Website

To the young moms...This is the best website i ever found for printing out coloring pages for kids. They have anything and everything you can think of......All types of animals, anything transportation, shapes, alphabet, all holidays, they even have Bible characters or Bible story themed pictures with verses. It's very easy to get around on. Check it out! http://www.coloring.ws/

Here's some of Adam's picks..He's been coloring up a storm lately and really improving on staying in the lines.

(i think i helped him with the Christmas tree). He likes pink and purple!!!?

Our trip

Rod and I got home last night from our trip to Aruba. It was such a refreshing time, a nice amount of time to be away (4 nights), i was comfortable leaving the boys for that amount of time and they had a blast here at home w/ grandmas, cousins, and krista. so thankful for all who chipped in so we could get away!

since we went to the same place last year, we knew what we wanted to do. which ended up being going to "Flamingo beach" every day to layout, swim, eat, snorkle, and see the beautiful and not so beautiful animals! this is our favorite beach and it takes an 8 minute boat ride to get there. it's actually a seperate little island right off of aruba. You can only go to this beach if you stay at the marriott.

it's just beautiful. We took lots of pictures of the animals for the boys.

My favorite picture, i really couldn't get enough of these birds......

The pool at our motel, with the ocean and cruise ship in the background...

We had a great time together. It was nice to be able to talk w/out interruptions or talking over our talkative little boys!

Me

This is how i'm looking these days. This was taken just shy of 18 weeks. Rod wants to keep tabs on the growth :) By the looks of things this could be another one of my pregnancies where people ask me at 6 months if I'm overdue!

I got my nails done today! This is a rare occurance, i haven't even had them painted for about 8 years, let alone a real manicure. It was so fun and she did a great job. I'll go back to her in 10 years when i get them done again :) It doesn't quite look right w/ my john deere shirt and jeans, but once we're in aruba it might be a better fit.

She did this cool design on each ring fingernail. Her prices were very reasonable as well. (i wish i would have washed the car and worked in the flower beds BEFORE getting these done!)

We're leaving Saturday night, staying at the airport motel and flying out Sunday morning for Aruba. We're coming home Thanksgiving day. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thankgiving. We all have SO much to be thankful for!!

Craft Idea

Yesterday my good friend Maredith came over to hang out with us. She's home on furlough for a month and fit me into her busy schedule while she's back in the states. I've been wanting to do this craft with the boys, but wanted to wait until someone could help me! We made drums out of empty oatmeal cartons. It was fun and easy, the boys love them. You just wrap construction paper (i used printer paper) around the carton and tape it. Let them decorate w/ crayons or markers, stickers, etc. and punch holes to add the string. They were prancing around the house, singing while beating on their drums. Very fun to watch. Finished Product: The boys really took to Maredith, i hope she didn't mind :) We wondered if the twins subconsiously remembered that she helped me take care of them when they were babies.
All 3 boys are in there somewhere....Thanks for making the boys' day Maredith!!

Birthday Boy

We celebrated Adam's 4th birthday today with his first "friend party". What a fun bunch of kids from all areas of adam's life....1st Cousins, 2nd cousins, grandmas, church friends, neighbor. There were 16 kids in all and it went really well! They mostly played in the barn, also we finger painted, face painting, pinata, lunch. A memorable, but tiring 3 hours! Everyone enjoyed themselves and noone got hurt which were my main 2 goals. A big thanks to all who helped! Rod helped out in a big way. I'm thankful he wanted to be involved and not hide for those 3 hours as some father's might want to do :) We're not going to do this every year (friend parties), but wanted to do something special for the big "4".
Finger painting..Lunch time.. The goofy face painting committee Brad sadly pondering what the balloons on his face might look like....Pinata time! And gifts...Adam, it is a blessing to see you learn and grow. I love being your mommy!

Church Picnic

A month ago we had our church picnic here. The folks staying in our basement at the time took some pictures and sent them to us. Here's a few. We had a good time as always, and once again God provided good weather.Grilling the sausage links...

With my expanding belly and Rod's back being worse then usual of late, we've really needed to get creative with "wrestle time" in the evening with the boys. Here was tonight's version. Rod assisted them with somersaults just using his arm. pretty funny to watch...

Combine rides!

My brother gave the boys combine rides today. Mikey got a good laugh out of all the questions they were asking. I think they enjoyed it and hopefully remember it for a long time.

Update on twins...

...not my twins. A few months ago i posted about the Shellengberger twins, born at 25 weeks. I saw on their blog they are coming home tomorrow. That's very excited for the parents. I remember it being surreal when we took ours home and they were only in a little less then a month. I can't imagine the relief of taking theirs home after 12ish weeks of the NICU. They are going home on oxygen and monitors so keep them in your prayers. They have done VERY well in the NICU. I was amazed at the reports, they digest their feedings well, nursing good, and all tests (eye, head, etc) have come back fine. Praise God!

I've/we have decided not to go ahead with the Progestorne shots to help stop any possible pre-term labor. We feel like since there's only 1 this time that this should be a normal pregnancy. After finding out it would be a weekly shot from now until the end i was kinda turned off by the idea! So if you think about it, pray for a safe and non eventful pregnancy. And for peace for me. I'd like my (potentially) last pregnancy to be pleasant and not a fearful thing. Also slap me if i complain about being pregnant towards the end :) I will be happy to make it to the end!!

the 3 little handsomes~