Cousins and babies and chicks, oh my!

This weekend was so fun. My cousin Sara and her family came for a visit, they have 2 little boys . . . we took them downtown for a little sight seeing. They loved Pike Place . . .
Sunday we went to our friend's baby blessing up in Everrett and had a wonderful time at their house afterwards with their family and friends.
Last week we got the baby chicks in the mail- yep, that's how they do it! Even the feed stores get theirs in the mail, so you might as well go that route . .

Stephen just has to put the finishing chicken wire on the open part of the coop- that little side door is where the nesting boxes are and we can easily gather eggs (when there are some)

He modified it to make a good brooding area- it needs to be at least 95 degrees for the chicks!
The whole side of the coop comes off for easy cleaning
One of our 11 Rhode Island Reds, they look bigger than even 3 days before! Every day they get more real feathers and get bigger

This is the one rare breed they sent, they throw it in for free. We don't know what kind it is, but right here it's a little sick- and you can tell it won't be as big as the Rhode Islanders. I found out what was wrong and this chick is on the mend now

The girls are getting good at scooping up the chicks and the chicks are getting good at letting them hold them. Domesticated chicks! That's what we need. By the way, we will be selling some of the chicks, we can only have 8 and besides that I am not sure the coop is big enough for 8. We built it with 3 in mind . . . then they upped the limit to 8

Odessa takes her ballet practice very seriously, they are both still taking lessons at the Community Center

I picked up this knight costume at a thrift store thinking one of my friends with a boy would want it for Halloween, but I think we will keep it so the boys that come over have something to dress up in! Ada at once insisted he dance with her after he was done slaying some dragons

Once they got the twirling thing down, they were having a riot! It was SO ADORABLE

I haven't had salsa in 7 weeks and . . .

I keep the oven fan running all day long . . . .
I have to avoid looking at fast food signs when I drive and I change the channel when their commercials come on . . . .
I also haven't eaten chocolate in over 7 weeks!
Did you guess yet? Many of you know already (because I have a Varsity letter in whining)- I am pregnant. And about 10 times more sick than I ever was with Odessa and Ada- which really threw me for a loop. There were a couple weeks I just felt like curling into a ball most days. Good thing the girls are so independent and Stephen so nice . . . and patient . . . and long suffering . . . .
After trying lots of alternative remedies for morning sickness, my Dr finally prescribed me some Zofran. This was heaven in a bottle. In fact, I started taking a half dose right away because a whole dose made me feel too good to be pregnant. So a bit of the nausea remains, but it's manageable. I even cook a bit! If you want to have a debate about medicated vs non-medicated pregnancies, don't leave me a comment. Feel free to call : ). It took me a little while to be ok with this decision.

We are pretty excited! We have been trying to get pregnant for a LONG time (for us). With both Odessa and Ada it was like first or second try- for real. We have been trying since May of 2009 with an 8 week miscarriage in August 2009 (maybe another blog post, but I always knew that pregnancy wasn't "quite right"and wasn't shocked to miscarry although I was shocked by the hormonal aftermath it created.) So you can imagine our surprise each month when it still didn't happen.
But ok, now I am due in April (again) and all seems very well. In fact, too well. I am super sick and my tummy is SUPER big. Already. Not cool. In fact, before we even told the girls, Ada asked me why my tummy was so big: "do you have a baby in there?" she asked. Sheesh! They have been SO SWEET. They include me in every prayer "bless mommy to feel better" even in front of the entire primary at an activity after which several teachers turned to smile at me. Secret out? Not sure. The girls would also draw me special get well drawings, bring me blankets and cover me up . . . . they will make great mini-moms.
We officially told them last night . . . starting with a book about becoming a big sister we used when Ada was born.
Me: Ada, what you need to be a big sister?
Ada: . . . . . . . to be four?
Me: No, not really- Odessa was a big sister when she was 1 and a half years old! What do you have to have to be a big sister?
Ada: . . . . . grown up?
Stephen: No . . . . what does our family have to get, to have, for Ada to become a big sister (pointing now to the baby in the book).
Odessa: (lighting up like a Christmas tree) WE'RE GOING TO HAVE A BABY!!!!

And then the pandemonium broke loose. Ada spent much of the night being a dog and then a baby. Despite her months of wanting a baby so badly, I think she has realized she might have some competition once one actually arrives. Odessa was just thrilled- I couldn't get her to stop rubbing my belly. She even crawled into bed with me this morning and asked if I had grown bigger from last night. Great. I am excited to take them to my next appointment and have them hear the heartbeat. When I first heard it was the moment I think I let myself really believe I was pregnant.
As for our anniversary- it was de ja vousish for us. I also had morning sickness on our second anniversary and we ended up eating at a Greek restaurant that night. For this anniversary, I had a Groupon for (you guessed it) a nice Greek restaurant. I am not really TRYING to solidify never wanting to eat greek food again in my life, but if you have to pick a type of food . . . well you can't hate Italian food for the rest of your life!

School's in session

My kids are not in preschool. Since they are both tall and Odessa will be 5 in a month, they get asked the preschool question almost daily by someone. But we did like the idea of them having some kind of structured learning at home and we definitely liked the idea of them having little desks they could play with. Two Craigslist phone calls, one late night trip later and we had 2 little desks for them. I had a bunch of pre-K workbooks and they LOVE playing school. You can also tell from the mess that they love using them for art and have tons of paper everywhere. These also came in handy during our church conference since the desks are in the computer room and we have to watch General Conference on the internet. We got them all set up with food, then listening activities and coloring. It was pretty su-weet.

What else is sweet is the spider webs around my yard. I have not destroyed one of them since I want them to eat the noxious flies that reside in the carport and sneak into the house. I caught the most perfect one I have ever seen on camera. It gets us in the spooky mood- we'll be decorating for Halloween soon! Most of you know it's my second favorite holiday and I have almost as many Halloween decorations as Christmas. They have been itching to get out of the boxes as this is the first year we aren't apartment bound.

Women's Conference

Saturday night our church had it's worldwide women's conference that was broadcast from Salt Lake City. The women in our church 18 yrs and older belong to the Relief Society, the largest women's organization in the world. We had several speakers and their messages were inspirational, but rather than share something in particular about what they said, I wanted to share something that occurred to me just in the time I was listening. Many people who read my blog are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and I hope those who aren't will bear with me talking a little spiritually today.
I think many friends and family can identify with the fact that sometimes your faith in God and the gospel message seems strong and other times it seems weak. Sometimes you are growing in knowledge and your beliefs and hopes and testimony and sometimes it just seems to stagnate. Frankly, I had such great times of growth in my teen, young adult years and serving a mission for my church that in comparison, the last 6 years have seemed a bit lacking. This is most definitely my fault as I have slacked off in my study and prayer.
I decided Saturday night during that conference that I wanted to make a list of all the experiences that led me to believe in God, that he knows me and my name, that I believe in my church and the Gospel we preach. I have had little and big experiences my whole life that my testimony is based on. Each testimony building experience is like adding another block to my foundation, something that keeps me solid in faith. I love that I often reflect on these experiences, but I wanted to see them grouped together on a sheet of paper and see how powerful they looked when built on one another. Like the memory of when I was 14 years old - I had a great experience listening to a speaker at a youth conference where I felt Jesus' love for me and just knew He had died for ME or the time on my mission in the Philippines when I prayed so hard asking God why I felt like He left me all alone out there and it was like He came up behind me and whispered in my ear that He was right there and always would be.

I know this list will be a treasure I always keep. I wanted to share this experience in church Sunday and in our Relief Society meeting there was about 2 minutes of dead space when I could have easily gotten up and shared, but I waited and I missed that chance. I just didn't want to let it go without recording it and hope maybe it would help someone else as well.

September 18th 2010

Happy 6th Anniversary to my honey. More about our anniversary to come in a later post . . . .

She's her father's child

When Odessa kept pulling out these 2 green items and insisting they matched because they were both green, I vaguely remembered having the same discussion with her father a couple times about shades of green. Chalk it up to another "you're your father's daughter moment" She is so much like him, it's uncanny.
(btw- the pants are much more olive green than the camera picked up, I promise! lol)

Slackers do not work on Labor Day

I've been a slacker lately. My sister Alyssa and her husband Jeff were here for Labor Day weekend and we had SO MUCH FUN with them. I did not take any pictures. Such a slacker. See, these pictures would help convince the rest of you how much fun you would have if you came to see us in Seattle. So I can give you a play-by-play until my sister sends some of her photos . . . I will warn you- I think one of the best things about Seattle is food and actually food tours are one of the most popular tourist attraction around here.

Saturday we went to Fisherman's Terminal to buy some salmon and I finally found out the difference between like 5 different kinds of salmon- the guys down there are awesome. Then we went to the Lockes and saw some salmon trying hard to head inland and not get killed and eaten by us . . . we ate lunch in Ballard (some of us even had salmon for lunch) then headed off to the Pacific Science Center- fun for kids and adults! Plus now we have like 12 IMAX tickets, who wouldn't want to get in on that action? They have the coolest nature IMAX shows there. We cooked our salmon that night with green beans from the garden among other things . . .

Sunday Alyssa and Jeff hopped on the ferry to attend Jeff's brother's wedding in Poulsbo. If you come and don't have a wedding to attend in Poulsbo, we will take you there. You need to ride on a ferry and see some of the quaint towns on the penninsula and islands that are so cute and so Scandinavian.
Monday we picked them up from the ferry and headed straight to Pike Place market. Being yocals, we know to get in line at Beechers for some cheese, get in line at Pike Place Chowder and get some chowders like smoked salmon and seared scallop and then cry when my favorite fruit and veggie stand is closed for Labor Day and I can't get the peaches I've been talking up. Seeing as how the cream from the chowders was seeping into our bloodstream, I couldn't tempt anyone to stand in line for the mini doughnuts- but when you come, we'll get some. We enjoyed the rest of the market, most especially the flowers and the fact that we were stroller free. On the long walk back to the car Alyssa and I used a coupon at Dahlia's bakery to buy a most scrumptious loaf of flax pecan bread. HELLO. Meanwhile, outside the bakery, Stephen pulled Odessa's loose tooth out and she jumped for joy for 5 minutes that she was finally getting a dollar from the tooth fairy. We drove them to Gas Works Park where we walked around and then by request, we drove across the 2 floating bridges that cross Lake Washington (Jeff's an engineer ya know). We all got so hungry in the car we tore off chunks of the flax pecan loaf and ate it with Beechers cheese curds. With one last stop at Cupcakes Royale, we were set for the night. We had a BIG salad, the rest of the bread and cupcakes for dessert. We bid them a sad goodbye Tuesday morning- there were still so many places to see and foods to eat!

Thursday was Stephen's birthday! It was a small fanfare year.
The girls kept calling him BIRTHDAY BOY! and giggling

Looking at the photo book from Mom and Dad Hunt

He requested carrot cake and on his birthday we walked down on Alki Beach

Saturday was Volunteer Day and I went up to the Seattle Center to help with the Alzheimers fundraiser- memory walk. They raised almost $320,000! I got to block traffic at an intersection for walkers- it was so much fun. I felt like a traffic cop.
Saturday afternoon we went to the Puyallup Fair and had the best time we've had with kids so far. No stroller (can you tell, Stephen really wants them to toughen up?) and we just had a blast doing mostly the things they were interested in doing. There was a whole building of dog breeds with one of each out for you to pet- heaven for the girls. They got to see the miniature ponies and watch a bunch of dance classes perform on stage- another thing they dream about. We got to eat our favorite foods and see some horse showing and we ended up staying past 8- which was way longer than we planned. SO FUN. Sigh. I love fairs.
This dog was seriously twice as big as Odessa and could have fit her head in his mouth

She was so good at milking the cow that the dairy maid offered her her job

You should have seen Odessa, she would turn the wheel and lean into the curves just like she was really driving. A dad close to me noticed and pointed it out to his wife "watch this girl, she holds the wheel on the straight-aways and turns on the corners!" I told him we were signing her up for Drivers Ed soon.