In loving memory of Gwen DeMarino

My beautiful Aunt Gwen died on Wednesday, October 24th 2007. Here is she is with some of her pride and joy-her grandchildren. She is no longer suffering and is at home with Jesus. I have had the privilege of spending the past 3 days with my Uncle and family in Greensburg, PA. It has been a very special and memorable time, and of course we will never forget the one who brought us together at this time. Please remember my Uncle Ronnie in your prayers, that Jesus will continue to carry him through this time of loss and show him His love in even greater ways.

"Mommy, I don't have a heart..."

Today's task was to teach Asher about his heart and heartbeat. You may be asking why I am so desparate to teach this. Well, today, we heard the baby #3's (jelly bean's) heartbeat for the first time. Asher seems to be understanding about the baby so I thought it would be really cool for him to be part of the first heartbeat experience. Well, he didn't quite get it. He just kept saying "I don't hear a heart...I don't have a heart Mommy". He did think the sounds were pretty cool while we were listening to the heartbeat, but we still have work to do on him discovering the beating life in his chest. He keeps asking why he can't see the baby. I suppose he is used to the Mom's with purtruding bellies and doesn't understand why I don't have one of those if I really do have a baby in my belly. He does predict a girl though! Only time will tell. The heartbeat was in the 150s today. Asher was usually 150s and Anna was 160s. Unfortunately, we will be leaving Boston before my OB does an ultrasound so we are not sure if we will be able to find out the sex....we are hoping our doctor in Hawaii will want an ultrasound for some reason since TRicare will not cover one without a reason (besides just wanting to know the sex).

Anna's Birthday Party

"Three" she will exclaim if you ask her how old she is...hmmmm...we have been trying to work on that. But she does manage to hold up 2 fingers when she says it!! Regardless of the pouring rain that kept me worrying all night, we had a successful birthday party this morning. It was perfect in my eyes. Well, maybe I didn't need to make so much food! A good friend helped me decorate cupcakes (so of course I have to display that picture), the kids went on a hayride, picked apples and pumpkins, fed some goats and sheep, and got to play in a hay maze. It was a blast. As of the moment, Anna's favorite gift is her backpack, which she refuses to take off. The weight of it even pulled her off the picnic table while we were opening other presents and it took forever to calm her down enough to open more. But she still won't take it off!! We had a wonderful muddy morning. Now Asher says he wants to go to his birthday party....oh boy.

We missed all of you who were not there to share it with us. You were in our hearts!

Entering the Internet World

So here I am after fighting this techincal world that we live in, becoming a blogger! This move is thanks to the many friends who have insisted to me that this is a great way to keep in touch once we move overseas and most of you know how I love to keep in touch with everyone!! I will give it a try, starting with an update on the move: no bites on the house yet, still waiting. The first set of movers come on November 1st. I feel like we are just twiddling our thumbs in the meantime.

The kids are great, oblivious to our major life changes happening around them. Asher is going to preschool 2 days a week until the move (those days are so relaxing for me!) and Anna is preparing for her 2nd birthday party this weekend. It will be an apple/pumpkin picking party, which should be lots of fall fun.

Here are some pictures of the kiddos...learning how to be farmers in WV!!