Tough being 2

Abigail cracks me up. She has no problem showing how she REALLY feels about the situation!

With a little BRIBING we finally got her to pretend that everything was going to be ok.

Finding out the gender of baby #4

Well if anyone reads this blog and doesn’t have facebook or other means of keeping in contact with us it could come as a surprise that we are even expecting another baby. The news hasn’t made it on the blog. I am due February 23rd and have about 10 weeks to go. We are all excited to welcome a new baby to the family. 

Back in October we found out it would be a little man joining the family. I wanted to be selfish and keep it a surprise. Everyone else in the family really thought we needed to know if it was a brother or sister. Also the girls started calling him little Will right away and Eli really wanted to call him Little Bill so, I thought if it was a little girl we might need to start figuring out a new name.

We couldn’t take the kids with us to the ultrasound appointment so we decided to do things a little different this time. When we went in for the ultrasound we just asked them to write it down in a card and seal it up. Luke wasn’t sure I would follow through with not having them tell me. He kept wanting to look at the card. But, it was fun keeping the surprise until later that night when we were with the kids. Micali was sure she should be the first to know so we let her read the card. She looked at the card looked at us and spelled B-O-Y! Then said I knew it was a boy. 

Eli is so excited he will finally have a little brother to share a room with. He loves that the cradle is in his room waiting for the arrival and often fills it with toys so the baby will have something to play with when he comes home.

75* in sunny Bay City

Holding the kittens after a nice bike ride on the little bench that we refinished for the little ones. What a beautiful fall day!

Planting time

We took some time this week to plant bulbs of hyacinth and crocus so our bees have some early bloomers next year.

Our dog marley

Marley's birthday is today. He is two now so we are holding out that his mellowing years are beginning. From the pictures you can see his favorite treat...apples from our trees. He will sit under the tree and bark at apples he wants down (though the tree doesn't listen). I believe he read Animal Farm and wants to be on the ruling side. Why else would a dog eat apples?
Happy birthday Marley!

Let them be little...

Little Abigail had an ear infection last week and ended up spending a couple nights in our bed. Tonight she wanted to join us again. I snapped this picture before putting her back in her own bed.

Story time with Grandpa Peless

While daddy had some meetings at the stake center, mommy and the little ones hung out with grandma. But this picture was snapped when grandpa came back an all three kids asked him to tell them a story. They love the stories he makes up for them.

We’re from the country…

This beautiful piece of equipment came with our house and up until yesterday the wagon had flat tires. Once we realized all they needed was air, it was a quick fix and the kids were super entertained while riding around. Luke kept singing……. chugaluga lug 5 miles an hour, on my international harvester.

The amazing part about this is that between getting home from work and going to the church on Wednesday he only has about an hour of “down” time and he figures out how to use that time the best with the kiddos. They are always so excited to spend time with him when he is home.

I am sure there will be a lot more rides around in the evening before the snow flies.

Little girls at breakfast

Here's our two princesses eating their oatmeal cereal with daddy before he's off to work.

They hate missing him by sleeping in.

The Golden Honey Harvest

This being Luke’s first year of his venture with Beekeeping we weren’t expecting any honey. It takes a year usually for them to build up their supply that they use to stay alive in the winter. They go through about 70lbs. To our surprise the bees must have been good hardworking bees because we ended up having a few frames with honey that was ready for us to harvest. We ended up with one gallon of liquid gold this year---yes it was pretty expensive to get started----which is about 12lbs. In the Beekeeping book for Dummies it says that to collect a pound of honey bees must fly more than 50,000 miles and visit more than 2 million flowers to collect enough nectar for ONE pound of honey. So, to think they had 70lbs in each hive and between the two we ended up getting 12 lbs means those bees were working HARD. That is a lot of miles and flowers.

Micali is as much into beekeeping as her daddy. I didn’t get pictures of them out there stealing the honey from the bees but they sure weren’t happy about it. Micali got a little nervous because they were flying around her so much but kept asking her daddy if she was okay and stayed right there with him to help him with what he needed. She looks so cute in her little bee suit.

To end the bee harvest that night Micali decided to pull out her first tooth. It had came loose while she was eating corn on the cob a few nights before and instead of worrying for another night about swallowing it she just yanked it out all by herself. She was excited for the tooth fairy to come visit since Eli had beat her to loosing a tooth by about 2 months.

Garden Goods

We planted a garden first the first time since leaving Alaska and our garden there left a lot to be desired. Luke was ready to go big and plant everything. I was a little more skeptical—he was leaving for a month to work on his doctorate in Utah—and wanted to keep it small and successful. We just picked our first squash and had it for dinner last night. I was so excited but not quite as excited as Micali. She is in LOVE with squash. She wanted it for breakfast the morning after I brought it in. She had three big plates of it for dinner. She can’t wait to find a husband who loves squash so they can eat it everyday. Abbers even enjoyed a plate of it.

Micali took these pictures for me!

And a couple pictures of the garden:

We have a good garden that is loved and weeded: peas, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, tomatoes, cabbage onions and squash.

And we have another garden that is loved but only by the bees. We placed the bees in a bad location to actually care for this garden when not in a full bee suit which is too hot and not practical.

This garden is mostly strawberries but at the end not pictured here are some pumpkins, watermelons, and cucumbers which still look pretty good because they aren’t as close to the bees and I have braved weeding them a few times.

She tries so hard…

Sometimes naptime in the summer just doesn’t happen. Although I try really hard to plan things around naptime. Abigail thinks she can keep up with the big kids but sometimes this ends up happening when she finally stops moving for a second.

Enjoying the last day of June

It has been really hot here. In the 90s. Daddy wanted them to have fun while he was out of state so he suggested I get them a slip-n-slide. It was a hit! Micali and Abigail had no problem trying it out. Eli was a little more reserved. He came close to getting on but them stepped back and said he would watch. He had more fun spraying Marley with water from the end of the slide.

It was so fun to watch Micali helping her little sister out. Abigail doesn’t want to miss out on anything her sister does. Micali usually doesn’t mind and shows her the way.

Red, White and Blue celebration

The library had a little party for the 4th of July. The kids got to make several different crafts. Eli had saw the display before we went and was only set on making his eagle. He worked hard on that and then left to play with the train table. Micali and Abigail had a little more patience and also made a s’more man and necklace.

A bowling outing

I signed the kids up for the “kidsbowlfree” program this summer. They can bowl two games every single day. We have only made it once and only through one game but the kids sure did love it. Micali even got 3 spares with the ramp and the bumpers. Abigail thought she was strong enough to carry the ball herself but soon realized it was okay if mom helped out a little bit. She was all smiles when it was her turn but would get so mad when she had to sit down and wait for her brother and sister. It ended up being a lot of fun and I think we might just try it again sometime soon!

They loved their cool shoes!