might say, but is makes life interesting!

Love my man!

I am so lucky to have Dan! Yesterday I was a bit irritable I guess you could say, I was tired and getting annoyed easily with everyone! So last night Dan said why don't you just get out, take a book and go read somewhere ALONE! Of course I took the offer and ran, it had been awhile since I had some alone time. I went to Barnes and Noble and just cruised around and read for awhile.
But the best part was coming home to a totally picked up house, empited dishwasher, and the kids bathed and ready for bed! It was awesome!!!!
How lucky am I to have a husband who knows what I need and then blesses me with time away and a picked up house when I return!
I am so grateful.

Just some pics

These are from last weekend when we went exploring at the Sundial Bridge.

#1 Housewife

Housewife Hazards

Does this ever happen to you?

Do you ever walk into the laundry room to do a load and realize you already have a load in the washer from 2 or more days ago? You open the door hoping it doesn't smell too mildewy! Hoping it is just a little bit stinky and the dryer sheet will cure the smell? Well my load was way past the help of a dryer sheet and I had to re-wash it! I was so annoyed with myself, two days locked in a warm washer just could not be ignored!

Parents visit=extreme homemakeover!

My parents were here this weekend and we had such a great visit. They have always been so amazing at helping us with all the grunt work of any and all homes we have owned. We are renting this home so there is not a lot to fix and work on but we had plenty for them to help us with! They helped us clean out and organize the garage, pull hundreds, no thousands of weeds and spray the back yard with weed killer, they helped us with a landscape plans and are giving us the means to complete it, they took us shopping ALL over town to find new pillows for our couch, they bought us grocerys at Safeway, took us out to eat all weekend, they helped us clean our desk area of junk, and cords. I could go on forever, they brought us bags and bags of food from Trader Joes! I made a list and they bought 4 of everything on the list! My mom made me two kinds of chicken and froze them and brought them in us ziplock bags so we could have pre-made meals!
Dan's parents bought us a dresser from our old church rummage sale and my parents brought it up for us in their car. They spent hours stripping the old crackle paint layers off and painting it for us before they came up.
I feel like I have a whole new clean house!
Besides all of this they got to see our new life up here and just be with the kids, who absolutely adore them. Zeke couldn't get enough wrestle time in with Grampy and Sofia has always loved to snuggle with my mom, she would always just wander over to grammy and climb up in her lap.
We also went to the sundial bridge and just explored and had a picnic lunch.
All in all it was a great visit and I was so sad to see them go.
Thanks mom and Dad for spoiling us, we love you!

organization, not my strong point

Before



This was my pantry before my new organized friend Anna came over to help me! It is a great pantry but not very easy to keep organized and clean, so Anna offered to help me get it worked out. She came over last Friday and we empited it completely out and went to work. She actually worked on some of my cupboards too and we condensed and moved things places I had not even thought of!

I am so happy with my new clean pantry I am always trying to keep the kids and Dan out of it so it stays nice and pretty. Who knows how long it will last but I am trying very hard to keep it looking good.
Thanks Anna for your help I love being organized in one small area of my house!




After

bumps and bruises

I realize all of my blogs are about the kids, but let's get serious what else occupies all of my time! Yesterday we had a heck of day! Both of the kids got hurt numerous times and we have bumps and bruises to prove it! Zeke got his little goose egg on his head after he was blowing a piece of paper off of his face and he head butted the counter top. Literally he gave it a really hard head butt, it was loud and very painful. Later in the day he bumped the same spot with the chair and it was red for an hour so he decided he needed a band-aid.
Later Sofia was walking to the coffee table( it really is now a tv stand) and she thought she was there but she was not and instead of her hands hitting the stand her face did. She has a bruise across her cheek and her mouth was bleeding. It was so sad.
Then today Zeke smashed her finger in the door, ouch.
Both of the kids have very visible bruises on their faces, I am sure it looks like I beat them, I guess these are the war wounds of being a kid.

Zeke's new hair do

So over the weekend after Scarlet and I got our hair cut I stated that Zeke would probably be next. Well he took those words to heart and yesterday morning went to work on his hair. I was upstairs getting dressed and Sofia was sleeping, usually during these times, Zeke draws or watches a short video, well this particular day he obviously didn't have anything to keep himself busy. He walks into my bathroom and says "hey mama do you like my new haircut" I laugh and turn to look at him and realize he is serious and has been busy cutting his own hair with his child scissors! He actually could have done much worse, he only cut his bangs and his hair is so thick that it was not completely gone . Still it looked really funny because his hair was short on his forehead and long over his ears and everywhere else. So when Dan got home he said lets just buzz it, he had been threatening to buzz it anyway, so we went for it. I must admit I was sad, I just love his long hair, it has so many shades of blonde and it is so thick and nice. He looks cute with it buzzed but he says now he can't shake his hair around! As you can see he was not happy while Dan was shaving it, he kept yelling, "daddy DO NOT CUT MY EAR OFF" we were outside and he was yelling this quite a bit so I am sure the neighbors were curious!
Anyway lesson learned on my part, keep the scissors put away and make sure he has something to do while I get ready!

my little miracle

So the rumors are true, I am pregnant! I figure everyone who reads my blog reads Dan's so you already know, but I still wanted to post about it!
What the heck right! We are still in shock about it a lot of the time, 4 months into it and we still get huge smiles on our faces when we talk about God and his surprises!
It is so cool to look back on our journey and see God's plan woven throughout the whole process. 7 years of trying to have children and just when we think our little family of four is complete, God blesses us with this desire that has been deep within us. I love that each of our children are miracles, with different stories and that all along God was orchestrating each and every detail.
I am so absolutely thrilled that I have this little person growing and floating inside me, that she(dan keeps saying he so I am gonna go with she) that she has all her little organs and fingernails and I get to carry her around with me, it is really amazing to me. We have heard the heartbeat twice now and each time I get the chills, it is just like wow, this is really true, finally.
Anyway I just wanted to say thank you to all of our family and friends who have traveled this crazy journey with us, so many of you have been praying with us for literally 7 years and a friend just said on the phone the other day that it was an answer to their prayers as well. How cool that so many people are rejoicing with us in this miracle.
How cool is our God that knows the desires of our hearts and he gives them to us when we least expect it!

We got our hair did

Scarlet and I went to the beauty salon today, it was much needed for both of us!
We actually went on the same day last time we got our hair did! That was back at the beginning of December. Scarlet had all kinds of knots and crazy hair, so she looks so cute now! I was also in a bad state, with the weather up here I had a constant frizzy bob. It was not cute, so I got it thinned out and I am so glad!
Of course it will never look this cute again because I can NEVER re-do it to look as good as when you come out of the salon!
Next it will probably be Zeke's hair we cut, we wanted to grow it but it is against the dress code at his pre-school! Dan and I are bummed because we love his long hair. We'll see, for now it is still unruly and long, without the mullet. So that is a hair update for the Lances, I am sure you can guess how Dan's looks!