Alex Peter!

We are thrilled that Alex Peter came to our family on August 27. He was 6 pounds 14 ounces and 18 1/2 inches long. He has brown hair and several in our family swear he has dimples, although I have not seen them yet. He is well loved, and we are all having lots of fun with him. Spencer was a great labor coach, but he is one tired Daddy! He is still not recovered from the meningitis, but he is doing his best to help out. I'm completely worn out myself, so we are glad that the kids enjoy helping out with their new brother. As luck would have it, several of the
kids also ended up with sniffly noses this week--hence, the face mask pictures.

First Day of School

Here we go again! The kids were ready to go back, but I wasn't! It seems like school started WAY too early this year (Aug. 18th). Anyway, they both love their teachers and had a great first day. Adam starts kindergarten this week. He can hardly stand it. He's planning to wear his new Lightning McQueen shirt on his first day. They are growing up too quickly!

4-H Day at the County Fair

Last Saturday I took the kids to the County Fair. We were excited to see their projects decorated with ribbons. Adam and Leah received all green ribbons for their projects. Anna had a bunch of blue ribbons, one red, and one project go on to the State Fair. She also won two trophies that day--one for talent and one for modeling her flip flops in the Decorate Your Duds contest. Leah also received a medal for her modeling and talent. We had a great time!

New Dining Room Chairs

I've been wanting to recover my dining room chairs forever, and they finally got done this week, thanks to my Aunt Judy. She came over with her staple gun and whipped out the whole project with me. They look great! I'm really enjoying looking over to the dining room set and seeing these brand-new looking chairs. We won't be eating spaghetti over there!

waiting for baby!

Here's my profile picture at 9 months. I can hardly wait for this baby to come! Spencer is now on the mend--finally, so I've been able to think about having this baby again. We are all excited and hope that he shows up this week. Unfortunately, all the kids except Anna started in with sniffly noses today. It seems like that is much more easily dealt with than meningitis, but I'm still passing zinc lozenges all around.

Not such happy news

Well, it turns out that Spencer was not on the mend. I took him yesterday to the emergency room because his fever spiked to almost 104 and his neck was stiff and his throat was killing him. And, they finally diagnosed his virus--viral meningitis or encephalitis. They are testing to see if it is from West Nile Virus. The only good news was that they said he is not contagious. Also, it is finally nice to have a name to put to the misery he's been in. We're hoping that since he's already been in the battle for a month that it won't be much longer. Meanwhile, I'm hoping that our little boy won't make his debut until Spencer will be well enough to attend his delivery!

Summer photos

Our family has been busy, busy, busy with 4-H projects. One of our favorites has been photography. It's been fun to use my new digital camera and figure out the macro feature. The kids took some great photos. I was lucky to also get this shot of a hummingbird at my Aunt's home.

One last summer fling

We had an unscheduled Tuesday this week, so we took the opportunity to visit my cousin in her new home and to visit the dinosaur museum on $2 Tuesday. We had a fabulous time at both spots--it felt like an extra vacation we snuck in. We loved seeing Marilyn's designer home and wonderful neighborhood. Adam was glad to see his friend Abraham again. We hadn't been to the dinosaur museum for awhile, so it was a real treat. By the way, there are 88 teeth on the bottom of the shark--and probably 88 on the top. Munch!