Here's Emma in front of her 6 boxes of goodies collected for Will's NC oncology clinic from her birthday and our coop...just under 500 happy meal toys are in the bottom 3 boxes!

The 3 kids just sorted this pile of goodies collected Wednesday night at our AWANA club. It was another 62 happy meal toys, 129 packs of stickers, 107 boxes of bandaids and 32 hats! Now that Will is moving to NY, we have ANOTHER oncology clinic to collect goodies for with the other kids birthdays!

Here's a picture of Erik, taken this afternoon...Notice anything different?!

It's a BOY!

The girls were initially disappointed...until it dawned on Emma that THEIR room would still have just 2 people in it, while the boys would have to make room for one more ;-) Erik seems stupefied with the whole thing. I think he is still getting used to the idea that we're having another baby, and isn't sure what it will be like to have another little brother.

On all counts, the ultrasound went well. We even got to see little E suck his thumb, take it out of his mouth, and start sucking it again. Very cool.

Shoppers...start your engines!

What I forgot to mention is that since last summer, Everson has been telling me that Jesus had a baby brother for him. He was quite insistent up until January. At Christmas time, knowing I was pregnant, I asked Ev if Jesus still had a baby brother for him. He said yes. I asked him how big his brother was. He made a small circle with his fingers and said, "Him's about dis big." Hair stands up on my neck. A week or so later, Doug and I were pondering boy/girl names. We usually have a family name for a middle name, so we were kicking around possibilities. I suggested John, after Doug's grandfather who passed away last fall. Within a couple of days of that conversation, I asked Everson if Jesus still had a baby brother for him. He said yes. I asked him what's the baby's name. He said, "Him's name John."

So when it comes to the future, and prophecy...look no further. Everson seems to have a direct line to God ;-)

BTW, we haven't decided on ANY names...we're open to all reasonable suggestions.

Thought it was time for a new look on the blog.

Check back on Tuesday...I have an ultrasound appt and should find out for sure how this baby will break the boy/girl tie. And for the first time...we will be letting folks know what we're having! Why? Well, it is our 5th child...and I either gave away or sold of all our baby stuff when we moved LOL. So you'll know just what color to buy when you see something on sale...hint hint.

Emma's Birthday Party

Can you locate Emma? She's buried among 493 Happy Meal Toys that were collected from our coop and her birthday party. My digital camera was not cooperating with my 14 year old photographer at Emma's party...fortunately a friend had her camera and she is burning a cd for me. I'll put a slide show together as soon as I get the pics.

We had 15 girls enjoying 3 spa stations: pedicure, manicure and facial. There was lots of laughter and ticklish feet. We had a brief devotional with the girls about Inner Beauty and then decorated mirrors to remind us to reflect God with our lives. Her party yielded 76 toys (13 happy meal toys), 25 hats, 29 boxes of bandaids and 43 packages of stickers. We collected items from our coop 2 days before Emma's party. Our grand totals are: 493 Happy Meal toys, 50 assorted toys, 70 boxes of bandaids, 57 hats, 58 packages of stickers and a $30 Walmart Gift card (which we used to buy hats). We were also given $85 to help with shipping. We have about 7 boxes to mail off to North Carolina!

AND in 2 weeks, our AWANA club is collecting items for the clinic! Emma's still amazed at the support of her mission. She thought her tea party for the homeless shelter was big...and this surpasses it all!

CELEBRATING 10 YEARS OF GIVING US JOY! Happy Birthday Emma. Here she is wearing her very own, custom made "Team Armstrong" shirt - a very cherished gift from Uncle Sam, Aunt Angie, Wonderwill and Katie.