baby girl on the way!

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.

autism family weekend

Last weekend (Nov. 19-21), we got to attend the Autism Family Weekend at the Center for Courageous Kids in Scottsville, KY. A good friend of ours, Holly Conley, works out there and had encouraged us to apply. CCK is a non-profit campground that allows kids with disabilities to attend camp when they otherwise might not have that opportunity. The best part is that because it is a non-profit, run on donations, it is free for campers and families to attend. During the summer, older kids attend camp for a week depending on their disability. In the fall, the center has family weekends so that kids of all ages can attend with their families.

It was a lot of fun, and the boys had a blast. Each family is assigned a volunteer counselor to help get them around and to help the kids so that parents can relax a little.

Our counselor was Kellie from Lindsay Wilson. She worked at CCK over the summer and the boys both loved her, especially Owen. Because Lewis was doing some bigger boy activities, Owen got to make some things in the arts & crafts area. He painted a guitar and then this turtle. He's actually a decent painter.

The food was great, and Owen tried tons of new foods, especially fruit. Lewis stuck with his usual menu for the most part, but it was great that the dining hall had rice milk on hand!

We got to go swimming in an indoor pool, make crafts, play in the music room, look at horses (neither child wanted to ride), and fish. Lewis' favorite activity turned out to be......drum roll please........

BOWLING!! We couldn't believe how much he loved it. They had these metal ramp things that allowed him to roll the ball down and he did pretty well, with daddy's help. There were also bumper rails up.
The last day, we let Owen have a turn. They had shoes that fit his little feet! He really enjoyed taking his turn too. It was a fun weekend, but a bit exhausting because Owen had a hard time sleeping in such a big room with his whole family. But, it was nice to talk to other families dealing with the same kinds of things, and to expose our boys to things we normally wouldn't have.

falling leaves

The fall has been pretty nice for us. Owen has enjoyed some times swinging at the park.

And riding the little bike.



The boys enjoyed playing in the leaves. Most of them are gone now, thanks to the city who comes and picks them up from the front yard! But there are still a few to play in.

Lewis distracted himself during lunch the other day by trying on daddy's hat.

halloween highlights

Halloween was filled with emotion as we headed out to trick or treat the evening before on the square downtown. Owen was not excited about being a lion, but really enjoyed getting and eating candy. Aunt Monica posed with the boys before we started to trick or treat.

Aunt Jeanne helped calm Owen down.

We hit the streets with Grandma & Grandpa.

We met up with our friend, Jack Sternberg and his family for trick-or-treating. Jack was a cute pirate!

The boys got around the square without injury, and oddly enough, Lewis has decided he loves Twix and chocolate in general. We have let him slack on the GFCF diet, and so far does not seem to have impacted him despite having some milk products. He's had plenty of wheat thus far, but has had a lot more milk (as an ingredient only, he is still devoted to his rice milk) since his chocolate obsession has kicked in. We are still working on eating all the candy.

jackson's orchard

Okay, so once again, we have been slow to update. But when you see all of these cute pictures, you'll understand why. We went to Jackson's Orchard about a month ago and had a great time. It was hard to get both kids looking at the camera at once, but we got some nice moments.





Checking out the decorative gourds.

Owen and Lewis got to go down slides together.


We visited the petting zoo, and were kind of disappointed that many of the animals were not there. They were running late that day apparently. But the boys got to see the goats and sheep.



Owen got to have some apple slush while Lewis jumped in the bounce house.

It was a gorgeous day!

Lewis' school activities

Last week, Lewis had a field trip to Jackson's Orchard and a Halloween party at school. Thanks to some helpers watching Owen, I was able to go to both! We have been to the "pumpkin patch" multiple times in the last month, but it was fun seeing Lewis with his peers and he always loves it.

This was a class photo.

At the Halloween party, there were stations set up for the kids to visit. Lewis, dressed as Curious George, was not excited about any of the stations, but we went to several and Lewis was willing to participate. First, we went to the tattoo station. Lewis squirmed while we gave him his chosen Buzz Lightyear tattoo. He jerked away just after the tattoo had successfully transferred to his arm, and he was pretty happy about it.

We decorated a cookie with icing and sprinkles and then headed to the pumpkin decorating table. The kids got to decorate the pumpkins they got at the orchard the day before. Lewis enjoyed putting some puffy stickers on his pumpkin.

Finally, with some prodding, Lewis held still to get his face painted. We skipped a couple of the other stations, but he ate a plate full of BBQ chips during snacktime, so all in all, it was a successful time.