Happy Birthday to Eric Carle!

It's belated now, but we celebrated one of our favorite author's birthday a few weeks ago. The boys love Eric Carle and Luke's current favorite book is The Very Busy Spider. We read it at least once a day. So, we made spider webs with glue and spiders with oreos to celebrate.

Luke's spider (with a little help from Mom)

Mark's spiders. He's very literal these days and wanted his spiders to have a nose, a mouth and eyebrows to go with their eyes!

Is this a Good Excuse...

I know, I'm a terrible blogger. But I think I've got a decent excuse for now! Here's the belly as of 2 weeks ago. We are doing great and I have lots to catch up on. Look for more posts in the next week or two.

Military Spouse Appreciation Day

I wrote this post last May, but it's still as true as ever. I hope you get the chance to thank a military spouse today for all that they do.

Do you ever stop to think about your freedom? I mean, really. Our country is far from perfect, but we enjoy a tremendous number of liberties that many in the world don't have. I get so tired of hearing people talk about what's wrong with America. There are so many people who just want more and more from our government. And there is a seemingly general attitude of dissatisfaction toward the blessings and privileges we do have. But even worse than that, there is little gratitude for those who have served and still serve to provide those blessings.

You probably don't think about it much, but when you get up and go to worship in the place of your choice on Sunday morning someone is serving to protect that freedom. When you blog about how much the stimulus package disgusts you, someone's husband is missing their anniversary to protect that freedom. When you choose to watch one news channel over another, someone's Daddy just missed their miraculous entrance into this world to protect that freedom. When you go dove hunting on September 1st every fall, someone's son is missing their birthday to protect that freedom.

I'm not asking you to do anything for me. I'm not even asking for sympathy or a pat on the back. I just want to remind you of the sacrifices military families make for the freedom we all enjoy. Our lives are filled with months of being single parents, more missed holidays, anniversaries and birthdays than you could count and weeks without any contact with our husbands. We do it gladly because we love our husbands and our families, but it's often hard and lonely. May is Military Appreciation Month and today is specifically Military Spouse Appreciation Day. So if you know a military spouse, thank them for all that they do today. Or thank a former military spouse who made sacrifices years ago for our freedom.

And in Belated Baby News...

21 Weeks

We will be learning a whole new language at our house in September. One filled with princess-this and pink-that. I can still hardly believe that we aren't having another boy. Tim and I are both beyond thrilled that God has blessed us with a healthy pregnancy and baby girl. As for the name, well, "we know but we aren't telling." (If you haven't seen the video of "Pregnant women are smug" you should look it up on YouTube. It's great stuff!)

What we are up to this week...

So if you don't hear much from us. You'll know why! Day #1 went great. Let's hope that the next few days go well too!

Come September...

...I'll probably be just a little bit crazier! Baby #3 is due September 4th!

Nothing Says Love Like...

a heart cookie with the word "love" on it?

Nope. Cookies with sharks and snakes. At least that's what Mark Garrett thinks. I promised him that he could help me make cookies for Valentine's Day to give his teachers. What did he want to put on them? Hearts? Flowers? Nah. We went for the oh-so-manly sharks and snakes.

I did however make a few cookies that were more my style and we actually packaged these for Mark's teachers. But he was happy making his own cookies to eat. And we had a good time making them together. I've been teaching myself to decorate sugar cookies for a while now and have learned so much from the Bake at 350 blog . I think I'm getting better and better.

My lettering still needs some work, but some of these turned out great. (Tim's favorite was the "Hot Stuff" cookie - probably because I told him it was inspired by him!)

For Valentine's Day I wanted to make everyone a special breakfast before church. It's one of my favorite memories growing up that my mom did for us and I wanted to do something that the boys would enjoy. Heart shaped pancakes were out because of Luke's food allergies and so were the heart eggs I made last year. So I opted for pink cream of wheat. It was simple for a busy Sunday morning and the boys loved it. We also had "silly" orange juice (orange juice with a little ginger ale,) and everyone had a little something special at their place mats.

A book, a new car AND jellybeans! What a morning!