every good gift and perfect gift comes down from the father of lights

As a blessed gift from God we are pregnant. We have had quite a hard time reaching this point but we realize it was just not in God's perfect timing for us to start a family until now. It is going really well and we are thrilled.


Currently I am 10 weeks approaching 11. Here is the precious baby Graham at 10 wks 5 days. I love how they have their hands up near their face. Look at the little foot too. So beautiful. The heartbeat is strong and the growth is on schedule. The doctor expects a normal pregnancy and a baby in late May!


The pregnancy this far has been a gift. I have had nausea and fatique quite a bit, but nothing I can't handle. I can't cook like I usually like to do as food prep (or even the thought of it) has made me extremely nauseaus. Daniel has been wonderful in cooking for us and running to get cravings for me- french fries or queso or steak. He is so good! Such a good provider :-)


The most exciting part for me has been that I am recently showing. It amazes me that I am a house for an entirely different human being, and that this house grows as the inhabitant grows. So crazy. Daniel likes to weird me out by saying " hey you know what- right now you have 2 heartbeats, 4 legs, and 4 arms". We are always shaking our head in wonderment of it all.

here comes a brand new update in your ear

okay i know it has been forever since we have updated our blog, so here is what has been going on. Daniel is busy as ever. He just got accepted into a really prestigious show called the International Shoebox Sculpture Exhibition. Out of the entire world of sculptor applicants they only choose 150 to be in a show in Hawaii. Daniel was among the 150. We are so very proud of him. Once the show goes up they will choose 40 to travel around the world in a traveling exhibition. That opportunity would be wonderful as it would gain him a lot of exposure he may not have gotten otherwise, but we will see. He is still enjoying teaching and is involved in seemingly every aspect of the college. Deep, deep, deep into the world of vespa restoration he has fallen as he restores his pk50. He is really enjoying it and it is looking oh so beautiful. Leave it to Daniel to take on something he knows absolutely nothing about and make it brilliant. He is amazing! check out his blog on the vespa : www.mypk50.blogspot.com


My restoration business has not gone as well as I thought it would. Everyone who finds out I restore photos gets excited and says they have something they would like to have restored, but they never follow through. I think the economy as it is now just does not allow people to spend money on things they dont absolutely need. Most people see that service more of a luxury than a necessity (although I feel differently), so it has not taken off as I expected. In the meantime I have taken on to a new venture....something else I have always wanted to do- my own online store. Right now I am selling my wearable knit/crochet work. It is going well- it allows me a creative outlet and a chance to sell the product. The site is very user friendly and I can't think of a better way to sell online! To check out the site: www.visionsofsugarplum.etsy.com. I have also just recently finished my goal I set out for myself a year ago, which was to read the bible cover to cover. Wow- what an amazing journey! I have learned so much and loved all the different stories, people and writing styles. Definately something I would recommend to everyone! The bible is not a dusty boring book like it is often portrayed- it is living and breathing and I guarantee it will hold your attention if you give it a shot!


We are both getting so excited about Christmas- our most favorite time of year.

creation museum

thankfully our church got a group rate to go the creation museum in ohio. we were very excited. we have wanted to go since
we heard the construction was completed.the time, thought, and money that went into this place blew me away.

it was very thorough and impressive.it took the story through creation, including the story of
adam and eve, leading to the fall of man.there was a whole wing devoted to adam and eve that was so
beautiful and thought provoking. there was also a wing involving
God's judgement on the worlds sin, and his justice through noah.i absolutely loved all the wax sculptures. there was a section talking about
the history and validity of scripture. here are isaiah and moses. beautiful, huh?outside of the museum were a whole other world. here are matt and sarah (who
joined us for the day and made it that much more fun) in the botanical gardens.
the gardens seemed to go on forever.

they also had a petting zoo. it was sweltering outside
but we had such a good time exploring!

the campbell soup visits kentucky

beth chad and noah decided to make a trip to kentucky to visit chads grandma. we of course benefited from that trip and got to see them for a weekend.

chad has settled in marvelously to being "daddy".

we went to joseph beth, ate at the chinese buffet, and just had a great time.

i couldnt believe how noah had changed. he is constantly growing out of clothes and even thinking of picking up walking. he cracks up when mommy tickles him
and has developed a fondness of red.

beth has been working really hard and looks amazing.

she has also changed so much since i saw her last.
she is looking even more beautiful than usual.
i'm really proud of her.its always so good to see loved ones. and so sad when they leave.
but we were very blessed to have a couple of days with the campbells.

day at the contemporary

one friday in june we decided to take a small trip to cincinnati ohio 

to go to the contemporary.

there were a lot of great exhibits there but our 

favorite part was the interactive level. 

daniel powered a city by bicycle.

i conducted an orchestra, followed by applause, of course.

we just had such a great time being together, enjoying the things we enjoy.

daniel and pk, a match made in heaven

daniel decided to pick up a new hobby and restore a '82 italian vespa pk 50 scooter(affectionately named pk). he is having so much fun pulling it apart, figuring out what's wrong and putting it back together. luckily, once pk reaches his full capacity, we will save quite a lot on gas! take that gas crisis! daniel is loving it!

around the world in a week and a 1/2

we decided to use our time between daniel's spring and summer classes to travel to see abbie, tony and eldin. since it is a close to 16 hour trip we had to get creative. we drove 7.5 hours and stopped in athens. micah and his roomate collin were kind enough to let us stay at their place while we were there. we had fun laughing and hanging out with them. clover loved those boys.

while we were there we got to go to our favorite stores and eat at our favorite restaurants.
that was a great thing since we crave athens food often.
here we are having fun at junkmans brothers daughter.

our friends bethany and charles had us over for dinner. they also invited deb and dane over which was so great because we had not met josiah (he was born close to a year ago). it was so wonderful spending time with all of them. just like old times.while we were there we visited our old apartment building and did a lot of "remember when"s. we also had a picnic at out favorite picnic spot. then we were on the road to florida.we arrived in florida after a long day of driving straight and flat.
but it was very beautiful when we got there.we went straight in and met eldin for the first time.
he was a tiny little guy and oh so cute.

he quickly got to know uncle daniel and aunt holly.

aside from meeting eldin and getting to spend some really great time with him, we got to spend some really great time with tony and abbie. we hadnt seen them in years and only a couple times since we have been married. when we did get a chance to see them it wasnt for very long. so to have several days in a row to hang out was awesome. we played wii together, watched movies and chatted at the orlando house. then we went out to the titusville house.

there we got a chance to go to their church, eat seafood and go to the cape. the titusville house had a pool that everyone but me got in (hey, it was cold) and a beautiful backyard
that clover and nari chan exlpored together.

we had such a great time with the bowicks. we hope we can have an opportunity like this again sometime. we gave tony, abbie, and especially eldin one last big hug and headed back. on our trip back our break-it-up stop was north carolina where we got to see beth, chad, and noah.

we couldnt believe how much noah had grown. he is 3 mo old and in 6-9 mo clothes. kind of an indicator of the big man hes going to be- just like chad. noah is so cute, even when hes fussy.mom came to visit since all her kids were together. she was in seventh heaven with noah.
one day we took a walk through a nearby park. it was a perfect day for a walk.

mom wanted the four of us to go out on a double date while she watched noah. we went to macaroni grille and hung out at barnes and noble. beth and chad were excited to have a date night and we all had so much fun cracking up and visiting with each other.beth thought noahs hair was getting a little long so while i was there she asked me to cut it.
i started while he was asleep however he woke up hungry. so i finished while he was awake.
he did really good, staying very still for aunt holly.chad had just gotten lasik so he could see noah's new haircut real well. :-)like the other visits we eventually had to leave. it was so good to see the little man noah is becoming, and to spend time with mom, beth, and chad. but kentucky was calling.