Austin

For some reason we struggle to get out of town for anything besides visiting family. Well, I guess that's the reason. We use our vacation time and resources for traveling to Kentucky instead of for vacations - one of the cons to living so far away. Anyway, we had our first family vacation last week to Austin, TX. Sorry, everyone, but Kentucky isn't quite vacation. :)

Even though Austin is only three hours away, we tried really hard to make it feel like vacation, and Austin made it easy to do. People have been telling us for years how cool Austin is. Actually, they've been telling us how weird Austin is, and how much we'd love it because it's our kind of weird. We loved it so much that Stephen said the whole time that he was putting in job applications and house hunting. I kept reminding him that real life there would look very similar to real life here. I still haven't convinced him.

Anyway, we LOVED Austin, and I think it's safe to say the kids LOVED vacation. Here are some of the highlights.

 Playing on the monkey bars at Zilker Metropolitan Park. One thing that makes Austin so cool is that there are parks and running/biking trails all over the city. It seems impossible to be inactive there. Being outdoors and on the move is the way of life.

 On the Zilker Zephyr - a miniature train that takes a scenic route through the park, through tunnels and under bridges.

 Waiting for the Congress Avenue bats to make their appearance.

 Austin is home to the largest urban bat colony in North America. They live under this bridge, and every evening around dusk they emerge in search of food for their baby bats. People line the bridge and sit on the grass below the bridge to watch them. We chose the grass.

 There they are!

Another great thing about Austin is the food. Not only do many restaurants pride themselves in buying local, fresh products, but there are food trucks throughout the city. We went to a couple of the restaurants people recommended, but our favorites turned out to be the food trucks. Kebabalicious served Turkish style wraps (in Turkish, it's a durum), and I think it was the best Turkish food we've had in America, although it might compete with the Middle Eastern Market down the road from us.

If Korean BBQ and Mexican cuisine had a love child, it would be named Chi'lantro. The Chi'lantro food truck was featured on "Heat Seekers" on the Food Network, and their food is a Korean/Mexican fusion. They serve Korean BBQ tacos and burritos. Incredible!

 Stephen found Evie like this one morning - sleeping completely inside her sleeping bag. I think the biggest treat for Nate and Evie was staying in a hotel! They loved it and it was pretty much all they talked about.

 And we did have a really cool hotel. We stayed in a green hotel, so we swam in a salt water swimming pool, drank organic fair trade coffee, ate an organic breakfast with vegetarian options, and were free to pick anything we wanted from the fruit and nut trees around the property. Seriously.

The most disappointing thing we did was visit the Lyndon B. Johnson presidential library and museum. It's being renovated, so they only had a couple exhibits open inside. However, outside they had this replica of an ancient statue found in Mexico built by the Olmecs. Not sure what it has to do with LBJ...

 "Who can make the funniest face?" contest while we waited
 for our food at Kerby Lane Cafe.

 Sweet sunburnt cheeks! Sometime sunscreen isn't enough in Texas.

Chipmunk cheeks.

Winner! 

I really can't believe I'm posting this picture.

Summer

So this summer has not been a good one for the blog. It's actually been a great summer - apparently so good that we can't remember to take pictures or tell about what's been going on. So I'll take a moment to post the few pictures we have taken and give a little update.

Since Stephen is (mostly) home for the summer, we've done some much needed reorganizing. We hit our craft supplies, play room, and closets hard, and hopefully will be able to maintain them throughout the year. I made a monthly cleaning schedule - something I've wanted to do for a long time. I created small jobs to do each day/week so that throughout the month the entire house will be cleaned well. Hopefully that will keep house cleaning from being so overwhelming all the time. I'll let you know how that one goes. So far so good.

I've also been "homeschooling" the kids this summer. I realized Evie needed major help with recognizing the alphabet and knowing their sounds, so we've been focusing on three letters each week. Nate and Evie have both loved it. Evie has made major strides and it has made homeschooling a little less intimidating for all of us. I don't plan to homeschool, but every once in a while it swims around in my head. 

Anyway, those things mixed with swimming at our YMCA water park, having friends over for dinner, a vacation to Austin (which I'll blog about next) and trying to simply enjoy our days together have made this summer a great one!

 Something we actually haven't done much of this summer - movies and popcorn.

 Evie loves her babies. Here she's reading to her baby and getting ready to put her to bed. She's going to be a sweet big sister!

 Dressing up like Granddad.
The classic Johnie Blan: Duke hat and sunglasses hanging from his shirt.

 "Too me!" as Evie says. I hope she never says "Me too!"

 Outside with Dad climbing the tree. It's a good thing I wasn't around. :)

We love our tree!

Passport

Since Nate will be turning five (5!) next month, it's time to renew his passport. Can you believe he's gone from this:

Stephen holding him in his first passport picture when he was less than a week old.

To this:

A picture Stephen took the other day for Nate's renewed passport.

In five short years? Me neither! That day we spent with sweet friends making our way to the U.S. Embassy in Istanbul to get our babies' passports seems like so long ago. And WOW how they grow and develop into little people in such a short amount of time! Hopefully his new passport will get even more stamps than his old one. No, we have no immediate plans for travel, but we really miss seeing the world. We like to keep our passports current so we'll be ready to go when it's time to go. :)

It's a ...

blue cake! And yes, that means Nate and Evie are going to have a baby brother! We had our sonogram on Wednesday, but waited to tell them the news in a more fun way. I made my first ever poke cake with berry blue jell-o to tell them. They knew that when we cut into it a pink cake would mean a baby sister and a blue cake would mean a baby brother. They made their bets - Nate very adamantly bet on a girl and Evie on a boy. Nate was disappointed, but once he realized the boys in the house would outnumber the girls, he was all for a baby brother! I have to say I was more disappointed than I thought I would be too. I really thought it was a boy, but I still hoped it was a girl. I've quickly adjusted to the idea of a little boy though. I might even be ready to think about boy names soon - the most stressful part of having a baby for us! Anyway, here are some pictures of the event.

 Evie waiting, not so patiently, to cut the cake. We got Nana and Granddad on the webcam first.

 Blue! Actually, a little green because I used a yellow cake mix. Oh well!

 Evie liked the whipped cream, but not the cake. I don't blame her. I didn't like it either. It was too artificial tasting with the jell-o. Don't think I'll make any more poke cakes!

But Nate loved every bite!

Birthday Girl

Evie is three! We've been out of town since right after her birthday, so I'm finally able to post some pictures. She decided she wanted a ladybug cake a few months before her birthday, and I think she mentioned it at least once a day from that time until her birthday. So when the cake was finished, she was one excited little girl! For the first time, she and Nate sat and watched me decorate the cake. They've reached an age where I feel like I can do things like that during the day, while they sit with me and watch, instead of waiting until they're in bed and staying up late to finish it - which makes me wonder why we're starting over with a baby. Maybe they'll entertain the baby while I work. Maybe. :)

Anyway, our sweet girl is three years old, which of course is very hard to believe. She celebrated with ladybug cupcakes at school - not pictured below, but they looked like these - and then we celebrated at the park with a few friends the day before we left for Kentucky. It was all a little rushed because of our trip, which I'll post more about later, but we made it and enjoyed celebrating our little girl.

 Birthday Girl!

 With Mom ...

 With Dad ...

 And being silly with Nate.

 At the park.

 Opening her gifts.

Opening her gifts from Mom, Dad, and family at home.

My sister got Evie a sleeping bag for her birthday. She gave Nate one for his birthday too - a little early - and they were a hit! They slept in them for two and a half weeks while we traveled. What a great idea!

Pizza Dough Family of Five

Evie with her pizza dough family.

We like to make our own pizza. So when I make pizza dough I always make extra so the kids can have some dough to play with while I work on the rest of the pizza ingredients. They usually roll it out and cut it into shapes. Then I bake it and they get to eat a shaped bread stick with their pizza. Last Saturday was pizza night, and Evie cut her dough into pizza-bread men. She made five - one for each of us. Five! We're planning to be a family of five in November. Evie was so sweet to make one for the baby in Mommy's tummy. I'm 15 weeks pregnant and due November 1st. I've had a couple sonograms and have also heard the baby's heartbeat twice with the doppler. There's a little life growing inside of me!

One of the most evident effects the loss of Baby Joy has had on this pregnancy is that I've had a lot of anxiety about telling people I'm pregnant. Usually I'm dying to tell people and can't hold it in, but I just haven't wanted to tell anyone. Not even our kids. But now I'm out of my first trimester and have quite a baby bump, so there's no way around it. I'm pregnant! I've found the more I spread the news the easier it gets. I guess I thought people would respond with a look of insanity along with "Really? You're really going to do this again?" But instead I've been met with genuine joy and excitement by those I've told, and every time I'm completely stunned by it. Maybe in my anxieties I'm the one who's forgotten the joy and blessing of this life that's being knit together inside of me.

We told the kids our news when I was 12 weeks, right after my second sonogram. I expected them to be very excited because Nate has been asking and praying for a baby for months. We took them out for ice cream, and when they were finished we showed them the sonogram pictures and told them about their new baby brother or sister. Evie let out a big "Yay!" But Nate wasn't excited. He immediately began asking questions about Baby Joy. What if this baby gets sick too? How do we know it's healthy? He couldn't be excited. He needed time.

Nate really took Joy's death hard. It wasn't the first time he'd been exposed to death. He was eight months old when my mom died, and that loss has been part of his life. He asks me often if I'm sad my mommy died and if I miss my mommy. But his little heart just couldn't understand our baby dying. HIS baby dying. For months he asked questions about why she had to die. How did she get sick? Am I going to die? Are you going to die? Every time he began this series of questions I told him I didn't know all the answers, but every time I also told him what I do know.  I went back to the very beginning and told the story about how Adam and Eve sinned, and because of their sin sickness and death came into the world. We live in a broken world, and we are broken. I told about how Jesus came to heal the world, and how we need Him to rescue us. That one day there will be no more sickness and death.

Nate kept asking questions for a while after we told him about the new baby - a lot of questions that a four year old should not have to ask. But he needs answers before he can move on and be excited about this baby. I can't blame him, but I pray that as he processes all of these things God is speaking deeply into his heart about who He is. I do think Nate is finally warming up to the idea of another baby. I still sense his hesitation when we talk about it, but he's told a few people that there's a baby in my tummy, and that's a big step.

So, please pray for us. Pray that this baby would be healthy. Pray that our hearts would be filled with joy when we think about the little life that is about to join our family. Pray that as I approach weeks 16-18 of this pregnancy I would walk without fear, but find great joy in knowing how our sweet baby looks at that stage and imagining how beautifully he/she's growing.

 Nate was just as proud of his pizza dough shapes.

Growing Like Weeds

Here's a quick update on our little weeds:

This is what happens to little girls who refuse to nap! Ever since we took her pacifiers away last August, Evie hasn't napped (except at school when her teachers soothe her to sleep.) She still goes to her room to rest everyday - because Mommy needs a few moments away. But, thankfully, she never acts overly tired or melts down in the evenings. Anyway, last Sunday she must have been really tired because she fell asleep while we were pushing her in the baby swing. Sweet girl! She has actually been swinging all by herself in the big swing the past few days too - one of my very favorite milestones.

In other Evie news, this little girl is potty trained! She was ready for a while, but I wasn't. So when I finally put the time into it, she pretty much potty trained herself. She's still wearing a pull-up at night, but she even gets up in the night to go and stays completely dry a lot of nights. I've been SO impressed by this. I never expected one of my children to make potty training so easy!

You can't tell very well in this picture, but Nate had pink eye last weekend. It took me a day to diagnose him because I had never seen it before. Thankfully the doctor's office called his prescription in for us, so we didn't have to take him in. It healed quickly, and I'm glad it's over with!

In other Nate news, we've made the decision to wait a year before sending him to kindergarten. His birthday is in August, and the cutoff here is September 1st. We went back and forth all year, but our decision is firm now. I'm glad to have one more year with my little boy!

As for our other child, our garden, it's growing beautifully. Well, mostly! Our tomato plants are doing so well that they're taking over the garden. But we're really okay with that. One bite of a homegrown tomato will be enough to make the garden worth it. Our basil is doing well, and I made a batch of pesto with it today. I think we'll eventually have some bell peppers too, but that might be all we get this season. It has been a lot of fun to check it everyday and watch it grow. We just might have to expand it so we can have a tomato garden and a garden with other vegetables.

Soccer: Round Two

Nate is playing soccer again this spring, and today was his first game. He has improved quite a bit since last year when he was afraid of the purple guys. He scored two goals today! We'll try not to expect the same every week, but I have to say we're pretty proud of him for playing so well. Great job, Nate!

Nate was the team captain today, so he got to kick off.

Scooter Derby

Thanks to Uncle Sam, Nate got a new scooter. Now Nate's old scooter is Evie's, and there's no more fighting over who gets to ride the scooter. Yay! The evening we gave Nate his new one they rode in circles around and around the driveway. Evie can really move on that thing - almost enough to keep up with Nate. It reminded me of when I was little and Nathan, Elizabeth, and I played Roller Derby in the basement of 120 Viewpoint Drive. We would roller skate around and around the basement. I'm sure I was always a little behind, but I have them to thank for my competitive nature! I'm sure Evie will be no different.

They LOVE their scooters!

 Around and around ...

 and around and around.

So thankful for his new scooter!

Our Little Garden

Stephen has been working hard on our garden. We've decided this is his project, so he's doing all the work. I wasn't ready to take on another project, so he promised to do it all. I've only contributed by telling him what to plant. Thankfully, I'll still reap the benefits!

He has planted lettuce, spinach, swiss chard, cucumbers, green onions, zucchini, pumpkin, red, yellow, orange, and green bell peppers, broccoli, and lots of tomatoes. The tomatoes are a gamble. There's a good chance they won't do well here. But we love garden tomatoes too much not to give them a good try - especially since we have more space than we realized. We also planted some herbs in buckets - rosemary, basil, cilantro, and oregano. So if nothing grows, we'll know we gave it a good effort and we'll try again. If everything grows, our neighbors and friends will love us! We planted way more than we'll be able to eat. Here's our little garden:

 When Stephen was planting the green onion seeds, Evie decided the entire packet of seeds should be dumped out. We might have onions coming out of our ears!

 Lettuce sprouts!

Broccoli!

Cliffs Notes

It seems that I've been struggling to keep up, so I'm giving you the Cliffs Notes version of what we've been up to. Cliffs Notes are on my mind because we've been cleaning out closets, and I have a stack of at least 20 of them from my mom's house that I have to decide whether to save or get rid of. Opinions? Anyway, here's what we've been up to:

 Evie has worn my lipstick more than I have lately. She's been quite the two-year-old the past few weeks, and it's kind of wearing me out. Maybe that's the reason I'm behind! She sleeps in her big bed now, and she loves it, but evidently she doesn't love it enough to stay in it. She has always been my late sleeper/no napper, but she's waking up at 6:00 most mornings and still refusing to nap, and it's a seriously bad combo. We're working hard on re-training her to sleep, so I have hope that it WILL get better soon.

 Hold onto your seats - Stephen and I went out on a date! We went to see my favorite band, Over the Rhine. It was an acoustic evening with just Linford and Karen, so they performed a lot of their older stuff. We sat and soaked it in. They don't know it, but they're writing the soundtrack to my life. :) I felt like I'd gone home for an evening. I miss that feeling. I miss that place.

 We're starting a little garden! It's something we've wanted to do for a couple years, so we're finally giving it a good try. I'm not sure what we're planting yet (I know, we're a little behind), but we have everything else ready to go.

The soil we used has turkey poo in it. Yum!

 Stephen ran the Cowtown half-marathon on Sunday. The kids and I tracked him down along the way. Two years ago he ran the full marathon. I think he was glad he only did the half this year!

One of the signs I made for the kids to hold said, "Enjoy the peace and quiet. We'll be at the finish line!" He did and we were!