Of course, you can never really expect something unexpected, or it wouldn’t be unexpected.  Except in my case, where I am currently expecting something unexpected–a baby next January!  Our “plan” was to not have a baby until we moved back to the States.  It just made more sense to not deal with medical things in a foreign country, not to mention trying to tote around a third child without a car and making a 14 hour plane ride with 3 kids. 

It has been an interesting few weeks.  At first we just couldn’t believe it.  How did that happen?  I mean, we KNOW how it happened…  we just weren’t ready.  The last 2 times when I got pregnant I was so excited and totally ready for the experience (well, as ready as you can be).  But, I have to admit it has been a little difficult to get excited about this baby.  I feel like I am barely surviving just taking care of the two kids I already have.

It has made Darryl’s late working hours that much harder.  The up side is that he hasn’t needed the dinners that I haven’t been cooking the last few weeks.  Amelia has no idea what is going on, of course.  Kathryn has been a real sport playing quietly while I rest during Amelia’s nap.  It breaks my heart when she says, “Mommy, please come dance with me” and I just can’t get myself up off the couch because I’m either sick or tired or both. 

I made an appointment with a doctor at the American Medical Center.  She probably doesn’t know, but she was an angel for me!  She is a total Ukrainian babushka (grandma), named Lyudmila.  She just talked to me for awhile, asking about my previous pregnancies.  Mostly she told me what a special time this is and how I am so special that this baby chose me for his/her mother.  I almost started crying right there in her office. 

She listened for the heartbeat and when she couldn’t hear it, took me for an ultrasound (not a big deal, same thing happened at my first appointment with Amelia because it was pretty early).  It is such a miracle to see a little baby on that screen!  I almost didn’t think there would be anything there, but then we saw 2 hands, a head, body, and feet.  Truly amazing!  I got so excited when I saw the baby.

So we’ll have a little more (or different) adventure here in Ukraine than we may have planned.  Perhaps less traveling.  But we didn’t come here just to travel.  We came here to live our life, and this baby is part of our life.

Family | 10 Comments »

I love that my girls love music.  I’m pretty sure all kids love music.  Kathryn can navigate our iTunes better than I can, and she has music going most of the day.  When Amelia hears a song, especially one she recognizes, she immediately starts dancing.  Kathryn loves to dance, sing, jump, etc to the music. 

I am especially happy that Kathryn (Amelia doesn’t really have control over song choice yet) enjoys a variety of music.  Among the top ten most played songs on our iTunes and songs Kathryn finds and plays regularly are:

Super Trouper (Abba)

O, How Lovely was the Morning (Music for a Sunday Afternoon)

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (Mozart)

The Lonely Goatherd (Sound of Music)

Fuzzy Wuzzy (Countdown Kids)

Kathryn | 5 Comments »

We went on a walk yesterday afternoon, after our super meal of Thai-curry-peanut butter chicken that Darryl came up with.  I really love that he loves to cook, and even wanted to make his own Father’s Day meal!  Darryl is sporting the new shirt we gave him for Father’s Day.  Kathryn couldn’t resist telling him what it was before he unwrapped the present.  I guess that’s better than actually unwrapping the potato chips that we also gave him!  I think it is so cute Darryl holding hands with Kathryn and Amelia.  It was beautiful outside, and the girls had a fabulous time. 

Here is to prove I was there, too.  And I just had to take a picture of this babushka sitting on the bench. 

On Saturday we did a little celebrating, too.  Some ILP girls came to babysit and Darryl and I went shopping at a huge mall near where we live.  Mostly we were looking for little things to keep the girls busy on the airplane.  But we also had lunch at a Japanese/sushi restaurant there.  Darryl goes out to eat for work things quite a bit, but it was a real treat for me to go out!  I kept saying how wonderful it was.  I thought the food was delicious.  The only thing I would have changed is a little ice in my drink!

Family | 2 Comments »

My last post was going to be about summer, but then it wasn’t and the title still said summer.  Just apologizing to anyone who was confused.  We have been having gorgeous weather lately.  Sunny, in the 70’s or 80’s.  One thing I am not missing about Seattle is that summer does not start until July.  Its true!  Every June I get so frustrated, and then come 4th of July, Summer has finally begun.  Anyway, we told Kathryn it’s summer, and she sure was excited.  Today the girls and I went swimming in the bathtub.  It was mainly a chance to try on our swimsuits. 

One thing I remember as a kid in summer is having a foot bath!  I loved those!  We’d get to sit on the bathroom counter and put our feet in the sink to clean them.  Well, on Monday Kathryn definitely needed a foot bath and she loved it.

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Family | 4 Comments »

Amelia went for her one year check up at the doctor.  She weighed over 22 pounds, and is almost 31 inches long.  It was the 75th and 90th percentiles.  Much bigger than Kathryn, who was about at 25th percentile by that age.  I recently started letting Amelia play Zingo (not when the rest are playing it, of course).  She has a great time playing with the cards and chips.  I guess because I didn’t let her touch it for so long.

I recently told Kathryn what a nightgown is.  She loved the idea since she wears a dress almost everyday.  Now she could wear one to bed, too!  So has been wearing my t-shirts to bed as nightgowns.  This girl loves dresses and dolls so much, it reminds me of myself!

Amelia, Kathryn | 3 Comments »

Its 10pm and Darryl is still at work.  Last night he came home at midnight.  I know he had dinner with us on Friday 2 weeks ago, and also on Amelia’s birthday, 3 weeks ago, and I think one Saturday.  Its been quite a busy season for him, and for the rest of us.  It started out not too bad, a few late nights in January and February.  To be honest, busy seasons have never been quite as bad as I thought (as the wife waiting at home), until this year. 

I do remember when I was first pregnant with Kathryn.  Darryl was working at ICOS until about 9pm every night.  I was so sick, I just laid in the bed.  We had no TV, so I listened to the radio, KOMO news (with traffic on the 4’s).  It repeated everything every 10 minutes, and I listened to it for at least 2 hours every night.  So I do have to admit this is better than that.  At least I am busy with the girls until bedtime, we have TV, I finished reading my Harriet Tubman book, and of course I can read blogs.

Anyway, the point is not to complain, it is to recognize both the hard work Darryl is doing and the alone-ness of wives when their husbands work late.  I remember Elder Nelson at a devotional at BYU praising his wife who never complained when he worked late into the night in medical school, residency, etc.  So I will try to be like her.  I know we always have him on Sunday, which is wonderful.  And every morning before he goes to work the girls go crazy for him.  Its so cute, they both want to sit on his lap for family prayer.

Darryl | 6 Comments »

A couple weeks ago we bribed one of our friends with a car to drive us out to the site of the Kyiv Temple.  It is being built next to a stake center (which isn’t really used as a stake center since it is way out of the way for most people).  But it was a beautiful stake center! 

It was wonderful to see.  It did feel like a temple site, and it made us sad that we probably won’t be here for the open house, since things aren’t going as quickly as we first heard. 

Here is Kathryn with some of the ILP girls that were also there.  She really loves them and I think they are pretty fond of Kathryn.  The building behind them is the temple! 

Here is a better picture more of the temple.  It looks great!  They are also building a housing complex type of thing for people that will be traveling to stay the week at the temple from other countries.  See next picture.  And finally the stake center.  It sure was fun to see a building that looks just like a Mormon church building!

Everything under construction here has a big green fence around it.  I thought it was cool that there were these little square holes cut into the fence so we could see the construction!

Kyiv Adventures | 4 Comments »