That last post brought a lot of views to our little blog! Until Wednesday (the day of our reveal) our busiest blog day had been shortly after I e-mailed almost everyone we know to announce we’d claimed our own “land” in cyberspace back in May 2008. Now, with 195 views, Wednesday, November 18th holds that record. Crazy!
Thank you for all of the congratulations and well wishes. We are very excited by the growth of our family and look forward to adding a new little one to our hearts and home. I thought I’d answer some questions we’ve been getting about our new arrival…
*Our new bundle is due May 23rd, 2010, but because of my Type I diabetes, the fact it’ll be a scheduled c-section, the fact that Colton was 8 lbs 15 oz two weeks early, blah blah blah, he or she should arrive about two weeks early as well – very close to Mother’s Day. I love it!
*I am in my 2nd trimester now, but unfortunately, that does not mean a break in morning sickness. Just like my pregnancy with Colton, I am sick almost every day of the week, and sometimes more than once. I am very tired, and the two little people running around me (who like to come stand by me while I’m actually getting sick and repeat, over and over and over again, “Mommy, you OK?”) have been very forgiving. However, I am grateful for the sickness, because in my mind, it means everything is as it should be. I have been pregnant 4 times before this and have one living biological child, and I was only sick with him and not at all with the others. So, I’ll take the throwing up if it means I’ll get to meet my baby in May!
*Kennison is thrilled about being a big sister again. Sometimes she says she wants a little sister, and sometimes a little brother. It depends on the day. We think she’ll really be hands on with this baby, even more so than with Colton, just because she’s older and understands more. However, we’ll have to watch her closely… the other day, when Kenny was putting her to bed, he asked her where her stuffed animals and babies were.
Kennison: In the oven. (Toy oven, in case we need to say that.)
Kenny: Why are they in the oven?
Kennison: Because they need to be cooked.
Ok then. Mental note – Kennison is not yet ready for babysitting.
*Colton has no concept of how his life’s about to change. He loves babies, as evidenced by his obsession with his new cousin Charlie, but he of course will not be able to grasp everything until the baby comes home… and takes HIS room… and is drinking out of HIS bottles… we’ll just take it one day at a time.
*We are not planning on finding out the gender of this baby. We have one boy and one girl, and we would like one surprise. However, I have lots of sonograms with my pregnancies (I’ve already had 4) so I don’t know that we’ll make it the next 23 weeks without finding out, but we’re going to try. I also have people telling me I *can’t* make it and that I’ll break down and want to know, and that’s like a dare, people. I’m up for this challenge.
*We like the name Cerise for a girl – it means Cherry in French, which many of you know is my maiden name. Since my dad and his brother each had two girls and no boys, the Cherry line will end. I will not give one of my children a different last name than his or her siblings, but I like Cerise as a first name. For a boy, we like Parker and Clayton, but those are more up in the air at this point. Cerise is a definite.
I can’t think of any other questions I’ve been getting on a consisent basis. Again, we are excited and blessed! God has already gifted us with two miracle children. Our baby girl born thousands of miles away to another woman, who we managed to be matched with (yesterday, November 23rd was her 3 year adoption anniversary, by the way – a post on that coming soon!) who we were told had a devastating lifelong illness, but tested negative for that before we returned home to the U.S. She is completely healthy and a hugh blessing in our lives! And then, of course, our son – a biological child we never thought we’d have, who, even though unexpected, has been a perfect fit for us; who was born without any health problems even though he was huge and came two weeks early to a diabetic mommy – oh my, what a joy he is to us and everyone who knows him! We continue to pray for this 3rd miracle child, and we appreciate your thoughts and prayers as we continue on this journey to building our family. Thank you for the well-wishes and positive thoughts – please don’t stop now! We need your prayers now more than ever!
So, these are pictures from September, and they’ve just been sitting on my computer. I don’t have an excuse for not having posted them. But, I’m posting them now! Enjoy!
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- We visited a park in my parents’ neighborhood. New parks are always exciting!
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- Double slide – perfect! No fighting over who’s going down first!
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- Clearly these are old pictures – look how pregnant Tori is! In case you’re not keeping track, Charlie is almost 6 weeks old.
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- Kennison and Aunt Tata at Tori’s baby shower.
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- Gather all of your ingredients. Get a step stool if you’re too short to reach the counter.
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- Add the powdered sugar to the cream cheese and butter. Careful! It’ll make a big mess if you spill it!
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- Have a grown up help you get all of the sugar out of the box. Nanas are best for this.
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- Let Nana do the initial mixing. Otherwise, you might spray powdered sugar all over the kitchen! Now’s a good time to share your stool with your brother so he can watch, too.
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- You have to share the space! We need everyone to help!
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- Keep on mixing!
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- Once the mixing is done, taste your frosting. It’s the right thing to do, and it’s a really important job!
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- Don’t miss one crevice of the beaters!
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- Show off your face that is still free of frosting. Make sure you still have some of your dinner on your face to really mix it up.
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- Demonstrate the beauty of the cream cheese frosting.
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- Now, make sure to share your frosting smile.
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- Run to the bathroom mirror and check out your frosting-covered face for yourself. Now you know how to make cream cheese frosting!
Oh my goodness. This cracks me up. I just can’t help but laugh when I hear my girl whistle. I hope you enjoy it, too!
And, I don’t have a video of Colton, but I don’t want to leave him out, so linger over this photo of him. I love it!
I have not forgotten about this blog. In fact, I’m writing all sorts of creative posts in my head that will hopefully someday make it on to this page, including Colton’s new big boy bed, some recent photos of my new nephew, and more pictures of our precious children in general.
For now, I would just like to say that at the pediatrician’s office today, both of our children were weighed. Any guesses on the weight of either of the kids, or even the spread between the two?
Anyone? I’ll wait.
Ok, do you have your guess?
Well, one weighs 31 pounds, and the other – 30.5. Oh, my. Kennison actually outweighs her brother at this point, but I have to say that she actually feels lighter. It must be how she carries her weight. My son? He’s a brick, man.
A cute brick, mind you. But a brick nonetheless.
Kennison, on the other hand, is a little twig.
Obviously, she doesn’t have my genetic make-up.
I love my kids, no matter their size!
Doing that post that included a picture of one of my cakes from cake decorating classes made me want to do another post that displayed more of my mad skillz. (That’s how you spell it when you know you’re awesome.)
Exhibit A:
Oooh, baby. Squatty legs, poorly frosted, creepy plastic clown head. A winner for sure. Exhibit B:
Not too bad, but let’s take a closer look:
Wow. That’s some sloppy basket weave. I think the green from the cake shining through is a nice touch, though. Right? Oh, and please ignore that shell border that’s trying to fall off the top of the cake. I don’t know what that’s about. Moving on! Exhibit C:
Sadly, this isn’t all that bad – for me. The sides aren’t smooth, and the stars are pathetic, but at least my husband’s name is spelled right.
Oh, does it surprise you that I believe I should get credit for that? Well, not everyone in our class can spell their husband’s name on cake.
I mean, unless YOU know someone named Meki.
This is Tori’s cake, in case you hadn’t figured it out. My best guess? Tori started with the letters on the outside to make sure she could space Mike’s name evenly, but wrote the letters in the order they are in his name. My favorite part of this story is that she didn’t see it until I pointed it out to her. Then she did this…
…and this…
…until she had this:
Much better!
And now, for another one of my favorite cake decorating stories. Let’s look at this picture. Can you tell what’s wrong with it?
(Besides the fact that every one else happened to have a twin in the class and we arranged ourselves in an order suitable to demonstrate this.) Hmmm. 5 people, 4 cakes. That math’s not right. Maybe another picture will help clear up this mystery.
Well, that does narrow it down.
This is what happened. For some reason, both Tori’s cake and mine were at my house, and I was supposed to bring them both to Joann’s for class. Kenny was helping out by putting them in the car, but something happened in the driveway. Kenny doesn’t remember what it was (I just asked him) but somehow, he dropped one of the cakes – and it was Tori’s. It was a big ol’ mess, and there was no saving it. Obviously, there was no time to make another one, so I made the decision to tell Tori that Kenny had dropped my cake. I mean, they were both plain, stacked, white-iced cake. She would never know the difference.
When I got to class, I told Tori what had happened, and she generously offered to let me help her decorate her cake since mine had died a painful death in my driveway. But, when we went to get the cake out, Tori became wise to the switch. Why?
Tori: “I don’t think this is my cake. My icing was a lot smoother than this!”
Well then. I try to do something nice, and my icing abilities get insulted. Everyone in the class had a great laugh, and Tori was a good sport about it. Then I generously let TORI help ME decorate MY cake. This is a close-up of the end result:
Ahhh, good times.
Just a few more cake exhibits:
Last but not least, my final cake. I decided to make it in honor of my friend Nikki’s birthday. Her birthday is a few days after mine, and she loves fall, so that was my theme. I ran with it! I really wanted to make a two-tier cake, and I was actually thrilled with the results.
This used a bunch of techniques, none of which I can really recall the names of. Here’s my favorite part:
I loved my leaf cascade! I totally made this up. I love how the leaves are colored, and how some edges are tinted. I love the way they fall down the side of the cake. Yes, I’m weird. But I love it! And Nikki loved it too – at least she said she did. That’s enough for me!
But who am I kidding? Let’s be honest. I should just stick to making these.
Dang it! Now I’m craving chocolate turtle cheesecake…
