Update

Obviously, I am very behind in blogging. I keep thinking I need to catch up on everything that has happened in the last several months. However, that is just too overwhelming, so I keep deciding to put it off until later, and then it never gets done. So, instead, I have decided to just do a few highlights from the last few months of what we have been up to, and forget doing several posts with all the pictures. Hopefully after this, I can just keep more up to date on what is going on.

What we did over the summer:

*Went swimming, played at parks, and just had a nice, fun summer together.

* Drove to Boston for a family reunion with Quinn's family. Had a fun time with family, eating yummy food, playing at the beaches, and visiting Maine.

*Attended several festivals: Sweet Corn Fest, Arthur Cheese Festival, and the Broom Corn Fest. Ate lots of corn, cheese, and fried food.

*Clarissa started preschool again in September, which she loves. I was worried about how it would go with snacks and her diabetes now, but her teacher is wonderful and very helpful with taking care of Clarissa.

*In October, we went out to Utah for my younger brother's wedding. It was fun to see family, and the kids and I stayed an extra week, so that we could spend a little more time with grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles. We had a lot of fun. We even got to spend some time with my grandpa. At first Clarissa was a little shy and said she was scared, but she quickly got over that. She loved spending time with him, and was very concerned about him. Several times she was playing, and told me she had to go check on him. There were even a couple of times that I saw her sharing her blanket with him, she wanted to make sure he wasn't cold. Even though my kids probably won't remember much about him, it was fun to see a special bond that they had this visit.

*The kids had a fun time celebrating Halloween, and really enjoyed trick-or-treating. Clarissa had been talking about being a witch for several months, so that's what she was. A friend let us borrow a lion costume for Clayton, but he refused to wear it, and just screamed until I took it off. I had planned on the three of us being the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, (I made a costume out of a box for me that looked like a wardrobe closet) but since Clayton refused to wear his, I didn't end up wearing mine. Maybe he'll decide to dress up next year.



*Clayton turned 2 last Wednesday. Our tradition is to serve breakfast in bed to the birthday person, but since he was the first one to wake up, he didn't get that luxury. He had fun opening presents. Even after he opened them, he would put the paper back over the toy, pull it off again, and act surprised and excited, it was really fun to watch him. That evening we went to the Mall to ride the carousel, something both of our kids love; and then came home and had brownies and ice cream. Clayton is such a busy guy, and is growing very fast, but has decided he doesn't need to talk much. He only has a few words that he uses on his own: Mama, ball, yeah, uh-oh, and ow! We have decided we need to start teaching him sign language, and he has already picked up on a few signs, and hopefully that'll make communicating a little easier, and cause him less frustration.

*The most notable and exciting news, is that we are expecting our third child! This announcement is very late in coming, but I kept thinking I needed a picture to post about it, but haven't taken one of my belly, and never got the ultrasounds scanned on my computer. So, I figured I better announce it before the baby is born. The baby is due at the beginning of January, so we only have about two months left before the baby arrives; less if it's early like Clarissa and Clayton, it's coming really fast. We (mainly me, and Quinn just went along with it to make me happy) decided not to find out the gender for this one. At times it's frustrating not knowing the gender since we could have, but at the same time, I am very excited to have it be a surprise. Clarissa is very excited to have a new baby brother or sister, but she is really hoping it's a sister, since she already has a brother.