Are We Crazy???

How many times have Brad and I moved? 8! Yes, that's correct. 8 times. 1 time for every year we've been married. Since we're coming up on 9 years in June, it would only be right for us to be getting the 'itch to move' again soon right? We wouldn't want to wreck a tradition!

We were so thrilled to get into our new house in April of 2006 and absolutely love the house.......unfortunately we hate the lot. With the kids getting bigger (and having more of them) it would be really great to have a 'normal' sized lot to play in. So, we've been watching the market and seeing the value of our house rise constantly and get somewhat excited about selling and getting into something else. This is what we do. We buy, sell, buy sell to get more equity into each home. It has worked so far as long as we don't get too greedy with what we want in each house and go over our budget.

We showed our house to some people from work last week on a 'whim' and they seemed to like it. Yet, I find myself saying 'um, we're having a baby in less than a month!!!' What are we thinking? Selling a house with a brand new baby? Crazy, I tell ya. However, I find myself dreaming about a different house with a nice big yard that the kids can play in. When is it enough? When can we just be satisfied with what we've been given already? God has blessed us so, so much and I never want to take those blessings for granted.........something to continue to pray about I suppose. God is good and He will show us where he wants us to be and when: all in His perfect timing.

I'll let you know what He tells us........soon I hope:)

Barefoot and Pregnant....

I have officially got 5 weeks to go today!!! Do you think it will get any faster now? I doubt it. So far so good, baby seems to be doing well and I'm even hang'in in there.

This has been a much easier pregnancy than the last two, so I'm very thankful for that. Of course I've gained 'my normal' amount of weight (unfortunately it's more than most others 'normal') Hopefully it will come off quickly in the spring.....pray for good 'running weather' please.

We're pretty much done getting the baby room ready, just need to move the computer downstairs when Brad is finished drywalling down there. The boys are both very excited about the baby. Brett is a bit more concerned about all the crying and Braden is very intent on being a good 'brother helper'! They're both going to be great big brothers.

Ice Fishing Adventures...in January

Have you heard about our ice fishing adventure yet??? As some of you may know, my dad has picked up his passion for fishing again which is wonderful for him to have an 'escape'. He truly does love every kind of fishing and it would be safe to say that he is perhaps a bit obsessed with it all.

Anyway, during our week off after Christmas it was a beautiful sunny day and Brad and I thought it would be a good idea to take the boys out to one of the nearby lakes to go ice fishing with 'Poppa'. (this is Poppa on the left here>...) So we all bundled up and took the short drive to the lake.

We pulled up to the lake and parked. We noticed a few different ice-fishing tents here and there and weren't quite sure which one was dads. So we just started to walk on the snow covered ice to find him. There were about four tents set up at a reasonable distance from the parking area and then if you looked waaaay across the lake on the other side there was one more.......guess which one was dads?? This just wasn't like him to choose the 'less than easy' way of doing things! Yeah right! Good 'ol dad.

Despite the distance, it was a gorgeous day with the sun glistening off of the snow; so we put smiles on our faces and started walking darn it. We got about half way across when we noticed a rather large sound.......have you ever heard the sound of cracking ice? It's quite a big, daunting sound. I looked up at Brad and he gave me a look back that I don't like seeing from the one who's supposed to be calm! He didn't say a word and just pointed to walk closer to the shore (the long way around) We didn't want to frighten the kids or ourselves for that matter so we discussed the fact that the sound and the crack must have just been the layer of snow on top of the very thick ice.But Brett, being very aware of EVERYTHING started making game plans out loud of how we could get off of the ice. We assured him that everything was fine and just kept on going.

We finally arrived at dad's spot and cozied in for an hour or two of fishing. Brett however, was still mapping out his escape and didn't quite 'relax' all the way. The boys had fun trying out their new fishing rods that Granny and Poppa had given them at Christmas; actually I even had fun. I hadn't been fishing in years, so it was nice to do that again. We didn't catch anything, but sure had a good time trying. We were all getting a bit chilly and hungry so Brad and I decided it was time to head back to the truck.

We packed up our stuff and got on our way. While walking, we had noticed a few 'slushy' footprints here and there so we avoided those as much as possible and picked up our pace a bit..... Half way back there were all of a sudden many,many slushy footprints....so the pace got even quicker. Brad and I were both thinking the same thing and didn't need to say a word to one another.

All of a sudden, my foot went 'in'; step after step it was getting a bit deeper........then Braden fell and went in up to his elbows and started crying. Brett then started panicking and crying that we were "going to fall in the water!!!" Brad quickly grabbed Braden in his arms and started to move. He then was almost up to his knees in slushy water. All I remember is grabbing Brett's hand and saying "Let's RUN!" Brad too started to run and we made it back to the shore. Whewf...

We all had very wet feet, but were all fine. We dried off fairly quickly and had a good chuckle about the whole thing......everyone except for Brett. Because "If Poppa ever asks him to go ice-fishing again, he's saying NO!" That's what we heard for the next couple of days anyway; maybe next year:)

New Blogger!

Well, this could be dangerous giving me freedom to type my thoughts whenever I want and posting them! You all know how lengthy the annual Christmas letter can be!!! Anyway, I'm looking forward to posting the odd thing from our lives to help keep our dear friends and family in touch with us more than once a year.

I've enjoyed reading others' blogs and keeping up to date with what's going on, so this might be kinda fun. Bear with me as I give this whole thing a try.....I'll catch on eventually and hopefully a few of you will too!