While I Was Away...

...Asher had LOTS of Dr. appointments. We are praising God that some significant, and scary tests came back negative, and though he seems to have many food allergies (some strange ones), we are coming to the end of his testing and Dr. appointments. Asher was such a trooper, he really was. He and I stopped for lunch after his appointments (not healthy!) and it was neat to spend this time with just Asher, especially with the new baby coming soon. And I cannot begin to tell how much I appreciate my parents and all they did for us this month, with watching the other kids often for me. Asher will continue to see the GI Dr pretty regularly, but we do not have to head back to Hershey unless something else pops up!! YAY!

Our family has been learning about Jesus and his death and resurrection the last week or so. Every night Joel has read a different children's book about this subject. Friday night we dyed eggs. The kids also had alot of fun, and got a lot of candy at our township Easter egg hunt last weekend. The weather wasn't quite as warm as some days we have had lately, but we all had a nice time. Asher was old enough to participate and he was pretty happy with all the candy he got.

We enjoyed singing some hymns from the old hymnal before dying the eggs. I love a lot of these old songs, and they bring me back so fast to being a little girl in the Baptist church I grew up in. It is fun to teach them to my kids now.

Nathanael had his eleventh!! birthday on March 11. Can I say again, how hard it is for me to believe this little boy is getting so not little, and how fast it is happening? Nathanael has a really sweet, tender heart and I am glad to see that as he grows that is just growing and maturing along with him.

We had a family dinner and Nate asked for a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing. I decorated it with his big dragon and a knight.

Nate also enjoyed a day out with my parents and his brother, Jeremiah. He chose a new light-saber as a gift. He also had a shopping trip with Joel's mom and he picked out some Star-Wars figures. Can you guess what Nate is interested in??

Joel and I attended a conference in the middle of the month that was a real blessing to both of us. It is always so special for me to be able to worship God undistracted and sing along with Joel (and the thousand other people there) since Joel is often busy during at least part of our Sunday services, and I am usually very distracted by the kids. They are pretty obedient, but they are kids, and need some reminders during the service! We also got to visit my inlaws who were kind enough to host us all and watch the kids while Joel and I were gone during the day. We had a yummy dinner with them, and the kids had fun playing in the church gym for a few hours over the very rainy weekend.

Joel and I also had a great overnight last weekend to Willow Valley. It was cold and rainy, but we didn't mind. :) And we peeked at our paper and know what kind of baby we are having!!!! That was very fun.

My latest appointment for the new little one went fine. Now I start all kinds of appointments. Regular Ob. visits every other week (which is normal at this point), weekly Non-stress tests, and regular ultrasounds. I have one on Monday, so I will get another peek at how this one is growing. I am not used to all these extra appointments, and have only had one NS test before, with Asher when he was very overdue, so this is something new. But soon! We will get to meet our little one. I am getting excited.