Moon Boots Rock!

This is what we do at our house on a normal day. Don't you all do this too? Run around in just your underwear and moon boots while showing off your muscles?

nuff said,

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Correction

Apparently I was wrong in what Sawyer wants to name the baby. He claims that the baby's name is "Poopy Susie". When I ask him where he got that name. He says, "It manish". I finally translated it after many tries to him meaning, "It's in Spanish." :) No, he really does not know Spanish! Whenever he says something that I can't understand I ask Charlie what he is talking about and he tells me they are speaking in Spanish. OK then! Hah! They are too funny sometimes. Anyway... Sawyer loves his baby brother or sister and can't wait for "Poopy Susie" to come out! He loves kissing my belly and talking about "Our baby."

Around the yard

Our yard was looking so nice about 2 weeks ago and between the pouring rain for a few days straight and then strong winds my flowers are now struggling to stay alive. I think some bugs have gotten to them also. Bummer!

Anyhoo... I took a few pictures around the yard today while the boys were playing.

I love our sunflowers!

I justified spending a bunch on landscaping this summer so I could double it up as decorations for Sawyer's birthday party. So... we went with all red, white and blue flowers.

This chair was the "Deal of the Summer" last year. I found it at Shipshewana filled with a gorgeous mum for only $20! What a steal!

Here's Sawyer showing off his prize tomato!

The boys being goofballs.

Hope you are all enjoying these last few days of summer! boo hoo... :(

Nesting Freak!

So not the most attractive pose of me but I thought this picture was cute of the boys lovin' on their baby brother or sister. So far Charlie wants it to be a boy in there and Sawyer a girl. Charlie would like to name the baby "Joshua" in honor of his favorite song, "Joshua fought the battle of Jericho" and Sawyer wants to name the baby "Saucy". I think he means Susie. :)

I am 31 weeks along now. I had a midwife appt. last week and all was good. Can't believe it is already time to start going every 2 weeks already! Heartbeat was 140 and I measured right at 30 weeks. The head was down and ready to go. She didn't think the baby would flip at all in between now and D-day so that is a blessing!

I started my "nesting frenzy" last week. I cleaned the baby's room, washed and hung up all the little neutral outfits and cleaned some of the baby toys. I turned our dining room table into my "control center" and have all kinds of projects going that I want to get done before Baby #3 arrives. I also made a list of everything that I need to get done. I know I am a freak!

Last weekend the boys went to LaPorte for 2 days so that Ben and I could accomplish some little things around the house that we thought would be easiest without their "help." Thanks to the grandparents for taking on the challenge of "Charlie and Sawyer!"

ps. I can't believe 51 people have voted on whether our baby is a boy or girl! I didn't know I knew 51 people let alone 51 readers who look at my silly blog! I would love to know who some of you crazy folks are if you are willing to reveal yourself. :) By the way... I voted that I think it is a boy. :)

Three times the fun!

This past weekend we got together with two of our close sets of friends from high school- Kathy Zawada (now married to Jason Tucek) and Jeff Ballard (married to Kathy's college roommate-Kristen). Kathy and I were Slicer fans together and Jeff and Ben played Slicer basketball together. Check out the Ballard's blog here.

We had a PERFECT day by the pool. Between the 3 couples we now have 7 kids and 2 more on the way! Kristen and Jeff have adorable triplets-Luke, Benjamin and Abigail. They are adorable!!! Kathy and Jason have 2 kiddos- Joseph and Madeline and another one on the way.

Here are our two boys and Joseph having fun.

Luke and his HUGE eyelashes!

Benjamin all smiles!

Pretty girl Abigail. (I was drooling a bit when I took this picture.)

The fabulous family of five! They are amazing!

The girls showing Tonagel Baby #3 some love.

Charlie showing off his swimming skills.

Princess Madeline and the boys hugging on Joe.Thanks Zawadas for hosting all of us! So much fun!

Proud Wife

Since this is my blog I get the freedom of bragging about my family. A few posts ago I mentioned that it was a time to celebrate for our family. We celebrated my birthday, our 9 year anniversary and now Ben's birthday and a new job!

Thursday night made it official for our family. Ben accepted the position of Head Principal of Fairfield Jr/Sr High School for the 2010-2011 school year. This basically means that he will continue on as the Assistant Principal (Now titled for him "Principal in Waiting") for this year but will take over officially at the end of the school year.

We feel so blessed at this opportunity. We never in a million years thought this transition would be taking place in our lives so early. Then again if you had asked me 5 years ago if I would be a "Domestic Engineer" with two little boys and another baby on the way I would have laughed at you!

It is amazing how God has things in motion way before they are ever on the radar for us. In this case it has been wonderful to look back and see how God had this organized 10+ years ago. Here is a brief explanation of this. Hopefully you can follow it.
-6 years ago when we bought our house the people who sold it to us wanted to move so that they could be in Fairfield School district. (Our house is the LAST house right outside the district.) This was the first mention of Fairfield we ever had.
- Ben's current principal-Phil Hoskins is good friends with Ben's college basketball coach. He remembered watching Ben play in the Final Four in high school and throughout college. When he happened to mention to Coach Kessler that he was looking for a new Dean for his school. Kessler suggested looking up Ben.
-Ben and Phil met, quickly became friends, and Ben was hired as the Dean. That year on a leap of faith we decided for me to stay home with the boys and take a maternity leave.
-The following year the Assistant Principal took an Elementary Principal position and Ben moved into that role. I resigned my teaching position.
-This summer Mr. Hoskins announced his retirement and Ben was immediately hired as the "Principal in Waiting".

We give all the credit for this job to God. We are so thrilled with Fairfield Schools and could not be happier to know we will be in this area for at least another 3 years.

With this new job I know that I will see less of my husband but we are taking on this job with a "Family" mentality. The kiddos and I will also be spending a lot of time at his school. (Sawyer calls it "Daddy's home" when we drive by.) We will be going to sporting events, eating lunch with him and any other activities that take place there just to allow us some time with Ben while he is working.

So... as a proud wife I congratulate my husband on a job well done and to this accomplishment. I am so happy and proud of him!

My "Big" Cowboys

Ben and I broke down and dived in with Baby #3 preparations last weekend. Since it rained all day on Saturday we decided to go ahead and set up the boys' bunkbeds. Word of warning to other parents: Sleep a bunch before you do this. You won't be getting much for a few days afterward!

Here are the "Big Boy" Cowboys enjoying their new "crib".

Trying to get them settled down with a story before bedtime. The first night it took them about an hour to go to sleep, night #2 about 35 minutes, night #3 25 minutes and night #4 about 30 minutes. We are improving slowly but surely!

Naps have been another matter. I got Charlie to take a nap in our room twice this week so that was helpful. The rest of the week has been napless. Ugh... so tiring!

Here they are enjoying their new box that I put in there of "quiet toys" that Charlie is allowed to play with in our room during nap time just to get him out of my hair for an hour a day.

I will leave you with this little image of "Cowboy Charlie". I do wish he preferred wearing clothes under his vest and chaps but hey I am even more thrilled that he is wearing UNDERWEAR! That's right folks it is a year and a half in the making but he is officially potty trained! Woo HOo!!! When I was a teacher I used to think, "Why can't these parents just get their kids under control?" I realize now I was a moron! Parenting is so hard! Potty training has been the worst for us but I think we have won the battle. Here we come Sawyer! You're next! :)

When the cat's away...

the mice will play. Not really sure if that phrase fits this scenario just right but that is what I think of when I see this picture.

Charlie stayed the night at his cousin Jace's house last weekend. Is that the TV on?????? And M&M's????? Man! This is the life!
I'm guessing Charlie told them, "My mom just lets me stay up really late watching cartoons and eating M&M's. That's what we do at our house!" Yeah right!

At least he got clean. :) Doesn't Jace just look like a miniture Charlie?!?!?
Uncle Greg reading to him at bedtime. Thanks Greg for being a good role model. :)
Thanks guys for letting Charlie stay the night. I know he loved getting spoiled!

LaPorte Triathlon 2009

Last Saturday Ben and his brother Joel competed in a triathlon- 1/4 mile swim, 13.5 mile bike ride and 3.5 mile run. They both did great! Ben had his best time to date at 1 hour 16 minutes and Joel finished just ahead of him in 1 hour 14 minutes. Great job guys! Here are a few pics from the day!

On the last stretch...

Charlie wanting to be like Daddy and Joel by taking his shirt off.

The triathletes! The cheerleaders! :) We will be competing next year! I promise!Joel, Mal, Charlie, Sawyer and their niece Amaya.

Ahhh... look at those eyes!

A time to celebrate

Last Friday we celebrated my birthday and our 9th wedding anniversary (today-Aug 5). It was a wonderful day for me.

It was actually Ben's first day back to school full time so that was a little bit of a bummer but I took the boys swimming in the morning and we had such a great time. Charlie can now swim quite far without his swimbelt and can reach the bottom of the pool. On his discovery of this he squealed, "I'm proud of myself!" It was so cute.

That afternoon we headed to LaPorte and Papa Hughie watched the boys for us so that we could go on a date. My choice was to head to Mt. Baldy and then eat dinner at Olive Garden.

When we were in high school we spent many evenings at Mt. Baldy. Ben proposed there 10 years ago and we hadn't been back since. It was really special to head up there and see Chicago across Lake Michigan and soak up the last rays of sunshine.

Wow how times have changed... 9 years of marriage and 2 3/4 kids later! Here is my growth spurt belly at 27 1/2 weeks. We started goofing around a bit so I could play with my camera. "Which way is the beach, Ben?"

Ben is triathlon ready! Those pics coming tomorrow!