Two Blue Fish

I had not intended on keeping the fact that I am pregnant a secret from anyone. But somehow, that is exactly what I wound up doing! In the midst of planning and traveling, I just never got around to writing a post about the tiny detail that we were adding to our number. We spread the news quite willingly by word of mouth, but that was pretty much it.

So I am here to tell you today, I am a pregnant woman of the 20+ week variety, and we are having another boy! I was really convinced this one was a girl, so I have decided that I am just done guessing the gender of our children. I am obviously bad at it.

This pregnancy has been easy-peasy compared to Aed. I have hardly felt sick at all, and aside from being unbelievably tired (and a slightly picky eater) for a few weeks early on, I feel great! I am praying that doesn’t change :) While I’m at it, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to start praying against extreme puffiness too..

Anyway, last Sunday we took the first belly picture to commemorate the 20-week mark. We were joined by big brother who wanted to know what was going on :)


Neither of us can believe we are already over half way through! I am well aware, however, that the last half goes on much longer than the first half.. but I am also well aware that June will be here before we know it.

Unfortunately for us, our housing is almost entirely up in the air at this point, so we aren’t exactly planning how we are going to fit two kids into our living space just yet. That will come.. Hopefully with some time to spare :)

In the meantime we are forgetting logistics and spaces and enjoying imagining life with two little boys instead of just one. Praise the Lord!

The Churches Go On a Very Long Holiday: Part 2

Between extensions of my family and Ian’s family, we celebrated Christmas at least six times! Which is fine by me – the Church family will never turn down a holiday extravaganza. We ate, we sang, we peeked, we opened, we gave, and we were tired! There was a lot of traveling crammed into our last several weeks in the States. Aed was an excellent trooper and loved all the attention wherever we went.

It was my goal to get a good picture of our family for Christmas. We don’t have any great ones, and with time just marching onward, I really wanted a good picture to keep of us. The Sunday before Christmas, we were all gussied up in Christmas gear (ok, so it was mostly Aed..) so we took advantage of the nice background that our church provided and went for it!

And we got one!


I was so excited I gave a copy to everyone for Christmas :) My brother-in-law also managed to catch my very favorite, heart-melting, face of Aed’s..


Poochy lips!! Oh they were poochy and wonderful!

While we were at it, we tried to get a good shot of the three kiddos together. We were very successful – just look!


Maybe not.. But, Wes did capture Ben and Bella in all of their cuteness on a different day at home.


So we celebrated a few great Christmases and then said our goodbyes to Hope and Wes (tear) and took off for California to see what winter is like in places that aren’t snowy and freezing!

Little did we know what that eventful trip would hold..

We started off with all kinds of delays. Technical difficulties, weather, etc. There were plenty of reasons. We had a layover somewhere (Texas maybe?) and were very delayed for that flight. After being taken back and forth to and from the runway, we finally got on our way, so I decided to put Aed’s pj’s on him in hopes that he might take a nap before we got there (it was very late). No sooner had we sat down, all fresh and ready for a nap, then Aed up and puked all over us. All over us, the seat, the wall of the plane.. It was more than I would have ever imagined was possible of coming out of a tyke his size. Not to mention the fact that he gave no clues prior that he was feeling off in any way.

After we got over the initial shock of what had just happened, we kindly asked the man next to us if we could get out to go to the lavatory and explained what had happened (trying to hint that we would not be offended in any way if he wanted to change seats). Ian heroically carried our pukey, screaming child back to the tiny lavoratorial box (yes, I’m pretty sure that’s not a word) where we calmed Aed down, changed his clothes, and attempted to wipe ourselves off as best we could. Then we stood there for about 25 minutes while the kind and thoughtful flight attendants continued to serve drinks and food instead of letting us back to our seats.

When we finally got back to sit down, we found that the man we were sitting next to had been unable to change seats because the woman in front of us did not want to give up one of her three (!) seats. We apologized and proceeded to try to wipe the puke off the seat and side of the plane. And, we did the only thing we could.. We sat in puke for the next three hours.

It was ghetto fabulous.

We finally arrived very, very late at night, got to our abode, got Aed really cleaned up and in bed, and proceeded to collapse. But, when you can eat breakfast outside with a view like this at the end of December..


who can really complain?

I got sick on Monday evening, followed by Ian, and pretty much everyone else we came in contact with, but it was wonderful to be back in California after over three years since the last time we had been there – especially at Christmastime!

One day we were there, Ian, GG (great-grandma Marge), and Aed ventured over to a garden on Pepperdine’s campus. Aed loved the little streams running through it. Needless to say, he came back home not wearing any pants :)


After we got back from California, we spent our last two weeks driving hither and thither to see all kinds of people and do all kinds of things (not to mention stuff our faces with as much Mexican and Thai food as possible)! It was a very busy few weeks and the last thing we wanted to do at the end of it was fly back across the ocean. Aed enjoyed some one-on-one time with Nena and Papaw when we were at my parents’, as well as other aspects of their house.. Like the bathtub.


Ian and I were down at one end of the hallway working on packing or something, and when Ian went hunting for our quiet child, that is what he found! Aed had crawled into the tub by himself to play with the toys :)


Aed and Daddy had lots of special play time since Daddy took a break from working over the holidays!


And, Aed’s adorable monster towel! It matches his cousin Ben’s and is the cutest thing ever!

Lastly, I leave you with an airport picture..


We saw these in the airports everywhere we went, and thoroughly enjoyed seeing probably the only place our son’s name will ever be on a commercially made item.

So we are home and we are doing great. Getting back into the swing of working and considering what this year will hold for us. We are so thankful for everyone who was so very, very generous and hospitable to us while we were in the States. We love love love being with our families and friends over yonder, and are so grateful that we had some extra time to enjoy them this year. If we missed you, I guarantee we are sorry! Despite the length of time we were there, we had a lot going on and hope to catch you next time we are back.. Or you know, you could come see us :)

Right now we are in limbo waiting to see what kind of opportunities for jobs may arise in the next few months, and Aed and I are working hard to be Daddy’s cheerleaders (we make an awesome pyramid) as he works to finish his PhD. We are so proud of him! We appreciate your prayers and thoughts for us as we walk the seemingly never-ending road of ‘what’s next?’ Thank you! (and of course, we will keep you updated :)

The Churches Go On a Very Long Holiday: Part 1

Let me just start by saying that I am not a committed photographer. I would love to be one, but more often than not I just can’t convince myself that it’s worth it to haul another bag full of my camera with me wherever I am going. Thus, there is a weird array of pictures from our trip back to the States. I didn’t have a camera for the first 5 weeks while Ian was at Rutgers (Oh! But I don’t even think I have told you about that yet..), so I used various cameras available, which means I will probably never see some of the pictures I took. Then there was a little stint where I took some pictures using my own camera, but also lots of pictures were taken by other people, so I will probably never see those either (unless a certain brother-in-law comes through for me! :). THEN, Ian got an iPod Touch for Christmas, and so that became our camera for a while (handy, that thing!), but the pictures are really low quality.

So. That’s the only way I can explain myself.

Now, we were in the States for a long time. Two months, actually. And it was not without purpose! Ian had the opportunity to go to Rutgers University in lovely New Jersey to study with a great epistemologist for 5 weeks. We couldn’t believe how perfect the timing was for his thesis, as he was working on a chapter about the work of this particular guy, and the timing in the semester – right before the holidays during a semester when Ian did not have teaching commitments. So, we decided to go for it, and then just had to iron out a few details.

Like, for instance, what was I going to do for those 5 weeks? I was a little uncertain about going back to the States because that is a long time, and I do do things here that I wasn’t sure I wanted to just leave behind in the middle of the semester. But in the end I decided to just go for it and enjoy some time with some of my long lost family. We were very glad we had decided on this after we got a bit of news that changed the course of our futures forever (!), but also being on this side of it, I am forever grateful for that special time with my parents and my sister’s family because now that they (my sister’s family) have taken up residence in america del sur, we will be seeing them even less frequently.

So off we went. Ian being studious, me being helped by my family :). Then we decided to just go ahead and stay right through the holidays and make a big to-do out of it.

Before we left, Aed had a stint of injuring himself. After we got there, he kept at it! His best injury, in my humble opinion, was the goose egg on his forehead. He somehow managed to stand up just right underneath my parents’ dining room table and really knocked his head. Thus, this was his appearance for a while..


He also had a great time playing with his cute cuzzies! He was a good in between for them.. Ben is approaching 3 and enjoyed that Aed could run around the house with him. Bella is two months younger than Aed, so they were interested in and excited by very similar things. And they all loved sharing toys and attention whenever they could! Not so much.. :)


But, they are all adorable and for the most part really enjoyed playing together. I know I enjoyed watching them :)

One of the many firsts Aed experienced while Stateside was playing in the snow! We went out a few times and he seemed to gradually warm up to the idea, but the first experience he was not convinced it was such a good idea.


It started out pretty well, but didn’t take long to become this..


He was much happier being held because it was hard to walk in the boots, even harder in the snow! But we are looking forward to many a snowy winter to enjoy in the years to come :)

I managed to pull out a little culinary creativity while we were there as well. I didn’t do as much cooking as I do at home (and though I’m glad to be at it again, a break is always nice!), but I did some, including a birthday cake for my dear old dad.


The theme is: golf. I know, shocking.

And, as you know if you decided to risk stopping by this quiet blog during the month of November, Ian came to my parents’ at Thanksgiving and we got to see some family members we haven’t seen for several years! That is something to be thankful for :).

Up next, Christmas and California!

We're back!!

To our little home sweet home in dear Scotland the brave.

We had a two month (TWO MONTH) hiatus from St Andrews that was filled with many interesting and fun things, not the least of which was celebrating Christmas 47 times and trying to fit a plethora of new toys into our suitcases to be enjoyed for years to come. :) Have I mentioned how much I love Christmas? Because I do. And not just because people shower my baby with toys and books and clothes to get us through another year (though despite all the new toys, he is very committed to tupperware right now).

We are working on unpacking and re-organizing to accommodate our holiday blessings that came in many colors, plush, and plastic (not to mention my apparent NEED (NEED I tell you!) to make my home a cozy little place where everything is where it is supposed to be.. but who knows where that is, exactly? (I am a little bit OCD sometimes.. but only in the privacy of my own home (also.. are you still following this?))). So there will be some purging and atticking and giving away in the next few weeks.. if you're in the area, I have lots of clothes and shoes with your name on them!

Once we get ourselves into working order, I have some fun updates to share about the goings on of our last two months, not to mention some pictures of our ginormous child. He also has a really huge mouth it turns out. I'll try to get a good picture of that for you. He also really likes to shove way too much food into his really huge mouth, but I'm going to spare you that one. Your welcome.

My large-mouthed child is currently snoozing the night away, and I am considering how nice it would be to join him. I also think I might give our blog a make over. I'm taking suggestions! And offers to do it for me! :)

Bye for now!