Preschool Field Trip to the Fire Station

We went on a preschool field trip to the fire station yesterday.  The kids had a lot of fun.  When we first got there we rang the door bell, but no one answered, then a minute or so later we saw the fire truck pulling up.  While we were waiting for the firemen to climb out of the truck and come over, they got a call and had to leave again.  We got to see them turn on their sirens and pull out, which was fun for the kids, but then after about another minute they were pretty bored.  We kept them busy by taking pictures and playing in the bushes.

Luckily the fire truck came back pretty quickly and then they let us in for the tour.  The kids had fun looking at all the cool tools the truck had on it, and climbing in to sit inside.  The firemen doing the tour were pretty good at keeping the kids entertained, and rolling with some of the random comments and questions the kids had.  They also had one guy put on all his gear and mask to show the kids what a fireman would look like if he was coming into your house to save you from a fire.  I always think that part is so awesome, and such a good idea.  Here's almost the whole group in front of the fire truck.

 We also learned what the difference between a fire truck and a fire engine is.  A fire truck has the big hydraulic ladder attached to the top, and a fire engine is equipped with a water tank and pump.  It was a fun field trip.

We've been really busy this month and I realized I haven't really updated the blog at all.  The things we've been busy with aren't really very blog worthy, or I forgot to take pictures.  There is something we've been doing a lot lately, though, and that is having homemade smoothies.  Both of my kids are amazing eaters for about the first year and a half of their lives, and then they just decide one day that they don't like food anymore.  Paige used to eat like 8 chicken nuggets in one sitting and still eat a whole banana and a bunch of carrots, and now it's like pulling teeth to get her to finish just 2 chicken nuggets.  Both kids pretty much refuse breakfast altogether and Lucas literally starts crying almost every time I ask him what he wants to eat in the morning.  But we discovered that both of them love smoothies and will eat them anytime, so now I just make smoothies every morning for breakfast.  I can sneak stuff like oatmeal, spinach, carrots, and all sorts of healthy stuff in there, and they just gobble it up.  Aside from having to clean the blender once or twice every day, it makes my life a whole lot easier.

I love their bed hair.  To be honest that is Paige's normal hair; she looks so mangy sometimes.  She's adorable with pony tails if she ever lets me do them, though.

It's a Boy!

Ryan and I went to my ultrasound today and found out that our third baby is going to be a boy!  We really would have been happy either way, but I'm a little more excited about a boy because that's what I thought all along and it feels good to be right.  :)  I love getting ultrasounds, especially anatomy ones where they go around and look at the heart and everything.  I think it's amazing what we can see and how the technicians know what is a stomach and what is a kidney.  And it's pretty incredible seeing the baby move around in there.  This little guy is very active and I feel him moving constantly so I wasn't surprised that he wouldn't cooperate for pictures.  Every time she got ready to take pictures of his spine or head or something, he would wiggle away and she'd have to go find him again.  It was pretty funny.

Everything is always so much clearer when you're in there and then you get out and look at the pictures they print and it's all just a bunch of blobs.  These are some of the least blobby pictures.

I thought this one was pretty cool.  You can see his back, bum, leg, and foot.  His legs looked pretty muscular - I think it's from all that kicking he's been doing.

And for those of you that like this sort of picture, the proof!

We couldn't be more thrilled!  It's exciting to know the gender and be able to start figuring out names and getting all the right color clothes out of the storage tubs.  Lucas is excited about a baby brother and is insistent that we name the baby right away.  Every time I ask him what he wants to name the baby, though, he suggests things like "house" and "chair".  We'll have to think about it a little longer.