Guess who slept in his very own big boy bed last night??? That's right, Christian!!!! So I cheated a little and didn't nap him yesterday so he would be totally exhausted at bedtime, but he still stayed in his big boy bed all night!!! Hooray!! What you can't see in this picture is that his crib is still set up on the other side of his room. I haven't totally committed to the idea of a big boy bed, I'm too nervous that bedtime will become a nightmare and I just can't handle that right now. I've been so relucant to do this because Christian loves his crib and doesn't even try to get out of it even though he has proven that he can. I hate to mess up a good thing, but with a new baby on the way we've got to prepare ourselves!
Christian woke up this morning to a cheering crowd, Auntie Amy, Abby, Nate and myself all cheered for him and gave him lots of hugs because he stayed in his bed all night (despite the fact that I know he was awake around 3am). He looked a little bewildered. We'll see how things go tonight! I'll keep you posted! Wouldn't it be a blessing if this was an easy transition!

Our Weekend!

On Friday night the Marshall kids, my nieces and nephew, had a sleep over at our house. This was a greatly anticipated event! Abby asked me at 5:30pm if it was time to go to bed. The girls were expecting this to be a ton of fun, when in reality this sleep over wasn't really for them. It was for Amy and I. I'll explain in a minute.
Christian was so excited when he saw the girls show up with their sleeping bags. Christian doesn't have a sleeping bag, but he ran upstairs and grabbed one of his special blankets from Grammy and he plopped down on the floor next to the girls.
My sister, Amy, and I woke up at 5:00am and headed to the biggest yard sale of the season! We left Ryan at home with four sleeping kids. Poor guy, they didn't sleep for long, but he had everything under control when we got home! Anyway, Amy and I headed to the only yard sale I've ever been to that has parking attendants. I told Amy we had to be there by 5:30am. She didn't understand what the hurry was until we got there and about 100 other people had already shown up. We shopped for about 2.5 hours and then headed home, not because we were done, but because we literally had no room left in my car. The gas station and car, pictured above, were purchased at the yard sale and they have been a huge hit. Other great purchases included; Polly Pockets, several fire trucks and police cars (a popular item in our house), a double stroller (I actually really need a triple stroller, but I figured I would look like a circus act trying to steer that through a store), pottery barn baby girl bedding (it is sooo cute), snowboots and a few Christmas presents for the kids. I'm not going to mention what those Christmas presents are because Emma can read quite well now and she loves checking this blog. You'll notice, she even left her own comment on the posting about Abby's b-day!
My yard is totally starting to look like I run a daycare! We now have 2 slides, 2 cars, one playhouse, one swing set, one roller coast, 1 gas station, 1 sand and water table, 1 picnic table, multiple children's chairs, and innumerable balls and shovels laying everywhere. I told Ryan we really need a fence, not only to contain the children, but to hide all the chaos. I'm sure my neighbors love it when we add to the toys, but honestly I'll do whatever just to keep the peace!

Fall Pictures of my Niece!

Look at this little cutie that I found skipping home from the bus stop!!
My niece, Emma Marshall, age 6!

If you look really closely you can see Emma's grown up tooth starting to come in already!

She only lost her tooth about 2 weeks ago, but she won't have a hole for long.

Not to worry, her other front tooth is loose now. I'm sure we'll be blogging about that one soon enough!

Fall is here!

ABBY turns four!

My sweet little niece Abby is turning four today, although she doesn't believe that today is really her birthday! She thinks that her birthday is the day she's having her party, so we're not making a huge deal out of this milestone. Every little girl needs a little pink cupcake for her birthday, so we enjoyed this little treat at lunch today! Christian and Nathan even learned how to say "cupcake" although most of their's ended up everywhere except their mouths!! I'll post some pictures from her party sometime after the 20th!!
For those of you who don't know Abby, let me just tell you a little bit about her!! The first thing you've got to know is that she LOVES pink. She also loves to play with little things like Polly Pockets, Ponyville Ponies (the mini version of My Little Pony) and any kind of little baby. She is my big helper with the boys. She tries to keep the peace between everyone and she loves it when she "teaches" the boys something. She loves being the oldest kid in the house, while Emma's at school. She is constantly giving the boys instructions about what they're going to do next. Abby also loves Jesus. He is very real to her! If anyone gets a boo-boo, she is the first one to pray for them. And she always gives Jesus the credit when someone gets better! I love having Abby in my life because she is such a snuggler, she says the cutest things, and because she can buckle herself in the car (this is a huge deal when you've got three kids to buckle in and one on the way). Abby is also my informant....she lets me know when someone is playing in the bathroom and they're not supposed to or when someone hits or when someone has a poopy diaper. What would I do without this girl?? Thank you Jesus for blessing our lives with this sweet pink girl!!

Big Brother!!

We've been spending a lot of time talking to Christian about becoming a big brother! We talk about having a baby sister all the time. He must understand some of what we're saying because he's already started to practice!! This is a picture of him rocking the "baby" (which is really Abby's baby doll), then he put the baby in his crib.
I know he's going to be a great big brother! I can tell that the Lord is already preparing his heart!

Catoctin Zoo!

Ryan, Christian and I took a trip to the Catoctin Wildlife Preserve and Zoo today. Christian loved it. I think this ride on a camel was the highlight, although Ryan said it wasn't that comfortable.

Christian is checking out an Emu. These animals were so close that we had to make sure Christian kept his fingers away from them.
Christian loved the monkeys and there were so many different kinds!! He liked watching them play on their "wee" (his word for swing).
Christian and Ryan feeding a deer. As soon as this one started eating, about 12 others came over and started to fight to get to the food. It was rather exciting for Christian.
What a fun day!!

Some new artwork for my living room!!

Apparently I needed a little blue in my living room!! This is just some of the new artwork on my wall! And here is the artist himself, Nathan, looking a little sad after my reaction to his work. You can see some of his work behind him!! Apparently he wasn't paying attention last week, when Christian drew some beautiful orange "balls" (circles) on the kitchen floor. Christian won't be doing that again and Abby has assured me that she knows better!!I have learned to strap the boys into their booster seats when crayons are present!

Reynolds Farm!!

We just love going to Reynolds Farm at this time of year. They have fields of beautiful mums that you can purchase. There is also a kids area with a huge slide, playground, maze, swings, a tunnel, and sheep, goats and cows that you can feed.
When Emma got out of the car she said, "I think this is paradise!" I agree, this little farm nestled in a valley between the mountains is a little piece of heaven on earth.

The hay maze was a big hit!
Isn't Christian such a cutie?? He loves to say "cheese."
Totally impossible to get them all looking at the camera at the same time!
You have got to click on this picture and enlarge it to see the expression on the boy's faces! They loved this slide and it was huge. Aunt Amy was a great sport, trecking up the hill with two boys in tow so they could have a fun time. Nathan went down it once by himself- that was a mistake. He wiped out at the bottom, but recovered after a hug from Mommy.
Click on this one too and make sure you see both girls with expressions of sheer joy!