a trip and a baby

I start too many posts with ..."it's been far too long", but it really has been. This time I have some good reasons:

1. I found out at the end of April that I was pregnant and wanted to tell everyone right away but couldn't, so I kind of avoided blogging. Plus I was feeling so run down and sick, I spent a lot of time with my feet up and my eyes closed. I had a very patient toddler (and husband)....

2. We enjoyed a wonderful family trip to visit Mike, Dawn, Aidan, and Danica in Texas in May. We were offline for that period of time.

Now, if you will forgive me, I will got on with this post. In the wee morning hours of April 29, Ben arrived home from work around 1:30. While he was getting ready in our bathroom, I snuck to Ro's bathroom and "peed on a stick". My period was 1 day late, and I was pretty sure I was pregnant. Sure enough, within seconds of urinating on said pregnancy test, 2 bold pink lines revealed the truth: pregnant I am. Yay!!! Baby Loo Lou is due to arrive in early January 2011, and we all think the babe is a boy. We shall see - yes, that means we will be finding out the gender of our child. We found out the gender of baby 1 (Ro) and would like to do so this time around again. We will keep you posted.

Said pregnancy had me feeling VERY tired (I was napping almost everyday) and feeling sick most of the time. The thought of food, food preparation, meal planning - it all made me want to vomit. This lasted for about the first 12 weeks. Needless to say, I had no energy of gumption for the extras; hence, no blogging. I am feeling great now, so I'll be blogging away!

A trip to Niagara Falls and Texas was a thrilling event for all of us early in May. It had been over 2 years since we had seen Mike, Dawn, Aidan, and Danica as a family. We got a super deal on airline tickets (through Air Tran), and away we went. We flew out of Buffalo and went down 1 day early to check out Niagara Falls. Ro thought the falls were loud and wet. You can't really argue those facts. :)

We did a bunch of fun stuff in Texas while we were there. We went to the Fort Worth Zoo (a first zoo experience for Ro) and you can see from this picture how excited Ro was to start her new adventure. Yes, for those who know her, she is screaming in this picture.

It was a hot day, but we enjoyed every minute together. Ro loved looking at all the animals, and they had a caged-in area where you could feed birds. Of course, that was very cool and a big hit! Ro was a trooper for the whole day, and enjoyed a nap in the car on the way back to Mike and Dawn's.

The next really fun, new thing we did was go to an amusement park. It had lots of rides, and Ro really wanted to go on them. We started her out nice and slow on the merry-go-round. It was a big hit! She then went on the floating boats. You could tell by her face she was a little bored. Then Ro went on these flying spaceships. That was more like it! She was the only person on the ride, and she was yelling, "Higher! Faster!". :) Look out Canada's Wonderland!

Well, the next ride we went on was a roller coaster. We weren't sure how such a ride would go. It was a pretty tame roller coaster, but it had some hills and a little speed. Well, you can see how much she loved it based on her face. She screamed in delight the whole time. Ro thought it was awesome!

Our favourite part of the week was just hanging out with our incredible family. Danica

turned 11 at the end of May, and is enjoying playing the violin, and practicing her volleyball skills. Dani has lots of energy and is on the go! Aidan is 15, which is so hard to believe. I remember visiting him in the hospital when he was born! Now he is a

teenager, on his way to becoming a young man. Aidan loves socializing and playing x-box. His laugh still makes me laugh. :) And Mike and Dawn are older (hee hee), but are INCREDIBLE people, with so much love and generosity. We love them all so much! It was so great watching Ro get to know her family.

June held some challenges. It started with a collapsing ovarian cyst (yes, that happened to moi) which caused lots of pain and some time laying low. The following weekend, I got the flu, the next weekend Ben got the flu, then Ro got the flu (she still has it on and off - weird!!), then Ben hurt his neck. We have all decided we are done with illness and injuries!! Now that it is July 1, we are looking forward to a month of time together as a family, camping, enjoying God's amazing creativity and revelation of Himself through his handiwork. Bring it on!