On the last day of 2010, I had to do one more post that we forgot from last summer. In June, we went to a "Day Out With Thomas" at the Kentucky Railway Museum in New Haven, Ky. In August, I noticed that it had been left out of our blog entries. I sort of resolved to include it before the end of the year. It was a lot of fun, so we are squeezing in a bunch of pics from it before midnight. :)
There were lots of different activities that the boys loved. Here is Owen playing at one of the train tables.
Lewis was in a sign phase where he really loved the little railroad crossing signs and other random signs. He he had collected several and was looking at them in this picture.
There was a music area. Owen was into dancing, but both boys had trouble following directions!
Owen and daddy share a happy moment.
Lewis got to jump in a bounce house, and really loved it.
Owen got to play in a bubble area. Grandma Martha made a BIG bubble!
Next, we headed to the train for our real train ride. Justin handed the tickets to the conductor.
Lewis, me and Aunt Ellen wait for the ride to start.
Aunt Ellen, Aunt Beth and Owen.
Owen, Justin and me after the ride. This is what the front of the train looked like.
We stopped for a few pictures at the museum entrance. The boys with Grandma & Grandpa.
A Shepherd family portrait. It was fun and SUPER hot that day! Happy 2011! :)
On Christmas we awoke to find some presents for the boys. Owen was thrilled with the stocking full of candy. They each got a Zhu Zhu pet, and Owen was pretty freaked out by his. Lewis likes to throw them.
Owen models his stocking.
Owen got a Fisher Price Nativity scene from Aunt Ellen.
Lewis got a "Band in a Box" from Grandma & Grandpa. Both boys have loved playing with the instruments. There were a few more tears opening gifts this time, and Owen still seems to want whichever toy Lewis is playing with at the moment. Unless he has an iPhone, he wants Lewis' toy....whatever it may be. Which has made for some fun times!
Lewis sang a beautiful rendition of "Happy Birthday" to the baby Jesus. We let him blow out the candle too. We always get an ice cream cake from DQ. Yum!
Owen loves his new vacuum, and his new Thomas t-shirt.
Lewis' favorite gift (and one of Owen's faves too) is this Melissa & Doug mailbox. There are stamps for each piece of mail, and slots to put them in that are size specific. It is really cool. I love these toys for so many reasons! Since our boys are both into mail, it has been a big hit.
We spent Christmas Eve in Shepherdsville with the Shepherds! Lewis was pretty excited about all the wrapped gifts and the big bows on them.
He got some great books from Grandma & Grandpa and Aunt Monica.
Owen got some awesome wooden cars from Aunt Jeanne.
The boys also got some Thomas train track extensions to make their train track extra cool. They drove the cars on the track since their trains were at home. This visit was really nice because the boys did not fight over toys constantly. They actually played together some.
The bad part of the day was the ride home. We got caught in the snow about Munfordville Christmas Eve night. This was Park City, I believe. By that point, we could no longer see the lines on the roads and were pretty afraid of the other drivers out there. Thankfully we made it home safely, thanks to Justin's careful maneuvering, though it took a while longer than usual. It was lovely once we got home and knew everyone was safe. Had I been further along pregnancy-wise, I'm pretty confident I would've gone into labor over this trip!! We ended up with about 4 inches of snow in our yard.
We took advantage of the break from school to take the boys to the Opryland Hotel. Aunt Ellen and Aunt Beth accompanied us on the trip since daddy was at work. The boys liked the trees and decorations.
This was a really nice Christmas tree. Owen couldn't resist touch this tree that was easily reached.
We found a fun Christmas festival. It was kinda pricey, but we had to ride this little train to the North Pole. The boys loved it, and Owen was devastated when the ride was over.
It was fun walking around, and good to get some exercise despite the coldness outside.
Afterward, we stopped at Chick-fil-A in Rivergate for lunch. There was a crazy balloon artist there making all kinds of things for the kiddos. He made Owen this monkey hanging on a palm tree. Owen couldn't have been more delighted! The man asked Lewis if he wanted something and Lewis promptly said, "No!" but he did seem to like watching him make things for other people. It was pretty impressive.
Last week, Lewis had a program at school where the kiddos performed some songs. Lewis has been singing the songs a ton at home, but didn't really participate much with the group. We had to wait a bit for them to get started. Owen did okay waiting, but daddy had to help entertain.
Lewis mostly shook his jingly antlers around.
Owen enjoyed wearing them when the program was over. They fed us dinner, so it was a nice evening overall.
We went to the Christmas Parade downtown in early December. It was a blast!! The boys love the marching bands, and there were tons. Lewis would say, "Here come the drummers!" And Owen was dancing up a storm. It was really precious.
This was a little friend we met. He asked me to take his picture. :)
Aunt Beth came and had fun too.
Some of the floats threw candy too, which is always welcome! It was a super happy time for all of us.
We checked out the light up Bowling Green event a few weeks ago. It was fun (as you can see by Aunt Beth's expression above), but did not wow the kids as much as we had hoped. Owen loves walking around downtown and looking at the Christmas trees in the store windows. He especially loves the moving Santas at Dollar Brothers Shoes. So, despite the excitement we were hoping for, the boys liked seeing the decor downtown.
These are some random shots from the last few weeks. It was super cold the beginning of December, so Owen and I took a trip to the mall and walked with the mall walkers. We took a break so he could ride in this blue car.
The boys have been addicted to manger scenes. They are not very picky what kind it is, and can name all characters. They have fought over the baby Jesus in our little metal version.
There were some fun events this month, one being the Kentucky Christmas event at the Kentucky Museum at WKU. Lewis got to make an ornament among other things. His favorite part was playing this big drum.
For those of you who just heard we are pregnant......please forgive us! We are 20 weeks now, due April 28, 2011. After a crazy start, things have gone fine. Essentially, soon after our positive home pregnancy test, I had some pain in my right lower abdomen, which led to a number of ultrasounds and early doctor visits. These early ultrasounds showed a yolk sac, and a good sized cyst on my right ovary which was believed to be the cause of the pain. At 7 weeks, a heartbeat was seen, and better yet, a baby, and Dr. Gass assured us that things were ok. He said that the cyst was large enough to cause discomfort, but nothing to be concerned about.
We were relieved, but still hesitant to make any big announcement because it had been kind of a scary few weeks. As our next ultrasound got closer, it seemed good to wait to see what kind of baby we were having.
I was super anxious to find out this baby's gender. I love our two boys with all my heart. But, I was really hopeful for a baby girl, for so many reasons. I almost felt silly praying and essentially begging God for a girl, but know I'm not the only who has done this. Still, I went into the ultrasound fully prepared for another boy. Because some babies do not cooperate during ultrasounds (and we've known of several recently), I went prepared sipping a Coke on the way to my appointment. The tech said that our baby was super active. :)
When she (the tech) started showing us the baby, she seemed worried that we didn't really want to know the sex. But we assured her we wanted to know and she quickly tried to get a good angle. I didn't see any obvious signs of boyhood, and she had a pretty good picture showing that we are indeed carrying a baby girl.With the crazy lives we lead, it was amazing to know that God heard my prayer and chose to bless us in this way. There are many things in life that are just hard to deal with, and some days it is overwhelming. Often we wonder if the Lord really sees all that we are going through. All of this to say, it was a wonderful and obvious gift to be having a baby girl, and we are so grateful. The boys don't really get what is going on yet, but they are sure to enjoy having a little sister.
Oddly, they were not able to get a good view of the baby's profile, so I will have another ultrasound at my next appointment while taking the blood glucose test.
There were lots of different activities that the boys loved. Here is Owen playing at one of the train tables.
Lewis was in a sign phase where he really loved the little railroad crossing signs and other random signs. He he had collected several and was looking at them in this picture.
There was a music area. Owen was into dancing, but both boys had trouble following directions!
Owen and daddy share a happy moment.
Lewis got to jump in a bounce house, and really loved it.
Owen got to play in a bubble area. Grandma Martha made a BIG bubble!
Next, we headed to the train for our real train ride. Justin handed the tickets to the conductor.
Lewis, me and Aunt Ellen wait for the ride to start.
Aunt Ellen, Aunt Beth and Owen.
Owen, Justin and me after the ride. This is what the front of the train looked like.
We stopped for a few pictures at the museum entrance. The boys with Grandma & Grandpa.
A Shepherd family portrait. It was fun and SUPER hot that day! Happy 2011! :)
