Preparing for Armageddon

Ben has started to affectionately refer to the baby as "Armageddon." Apparently he thinks I am going a little overboard with preparations. Hah! He will thank me later when he is actually eating dinner in the months of October and November!

Here are the boys and I busy making about 10 loaves of zucchini bread.

We also made 2 pots of soup and 2 pots of chili. The next day while Charlie was at pre-school Sawyer and I made 2 batches of Mostacolli and 2 batches of Chicken Spaghetti. Needless to say our freezer is bursting!

My "to-do" list is finally growing shorter. I have the whole house cleaned and organized except for the kitchen and we need to just make one last meal- The celebration meal for the birth center! I am hoping to rest for a day or two once I have these things done and then bring on the baby (Armageddon)! :)

Boiler Up!

So the Boilermakers don't have the best record yet this season but it didn't stop us from cheering them on two weekends ago.

The boys' doctor is a friend of ours and he wasn't using his season tickets for the Northern Illinois game. At the last second we decided to jump in the car and head to West Lafayette for the big game.

We had a great time at the game. There were some extra seats open around us so that really helped with having a 2 and 3 year old confined in stadium seats.

Charlie got to give "Purdue Pete" a high five and Sawyer thought Northern Illinois's mascot was hilarious. It was a Husky but he kept insisting that it was a skunk. He just kept pointing at it and laughing. They also enjoyed the bands and of course the "jumbo-tron."

Poor Ben ended up carrying both of the boys most of the way to and from the stadium. I tried for awhile but those pesky Braxton-Hicks contractions were getting a little old. Both boys crashed as soon as we got to the car.

On our way home we stopped to see some good friends of ours from church who moved to the area a little over a year ago. Of course I forgot to take any photos there! Ugh! It was great to catch up with them and see their lovely house.

Hopefully Purdue can redeem themselves this weekend!
Boiler Up!

36 weeks

Here are Sawyer and I just shy of 36 weeks prego. He LOVES the baby and can't wait for their arrival! (Me too!) I have had two really good nights of sleeping lately so that is a huge relief. This week was the worst so far of only getting 4-6 hours a night. I was to the point where I would feel like I was going to get sick just from being so tired. ~ I wrote this on Sunday and last night I was up by 2am-4:30am. :(
I have had 3 classes at the birth center so far. We have our last meeting this week. After Oct 6th I will be eligible to have the baby there at any point. This week's class was focused on how our bodies are designed for birth and what they have at the center to help with the process. I find all of this so amazing! I can't wait for d-day!

At our last midwife appt. the boys brought their tape measures so that they could measure my stomach along with Rachel. It was really cute. The heart beat has continued to drop to 132 bpm. I have a feeling about 40 of you are going to be wrong on the poll! :) Here are just a few random photos of the boys "harvesting" some veggies from our little garden. They love being "farmers!"

Mission "Big Brother"

The boys and I have been busily preparing for our baby over the last few weeks. I think they are as ready as they ever will be for another brother/sister.
We have read every book that the library has to offer on babies, nursing and midwives. Their current favorite book is called, "Lapsnatcher." Sawyer has been telling me, "Our baby will cry and she is going to be a Lapsnatcher!" (He always refers to the baby as a girl. No hints from me.)

I put together some little gift bags for the boys to open while at the birth center awaiting baby's arrival. They each got a new Case tractor, popcorn, suckers, rice crispie treat, juice and these "big bro" shirts that I made for them. I am going to try and pick up some birthday hats and party favors for them to wear during our celebration dinner/breakfast at the birth center also.

The boys have been so wonderful through my pregnancy and I can't wait to see how they are with the new baby. Charlie wants to make the baby laugh and smile and Sawyer says he will be her best friend. Just a few more weeks and we will get to meet our new addition!

Indian Summer

Last Friday we spent our last afternoon at the pool. Ben's principal has been so generous to us this summer by allowing us to come swimming just about every other day with the boys. Ben is finally convinced now that we NEED a pool!

Our boys have improved so much with their swimming. I can't wait for next summer! Notice that Charlie is swimming without any belt or floaties! He is pretty independent in the pool now as long as we are in with him.

I have to share this photo because the Hoskin's pool has been a major part of our potty training this past summer. The boys LOVE going to their house and peeing through the back fence by their pool. The neighbors are probably glad fall has arrived!

Here is Charlie trying to get the knot out of his undies after swimming.

I am loving this weather! I am in NO hurry for true fall to begin.

Memory Saver

Since I don't sleep much these days (last night 11pm-3:50am with two trips to the bathroom in between) I figured I might as well show you what I am doing with all my time.

I saw this idea in "Family Fun" magazine a year or so ago and then a friend of mine reminded me of it for a MOPS craft idea for this year.

I felt bad tossing all the cards friends and family gave us when our boys were born but didn't honestly know what to do with them. So... here is my solution! Now the boys can flip through their cards anytime they want and they store neatly in a drawer.

Ben and I started dating when I was a Junior in high school. This is the ring I made holding EVERY note, letter or card that he has sent or given to me since then. I am so thankful that we were together before the age of technology. Emails and texts just can't compare to these. Ben threatens to burn these every so often for fear that the boys will get ahold of them someday when they are teenagers and be totally embarrassed by their parents. I guess we will have to get a safe sometime between now and then cause these aren't going anywhere! These are my treasures.

Per Ben's Request

HELP!
We have NO possible boy names for our unborn child!
We currently have several girl names that we are toying with but we can not seem to come up with any boy names that we agree upon. If you have any suggestions for boys ONLY we would LOVE to hear them! I don't want to bring our poor baby home without a name!
Ideally we would love to have a name that represents our adventurous look on life but is still a classic/older name. We are also wanting to stay away from any initials (JD, TJ...) and names that start with a "T."
Between both of us working in schools we have had to eliminate a LOT of names due to ornery students in the past. :)

So... bring on the names! Let's hear them.
Thanks!
Ben and Amanda

ps. Just to clarify... Amanda still doesn't not know if we are having a boy or girl (and Ben is not convinced yet that he may be surprised as well). We just want to make sure we at least have a name or several picked out for when Baby #3 arrives.

Hmm... Who is it that he reminds me of????

Sawyer just got his hair trimmed last week so it was a little longer before I took these pictures. I kept looking at him and wondering who it was that he reminded me of....

Hmmm????

Then it hit me! Oh my... my baby's hair resembles Rob Pattinson's! Is that a good thing or a bad thing???? You decide!

There are a few other similarities

1. He would cuddle all night if I let him.

2. He is very intelligent. He speaks "manish" you know.

3. He doesn't sleep a whole lot.

I should probably stop now. This is way too weird! Hopefully you can laugh at this instead of calling CPS on me!

Either way... my baby is WAY cuter! :)

Sad but True

Most kids our boy's age use "sticker-reward charts" at some point for motivation. This is what our's look like at our house...

Success!

Ummhhh... A work still in progress. Any suggestions from any of you veteran parents out there????? We (I) am at our wits ends with the biting. So tired of it!

Watch out Preschool!

Here comes Charlie!

Tuesday was Charlie's first day of preschool. To say he was excited would be an understatement. We had been nervous about him starting preschool all summer because he had to be potty trained in order to go (and he knew this). So... whenever we would drive by he would say, "There's my school. It says on the sign, 'You have to use the potty!' " :) I guess the sign finally worked!

Here he is with his backpack. He picked out his clothes the night before and also chose French Toast as his breakfast for his first day. (He would eat French Toast and Turkey Swamiches every day if I let him!)

There are only 3 other kids in his class so it is really little. So far he told me he really likes going. The first day he said, "Don't worry Mom. I will only stay for a few weeks." Ahh.. no Charlie you are only staying for two hours. I think he was bummed!

Sawyer brags to everyone that "I get to spend time with Mommy while Charlie is at preschool." We actually just went and did our shopping and went to MOPS this week. I am going to try and be better about doing one on one stuff with him next week.

Hope you all had a great week!

ps. Yes, that is a bite mark on Charlie's arm in the first pic. :( More news on that area coming in a few days.

Buggies, Harleys, Stuffing and Insomnia!

Kind of a random title I know. Sorry! This is just a basic wrap up of our past week.

Saturday night we went to see Etta and Mose Miller in Nappanee. Etta makes the BEST stuffing in the world and I worry that Ben may run off with her someday if I ever threaten to stop cooking food at our house.

We ate dinner there with about 30 bikers from my dad's motorcycle gang, "The Blue Knights". Picture the movie "Wild Hogs" times 30 mixed in with a large Amish family. Makes for a pretty funny sight!

The bikers took the Amish kids for bike rides after dinner and then the Amish kids took the ladies for a buggy ride. It was so cute to see the girls take off their head coverings and let their hair out so that they could fit the helmets on their heads.

Charlie is totally smitten with one of Etta's granddaughter's- Sadie. She is the cutest Amish girl you have ever seen! I want to take her home with me every time we see her. I wanted to get a picture of them together but didn't want to be disrespectful since the Amish don't believe in photographs.

In other news I am just about 33 weeks along now with Baby #3. Overall feeling good but insomnia is back in full force. I hate to complain but is it too much to ask to sleep more than 5-6 hours a night BEFORE baby arrives?!?!?

I fell asleep earlier this week at the computer during the boy's nap time, crawled over to the couch and woke up an hour later with Sawyer running a tractor over my face.
I had a midwife appointment last week and everything was good. Measuring right on 32 weeks, heartbeat was 130 and the head is still down. Sawyer is still obsessed with the baby and can't wait to meet him/her. I also had my first class at the Birth Center. I learn something new about the miracle of pregnancy/birth every time I am there! I love it!

Here are the boys also looking a bit sleepy...

Just a Swinging...

Swingset swinging that is! Geez what did you think I meant?!?!?!