Christmas Highlights

We really enjoyed Christmas this year.  We didn't do much, but that was perfect for us.

Judah helped us get in the Christmas spirit.

He put on his Christmas Shoes...

 On Christmas Eve we spent time with family, and tried to get a picture with all 6 grandkids.  Yes, they're all boys.  It would be pretty radical for this family if this baby is a girl...

Grandma and Grandpa got all the kids matching jackets.  It was actually nice enough to play outside.

I love the age Judah is at.  It was so fun for Christmas.  He would very very very very slowly open each gift (mostly from the grandparents :) and look up at us with a huge smile.

 Judah loves his vacuum.  Loves it.

Then on Christmas day we went over to great grandma and grandpa's.  Judah loves playing with all the cousins

 Love the way Judah is sliding in this, cracks me up.

 Playing with Grandma and Grandpa

And lest we forget Baby #2.  (Like you can forget something this big...)  Baby had a good Christmas, but may have eaten a few too many Christmas treats.  Naughty, naughty... :)

Hope you had a good Christmas!

Kendall

Fun times

Judah is 13 and a half months now and just gets more fun everyday.

We do lots of reading.  Lots.  This kid could read all day.  Which is super fun, but I can't help myself looking forward to the day when his books have plots.

We've been enjoying the nice weather and try to get outside as much as possible.  We've really only had a couple of days where we've needed to bundle up.   

Making fun of the fact that Judah looks like a gangster.  We've finally got him a hat that doesn't look funny, no more having to borrow grandpa's.

We're having lots of fun chasing this little guy around.

He's really getting into talking now too, it's pretty cute.  He says lots of words, but sometimes they sound very similar to one another.  When he's tired, the words "daddy" and "potato" sound crazy alike.  A cow still says "boo," no matter how capable he is of making the "m" sound.  Tractor and Cracker are pretty close too.  But he's trying more and more and getting better at communicating with us which is really helpful and cute.

He loves drawing.  We can't color yet, because SOMEONE eats the crayons no matter how many times we try to stop him.  I'm not going to name any names.  I let him draw with pen though, because he really does a great job at staying on the paper.  He also knows how to click the pen on and off, which is not my favorite trick because there are definitely times for keeping pens closed.  Like when you're in close proximity to my skin...

 We also demand to feed ourself at most meals.  He does okay at getting the food in his mouth, but he's extremely messy still.  Extremely.  But, I guess it's how he learns and he is getting better, so we roll with it.

 Look how happy it makes him!

Oh, and he's finally learned to crawl.  After he learned to walk he found it necessary in case he fell to be able to crawl to something to pick himself up.  Yup, he totally missed the whole "you crawl before you walk" memo.  Apparently he's decided to be non-conventional. 

He's getting to be such a big boy.  He wants to help us do whatever we're doing.  Dusting and vacuuming are basically the coolest things ever.

Helping mommy cook is also pretty exciting.

Good thing he's such a good helper because he's going to be a big brother in 4 weeks!  

We're so excited and a little nervous about what that will look like, but very thankful to be blessed with this addition!

Putting the ghetto back in Halloween!

We went to Trunk or Treat at my parent's church.  We kind of decided last minute to go, so we had to scramble for a costume.  So, lest anyone think we are classy people, I decided to make my son a costume out of a plastic table cloth.  That's right, not even a nice table cloth.  The worst part?  It's probably not the worst last minute costume he'll have to endure.

So, without further ado, our little construction worker:

He's serious about construction...

 I'm pretty sure this is right after accidentally whacking daddy in the face with the hammer, oops...

 He loved going around with grandma to get his loot.  He'd grab one piece and then put it in his box.

 They actually had ducks and hens that he could pet there.  He was in heaven since he's learning what all the animals say right now! (Except that cows say "booo" apparently, who knew?)

In a slightly less fun update.  I'm going back to my no-sugar eating thing for the pregnancy.  They say it really does help reduce the baby's size.  Which, let's face it, I could use.  I did really well for the first 3 months of pregnancy and then after our Italian cruise I ate sugar with the vivacity of the cookie monster slid a little.  So, no more of this baby:

Not that we'd ever make monkey bread more unhealthy by putting left over cream cheese icing on it...

Nope, wouldn't do that.

Kendall

Who Needs Health Insurance When They're Pregnant?

So, we've been overseas for the last 6 months right?  For this we got an international health insurance plan that was great except it didn't cover one thing: pregnancy.  Yes, laugh, sick people.  As you all know, we became pregnant by nothing short of a miracle (just like everyone else, right...).  "Not a big deal" we thought, we'll just get a plan when we get back to the states that does cover pregnancy.  Yes, laugh again, you insurance knowledgeable sick, sick people.  Apparently insurance companies and states can and do discriminate against pregnancy.  If you are already pregnant, you cannot get health insurance to cover your pregnancy.  We found this out over a very long and stressful Monday this week.  Poor Joshua called 14 insurance companies, 6 hospitals, 3 state governments, 2 doctors offices, and a partridge in a pear tree.  At the end of the day (almost), we were told that we would have to pay it out of pocket.  Eeeek!  Emotional breakdown, panic!  I was uninsurable in Washington, Oregon, and Iowa.  We thought of moving to Canada, but even they wouldn't take me on such short notice.

Even wearing black isn't slimming enough to fool the insurance companies...

We went through a lot of emotions during this time.  We haven't been very wise financially (with gallivanting all over the world and all), so it even passed my mind that God was punishing us.  I know that God doesn't roll like that, but I'm going to pull the emotional/fearful pregnancy card.

In Joshua's last call to Mercy Hospital in Des Moines the lady said, "she qualifies for Medicaid."  Joshua hung up the phone, looked at me and said, "yeah, she doesn't know what she's talking about."  My husband has such faith in others, haha.  In his favor, he had talked to a million people that really didn't know what they were talking about.  And the DHS website had a calculator for eligibility that was wrong.  Apparently they raise the income amount for qualification with pregnancy (finally, something that actually makes sense).  So long story short, instead of being punished by God, we were being hugely blessed financially.  It is our only option, but it would be a really good one for our family.  We're really wanting to get out of student debt, so this would be huge.  So, now we're just waiting and praying for it to go through.  It's hard that it takes 6 weeks to find out, but we don't really have much else to pursue anyway...

The only thing with medicaid is that it's Iowa medicaid.  Sooooo....we are staying in Iowa!  Not moving to Vancouver (Portland) like we were planning.  We think that we will go there eventually, but are waiting for God's timing. We were praying that God would let us know his timing, and we really feel that this was God closing the door for now.  We have no idea what the plan is, so we're just going to enjoy where we are.  That's the new and exciting news in our lives.

Oh, and somebody is turning 1 on Wednesday.  :)

He loves showing you how old he is if you ask him, he even uses the right finger... :)

Kendall

Ah Ha!

Yay!  I finally am able to get back on my blog.  We had to change some of my account details and it locked me out of my blog.  Luckily, I have a super amazing husband who figured it out for me, sigh with google-ly eyes.

Anyways, I can't believe how fast our time has gone in England.  We only have a month left.  Yikes.  We have been everywhere and loving it.  We've been to Spain, Scotland, Ireland, England (obviously), France, Germany, and Switzerland.

Judah is growing like a weed.  He's cruising the furniture like a maniac, and always wants to be walking. This is how we get everywhere: following this little guy.  A bit slower, but he's in heaven!

He finally got to take his daddy to a Manchester United game:

 Happy Daddy = Happy Mommy! :)

I got lots of cuddles, poor kid was so tired, but he was so good!

Speaking of Judah, he is set to become a big brother on January 17th.  We couldn't be more thrilled.  We, at first, had no idea how pregnant we were due to the fact that I was still nursing so hadn't gotten my monthly visitor yet.  We were able to get an ultra-sound over here, so now we know.  The technician offered to tell us the sex, but we were strong.  So far, we're wanting this one to be a surprise.  I was a lot sicker with this one than with Judah,  nothing too bad, but I've been able to notice a difference.  It is going so fast, I'm already almost half done, yowser!  The only problem is that I didn't bring any maternity clothes to England, so I really have got my frump on.  Oh well, if you got it, flaunt it.  Right?

Since Judah was so huge, Joshua and I have decided that I am giving up sugar with this pregnancy.  I'll take bites of what Joshua is having sometimes, but have given up about 99%.  We're hoping this will help in regards to sizing, they say it might.  We're crossing our fingers.  If not, oh well, great things come in big packages. :)

And here's the belly shot:

Just kidding, thankfully...

This is actually the best belly shot I have right now.  This is us in the swiss alps, so beautiful!

So, that's the basic essentials from us right now!

Kendall

An Interview

Okay, so I guess I could have given you a little more information regarding our move to England.  Sorry, I tend to skip over details when I get excited. To help explain things, I figured I'd get my crazy on and "interview" myself using questions I've been asked during the last couple days...

Kendall:   Okay, settle down, I know you're excited, but I have some questions for ya.
Kendall:  Okay, shoot.

Kendall: Are you out of your mind?

Kendall: I think so, but I'm too busy getting ready to be sure.  I'll get back to you.

Kendall: Why are you moving to England?
Kendall: Great question!  Well, we've been wanting to move somewhere over seas for a while and thought   England would be a really good place to start (we already speak the language, sort of...).  We're going to use England as kind of a home base and hope to visit much of Europe on the weekends and holidays.

Kendall: Didn't you tell your wonderful Sister-In-Law, Michelle, just a couple weeks ago that you had decided not to move to England, did you lie to her?
Kendall: Of course not!  At the time we had ruled out moving to England due to cost of living.  We're really wanting to pay off debt right now.

Kendall:  Then what changed, you honest person, you?
Kendall: Well, we found a website for people who need others to house sit for them.  We applied and were accepted to house sit over there.  That means we get to live in England rent free, which makes it cheaper, obviously.

Kendall:  Where in England are you house sitting?
Kendall: It's a teeinstee (aka tinier than tiny) little ex-mining village in northern England called Ludworth.  It's near Durham and Newcastle.

Kendall:  That should be exciting, can you speak with a British accent?
Kendall: No, I will stick out like a sore thumb.

Kendall: Did you spell "British" correctly on your first try?
Kendall: I plead the 5th...

Kendall:  Will you blog about all the funny ways you embarrass yourself over there your adventures?
Kendall: Of course, I can't wait!

So there you have it, folks, straight from the horse's mouth.  Who ever thought that phrase was a good idea? I made some progress today, so that's exciting.  If you have any other questions, just let me know! (And don't worry, talking to myself will hopefully be a one time occurrence here.)

Any places that we should for sure go and see?  We don't want to miss anything cool!


Kendall

On the move...

So, I have some big news....

We're MOVING to ENGLAND!!!

for 6 months.

Wow, how crazy is that?

Craaa-zy.

You wanna know something crazier?

We're moving in 2 weeks.

(yes, you read that right, yikes!)

I'm super excited, scared, excited, scared, excited.

In that order.

So, needless to say we're getting our little tushies in gear and trying to get things done like maniacs.  

Poor little buddy is super sick right now and was up most of the night, so it's making it a little harder to get stuff done.

 Here's the poor little guy with a fever.  

I put a cold wash cloth on his head because I'm a hip-happenin' mom like that.

We took him to the doctor since he's sick.  He weighs 24lbs, so he's kind of plateaued finally.  We asked what percentile he's at.  The doctor laughed and said the chart maxed out at 18lbs.  Oh, nevermind. We also told the doctor how much he's eating and (after picking his jaw off the ground) we found out he's getting about twice as much liquid as he's supposed too.  Oops.  So, needless to say we have some exciting news.

He's reached a couple new landmarks this month: 

1) sitting up all on his own!

He loves sitting up by himself and playing with his roller coaster bead toy.  He's so intent...

AND...

2)Eating rice cereal!

(Let me tell you, this boy can eat. The very first time I gave it to him he ate almost the whole thing, he just kept opening his mouth for more and more.  What a champ!)

He's getting to be so big and doing so many big boy things.  Sigh, I guess they can't stay young forever!

(This is actually from over a month ago, but I just thought he looked so big in this little sweater vest. :)

Well, I suppose I should get packing, ahhhh!

Kendall