Our "New" Van

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We’ve had the van about two weeks now. Time sure goes by fast. Here are some pictures of our “new” used ’98 Dodge Caravan. This van has really been a blessing. The previous owner took really good care of it.

We originally thought we would have to save up money and find something in February before the baby was born. But the Lord blessed and through a coworker Scott found out about this van for sale at a really good price.

This week was busy, besides what I mentioned in my last post we also went on Tuesday evening to see a replica of the Vietnam Memorial Wall. It was a great learning experience for the kids. The only other change to the weeks plan was finding out that the singing had been canceled. However the pastor and his wife of the host church invited us to visit in their home. We had good fellowship with them.

Today Jonathan was helping Scott fix a computer. I remember when Joshua was that little. Besides the pictures of the van, I’ll include a couple pictures of Jonathan helping Daddy.

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Jonathan’s 2nd Birthday

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Jonathan turned 2 last Wednesday and I’m only now coming on here to post some pictures in the few minutes we have before church.
Here is Jonathan with his birthday cake. I made cupcakes and iced them all together to make them look like a big cake. I put smarties around the outside cup cakes as a border and sprinkles on the top. He liked it. Hannah liked the football cupcake wrappers. I think he was probably indifferent about that part. 🙂

The second picture is Jonathan holding his new teddy bear. It’s belly and head glow in different colors when you press it’s hand. I got if for him thinking it would ease his transition into his new big boy bed. We wound up ordering the bed after all and he hasn’t got that yet. I did buy him sheets for his birthday but without the bed they aren’t as exciting. So I hadn’t introduced those to him yet.

We were originally planning to give the boys the bunkbed and giving the girls twin beds but Scott looked it over and decided they would be better off with both having bunkbeds. Since the girl’s room will be smaller with the baby bed in it.

So the boys should be getting their bunkbed sometime this week or next. Well, it’s 5:30 p.m. and we need to get over to the church. We have business meeting tonight. I’m kind of hoping it will be fairly uneventful, unless we have a lot of good motivational ideas happen tonight. 🙂 I guess we’ll see.

This week will be another busy one and I’m not sure how often I’m going to post. I have a Doctor’s appointment on Monday, Homeschool Park Day on Tuesday, Wednesday Bible Study, Thursday is Mom’s night out with other homeschool moms, and Friday a singing in the evening at one of the churches in our Local association. I will try to take sometime in there to post pictures of our van though. We’ll be in it enough this week.
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Miss Mary Christmas…

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“I want to sing the Miss Mary song!” was Hannah’s announcement the other day.
I asked her if she was talking about “Miss Mary Mack” which was a song I taught the kids that went back to my childhood. It was a song we used to jump rope to and do a hand clapping rhythm to.

“No, I want to sing the Christmas one!” was her response.

We got her to sing a phrase for us, “I Miss Mary Christmas, I Miss Mary Christmas…”

Joshua and Ruth figured it out for me at that point, “Oh she’s talking about ‘I Wish You a Merry Christmas’!” So they sang it the correct way for her.

That was the song she wanted but she now sings it, “I wish Miss Mary Christmas, I wish Miss Mary Christmas, and a Happy New Year!”

Last night at the table as we were having our evening meal after church. She announced, “I’m going to marry a football player!” Scott had a brief concerned look cross his face, but then he realized this is our 4 year old talking.

I asked her if she was going to marry a good football player that went to church. She agreed he was going to be a Christian football player. She said “and when I’m a Mommy I’ll give him my football, because I won’t need it when I’m a mommy.”

She must have felt a little sad at the thought of not getting to play football anymore when she’s a mommy, so she added, “Of course, some Mommy’s can still play football, right?”

Joshua and Ruth both agreed with me when I told her that she was going to make a very interesting Mommy one day. They just giggled at the thought of what it would be like having her as a mommy. She wouldn’t be the mommy on the sidelines at a football game she would be right in the middle of it.

Scott said he could see her dressed up as a football player, hiding around the corner of the house waiting to tackle her husband when he got home from work.

The first picture above is of Scott throwing a football with Hannah and Ruth one evening after he got home from work. That’s Hannah throwing the football dressed in her football outfit.
The second picture is of Jonathan dressed up as a football player with a Soccer ball in front of him. He loves to copy Hannah.

The last picture is of Joshua mowing. Joshua was mowing that same day I was taking pictures of them playing football. After he had finished mowing he was also throwing the football. I had gone inside when Scott told me that Hannah had tackled Joshua and he went flying. He didn’t even have the ball at the time.

I’m going to be praying hard for Hannah’s future husband. 🙂
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Surprise, Surprise!!!

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I had an ultrasound yesterday. I appreciate my parents coming to help with my other 4 children. Dad and the kids waited in the waiting room while Mom and I went in to see the ultrasound. We found out that the baby isn’t a girl after all. He turned out to be a healthy baby boy.

You should have seen the surprise on my children’s faces when I came into the waiting room and I announced, “Y’all are having a baby brother!” Joshua was the most excited obviously.

Jonathan doesn’t yet understand any of this going on. He will point to my tummy and say, “Baby?” but I think he just thinks that’s the new name of my tummy. Ruth and Hannah were a little disappointed. They got over the disappointment pretty quickly though and Ruth even picked out the sweetest little boy card to give to Daddy when he got home from work.

Ruth did tell me we will have to have another baby so we can use the name Elisabeth. Obviously our children don’t mind us having a big family.

Here is a picture of our ultrasound. Since I know some might not appreciate the view of the bottom “stamp” that shows whether it’s a boy or a girl, I’ll not post that one. When she took this picture the technician asked me, “Doesn’t he have a handsome face?”

I wanted to say, “Um, he kind of looks like a skeleton in this picture.” But I just smiled and said, “Yes!”

Scott finally got to feel the baby kick last night. I had to really move around and rub my tummy to get the baby kicking, but once he finally started poking me in one spot I had Scott put his hand there. I think the baby just wanted us to leave him alone and let him go back to sleep. 🙂

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Busy Week in Progress…

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This has been a busy week and it’s not over yet. Monday was a normal day. Scott worked at the school as a Computer Tech. The kids and I spent their day working on their lessons. I’ve been pretty proud of them this week. I’m not sure what happened but something clicked in their head that the more they concentrate on their morning’s lessons the more free time they would have in the afternoon in which we might do something fun. My son has been wanting to mow so bad, that that was one of his motivations to get his work done early.

Tuesday, we had park day with our homeschool group. It had been raining most of the weekend and Monday, so that it was nice to have it slack off for a few hours to allow the kids to play outside. I enjoyed getting to visit with the other parents while we watched our kids having fun. My son has a friend he made their and at our Contender’s meetings. They were having so much fun they were even yelling instructions back forth from our cars while we were trying to leave about what they should bring next Park Day.

Wednesday, Scott had the day off. It was exciting because he was able to go with me to my Doctor’s appointment. I really like my doctor and the experience we had at the office. I did learn that Wed. were probably the busiest days because a lot of mothers are scheduled that day for Formal ultrasounds. I’ve been scheduled for a formal ultrasound next Wednesday. I’m looking forward to that. We did have an informal tableside ultrasound yesterday. I was happy that she let us see our baby since my husband and kids were able to be there too. It was pretty exciting. We asked her if she could tell whether we were having a boy or a girl. She said, “Well, don’t go out and buy pink just yet, but I’m thinking your having a girl.” We should be able to find out for sure next Wednesday.

Wednesday evening we had bible study in our home. We didn’t have anyone come for it but we always enjoy sitting around discussing the Bible lesson Scott presents. Afterward we have tea and some refreshments. Yesterday we fixed up French Bread that we bought for the occassion.

Today, Scott has gone back to work and will be having a pocket survival class in the evening. The class will be at the same school he’s been taking his Russian classes. I’m so glad he has been able to take these classes. This class on Pocket Survival is a two part class. This part is a sit down class where they talk about pocket survival, then Saturday will be a field trip where they will see the practical application of the techniques they learn in class.

As for me and the kids, today I was able to figure out a problem Joshua was having with his math and get it corrected. They were suppose to add two column numbers with carrying. For example: 24+59= He was getting the answer 213. I just couldn’t figure out looking at it myself what he was doing to get such an answer. So I asked him and found out what he was doing. Can you figure out how he came to that answer?

Think Abbot and Costello if you’ve ever seen any of their acts.

Yep, he was adding 9+4=13. He knew to carry the one so that makes 1+2+5 in the next column. He wrote the 3 down carried the one and then added 13+1+2+5=21 So he had already written the 3 and he just wrote the 21 in front of it. I got him straightened up on that though. He told me that it’s a lot easier the right way.

Tomorrow is Friday, I’ve scheduled an appointment to take the kids in to see a pediatrician about their ringworm. It’s mostly the ringworm in their hair that is giving me the most concern. Scott told me to make an appointment this week, so we’ll be doing that tomorrow morning. Hopefully we can make our home ringworm free before our baby gets here.

Then Saturday will be pretty normal for me and the kids. Scott will have a class on Saturday but will be home after that. I keep thinking eventually things will slow down. Now I just wonder when. 🙂

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Crazy Hats, Football Hannah, and Preacher Jonathan

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I wanted to get a better picture of my kids with their crazy hats but I’m going to go ahead and post this one. Last week we made crazy hats for a fun concert some friends of ours put on each year. It was a lot of fun. As one of the activities they had a crazy hat contest for the girls and the ladies. Of course Joshua and Jonathan didn’t want to be left out of the fun, so I let them make a crazy hat too. Jonathan wasn’t wanting to put his hat on for this picture so the kids just decided to hold his hat for him.

During the girls’ contest they were to get up on stage and describe their hats to the judges. I never talked with the girls about how to describe their hats. I simply let them decorate them however they wanted. I simply helped with the hot glue.

One girl had gotten on stage with a hat that had a light bulb on top. She was letting her light shine. Another girl had a skunk hat and the theme of her hat was “little stinker.” Another girl had a hat with a phone on it and they described her hat as “can you hear me now.” Then Hannah got up on stage and very proudly announced, “My hat is a HOMEMADE hat. My mommy made, my brother made it, and I made it!!!” She then smiled real big and turned to let them see all the cotton balls and beads and ribbon on her had.

Ruth came a couple of girls later and said, “It’s a hat I made?” The only way she could think to describe it. I was happy that Hannah won 1st and Ruth 2nd place. Probably because they obviously designed their hats themselves.

In this second picture, Hannah is dressed up as a football player. She put balls up in her shoulders for muscles. She thinks the football player’s shoulder pads are their actual muscles. She wants to wear her “football uniform” (pictured) constantly. One day I wanted her to get different clothes to put on after her shower. She told me but I want to put these back on so I can be a football player. I had to explain to her that even football players had to have their uniforms washed sometime. They don’t wear them all the time, only when they are actually playing. It took quite a bit of convincing, but she finally relinquished her uniform as long as I gave it back to her as soon as it was clean. If you notice in this picture that she has her foot on is actually a basketball. She kicks it around like a football though. She also likes to do the football exercise where the boys stomp their feet and fall flat on their stomaches and then get quickly back up. She’ll do that about 10 times in a row. I don’t know where she gets the energy.

I don’t have a good picture of Jonathan preaching. I did get a video, but I can’t post it on dial-up, so that video will have to wait. I will tell you the story though. I was sitting holding him in my arms and asking him, “Will you always be my baby?”

Of course, he smiles shakes his head and says, “No.”

One of the times I asked him that, he smiled shook his head and then said, “No. Daddy!”

Then he immediately jumped out of my lap and started marching around the room with his finger over his lips saying, “Ssshhh… Ssshh…” Then he started singing at the top of his lungs. Of course after a short bit of singing he started yelling at the top of his lungs and marching around the room pointing at everyone. It was hilarious. He even pointed and yelled at imaginary individuals. After making sure we all understood what it was he had to say, he started singing as loud as he could again.
I showed the video to Scott and he said, “Wow, I never knew I preached quite like that.”

The only part I can really understand is his “sh..sh..sh…”ing everyone. We do that to him a lot during Scott’s sermon. Scott never has to shoosh anyone, but me and the kids are always trying to get Jonathan to be quiet during the sermon. So that was where that came from. I’ve never seen Scott yell at the top of his lungs in the pulpit or even out of the pulpit. I don’t know about that but it was funny seeing his idea of Daddy’s preaching. Joshua, Ruth, and Hannah just loved it. We had such fun watching him preach at us. I guess Scott made some kind of impression on his young mind. After watching the video Scott had to sit down and give his little boy trying to be like Daddy a hug.

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They’re, Their, There …

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I am tired of my children bringing me their papers with the wrong form of their, there, or they’re on them. So I gave them those words along with our, hour, and are. Which are three other words they are constantly getting mixed up. I know my kids are country but that’s not “are” car. It’s “our” car. So the focus of this week has mostly been their, there, and they’re. We have touched on the other three but the focus will go on those next week.

I’ve tried to explain to my kids that if you can’t say “They are” in the sentence where they put “They’re” then that is the wrong word. “That is they’re car” would be wrong because you wouldn’t say “That is they are car.” I think they get the point but aren’t the craziest about now having to stop and think about it before they write the word. Watch me mess up on my blog. 🙂 My sister would be the first to let me know.

Other exciting events in this week. I gave Jonathan a thorough shave this week. He is now practically bald but you can see his peach fuzz a little bit. Joshua was concerned about it, but I reassured him that Jonathan’s hair would grow back. This is one of my efforts at getting rid of the ringworm on his head once and for all. If I can’t get all signs of it to disappear I’ll be taking them to a doctor for a prescription. I want to try one more time to keep their heads clean and put medicine on them for one or two more weeks before I go ahead and take them.

Jonathan’s head really doesn’t look too bad as far as the ringworm spots go. In fact I almost think they are gone, except for the bald spots that is left behind. People that saw his bald spots before thought that he got ahold of some scissors and he or Hannah tried to give him a haircut. So I decided to shave his hair and let it all grow back together. It will be easier to see if it is clean while short as well.

I gave Joshua a haircut as well but not that short. He doesn’t want his head bald. I told him that if he washes his hair good each day, then I won’t have to shave it all off. But if it starts looking real bad, I may. I think he plans to keep it as clean as he can.

Hannah’s hair is about the same, I scrubbed her head real good today. I don’t plan to shave her head. She only has one spot and so far I’ve been keeping it at bay. She doesn’t want any medicine that stings. I use one antifungal cream on her head and trying other medications on Joshua’s since his is worse. If I find one that does the trick, I’ll use it on her whether she likes it or not. Joshua doesn’t mind my putting the different medications on his. He figures the more it burns the more it must be working. I’m not sure if that is always the case but it makes him feel better.

And what are the kids doing in the livingroom while I’m working on this blog? Well, they’re working on their math in there. I guess I better go in there and make sure they’re still at their work. 🙂

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A Busy Week…

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We had a very busy week this past week. It started with Scott having Monday off, however he worked hard mowing the church grass along with another man that volunteered to help. It was really nice for Scott to have someone helping. It’s hard for him to make time for push mowing both our yard and the church yard. So when Scott had a volunteer honestly wanting to come out with an extra mower and help he happily accepted.

Monday night we went to a Marksmen concert at another church in our local association.

Tuesday was our Homeschool groups Park Day. I took the kids to the park and we had a great time with all the other homeschoolers.

Wednesday, I had my Doctor’s appointment. It went okay but I have decided to go ahead and switch to another doctor. My first impression with the doctor I visited wasn’t the best. I wasn’t impressed by the graffitti in the bathroom and it didn’t help that I found it very hard to understand the doctor with her very heavy accent. I’m pretty bad about getting confused normally but would definitely hate to answer a question wrong and regret it. It was so bad that she asked me a question about the age of my son and I thought she was talking about my husband. I think the part that bothered me the most is that she never found the baby’s heartbeat. They found it the week before during the Ultrasound. Anyway, I decided it was worth a little extra drive to go to another Doctor who delivers at a bigger hospital.

Thursday, was a good thorough homeschool day for the kids. I gave them work on Tuesday and Wednesday as well, but I made sure they caught up as best they could. Both Joshua and Ruth finished their chapter books for their Rewarded Reading and have gotten to 10 books. They made sure that Hannah kept up with them and so they all three got a piece of gum. Jonathan can’t have gum, so I gave him a piece of soft candy instead. Then for their 10 book reward I told them I would take them to the store on Friday and let them pick out a candy bar. Thirty Books will be a Pizza Party!!!

Then Friday I took them to their first Keepers of the Faith and Contenders for the Faith meeting. The first meeting was actually for the mothers while the children played games in the gymnasium. I found out that the teachers stay with their groups and the groups just get older each year. I had told Hannah that she would be in a class and then found out that without a volunteer there would not be another 4 and 5 year old class. However all of us mothers were very happy when another mother of a 5year old volunteered to take that class.

Then there was a problem with the boys group who are called Contenders. The teenage boy that took that group last year was no longer able to do it. So there wasn’t going to be anyone over that group. They would have just been corralled in the gym for two hours until the girls got done. I couldn’t stand the thought of Joshua not having an organized group this year. So I volunteered to be Coordinator for the Contenders group. Another mother offered to take the younger boys, since her son was 5. I will be working with the 12 other boys who range in age from 6 to 14. There were 3 teenagers that I plan to be helpers. I hope to have fathers, uncles, grandfathers, etc. volunteer to present a hobby or skill.

Then after the meeting, I took my kids to the Dollar store and let them choose a candy bar. Of course the older three all chose Bubble Tape. I bought Jonathan a candy bar, but he kept calling it Bubble Gum. I asked him if he could say, “candy” but he still said, “gum.” Well, at least he didn’t feel left out.

Following the trip to the store we arrived home and I visited with Scott a little bit before we left for a singing at another one of our churches in our association. We had plan to also go to a local association rally first and then to the singing, but we ran out of time. After the singing, the Church had fellowship and I asked the ladies where they would recommend I go for an obstetrician. I was curious of their opinion of the local doctors. They all told me to go to another town. They said that I don’t want to go there. I was glad to talk with them since they lived in the town that the doctor’s office I visited was in. I plan to take their advice and move on to another doctor.

Saturday, I purposefully had nothing planned. We mostly stayed home. Scott did make a couple of visits for the Church and studied. The kids and I stayed home. I even let them watch a couple Veggietales.

Today we had church and I got a craving for Corn Dogs, which we didn’t have hear at the house. We did have hot dogs so I found a corn dog recipe and tried my hand at cooking them myself and had the grease too hot. I burned the first corn dog as soon as it touched the oil. It wasn’t even in there a second and the house was full of smoke. Scott and I started opening windows and he held the pan outside for a little bit. I was about to give up and bake the corn dogs but once the grease cooled down, Scott took the corn dogs I wrapped and tried frying them again. They turned out perfect. I’m going to try making those again sometime.

Well, that was our busy week. I even included today which is the beginning of another week. But I hope it will be a little calmer this week. Scott is starting a new job at the local school as a Technical Assistant. He’ll have a office and will be fixing campus computer problems. I think he’ll enjoy the job.

Well, it’s time to go to church so I’ll have to post pictures later. I’ll try to update my blog a little bit better this week.

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To switch or not to switch…

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I am in a confusing state of indecision. I had my first Doctor’s visit yesterday with the Doctor that is located by the nearest hospital to us. My reason for choosing this doctor was her closer proximity to us. I figured if the doctor’s office is only 25 minutes away it will be easier each month to visit there.

Now I’m not so sure. I talked with my husband about how my appointment went and he said that even he would think that I might want to find a new doctor. I suppose just the fact that I’m considering switching doctors would probably be a good sign that I should.

Here are some of the problems I had with my first visit. First making the appointment didn’t go well at first. I tried calling to make an appointment and it wasn’t handled very professionally. So I nearly decided not to go to that office in the first place but since I thought there were two doctors in that office, I decided to try the other doctor’s number. It turns out that the other doctor has just closed her practice.

Second, I was a little surprised by the grafitti in the bathroom. That in itself struck me as different from all the other doctor’s offices that I’ve visited and with each of my four previous pregnancies I have had a different Doctor each time. This is the first with a grafittied bathroom. Most try to have the nice clean appearance in their bathroom. I guess the fact that one part of the bathroom had been left unpainted causes people to want to write all over it. I don’t know.

The third problem I had was the fact that the doctor has a pretty bad accent. She has been in practice for 42 years. I would think she would get tired of her patients saying, “Huh?” I get confused pretty easy and was hoping that I was answering her questions right. I mean it’s pretty bad when you think she was asking you a question about your husband but she was actually talking about your youngest son. Hmm…

Next, the part that concerned my husband was all the shock over my delivering an 11lb. 4 oz. baby (Jonathan) without intervention. I didn’t even use an epidural. But I had him just fine. It took about 8 hours after they broke my water but the doctor and nurse were real good that helped in his delivery. They didn’t give me any doubt that I could deliver him. I’m afraid that this doctor might have insisted on a C-section. Scott thinks so too by the way she kept asking, “And you didn’t have any complications?” I should have asked her the question that popped in my head at the time, “What’s the biggest baby you’ve ever delivered?” I don’t know why I don’t sometimes say what I’m thinking.

Finally, she never found the baby’s heartbeat. I know it’s in there but she didn’t even put the gel that they normally put on your tummy to get a better sound. She just put the monitor to me and moved it around a bit and then told me she wanted me to have an ultrasound to make sure we have the date accurate. I was really looking forward to getting to hear the baby’s heartbeat. They found it with the ultrasound I had before. The heartbeat as you can see in this picture I’m posting was quite healthy. I don’t know the more I type the more I feel I probably should keep looking.

I did like the nurses though. They were real friendly, even the one with the tattoos that took my blood. My husband wasn’t real crazy about that. He asked me did they even wear nurse outfits. I wasn’t too sure. Anyway, I may be overreacting a little bit. I tried at first to make myself feel better about everything. But the longer I talked with my husband with some of my concerns the more I wondered if I was doing the right thing. My husband has visited a patient in that hospital before and he said that it would be the smallest hospital I’ve ever delivered at. He’s pretty sure they would just put me in a regular room for my delivery. Maybe it’s worth an half hour’s extra drive to go to a bigger hospital with a slightly more professional doctor.

It’s funny because they make you feel at the office that you’ve made your final decision on your first visit. My husband explained that’s how they keep their patients by making you believe that they are your doctor from the first. Not even giving you a chance to ask, “Can I think about this?” One nurse even told me that she thinks I’m having a girl. This is my first visit! And I was feeling like I should stay with this doctor so that the nurses could know if I’m having a girl or boy.

I’m so glad that I have a good husband that helps me be reasonable with myself. I have a hard time worrying about hurting someone’s feelings if I don’t feel completely satisfied with my visit. I realize I can switch and the earlier the better but then I feel bad because this doctor could be better than my first impression allows. Then again, the more appointments I keep with her the more I feel committed with sticking it out. I mean if I was feeling committed after the first visit how much more so after the second or the third.

Joshua and Ruth stayed in the waiting room and watched Hannah and Jonathan and of course nickolodeon that was showing on the T.V. The office space and hallway were pretty small. But they didn’t have any problem with the kids staying in the waiting room.

Now I must go back to searching. I’m a little disappointed and when I talked to my mom I was really trying to be as positive as possible. Now I’m having the hardest time remembering some of the positive things I thought about it. I guess the biggest part was that it was close. Now I wonder if the longer drive would be preferable.

The above picture is of me and Jonathan when we were traveling to Michigan. I think this was one of the stops we made at a state park along the way. Hope no one minds the long post. I will try posting a better one later. Pray with me that I find a doctor that I will be happy with or that I am able to be happy with this one.

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12 Weeks…

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Today is baby’s 12 week mark and here are a couple of pictures as promised. This first picture is of Hannah and Jonathan covered in baby dolls. The smallest baby wrapped in the sock is the size our baby is at 12 weeks gestation.

The second picture is of Jonathan holding the doll that is the size our baby is today. Even though I realize it is just a doll I couldn’t stand to let it look that cold with its arms and legs crossed. Covering all but it’s face with a baby sock made me feel better.

That’s where we are at right now though. I plan to call a doctor on Monday and make an appointment. I’ve waited long enough. It’s now time to decide on a doctor. The doctor I’m considering will be about 20 to 30 minutes drive give or take for stop lights and road work. That town is the closest town with a hospital to us. I’ve driven that way and I’m sure that the drive will seem longer in March. I’ll try to keep everyone posted on how everything goes along the way. I plan to add a pregnancy ticker to my blog page as well. Enjoy the pictures!

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