Erik, the missionary

My brother Erik has been waiting for his mission call for almost 5 weeks, and as you can guess, he is anxious to find out where he is going! So, to give him an idea of where the family thinks he is going to go, vote in our poll. The closing date is arbitrary, I think we'll leave it till he gets his official call!

We are excited to see him be a missionary! I know he will do a great job!

Welcome to 2010

As always, where does time go?? I think we have been having so much fun lately and had a wonderful holiday season, posting on our blog kept falling last in line. But, today, Nathan is a preschool this afternoon, Daniel is taking a nap, and I am not. I know that is a surprise, hence I am somewhat at a lose as to what to do! The house is so quiet, and the kitchen is clean, and nothing is demanding my attention at the moment. So, I have time to do a quick post.Here is Nathan with his playmobil castle that Santa brought. It has been a big hit, he plays with it everyday and loves when we have battled. Daniel likes to take the "guys" and pull their heads off and all the armor, so Nathan has to patrol his toys while Daniel is awake. Nathan has also been playing with his little legos a lot lately and when he was sick a few weeks ago, watched the original Star Wars movies, over and over! He was really brave when he was sick- we took him in to Kidscare and he had an IV and bloodwork done and he hardly moved at all. He was a different boy after he got the IV fluids! Who knew that strep throat could make a kid throw up for 5 days straight??

He has enjoyed the snow this winter. He loves his new boots this year and wears them every chance he gets. Hopefully he will be ready for other shoes when spring comes. Daniel is not so sure of the snow. He usually just watches Nathan from the garage and sits on his bike. Nathan likes to sled down the front lawn.

Introducing Daniel and his "baby." He got a cabbage patch doll from Mom for Christmas ( I figured this is the one time in his childhood that he will like it!). He is soo cute with him! He brushes his teeth, gives him hugs and kisses and sleeps with baby every night. The name the doll came with is Ivan Lewis, too much of a mouthful for DJ at this point. So this is baby. Also notice how Daniel drinks from his sippie cups. I guess holding it is too much work. He is picking up new words everyday. It is fun to hear him talk. He hasn't quite mastered yes and no, he usually shakes his head no when he wants something.

Daniel started nursery this month and has loved it! He has had no issues going and playing with out us for 2 hours, and he always looks like he is having fun when we peek in. Yeah for a few months respite during church!

The boys like to get out my shoes and wear them. More so Daniel and then Nathan joins in to be goofy, or ridiculous as he is into saying lately. Aren't those cute legs of Daniel's?

Brownie time! They both like to help in the kitchen when treats are invovled. Nathan has a little apron and Daniel is wearing mommy's + a bib to keep the chocolate at bay. Daniel has figured out that he can push chairs around in the kitchen to reach things on the counters, i.e. food! He could eat constantly I think!!

As for me, I am starting my third trimester! The pregnancy is going so quickly. Its crazy to think we will have our baby in 3 months!I am excited that we are not moving before then, we don't have any big trips planned, and we know where all the baby stuff is. It doesn't seem like that long ago that we put the swing, carseat, baby clothes etc away!

Daniel is awake, so off I go!

It's another boy!

We had our ultrasound on Friday, and we are having another boy in the family! He didn't want to cooperate for pictures, but all the measurements look good and he looks healthy. We are so excited to be expecting a healthy, baby boy.

Nathan wasn't too sure about another brother when we first told him, ('it's supposed to be a baby Martha!") but I think he is warming up to the idea. We were talking about names last night, and he chimed in whenever he recognized one as someone at church or at preschool.

So, here is to almost having our basketball team- Scott and his boys are up to 4 players now!

Time for a poll...

So next Friday I have my 20 week ultrasound! Yes, we are going to find out what we are having. I really can't decide what it feels like, it seems like with Daniel I thought it would be a girl because I felt soo sick with him. Now, this time I am breaking out like a 12 year old girl again! (I thought those days were gone...)
Nathan is convinced it is baby Martha still. He also thinks that Daniel should go back in my tummy after this baby comes out because he doesn't like Daniel playing with his toys. I told him it doesn't work that way- he didn't believe me. Oh well. And Daniel will point to his belly and say baby. He is learning all his body parts and since we have said 'baby' when pointing at my belly, he thinks its called baby!

Halloween to Swine Flu

Scott used his great video skills to make this video of our Halloween. Daniel was a monkey, Nathan was a knight, I was a witch and Scott was Indiana Jones. The boys did some trick or treating for a little while and then were happy to come home and eat candy. We had Tiff and Mel's families over after trick or treating and did the donut game! (A Jeffery Halloween party tradition). For the Jeffery party, Scott and I dressed up at Juno and Paulie Bleeker from the movie Juno.

Sunday Nathan was sick and stayed home from church. Then Monday he was still sick- we went to the dr. and we think he has swine flu. Yuck! He has not been feeling well, and doesn't have much of a voice. Given that I am pregnant, and Daniel is only 1, we are all taking the Tamiflu. So we should be decontaminated in a couple of days. Hopefully Scott won't get sick! I guess it was inevitable- it seems like it is everywhere, and getting the vaccine has been so hard.

As far as being pregnant, we are due May 4th. Nathan is convinced that baby Martha is in my tummy. We will find out around Christmas if it is! I didn't feel very good during our trip to Greece and Germany, but I survived(and finished the marathon). And now I am past the constant nausea, yeah! It is exciting to be expecting baby #3, a little overwhelming at times when it seems hard to handle just 2!

Berlin Marathon

We are a little slow getting posted on the wonderful trip that we had last month. I think I will just have to do it in pieces. So, tonight, BERLIN!

Here is the map of the marathon course that we RAN....

We got there the Friday before the Marathon and got to do some sightseeing. To the left is the KDW- a huge department store, the equivalent of London's Herrods. The banner they had up was a little to showy- so Erik is changing the rating of this pic to "G".

This Cathedral was bombed out during WWII, and it was left as a memorial. I guess there was more of it left, but not all of it was stable to be left. It is kind of cool. The new Church they built next door is a 1960's modern thing that is very weird looking.

Alot of the stores along Kurfurstendamm, (big shopping district) had running displays. One even had this count down to the Marathon!

Saturday morning, the runners- Erik, Dad, Scott and me, plus the boys, headed to the Marathon Messe to pick up our numbers and eat pasta! They had the expo at the old Tempelhof airport. (see The Bourne Supremacy to see that airport!) Nathan liked the airplanes they had there. This picture to the left is a runner's version of the Brandenburg Gate.

Nathan and Opa by the airplane. I was surprised how many people were taking pictures of it. I thought it was only cool for a 4 year old! We enjoyed our pasta out in the sun. Daniel slept in his stroller for most of the time.

After we finished there, Opa and Erik took the boys back to the apartment, and Scott and I took off to Checkpoint Charlie. We went to the museum there and got to see a chunk of the old wall.




The plaque below shows how Berlin is marking where the wall used to be. It was kind of cool the next day because we ran over the old wall 3-4 times.

The street crossing lights below are the East Berlin version. Now, the last time I was in Berlin (2001 to do the 1/2 marathon with my dad), I didn't see these lights anywhere. I think they are sporadically installing these for the tourists. They are pretty cute though!

Now, about the Marathon! The night before, we went to an Italian restaurant. It was very good, but I swear I got food poisoning! I felt so sick later that night and for the first hour or so of the race. Maybe it was just nerves, but if felt like more than that. We got to the start area of the marathon around 8 am, and had a hour to drop off our bags, go to the port-a-potty(me- ALL the men just use the bushes!), and get to our start zone. We got there around the start time. We saw the balloons get released when it started, but we didn't cross the start line for 20 minutes! There were a lot of runners- approx. 40,000! It was a very cool atmosphere. Lots of people cheering and music. We were movin' pretty good til km 5 (about 3 miles in). Dad stepped off a curb, twisting his ankle. He was amazing though- he walked for awhile and then kept going. He found out a few days later he had broken his leg. He finished his 10th Berlin marathon though.


These are pics that mom took at the 1/2 point when she and the boys and Anneliese met us. They had spent the morning at Legoland, and then taken the train to meet us. We had to wait almost 10 minutes, but it was worth it to see our cute boys!

I was really struggling at this point- I didn't think that I could do another 21 km, but my 'positive affirmations' from one of my nursing classes came in helpful! Once we got to 30 km, I figured I would make it. So I felt good between 30-35km. Then it got kind of hard again. But, it was so exciting once we got to the straight away before the finish and could see the Brandenburg Gate, it felt pretty good. We all crossed the finish together, with a time of 6:06. (6 hours, 6 minutes)

It was so nice to walk and sit and eat at the end. The weather had been perfect all day long, warm around 70. We showered in the tents they had set up- that felt so good! Then we just lay on the grass and relaxed. It is a pretty good feeling to have done a marathon. It was so great to be with Scott and my dad and my bro. I don't know when I will do another one, but it really is something worth doing.

Pirates say "arrgh"

Happy Birthday Nathan!

We had a pirate BBQ party on Monday for Nathan's 4th b-day. He was in heaven after opening presents- he got knight armor from his cousins that he LOVES. He also got a trunk of capes and a fireman coat+hat. He has been changing outfits quite frequently the last few days. So he is happy. He got a big boy bike that he does really well on. Daniel is happy to have the trike now without having Nathan get upset when he gets on! So life is fun.