Thanks Kate!

Kate had the honor of two helping toddlers in a cookie making process. After Sam dumped the entire cylinder of oats on the ground and the boys had ingested more sugar than the cookies themselves contain.... I felt like she truly understood what it was like to have two boys 4 and under helping.
But in all seriousness -she has been such great help and we couldn't have made it the last few weeks without her! Thank you so much Kate for all you've done for us.

Shower of Ruffles and Lace

Once again, this is going to be a post bragging on how blessed I've been! Some of my friends threw me a small shower at my house last weekend. They had planned it long before I went on bed rest, and they decided to bring it to me. China, silver, chicken salad, pink, and lace. It was so much fun and was such a blessing to me emotionally. One of the harder parts of being on bed rest for me (being as outgoing as I am) has been the lack of social interaction. This was a day where I felt almost normal (other than that the group picture is surrounding a sitting mother)! It was so much fun and I think they even enjoyed it, as the husbands were all at home with the kids and we all had a chance to eat on fine china. Thanks guys.

Her first tutu!

My friend Hannah is incredibly talented and she painted canvases to match the quilt I picked out for our girl several months ago. I didn't actually get the baby quilt; I got the twin quilt so that I can drape it over my rocking chair and she can use it when she moves into a "big girl bed." Therefore I asked Hannah to create me something I could put on the wall around the crib to tie in the theme. She went above and beyond! They are AMAZING! We spent at least 15 minutes of the shower trying to convince her that she should start her own business! On the floor you can see the pillow sham and the quilt that I picked out and resting against the hearth, you can see the set of four canvases she created to match it. It looks like I ordered them straight out of the catalog! Thanks Hannah!

While Momma Sits....

Here are some of the activities my boys have done!

Gymnastics Class

Now that I'm housebound, my neighbor takes my boys to gymnastics for me each week. This week she was kind enough to send me pictures from her smart phone so I could feel like I was a part of it all. Wasn't that kind! The one of Sam in the foam pit was too cute for me not to share.

Steven Turns 4!

Today was Steven's 4th Birthday. I know every mother says this in these situations... but I seriously can't believe that he is 4.

We have decided to have parties only on alternating years, so this year was our family birthday celebration. We tossed out lots of different ideas and options, but based on our current circumstances we stayed close to home for the day. Daddy spent the day creating homemade activities that our boys thought were great.

We started with a homemade pin-the-tail on the donkey. Then the boys got to color our donkey!

After that we did some finger painting on the deck with our neighbor,

and we finished with a scavenger hunt around the living room.

After dinner we topped it all off with a cake a good friend made for Steven, modeled after Lightning McQueen (one of his FAVORITES!)




In case you were wondering about the "current circumstances," I have been on bedrest for about 2 weeks and will continue to be on the couch or bed until the end.... May 11th. So my dear husband chose to do birthday things that I could be a part of from a distance. Bedrest has had it's challenges, but we have been overwhelmed by the amount of love and support we've received. We have had lots food, someone to clean my house, and lots of support in helping with the boys during the day. It has been humbling, but an amazing way to see the provisions of God on a daily basis.


I have found lots of ways to be involved from the couch - reading, puzzles, games.



We would love your prayers for the health of our baby girl, that my body is a safe place for her to grow, and for the added stress on my husband and the boys as I have to watch from the couch. Thanks everyone for your love, support and prayers.

Cholestasis of Pregnancy

Well - this isn't a witty story or a cute picture. I almost didn't even blog about this, but I figured there are people who I don't keep close contact with who may read this and be able to pray.

As many of you know I have had difficult pregnancies in the past. Steven Edward's entry to the world and the circumstances surrounding it were dramatic to say the least. And while Sam's was more "normal," it still had it's share of complications. These come from a very rare condition I have during pregnancy (less than 1/10% of women have this.... that is like 1 in 10,000) called Cholestasis of Pregnancy. The briefest way I can explain it is to say I have an over active liver. It creates high levels of bile acids and liver counts which could ultimately end in a still born birth in the third trimester. But my Doctors have always assured me that with careful monitoring and me paying close attention to her patterns, this won't be me.

What it means for me is that I go to the Dr. two times a week for several hours each time to do blood work, ultra sounds, intensive monitoring, and see the doctor. It also means I have to keep careful track of how often baby girl moves (I have purchased a timer with four buttons that I actually carry with me all the time and press every time I feel her so I can always know when she moved last). My doctors are amazing and have taken great care of me so far -but needless to say this condition comes with fears and lots of emotional stress (as well as the physical stress of my entire body itching all the time). Best case scenerio would be that all the monitoring goes smoothly, I do an amniocentesis at 36 weeks, and they take the baby by C-Section later that day assuming her lungs are formed.

Please pray that ultimately my baby girl will be safe and healthy, that the Doctors will have a clear indication of what to do at each step, and that if there is something wrong with her.... I will know beyond a shadow of a doubt. That is how Steven Edward made it here... I just had a sinking feeling something was wrong and Doctors who were super on top of it. God has brought us through this twice before and I have faith he will and can do it again. Please be in prayer for me, my Doctors, and my husband based on the extra pressure this puts on him.

Never a Dull Moment

With two boys under the age of 4, there is truly never a dull moment. Today is but a simple example of the adventures that we experience daily as stay at home mothers of toddlers.....

We had just finished lunch and my boys jumped down to embark on a game of hide and seek before nap time. This alone is comical enough because the rules of hide and seek are very specific to a 3 year old, and that doesn't always transfer to a 2 year old mind or even correspond to the actual rules that the rest of the world adheres to. Either way, I stay at the table to help the little girl I keep finish her lunch so that she can play too. As a mother you become an expert of sounds.... there are sounds that you're used to (banging, yelling, laughing, the clanging of certain toys or objects etc.) and sounds that alarm you (like the jiggling of a handle that won't open, or comments of a toddler like..."i didn't really pee on the floor Sam, I was just pretending").

As I helped Anna eat I heard what sounded like someone stuck in the closet. Assuming it was my youngest, I yelled for Steven to open the door for him. To which he responded, "I can't." Sigh says the 6.5 month pregnant mother as she rises from the table to take care of the problem herself. I get to the linen closet door and realize it is indeed locked and Sam is indeed inside. I actually happened to be talking to my mother-in-law on the phone at the time and she calmly suggests getting an ice pick - the obvious response, we all learned to pick doors as children right?

Well, I didn't, my sister was the champion of that at our house. But it is currently beside the point, because this happens to be a door that needs a key to be opened. To further complicate the situation I have NO idea where the key is and my husband is unreachable. I find a key that fits the lock but it won't turn. After walking through several options with Sally.... looking for external screws, ways to take the handle off.... we conclude that we may have to call the fire department. Somehow Sam is in there quietly playing with things on the shelf and completely oblivious that this is a big deal. I try coaching him on how to turn the internal knob lock, but frankly I'm not even sure that door has one, and he responds with, "I can't, I'm busy."

I happen to look out the door and see my neighbor, a man in his late 50s with daughters my age who are both currently pregnant. I figure if anyone will help me, it would be him. So I sprint across the lawn (I didn't even think I could run at this point - how wrong I was.) and ask him to come help. He calmly walks in and after about 10-15 minutes of unsuccessful attempts he manages to pop off the hinges and pry the door open from the wrong side (this was trickier than you would think since it was locked). I hug the man.....a man whom I have maybe spoken 15 sentences to in my life, and then continue with the beginning of nap time procedure.

The thing that sticks with me through this was how unaffected Sam was. He walked out smiling and when my neighbor Keith asked him if he had a good time in there, he smiled and said, "yeah." He even, just before we pried the door off, started sliding photographs under the door out of a miscellaneous box of things I need to scrapbook. Sigh.... children. So now I sit on my couch with a latte wishing it were a glass of red wine - but for many obvious reasons (pregnancy, 2 in the afternoon, babysitting other peoples children while mothering my own), I stick to other addictive substances like caffeine and sugar.

So now the door sits propped against the wall in the hall, awaiting the return of my husband who is in for a good story, some handy work, and turning the knob of that door around so it can never be locked from the inside again!

Thank you Sam for teaching me something I otherwise would not have learned, how to take locked door off its hinges. I'm sure I'll be able to thank him for many other bits of information as I raise him as well.