Fun Shopping with Mom

This afternoon we had to go to the mall to return some shoes, which is pretty much my least favorite thing to do on a Saturday when the mall is extremely busy! But we had to - our 30 days to return them was up today.

After stopping for the shoes, I decided to head down to Motherhood Maternity and see if I could find some clothes. I've never been pregnant in the winter before; at least, not enough that I needed clothes! Aidan was pretty sure that this was going to be a real drag. He and Gresham fought while I found some things, and then we had to squeeze all three of us and the stroller into a little fitting room with a curtain instead of a door. But then... the whole thing became more fun when we discovered the "baby belly" that you can velcro on yourself to see how the clothes will fit when you are big!!! I put it on and tried on all the stuff, and Aidan couldn't stop giggling and poking the belly.

This is going to be an educational nine months for him.... I can already tell that he will be asking a lot of questions!

The Many Faces of Aidan

Five is such a nice age. Aidan is really growing up. He is really getting into reading more. Right now he is doing a math test with Dad - he can do addition facts super fast without counting on his fingers!

This is the face he makes when he is telling a story that he thinks is exciting.

And this is just a goofy face...

Sorry for the lack of posting!

Sorry for the lack of posts lately... I've been feeling pretty yuck, and as a result there's not much going on at our house!

Let's see... what can I talk about...

Aidan suggested yesterday that if the baby is a boy that we name him "Mesh" because it rhymes with "Gresh." I'm thinking not. For a girl, he likes "Talullah Cartharin." Talullah is a character in the Maisy books, and I think that he made up Cartharin. Wow, I'm glad he's not old enough to have his own children yet!

Gresham was adorable yesterday. We went to Target after nap time since we had nothing to fix for dinner. I had to wake Gresham up from his nap, and told him we were going to Target. He was pretty sleepy and not too excited about going, but he rallied after a diaper change and a drink, and said, "Let's go!" I said, "Let's go to the van. Let's hold hands. I love you!" and he replied, "Yeah, me too!" What a sweet boy.

Trying to Survive...

I am now 7 1/2 weeks pregnant, and it seems like May will never come... Actually, it's good that it is a ways off, because I have a lot to do before then. But this morning sickness stuff is not a lot of fun!

Today, we were supposed to get our ice maker fixed, which I was very excited about. Being pregnant makes my mouth salivate an uncontrollable amount (not sure why - but at least it's not 24 hours a day, just off and on throughout the day) and very cold ice water is about the only thing that makes it better. And gum. Back when the ice maker broke, we looked into getting it fixed, but we knew that it would be a minimum of $65 to get it looked at. My wonderful husband decided that it would be well worth the money to provide me with plenty of ice. Well, the man came today, and found the broken part in about 20 seconds. He said, "This will be a quick fix, but let me get you a price quote first, because this is going to come down to how bad do you want ice."
"Oh boy," I thought. After working on his laptop a few minutes, he determined that it would be $293 to fix it. $102 for the part, and the rest for labor. I said no thanks. He then went on to show me how we could fix it ourselves by buying the part and using a screwdriver to put in four screws. Maybe Jordan should go into ice maker repair so that he can charge $169 to put in four screws!!!!

We also decorated for fall today, and Aidan found this camping chair in my closet while we were getting our fall stuff out and was asking me how to sit in it, and somehow bonked into my head and broke one of the nose pads off my glasses. At least that was a free fix!

Time to go eat another snack... I will survive!

Fall at Nash Farm

Today we went to Nash Farm for their annual fall festival. They have pony rides, farm animals, cotton to pick, historic demonstrations, and all kinds of things! We went straight to the pony rides when we got there, because the line gets very long!

Then we decorated pumpkins. This face is very Gresham. This is what he does when I ask him to look at me.

Aidan did a ring toss game, and the prize was this fake mustache. We thought it was great! He decided to go back and play again so that he could win one for his brother.

Is this funny or what? On our way out of the farm, this random lady stopped and took their picture because she thought they were so cute. Gresham wore his mustache until lunch - he didn't want to part with it, but I didn't want hair in his sippy cup!

Gresham is 2!

Yesterday was Gresham's 2nd birthday! After breakfast, he opened a couple presents. His party with family is tomorrow, so we will do most of our birthday stuff then. The first present was from Great Grandma Packard. Gresham didn't want to open it or even touch it. But after we told him there was a toy inside, he decided it was worth the trouble! How very 2...

Here is a video of him opening his horses from Grandpa and Grandma Dees.

More Gresham Singing... It's too cute to not post!

I've been waiting two weeks for this post...

We're having another baby!!!!
We found out two weeks ago, but we were waiting to tell people until after going to the doctor and making sure everything was okay. We went for our first appointment today, and saw a heartbeat! Even though this is the third one, we were still amazed to see that tiny heartbeat on the ultrasound.

I am due on May 29 - the last day of school. We are very thankful for God's timing! Yes, a girl would be nice, but another boy would be just fine too.

The boys are very excited. Aidan told me the other day, "Mom, I love the new baby already!" He will be almost 6 when the baby is born, so he will really remember this.

Gresham has lots of work to do between now and then. Like being potty-trained, and learning to give up temper tantrums (just kidding - we are going to work on those things, but I have no delusions of having him totally whipped into shape by then...) I told him the other day that he will start sleeping in his big boy bed soon. Aidan added, "Yeah, because the new baby gets your crib." (Thanks a lot, Aidan). Gresham came up with the idea that "baby sleep in bunk bed. Gresham sleep in crib." Tonight, he seems to have come around, though, and told us at the dinner table that he will sleep in the bunk bed, and the baby will get "my crib."

Now we just have to wait for 7 1/2 months...

The State Fair

It's fall in Texas, and that means time for the State Fair! Ahh, the state fair. Where else can you get fried peanut butter and jelly while you shop for a hot tub and look at butter sculptures? The big thing this year was chicken fried bacon. The smell was incredible. We opted to not try any.

It was rainy today, but we went anyway, and had a great time! We started with the petting zoo, which has mostly unusual petting zoo animals like giraffes and zebus. Do you know what a zebu is? I didn't know either until today. They look like cows with humps. Aidan and Gresham had fun feeding the goats.

The pigs were my favorite. Aren't they cute?

After the petting zoo, we went to a dog show where some mangy looking dogs that were from an animal rescue caught frisbees and even jumped into a swimming pool. Sorry, I'm not a big dog show fan...

Then we exchanged our money into "state fair currency" and rode a couple rides. Jordan says that if you want to make money, it's always best to change the currency so that no one thinks about how much they are spending.

Here is Aidan after riding the beloved bumper cars! He has waited a whole year for this!

Here's Gresham after his Dukes of Hazzard ride ended. He kept saying "more car! more car!" Can you tell he is turning 2 this week?

After the rides, we did a fun farm activity. The kids got to walk through a "farm" and do different farm chores. Then at the end, they sold their farm products and got paid a dollar to spend in the little shop. Gresham got crackers and gave them to me. :-)

First we got corn to "feed" the animals with.

Gresham really liked the basket they gave him to carry his stuff in. Now I know what to get for his birthday!

At the end, they got to pedal these fun tractors!

Gresham and I went home after the farm thing, but Mom, Dad, Jordan, and Aidan stayed. They went to a bird show and heard a bird sing "Old MacDonald," and bought funnelcakes and ice cream.

Sorry you missed it, Grandma and Grandpa Dees!! Jordan ate a corny dog for you and got some Pedro's tamales.

**Note: There are less pictures of Aidan because he was constantly running from thing to thing!

Garage Sale

Well, this week has gone by with no time to post anything! I have been very busy with school and a project that I am doing for church. And then there's homeschooling... Whew!

Last Saturday, Aidan had a little drink stand at our neighborhood garage sale. We have done this three times now, and the fall one is definitely more profitable than the spring one because the weather is so much warmer. Aidan made $4 (we made him pay us back for the drinks), and he put that with his money he had been saving and bought himself a scooter! He is really enjoying it.

Gresham had a hard time staying in his little folding chair - he is sooooo 2! He is wearing his pajamas in this picture. They are new, and he loves them. He would leave them on all day if I would let him.

We bought a bike trailer at a garage sale down the street, and Gresham really likes to ride in it. We had been wanting to get a trailer, but were hesitant for buy one without being able to try it out first. So, we figured that this was only a $20 loss if we didn't like it... Hopefully we'll get to go out riding more, if it ever stops being summer here!