Climbing Trees

Iyah (up top) and George (Down low)

Iyah's new hobby is climbing trees. I don't know how it started, but he is really very good at it. I think part of the reason he likes it so much is that it is one thing that he does better than George. I have to admit that it scares me to death! I turn into the super paranoid mom, "You'll fall to your death!" or "We're going to end up at the hospital!" I can practically see him rolling his eyes at me. He says, "Mom, I can do it, I'm a monkey!" Then he asked me the other day if we will have lots of trees for him to climb at our new house in VA. All I can say is...mom hopes not.

Our Last Week

Baseball Boys

T-ball ended for George this week. Unfortunately it rained on his last game, but the kids didn't mind one bit. George liked t-ball a lot more than he liked soccer so we were glad to finally have a successful sport experience. I think it helped that dad was the coach! Isaac was especially excited that he was able to play in a couple of games, filling in for missing players. He hit as well or better than some of the kids, but he didn't quite get the running the bases part. All in all a great season and very happy boys.

Little Miss Ella got a new hair cut. This picture is her cheesing it for the camera. I told her we needed to take a picture to show her grandmas and she said, "Okay" and then stood there smiling until I went and got my camera. She knows she's pretty darn cute.

This is our last week with Benji and then he heads down to VA to start his big new job! We are very excited to start this new phase of our lives, but we are going to miss him super lots. Hopefully we can join him soon!

Boys

Iyah showing off one of his caterpillars

It is caterpillar season in NY. These little buggers are everywhere and Iyah is obsessed! He finds them everywhere and walks around with them crawling all over him. One even crawled up his shorts yesterday. He had a moment of panic before he was able to locate the runaway. The worst part is that he is constantly trying to sneak them into the house. He put one in his shoe to try and get it past me and accidentally squished it. Bleh! I feel bad for the ones the boys catch because they really get put through the wringer. The poor little caterpillars have been buried alive in the garden, given swimming lessons in a wheel barrow full of water, sprayed with the hose, stashed in sock drawers and dropped more times than I can count. And those are just the things I know about! I'm never sure when I should put my foot down on the torture of caterpillars. Do I let the kids experiment and explore, or do I save the poor things?

Can I just say before I'm done that I love it when my kids play nice! Yesterday Iyah and Ella played upstairs in their rooms for over an hour without any fights, breaking anything, or making a huge mess. It was WONDERFUL! I wish they did that every day. Packing up a house with 3 enthusiastic helpers, on the other hand, is a different story entirely.

Visit From Nana

We had a nice visit from Benji's mom these past 2 weeks. She helped out a lot as we got ready to put the house up on the market, and the kids loved having her here of course! We didn't do a whole lot except hang around, but it was fun.

On the news front...we've had an offer on the house and we signed the contract today. As our realtor says, it's not a done deal until the closing, but we are very excited and optimistic. A week on the market isn't bad if I do say so myself. We have definitely been blessed. All those prayers are paying off. Now we just need to find a place down south!

It's a Girl!

We had our ultra sound this past week and found out we are having another little girl!! Everybody is very excited, especially the boys. I can't tell with Ella. She keeps telling me that she has a baby in her tummy too and that hers is a boy. I have a hard time believing she really wants another brother. I think having another girl around the house is just what we need.

We got our house up for sale yesterday. Now we play the waiting game. We are exercising great faith that someone will want it soon! VA here we come!

More News

We have even more news! And I guess we'd better let the cat out of the bag because I have been getting a lot of questions. We are moving...again! We really thought we might make it past the 3 year mark this time, but it was not to be. Benj has been offered and accepted a job in Virginia at the Library of Congress! We are super excited! He will be starting in early July after George gets out of school. We will be living in Culpeper- about 1 1/2 hours from D.C. The LC just built a new film and sound archive there. So... right now we are stressing out trying to get the house up for sale (Prayers asking for help in finding a buyer would be much appreciated) and all of our junk sorted through! I think this will be a great move for our family.

Newsflash

Well it's been a long time since my last post and just in case there is anyone left actually reading this blog we have lots of news!! OK, really just a few things. First, this little guy is 4!


Our little Iyah is growing so big! Benji says he is going to be our gentle giant. He is such a loving and sweet boy. He loves to snuggle and isn't afraid of telling us how much he loves us. We finally found a preschool where he feels comfortable. I knew it was right when he told me, "Mom, my teacher loves me and I lover her." He is now thriving and loves school. We are so grateful to have Isaac in our family.

Our second news item is that we are expecting baby #4!! This is the reason I have not posted in forever. I have been sick, sick, sick! Everyone kept telling me that I must be having twins if the sickness was worse, but I am relieved to report that there is really only one bean in my belly. I am now almost 14 weeks and starting to feel a little bit better, although my WONDERFUL husband is still doing most of the cooking and shopping. He really has been great-practically a single parent, poor guy. But needless to say we are very excited to welcome a new little spirit into our family! The kids are super excited and weirdly enough both boys say they want another sister (maybe to get Ella off their backs?) and Ella says she wants a brother (I think she's been brainwashed).

Our third bit of news is that my little sister, who's not so little anymore, just got her mission call to Chile. We are very excited for her! She leaves in June and we are going to have to become dedicated letter writers as we will probably not get to see her before she leaves. We love you Jam-o!

Oh yeah, and I turned 30 this week. Ugh.