Kindergarten Program

This Wednesday was Emma's shining moment at her kindergarten program. She was so excited and practiced her line a million times. She was afraid she'd get stage fright, but I wasn't too worried... :) Unfortunately all you can hear on the video is Reese talking away, but she did great! Way to go, Emma!

Grammie Bev and Pappaw came to show their support and, of course, her little bros!

Emma and her pals

Wild Man

Our little Lincoln has earned himself this title over the last few months. He's totally into everything and especially loves when I turn my back when the dishwasher is open... this picture was taken moments before his grimy little wet feet slipped and he about knocked himself out (nevermind the possibility of cutting off his foot on the cheese grater...)

And his big bro is in the next picture at about the same age!

It's a....

So today was the big day! At the ultrasound this morning, we found out it was a healthy baby... hold on. Even I didn't find out for a couple hours. We had the tech put this picture in an envelope and when we picked Emma up from school and went to McDonald's, she got to reveal it to us all! I envisioned laughs, smiles, joy... hmm... not exactly.

Emma burst into tears as the reality of being the big sister to THREE brothers set in. As she cried all through lunch, we reminded her how special she is to be the only girl and what a great big sister she is... and how God made this special baby and He knows just what He's doing. It'll grow on her. :)

Guess!

I don't have anything exciting to blog, but we do find out the sex of this baby next Monday... any guesses?? You've got a 50/50 chance... :)

Not-So-Merry Maids

Thank goodness for our dear friend Sara who was willing to come help clean up ground zero at our old house after our renters moved out. It's amazing what 20-something guys consider clean. Take a look for yourself and see the magic we worked. We did need a chemical rinse when we left... I'm pretty sure the swine flu was harvesting there.

I don't have after pictures for these, but wow...

Go, Team Mercury!

On our 3rd try of signing up for soccer, Emma is finally getting to try it out (it was cancelled the other times). We had no idea what she'd think of it and she hasn't exactly shown interest in sports... let's say it was highly entertaining. :) At her first practice, she was getting circled by seasoned 6 & 7 year olds who had clearly been in soccer since they were toddlers. She twirled her hair as she stood there trying to figure out what to do. At her first game, I was trying to explain to Josh that her coach had asked her to stand on the sidelines because they had too many players on her team. Nope. She was just standing there because she had no idea what to do! I think she touched the ball once when she stuck her foot into the wad of kids who were circling the ball like prey. At the end she was pleased with the mud on her new shinguards and ready to try again next week.

Happy REAL Bday!

To celebrate the big 1 today, we headed to Chuck E. Cheese's for pizza Lincoln mostly gagged on, rides that are way too big for him and prizes he could choke to death on. Okay, I confess it was mostly for the siblings, but Lincoln had some fun too. :) He got a total kick out of the little rides...

Happy Birthday, Lincoln!

I know I say it every time one of these rolls around, but wasn't this kid JUST born?! We had an Old McDonald birthday party on Easter weekend since my family was in town. Lincoln was so sweet, trying his hardest to open his gifts (with the help of his siblings, of course). But the highlight was the cake. He was hilarious, investigating it slowly, touching it cautiously, then diving right in until he nearly ate the whole dang thing. I stopped him at the point where I was sure I'd be cleaning up red-tinted puke in a matter of minutes. After shaking him off and scrubbing the shortening-based frosting off of his entire body in the bathtub, he took a great nap; undoubtedly dreaming of cake. Happy Birthday, little buddy!

Dinosaur World

So we heard about this place called Dinosaur World and knew we HAD to take Reese there. From morning til night, all we hear about is dinosaurs (mixed a little bit with sharks). So after making arrangements for Lincoln and getting all ready to go, we realized as we were about to hop in the car that it was 3 1/2 hours away (we thought it was in Louisville). We knew better than to crush Reese's hopes and dreams... we buckled in for a very long day of 7 hours in the car to be at Dino World for 2. Thankfully it was a totally gorgeous day, the kids were well behaved (thanks to our borrowed DVD player) and we made 2 trips to Sonic for cherry limeades. And every night since, when we pray at night and tell God what we're thankful for, you can imagine what Reese's is. :) The scrapbook pose for Mommy
And they're off...

Future paleontologists

His face says it all. This was one of 150 life-size dinos they have!

"Are you SURE we can't take him home?"

Reese and his worms

One of Reese's favorite things to do is go outside exploring for worms. After a recent rain, he went outside sporting rocket pajamas and Emma's rain boots... and couldn't quite control himself from peeling half-dead worms from off the sidewalk and proclaiming them still alive. Boys will be boys.

First Picture

My ultrasound puts this little munchkin arriving around October 8th. Emma came along and was excited to see the heartbeat and was reeeeally hoping we could find out that it's a girl... :) In her (more joking than serious) words, "I'll just SCREAM if it's another boy."

Surprise!

I had no idea that I'd ever be making a post about baby #4, but we're confident God has known all along. Stay tuned as we keep you updated on our newest Nottingham addition! :)

Lincoln's Baptism

We were so blessed to have Lincoln baptized at our church this Sunday. We had family there to celebrate with us this marking of Lincoln as God's. We pray that he will come to know Him.

"Baptism is a sacrament, wherein the washing with water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, doth signify and seal our engrafting into Christ, and partaking of the benefits of grace, and our engagement to be the Lord's." (The Shorter Catechism)

Blue Eyes

Just another cute pic of a cute kid!

Our first BIG snow!

Last week, we FINALLY got our first big snow- over a foot! Emma got 3 days off of school, so we had plenty of time to "enjoy" being snowed in! Our friends Brooke and Grace West were in town, so Grace ventured out into the snow abyss with Emma and Reese. :)

Check it out! The untouched winter wonderland!

Thank goodness for my dad and his snowblower- we were trapped!

Letterboxing... in the snow?

We found out about this super cool activity you can do called Letterboxing (www.letterboxing.org). It's great for families, it's free and awesome for the treasure-hunter in us all! And if you know anything about my husband's obsession with the movie National Treasure, you will understand my daughter's fascination with finding treasure of her own. The gist- you read online clues to a letterbox in your area (there are tons of them all over the country) and you follow the clues until you find the hidden box. Inside you find a stamp and a notepad. You mark their stamp in your notepad and vice versa as a log that you found it. It's super fun and we've done about 5 in the freezing snow and Josh insists that we wait for summer to do any more. :)

One of our first clues took us to the Fishers Train Station!

Find the treasure and making her mark!

Binkin's Giggle

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Being with family is, of course, one of the greatest parts of celebrating Christmas. Due to many different circumstances, we saw no extended family on Christmas Day! We celebrated early with my family and late with Josh's. It was actually quite nice to have the kids just be at home and go at our own pace without any worries of packing bags or rushing off somewhere.

The kids got up and were surprised with their one big gift- a new table and chairs with art supplies for the play room!

And a tasty breakfast of monkey bread...

Then the stocking explosion! We mostly just do lots of fun stocking stuffers for everyone and enjoy opening lots of little things. The kids are into quantity over quality if you're pickin' up what I'm puttin' down. :)

Happy Birthday cupcakes- Reese the dinosaur enthusiast specifically requested that we make parasaurolophus cupcakes. Only the best for Jesus! ;)

And Lincoln's gift from Grammie Bev bearing his best nickname- Lincoln Logs!

Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve was nice and quiet- just a nice dinner with Josh's parents and Mark and Sarah, and a Christmas Eve service at church celebrating Jesus. We came home and each got to open one gift and were off to bed for the long-awaited Christmas morn...

The PERFECT tree!

It's become a family tradition for Josh and the kids to go pick out our family Christmas tree. You may be picturing a trek through the knee-deep snow on a tree farm, axe hoisted over the shoulder... nope. Just the Marsh parking lot at 116th and Allisonville- $20 from the Boy Scouts. Hey, it works for us. Josh is NOT a fan of winter and doesn't like to be cold, so this 5 minute task is just perfect. They did a GREAT job and it was a beautiful tree. :)