Around Here

After a bunch of busy, busy months we are having a little time of calm around here.  Well, as much calm as you can have with little kids around!  I feel like they are growing up so fast. 

Marissa's hair is starting to fill in nicely and she is starting to sit a little longer for me to do it.

 # 3 is growing quickly too.  Here is me at 35 weeks, I will be 36 weeks tomorrow!  It still hasn't quite hit me that we are actually going to have a baby next month, and I will admit that sometimes I don't mind the idea of her staying put for awhile because I am a little scared about how I am going to handle 3 still!  But we are getting so excited to meet her.

 Josh had a birthday.  We didn't do a whole lot to celebrate but I did make his mom's delicious chocolate cake.

And we continued our Valentines tradition of one of us making a nice dinner and the other making dessert.  Josh was on dinner this year and went all out.  He made P.F. Changs style lettuce wraps complete with dipping sauce (my favorite part- I may or may not have licked my plate clean)

 mongolian beef, stir fry veggies, and rice. 

 And I made oreo pie, with oreos made from scratch because I didn't want to shell out the mega bucks for gluten free ones.

John and Pat came to visit, and of course spoiled us.  Pat brought these shovels for the kids and they have been having so much fun with them.

 And we decided to make the transition to a big girl bed for Marissa.  They had so much fun "helping" Daddy put it together. 

She seemed excited about it but when we tried the first night to put her down in she screamed "No!" hysterically while we tried to calm her down for almost an hour.  I think she was scared of it.  But the second night she went down fine, and she is so excited to be in a big girl bed "just like Shane's!"  She hasn't tried too hard to get out (yet), though she didn't fall asleep for nap time yesterday (not an uncommon occurrence in the crib either unfortunately) and when I came to get her she was on the floor next to it.

 

Other events not pictured:

-We took the kids sledding for the first time.  On the snow they had plowed in the Walmart parking lot.  Yep, we are that white trash.

-The death of Paco, our gerbil.  He made it almost exactly two years.  Poor Shane was sooooo sad the night we found him, mostly about not having a pet anymore.  "I have no peeetttt.  I'm all alooooonnnee!"  "I will never stop being sad.  I will wake up in the morning and I will still be sad."  He is since doing much better, and it's a good thing because ironically enough next week is Pet Week at his school!



 

Good Times

We went on our last little trip as a family of four this past weekend for another "Second Look" in Indiana.  I am actually going to miss all these little trips, we've had a lot of fun!  Shane and Marissa got to try their hand at bowling for the first time and loved it.

 

 A plate of baked goods waiting for us in our hotel room?  Yes please!  Among other spoils.

 And the best part?  This is the second time that we've stopped at a Wendys and some old man has given our children money for being cute.  Last time it was a quarter, this time it was a dollar.  I should really keep them around, this could become quite lucrative. 

 She kept waving her dollar around (and let's be honest, she was also trying to eat it) and saying, "I got some mooooonnnneeey!"  Oh Josh, you may be in trouble!!

Snowfest 2013

Last week was COLD. The HIGHS were in the teens most of the week. I am so glad it warmed up on Saturday so we could go to one of my favorite events here, Snowfest, and actually enjoy ourselves. And maybe all that cold cold weather earlier in the week did us good because it was in the high 20s while we were there and it felt downright balmy! I love this event because winter can sometimes be a drag but this is one thing that actually celebrates it. And what's not to love about cute little kiddos dressed up like puffy marshmallows? Here were a few of our favorites:

dragon

 triceratops

 Mama and baby seal- I think this one was made for my children.  They are always pretending to be baby seals and want me to be "Mama Seal" (as if I didn't feel fat enough already ha ha)

 people on a houseboat

 

a crocodile hunter

 

bears

 We checked out the animals and fed them

The camel snatched up Shane's whole feed cone before I get a picture, but he thought that was pretty funny.

 

they  loved petting these little goats

 

 I had to document that Shane actually touched them.  We asked him after if he wanted to ride a pony and that was still a big fat no.

 Usually we have lunch at one of the restaurants there but we were too cheap this year so we skipped the lunch and just ate cookies from the bakery (they have some gluten free ones),

 and then stopped at this cupcake shoppe that was on Cupcake Wars.

After oogling all the options I chose a cuatro leches one and the few bites I got between Shane and Marissa were delicious.

 

 We had a lot of fun and I was so proud of this boy for walking the whole time without any complaining.  It gave me hope that maybe I will be able to handle getting out with three?!

 

No Marissa, David!

One of Marissa's very favorite series of books is the No, David!  books by David Shannon.  They are really simple picture books about a boy who always gets in trouble.  She wants to read them over and over again and tell you what he did wrong on each page.  I took a video of her reading one with me, but I'm warning you that it might be boring to non-grandparents. 


She probably loves these books because she empathizes with poor David, always getting told no.  Being 1 is rough.  She is a sweetheart but she definitely has a feisty side!  If she had her own book, it might read something like this:

Don't hit!!!
Leave your diaper on!
Get that out of your mouth!
Don't pick your nose!
Color on the paper!
Don't stand on that!
Sit in your seat!

But for every time I have to get after her there are five times that she does something so stinkin cute she just melts you, and even more so now that she is putting more words together.  The other day she was flipping through the Gospel Art book and she would point out Jesus in every picture and say "I love him!"  I am so glad I get to be her mom, feistiness and all!

The End of Interview Season!

Josh had his last interview on Monday!  It worked out really well because the interview was in Indianapolis, and the program in Fort Wayne was having their "Second Look" on Saturday so we just made a big trip out of it.  "Second Look" is something that some programs do to have you come back and meet with them more informally, and it basically shows you are still interested in them.  I was kind of bugged by the whole notion of second looks at first, but I'm not anymore because man they sure spoiled us at this one!  Multiple gift bags for us and the kids, a hotel stay, a nice dinner at the country club, meal vouchers, and best of all they arranged to watch the kids so that I could participate in all of it!  As an added bonus, our friends from Dominica, Tom and Amber Baker were there too and it was so fun to meet up with them again!

 Shane and Lilly were little 1 year old friends in Dominica and they got to hang out while the adults went to dinner (with their little siblings in tow of course)

 On Sunday we drove down a couple more hours to Indianapolis where they put us up in a hotel and Josh interviewed on Monday while the kids and I hung out at a big mall downtown.  We drove back home that evening and were happy to be done with interviews (except we are planning on going to one more second look in a few weeks).  Interview season has actually been kind of fun and exciting.  I was able to go to a lot more than I had planned on, and when I didn't I loved hearing about it and seeing all the random stuff Josh brought back.  I took this picture of just some of the things he has been given from the programs he's interviewed with because I got such a kick out of how random some of them were- bags, water bottles, pens, pads of paper, chapstick, breathmints, an ice scraper, umbrella, pedometer, pizza cutter, luggage tag, etc. etc. and of course all with their program name on it so it might be a little weird to use some of these when we don't end up there ha ha.

Some of them gave edible things but those are of course long gone, though I did have to take a picture of this gift basket we got in the mail from one before Christmas.  It feels good to be wined and dined sometimes!

 

Though I will say, this part of the whole process is probably my least favorite- the waiting.  From here on out we rank the programs he's interviewed at in order of preference and the programs rank the people they've interviewed in order of preference.  There is some big algorithm on the computer called "the match" where you are assigned to your highest program that also ranked you and wasn't already filled with higher ranked applicants.  Then on "Match Day", March 15th, they tell us where we are going.  So basically, we have 2 months to sit and wait and wonder.  It is hard to not get your hopes up about some of your favorites, but I am really trying not to because anything could happen.  It takes a little work daily to remind myself that Heavenly Father knows where we are supposed to be and that things will work out how they're supposed to if we trust Him. Dominica and Saginaw, Michigan were sure not on our radar before but of course looking back I can see how this is where we were supposed to be.  2 months of waiting won't kill me, though hopefully it will put me into labor :) (I am due just after Match Day.  Talk about anticipation!)

Christmas 2012

After a busy fall with lots of traveling we were actually pretty excited to have a low key Christmas at home this year with our little family.   Josh was on an ER rotation and had gotten a lot of other days off for interviews, so we knew he would probably be working on Christmas Eve and Christmas.  Luckily, he worked in the morning on Christmas Eve and in the afternoon on Christmas Day.  I was so glad the Y was open in the morning on Christmas Eve and the kids and I went there and then Josh was home for all the festivities that evening.  Lasagna for dinner is turning into a tradition (We actually had it for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day because I knew there would be plenty and Josh was working anyway)

On Christmas Eve we make cookies for Santa,

read the Christmas story from Luke using our Little People nativity, watch a personalized video from Santa, and open the ornaments Josh and I got each other. 

We had one very excited boy and he asked me about a million questions about how the whole Santa thing was going to go down as I put him to bed.  Christmas morning the kids actually slept til after 8 and were very excited to see what Santa had brought.

Shane was not thrilled with the presents that had clothes in them,

but Marissa sure was!  She would hold it up to herself and say "pretty!"

we ate cinnamon rolls for breakfast and the kids were pretty much happy all day playing with their new toys. Shane kept saying, "We're having a really fun day!!!" They were sure spoiled!

It worked out nicely that Grandma Dettinger's package got delayed because of the blizzard in the midwest because when it came the next day Shane was so excited for more presents that he was even happy about opening clothes.

Marissa opened these adorable little boots and when we asked her if she liked them she yelled, "Yeaaaahhhh!"

Shane kept asking what came after Christmas, and we told him "winter".  He keeps asking me to sing him "winter" songs.  So far we've sung "Once There Was a Snowman" every night ha ha.  Any ideas for me? 

She'll Fit Right In

 I had my ultrasound quite awhile ago but never got around to scanning some of the pictures. So here is our little girl, Sadie Jo Dettinger will be her name.

Still crazy even on my third to think that is really inside of me!!  Before the ultrasound tech did her measurements, she asked me how big my first two babies were.  When I told her she said, "well maybe this one will be smaller for you!"  She measured the head first and said, "well, sorry, the head is measuring big.  Sometimes it's just the head though."  Then she measured the belly and said, "well, that's measuring big too."  Then she measured the legs and said, "well hey, those are measuring right on."  Big head, big torso, short legs?  Yep, that's my baby in there!  She'll fit right in with the rest of us!

I am getting more and more excited (and sometimes nervous) for her to come.  With Marissa's pregnancy I kind of had that nervousness like how can I love another baby as much as I love my first?  Now that I have two beautiful kids that bring so much joy to our family in different ways it is more like I can't wait to see what this one will be like and what she will add to the family.  I think the kids are pretty excited too, my belly is the recipient of many kisses throughout the day.  And here it is in all its glory, this is me a week or two ago, entering the 3rd trimester.  I feel 10x bigger than this, and am pretty sure I look it in real life too!