The Vanderwalls: Let's Catch Up!

Ok, so it has been over 4 months since I've written. Life gets busy. What can I say? I'll do my best to exercise my memory recall, which isn't currently one of my strong suits (scroll down to May if you're too curious to wait) and we'll see how it goes.

I think the best angle of attack for this post is just giving monthly updates from the last 4 months of our lives. So, we'll start in March since my last post was from February.

March-
Sam, Noah, and I were all in school. Noah loved everything about 3 yo preschool and was always asking if it was "School Day." Since that only came twice a week, he found himself being disappointed on a regular basis.

Sam wasn't quite feeling the vim and vigor, which came so easily for Noah, regarding school. Often much the opposite. He was trying to bravely make the trek through the semester in order to get one more set of classes behind him and move one step closer to graduation (he'll be done in Dec. of 2017).

School was really rough for me this year. I had a particularly challenging class and felt bummed that I missed a few of Noah's school activities. That pain was well massaged by the fact that Sam got to attend every one of Noah's school events. At least he wasn't that one kid whose parents never show up to anything. While they were having fun at preschool, I was counting down the minutes until Spring break.

Chloe was just having fun being ALL girl! I'm unsure whether I've met a girl-ier girl in all my life. She adored picking Noah up from school on Tuesdays and Thursdays and always wanted to be held by his fabulous teacher, Mrs. Case. We told Mrs. Case that she should feel very privileged because Chloe NEVER goes to anyone other than very close family. It is now the 4 year old preschool teacher's (Mrs. W.) goal to make Chloe love her as much as she loves Mrs. Case. Towards the end of the year, Chloe would even bring home little bribe gifts she'd received from Mrs. W. You know, things that will win over the heart of any 1 year old. Things like, stickers and bright pieces of purple printer paper.

At the end of March, we took a little family vacation to the great city of Boise. Ok, so it wasn't the vacation of a life time, but it was a lot of fun! We used Hotwire (or some such service) and booked a hotel room very late in the game so we could get a great rate. We got an amazing suite for a very, very affordable price in a nice Holiday Inn. We spent two nights there, just to feel like we kind of got away. We explored downtown Boise for the umpteenth time (we never tire of this), went swimming at the hotel, ate way too much good food, and just thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Vacation - Dinner at Flying Pie

A few cartoons before bed at the hotel

Vacation - Breakfast in the hotel lobby

Vacation - Breakfast at Addie's

Vacation - The FD responded to a call on 8th Street. Nothing serious, but still fun to watch :)

April -
The biggest news from the month of April is that Noah T. turned 4 on April 28! It's always fun for me to plan a birthday party, but this year felt even more special because Noah knew what he wanted this time around and really did most of the planning right alongside me.

The theme he chose this year was transformers. Duh, what else?! We built a cake together on Fred Meyer's website, he wanted to play a game with his transformer playing cards, and wanted to play The Good Dinosaur matching game. My sister Kristi and I spent an afternoon coloring transformer pictures and posters and cutting out a billion gears (ok, maybe 12ish) to use as decorations. We lined the drive way with red & blue balloons (Optimus Prime) on one side and black & yellow balloons (Bumblebee) on the other side. We kept the party small this year because we did a little friend party for him as well. Nana, Papa, Auntie Kristi, Gigi, Great Grandpa, Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Josh, and Uncle Aaron were all in attendance. Noah had a blast! He received dinosaur toys, a bunch of new transformers (even some in the mail from Papaw & Nona and Auntie Kendra & Uncle Nathan), some new books, CD's, a dancing tiger (that Chloe did her best to claim as her very own), some new games, and a Spiderman basketball to go with his basketball hoop.

A few days after his birthday, we took him, Chloe, and one of his little buddies (Joey) to McDonald's for lunch and to play at Jabbers. We'd never given Jabbers a try, but it just so happened that that day was teacher appreciation day so our kids got in free. It was well worth the trip and everyone seemed to have just about as much fun as they could handle. Joey gave Noah a Storm Trooper jacket and a Star Wars tent (also items high on Noah's priority list of likes).

Watching The Chipmunk Movie

Birthday Dinner at Red Robin

Decor for the big party!

Fun at Jabbers

Jabbers

May -
If you've reached this point in my post without scrolling down here immediately after the first paragraph but, instead, choosing to read everything else first, give yourself a pat on the back. It is like resisting the urge to read the last paragraph of a chapter of a mystery book. You know the chapters in which you can just tell something awful or amazing is about to happen and your eyes want to read faster than your mind and you have to have a very stern mental conversation with yourself to keep your eyes on the paragraph you're supposed to be reading instead of looking at the bottom of the page?! Well, that happens to me anyway. And, I'd like to think my blog posts are as riveting as a cliff- hanger in a mystery novel. Let me be.

And, now, if you've been faithful to read each word up to this point, you're really thinking, "What the crap?! Get on with it." Ok, ok, ok.

The big news from May - on the 22nd we found out that Baby #3 is on the way! I really wish I had a picture of my face when I saw that little blue + appear. After scrapping my jaw off the floor and checking to see if my eyes deceived me, I went to find Sam and I had to tell him he was right. I'd been feeling sick for a couple weeks, but the flu had been going around my school in a bad way and I thought I just had some strange strain of that. Sam had convinced himself that I was pregnant and I'd been telling him, for a couple weeks, that I wasn't. I just knew I wasn't. It seemed practically impossible. I'd been taking the pill ever since Chloe was born and we weren't planning to have Baby #3 until Sam was done with school (having a new born and being in law school is kind of like trying to walk on a tight rope while balancing an elephant on your head). However, I guess a couple things were proven to us that day: 1) I am that 1 in 100 women who get pregnant while on the pill, and 2) God wanted us to have Baby #3 NOW. The second point is what matters most and Sam was quite excited almost immediately. Once I managed to come to grips with the fact that we'll have to rearrange the layout of much of our house for this kid (they've got to have a bedroom somewhere) and we'll have to buy a new car for this kid (neither of our cars can hold 3 carseats) and that I'd just signed my teaching contract for the fall, the exact contract that I came SUPER close to not signing so I could stay home, I came to grips with the second point. I think I got that backwards. But, at least I got there. We already believe God has a very special plan for the precious life of this Baby and we cannot wait to meet them!

Since this was such a surprise, I really had no idea how far along I was. My best guess was about 4-5 weeks. So, I made my first doctor's appointment for the week that I thought I'd hit 8 weeks. We went in to my first appointment and the doctor decided to do an ultrasound that day since I had no idea how long I'd been pregnant and just to make sure everything looked healthy. (It is nerve-wracking to realize you've been pregnant for a long time without knowing it. You start wondering how many "no-no's" you committed and how serious they were). As soon as the doctor started the ultrasound, Sam said, "Uh, I don't think you're 8 weeks. There's a BABY in there!" We were expecting to see a little bean, much like what we saw on my first ultrasound with Noah and Chloe, but the Baby already looked like a BABY. Come to find out, I was actually 12 weeks. It sure felt good to accomplish 1 month's worth of work in a single day :) The picture was so clear that we almost learned the gender. Sam is convinced that it is a boy and the doctor didn't necessarily disagree with him, but he said it was too early to confirm. So, we'll find out for sure in August. Sam will be surprised if it is a girl.

Baby #3 Announcement

Baby #3 Due Jan. 3 :)

June-
And that brings us to now. We're plugging along. Noah and I are enjoying summer break. Sam is taking one class and wishing he was enjoying summer break. Chloe's just doing her thing.

My youngest sister, Kristi, got married in May and moved to Montana shortly after. My other sister, Kendra, her daughter, Paige, the kids, and I, all went to visit Kristi for a week this month. It was a very fun trip and nice to have all of us together since that doesn't happen often any more.

Noah started T-ball this month and LOVES it! He plays for the Mariners. He has games twice a week. His forte is batting. He's done a good job of learning how to run the bases and has had the chance to play a few different defensive positions. He gets in to the fielding if he can remember not to sit down or talk to himself or the other kids standing nearby. Haha!

Chloe's vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds every day. She can say somewhere in the neighborhood of 75-100 words. I have a list going, but it seems to need updating every day and I don't always get there. She's finally got some of the teeth she was missing on the bottom in the front and only has a few more to go before her mouth is full. She's very into shoes. If I get out the wrong ones when I'm getting her dressed for the day, she'll say "No" and go put them back and bring me the ones she wants to wear. I'm a little nervous for what the future holds...She tries to parrot just about everything Noah does. There are times he loves this and times that it drives him nuts!

Both kids are very excited for the Baby. Noah talks about the Baby often and has given us the name suggestions of Grandpa, Hot dog, and Fred. I don't think he'll be naming the Baby. Chloe cried when we told her we were having another Baby, but that the Baby wasn't coming THAT day. As much as she loves babies and will be a good little helper, I think her little world will be rocked pretty hard when the Baby actually arrives. I'm praying against that.

Well, if you're still reading, go buy yourself a treat! I'm losing interest and this is MY post. This is why I shouldn't wait 4+ months to write. However, I have a feeling that will probably get worse before it gets better. I'm just happy to find myself on here at all.

Until next time....hopefully less than 4 months down the road!