Dreams really do come true!

We finally announced our BIGGEST surprise of a lifetime this week-- We're having a baby GIRL!!!!!
It has been a whirlwind of excitement and build up, as we started taking bets and anticipating the big "reveal" before our 16 week ultrasound. . . only to have the little stinker hide her femininity from us! 2 weeks later, the sonographer was 90% sure it was a girl-- but would NOT confirm or deny the possibility that 2 weeks later we could be thinking blue!
But the big day finally arrived, and I was able to simultaneously watch the screen, hear the words "This is a baby girl!", and capture my husband's, boys' and mom's faces on video in the dimly lit room of the ultrasound! It was a surreal, yet emotional experience, to say the least!
Mom pulled out a pink gift bag with our first girly gift-- the 'Girls Rock' onesie that we quickly incorporated into our announcement:

We are all still marveling at God's goodness, kindness, and great LOVE toward us, in surprising us with this treasure! But none more than I… as I have spent the rest of the week pondering slowly all of these things in my heart-- my lifelong desire to have a girl, starting with my little girl dreams of being a mommy, and growing up with a mom who always told me how special girls are, and how hearing "its a girl!" were the best 3 words she ever heard… developing a heart for counseling and teaching young women, always with a desire to empower and equip girls to know who they are and embrace true beauty. The wonder of getting married and starting a family with the hopes of a little girl on the horizon… instead hearing "it's a boy!" 2 times over, and living with the dream deferred… then growing to love being a mom of boys to the point where i really truly utterly was satisfied and content with remaining just that. And now the result of the last 4 years of prayers that went something like, "God, if I am going to have another baby, please make it an accident, and please make it a girl!" …never really believing He'd answer in just that way!  I really did expect another boy, not necessarily b/c i didn't believe God would grant my request, but because i really have grown to love these boys like i never could have imagined! They are so easy, so fun, and such a delight to my soul… I suddenly found myself in a place of total contentment with the idea of one more. I knew they would love it, it'd be natural, and they'd all be a team. 

What never, ever occurred to me was how sweetly my 100% boys would react to the thought of having a sister. They (esp. C) were convinced we were having a girl. They really WANTED her to be one! And the more they talked about it with excitement, hugged and kissed my belly, and wanted to watch videos of fetal development, the more endearing it became to think of the wonderful surprise it would be for all of us. . . to hear those 3 incredible words! 

And now here we are! Talking about what to name her, what pink things we should get for her, and how her body parts will be different than theirs! And it feels like a dream-- with little moments of reality setting in by the day. And it is wonderous, and emotion-filled, and altogether lovely. 

And yet there is the next 12 weeks -- of watching and waiting, and keeping the faith… that this little peanut will stay firmly planted where she belongs. There are pangs of "what if" that float around us, and hang in the air. There is tentativeness in talking too much about "when she comes in March", and shadows of the past that loom around the next month or so of ultrasounds and monitoring. 

There is growing anticipation, and sweet intimate moments of feeling her kick and flip around within me. And there are bittersweet memories of the last time I felt a baby kick from the inside. At 24 weeks and 1 day. There is natural attachment happening as I let myself take in the dream-come-true….and there is natural disengagement as I try not to get too attached. 

But all I have to do is look at my miracle boy for but a few moments and all of the BEAUTY of God's perfect sovereignty come back into focus. I have nothing to fear. For if He has been faithful in the past, and handled every detail with His wise and loving will, He will surely be faithful in whatever plan He has for our little girl. He makes no mistakes. And he surely does nothing by accident! No matter how much I pray for it :).

He is knitting our sweetheart together for a specific purpose and plan-- and I can rest fully in the peace of whatever that is, being all for our good, and hers. No matter the span of her life-- she is our dream come true. She is our little gift of love from the planter of dreams, and reaper of prayers.  That we might be so lucky as to hold her, whether for a day or for a lifetime, we will be in awe of the giver of all good gifts, who has blessed us with His love in those 3 little words!

because pinterest won't let me...

My neighbor gave me some pumpkin bars. they were the best i've ever had. i asked for the recipe. she gave it to me the old fashioned way. ok, well, the newer old fashioned way. typed on a piece of paper. 

i told my mom how good they were. SHE wanted the recipe. what a dilemma. i actually had to type it up on my own computer, email it to her, and save it to my documents for later reference. but now that all of my best and favorite recipes are on pinterest, i thought, oh i'll just pin it. but do you think it would let me? no. my text edit doc. file was not "supported" by the website.

so here i go. posting on my own little piece of the web... just so i can link it here. 

the end.

and enjoy!

Neighbor Mary's Mother-in-law's Pumpkin Bars

bar ingredients: 

4 eggs

1 2/3 c sugar

1 c. oil

1 (16 oz) can pumpkin

2 c. flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

beat sugar and oil. add eggs and pumpkin until light and fluffy. stir together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and soda.  add to pumpkin mixture and mix thoroughly. spread batter in ungreased 15 x 10 baking pan (or a 9 x 13 and an 8x8). bake at 350 25-30 min. cool. frost with cream cheese frosting. cut into bars.

frosting:

1 (3 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened

1/2 c. butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla

2 c. powdered sugar

cream together cream cheese and butter. stir in vanilla. add powdered sugar, a little at a time, beating well untill mixture is smooth. 

The much anticipated LAKE adventure

The boys have been talking about Indian Lake all year long. It's awesome that they're old enough to really remember it, and anticipate it as much as i always have, and now enjoy through their childlike excitement. Thank God for the DVD player, b/c it was a really long trip for them, even tho we left at 4am! The anticipation was almost making one more hour seem unbearable. by the time the sun rose.
We had a very relaxing week-- the boys mainly just wanted to be on the beach, digging, building, and swimming. FINE. With. Me. They loved the boat rides always asking why we weren't going faster... they made it up Baldy (with a considerable amount of bribery, encouragement, and whining). . . but they made it. The view is always worth the sweat (and proverbial tears). We hiked with cousins to the waterfall as well, and they boys enjoyed their ability to be more independent, run ahead of us, and hang with the big kids more than in the past. We got ice cream several times, tho debbie's is finally gone :(. Kyren just wanted plain chocolate, while C opted for cotton candy or cookie dough.
One afternoon all the guys in camp greased a watermelon (for old time's sake) and everyone else sat on the beach and cheered them on in a hilarious competition of watermelon football-ish.
We only had a day or two of rain, and it never got very warm. . . reminiscent of the early years of my life, when we really needed warm jackets at night. The boys did great sleeping in the Rose, while Dave and I had #6 to ourselves. We brought coffee over every morning, and the boys were always happy playing in the back room with the fun little things grams had brought. mostly legos and a barrel of monkeys.
Of course Keely treated them to books, Joseph patiently taught them more about baseball and played with them everyday, and Joe and Peggy spoiled them rotten. . It's so special to have our Lake family, even for that one week a year.
The kiddos played so hard, it was hard for them to stay awake for campfires, but they managed to fit a few s'mores in here and there before drifting off to sleep. And on the last night, the stars finally came out in all their greatness, so we woke up C to let him catch a glimpse of the awesomeness. He was so sweet and sleepy, and happily went back to bed after just a couple of minutes.
Even with the extra day, the week flew by, and it was so hard to leave. So much build-up for such a short amount of time spent there. It gets harder each year to say goodbye.
Next year will be a whole new ballgame--

our view from 6 each morning

how'd she know Berenstain Bears are the new fave??

helping Lea hoist the mainsail

C with his black eye, from falling into a picnic bench!

these were some of the only shots i got w/my phone-- fortunately the best pics are on dave's camera... and hopefully will surface again soon!

August came in like a lion

...a lion in a very bad mood!
Some places in Philly got record amounts of rainfall in one hour's time.
And that's about all it took (after a long hard rain the night before)... for THIS to happen...

not just in one spot... but in two:

which made packing for vacation really *challenging*, as we had to load the car by stepping over this:

Once we returned, however, the boys got straight to work "fixing" the mess...

and they've been on the job ever since...

it's actually become our new go-to playground, and while it's making a royal mess of our basement, it's like a boy heaven in our own yard. . .

this guy is into all things "snakes, snails and puppy dog tails"... literally.

C asked him recently why he likes tails so much.

he said, "because they're SO waggy!"

and there you have it.

what's not to love?

a monumental day

Who's growing up way too fast?

This guy!

He saw a video of his cousin, Willa, riding her bike for the first time...

And suddenly he was ready to try.

Amazing how immediately he got it (all thanks to his beloved balance bike)!

I was so proud. I remember like it was yesterday learning how to ride my own! In the blink of an eye, he'll be off to college.

And then it was on to a new splash park with the growth group gang. Ironically, growth is apparently what we excel in! Look what we've produced in the past 5 years!

And just as we snapped the photo, Kate said, "and next year there'll be one more!"

We all screamed, and I yelled, "or 2 more!"

She actually stole the words right out of my mouth!!

More screaming ensued and all the kids just stood there and stared at us like the crazies we are!

So my baby boy rides a two-wheeler...

...there's only one way to deal with that:

Time to start over.

And... July !

Ok, so i think this brings us into July...

Yup... according to my pictures...

we celebrated the 4th poolside with plenty of red, white and blueberry!

the boys are becoming quite the fish by this point, but do i have any pictures of them swimming? 

Nada.

b/c who has time to take pictures when lounging poolside, enjoying the independence of two little boys who no longer need your assistance in the water? Not I, apparently.

I did manage to capture this quasi-cool photo of these guys mesmerized by fireworks. . . the boys were so exhausted they barely made it a mile toward home before zonking out in the backseat. 

Koobie got a surprise from cousin sue-- 3 new homemade blankies (mini ones) to travel with, since his originals are beyond repair and need to stay safely at home if we want them to make it through the year. he was so adorably thrilled!

Celebrating 7 years of marital... silliness

and hopeless romantics...

and dashingly handsome couple-ness!

and then there was this milestone... sniff!
more to come on that later -- he was a natural thanks to the balance bike!

And then there was this surprise of a lifetime for ME--
the boys went to a gym party at Pancott's (where i took gymnastics at C's age)
and Mr. P himself was STILL there...doing the same old tricks, in the same old accent, looking only 30 years older, but just as spry and sassy. i couldn't believe it. it was like stepping back in time with my own kids! what a whirl!

Willa and Wyatt Week commenced-- and boy did we have a blast! 

The kids got along so well, and as always, were well matched age-wise :)

We swam, jumped, slip-n-slided, rode bikes, trikes and automobiles galore, please touch museum'd it, and ate lots of treats!

K had back to back weekend visits to the  Emergency Care Clinic-
once for an ear infection (random)
and once for a sprained knee that he was having trouble walking on without it going crooked.
that's always a tough call.
glad we went to make sure it wasn't broken. turns out kids don't have knee caps.
they grow over time apparently.
who knew?
he's such a brave little guy-- he and Froggy.

We also had VBS/Kingdom Rock in July, which was definitely a highlight of the summer--yet i failed again to get pics. i think they're on dave's camera-- but suffice it to say both boys had a blast, and have literally not let me stop playing the cd in the car for the past 2+ months!! I'm going a little nuts.

there was more to July...but i'll have to come back to that later...

New England Girls' Weekend

a few days after returning from Hatteras, I repacked the car (did i mention how thankful i am for the car??), much more lightly than we did for the week of vacation...for it was i alone who was traveling this time! All by my lonesome (YES!!) up to NH and VT to visit some incredible people from long ago...

got a nice little bit of serenity on Lake Winnipesaukee, thanks to the amazing Ron and Chris, our hosts for a couple of nights!

Sailing like Bob... way out on the lake...way far away from the dock...

relaxing with the one and only who can make me laugh my guts out

the crew, so blessed to know them all!

one of the very few pics i took of the ladies, due to having such a wonderful, non-stop talking time at the Chantry!

it was so fun to get away and have girl time (and lots of good food), nature time, and alone time in the car-- just me, God, and music! I definitely came home feeling refreshed, and so incredibly thankful for all of the blessings I've been given... in my long lasting friendships, dedicated, selfless husband, and wonderful parents and inlaws who gave up their weekend to watch our boys. OH the boys-- how happy i was to see them!! tho they were too busy having fun to notice i was back. stinkers :)