Mother's Day....on Monday

So we normally don't really celebrate Mother's day on a Sunday, cause it's Clint's major work day of the week, so we go out on his day off, on Monday. I just took a couple of pics of our kiddos in our new car (we got a Hyundai Tucson so it can fit baby boy in a few months time). It's SO great having more room!

We went to one of my favorite restaurants, Bellview, the food seems a little more American to me. Like they have fun salads with really yummy dressing (most salads here are tomatoes, salad, feta and cucumber, with no dressing, or mayo). And this place has ones with actual dressing, and fun things in it. :)

Me with my kiddos, they were really SO well behaved, Clint and I got to have some uninterrupted chats, which was so fun.

When the waiter came, Autumn said "I'd like a cappuccino please" it was so cute. She got a milkshake, but said "look mommy I'm drinking my cappuccino!"

SOOO Thankful for my husband and my kids, we had such a fun family day out!

Roomates

I haven't blogged about this....but my kids have been roomies for about 4 months now! Once Autumn needed a big girl bed we moved them into bunks so that we could make her room the nursery for the baby. We got the bed just plain pine, and had it painted, and painted the room a cheery blue that wasn't too boy or too girl.

Under Autumn's bed is a shelf where she keeps all of her very special toys, I'm still looking for cute baskets that will fit, but she will play in her little "house" all by herself and I can often hear her talking to her babies, "shhh, go to sleep now" or "are you thirsty? Here's your milk" or whatever. It's super cute!

On the otherside I put all of their books and Noah's toys, and his toys are under the bed in baskets too. I tried to make a "girl space" and a "boy space"

Noah LOVES sleeping at the top, and in general....hates to "be alone" so he's very happy to have Autumn with him. I thought this would be a rough transition since he HATES pink (he really does) but when I moved her in he was excited. You can see in this pic he's got a bit of a "squint" cause he's not wearing his glasses before bedtime. I'm still working on getting bedding I like for him!

Autumn LOVES this little girl "princess" pillow and won't sleep on her normal pillow but sleeps ON the decorative princess one. So I put her normal one right next to her so she doesn't fall out :)

Noah still sleeps with his giraffe. He loves it SO much that he often asks me why he can't take it to heaven, he gives it big hugs and says "it's just so soft and I love him SO much"

Autumn will sleep with whatever doll fancies her the most for the day. It's usually Ariel though :)

I just spent the last two weeks shuffling everything around and moving all of Noah's old clothes into the baby's room to prepare for baby boy. Now I've got to make the room more "boy!"

The Hunt

My kids were fortunate to have TWO hunts this year. My friend Sam had one for all the little kids in our church, and they had SO much fun looking for eggs.

And then Granny sent some "glow in the dark" eggs, which we did at home. I was going to do it outside, but it rained, and we did an indoor hunt with special flashlights that make the eggs glow :)

Happy Easter!

This year was our first Easter without Clint (he's in Egypt and we miss him like crazy!) But I took some photos of the kids right before we left for church, so here they are Clint, in their Sunday best....

This is Noah's "forced smile"

And this is what Autumn does if you ask her to smile, or change her heart to a happy one. The eyes close first, then comes the smile

Was it only a year ago that Autumn looked like SUCH a baby? She's wearing the same dress, last year it almost came to her toes :)

They are going on an egg hunt later today, but my favorite part of the day was when I was telling the Easter story to Noah and Autumn in the car as we were going to church. I was talking about what they saw when they came to the tomb... and Noah said "the door was open and it was empty cause He's alive!" And I said, well what WAS inside the tomb? And Autumn said "An ANGEL, he said Don't be afraid, he was VERY bright, and scary." --such a big sentence, I didn't know she had been paying attention so much to our story Bible. :) Then Noah said "why does God like everything to be bright in heaven?" And I said "because he LOVES light, and God is light and there is no darkness in Him cause there is no sin in heaven." And then he said "can you pray that WE get resurrected to heaven too?" We usually have the best talks in the car, but that was just a sample, I love how new everything is to children and what they ask!

A Easter-y day

Today I went to a little Easter-y fair with the kids. They had swings, but Autumn started crying, and they stopped the whole ride just for her, which was really nice! But Noah loved it.

They had face painting too, Noah asked to be a pirate. I couldn't tell how she was painting a pirate face at this point:

Or this one....

But she made him into quite the grizzly pirate! He loved it.

Autumn said to her "I want flowers on my arm, pretty"

Showing off the face and arm

Her's turned out really sweet, she's stare at it and smile

We met their friend Evan at the fair and he got a shark!

They gave him a balloon sword, so he'd go around saying "AARGH!"

Autumn found a big easter egg, she kept asking me to "open please, chocolate inside?" but she didn't realize it was just for decoration

Then the Easter bunny came and my kids were VERY shy of him.

We got a little pic with him though

Afterwards they had a magic show to which Noah shouted "Look he did a MIRACLE!" It was quite funny. I had to tell him about the difference between a miracle and a trick. The magician made both my kids laugh out loud quite alot, so it was fun. :)

"Make my hair pretty"

Autumn saw me straightening my hair with my straightener, and she asked me "Please make my hair straight, so pretty!" and so....I did! She was very patient, and kept saying "your making my hair look pretty mommy!" This is the straightest I could get it!

And a hug from Noah right before sleepy time :)

Spurgeon in the kitchen

If it's a really hot day in Durbs the rain will come in like 4 or 5 ish in the afternoon. Then the kids ask for "Spurgeon in the kitchen" time. We are outside dog people. Especially since I'm SOO sensitive to smells with baby #3, and wet dog is about at the top of the list. But since he'd be out in the rain, and the kitchen is easy to sweep, we oblige. The kids LOVE this special time with their doggie.

He's usually pretty calm in the kitchen vs. on the grass, so they usually sit on him and hug him and give him lots of love. Autumn gave him about 30 hugs this afternoon.

Then there is usually the "report" to us about what happened "he lost his ball" or "he licked me"

After Autumn hugs him she gives us the report..."I give him a hug, he's happy!"

Baby #3

Noah: "Is THIS what you will look like when your tummy gets bigger?"

It's so fun this time that the kids actually understand that we are having another baby. Autumn is the most "motherly" little girl I've ever met, she's ALWAYS taking care of her babies, or her little Minnie Mouse, putting medicine on them, feeding, bathing, changing etc. So I'm wondering what it will be like when her brother or sister enters the world, if she'll be the mommy, or if I will :)

Ever since we told Noah we are having another one, he's taken a tiny, short-lived interest in Autumn's "hospital baby" (she has one that looks just like newborn with a hospital tag).

He got all excited one day and asked me if he could learn how to change a diaper. He says he'll only touch it if its "not wearing pink"

He tried pretty hard, but needed lots of help :) He likes to pretend to be the daddy.

Autumn learned that you have to "burp the baby" as well to take care of it.

I've been having quite alot of "afternoon sickness" where I just feel super urpy and tired after lunch, so I usually rest when my kids do. Noah's been super compassionate with me and asks me all the time how I'm feeling. He's had some really good questions and always says "tell me more about the baby in your tummy." He's fascinated by little things like when the baby's born it can't hold up it's head, and that its attached in your tummy by a cord and that's how it gets fed through the belly button etc. He always asks when I'm eating if I'm chewing it enough so the baby can swallow it ok. And he still talks through my mouth to the baby.....REALLY loud. Autumn will pray every night for "mommy's baby in the tummy" and will sometimes lift my shirt and say "where's the baby?" It's been fun watching their reaction to it all!