April 17th - May 15th, 2015

Hi Everyone!

Softball, strawberries, swimming, and baby prep. Here's a little of what we've been up to lately...

We got to celebrate Micah's Granddad's 80th birthday in April! We are really blessed to have the family we do. It was great to get together with the extended family. 

 Micah is playing first base on our church's softball team. They are doing well so far in the season and last night we were pretty excited to beat an undefeated team. The boys enjoy watching their daddy play! Owen really wanted to go in the dugout with the players. :)

 The guys have been working on their baseball skills in the backyard lately too. Seth is really good at hitting! Thanks, Pappy, for the baseball bat and bases!

 Owen doesn't get to bat as much as he likes, but he is easily occupied elsewhere. So many things to do!

 After months of Seth asking "When is it time to swim?" It was finally warm enough to get out the old pool from under the deck where it has been being used over the winter as a "pot" for mud stew. Ew! The boys helped me give it a thorough cleaning, which inevitably led to...

 ...both the pool and the boys getting clean.  :)

 The deck on the back of the house off the master bedroom is just big enough for the boy's pool and bench for my pregnant self to sit on while they play. :)

 The boys got to participate in a special class offered at our local hospital called "Big Brothers and Sisters Preparation". They got to take a tour of the labor and delivery floor and learn how to hold a newborn and even change a diaper! It was so fun to watch. They thought it was pretty cool to see the same delivery rooms that they were born in.

 Learning to swaddle the baby :)

 Blake's got this down!

Owen was below the age minimum, but was allowed to participate anyway. 

It was so cute watching all the little kids take care of their babies. :) At the end of the class they each got a certificate saying they were officially ready to be a Big Brother. 

 My buddy during early morning watering of the blueberry plants. About two thirds of our plants look good and the rest...well, they are barely hanging in there. :)

 Cousin Clark is doing great! I love this picture of him. He kind of looks like a little old man who is worried about something. :)

 Lots of playing dress-up around here. They will go for weeks or more without touching the mound of toys in their toy box, but the dress up clothes and hats get played with every single day! Owen still requests his three capes to be put on multiple times EVERYDAY. 

 It's that time of year again! Strawberries galore! The farm we go to every year had an especially good crop this year so we were able to fill our baskets in a short amount of time. 

We left the farm as usual with filled baskets and filled bellies. I jokingly offered to weigh the boys before and after and pay for the difference, but the farmer doesn't mind the kids munching along the way. 

 We came home with over twenty pounds of berries and will probably go back for at least one more trip before the season is over. We put them in smoothies, ice cream, and oatmeal throughout the year. The boys were able to help me get the berries ready for freezing for the first time this year. Owen got to use a butter knife to chop and thought he was pretty big stuff. 

Owen during reading time with Blake and Seth. :) That's my baby belly at the bottom of the picture. :)

 

Micah and I celebrated 7 years of marriage! Hard to believe! This guy has been the best hubby a girl could ask for! He is my best friend and makes my life wonderful. 

In preparation for baby coming we redid Owen's room. I couldn't find the "before" picture of the room, but it was pretty plain.  The baby will take over Owen's room once he/she is sleeping through the night and Owen will get to graduate to Blake and Seth's room. He will be super thrilled about that!

A big thanks to Aunt Susanna for her awesome wood-burning skills on the ruler decoration!

And a huge thanks to my loving husband who is putting up with all of my extreme nesting projects lately. :)

Less than 3 weeks until our due date. I still can't believe we are about to have our fourth child! So exciting!

We are super excited and extremely grateful that the Lord has seen fit to bless us with four children. Having come from a family of six kids, it's funny to me to already be experiencing some raised eyebrows from strangers (and perhaps not strangers) when they see that we have a fourth on the way. Occasionally, we get comments like "Wow, four kids!". Sometimes, we like to have a bit of fun and just tell them we're trying to catch up with the Duggars and then watch the shocked look and nervous laugh that inevitably follows. :) In all seriousness though, we are looking forward to having "big" family. Whether that means stopping at four or being blessed with a few more. 

Lord willing, the next update will have pictures of the new baby! I can hardly wait to announce the gender and the name and the weight and the length...all of it! We will let you know as soon as possible when the baby arrives. :)

Funnies...

While playing putt-putt with the boys, Blake tried to give Daddy a big compliment by saying, "Wow, you almost got a hole-in-two!"  :)

Blake is funny in that he is always putting things in his mouth. A few weeks ago while we were studying insects we happen to see him chewing on the corner of the coffee table. (Boys...I will never fully understand them) Micah asked,  "Blake, what are you doing chewing on the coffee table?!" to which he replied, "I'm a carpenter ant!"  ....I should have known. :)

We asked the boys at the dinner table the other night when they wanted to be when they grew up. Blake said he wanted to be scientist and Seth said, "I want to be a human who does good things."  :)

Seth asked what it means to be  "light sleeper" and before I could answer, Blake chimed in and said, "That means that you can sleep with the light on in your room."  

Since Blake and Seth are going to be older when this baby is born than they were when Owen was born, we've been debating about what and how much to breech the topic of nursing as they will definitely have questions about what's going on when baby gets here. Well, one moment of enlightenment came the other day as Seth is studying cows in school right now (I'm sure you can already guess where this is going). We were talking about how baby cows get milk from mommy cows and I decided at that moment that it might bea good opportunity to add that it's just like how babies get milk from their mommies. I cringed a little when I saw a light bulb come on in Blake's face and I braced myself for the coming comment. Sure enough, he burst out with excitement "I get it, so those are your udders!"   ...sigh...yes, Blake, they are. Now let's talk about something else...  :)

Well, better get going. Hope you all are doing well! 

In Christ, 

Kari, Micah, Blake, Seth, Owen and Baby

March 14th - April 16th, 2015

Hi Everyone!

Happy Spring! My favorite time of the year when everything is coming to life and there's more green than gray outside. Some of the highlights of the past five weeks were... saying hello to Spring, my trip to a women's retreat, celebrating Easter, planting blueberry bushes, and the surprise early arrival of cousin Clark Beeman! 

The annual Women's Retreat was two nights at the beach with about 48 other ladies from church. It was great to have some time with the ladies and as always, very spiritually refreshing. 

I'm getting a new perspective on the term "spring fever". The boys have been more energetic than usual and just want to be outside running around as much as possible. We put some of that energy to good use by planting ten blueberry bushes in our front yard. The boys were a bit disappointed to find out they had to wait about three years before getting any blueberries, but they still enjoyed helping. 

 Popsicle face  :)

 Owen is crazy about motorcycles lately and LOVES Pappy's! Whenever we are driving around town he yells "Motocycle!" when he sees one. He'll even try to get the riders attention by saying, "Hey Dude! Hey Dude!"  :)

 Spring is here at last! Here are some of the bouquets of flowers I received from the boys. Owen brought his offering and laid it on my lap too, as you can see. :)

 Neighbor's horse, Fred, likes to come up to the fence when we go walking by. He is super sweet and lets the boys pet his nose. We found out the other day that he is 38 years old!

 Owen and his "baby" seahorse. Practicing rocking for when the real baby arrives. :)

 Seth has been starting to "write" notes on his own lately and can often by seen at the craft table sounding out letters to try and figure out which one to use. He is doing really well and I'm so glad he's gotten more interested in learning his letters lately. Here is a cute note he wrote to Daddy the other day. Most of it is not eligible, but if you look at the last line on the paper you came make out the sentence "You are my favorite". :)

 Owen got his own hammer the other day and when I gave him a nail he immediately did what he saw Daddy d0... put it in his mouth to hold onto it. :) 

 Learning to hammer (with much supervision and cringing by mother) :)

Seth is learning about insects in kindergarten right now so we are reading about, hunting for, drawing pictures of, molding, everything having to do with bugs. 

It's so fun to have such a nice sized yard to go bug-hunting in! I like to just stand back and let them pick up the bugs while trying to pretend like I would be okay with doing it myself. 

 An average night for us.

 The boys were really excited about Easter this year. We worked on memorizing a passage in the Bible for several weeks and the boys were able to get up and quote it for the whole church on Easter Sunday. They did a great job! 

 Owen eating the rooster from the Bible lesson about Easter. :)

 Easter portraits! Blake is quite the handsome young man these days. 

 Seth is growing up too!

 This was the best we could do with Owen's picture, as you know, there are few moments when he is sitting still. :)

 Chocolate Easter Bunnies were part of their reward for saying their memory verses at church. Thanks Moms and Pops!

 Easter Egg Hunt at Grandmom's!

The most exciting news of the past month was getting an unexpected call from Uncle James on Monday that baby Clark was coming ready or not! About 5 1/2 weeks early, he is doing really well and has not needed any help breathing. He is still at the hospital and will hopefully get to come home soon. 

Sweet little munchkin! 5 lbs and 4 oz, 18" long at birth. 


In Other News...

I'm 33 weeks along now and only 7 left to go! Seeing pictures of a baby Clark makes me even more excited about seeing our baby for the first time. I can't wait to find out if we're having a boy or a girl! I know it sounds crazy to wait until the birth day, but for me it just adds to the excitement of the day and gives me even more motivation during the delivery. We are busy redecorating Owen's room for when baby comes to join him and doing a bit of furniture refinishing. I'll try and snap some before-and-after pictures.

I didn't get a chance to collect many funnies this week, but maybe next time!

Hope you all are doing well!

With love, 

Kari, Micah, Blake, Seth, Owen and Baby 

Feb. 14th - Mar. 13th, 2015

Hi Everyone, 

Hope you all are doing well! Some of the highlights of the past month were Valentine's Day, Owen's Birthday and a big snow storm...

 One of the first nice days in February was Valentine's Day, so we took some time to get out in the sunshine even though it was a bit (or a lot) chilly. 

I had the chance to take an overnight trip with the Fox ladies and some friends to the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC. They had a special exhibit featuring costumes from the popular TV show, Downton Abbey. It was fun to see the costumes in person and to have the chance to spend some "girl time" away. 

Owen turned two in February! Can you believe it? He had fun opening his birthday cards. 

 For part of his birthday we all went out to dinner together (something that's usually reserved only for Mommy and Daddy's date nights so it was a big treat for them). 

 Ice cream at Chick-fil-a! Funny story...as we were entering the kid's play area at the restaurant there was a very cute little girl holding the door open for us. She looked like she was about three. Without missing a beat, instead of walking past her, Owen stopped and threw his arms around her and was going in for a big kiss on the lips before I was able to grab him just in time. Where does he get these ideas?!? Luckily, her parents weren't watching. :)

 We had a family birthday party for Owen and it was like Christmas morning all over again. We always have a good time when we get together with our family. 

 Uncle Jesse freeing Owie's new toy, or trying to...

 Seth used his own money and bought Owen a gift of a star trooper outfit. Seth had to try it out for him of course. Here's Seth with Judah, Susannah and Hannah. 

 One of the few times a year he gets a cupcake...he enjoyed it!

Owen is REALLY into Superman right now. Everyday he asks for his Superman capes to be put on him. Of course, he has to wear all three capes at the same. More powers that way I suppose. :)

This is his "bad guy" hat and outfit. We are really enjoying him lately. He's talking a mile a minute and has full throttle energy. He loves to go outside and play super heros inside. 

A little over three weeks ago, we got a huge amount of snow overnight! It was the most I've seen at one time in NC since living here- about 6 1/2 ". It was so beautiful!

 Our backyard was completely transformed into a winter wonderland!

 The cedar trees were so pretty weighted down with the snow. 

 My Honey  :)

Hot cocoa and snow-cream!


Since the snow, the winter weather has been easing up a bit and fluctuating to some pretty warm days. We've even had a few days in the 70's and then back to the 40's. Spring is definitely on it's way though and the boys can hardly wait. 

Yesterday the boys were playing in the garage and all of the sudden I heard them all yelling for me in a slightly panicked tone. When I came out, I discovered them stuck in the recycling bin together. Once they calmed down and realized they wouldn't be stuck there forever, we were able to snap a quick picture. Sillies!  

In other news...

I'm 28 weeks along now and 12 (or so) to go! Other than suffering from "pregnant brain" (my current excuse for any typos you may find) I'm feeling pretty good. We are getting more and more excited about meeting the newest member of our family. I had two people yesterdat tell me they thought it was going to be a boy and another friend who said it was going to be a girl...we'll see! Can't wait!!

We have some rather sad news. Oscar has gone missing for several weeks now and it's looking like he may be gone for good. We've been checking the local animal shelter and went there once when they had a gray and white cat come in, but it wasn't Oscar. So sad! I was keeping it together pretty well, until we were about to leave the animal shelter and Owen said, "Where my kitty?". :( Who knows, maybe he's just hanging out at a neighbors and will come home some day. 

Our guys in the military are doing well. We get to talk to Scott once in a while and he's starting to get into the core of the program. Jonathan is doing well and recently got an apartment off base, which he's really enjoying. Will is doing well and working at Chick-fil-a and at other construction work. He has a new girlfriend that we are looking forward to meeting sometime soon. 

Seth and Micah have both came down with another round of stomach flu in the past few days. So pray for a quick recovery if you think of it. Twice in one flu season is no fun! We are hoping it stops at them and doesn't go through another several-week phase of cycling through everyone. :-/ Minor discomforts compared to that of many. 

Seth read his first book yesterday! It only consisted of the words, "Sam", "Mat", "on", and "sat", but he was really proud of himself and I was too. Big progress from not knowing his letter names or sounds at the beginning of this school year. 


Hope you all are doing well! God bless you!

Love, 

Kari, Micah, Blake, Seth, Owen and Baby