We've got news...

IT'S A GIRL!

That's right, we went to the doctor this morning for an ultrasound and we found out that we'll be having a little girl in January. What was my initial reaction? Incredulous. Amazed. A girl? Crazy! I've only ever experienced a boy, so I can't imagine having a girl. Although I was totally surprised, I am super excited! I'm 21 1/2 weeks along now, so this pregnancy is moving right along. :) Now for a name.....

Will you meet with the Bishop before church?

Today Jed and I received a joint calling for our new ward...

NURSERY LEADERS!

We had a suspicion that we would be called to the Primary in some way... Positively thinking, I think it will be fun to teach the little toddlers about Jesus, and interact with them. Having my own son at that age makes it a more exciting calling, because I know how much they are learning and taking in. And they are all so cute!

Before I even knew of the calling, I was simulating a bit of nursery at home... On Saturday, Benjamin and I made crafts that would help him learn some Primary songs. We colored stars with yellow crayons, cut them out, and taped them to the ends of chopsticks and used them to sing "I am like a Star Shining Brightly." We also made a little sun out of a styrofoam plate and used it to sing "Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam." Benjamin looked so adorable with his little sun around his face that I had to get out the camera. When I said, "Smile!" he gave me his classic scowling face:

What a little ray of sunshine! Hahaha! I promise he was actually having fun!

He really enjoys singing primary songs. Before he goes to sleep I always sing him some songs. He sometimes tries to sing along with some of them, and he is good at the actions for "I'm so glad when Daddy comes home." Lately he's been saying, "Jesus! Jesus!" to ask me to sing a song about Jesus. If I start a song that doesn't actually have the word 'Jesus' in it, he will interrupt me with "No, Jesus!" Recently, even if I start singing a song about Jesus, he will interrupt me with "No, Jesus baptized!" Yeah, for some reason his all-time favorite song is the one that goes, "Jesus came to John the Baptist in Judea long ago..." I'm not sure why he is so attached to that one, but whatever!

Now where's that umbrella?

Wow, it's rained almost every day this week. It doesn't necessarily rain all day, just for part of it. It even rained the morning of our Tigers game, but by the afternoon it was in the mid 80's.

A few days ago we had a massive storm. One moment it was a normal evening and the next moment, it went really dark and there was torrential rain, high winds, and thunder & lightening. It was awesome! Benjamin and I opened the front door to try to sit on our covered patio to watch the storm, but the rain was being driven under the awning.
My potted coleus was tipped over in the wind, and Benjamin was very concerned. He kept pointing to it and saying "uh-oh! Fell! uh-oh, Fell!" over and over. I had to tell him multiple times that it was okay, and that if I tried to go fix it, I would be soaked in a matter of milli-seconds. Still, I ended up having to drag my little boy back into the house so I could close the door, while he frantically repeated, "uh-oh! uh-oh! Fell! Fell!"

4 YEARS!

Yesterday marked our 4 year anniversary. Jed always plans some surprise for me on special days like our anniversary and my birthday. He is such a fun husband! This is how our day went:

We had crepes and smoothies for breakfast, and then Jed mysteriously told me that we were leaving at 11:15am. When we loaded up the car and headed out I had no idea where we were going. Our first stop was to the Dixon's home, where Jed dropped off Benjamin to be babysat for 'a few hours'. So, we were going to have the afternoon just to ourselves! We drove to downtown Detroit, where I haven't been yet. It was fun to see all the buildings and old churches, but the traffic and tiny roads were disconcerting - I don't ever want to have to maneuver a car in that place! We parked and started walking... Jed led us down the streets until we came in sight of the TIGERS STADIUM!! We were going to a Tiger's Game!

This was the first Major Leagues game I have ever been to. It was pretty fun to see the players in real life. We had fantastic 'club member' seats, in a balcony on the first row, so we could look down on the game with a perfect view. It was awesome!

Afterward Jed told me we had dinner reservations in a few hours, so I realized this was going to be a whole day out together! We drove a short distance to Belle Isle and looked around. I wanted to go inside the conservatory (pictured below), but it had barely closed. I got a glimpse of their gardens, though. WOW. We'll be going back for sure.

We went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Mexicantown in Detroit. We had walked through Greektown to get to the stadium, and now we were eating dinner in Mexicantown. I bet they have a little 'town' for every ethnicity. :)

On our way home Jed pulled into an A&W and ordered us a rootbeer float to share because I've been saying all week that I wanted to buy an A&W float. He is so cute!

We picked up Benjamin from the Dixon's at 7:30pm. They had had him ALL day! We totally owe them. It was so nice of them to take him for us. Jed had made all the arrangements for them to babysit him - it was so sweet.

As I came out of Benny's room after I put him to bed, I saw that Jed had set up the front room for a movie - the couch was pulled up closer to the TV and his laptop was set up with earphones so we could start a movie right away without keeping Benjamin up. We watched it on the TV and listened to it with sets of earphones! It was so fun!

From start to finish, Jed had planned every step of the day, and it was all a surprise. He had carefully planned every tiny detail: our tickets and reservations, maps of how to get to our destinations, babysitting, renting a movie... even to packing some treats for the Tigers game and packing the diaper bag for Benjamin with extra diapers, two sippy cups of milk, and a few snacks. He thought of everthing! I felt so loved! It was such a fun day, and I loved spending it with him. These past four years have been full of happiness, and I feel like we have been so blessed!

Braving the Michigan plague

Today was such a beautiful day! Not burning hot like it was when we first moved in. We've been enjoying cooler cloudy days, which make playing outside much more enjoyable. Except for the mosquitoes. I never knew the meaning of mosquitoes until I moved to Michigan. When you walk on the grass you are immediately enveloped in a CLOUD of mosquitoes. The first time we spent time outside I sprayed my arms, but when Jed told me to spray my ankles I thought, "nah, I'll be fine." I am still suffering from about 10 red dime-sized mosquito bites all over my ankles. What's even sadder is that Benjamin got a huge mosquito bite just under his right eye, and his eye/cheek is all puffy and red now. Not to mention the other bites on his legs. He calls them something like 'see-goo bites'. This place breeds mosquitoes!

"Down Slide! Whoosh!"

Benny and I packed a lunch today and met Jed at the park near our home. It was the coolest park ever. They had an enormous jungle gym that Benjamin thought was SO EXCITING. He particularly loved the slides. On his way up to go down the slide again, he ran up to a lady and excitedly started telling her "down slide! woosh!" while moving his arm to show her how he slid down the slide really fast. It was pretty funny.

Notice the buzz cut. Yeah, I did that the other day. It took a while to get used to it. The first day, every time I looked at him I started to laugh because he looked like such a little army kid. It's for the best, though; when he has long hair it is often damp and sweaty from him running around. Hopefully this buzz cut will help his head emit heat better!!

Save the BEST for last

Harry Potter 7.... This book was AWESOME! It was the perfect ending to the entertaining Harry Potter series. I totally enjoyed it - there were so many unexpected and pleasant twists and turns, and lots of exciting events. I was so happy about all the GOOD that was shown in the characters - like courageous Neville Longbottom, and Kreature and Regulus... and I won't go into any further detail incase someone hasn't read it yet. I just loved that there were so many people who rose to the occasion and sacrificed for the cause they believed in. It was a sweet book! :)
I must say it is in my top ten. (That's big, coming from me. I don't give that status away easily!)

A few last photos from Missouri

I'm back to the blog again! We just finished getting settled at our new home in Michigan. We moved a week and a half ago. We love our home and our neighbors, and in the next two weeks we plan on venturing out to see Detroit and the new city we live in.

I'll post a little video tour of our home in the next while. But for now I'm postinga few pics that we took before we left our little Kirksville.

Jed replaced our muffler before we moved. Look at what a cute dad he is! He lets Benjamin join him in almost everything he does. What a lucky little kid. :)

Our quirky little boy is constantly lining things up meticulously. Yesterday he was playing with some Cars window stickers that his Grandma Sterzer sent him. Later in the day we saw that he had placed them all in a straight vertical line on the sliding glass door. The other day I went into his room and all his matchbox cars, trucks, and tractors were all in a straight line across the floor. He is hilarious!

Here he is in the bathroom with everything he could find all in a row on the bath edge.

Benjamin was such a sweetheart while we were packing and getting ready to move. He was easy going and nondemanding. If we didn't have time to play with him, he was content to sit in the middle of the floor and look at his books.

He loves looking at books, and having them read to him. I kept a big box of books next to me on the 11 hour road trip to Michigan, and he loved looking at them one by one. I would pass a book back to him and then when he was finished looking at it, he would toss it to the side and call to me, "More Book!" We went through that huge stack of books a couple times during the trip.