Memorial Day

We had a great Memorial Day.  We spent the day at our house with some friends from church.  We started the day by going to a parade in Bedford in the morning (which my step-dad was in) and then all came back to our house for a cookout.  We enjoyed some great food and fellowship.  We also had a cornhole tournament which was a lot of fun.  Jim made his own cornhole boards from scratch and they turned out great (I was pretty impressed by his skills).  He finished them at 11:00 pm the night before our get together.  He made one Philadelphia Eagles colors and the other Cleveland Browns colors.  You can see them in the pictures.  We are excited to (hopefully) get a lot of use out of them this summer with friends and family. Thank you to all who have served our country!  We are definitely proud to be Americans!!  

My 4 Favorite People

Our Blue Eyed Baby

Here are a few pictures of our happy, blue eyed baby.  We are surprised his eyes are staying so blue since mine are brown and Jim's are hazel and they are both dominating over blue. My mom and sister both have really pretty blue eyes so I'm hoping he keeps them.  His hair is starting to come in the last couple weeks and it is really light... we are guessing he will be another blondie.  We think he's a good mix of all of us :) 

The Kids Making Cupcakes

Last night the kids wanted to make cupcakes after dinner.  I was surprised how well they did with filling the cups with the batter and then frosting them after they baked.  I made pink frosting for Abbey and green frosting for Jacob (their favorite colors).  It is amazing how something as ordinary as making cupcakes can be so much fun with kids.  They always love watching things bake through the glass window on our oven.  The best part of the night of course was eating them!!

Jacob's Last Day of Preschool

Today was Jacob's last day of preschool for the year.  It was a fun day for him (and all of us).  During school today they had a party with games outside and an indoor picnic.  Tonight there was an end of the year celebration where the kids sang on stage, there was a pictures slideshow of the year and each kid got a little diploma.  We are super proud of our first born and so thankful that God has blessed us with such a sweet, wonderful little guy.  Jim and I talked today about how fast this year went.  It seems like just yesterday I was dropping him off for the first time at school and driving away with my eyes full of tears.  We are cherishing these days because we see how fast time goes as these kids are growing so fast.      

Jim and Jacob

I am so thankful for a husband who takes care of his things and instills these values into his children.  Jim always enjoys taking care of our yard and he teaches Jacob how to do these kinds of things everyday.  Not only does he allow Jacob to help him do these jobs, but he talks him through what he's doing so Jacob will be able to take care of our yard as he gets older and his own yard one day.  Jim and Jacob spend a lot of time together working on projects around the house, both in and out and I know when Jacob (and Micah) are grown and out of the house, they will be well equipped to help their wives in taking care of their own homes.  I have been trying to be very intentional lately about teaching Abbey how to care for a home on the inside.  She does laundry with me, helps with cleaning and even helps a little in preparing our meals (as much as she can at this point).  It is easier sometimes for Jim and I to just do things ourselves, but in the long run, we will have lots of wonderful memories and children who know how to help in taking care of a home and how to care for their things.

Micah Rolling Over

Micah just turned 4 months old on May 4th and he started rolling over that day.  He was 14 lbs. 12 ozs. at his appointment and 25 inches long.  He is doing well and we are all enjoying each new phase that he comes into.  Here's a video of him rolling over and the kids both announcing his new trick.

Happy Mothers Day

Hope you all had a nice mothers day celebrating your moms and wives and being celebrated as moms.  We had a good day.  Jim had to work this morning so the kids and I went to church and then McDonald's for lunch.  When Jim got home, we went to visit my dad and step mom and spent some time with them. We then  headed over to my moms for dinner.  It was a fun day.

I got a beautiful new bedroom set from Jim.  I have had my eye on it for several years now and we love it!  It is a dark wood sleigh bed, dresser and nightstand.  We have been married for 8 years this summer and our bedroom has always been a mosh posh of furniture so it's really nice to have matching bedroom pieces.  It got here a few days ago and it was a perfect gift for mothers day :)      

Skype

I don't know how many of you know about Skype or not, but we recently downloaded it after my parents told us about it.  Skype is basically a program that uses your internet connection to talk to other people just like you would over the phone.  But the only difference is it's FREE!  All you have to do is go to their website and download the program for free and you can talk to your family and friends... just as long as they have a skype username too.  Another thing that's nice about it is that if you have a webcam you can see the other person.  We have been talking with my parents via Skype and it's nice because they get to see our kids (and us!) live.  So, if any of you are interested check it out and let us know so that we can chat with you sometime!  The website is www.skype.com  

Update

Well, we haven't heard anything yet from our realtor about the 2nd showing yesterday.  We're not really sure what to think, but are thinking they probably would have made an offer right away if they were going to make one.  We are a little discouraged, but are trying to keep things in perspective and focus on all that we have to be thankful for.  We had a really nice day today as a family and as we sit and look at all of our blessings (especially these three) we trust that God knows what's best for us and that His timing is perfect.     

2nd Showing

This past Tuesday we had our first showing on our house since we lowered the price (also our first showing in 8 months).  It was a young couple and they are coming back Saturday with their parents for a second showing.  We have a reserved excitement, but are encouraged that we even got a showing with interest.  Our neighbors house has been for sale for two years and there are several  on our street that have been sitting for a long time.  There are some really nice houses not selling and we know it's just this horrible market right now.  If we do end up selling during this slump we will know it is only God opening up a door for us to move into something with more room for our growing family.  Please pray that this couple would buy and love this house as much as we have.  We'll keep you posted.

Spring Has Sprung

There is nothing better for a stay at home mom in Ohio (at least this stay at home mom) then warmer weather and sunshine after a long winter.  We have had some  beautiful days lately and we have been taking advantage of them to the fullest.  We have already had several lunch picnics, trips to playgrounds and long walks.  Jacob and Abbey have also spent a lot of time cruising in the jeep.  We are enjoying spring and look forward to the summer ahead.  

Talking With Micah

Experimenting With Our Mac Part II

After the kids were in bed tonight we were entertained by taking pictures of ourselves with the camera built into our computer.  

House Update

We haven't posted anything about our house lately so we thought we'd give you all an update. Unfortunately that phrase across our sign is not "SOLD", but we are praying that will be draped across our sign soon.  We just lowered our price.  It has been extremely slow and the market is really bad here right now, but we think this new price will help generate some buyers through our house these next few weeks.  We'll keep you posted.  There are several houses that we have our eye on right now so we know once we sell we will be in a great place since it's definitely a buyer's market.   

Experimenting with our Mac

Today I was playing around with a couple pictures using the iphoto program on our Mac.  You can do a lot of neat stuff like making the edges blurry on pictures and doing a lot with color and borders.  Here are a couple pictures of Micah that I was experimenting with.  He will be three months old on Friday.  He is really starting to get into a fun stage where he is responding to us so much more.  He is getting more active and playful and is so much fun to have around.

Children's Museum

On Monday I took the kids to the Cleveland Children's Museum.  They have a special exhibit going on right now called the Galapagos Island where they have a whole room full of sand with plastic turtles around and shovels and all sorts of stuff for the kids to explore with.  Jacob and Abbey had a blast "finding treasure", burying turtles and just playing in the sand.  We are trying to keep busy this week because Jim is away at a class for work.  He is an accident investigator for the police department and has to do a few weeks of classes each year to continue with his training.  My mom is staying with us to help out which has been nice, but we all really miss Jim and will be excited when Friday is here so things can be back to normal.  

Easter Weekend & Jim's 30th Birthday

We haven't posted anything new for a long time.  We have had a very busy weekend and actually a very busy past few weeks.  Friday night was Jim's surprise 30th birthday party (his actual birthday was Monday).  His parents came into town on Friday and at night Jim thought we were going to a family night fish n chips at my mom's condo club house.  We actually were going to his birthday party which has been an event that I have been planning for the last couple of months.  It turned out to be a fun time honoring Jim with family, friends, food and games.  Unfortunately we don't have any pictures to show for it (as of now) since I forgot to grab our camera on the way out the door.  It was a very stressful couple weeks with the "lies" to get everything done and even getting him there that evening.  We will hopefully get some copies of pictures from the evening to share sometime soon.  I put together a picture slide show of the last 30 years of Jim's life, that we watched the night of the party.  You can watch it by clicking on this link.

We had a nice Easter weekend.  Jim's parents stayed through the weekend and left on Monday.  We enjoyed our time with them.  The weekend went really fast though and we felt like they just got here and had to turn around and go home.  The kids weren't feeling well all weekend though and Saturday night they really seemed to get worse.  By Sunday morning they both were really sick (Jacob was worse than Abbey) so we decided to keep them home Sunday morning with Jim.  I went because I was teaching Sunday School that morning and Jim's parents came to church too.  It was disappointing that we couldn't all go to church as a family on Easter, but that's how it goes sometimes with little kids and sickness.  Easter evening we enjoyed a delicious meal at my mom's and Johns house and played some Bible Trivia.  We had a nice time.

Jacob and Abbey are still pretty sick.  They both have pink eye (we went to the doc Monday and got eye drops) and pretty bad colds.  So far Micah, Jim & I are fine.  We are really praying most of all that Micah doesn't get what they have.  He is so little still and it's hard enough seeing Jake & Abbey so sick.  Well, Happy late Easter to you all.  Hope you had a wonderful time celebrating our risen Savior :)  And.... Happy late 30th Birthday Jim!  You are very loved by many :)  Here are a couple pictures from our weekend.  

The Switch

Well, we made the big switch.  On Saturday we bought a Mac for the first time.  I've been wanting to switch to a Mac from a PC for a long time now and we finally did it.  I've heard so many great things about Macs, and I've had nothing but problems with PCs.  We bought a Mac Book (pictured above).  I'm still getting used to the differences from a PC.  I had a little trouble signing into the wireless, but I was able to eventually figure it out.  Hopefully this was a good investment and the computer will last us a long time!    

Snow, Snow, Snow!!!

We are having our biggest storm of the season. It started yesterday afternoon and is still coming down strong. They are saying that in total we will get about 20 inches. Jim got an accident call out this morning (today is his day off) so had to shovel/snow blow his way out of the driveway at 8am. He is out there now for a second time today... trying to keep up with what's coming down. The kids and I are staying warm in the house, watching from the window. Jacob went out for about 10 minutes, but was ready to come in since the snow was coming down hard and hitting him in the face. We are a little jealous of the Larson's (Jim's sister and family) who live in Florida and friends of ours, the Gammons who are vacationing there now. I also have to mention our friends the Matheny's who live in North Carolina. They have been enjoying 75 degree weather lately. We are anxiously awaiting the news of the arrival of their first baby (any minute now :) You guys all enjoy while we are snowed in here :) We have to keep reminding ourselves that spring will be here soon (hopefully)... it's Cleveland so you never know!!