So a lot has changed since the last post. I confess that Facebook has received the bulk of my attention and pretty much all of my picture posts. I will try to remember to post pictures on the blog, especially because the kids are changing so quickly!

We are in the middle of another crazy semester-made crazier by Justin spending the weekdays doing internship in Springfield. This is his last week there! And then, as Julia says, he will be home forever. He has been enjoying his rotations so far. The end of this one marks the half-way point. He is trying to figure out what God has in store for him for the next year. As it stands right now, it looks like we might be staying in St. Louis for one more year after he graduates in May.

Julia started preschool in August and LOVES it! We are amazed at how much she is learning! We got a little lesson about the food pyramid after church on Saturday. She has also been learning to read over the summer. Her stack of "known" sight word flash cards grows almost daily. She continues to be a huge help with Samuel and has so far not shown signs of jealousy. We'll see if that continues once he starts getting into her things.

Samuel is growing like a weed. He started rolling over at 3-1/2 months and can now roll to get toys. He started eating cereal Labor Day weekend and recently started eating green beans. He eats the cereal like it's going out of style, but is still not so sure about the green beans. He continues to be a sweet, happy baby-in spite of his screaming through most daytime naps. We have been able to establish an 8:00-8:30 bedtime with him, which allows me to get some things done in the evening. Sam has also discovered his voice and loves to talk and laugh! I've included a video of one of his latest monologues.

I am struggling to keep up. With Samuel determined not to nap, I often find myself staying up very late in order to get homework or household jobs done. I don't know how I was able to manage on only 5 hours of sleep a night back in college! Thankfully I only have two classes this semester, especially because I still have a paper to complete from a class last spring! Hopefully when Justin is home again I will be able to get that wrapped up and keep up with the new assignments. My parents and my friend, Jeri, have been a HUGE blessing this fall-particularly because they watch the children on Mondays and Thursdays while I am at class. I have been able to complete a few cupcake and cake orders recently (mostly thanks to the help of Justin or Jeri). It's nice to occasionally be able to endulge in one of my favorite hobbies!

Hope all is well! I will try to post some pictures soon.

Samuel Peter

Tomorrow he will be two weeks old, but I still can't believe he is here! Samuel Peter was born at 5:11am on May 5th. He was 8 lbs, 2 oz and 21-1/4 inches long. And he is such a sweet baby! He reminds me a lot of his older sister-both in appearance and temperament.

We have been incredibly blessed by his arrival-and by the fact that every night for the past week he has slept for 5 or 6 hours straight! I am simply in awe of the two little miracles God has given us. Julia absolutely adores him and is always ready to help out. Right now Julia is holding Sam and singing "This Little Light of Mine" to him. Very precious.

Hope you all are doing well!

Update

We're still freaking out a bit right now, but this is quite typical for this time of the semester-and complicated by Sam's upcoming arrival (now due in FOUR weeks)! There have been some unexpected happenings over the past month.

The first happened the day after my last post. I went into early labor. Not fun. Justin overruled me (I didn't think I was really having contractions) and decided that Labor and Delivery was a place we needed to go. He was right. I was having pretty intense contractions two minutes apart. Thankfully, they were able to stop them and after a night of observation we were sent home, and without bed rest orders. They think that it was a combination of a bacterial infection I'd been taking antibiotics for and the really bad stomach bug I'd had, which left me really dehydrated. Thankfully, Sam has decided to stay put and I have been able to continue with my practicum.

Justin's board exams were a couple of weeks ago. He has mixed feelings as to how he did. While he is relieved that they are over, he is now feeling the weight of all the papers and projects that (out of necessity) were put off until last week. He did, however, successfully install laminate flooring in our basement with the help of my parents and some good friends. And he really enjoyed using his power tools!

Julia is continuing to be her usual self. We had to institute a "beat the timer" sticker chart for getting dressed in the mornings. There were too many battles, temper tantrums, and mornings were we didn't leave on time. So far it has been helping-a lot! She is excited-no, beyond excited-about baby Sam's upcoming arrival. I've included a picture of her at the "Super Sibling" class. She did really well. And she's excited about her "new" room, which now includes a crib, finished wall paint, and a lot fewer toys. We hope to get an airplane and maybe a few clouds on the wall so that it might appear to be a room for a girl and a boy.

I did hear back on the internship. SSD was overwhelmed with applications and, unfortunately, I did not receive one of the much-desired spots. The decision now is for me to return to being a teacher's assistant for SSD and concentrate on finishing up my coursework during the next school year. It delays graduation by one year (now set for May 2011) because I will need to do an internship during the 2009-2010 school year. But we feel this is the right decision for us. And it will give me a lot more options for internships the next year.

God also provided an option for childcare next year that I wasn't expecting. A good friend of ours will be watching Sam and Julia for us-both during the days and during my classes. And Julia will be attending preschool (YIKES!) at a church close to their house in Florissant. She is so excited. And Justin and I were pretty impressed with the program.

So that's the long and not-so short of our lives. The next post will probably be a birth announcement as I'm not sure I will have time to do much besides school and baby prep between now and them. Hope you all are doing well! Enjoy the pictures!

Freak Out!

Yup, it's that time of the semester again! And poor Justin is feeling it far worse than I am at the moment. His first round of board exams are in two weeks (March 17th and 18th). He has been studying for months but still feels overwhelmed by the amount of matieral he still needs to review. And he has all of his regular classes with tests and projects. Needless to say, we will both be very thankful when the calendar says March 19th.

We're both a bit freaked out about finances. I'm having to end my job sooner than I originally wanted to. The list of things I'm able to do at the Cakery has become very short. And it takes a while to recover from a five-hour shift. We know God has always been faithful to provide-it's just hard to keep that in focus at times. I'm also freaking out about the amount of things we don't have for Samuel. Thankfully, we have all the big stuff-except the high chair, but we have time before we need that one. It's the clothes and diapers I'm most worried about. I looked at Julia's infant stuff and it's all pink, purple, and very wintery. Not so good for a son born in May! I have to keep returning to God's promise that He will take care of us-afterall, I've never seen a flock of naked birds.

I'm trying to stay on top of all of my assignments as they will come due before the end of the semester (as in whenever Sam decides to arrive). Thankfully, my professors have been very understanding and have promised to work with me. So far, I think I will be OK. We'll see what happens. I'm also waiting to hear about my thesis. I've e-mailed the head of the Clinical Psychology program at Missouri State and have not heard back on whether or not completing my masters is still possible. I had hoped to have my thesis finished by now, but that is in a holding pattern. Another thing on hold is an internship for next year. I applied for a position (thankfully paid with benefits because Justin's internships are unpaid) and had an interview Feb. 2nd. And still have heard nothing. Because of two kids and child care needs, my options for internships are extremely limited (as in just the one I applied for). Again, I keep trying to focus on resting in God's promise to provide, but it is so hard! I know God is teaching me through all these things, but it is so hard to be patient and learn instead of attempting to pray away the obstacles!

Thankfully, Julia has been pretty good lately. We're working on what it means to be a good listener (which means Mommy has to be sure that she is paying attention and understands when she is asked to do something). She is so excited about becoming a big sister! She will be going to the "Super Sibs" class on Saturday at the hospital. They'll take a tour and learn how they can help with the new baby. I'll try and post pictures-if I remember to take my camera.

Life is certainly not without blessings. We have had some friends and my mom help with babysitting on nights where Justin had meetings or clinic and I had class. The girls in my Bible study group also created a sign-up sheet for Friday night babysitting. Justin and I went out last Friday evening and it was so nice! We'll have free babysitting every Friday evening through the end of March! Julia is thrilled-she loves having babysitters. And we have a couple of baby showers in early April-one with Justin's optometry class and one with my Bible study. It will be a lot of fun to celebrate baby Sam!

Just a couple of pictures for you. Julia loves her "Where's Waldo?" book. And she loves wearing her fancy dress and practicing her letters.

Hope everyone is doing well! Time for me to start dinner.

Life

Life has been busy with the start of a new-and extremely difficult-semester. I had the joy today of spending some tranquil time at the Perinatal Center at St. Johns. My doctor wanted to see some better shots of Samuel's heart to make sure everything is developing well. He's more than double the size he was at the last ultra sound so it was so much more fun to watch him. And he's an active little guy! I got to watch my son playing with his toes (nice long ones like Justin, Julia and I have) and got to see him pop his thumb in his mouth. And it just left me in awe of our God. So many things have to develop just right. And so many things could go wrong. What an amazing, spectacular miracle to behold when any child is born. I can't wait to hold my son and kiss his little cheeks. Here are some of the ultra sound pictures. (Or maybe they're more like abstract art.)

New Year's

The fact that I barely made it past 9:00pm on New Year's Eve tells me that I am obviously not being realistic when I expect myself to stay up late (as in 10:30, 11:00). I have been utterly exhuasted since the end-well, maybe the middle, of the fall semester. And all that holiday craziness and traveling certainly did not help. So it got me thinking. I need to make a few changes. For tradition's sake I guess I'll call them resolutions. Feel free to ask me periodically how they're going-I'll try to give you an honest answer. :)

1. Spend time with God at least 5 times per week.
2. Get at least 7-8 hours of sleep each night. (At least until May-no promises after Samuel arrives!)
3. FINISH, yes FINISH, my thesis by the end of March.
4. Read to Julia everyday.
5. Do a romantic little something for my husband at least once per week (and post-it notes count!).

We'll see how it goes. I'll try to post progress notes as the semester rolls on. Hope everyone had a nice eventful (or relaxing) New Year's Eve. We had a quiet party-just the three of us. It was nice. And those Christmas pictures will appear as soon as my camera bag, with USB cable, is unearthed. Have a great week!