Please Pray for Amy

I am posting this for TJ & Amy. Amy went to the ER last night & found out that the baby did not have a heartbeat. She will be going in for surgery tomorrow. She will be home tomorrow at some point. Please join us in praying for them and loving them through this difficult time. She will post an update when she can.

Piano Recital

I finally scheduled a recital for my piano students. It has been a while and there is ALWAYS something that makes it not a convenient time to schedule one. So, I decided I better just have it or we may never have one! I have seven students, but one wasn't able to participate. (And, actually, my number of students is already changing - one decided to quit and I have one starting next week and 2 more possible students.) Anyway, all of them did well. They all played two pieces. I let most of them pick pieces they have played and enjoyed. My oldest student, Nicole, has played for almost 8 years. One piece that she played was a Sonatina by Muzio Clementi that she played for a high school music competition. (By the way, she received a superior. Yeah, Nicole!) Another of my older students, Shelby, has played for quite a while. She is really into composing her own pieces, so she played a couple of those. They were very nice. Sara H. is one of the next oldest students. She is always finding new pieces that she wants to play. She wanted to play "Music Box Dancer" because it was one of her grandparent's favorites. Then there is Sydney who has really been enjoying learning to play by chords and learning some fun praise songs. So, she played a couple of those. I also had two almost brand new students. Rebecca and Timothy have only been playing for a couple months. They were both nervous, but did a great job. Rebecca did a great job playing a couple beginner favorites. One of them was "Ode to Joy". Timothy also played a couple beginner favorites, one of them being a not-so-favorite of parents, "The Indian Song". So, here we are after they survived their recital. Great job guys!

School's Out Luau

I promise, I really have been trying to post. I have many posts just waiting. . . We are still struggling with our wi-fi connection. So, far our carrier's only help is telling us that there is some nasty interference happening. Oh, how helpful! I have been trying to post these pictures all week and now suddenly most of them uploaded with no problem. Of course, the last few I struggled to get up. You just never know! Much frustration!!!!! Anyway. . .

Jaylyn has completed her first year of preschool. She has loved every minute of it and is having trouble understanding that it will be a while before she gets to go back. There has also been a little confusion because they combined the kids that will go to kindergarten with those Jaylyn's age who still have one more year. So, they have all been practicing and singing on stage for their big preschool graduation day. It took her a little while to figure out that she is not going to kindergarten yet. But, what a fun year to go to preschool with her cousin Malaine. Next year, she is on her own. :)

Here is Malaine on graduation day.

On their last day of school, the kids had a luau. It was quite a fun celebration with lots of activity "stations", luau decorations, music, snacks and crafts. Everyone dressed up for the fun event.

Adley enjoyed all of the decorations.
(This was a little while before she threw up on the sidewalk. Nice!)

Hula hoop time!

Ms. Nancy is a wonderful volunteer at the preschool. She had fun with Adley.

Here they come ready for some luau fun!

Making their own cupcake liner necklaces.

What skill - carrying water balloons with a spoon!

Everybody limbo!

Luau Girls!Digging for treasure!

Silly Girls

I'm always having fun with these silly girls.

I honestly don't remember exactly what Jaylyn was doing here,
but it is always something very imaginative!

Adley is at the stage where she enjoys taking things out or dumping them out.
The kids cup drawer is one of her favorites to play in.

Blue Yogurt and Nature Shows

Just a few fun Adley moments. . .

Who doesn't love blue yogurt?
(Ok, so maybe organic is better without blue dye, but it makes a fun picture!)

As we were getting ready for bed one evening, I flipped the tv on to a PBS station and a documentary on Salmon was coming on. Evidentally, this is an amazing documentary because both of my girls were going crazy over all of the fish and didn't want to go to bed! Jaylyn was begging me to turn it on the next morning. Adley was just sooooo excited! A few days later I noticed there was another nature show on and I wondered what Adley would do. Well, same effect - squealing and jumping over nature. I guess all I have to say is, "Go God! Your creation is amazing!"

FISH!

Yeah!

Weekend with the Petersons

Well, a couple weekends back we FINALLY had a chance to go visit our dear friends, Travis and Mitzi. They have been living this last year in Olney, IL so it wasn't too bad of a drive. Both of us have two children the same age so that is really fun. They had Abigail 3 months before we had Jaylyn, and we had Adley 3 months before they had Josiah. So, I keep teasing her that she only has a couple months for the next one. :) We had a great time visiting and seeing their church that Travis is pastoring. We watched a movie, the boys watched lots of sports, we played lots of cards (I think overall, us girls pretty much ruled the cards - hee hee), and laughed a lot. Let me tell you, Jaylyn thoroughly enjoyed herself. She and Abigail slept together in Abigail's room and stayed up late talking. The second night Jaylyn ended up having to come sleep with us because they would NOT go to sleep. So, when we arrived home Sunday evening at bed time, the girls were ready to sleep. In fact, Jaylyn slept until 11:20 Monday morning! Thanks for the great visit guys!

Adley and Josiah also enjoyed playing with Josiah's toys together.

Josiah showed us his new trick - hanging out IN his toy basket

Jaylyn and Abigail having a little V-smile time

Abigail performing for us

Travis performing for us. Hee hee!

Jaylyn and Abigail put on a show for us - quite entertaining!

Adley helping me win our card game.

Week 9

Well, for those who have still not heard the news and did not read number 100 from my 100 things about me post, we are expecting baby #3! Of course, we are very excited. Adley has no clue, but Jaylyn is VERY excited. And look out baby, because Jaylyn is Miss Mother Hen to the max! I'm sure Adley will appreciate someone else taking the brunt of the bossiness. Amazingly, Jaylyn has been talking about this one being a "brother". We will see! We certainly are just concerned with a healthy baby. T.J. teases that we will try until we get a boy. Ha! I'm thinking, you know what happens to those that decide they will try till they get the other - you end up with like 12 girls! The other thing I KNOW our family is very excited about, is the fact that this is yet another child right in the midst of everyone else's birthday AND Christmas fun. Jaylyn was due Dec. 23rd and was forced out on the 29th. Adley hit right before Thanksgiving on Nov. 17th. Now this one is due right in between the other two - Dec. 12th. I mean really, this one wouldn't want to be left out of the chaos, right? The other bit of baby drama that I'm still a little bitter about is that when I went for my "what we thought should be my 8 week checkup", we discovered that I was only about 6 weeks along. Ugh! Moving backwards in pregnancy is NO fun! So, I went back in 2 weeks to make sure everything was fine and that I was just one of those that doesn't fit in their "average" estimations. We saw the baby had definitely grown and was measuring right along with the "adjusted" due date. So, here I am just now arriving at 9 weeks when I was thinking by now I should be 11. Oh well, the baby will come when it is the right time. So, the other question that I'm asked all the time is, "How are you feeling?" Well, any mother in their first trimester is VERY tired. I don't really like that part whatsoever. I'm sure my family doesn't appreciate it either. :) I have also been a little nauseous. It kind of just comes and goes off and on, so not enough to really complain. I wasn't really nauseous with the other two either, but this time does seem to be a little more. So, as everyone says, "It could be a boy this time." You just never know. The other question I'm asked is, "Will you find out what it is?". And my answer is, "Absolutely, yes!" I really cannot stand waiting to find out and I'm always nervous that they won't be able to tell. I love being able to start bonding a little better (not that you can't bond when you don't know!) and being able to use their name and just feel prepared. When I was pregnant with Adley, I enjoyed being able to talk to Jaylyn about it being a girl and us being able to call her by name. And for those that think it takes the surprise out of it all, I say - well, I am certainly surprised when they tell me what I'm having! It is just a little earlier than when the baby is coming out. And then there is the question about whether I have names ready. The answer is, No. I might have a couple names rolling around in my head, but nothing I'm ready to share. I also think it is a waste of energy to dwell too much on figuring out a boy AND a girl name, when I will really only need one. :) So, I kind of like to wait a bit. Is that lazy? So, there it is - everything you ever wanted to know about my first nine weeks.

Here is our first ultrasound when we discovered I was not so far.
We were surprised to see such a tiny baby! For those not used to looking at ultrasounds, the baby is the very small spot between the white measurement marks in the middle. Tiny!

Here we are, finally at 8 weeks. You can see a noticeable difference in size! So, you can imagine the surprise at the last ultrasound when the baby was so small. It is always a wonderful blessing to be able to peek inside and see that precious little life and that heartbeat fluttering. God is amazing!

Fun at the zoo

Well, it seems like so long ago. :) But, we made it to the zoo one beautiful morning. We had a fun time hanging out with the animals. Giraffes, hippos, and elephants of course are always on our favorite list. We had to hit the bird house also since Adley is always talking about "birdies!". We were able to get Zoo goer passes this year with Grandma and Grandpa Geist's Christmas money this year so we look forward to all of the benefits with that. It was a fun time!

Elephant!

Jaylyn striking a pose.


Adley and the giraffes.

A lot of catching up to do!

Ok, I'm starting to hear it. Some of you (ok, like my three blog readers - hee hee) have shared that you are possibly tired of reading my last post. I can't imagine that? It has only been, what, a month? My reasons for not posting: I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut-off. Some of you know that is actually NOT unusual. My problem has been that any of my spare moments has been spent passed out on the couch instead of on the computer! :) I have actually tried to get some zoo pictures posted several times, but my wi-fi connection has been having problems and I am truly annoyed! I would call htc, but I have to dig out my computer from the desk monster pile first. Ha! Well, I'm on my way to our last MOPS meeting of the year. God has blessed us with another great year. Hopefully in the next couple days I can begin the catching up of the blog so you all don't have to wait any more to find out, "Who's Coming? and Where are we Going?".