Amelia is 4!

Amelia turned 4 on August 6th. It is now September and I just realized I never posted a birthday blog! Silly mommy...I hope Amelia can forgive me. On her birthday we were in Lynden for the weekend and had a fun cupcake party with her Gerlach cousins (all 9 of them).

Amelia, you are 4! We love you so much and you are such a light to our lives. You are so sweet and cute and we just want to hug you all the time. You really love your mommy and daddy, and especially Caley and Wesley. We know you will be a great big sister to the new baby girl. You are so girly and love wearing dresses and having accessories such as headbands, hairclips and necklaces. You love your purple blankie and stuffed bunny. We are so thankful Jesus put you in our lives and hope that you will come to faith in Him in your own time.

We love you Amelia Diann!

Amelia the Cutie Pie!

Amelia is a Mukilteo Cutie Pie finalist this year! You may remember 3 years ago Caley being a finalist. Tomorrow we are walking in the Mukilteo Lighthouse Parade. It should be fun! The kids are so excited. Wesley's mostly excited to ride in the wagon.
Visit http://vickiderksphotography.com and email Vicki to vote! Amelia is #2. Or, come to the festival and vote in the ballot boxes!

This is the photo we entered!

32 weeks

32 weeks today. 8 to go. Hopefully fewer than that, but I'm trying to keep my mind and heart open if this labor and delivery doesn't go according to the previous ones. That is, I could be a week late, have a C-section, and this baby could pop out and surprise us with boy parts instead of girl. I don't really think those things will happen, but I'm trying to be prepared for anything.

She moves a lot and sometimes gets the hiccups. She is especially active at night. I have loved being pregnant for the most part. It's an exhausting time, but each time God has worked with me on something. This time has been no different. I feel like He is working in my character and especially in my patience. Pregnancy is a time to draw back and not feel like I have to do everything, like I'm allowed a bit of a break, and I don't have to be running every day or working out all the time. But God continues to work and I have more time to myself to really figure things out. During pregnancy I've felt God's love very closely, how He has everything planned out down to the smallest detail. And I can look back and instead of asking, "WTF" be able to go, "Oh, I get it now."

Here's what Little Miss may look like now. We still don't have a name, but we're working on it.

The Garden!

We have the coolest garden this summer thanks to Bill's hard work and the help of our neighbor Norman John. Norman is English, loves gardening, and has a lot of time on his hands. He also plays soccer twice a week. He's amazing! I hope to be so spry when I'm pushing 80.

 The area behind our fence used to be overflowing with blackberry bushes and garbage (literally, the former owner dumped siding back there). It's an easement that is also a driveway. We asked the owner if we could put in a garden, and he said as long as we didn't build a permanent structure, it'd be fine. Bill told Norman about the idea and he got right on digging and sifting the soil, separating the rocks and "rubbish" from the good dirt. This was back in February when it was freezing!

They also did a second garden, which originally we didn't intend on planting in this summer, but Norman is like a sifting maniac so we had time to do a second crop! Here it is pre-dug/sifted.

They put a border around the good dirt and then Norman brought in some manure and roto-tilled it. Bill made a Jack and the Beanstalk bean trellis, we bought some seeds and started planting. Look at some of the progress!

 We made signs!

 The second garden! Bill planted kale and spinach, Norman did some radishes, turnips, carrots and about 6 rows of potatoes.

 Our first crop! (above) They got a lot bigger after a few weeks! (below)

 We also put in some berry bushes!

Bill is also getting some "Victory Garden" posters to laminate and put on the fence! Check out some of the images here. 

It's kind of like a bit middle finger to the economy having this garden to rely on! Thanks Bill (and Norman) for all your hard work.

10ish weeks to go!

I am now 29 weeks pregnant with this Little Miss which means there are roughly 10 weeks until I deliver! I expect to be a little early, since each of my babies was born before their due dates. Amelia was the earliest at 38 weeks, Caley and Wesley were both about 4-5 days early. Of course I practically begged my OB to break my water with Wesley so active labor would actually begin, I was so uncomfortable, so I often wonder if he'd held on a few more days if not "forced" out.

We don't have a name yet, but that doesn't really bother me since we were last-minute namers with each of the kids.

I'm feeling pretty good, aside from the aches and pains that are typical of pregnancy. And thank the Lord it hasn't been hot this summer. Today it's about 78-80, which is about all I can stand!

Here is what she may look like right now in utero:

It's funny what people have to comment when I'm out with the kids. If I had a nickel for every "You've got your hands full" or "Are they all yours" or "I could never do that" and the like, we could pay for their college tuition! Just smile and nod, and walk away. I had one old man tell me "You better watch out for those accidents in the bed!" Nice, classy, old man. Even better, another guy tried to convince me to stock food for the impending polar shift. Um, yeah, I'll get right on that. But there are also a lot of nice comments. Today a lady at church said she's glad I'm having kids. That made me feel good.

It's always an exercise in knowing I'm not here to please man, but to please God. And it doesn't matter how many kids we have, we aim to have kids who love Jesus and to reflect Jesus in my mothering.

Blog changes

Hello faithful few blog readers!

This blog is, once again, public.

My original reason for making this blog private was because I was adding Cost Cutter entries and it was attracting more traffic than I liked. Specifically, blog traffic from countries I had no idea who would be reading and what they would read about my family. That thought made me uncomfortable.

But shortly after the Cost Cutter blog started, the store had to close (sad day for Addie). It made me reconsider the privacy of our family blog and ease up a bit.

So here is the new, slightly improved Gerlach family blog! I hope to post more often, but I'm not promising anything.

Hello again!

18 months

Wesley is nearly 18 months (on July 28th) and is turning into such a little boy! He has developed quite the assertive attitude and if you do something he doesn't like, he will let you know! His language is moving along and he definitely understands more than he lets on. He follows simple directions well, like "Go get a book" or "Get your shoes" and likes to help clean up. He LOVES being outside. He LOVES his yellow, green and brown blankie. He loves his sisters and giving kisses and hugs. He also frequently bodyslams Amelia. Well, maybe baby bodyslams, out of love, of course. He also climbs anything and everything he can find. The girls never did that, that I can remember.

Earlier this week I gave him a haircut and it seemed to instantly make him seem older.

Happy 18 months buddy! We love you!

Chelan!

We took a family vacation to Lake Chelan a few weeks ago! It was very relaxing and fun! We stayed with Adam in his little rental house. We stayed upstairs in the loft, yes all 5 of us in the same "room." The kids did great! I have been very nervous about moving the girls into one room (again) when the baby arrives, and this trip made be feel much better about that. I know that they CAN be in the same room and not mess around. Although it helped that they were exhausted each day from all the fun! We mainly went swimming, lounged, picked blueberries and spent good quality family time together. Here are some pictures from the trip, enjoy!

 The girls did great in the lake and pools because of their floaties!

 At a little market we fed the goats!

 Wes had a popsicle and looked like he'd eaten a piece of raw meat and his hands were stained red!

 We also picked blueberries at Blueberry Hills Restaurant, home of the "Dunlap" the best breakfast ever!

And it's another...

GIRL!

We found out Wednesday this week that Gerlach baby #4 is another girl. We are so excited! Actually it's kind of relieving to have a gender to identify with this baby. With the surprise circumstances in which she was conceived, it's been a little harder for me to feel connected to her. But now that we know she is in fact, a she, I'm having a hard time imagining what another girl will be like! I can only imagine Caley and Amelia! I know this little one will have a whole different look, personality, and we have the privilege of getting to know her over the years.

Halfway through this pregnancy, I'm feeling really good. At exactly 12 weeks, my energy regained and the subtle sickness subsided. And now that the weather is nicer, it's easier to stay active with all the inside and outside work to do around here. We have a fabulous garden that's been about 8+ months in the making, hopefully I can post about that soon. Tending to the garden and mowing the lawn and weeding in various places, along with the usual inside cleaning, laundry and dishes, on top of three kids makes for a busy week. But a GOOD busy. We wouldn't have it any other way.

It's so funny because my good friend Ande is pregnant too, due basically the same day as me, and having a girl too! We both had sons on the same day about 18 months ago. Our bodies and lives seem to be on the same schedule lately. Weird...or just God's beautiful providential hand working in our lives! :)

It's always somethin' 'round here

Today we are pumping out water from under the house. Why? Well because a little visitor, a rat decided to set up shop in the crawl space and chew through the dishwasher return hose. We didn't notice it for several weeks and the little b*****d chewed through the tube enough to cause a bunch of water to squirt in the subfloor and the crawl space. It's caused some buckling of the hardwood floor. Thankfully we figured it out now instead of in a few more weeks. What a pain. Thankfully my sweet husband is a very good "do-it-yourself-er" and it's almost back go normal. And we caught the rat in a trap so hopefully it won't happen again.
Not to mention the list of things to do is already a mile long...oh the fun of homeownership!

Checking in

Today I got to hear the baby's heartbeat, I'm almost 13 weeks. It was strong and steady at about 160bpm. It finally sunk in more that this is really happening. Even with seeing the baby on ultrasound at 7 weeks, I still kind of thought this was all a joke my body was playing on me. (Yes, even with the expanding waistline and flutters of movement in my belly.) Getting nearly out of the first trimester and into the "safe" zone allows me to relax a little bit more.

I wonder who this little person is?