… to the question, “Boy or girl?”

Here’s a clue.

The below ultrasound video was recorded onto DVD for us yesterday when all the children went with me and Lois to the clinic for a check-up and to discover the sex of the baby. Anyone wanna guess what we found out?

Once again, our t-shirt making tradition includes one for the kids’ grandpa.

The finished product:

One happy grandpa proudly wearing the t-shirt:

The kids and I made another t-shirt for Father’s Day. Instead of decorating the shirt free hand like last year’s t-shirt, I learned a new technique and I’m quite pleased with the result. I used the freezer paper t-shirt technique. In short, the directions are:

1. Design and draw a picture or words on the paper side of the freezer paper.
2. Use an X-acto knife to cut out the picture.
3. Iron the pattern onto the shirt.
4. Use fabric paint to stencil the pattern.
5. After it’s dried, peel off the freezer paper.

For those who are interested in designing your own shirt, here is a great freezer paper tutorial.

Matthew stenciling the shirt:

The finished product:

Here’s one proud daddy wearing the shirt. He’s indeed a Super Dad!

In addition, Matthew wrote a note to his beloved daddy all on his own without me prompting him. He sure loves his daddy.

Lately I’ve been pondering on the number 5. This particular number doesn’t seem to bear much significance, but allow me to expound for just a bit.

• In the world of sports, it takes five players to form a basketball team.
• Anatomically speaking, we have five fingers per hand and five toes per foot.
• Geometrically speaking, a star has five points and a pentagon has five angles.
• Our youngest child was born on our five year anniversary.
• Last, but not least, we shall have one more addition to our family to make F-I-V-E kids in late November 2008. Click here to see the latest ultrasound (12wks 4days gestational age).

Now you know why it’s been quiet on the blog of late.

Today we celebrated our 7th year anniversary by going out to a nice and quiet dinner, just the two of us. Grandparents watched the kids while we enjoyed our dinner.

Afterwards we bought a cake and brought it back to celebrate our youngest’s second birthday. Alas, I was unable to make a cake for the birthday child. Perhaps next time.

The whole family:

Calissa holding her birthday present:

Happy birthday, baby girl.

And cherish your baby status as long as you can!  We love you!

Our eldest son turned 6 years old today.

We’ve all survived the most adventurous six years of our lives.

But more than survived. We’ve enjoyed them. We’ve been blessed by them. We’ve learned from them.

And most of all, we’ve loved these years, as we love our dear son Matthew. Not so long ago, he was a precocious, ambitious young toddler.

Now he simply surprises with us how “adult-sounding” he can be at times. He’s a smart, quick-learning, action-loving, heart-endearing, still-impulsive, growing boy. And Lord willing, down the road, he’ll be a godly man, and before long, he’ll be up and out of the house. Until then, we’ll just hold onto these snuggling years as long as we can!

For those homemaker-types out there, the cake is a chocolate brownie cake with white frosting and “fruit-by-the-foot” made in the shape of gift ribbon. And six candles to mark the occasion!