So… here we go…

Yesterday I got home from a MOPS (Mothers of PreSchoolers) event at our church and discovered Hope had a 103 degree fever. I knew she felt warm while we were out and she was extremely fussy and clingy to me, but I just thought it was from the fact that she has 5 teeth coming in (4 of which are molars) or because the day before she had gotten her H1N1 booster. So, didn’t I feel like mother-of-the-year when I got home and realized her temp was over 103? Poor baby!

Every Christmas season for the past 5 years our family has gone out to Buttermilk Farms to cut down our own Christmas tree. We had planned to go this morning but last night Jon decided to take Annie to our local Lowes store to pick a tree out since Hope had a fever all day and we knew we wouldn’t be able to all go out this morning and cut our tree down together. They came home with a beautiful tree and Annie was so excited. I think it really only bummed Jon and me out that we didn’t get to go to the farm. Evidently Annie had a blast running around Lowes and singing Christmas tunes out loud.

So, this morning after everyone was up, Jon and I had our coffee and we started on a big breakfast of pancakes and sausage while Christmas music played in the background. After eating, I started stringing the lights and putting the ribbon around the tree while Jon and Annie unpacked all the ornaments and commented on memories from many of them. Oh and let me not forget to mention that I threw away all our old tree lights after Christmas last year and replaced them with energy efficient LED lights that I bought for half-price the day after Christmas. Unfortunately, I did not pay attention to what size bulbs I was buying and I got one box of normal size tear-drop lights, six boxes of large size and one box of an even larger size. So we went with the lights that we had the most boxes of. We have never had lights this big on our tree and the whole LED thing is going to take some time to get used to. The light is not your traditional “white” but more like blue or purple.

Hope, Annie and Roxy chilling with the stuffed snowmen with the ornaments waiting to be hung.

We started hanging all the fun ornaments… handmade, collectibles, gifts and cheap alike. About 3/4 of the way through the tree just fell! Thankfully it didn’t hit anyone but smacked our large coffee table and we lost somewhere between 10-15 ornaments. Glass shattered everywhere and chaos and noise filled the room. Thanks to our neighbor and friend, Chris, he and Jon got the tree up and out of the broken stand and I tried to entertain the girls and keep them out of the mess.

Annie was the photographer here. Jon cleaning up after the big topple.

Jon went out, bought a new stand and we finally got our tree back up and standing. I finished re-stringing lights and ribbon and ornaments and finally we have our finished tree minus the 10-15 ornaments we said good-bye to today. I did not take as much time the second time around with the ribbon and lights so it basically looks like a second grader decorated our tree. Whew, what a day!

Well, at least the tree itself is beautiful!

of girls.

So, “Five Girls and Jon” will soon be changing names to “Six Girls and Jon”! We are expecting baby girl #3! And already so many of you have said, “I didn’t even know you were pregnant!” Well, I don’t really know where to begin. It has been a long, hard, emotional roller coaster of a pregnancy so far. We really only shared our news with family and a small group of very close-knit friends. We are almost 20 weeks and praising God for the miraculous work He has done in my body and with the life of this baby girl. At about 6 weeks we took an emergency trip to my doctor’s office and were told that more than likely, this baby would not live beyond the next few days. I had what is called a “placental abruption”. We lost our very first baby to miscarriage at 10 weeks and all kinds of hurt, pain, frustration, questioning started flooding my mind and heart. Oh, I could not imagine going through that kind of a loss again. Jon and I left the office and he called the pastoral staff at church. We were literally at the point of such weakness that we needed people to pray not just with us, but for us. We needed them to fight, to battle and to petition for this life. Well, the baby did survive the next few days, praise God! It wasn’t all smooth sailing from there though. For the last 13 weeks we have had many ups and downs with an ultrasound almost weekly to check the status of the abruption. At one point it was growing, so much so that my doctor (who is absolutely wonderful, by the way) sent us to UT to see a high-risk specialist. We are actually now on a monthly dr visit schedule, which is routine for any pregnant woman. Although last week’s ultrasound did show the abruption is still there, we really do not know at this point if it is still a risk or not. The risk now would be for pre-term labor (anywhere from any day to 2 weeks before the due date). Of course, nothing is certain and I remain in a “wait-and-see” status. Right now we continue to thank the Lord for a healthy baby. One that is developing right on target and looks great as far as we can tell. We also continue to pray for this little girl and pray she would be protected from any harm in the womb. So much more to tell and share, but that’s the news in the Teague house for now! Thanks for sharing in our joy!

Oh, and the girls are not locked in Brinley’s dog crate and I did not put them in there. Actually, Hope crawled in first and then Annie followed. I couldn’t resist the picture as they were in matching dresses and it just looked too funny!

I am washing a load of diapers today, as I do every 2-3 days. I am really loving doing cloth. The extra loads of laundry don’t take hardly any time. I don’t even fold the diapers once they are dry… just stack them in Hope’s closet and that’s it! In honor of washing diapers, I took a few shots of Hopie today wearing nothing other than… a cloth diaper, of course!

Tearing...

Um... was I supposed to do that?

Oh to be a 4-year-old and be so entertained with leaves! Annie was loving throwing them up in the air around her and Hope. We decided not to let this past Friday be filled with running errands and doing housework and Jon encouraged me to take a break and head to the mountains. No outlet stores, no tourist traps, not even lunch in an overpriced restaurant. We packed PB&Js, bananas, cheesesticks and crackers and headed for Cades Cove. It was so wonderful. Like a healing salve to a wound for me… just to be outside, in the beautiful sunshine and with the people I love more than anyone or anything else! We did the entire Cades Cove loop and stopped to see sorghum being made at the old mill and wandered through a century old Methodist church and farmhouse. We saw several deer, wild turkeys and Annie and Hope both even pet a real live mule! We got some great pictures and I will have to narrow them down to just a few shots but hopefully they will capture the fun we had.

Yes, Hope has been caught eating it… not swallowing it, I caught her in the act, but this time, she wasn’t eating it, just examining it. I love these pics of Hope and Roxy, our 5-year-old, one-eyed Boston Terrier. I love the way Roxy is looking at Hope like, “What in the world are you doing?” and Hope is just slowly and methodically examining the food and then even trying to feed it to Roxy at one point. Just a fun, sweet moment at our house.

This weekend the Teagues became the Ingalls (Pa, Ma, Laura and baby Carrie). My mom bought Annie her bonnet several months ago at the Mast General Store in downtown Knoxville and Annie decided then and there she wanted to be Laura Ingalls and we all needed to dress up to complete the full family look. It really was fun! Our church did a huge outreach event on the night of the 30th complete with old-time carnival games, inflatables, hayride and of course candy! We had a great time! I got so many good pictures that night that I really only snapped a couple on the night of the 31st. The cooler night and rainy weather also kinda put a damper on the picture taking. Annie still braved the rain for a bit and did some neighborhood trick-or-treating with some neighborhood kids. She was LOVING it!

Playing "Tick, Tack, Toss"

Laura Ingalls just taking care of her chores!

Hope quickly discovered what was in Annie's pumpkin and was putting up a fight to get her hands on it!

Hope examining her first lollipop. Does she like it?...

Yes, she definitely likes it!

The first year that Annie and Gabriel have not been in coordinating costumes. They are growing up so fast!

Happy, sugar-high Hope after a Dum-Dum and almost a whole pack of Smarties.

Heading out to cover the neighborhood with friends!

This past weekend was very busy and tiring but such a special, special weekend! Our family packed up and headed to Chattanooga to celebrate Jon’s brother’s wedding! Saturday, October, 24, 2009 Andrew and Susan got married! We are so happy for them as they embark on this new journey and life-long commitment together. Jon even had the privilege of performing the wedding ceremony! I was so proud of him and loved the personal touches he added to the ceremony. It was a very cool fall day and I had Hope on my hip for about two hours straight trying to keep her out of trouble during the picture taking and the wedding itself as it was outside, so I did not get near as many pictures as I would have liked, but the few I did get are very special. Hopefully I will be able to post some of the professional pictures at some point. Annie was the flower girl and after a small meltdown at the rehearsal on Friday, she did walk down the aisle and did a great job! We love you Andrew and Susan and are so happy for you!

Trying to keep the girls out of the cold before the ceremony.

The beautifully decorated bridal table at the pavilion.

Beautiful bridal cake

Groom's cake

Hope with PaPa

Finally we snagged a picture of Susan and Andrew!

While preparing to leave the house the other day, Brinley met us in the kitchen right before we were about to walk out the door. Strange thing was that I had crated Brinley just moments before this…  let me not fail to mention that Hope and I were the only humans home. So, out of intrigue, I put Brinley back in her crate and then grabbed the camera… the following video certainly incriminates our 13-month-old daughter, Hope.

I am so in love with these precious girls!

Annie asked this afternoon what we are having for dinner tonight. This is a daily question for her as she is not a big eater and unless it is pizza, chicken nuggets or any kind of fast food, she pretty much dreads dinner time. So, “cheeseburgers on the grill tonight” did not please her (because they are not pancake flat patties like McDonald’s serves). Below is the conversation that followed between Annie and me:

Annie: Oh, mom, I don’t like cheeseburgers on the grill!

Me: Well, that’s what we are having.

Annie: Well, I’m not going to be home for dinner tonight. I am going to a ball with Elisa. (Elisa is her made-up friend. Not an imaginary friend, just a made-up friend she talks about. The only time she talks to Elisa is when she is pretend talking on the phone. Usually, she just talks about what Elisa is doing or where they are going to go together.)

Me: Oh, well, how are you going to get there because I will be busy  making dinner and then getting Hope bathed and in bed?

Annie: By taxi.

Me: Oh! Well, how are you going to pay for the taxi?

Annie: Oh, this taxi has a cash register in it and when I need to pay I just take money out of the cash register and give it to the driver.

I love it! An imagination like this sure keeps me entertained.