Our special visit from a dear friend...

On October 7th, my friend Anna came to see us in Pennsylvania. We haven't seen Anna since the summer after we were married! It was a great time seeing her and having her meet the kids. Ella kept calling her, "Your friend," instead of using her name. When she sees the pictures, she says, "Your friend Anna." So, Anna, she knows your name now that you're gone :). We toured around our tiny town, went to Hershey the day she got here, and just hung out around the house. Andrew was in San Diego while she was here, so she saved my sanity while being hugely pregnant and chasing Ella and Peter around. Anna and I have been close friends since high school, though we knew each other for longer from church. It was so great to have her here and now that she's moving to AK, it won't have to be so long before we see each other again! She was able to get some pictures of the kids and I while I was in my last weeks of being pregnant too.

New Arrival!

Baby John Lewis Cornelius
October 21, 2009
6lb 9oz 20 inches

As with both the other kids, I walked this baby out after about 3 days of contractions. He came 2 weeks and 3 days early, but he is healthy and doing well. Jonathan and Katie were here and able to meet him before flying back west. Katie walked with me for 2 afternoons and I guess the second walk and another one that evening with Andrew finally convinced him that it was time. By 9pm on the 20th, I was in the hospital ready to have an epidural and my water broke. The labor went slower than with Peter, but nothing too much to complain about. The delivery was more pain than I wish I had felt because they came to put more meds in right before I pushed and they didn't kick in right away. He was born at 2:59am and a healthy little screamer they put right on my belly and all the pain seemed to fade. For then at least :). Ella and Peter are thrilled about him, Ella tries to help with everything. Peter says, "Baby" all the time and enjoys pointing out his facial features. Andrew and I have had the past few days adjusting to a family of 5, as he took his paternity leave and then had the weekend off. I'm glad it worked out this way for us. It's been a good way to see how things will be. God has been so good to provide us with 3 healthy, beautiful children. I could not imagine our lives without baby John already and the next few years of raising 3 small children will be adventurous to say the least.

Fall is here among other things...

October has been an eventful month in our house, a good one though! I turned 27 on the 15th, Ella turned 3 on the 18th, Jonathan and Katie came to visit, Andrew bowhunted his first deer, and last but not least, John Lewis was born! It's a strange thought to have 3 kids before I'm 30! It was fun to see Ella turn 3, although she still does not enjoy having "Happy Birthday" sung to her. She's turned into quite the little woman, while she is playing, she plays hard and has lots of fun and while she is frustrated, she has the personality of a tiger! Her quotes get funnier all the time and her questions make us have to think twice for just about everything. Peter is loving life, full of energy, and keeps us quite busy. He's been a little better recently about accidents and injuries, which has been nice! He and Ella play well together half the time, and the other half, they fight over toys, blankets, Mommy, and food. This all comes with their age I suppose, but they also look out for each other. They go in the same nursery most of the time, and I have been told a few stories of Ella protecting Peter, or consoling him if he's sad. It makes me smile to know they help each other out.
Jonathan and Katie came to see us from the 14th-21st. They were here for our birthdays and a surprise early birth of their nephew! It was so nice to see them and share the events of life together with family. The kids had a lot of fun playing and getting to know their Aunt & Uncle. We were able to go on a little hike in the woods to see the beautiful fall on Ella's birthday and that was nice. We appreciated their help with everything, because in the midst of the events, our kitchen is out of commission and we lived entirely in the living room.
The kids have spent a fair amount of time in their silly "bones jams." I got these mostly for halloween when they are handing out candy at the door, but they like them so much, they just keep them on when they can. I think it partly has to do with the fact that they match each other and they think that's funny. Ella asks me to turn the light off so she can see them "grow." (Glow)
Andrew killed his first deer on the 21st. It was with a bow and he is pretty thrilled about it. We are all happy for him, and his brother got to help him bring it out of the woods since he was here too. They brought it to the house wrapped in a tarp in the car trunk to get a picture with it. I didn't want Ella to see it, but she managed to peek in the trunk on the way to the swing set. With a confused look on her face she walked away and we didn't think much of it. Later, after Andrew took it to the butcher, he met us in the Wendy's parking lot with the car. We were all in the van and when Andrew went to open the car trunk, Ella shouted out, "Watch out Daddy! I'm pretty sure there's a deer in there!" We all laughed pretty hard because none of us really thought she understood when she saw it in the trunk.
As you can see, this has not been a dull month for us! The kitchen should be done by the start of November, in time for Andrew's mom to get here. We look forward to what life has in store for us as we adjust to all the changes, but God is good and we are thankful for that!

Bloom Fair

These are the pictures from the Bloomsburg Fair this year. It's the biggest fair on the East Coast and I'm pretty sure there is more food there than anything else. We had fun with the kids, especially watching them make all the animal sounds really loud, right at the animal. Ella and Peter both are really good with their noises. Peter can "oink" like no other, he does the loudest snort and the picture of him in front of that huge pig is about the loudest snorting I've ever heard him make. People walking by thought it was pretty funny. Ella loved the huge draft horses, but especially the little pony and miniature horse. Andrew asked her, "Did you like all those big animals?" She said, "Yea, but there were little pony tails in there too!  I like those." He thought it was pretty great that she called them "pony tails." They enjoyed their ice cream the first night and had their first cotton candy experience the second. Peter didn't know what to think until he actually ate it, but he called it "hair" and didn't want to put it in his mouth. We ate our share of junk and enjoyed it to. 

Ella Buzz

She sure keeps me moving and chatting...

Ella is almost 3 years old (Oct 18th) and I can't believe how fast time is going by watching her grow into a little girl. She loves all things outdoors and even tells me when a bee comes near, "I promise it will go away Mommy, don't swat it." (That's what she heard Andrew say). About 3 times a week her quotes grace my Facebook account and I am always getting told how funny and witty she is. Just today I was talking to Andrew about getting food on his way home from hunting, but he told me he didn't have any cash. I relayed this message to Ella and she said, "Mommy, you need to buy Daddy some cash." She told me the other day that she likes to make me laugh and kept repeating what it was that made me laugh in the first place. She is very excited about my growing belly. She keeps saying, "I think I hear the baby, he's kicking like this (she kicks her legs out), I really like your baby boy in your belly." She's excited to have a new baby brother which makes me excited for her.  She and Peter get a long most of the time, but when they fight, they could really make me crazy. It's almost always over some toy that the other one has and is playing contentedly with. I guess this is to be a part of my life for sometime, but the phrase, "Share and be kind" is sure getting repeated these days. Ella takes advantage of the fact that Peter says no to everything and when she asks him if he's done with his milk or snack and he says no, she takes the liberty to finish it for him. I ask her what happened and she said, "He didn't want it!" (With a smile). Sneaky little one I tell you. She has learned how to sing almost all of "Jesus loves me" and many short phrases of other songs that she jumbles into her own special song. I have had to keep telling her to sing quietly when we are driving because she gets louder and louder as her chorus goes on. I love to hear her sing and see her dance to music. She still says, "Hokey hokey" instead of hokey Pokey and I will never correct her because it's just too cute. I am learning what it is like to choose my battles and let her make her own decisions sometimes, even though this is hard for me because I think I should still be able to just do it for her. These days she talks a lot in third person and her favorite thing to say is, "Ella will do it ALL BY HERSELF." Wow. Ok. So I guess every day is a learning experience for us as parents and we have had more discipline discussions already than I expected by this age. Well, as my funny little girl is rattling off numbers and ABC's, I am soaking up the moments when she asks me to sit with her or hold her hand or tells me she loves me SO much. I can't get enough of her laugh and I pray that she will continue to sing "Jesus loves me" and someday understand how much He really does.