Growing Our Family

We are so excited that God is growing our family. We are expecting baby #3 in the spring! We are at 9 weeks, and had a great doctor's appointment yesterday. The ultrasound showed a healthy little one with a strong heart rate. We are very excited about this addition and thankful for the Lord's provision of a bigger home to fill with His little children. I guess He has perfect timing--we found out we were expecting the day we closed on the house. We ask for prayers as this little one grows and develops and as we still settle into our new home. Yeah for babies!

First Dance Lesson

Catherine had her first dance lesson last week. She was sooo excited that she was ready to put her leotard on at 7am and then refused to nap that afternoon before we went (which is very unusual for her). She is so thrilled to put on her ballet shoes and twirl and to put on her tap shoes to make noise. It's so cute! So much fun!

Catherine with her friend Abby, all ready for class to begin.

seriously excited about the dance lesson....

Will isn't sporting a tutu, but his newest accessory is a belt. He wants to wear this belt every night to show us how strong he is. This is him showing us his muscles. He's such a silly boy! I love it.

Beach Week

We moved into our new home on July 31st, unpacked for a week, and then went on vacation. We had our annual Hatten week at the beach. It was great weather, not as hot as it usually is for August (still plenty warm though). Catherine was very excited to swim now that her cast is off. We enjoyed lots of lazy days just hanging out with the family.

Catherine and Will ready to walk down to the beach. This is really the first time I've ever seen Will's ribs so clearly. He is definitely slimming down from him very thick baby days.

All week Jay tried to convince Catherine and Will to get in the ocean. No, no they just wanted to go to the pool. Finally on Thursday Jay got Catherine to go in and she loved jumping over the waves. When Will saw her in there, he wanted to go too. So at the end of the week, they both decided they liked the ocean and wanted to play more (but then it was time to go home :( ).

Will enjoying some Coca-cola cake from Jestine's Kitchen in Charleston. I just think his face is so cute--this is what he does when you ask him to smile for the camera.

Such grown up little kids--I can't believe how big they both look in this picture.

Yeah for the beach!

Our New House

We are moving tomorrow! We are very excited about our new home. Although we're a little sad about leaving our current home--it's where Jay and I lived after we got married and brought our babies home---we are looking forward to the opportunities and space in our new home. Come and visit us soon!

Front view:

Back view: Great screen porch!

The back yard: 1.5 acres of trees and woods!

Milwaukee and more

We just got back from our trip to Milwaukee for Northwestern's annual company meeting. We had a great trip and even enjoyed some cooler weather (only in the 70's there)! They do such a good job of making the meetings a family event. We look forward to going every year and truly making Jay's work something our whole family does, not just somewhere Daddy goes during the day. I am so proud of Jay!

On Sunday morning, they have a 5k/10k and a 1 mile kids run. This year, Catherine and PopPop did the 1 mile run together. She was excited (even though it doesn't look like it this picture). She apparently was doing great until she tripped and fell down about half way through. I was waiting for her at the finish line and was so excited for her, but when she saw me she just burst into tears. I'm proud of her for trying it and look forward to running runs with her in the future.

Will's favorite thing all week was seeing the buses in the city. We rode a big bus to go to the zoo on Sunday night. All Will kept saying was "big bus"--very emphatically and loudly. He kept doing it all week any time we saw a big bus. We love that he's trying more words and word combinations now, especially when he's excited about something.

Their favorite part of the trip is usually the zoo night. Northwestern has the entire Milwaukee zoo and provides food and entertainment, and you can walk around to see the animals too. Catherine was very excited to see the hippopotamus. They also really liked the bears.

On Tuesday morning, Jay's mom and I took the kids to a children's musuem while Jay and Steve were at meetings. We went last year and were excited to go back. They had one entire exhibit that had golf balls and all kinds of different tracks set up to roll the golf balls down. Golf balls are Will's favorite, favorite things so he was a very happy boy! It's a really cool musuem and makes me excited for the opening of the Greenville children's museum next week.

One funny Will story from Milwaukee: One night we were getting ready to put the kids in the bathtub in the hotel. We had gotten them undressed when they decided they wanted to play a little hide-and-seek. So off the ran, naked, to hide. A couple of minutes later, Catherine came running in to tell me that Will was going potty. I went into the bedroom and he was hiding in the armoire and had peed and pooped in there! It was disgusting! Yet very funny. No more naked hide-and-seek!

In other updates, we are getting ready to move! We closed on our house today and will close on the house we're buying next week. We'll be moving into our new home next Friday. This has been a long and trying process, but I am very excited about where God is leading us. We'll have pics of the new house soon.

Catherine gets her cast off on Monday. It's hard to believe it's already been 6 weeks. She is very excited to go swimming and to wash her arm in the bathtub. Poor child, she tried to lick her fingers tonight at dinner and can't reach them. I know that has to be annoying.

We'll keep you updated. Thanks for checking in!

Family Time at the Greenbrier

We were in WV this past weekend for a family reunion with the Heckman's (Marcy's brother and his family). They live in Vermont and Texas, so we rarely see them. I think the last time we were all together was for Jay's grandfather's funeral in May 2005. We really had a great time and enjoyed the chance to be away for a few days, especially to take a break from all of this house stuff.

There was a great playground in front of the cottages we stayed in. Catherine thought this 4-person see-saw was really cool. They also liked to swing and watch the people who were going horseback riding.

One night we had a "fancy" dinner at the hotel there. Jay had the bright idea that the 4 of us should wear seersucker. So we all did. Catherine was pretty excited about getting all dressed up.

Catherine also had lots of fun playing with Aunt Wissa's (Melissa's) jewelry. She brought her grandmother's jewelry box of costume jewelry and Catherine kept getting "all fancied up". This was how dressed up she got one night to go bowling. That's the fanciest bowler I've ever seen--yes, she's wearing earrings too. I think she even added a bracelet or two before we got there.

One of the highlights was spending some time with their cousin (i think he's technically their 3rd cousin), Augie. He's 3 and such a fun little boy. Will really liked have another little guy around. And even though Will doesn't say too many words still, he learned to say "Augie" very quickly. This picture was after some fun bowling! You should see these 2 throw some bowling balls.

It was great weekend! Now we're getting ready to head to Milwaukee on Saturday....

Pink Cast

Catherine finally got her cast put on this afternoon. It's pink! We had always assumed she would want a pink cast, and then about 2 days ago she decided she wanted a yellow cast. So we said she could think about it and get whatever color she wanted. She decided she definitely wanted yellow, but then they don't have yellow casts :( So we went back to option #1--pink!

Her arm is healing well. They did an x-ray today and it's still straight. I was surprised at how "bendy" her arm was when they took the splint off. They were being super careful to keep it straight. At the slightest movement it would bend, sort of like Gumby. It was very strange. I guess I thought it wouldn't do that at this point, but it's only been a week since they fixed it. She has to wear the cast for 5 weeks, so we'll get it taken off the week after we move (end of July). Still no swimming until then....