Sharing the News with our boys:-)

A few weeks ago we decided to share some big news with Logan. We were unsure of how to explain this new addition to a 3 year old boy, but he understood it quite well! It went something like this:

Mike and I sat Logan down and showed him a picture of me when I was very pregnant with Austin. We asked Logan what was in my belly and he thoughtfully answered, "a ball." We said no, it was a baby. "There is a baby in mommy's belly right now, we are having another baby!" Logan looked at us with the most genuine big mouth expression. Slowly he gave a huge smile! All night long, he kept saying, "there's a baby in your belly mommy". At one point he even jumped around and said, "this is going to be so much fun!". After Logan did this, I knew it was one of the reasons we have children. He came up to me and started pointing at my belly saying his usual, "there's a baby in your belly". He then quizzically looked at me and started to lift up my shirt looking for the baby.

I am sure many second/third (or more) time moms have so many fun stories to go along with their pregnancies. To see how a child starts to understand a growing family is so amazing and intriguing. It was hilarious to be wrestling with him later and have him all of a sudden shout out, "I gotta be careful for the baby", as he awkwardly avoids my stomach:-)

Some facts about our THIRD!

We found out almost a month ago, while in MN. We are due March 25th, though I think it is a little later than that. It was fun to share the news with Mike, even though this is our third. To see his excitement is always such a rush. Before we found out we were pregnant, the idea of being pregnant while he was on deployment created new circumstances. For instance, finding out what sex the baby is. I had an idea of putting the sex in an envelope then opening over skype, however, Mike got real amped up when HE decided that we aren't going to find out. So, ...sorry guys, you will know shortly after we know what the baby is, in about 8 months! It has been a roller coaster of a pregnancy as there was the possibility of a miscarriage early on. We went through the emotions of letting the baby go only to find out a few days later there was a heartbeat. I am very grateful that I didn't have to go through another miscarriage especially right before deployment. Nausea has been all day, food aversions and cravings galore. I am hungry all the time (so crazy!) and I can't wait for the next 4 weeks to be over so hopefully it will stop! Every time I am nauseous though, I count my blessings because it means the baby is there:-)

So we will keep you guys, family and friends, updated throughout the next several months! Mike will be seeing the pregnancy as you do, so there will probably be many updates:-) I had my "first" appointment today and saw the baby again, strong heartbeat and growing big! Welcome to the family little one number 3!!

Austin

What would I do without humor in my life?

Scavenger Hunt Sunday (or Monday in my case)

I have found some other amazing photography blogs that I just love to stare at and enjoy their creativity. One fun thing they did yesterday was this Scavenger Hunt for different photos. I decided I will join in because as I have enjoyed photography more I feel like I see the world through an "angled" lens (meaning I see different ways to take pictures around me). Hope you find it fun too!

To play along, visit Ashley's blog, Ramblings and Photos to see other Sunday Scavenger Hunts photo interpretations.

This weeks hunt:

• Mood
• Something Feminine
• Something Masculine
• Architecture
• First of Last Initial

Here are my interpretations:

MOOD: Here is our dog Otis waiting by, and enjoying, the new storm door we just put in. I can only imagine his mood:-)

SOMETHING MASCULINE: Here are my hubby's uniforms. The boots are nice and clean; getting ready for the upcoming deployment. I love to see the patches on his blouse which remind me of all that he has accomplished and our history as a military family.

SOMETHING FEMININE: I found this at my beloved store, TJ Maxx. I love how elegant and creamy it is. I couldn't believe that I found a place to put it! Here it hangs my jewelry.

FIRST or LAST INITIAL: I realized after trying to find my first or last initial that I didn't have any Monograms around the house! So I just found a large letter "E". I love this decoration because I made it from scratch! (no I did not cut out the letters...but basically everything else!)

ARCHITECTURE: Since I found this Scavenger Hunt yesterday, I didn't have time to find a neat building. This shot was taken this summer at a local plantation/historical home in Norfolk. It was a gorgeous building and had many creative angles!

Cutting the Grass with Dad

The infamous mower...every mom of a boy looks at this mower in the store and imagines the good times that her son will have someday with Dad mowing the lawn. How he will copy every move and turn that big Dad does. With a big smile on her face she brings the bubble mower home and excitedly gives it to her 1 year old. HA! Like a one year old knows what to do with that! Well, eventually a few years later it becomes the very memory that she dreamed of years ago.

Tonight Mike wanted Logan to help mow the lawn. Logan very much enjoys tinkering and working on things with his Dad...great quality time that I love to watch. So tonight as I was sitting on our deck watching the two boys (Dad and Logan) mow the back yard, it was hilarious to watch how Logan copied every move that Mike made! Every turn Mike did, Logan would turn no matter where he was in the lawn. He even one time shouted to Mike "I need gas!" and they pretended to fill Logan's lawn mower up and then pretended to pull the string to start it. I know these moments Logan may not remember, but they fill our tanks as parents and keep us motivated to be the example that we want our boys to follow. To turn and listen to our direction, to have confidence to "refuel" with our help, and to create a relationship that trusts each other even during a very loud lawn mowing experience. These pictures were priceless to me and I had to share them. I did take a video but it is on our Video Camera and I have yet to learn how to get it off.

Have any of you mothers bought a lawn mower or some other toy to create memories together?

If you look closely at this picture, I swear they are making the same face. I love to see Mike in Logan:-)

Fun Photography

Some of you may know that I am intrigued by photography. I am hesitant to share a love for taking pictures because so many of my close friends are experts and I am far from comparison to them. I know I am very much of an amateur, but I love trying to capture the moment. And by moment I mean the real emotion, the color of the emotion, and the memory that goes along with that day. I have an editing program that is quite limited, however I have found several website that offer free actions (clicks of the buttons that do all the editing and color changes for me...SO WONDERFUL!). I had a blast tonight finding lots of awesome lighting ones so I thought I would show you the differences as slight as they may be. It will still give you a different feel or mood of the picture. Which one do you like best?

Loving the Sunlight

I came home yesterday morning and saw Mike surprising me with a storm door! I have wanted one of these because of all the beautiful sunlight it lets in, and let me tell you, sunlight is what keeps me alive! It feeds me like it does plants...keeps me perky and blooming:-) Anyways, it wasn't an easy task and according to Mike it is one of the things he hates most, putting in doors. It took him half a day and lots of sweat, but he got it done and did a great job! We now have a wonderfully working storm/screen door. I can't wait till it cools off and we can have the screen open and let the fall air breeze through:-)

The door handle was one of the toughest parts...thanks to a door frame that is unequal in length at the top and bottom.

Here is my entry way now with the door open. It still looks a little bland, but I plan on painting during this next deployment. It has been a wall that I have always wanted to conquer, but being about 50 feet long, it is quite the project
Yes, I know that our van is super close to the door. I had some friends over and we pulled the van up close to the house. HA!
Do you have any suggestions for decorations? What would you like to see in the entryway of a house? Any ideas for curtains?
Here is a shot from the outside, this is so fun having a storm door!

We had some flowers delivered yesterday and you guessed it, the box was a big hit for the boys. Austin loves to fit himself in any little box or crevice that he can. Logan then filled it with toys for them both to sit in.

He just looked so peaceful. I had checked on him several times during the night and I swear he didn't move positions!

The tales of our Enchanted Garden

Who knew that gardening could be so exciting. It is warfare and beauty all mixed into one. When we arrived back to VA last week, we no longer had a few pumpkin leaves, it was now a full blown pumpkin patch that was slowly taking over our entire planter. Leaves so strong and high with so many male flowers blooming! We even found several female flowers. I was ecstatic...I thought we were going to miss them all while we were gone, but they were just starting to show! So we patiently waited for them to bloom so we could help pollinate but they just ended up wilting and falling off. I was ok with the first two falling off, but then we noticed the roots were starting to look yellow and all the leaves closest to the roots were wilting and dying.

We learned we had two problems...Powdery Mildew and Squash Vine Borers. The PM can be treated with a fungicide and removal of the infected leaves. However the SVB are pretty deadly. We saw the pics of others online and ran out to see how bad ours were...yup...terrible. Mike dissected some of the vines and in just a few of them found at least 6 borers (ugly little larvae). So the bugs we had been killing, the squash bugs was just one of our problems. The beautiful red bug flying around was the worst culprit; the SVB adult. AAHHH! So we had to do surgery and removed all the vines that had the holes and larvae in them, put mounds of dirt on the open vines and watered them. Hopefully it hasn't killed the pumpkins because we had to remove the main roots. But as most vine plants do, they plant secondary vines/roots along the ground to get more nutrition and water. Hopefully it will be enough to keep them going! However, they are starting to reach into the flower part of our garden which makes me nervous!

Then our green beans. We noticed holes in the leaves and little slivers on the sides that had been eaten. So again we used the wonderful internet and looked it up. Turns out we have caterpillars! It is so neat because they chew out a part of the leaf, turn it over themselves for protection. Mike and I went out with a flash light tonight and with the light shinning through the leaves we could see about 5 caterpillars. It is too cool, but I don't want them eating my bean leaves! We shall see how many make it and which ones turn into the butterfly. Here is a picture of the adult Long Tailed Skipper...pretty neat huh? We have several butterfly bushes in the front of the planter which they just love!

Here is our Red Pepper plant blooming. Beautiful white blossoms. We will be pollinating them tomorrow and hopefully see more peppers! The one that has been on there since we got it has finally turned red and now just waiting for it to be rip enough to pick!

The green beans bloom little purple flowers and are self pollinating. So we shouldn't have to worry about them. Can you see the red thing in the middle of the plants (not the red thing on the very left side of the picture, but the bigger one towards the middle? That is our red pepper!)

This is on the underside of one of the pumpkin leaves. These are squash bug eggs and they had just hatched. After we got back home, we knocked off eggs from at least 10 leaves and killed several adult bugs.

A Female blossom! See the baby pumpkin? It had to pollinate after it opened...too bad this is one that fell off too soon.

What we came home to! A full and beautiful garden! Kinda crazy looking huh?

A week later here is the damage. See the bald spot in the middle? That is where the SVB have overtaken and eaten the roots and vines.

Here is a shot of what used to be a very healthy and growing root system. I would post pics of the larvae and the holes, but it really grosses me out.

Again see the bald spot on the right side of the pumpkins? From the right of our planter there are the beans and pepper, then the pumpkins and then the flowers on the left. So the bald area is between the beans and the pumpkin:-(

Here is the branch that fell onto our deck and fence. Mike got a chain saw and chopped it right up. The fence fixed just fine but the deck is another story. Guess that will be next summer's project!
Here is little man Logan helping Mike out. He was a real trooper and drug the branches (his size) out to the front yard! I have never seen a 3 year old work so hard!
Another view of the damage.

On a lighter note...we transplanted the Hydrangea to the back yard so it would get much more shade and it is loving it back there. So happy for that! I can see it out my window from the kitchen and living room!