September 2014--More exciting than we could have imagined!

I have never been as behind on blogging than I have this month.  But with good reason!  First, I owe you lots of posts about our dear, sweet 7-year-old Brinnly.  Such a month for her!  And did I mention, that we moved?  Seriously!  Across the country, more or less!  We are settling in here in lovely Milwaukee.  It was a ton of work and still is in many ways, but all is good.  More details on that to follow.  And, four days before we moved, in the midst of packing and good-byes, we went in for a first ultrasound of "Baby E". 

As soon as the doppler was on my stomach, Jonathan noticed something different than any of the many ultasounds we had before.  The tech asked us "How about twins?"  And we laughed and cried tears and tears of happiness as we watched "Baby E" AND "Baby F" wiggle around on the screen.  It was the most wonderful surprise ever.  Thanks be to God for his gracious, generous gifts!

And even MORE news

Okay, so this isn't exactly "our" news, but we are still very excited about it!  We got the call last Saturday morning that Tobias Nathaniel Ryan was born, healthy and handsome! A baby, especially a Ryan baby, is always wonderful news, but this little Toby is extra-special since we can now picture him as partners with our own "Baby E".  We love the idea of those two Badger babies growing up relatively close to each other. Congratulations to Mike, Kellie, Jack, Abigail, Iris, and Opal on this new precious gift from God!  I plan to cuddle him the entire time of our next pizza night together.

And more news!

As if a move wasn't enough, we are THRILLED to announce that Ward Baby #5 will be joining us in that journey.  "Baby E" is expected to make his or her appearance out of the womb around March 22nd.  We are so thankful for all of these upcoming blessings.

Our news

That's right...we are going west.  As far west as Milwaukee, that is!  Thanks to a new job for the provider of this gang, our family is packing up really soon, and settling in to one of our favorite cities.  We will miss Pittsburgh dearly but are excited for this new opportunity and to be much closer to all of our Midwest family members.

Summer Round-Up

 

All in all, it was a nice and calm summer. Good thing, since our fall will be anything but that!  The biggest development of all is that all THREE of the big girls completed the bike riding goal (around the hilly block, sans whining) and were rewarded with a trip to the mall for pierced ears!  Mali went first and was really excited but pained by the experience.  Brinn opted to wait until Carrigan was ready so I took the two of them the last day of school before summer.  What a rite of passage.

 We spent a lot of time outside enjoying both our front and back yards.  Especially when our neighbors repaved their driveway.  Laney, especially, could have watched that for hours.

 Besides our two big trips, we squeezed in another Michigan visit.  Coordinated with the fair, of course. The baby animal barn wasn't quite as impressive as last year, the the llamas were a hit!

 We went regularly to our sweet little neighborhood library, especially during the Summer Reading Program.  They had some great events, including this one from the Carnegie Science Center.  The girls made their own silly putty and sidewalk chalk!  All of the the girls participated in the reading incentive program and Mali even won the GRAND prize...a Kindle Fire!  Not that we were especially ready for that one!  But she did work dutifully at reading harder-level books and documenting them so she's pretty psyched.

 Speaking of reading, this one's into it big time.  LOTS of Magic Tree House books now. We also read
 aloud some new winners like the Tale of Desperaux and Encyclopedia Brown. 

 

Jonathan did a few home improvement projects, with his ever-willing helpers. 

But mainly my days were spent at home, lounging with this sweet crew, playing games like Sorry and Sleeping Queens before we headed to the pool in the evenings. Not a bad gig I have!