How could you not love these faces?

A baby bump and funny pics

This poor baby is getting no love in the picture department. That is partially because I am not crazy about how I look and partially because I just keep forgetting to take it before I get in my sweats for the night (or maybe I just am always in sweats :)). Anyway, this is the first baby bump picture at 24 weeks. Yikes..I have a long way to go and am already looking pretty large! Oh well...it is what it is!

I sure am excited to meet this little girl though!

And these pictures are hilarious to me. Kirk just started doing the insanity workouts (a 2 month fitness program) and Elijah thinks it's awesome. He keeps asking to work out with daddy. I had to snap some pics the other day.

Those are some good jumping jacks. Also, our low ceilings make Kirk look gigantic!

Happy 4th Annivesary to Us!

Last Thursday (the 12th), Kirk and I had our 4th anniversary. So much has happened in the last 4 years that I can't say if it seems like it's been longer or shorter! Whatever it is, I feel so blessed to be married to him and enjoy learning and growing with him each year. This past year has been, by far, the most challenging, but we have been so thankful for the ways that the Lord has revealed himself to us and developed us through the course of many challenges. I have said it before, but will say it again...I love you, Kirk, and am so excited for many more years of life experiences with you!

Thanks to my good friend Steph, we were able to get away for an overnight. We found a great overnight deal on living social for a bed and breakfast just north of Lancaster. Steph took great care of our kids and we thoroughly enjoyed 20 hours of peace without them (but we did miss them!).

On Thursday night, we were able to meet up with our great friend Paul and his girlfriend, Rachel at Lancaster Brewing Company. Great food and great company! Thanks for meeting us, you two! We really enjoyed it....so much so that we were there for over 2.5 hours and didn't even realize it until we got back in the car and saw the clock!

This was our cute B&B. We were the only guests that night so we had the place all to ourselves! I wish I had taken a picture of the breakfast we were served...it was amazing.

There we are! I love that Kirk really is my favorite person in the world to hang out with.

Love him!

On Friday morning, before heading out to get our kids, we went to the Lancaster Central Market...the country's oldest farmers market. It was very, very cool!

Happy Anniversary, Kirk!

It finally snowed!

Elijah has been so excited for it to snow all winter long and since we have moved to PA, it hadn't snowed! Whenever there is frost on the ground in the morning, he looks out the window and says "Yay! It snowed!" He is very disappointed everytime we explain to him that's just frost and you can't really play in it. This morning, I had to get out of bed to go to the bathroom around 6 am and saw it had been snowing. I was so excited for Elijah to see it! He woke up at 7 and asked every 5 minutes to go out and play. We finally woke Kirk up at about 8:50 because E could not wait another minute. Leah was pretty intrigued by the whole thing too. So, we got all bundled up and headed out and had a blast!

First snow of the year!

Leah was interested for a little while (she looks a little like a boy because she is wearing Elijah's old hat...it was warmer than any that she had).

Trying to make snowballs with Daddy (it wasn't really packing snow, unfortunately...that is also hard to explain to a 3 year old).

Then, we pulled out the sled! My parents have the perfect little hill in their front yard for kids. At this point, it looks like Kirk is struggling up the hill a little and we might lose our kids...

...yup, 2 kids down.

Leah's turn down the hill!

Elijah could not have been happier to walk and play in the snow!

Besides that Elijah looks a little tipsy in this picture, I love it :). ps. Leah's face sums up how she responded in general...totally indifferent.

20 Questions for Elijah

This picture is courtesy of Alexa's Photography. She is a fantastic photographer who also happens to be Kirk's cousin. She took great pictures of the whole Duncan family over Christmas and I will share more of them on the blog soon.

At Elijah's birthday dinner, I asked him 20 questions that I plan to (at least try) ask him every birthday until he is 18 (this was another pinterest inspired idea...you take a picture every year too on his birthday and then put all the pictures and answers in a book for him). Anyway, I was so impressed that he actually answered all the questions (although some of his answers were not quite true, I don't think :). Here they are:

1. What's your favorite color? Yellow

2. What's your favorite toy? Dump truck

3. What's your favorite fruit? Strawberries

4. What's your favorite TV show? Dora

5. What's your favorite lunch? Pizza

6. What's your favorite thing to wear? Baseball shirt

7. What's your favorite game? Baseball

8. What's your favorite snack? Crackers (this is one of the false ones...he eats sweets like it's nobody's business. I've never heard him ask for a cracker unless everyone else in the room is eating them)

9. What's your favorite animal? Cow

10. What's your favorite song? Drums (not sure this is a song, but at least he followed along with the music theme)

11. What's your favorite book? Jesus book (we have a Jesus Storybook Bible we sometimes read out of night..thanks to Lauren for that one!)

12. Who is your best friend? Campbell

13. What is your favorite cereal? Cheerios (sidenote, he has NEVER liked those...even as a baby)

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Ride my bicycle

15. What is your favorite drink? Water (again, he would NEVER opt for water over things like juice and chocolate milk, but I would love it if he did!)

16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas

17. What do you take to bed? a blanket

18. What is your favorite breakfast? Apple bar (his word for nutrigrain bar)

19. What do you want to be when you grow up? Baseball player

20. What do you know about Jesus? Baby Jesus, Wisemen, Joseph (can you tell we just had Christmas?)

Elijah is Three!

On Sunday, Elijah turned three! I remember the day he was born with such clarity that it is hard to believe it was that long ago. We are so proud of him and thankful for his life. He makes us laugh every day and is learning and growing so much! We had a small party with just family and a few good friends. Elijah has been most interested in trucks lately so I decided to do a few truck themed things.

Punch and cake table.

I take no credit for this cake idea (I get all my ideas from Pinterest these days) but I was really excited about it and proud of it. I just layered chocolate cake, pudding mixed with whipped cream and crushed oreos and put it in the back of a dump truck to make it look like dirt.

We got plates from the movie "Cars", which Elijah has never seen but somehow still loves.

We used some of his collection of trucks as the centerpiece for the table. He thought it was fantastic and I thought it was a really easy (not to mention inexpensive) way to get him excited :).

After dinner, it was present time! Elijah looks a little excited!

He got games!

He got trucks!

Everybody looked on with great interest and anticipation!

He got jeeps and motorcycles!

I think he was a little excited about this rescue vehicle set. He hasn't stopped playing with all his new toys and the firetruck has gotten special attention.

Kirk rolled the dump truck cake out into the living room to have Elijah blow out the candles. I may have been a little nervous about chocolate cake ending up all over the white carpet.

He only was able to blow out one candle.

So Campbell came in to help out. Thankfully we got all the candles blown out and kept the carpet clean :).

I wanted to get a picture of the 5 cousins all together. It was funny, as always.

Just impossible to expect all 5 to look and keep their hands our of their faces (especially our cute little thumbsucker :)).

Mommy and Daddy with the birthday boy. We are very proud of him!

A normal smile is impossible.

Spier Family Christmas

The weekend after Christmas we were able to get together with my side of the family to do a Christmas celebration with them. It is so fun to have 2 Christmases! We loved having everyone together and felt like the time was too short (and sad because several of the kids were sick). Anyway, in typical Chrissie fashion, I didn't take pics of anything but the kids, but here they are.

Norah is the sweetest little girl. She is getting so big and it was especially fun to see her interact with Leah. I think they will be good friends. Here she is enjoying her daddy and a bottle.

The eldest cousin, looking cute as can be!

Leah loves her new personalized chair from Grandma and Grandpa!

So does Charlie. This picture makes me laugh...he is the king of lounging.

Poor buddy was so sick, but still thoroughly enjoyed his Fire Chief outfit he got from cousin Norah! This present was a huge hit, and still gets put on every day. Somebody has to fight the fires, you know?

It's a...

We decided to find out what we are having this time. Below are the shoes of our 3 sweet kids, from youngest to oldest!

We are thrilled with the news of a healthy, happy, kicking, baby girl on the way :).