Family of 4 Announcement

We've had an exciting couple of months with the anticipation of announcing that we are expecting. Gary had been dreaming of making a video of Cooper announcing our news. He did a great job and Coop did an amazing job acting and being patient with us asking him to do things over and over again.

So if you haven't seen the video yet take a look and enjoy!!
Merry Christmas Coop


To answer a few questions:
I am due June 21 2013. I have been feeling great. I'm getting past the completely exhausted stage and that feels so good. I do have a cold today and yesterday but to have not been sick the past 12 weeks it's hard to complain about a runny nose and headache.
Cooper is excited. His prayer lately has been, "Dear God, thank you for my mommy and daddy who take care of me and thank you for my new baby that will be here after my birthday. Thank you for our blessings. Amen."  MELT. MY. HEART!!!
We will still be in shop so we'll share a room with the babe until we built and move. We will hopefully if everything goes alright with the bank will start that in the spring so that's exciting as well. We are trying to decide on house plans.
Gary is excited to have a baby to snuggle with. And I'm excited to see our family grow. Our prayer is that this pregnancy continues to go smoothly without complications. So far so good. The doctor plans to monitor more closely after the 20 week ultrasound which makes me happy to have the extra peace of mind.

Thank you for your continued prayers and excitement with us.

From Coast to Coast

Life has been crazy and is about to get even crazier. I wanted to just give up on blogging but that's not very nice for the peeps that want to see all these pictures and hear about all of our adventures. So I thought I'd tell you about our Coast to Coast Summer.

We went to see Kirk my brother and his family in Oregon. It was a beautiful trip, some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen. I hope to go back soon and have Gary with us. My Dad, Erin and Nana went as well so we had a house full everywhere we went. We were a traveling party it seemed. 

 Coop and Trip enjoyed the sand no matter how chilly it was!

CHEESE! - At Tillamook Cheese Factory.

On our way down the coast to Kirk's house we saw some beautiful things. We stopped at this lighthouse. It was incredible.  

Coop and Trip playing with the outdoor kitchen. 

Kirk had this motorcycle in his shop and Dad was itching to get it running. With a little tinkering he did and the boys we happy he did! It took Trip a little convincing to ride but liked it when he did. The boys are yelling WEEEE-EWWWW!!! Trying to sound like an ambulance or firetruck. We were just glad neither came! 

The Round-up is county fair where Kirk and Aimee live. It's a big deal. The boys had so much fun going there. Looking at the animals, eating treats and riding rides. Coop was unstoppable. He loved all the rides, a little too much. It made us nervous at times the rides he got on alone! Trip liked the jungle house that had ropes to climb and slides.  

Round-up had church on site in the sale barn that Kirk's church hosted. He lead worship with the praise band and he also brought the message and did a fantastic job. 

The boys enjoyed a super hero lunch and playtime.

We had a wonderful time! I can't wait to go back. Family time is never long enough. Thanks Kirk, Aimee and Trip for letting us bombard your house for so long! We love you.

A few weeks later Coop and I headed to the other coast and went to see the Florida fam while Gary was hunting in South Dakota. 

Coop and PawPaw making Jer's birthday cake. Coop of course loved licking the beaters and bowl. 

Gram and PawPaw were good sports playing with Coop in the water at the bait shop. He's a little fish and didn't mind the salt water, he swam in it like any pool.

 Jer helped Coop fish several times. He LOVED it! It was quick fishing so he had so much fun pulling in fish after fish. 

We finally made it to the beach once again he was everywhere! He would've surfed had he been able to stand up on it. I hope he continues to love the water. 

Cooper is obsessed with "cars with no windows" convertibles. So he was thrilled to get to take rides with the top down. This was his first ride. 

Having coffee with Pawpaw and watching cartoons. 

One of our several rides on the carousel. 

We were riding somewhere and this is what Coop looked like. I took his picture and he wanted to see it. He didn't even know a lens was missing until he saw the picture. Silly boy. 

St. Augustine has a few tourist trains so we took a ride. It was as fast at Coop had hoped so we didn't stay on the entire time around town. We got off at the marina where we saw this pirate ship and watched the turtles eat the moss. 

"SINGING IN THE RAIN" We had a few pop up storms so Coop made the best of it and played in the rain.

We had such a great time in Florida. It was hard to leave as usual but we look forward to our next trip… probably after we are a family of four!!

Stayed tuned. I'll post the short video we made to announce the news in case you haven't seen it.

Thanks for hanging in there with me and looking at so many pictures in one post.

Have a Merry Christmas! Hope you have all your shopping done and are able to enjoy some family time and remember 'Jesus is the reason for the season'.