Bekah's 2nd birthday!!!

We celebrated precious Bekah Boo's second birthday with a trip to the Fashion Farm. It was so much fun! I was especially glad because I had planned on not being able to go because we all assumed I would have the baby before her birthday. Thank you Lord for our special, spunky girl who loves to sing "Happy Birthday to You" right before singing "Patty Cake," somehow melding them into one song. And now she wants to sing it to Emily, too... :)   Such a good big sister already! Bekah also received some gifts in the mail, so I'm including pics of that, too... thanks, Mamoo, Grandpa, and Grandma Mary!

Kittens

So here are pics of the six kittens that Audrey had. They are 4 weeks old now... and so soft and fluffy, you can't help but pick them up! BTW, Audrey is all black, and somehow I don't have a picture of her on here, but her daughter Alice is the grey cat in the second picture- she's only 4 months old.

Katy's friends

There's no shortage around here! :)

Cute pancakes

 I have extra cake decorating bottles (the squeeze kind) that I got on clearance at one of our Amish stores (I love using them to decorate sugar cookie people at Christmastime)... so I decided to see (if I cut a little extra off the tip) if it would work well with making pancake batter letters/ pictures. It was great! The occasional lump would clog it, but it didn't happen often enough to be a pain. I have tried using old ketchup bottles and my funnels before, and they were nowhere near this user friendly... so, here's the results!

The grass really is greener on the other side...

... and the spiders are larger and more numerous, the hummingbirds more beautiful when drinking from our flowers right in front of the kitchen window, the flies are obnoxious and harder to swat, the sunrises more beautiful when seen coming up over your own field, and the bats (yes bats!) are not as much fun to watch when they are flying around your entryroom and up the stairs to your bedroom.  Hee hee! As you can see, we are loving the good and the bad about finally being back out in the country again. Honestly, the pests are worth it!!! Just seeing the kids playing outside today (it was a gorgeous, Indian summer type of afternoon) made me praise God aloud for His provision (that happens frequently from all of us these days!). While I'm typing this, it's a quiet evening, and the windows are letting in the air that smells ever so slightly of the woods near our house and of someone having a bonfire nearby. The night sounds are wonderful and peaceful. We even have a Great Horned Owl that frequents our trees and swooped down right in front of us one night as we pulled into our drive (it was so big, we all were amazed!). Our front porch swing gets daily use, the neighbors horses are as sweet as pie and come right over to the girls for some grass, and and we are starting to get settled in.

I am looking forward to being able to unpack more, paint in the dining and living rooms, and take down some of the leftover decor items left behind by the previous owner... but not until I rest up after having this baby! Oh boy is it hard for me to restrain myself, but I know if I don't do it I'll pay for it later. After I had Stephen I did too much too soon and paid for it by needing to stay off of my feet for an additional 3 weeks, and also having a long recovery with my abs not coming together for almost a year... no thanks! I need to remind myself of this frequently, as my "to do" list keeps growing. It has been so exciting to make it to my due date! Today is a red letter day... after having 3 children at 37 weeks, one at 38 and one at 39 weeks, maybe my body has finally figured out how to do this right! :)  I am thankful for every extra day I've been given that I don't have to worry about lung maturity or timing contractions because I'm preterm. This is great!

I have pics of the house and yard, but they're on my camera that died, so once I've retrieved them I'll put them up so you can see it. This is just to give you a glimpse into our playtimes most days...  :)

We're finally settling in...

After a crazy few months of packing, stressing out because we almost lost our chance at the farm (with only 2 weeks before we had to be out of our house I might add!), moving, unpacking (still not finished, but at least we have our necessities!), packing for a camping trip, camping, unpacking after said camping trip, packing for weeklong trip to Tennessee for my college roommate's wedding (the 3 older girls were flower girls/ jr. bridesmaids!), taking trip to Tennessee (and visiting Kentucky and Georgia also), unpacking from trip, and having several families from church over in the meantime, helping with various church needs and having a visit from my sister Meghan for almost a week and a couple visits from Nate's family...  I can officially say that we are now staying home for awhile and staying quiet for awhile! At least for the next month or so, as we await the newest Harlan to make an appearance. :)  Whew! That list doesn't even cover all of the day to day "stuff" or the smaller items... for instance, Katy received a very sweet cat and her 6 week old kitten for her birthday (we were cool with that- you need barn cats around here to control the mice, especially in the fall and winter)... but no one knew the mother was already pregnant again. So, now we have 8 cats instead of 2! :)  Don't worry, we're not keeping all of them! :)  My camera also officially broke for good... it had a good run. I got a cheapie digital camera in Tennessee, so hopefully I'll have a chance to put some pics on here soon. I'll try to install the camera software on this computer so I can get them up on here before I have the baby. Thanks for not giving up on us, any of you who are still checking this! :)

Lots of good news!!!

I haven't been on here for a while because we suddenly became swamped with paperwork and meetings. Why, you ask? Well, we have actually sold our house (Lord willing!!!). I hesitated in announcing it on here because we have had so many times that we had buyers but something would change for them in terms of financing or jobs, and we'd be disappointed again. But this appears to be the real deal! We've already survived the inspection and appraisal process... now we're just waiting on an official closing date from them. And the process is going well on the house we're going to buy, also... Do you remember it?

That's right... the very first house we wanted to buy three years ago is the one we actually get to own!!! It has almost 5 acres, it will have way over 3,000 square feet once we finish the bonus room (it will be our "Girl's Suite!), and it is perfect location-wise. Close enough to town and church, yet out in the country!!! We are all so excited and thankful for the Lord's graciousness to us.

We also have other fabulous news... we are expecting the newest Harlan baby in October!!! We are all so excited about this new addition. It's so great to have all of the children so eager to meet this little one! Every day they are asking when they'll be able to feel the baby move and how much longer they have to wait until he or she is born. I love that they are all so happy and excited- it's such a fun time right now, despite being chaotic due to packing and all of the paperwork.