And yet, another hurricane

Our lives have been inundated with hurricanes lately, or so it feels. I could tell how true this was when Kate was coloring a picture in church on Sunday and she told me, "Mom, this is hurricane Hannah and it is going to hit South Carolina". She is very aware of what is going on, especially in places she's been to. She is very good at listening to things that Randy and I say.

We've had a nice relaxing day, just hanging out at home while Ike has pounded away at us. It has been much worse that Gustav. We've had tornadoes in our area. We even had our tornado siren on base going off, which hasn't happened in the two years we've lived here. The young women were supposed to clean the church building today and I canceled it because the winds were so strong, Randy didn't want me out driving in it.

This week has been very busy. Kate is LOVING school. Luke is adjusting to having her gone some mornings. The first day she was at school, he was insistent that Sissy was sleeping. When it was time to pick her up, I said, "Let's go get Sissy!" He started heading up the stairs to her room saying, "Sissy sleeping! Wake up Sissy!" Now he understands and when he's feeling lonely, he'll come up to me and say, "Sissy, school?" Any time we're there to pick her up or drop her off, he wants SO badly to stay and play. Next year he'll be in Kate's class. His birthday is September 26th (I can't believe he's almost two!!!), and the school cut off here is September 30th, so he'll just make it in! I think he'll really enjoy it, and I'll enjoy getting to spend some one-on-one time with the new baby!

The next few weeks will be busy! We're really excited that Grandma Thomason is coming to visit us from Arizona over my birthday (I can't believe I'm going to be 25!), then Luke's birthday is on the 26th, then on the 27th, Randy is going TDY to Alaska for 3+ weeks. By the time he comes back, I should know if the baby is a boy or a girl! I am way too much of a planner to not find out. We need to clean out our garage, and at the same time I'll get out my boxes of maternity clothes, and whatever baby clothes we'll need! I'm excited to get out the boxes of either baby boy or girl clothes. Either way, it will be fun! It would be fun if this was another boy, just since it's next to Luke in age, but Kate is really sure she wants it to be a baby sister.

Alright, here are a bunch of pictures of the kids!

Randy took this picture of Luke. He was dancing around wearing this bib. We were laughing at how tiny it was on him. I got it for a present at my baby shower with him. It used to be GIANT! It's amazing how quickly kids grow up!

Kate was SO excited for her first day of school!

Luke needed pictures on Sissy's first day of school, too!

Kate's first day of school in her classroom.

The kids were really tired after church on Sunday. They both decided to lay down on the dining room floor for a nap.


Kate's first day of dance in her dance studio!


We went bowling as a family this week. The kids loved it!


The kids enjoying our nice, relaxing day during the hurricane.

I'm really not dead. . .

I can't believe how long it's been since I've been on here. Life has been crazy! Kate started school last Friday and she LOVES it! The only problem is that she loves to sleep in, so some mornings we have a hard time getting her out of bed to get ready for school. She feels really big that she gets to go.

I've really enjoyed the one-on-one time I've gotten to spend with Luke while Kate has been in school. I haven't ever gotten any individual time with him, so we've had a great time.

We had quite the week last week. Hurricane Gustav was supposed to be this major ordeal. As I'm sure most people know, the entire coastal region of Louisiana was evacuated. A lot of evacuees came here. Randy spent the entire weekend working in a Red Cross shelter translating for them. There was a large immigrant population that was Spanish speaking. Then we had a lot of the week off because the storm was supposed to be gigantic (we've had regular thunderstorms worse than Gustav, it just stayed here for a really long time). On Tuesday, we were at the Honda dealership here in town and I slipped on their painted curb and fell HARD! It was not a good thing. I spent the night in the ER, was told I may lose the baby, etc. I went to the OB the next day, and he said everything is fine. Great! Major crisis averted. I've just had one giant headache ever since I fell.

Speaking of my OB, today I had a regular visit. My OB has this awesome little portable ultrasound machine. Instead of using a doppler to listen to the baby's hear beat, he just does an ultrasound every time. So today he was looking at the baby and it jumped SO high. My OB thought it was the funniest thing because he said he'd never seen a baby at my gestation jump so high. It jumped 3 inches! He said in comparison, it would be the equivalent of an adult doing a Michael Jordan sized jump. Needless to say, this is going to be one active baby! I told my doctor at the beginning of my appointment that I've already been feeling the baby move around. He looked at me like I was crazy, but then totally believed me once he saw how active it is! I had Luke with me and we were showing him the baby on the screen. I wouldn't be surprised if this is another little brother and he's just anxious to keep up with his big brother!

I'll post more pictures later. I need to go be a mom and fix dinner.