Getting Ready for Baby!

As I'm sure most of you have heard by now, we're expecting baby number 3 in March of next year! We've been doing a lot of things around the house to get it and our family ready for the new addition. One thing Reagan has been really insistent about is that the baby needs things like she and Adam have; room, bed, etc.

One of the things I am most excited about getting for this new baby is an amber necklace. Both Reagan and Adam wear them and love them, and so do I! I have always loved the look of amber, and have worn amber jewelry myself for years, but had never heard about it's health benefits. I heard some about it from a fellow mom, and decided to try it. Even if it didn't work, they'd be beautiful, right? But I was so impressed. My daughter was cutting her toddler molars at the time, and my son was just starting to teethe. For my son, the change was almost immediate, and he went through the entire teething process without any complaints, not even wanting cold teethers. My daughter has had a little bit of a rough time with it, and we were constantly supplying her, so it was a completely different and wonderful experience. Instead of spending weeks with a crabby baby who was in pain, we got to spend so much more joyful time with him. And within a week my daughter was far less whiny, and had a much more even temperament. It had been that because of that background pain, the littlest thing would set off a huge meltdown no matter how rested she was. It was like having a completely different child, like having my own child back! I was so impressed that when my mother was struggling with shingles I got a Baltic amber bracelet for her to help with the pain. I am really looking forward to getting an amber necklace for this new baby so that we can help him or her through the teething process, and so that we can all enjoy that wonderful time of growth and discovery together so much more!

If you're interested in trying Baltic amber as well, make sure you check out Inspired by Finn, the wonderful shop where I have gotten all of our Baltic amber!

Weekend in Photos

The photos are out of order, but, here goes:

Monday: kids lap boards are finally complete!

Saturday night- going to the local dirt track to watch the races for Father's Day. It was the first time either kid had been to a race, and my first time to a dirt track! Reagan got to meet one of the drivers in victory land, and she had a blast!

Saturday fun in the bounce house at the YMCA gymnastics fundraiser. Adam's first bounce house fun!

Reagan showing off her stuff in the tot demonstration at the YMCA gymnastics fundraiser.

Saturday- Reagan proudly shows off the cake she decorated for Father's Day. Her first cake decorating experience!

Bowling and Camping

On Monday morning we went bowling for the first time with some friends! Reagan loved it, and it definitely won't be the last time we go! Reagan scored an 86 even, and was so proud! Though Adam kept resetting the pins at the end of the game.

After bowling we headed off to set up our things for camping. The campsite was still very full, but we managed to get the same site we used last time we went. We really wanted the one across the road from it though.. so when those people left the next day, we picked up and moved. Now we had a campsite with a view of the lake!

Campsite the first night:

Campsite the second night:

Reagan with the crow feather she found on our hike.

Soccer Bows

Just had to share the new soccer bows I made for Reagan. There will be more to come! :-D

Bedtime

Tonight instead of just putting Adam in bad, and saying goodnight, Reagan and I stayed in his room and read a book with him before leaving him. He lay quietly and seemed to really enjoy it. He even helped turn the pages. I think it may be time to read with him at bedtime. Yay! Then Reagan asked if she could read some more, which was fine of course, since we've been reading Madagascar with her a little every night, and there's no way he's waiting through all that. But tonight she asked for me to reread the latest letter form her pen pal instead. It was so adorable. She held his picture and looked at it the whole time I read. :-)

Has it been a whole month?!?

Has it really been a month since I last update this?!?

How about just some photo highlights of the last month then?

We went to Out of Africa where we fed Kibo the giraffe, rode John Henry the camel, and fed Liberty the tiger.




Reagan was a huge helper creating and planting out new vegetable garden.. in her stocking feet no less.

We took a family hick at Bull Pen where the kids got to river swim for the first time!

We went to the Highland Games where both kids won 2nd place in the caber toss!

I Got My Jeep!

I've always dreamed of having a jeep, and I finally have one... though it's not at all what I expected!

Power Wheels is a BIG thing where we live, but they're SO expensive we didn't think we'd be getting one for the kids for awhile.. if ever. Then we were in Goodwill yesterday and there it was.. a 2 seater Power Wheels Jeep.. with 3 batteries, and a charger... for $40!!! It needed a little work, but we went for it!

Here is our kids new Power Wheels Jeep before:


You can't really tell in the picture, but Reagan and I did a LOT of cleaning on it after. It has had 2 blown out wheels, and is missing a hood pin, the key (which doesn't serve any real purpose as far as function,) and the Barbie Tunes radio. We don;t really care about the radio.. it only plays special Barbie songs anyway. We got a lot on ebay for $4 that includes a set of hood pins, a key, and a gas cap. The biggest problem.. those wheels... But I have a local mom friend who is into Power Wheels modification and she just happened to have a Barbie Jeep she was planning to sell the wheels off of (she's repainting it and it won't be Barbie, so she didn't want purple wheels.) She stopped by last night and we bought them right off her Jeep.. really she brought the whole thing and removed them here. It was a great learning experience to see her do it, and made it SO much easier to do the change out on ours! She also had a ton of great information to share and tips on setting ours up. Thanks to her, we're going to be checking if the batteries with this one are on a recall that was done. If they are we can get them replaced, so that's cool.



Since there is no sun fading, and virtually no decal wear on this, we're planning to leave it pink for now. But the plan is to paint it up black in a year or 2. That way we can reasonably keep all the blue, green, and purple trim, but it won;t be too super girly for Adam. And of course we'll re decal it using plain Jeep decals. Not super looking forward to that project, but it should be fun anyway. lol

Today Reagan and I (pretty much all me.. she just likes watching) did our work on the vehicle. I took out the seat out to retrieve the middle portion of the seat belt. This also gave me access to the gears which were crusted with mud. We removed all four wheels and hosed down both the old and "new" ones. 2 of the original wheels are completely shot (read HUGE holes in them as you can see by the picture,) but 2 are okay, and we'll reserve them as spares. Removing the wheels allowed us to remove the rear axle and take the gears out for better access. We thoroughly cleaned the outside of the gear casings, but found them to still be very well sealed.. so we left them that way. This way we don't have to mess with greasing them up properly again. We cleaned the gear box area and in the battery compartment of the Jeep while we had everything out. With everything completely cleaned, it was time to reassemble! Seat belt reinstalled. New wheels affixed. Seat replaced. Now we did a quick test, and the original fasteners aren't really meant to be removed and put back, so some of them weren't the most cooperative. So for now we're parking the Jeep while we wait to find out from my friend what she uses as a replacement fastener. (She showed us last night.)

In the mean time.. here is our reassembled Jeep!