Hello World!

Caleb Andrews says "Hello World!"  Cal was born April 27th during the age of covid!  He is a healthy  (chubby) 2 month old!  Can't believe it's already been 2 months.  He is a great baby and is already sleeping through the night.  Even with all that's going on in the world with the pandemic, things went very smoothly at the hospital and we were home a couple days after!  Here are some pictures of our life since then.

During quarantine, Josh made the kids a playhouse!  The girls love it :)

Funnies:

-A little potty humor-  Charlee pooped a lot yesterday and said, "Mom!  I pooped a stick!" Haha

-Josh was working on putting up a curtain rod.  Charlee opened the directions and said, "Let's learn about tools."

-Charlee defends Amelia sometimes and says, "Hey, give that back to my sister!"

-One time Charlee was crying and Amelia said, "Charlee is having a rough day!"

-  One time I opened up Amelia's door to tell her it was time to come out from her nap and he was sleeping in the toy box!!

-I asked Amelia what size one of her shirts was and she said, "Whenever you're willing to wear it"  haha

-The girls were playing in the backyard and Charlee found her bike helmet.  I asked her why she was wearing it and she said, "I don't want to get germs on my head!"  A very coronavirus thing to say!

-The girls were playing in the room together and Charlee said, "I'll zap you into the lions den!"  I think she got that Bible verse a little confused.

-They were playing "restaurant" in the new playhouse and Charlee said, "Wait!  I have to go get my mask."  Oh boy...

That's it for now!  Everyone is up from their naps!  :)

A Word From Quarantine

Hello out there!  What a crazy situation we are all in right now!  Things in Michigan are pretty crazy but our family is still doing well.  Since the second week of March, the girls and I have been at home.  We stayed away from our normal activities even before the first covid19 case in Michigan because we knew all kinds of sickness was going around.  The next week, Josh's school (and the whole state's) school has been online at home until at least April 30.  We are expecting this week to get the call that he will not be going back to school this year!  So literally we have been in the house and outside taking walks and that's it.  Other than my OB doctor, I haven't seen anyone (except my parents one time 2 weeks ago).  It hasn't been too bad though.  I am really starting to miss people, but at least we can see them on video chats occasionally.  Some people are still going through drive throughs to get take out or going to the grocery store, but we have decided not to risk getting the virus anymore.  We will not be going out until the baby is born in about 3 weeks.

Three more weeks until baby time!  What a crazy time to have a baby!  So far, my doctor hasn't said there are any different restrictions except only 1 visitor in the delivery room (Josh).  We have heard that the nurses and doctors are all only working on the labor and delivery floor and not being pulled to work with any covid patients, to protect the new babies and moms.  Also, I heard yesterday that C-sections are the preferred method these days since it can be scheduled and the baby is born within 30 minutes, whereas a normal labor could last 24 hours or longer.  I'm sure they will want to get us in and out ASAP.  My C-section is scheduled for April 27.  Not long now!  After he is born, we will likely stay home for a long time to make sure all the coronavirus has passed before taking him out into public.  At least it will be warm then and we can get outside more.  Even though it's a bad situation, it has been a huge help to have Josh home with us these last few weeks.  I am tired and feel like an elephant tromping around, so he's helpful to pick up things off the floor or get down and play with the girls.   It will also be a huge blessing to have Josh home for weeks after the baby is born!  How lucky to have all this time off from work!

The girls are doing well!  They are playing together more than ever, since we don't get out anymore to do activities.  They are being creative and learning to share and get along, even when they are feeling cooped up.  Overall, they've done really great.  They do ask occasionally why we can't go back to the gym, the library, church, etc...but they know that many, many people are sick and that we want to stay home to stay protected.  They pray every day that God will keep us safe from the sickness.  Here are some pictures of what we've been up to:

This was Amelia's Daddy Daughter Dance (before all the quarantining)

Jumanji has been getting a lot of love

Stocking up on some staples before being quarantined

A joke, but I really did wear a mask, and gloves to the doctor's office!

We take 2 walks every day!  Sprinkles or shine.  Gotta get out of the house!

Josh got creative with a marble and some toilet paper rolls!

Charlee is ready for church worship!  They stand on the stools and pretend they're on stage singing.

Well, that's all for now!  We'll probably have a baby the next time I post!  That will make for an interesting post.  I will be part of history, having a baby in a pandemic!  😯

Little Boy Coming!

Happy New Year!  Our new baby will be a boy, set to arrive April 27th!  The girls were a little unsure about a boy at first but now they are super excited!  We have the room set up, and someone from church donated all of their baby clothes so now we have a whole wardrobe of baby boy clothes!  What a blessing!!  Here are a few pictures from the last month or so...

The city Christmas Festival.  This was the girls' first time to sit on Santa's lap.  Amelia told him that she wanted a garbage truck for Christmas, haha.  We got her one!  Later she asked, "Who was that man and why was he wearing a red, furry costume?"  :)  On Christmas Eve she asked if he'd be coming in his car, haha!

One night while I was out at a church meeting, Josh had a movie night, "Frozen" with the girls.  They sat through almost the whole thing, singing, "Let it go..."

Christmas morning

A visit to Grandmother and Grandaddy's "house"

We had some free coupons for kid's drinks at the coffee shop and it turned out to be the best part of Christmas vacation!  The girls have never had a fancy drink before (milk with strawberry flavoring, whipped cream and sprinkles) and they were ecstatic.  They kept saying, "Oh my goodness, oh my goodness."   I think we need to get out more :)

Her excitement with her Magic milk drink!

This month's funnies:

-The girls were outside playing in the sand on one of the warm days and I heard them out there cooking up some pretend pizza.  Amelia went to go eat it, when Charlee said, "Pray!"  Amelia thanked God for their sand pizza and they proceeded to pretend eat.

- Grammy (Josh's Grandma) was in the hospital and the girls sent Josh with one of their stuffed bears.  They thought she might need it to sleep in the hospital.

-Charlee tells everyone that she loves them, multiple times throughout the day.  My favorite is before bed when she whispers, "I wub you."

-Amelia was having a very difficult time falling asleep one night.  So much so that she was still awake and looking out the window by the time we turned off the Christmas lights outside to head to bed.  The second we switched off the Christmas lights she started wailing very overtiredly.  When I asked her what happened, she said, "I'm so disappointed that the Christmas lights turned off!!"

-Amelia and Charlotte often watch me cook dinner on their stools in the kitchen.  One day Amelia said, "Mom, when I grow up, I want to be a mom cooker like you."

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!  Though it was a freezing, wet, and even snowy night, the girls still had a great time trick-or-treating!  Sadly, most people weren't passing out candy or participating but we still found a few houses!  They dressed as scarecrows :)

 

The day before, Josh decided to carve a pumpkin with the girls while I was at music practice for church.  This picture is before the huge mess.  The carved it together and the girls touched the pumpkin guts and were thoroughly grossed out.  Then he told them that they could cook and eat the seeds of a pumpkin.  Amelia sorted all the seeds and put them in a bowl of water.  While Josh was trying to wipe off Charlee, the whole bowl of seeds and water dumped all over the table and floor.  In the mean time, Amelia had asked to go to the bathroom but he told her to stay on the chair until he could wipe off hands.  Just after he'd cleaned up all the water off the table and floor, she waited to long and had an accident all over the chair and floor!  Yikes!  What a mess!😦  I laughed when I heard all of the evening's events but I'm sure it was not too funny at the time!  Josh said, "I don't think I'll be carving any more pumpkins without you anymore." Haha

BY THE WAY...We're having another baby!!  The new baby will be here around the 1st of May!  Amelia and Charlotte are super excited, although they don't really have any idea what's going on.  Amelia asked, "Did you buy the baby at Walmart?"😄  I'd been pretty sick the first trimester but feeling much better now!

A few kid funnies from the last couple of months:

-The kids were "swimming" in our kiddie pool in August and then all of the sudden Amelia face planted in the pool.  After blinking away the water and surprise, she said, "Mom, did you see my trick??"

-Amelia tried Skittles for the first time yesterday.  Today, she said, "Mom, can I eat some more mosquitoes today?"

-Amelia calls the weed wacker a mow wacker.

-After Charlee moved to her big girl bed, one time I checked on her and she wasn't in her room.  She was "sleep standing" next to Amelia's bed!

-Amelia was pretending to read her Bible and she told Charlee, "Quiet Charlee, God is speaking to me."

-Amelia sneezed.  Charlee said, "Bless you."  Amelia said, "Man, I got the bless yous again!"

It's so good to be home!

Oh, it's so good to be home!  A couple of weeks ago we went on a vacation to Tennessee.  There were many fun activities and times but we sure were glad to be home.  We started out the trip with a visit to Grandmother and Grandaddy's house in Kentucky.  We all really enjoyed the visit because it had been quite a while since we'd been down there.  Then we headed down to Tennessee, which was only another 5 hours or so.  Thankfully no one got car sick, even though we were going up and down the small mountain roads with hair pin turns.

In Tennessee, the girls go to catch fish, build sand castles at a lake, swim in the pool, ride a horse and other fun things.  Unfortunately both of them (an eventually me) got sick and were pretty much miserable a lot of the time. :(  They both had a fever, sore throat and were in pain, which caused them to be all out of whack and whiney.  That, in addition to be completely off our normal routine (toddlers aren't real flexible) caused some stress for  everyone ;)  But we were grateful that my mother in law let us stay with them in a condo that was really nice.

On the way back, we decided to come back straight through in one day in order to get home faster.  We visited with grandmother and granddaddy one more time in Kentucky.  The trip back took 13 or 14 hours!  Also, not very fun with toddlers.  I think we decided to stick a little closer to home while the kids are young, haha!

On the home front, Josh built us a fence!  It took a ton of work and a long time, but it looks great!  In the process though, he busted his head open and ended up getting stiches in the ER :(  Thankfully it wasn't too bad.  Could have been way worse!

Now that we're back from vacation we are enjoying normal life and being outside a lot in the summer!

Playing Hard

Today I took the girls to swim at the pool!  They hadn't been swimming since last summer, so they had forgotten that they used to like the water, haha.  The were very hesitant and cried at first, but after watching the other big kids swim around like fish, they decided it wasn't so scary after all!  By the time we left, they were both floating around by themselves and they didn't want to leave.  Charlee is pretty much fearless!  She thought floating around on her back (without any help of course) was the best!

We've been playing outside quite a bit.  The playing hard routine is great for an easy bed time routine.  They usually just fall into bed because they're so worn out.  They are active little girls, that's for sure!  They've enjoyed playing in the sandbox this week.  Though they have tons of fun, cleaning them off after the sand is not so fun!

Funny little things:
-  Before Josh leaves for work every morning, Amelia says, "Hope your friends are nice at work today dad.  Hope they don't bite you."

-Uncle Danny taught Charlee the "pull something out of your ear" magic trick and now she practices her trick on us multiple times per day :)

-The other day at a restaurant, Amelia saw a black man with glasses walk by.  She said, "Mom!  That man looks just like dad!"  I could not stop laughing!!  She does not even notice the color of people's skin.  That's great!

-Amelia always makes a friend at the park and wants to hold their hand.

-In the car these days the girls like to try to hold hands.  Charlee's favorite word is "no" which she repeats over and over.  Amelia asks, "Charlee, no what!?"  Charlee also repeats "go."  Amelia says, "We are going, Charlee!"  I can't wait until Charlotte can talk back and they can carry on a conversation!

The other day Amelia said, "Is Oma coming on Tuesday (twos day) or Threesday?  Hahaha!

Happy Spring!

A hint of Spring!

My front door is swung open and the sunshine is beaming through the house!  Spring is on it's way!  I took a walk with the girls today (which was quite soggy, since all the snow was melting) and I realized how excited I am about Spring.

It is long past time to write another blog.  I guess my lack of blogs shows my busyness these days.  I will try to make blogging more a priority now that we're almost settled in our new house.

We have a new house!!  I would show a picture of the front of the house, but you almost can't see it because of the WAY overgrown bushes hah!  We will remove them in the spring when it gets warmer. We moved in in December, right before Christmas.  Terrible time to move, but it was nice to be in before Christmas.  We got a great price on the house, except that almost nothing in the house had been updated since 1973.  We add new projects and updates to the list almost daily!  A little overwhelming, but one at a time and eventually we'll have it just like we want it.

 First order of business was the flooring.  Because of the gross linoleum and olive green shag carpet, we decided to get new flooring right away.  We hired it done (so that it would be done fast) but unfortunately it was only done 2 days ago at the end of February!!  The new floor that they put in, bowed and dipped and was quite bad.  The company tried to come back and fix it again but after going round and round with the company and their terrible customer service and products, we finally got a refund and Josh just did it himself.  This isn't a great picture but this is our new floor!  Josh did a great job!  Amelia and Charlotte were often found helping him.

Our kitchen is semi torn up because we had to remove a couple of cabinets in order to put the floor down.  Hopefully this summer we can get some new cabinets!  That will totally change the look of the house.

Last weekend we took a trip to Kentucky to visit Grandmother and Grandaddy and Phyllis and Bill.  We enjoyed our time and it was nice to catch up with them, since we hadn't seen them since August!

These days, Amelia is talking non stop and she's very thoughtful!  She constantly told Josh, "Good job Dad!" and "I like it!" when he was preparing and laying the floor!  Amelia is now potty trained!!  Woohooo!  No more diapers :)  For her anyway...  She plays pretend all the time.  When at home, she's usually found playing with her baby dolls, cooking in her toy kitchen or playing dress-up.

Charlotte is almost 15 months old now.  She is talking up a storm too, we just can't figure out what she's saying!  She is very sweet and cuddly, yet talks very loudly!  She bosses everybody around in her jibber-jabbery way :)  She is in the process of getting all 4 molars, so nights aren't very fun these days.  She can walk and run now.  Her and Amelia like to hold hands and go round and round the center part of the house. They play well together now, which can be pretty funny at times. She also likes to play with dolls.  She loves to "brush" her hair (which is super curly!) and brush her teeth.  Man, you almost can't get the toothbrush away from her!  I guess that's a good thing that she likes to brush her teeth.

I'm in my last couple months of teaching 7th grade online with my student Rayaan.  I'm also teaching the Chinese students each morning.  Both are going well!  I'm excited to pick up more Chinese spots during the summer when I'm not teaching Rayaan.  I've also been working on the painting the whole house.

All is well!