Monday, October 18, 2010

Hiking "Stoney Man"

Last Saturday we decided to go on one of our favorite hikes up the mountain to "Stoney Man." It's called Stoney Man because the rock outcropping looks like a man's profile from the road below. Somehow I had forgotten just what a hike this was. I had done it several times as a child and Ryan and I did the hike when we were dating...but it's a little different when you're pregnant and have two kids. Ha!
Taking a break to look at the latest loose tooth.

Don't worry...that's not the trail. Christian decided to forge his own way.

And then we made it to the top. What a view!
It was windy but amazing!

At the top!
Can you see the road down below?? That's the road we had been driving on.

See, I was there. McKenna wouldn't cooperate. She wanted to get down and it was NOT a place to let toddlers roam around.
I love this picture of the boy who conquered the mountain.

"What we have to go all the way back down??"

Somehow he even had the energy to climb trees on the way down.

And then a little attitude set in.

We made it back down the mountain. It was exhausting but well worth it!



Skyline Caverns

Last weekend we got away as a family and headed down to the mountains in Virginia!! It was an exciting trip, complete with a black bear siting. We didn't get an actual picture of the real Black Bear, so Christian posed with this one. But we really did see a real bear! It was so exciting for all of us.
The we took the kids to Skyline Caverns. We knew Christian was at the perfect age to love it and we weren't disappointed. He would have been happy to forget the tour guide and explore on his own.


McKenna wasn't quite as interested. She thought it was long and boring, but it was nap time.

Over and over I had to remind Christian that this was not a rock climbing tour.
All he wanted to do was climb on the rocks and crawl back in little caves to see what animals might be living in there.
It was a fun family thing to do.

And a great start to a very fun day!


An 18 week baby update!!!

It's hard to believe I'm already to 18 weeks with this little baby inside :) Yippee...that's almost half way there!! I'm ready to reach the halfway mark and our big ultrasound is quickly approaching (October 28th). I'm thinking girl at this point and Ryan is thinking it's a boy. I guess we'll see who's right pretty soon. I've tried to imagine what our family would be like with another boy or another girl and at this point it's hard to picture. So what's you're vote??? Boy?? or Girl???

I've been a little worried lately and pretty much the only reason I'm bringing this up on the blog is because I'm hoping that someone has had a similar experience who can put my mind at ease. I have a history of ovarian cysts. I've had some pretty bad ones (10cm) and they've been pretty painful at times. They've always been able to regulate them with medication and the last time I dealt with one was about 18 months ago. Well, I think I might have one again. I have some pain that feels just like my previous cysts and it's making me quite anxious. Googling "ovarian cysts" and "pregnancy" is not a great idea...it only makes you worry when words like "surgery" or "bed rest" pop up. I don't think it's an emergency or anything dramatic like that, so I'm just going to wait until I head to my appointment on Thursday. But I am going to insist that they check it out with ultrasound. Hopefully I am wrong and it's just the regular aches and pains of pregnancy. I'm praying that whatever is going on will resolve on it's own before this Thursday. That is not an ulrealistic prayer at all....first of all because God can do anything, and secondly because many times ovarian cysts do shrink and disappear on their own.

It's so easy to pray for others and to tell people to "trust in the Lord" when they're having some sort of issue, but when you're dealing with your own tiny baby putting Proverbs 3:5&6 into practice is easier said than done. Thankfully all of this has increased my prayer life and it's helped me to focus a little more on this precious third child of mine. It's a little hard to even think about this baby when I've got two very vocal and demanding other children to take care of. And as a result I've forgotten to take my prenatal vitamins more than I've remembered....I've carried McKenna around when I know I shouldn't...and the list goes on and on. But don't worry, that won't be happening anymore.

I love it that McKenna and Christian already consider this baby a part of our family. At random times through out the day they bring up the baby. The other day McKenna told me the baby could have her booster seat at the table when it's born. Christian told me he wants the baby to sleep in his room (until I asked him what he was going to do when the baby cries)! Christian's been picking out Christmas presents for the baby. It's cute! They're ready and we still have a few more months to go.

I think it's time for me to wrap up this long and rambling post!! I hope you guys are enjoying Fall!! I have a bunch of posts that I need to get done about all our adventures this fall. We've got a busy, busy week ahead of us....harvest party for my 4th & 5th class from church, a visit to our cousins house, soccer, etc......so stay tuned!



Thursday, October 14, 2010

Camp Out

Ryan had been gone on a business trip all week. He got home Friday evening around 6pm and an hour later he was setting up this tent in our backyard! He is such a good sport.
McKenna and Christian LOVED the tent! McKenna definitely would have slept out there if I would have let her (but it was chilly and she had a cough).

We had a campfire and sang campfire songs (which according to Christian had to have the word "camp" in them in order to be a campfire song...so we had to make up a bunch of songs). It was such a great family night. The boys stayed outside until about 3am and then Ryan woke up wet (from Christian's water bottle spilling) so they came inside. I have a feeling this is one of the memories Christian will have for a lifetime and I think this was just the first of many camping trips for my boys.



A Few More

Here's a few more amazing pictures from our family photoshoot with my friend Holly! Isn't she amazing?? I have so few pictures of McKenna smiling and looking at the camera because she just doesn't cooperate. So I love these pictures. I still haven't included the best ones. I'm trying to decide which one is going to be our Christmas card picture. I think the first picture (of Ryan and McKenna) and the last picture (of Christian and I) might go on the wall in my living room. And then I'm going to put a family picture in our hall upstairs. Holly did a great job of hiding the fact that I'm pregnant. I just didn't want pregnant pictures of me hanging on the wall for the next 5 years. Enjoy the pictures! I'm off to paint the basement on this rainy day :)













Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Reynolds Farm

We love Reynold's Farm! It's one of our favorite fall traditions to go there as a family!


And here we all are.

McKenna loved it this year and wanted to try everything!


The hay bale maze was no match for Christian!

They have two huge slides there.
Is he cool or what?