new family pictures

Yesterday we took family pictures...I look pretty awful in almost all of them because I'm enormous, but I thought you'd like to look at them.  My friend just gave me the raw pictures and last night I spent a few hours photoshopping them and I must say it was a blast.  Here's the link for the Snapfish album, but here's a few to just look at.

Cholinergic Urticaria

Kurt has plans to do a big picture post soon but I thought I'd put up a post in the mean time. I'm not sure if you've all seen them, but Harvey has had chronic hives this summer. They are big and scary and raised red welts on his skin though they don't seem to really bother him at all. We finally took him to the doctor yesterday and she told us he has Cholinergic Urticaria which is heat hives. She also thinks he might have pressure hives. Today, for the first time, Harvey told me his hives hurt and itched. I'm not 100% convinced he didn't just pick up from the doctor's visit that he should be telling us they itched but I gave him some Benedryl anyways and he didn't complain after that. It's crazy how many things there are out there that can affect your kids and how helpless you feel when they do. I feel physically ill when I touch Harvey when he has a fever. Motherhood is amazing and terrifying. Anyway, the doctor doesn't think it will be too much of an issue as long as he isn't uncomfortable. Now we just need to convince our day care lady not to send him home every time he has a break out.

So, that's my brief update. I'll leave the summer re-cap to Kurt. Also, for those in Michigan, Harvey's B-day Party is going to be October 23 at our house. It might be snug but I'm sure we'll have fun.

Sorry for the long absence in blogging. I can't get the pictures to load, so once it's working again, I'll put up some pictures. Here are some snippets from our life:


We love this house. LOVE. I wish we were going to be here longer to enjoy it. It's amazing how much a little more space can help a family's happiness.


I crimped Addie's hair for church this last Sunday. It's amazing my pink Vidal Sasoon crimper from 5th grade still works! Jason wasn't as sold on it as I was, but after her nap the poof was considerably less and he came around. Several people told me how much they liked it, and she loved it and kept looking in the mirror, so overall it was a success.


Jason scraped rust off of someone's cornea today. I'm so proud!


My belly seems much more heavy this pregnancy, and by the end of the day I have to be sitting down to function. I'm carrying this little guy lower than my girls. I've gained less weight overall and am excited about that, but between a sore stomach and ridiculously painful sciatic nerves, this has been my most uncomfortable pregnancy. I have it so easy, though, compared to many so I shouldn't complain. I'm finally looking forward to him coming. I want to see what a Jason/Jana boy looks like. Probably blond, blue-eyed, and skinny--like his big sisters.


Macie is walking fairly well, and communicating with several signs. She signs more, please and all done. She doesn't really say anything out loud, though. She used to say uh oh and I'm pretty sure she was attempting Addie the other day, but usually she just babbles--a lot.


Addie can't get enough of the swing in our backyard. Too bad the mosquitos can't get enough of her.

On Labor Day we went to the Delta Fair with some friends. While it was not worth the admission fee, we did have a good time and Jason and I came out with some pretty sweet looking sunburns. His forehead has started peeling. I guess we learned our lessons. At least we were responsible enough to lube up our children. We watched a demolition derby at the fair, and one of the cars kicked up HUGE clods of dirt...directly on my face! I had a huge clump of dirt stuck in my teeth! Some went down my shirt, stuck to my cheek and arm. Macie had some on her face, too, lucky for Jason he was holding her and blocked him! I couldn't stand the dirt in my teeth long enough to take a picture. One of the friends we were with was laughing so hard at me that he had to go behind the bleachers to calm down. It took three very full baby wipes to clean my face off, and I tasted dirt in my teeth for the rest of the day. It was pretty funny.

School back on for me

I have started classes again too. I have a class (BUS 211 Statistics) on Tues. and Thur. mornings from 9:30 am to 10:45 am and another class (ENG 338 Business Communication) on Mon. and Wed. from 5:30 pm to 6:45 pm. The last week of classes is the week of Dec. 13th. I'm glad to be back in classes and back to a routine again. I like having the summer off, but I prefer to have a routine to follow from day to day.

This morning I had to get up super early to take our whethers into the butcher. They only take animals on Tuesday mornings. They wanted me to bring them around 9 am, but I had a class I needed to get to, so I asked if I could bring them earlier. They thought it wouldn't be a problem. Usually they have so many big animals in their stock area that they want to wait to have smaller animals brought in later in the morning. They felt that there was enough room for our goats earlier today so agreed to allow me to bring them. Thank goodness, because I don't know of another time during the rest of this school semester that I would've been able to take them because of my class. Heavenly Father surely does bless us in little, but significant ways. We took them to a butcher in Caro. Also, when I called to set everything up, the woman I spoke to told me that she had had a man call asking for goat meat and that that hadn't had any. She gave me his number to see if he wanted to buy one of my goats to eat. I did call and he came to look at them yesterday. He agreed to buy one. So we were able to recoup some money. Again, another little but significant blessing. I know Heavenly Father loves me and watches over my family. So by Thursday we should have a lot more meat in our freezer.

First Day of School

Yeah, it's finally here. The first day of school. Even though the summer flew by and the kids really didn't have much time to be bored, I'm still glad to have them back in school so we can all get back into a routine. I function much better in a routine. Here are the kids on this, the first day back.

Lexi is in 8th grade and the top dog at her school.

Merrit is in 6th grade and the top dog of his school. He also has new glasses, which is what he is holding in the picture. He only needs to wear them to see the board with. I'll have to take a picture of him wearing them so everyone can see what they look like.

Chelsea in in 2nd grade. She's sad that her really good friend from last year is in the other 2nd grade class, but I'm sure she'll make more friends.

Makayla is in 4th grade and she also is sad that her friends from last year are in the other 4th grade classes. She said that she only has one friend from last year in her class this year. But she, too, will be able to make more new friends this year too.

Jaxson's first day isn't until tomorrow, so I'll post his picture tomorrow.