Rewind (April-June)

Okay, so more catching up --before the baby comes and things get really crazy:

Earlier this year, Michael and Sadie raced their very first pinewood derby cars.  We lost miserably, but had a lot of fun doing it.  We are already planning and scheming for next year's race.

In April, Michael got to experience his very first baseball game!  One of Matt's bosses gave him some almost-front-row seats to an Astros game.  While the baseball game itself wasn't all that impressive (at least not compared with playing "Angry Birds" on Dad's cell phone), the two of them had a great daddy-son date.

Less fun, was Matt's "minor" surgery to remove a skin cancer on his lip.  It turned into a much bigger ordeal than we originally thought, but at least they got it all and he won't die any time soon (we hope!).  It looked pretty gruesome for a while. (If you want to see the gross pictures, just ask Matt. He loves showing them off.) But thankfully, we got a top-notch plastic surgeon, and the scar is hardly noticeable anymore.

Here we are at the Houston Temple. If you look closely, you can still see Matt's bandage over his lip. He wore it in public for quite a while in order to not gross people out.  I kept telling him "Scars are manly!"

Princess Sadie all dressed up!

We signed Michael up for our neighborhood swim team back in May. (Go Kleinwood Dolphins!)  The coaches were really good with him, especially considering the fact that he couldn't swim.  He got really close by the end of the season, and we are looking forward to (hopefully) getting in a few actual races next year.

Just a cute picture of my red heads.

Michael in his "tree house"

and learning to do a head-stand.

In June, my parents sold their house in Austin and were in the process of buying a house near us.  But there was about a month gap between the two closing dates.  So, they came to live with us for a while and we loved having them here!  The kids especially loved having a little extra attention.  They made Nana read until her voice gave out!

It was also fun to have Uncle Stephen visit.

Later in the month, Jeremy brought his family down for a visit on their way Oregon (where he is his opening his own dental practice.)  It was soooo fun!  We fit 6 adults and 8 kids in this house for 3 days; it could have been chaos, but turned out wonderfully!

The kids romped and played together so nicely. We had a "cousin camp-out" every night with sleeping bags covering the floors of Michael and Sadie's rooms.  We went swimming and visited a giant aquarium store (Aquarium World is marvelous!) and just had a grand time in general. I can't wait for them to come back!

Home remodeling? No, this is Matt tearing out our ceiling where we had a leak from the upstairs master shower.

Here he is still hammering away trying to find the source of the problem --and discovering termites in the process.

Here are the kids enjoying the show! You can kind of see the chunks of dry wall and plaster that came raining down.

 

Here is the "shower" after Matt and my dad ripped it all out to fix the leak.   . . . I don't have any more photos to show, because we haven't repaired anything yet!  But at least we are getting rid of the termites before they do any major damage.  Matt has been busy every weekend with do-it-yourself termite treatment that involves drilling and digging around the entire foundation to spray in pesticide --in the middle of a Houston summer. Ugghh!  It's times like these that I'm especially grateful I am not a man!

Other things I am grateful for:  three beautiful children,

a happy family,

and lots of friends.

:)

Introducing Compton 4.0!

Sorry for those who may not have heard til now, but we are expecting baby #4 in September.  This was our little "jellybean" back in April.

This was our little boy a month ago. --Yes! We are having another boy.  Michael was so excited when we told the kids.  He had been praying for a brother, and promptly named the baby "Jack." Sadly, Sadie's prayers for a sister were left unanswered. (For some reason, she just doesn't want to accept the fact that Adelaide is her sister.) But she was quickly comforted by the fact that she will still get to help take care of the baby and that it will be Very Cute, even if it is not a girl.  . . . She named the baby "Candy Cane."  Adelaide doesn't really have clue about what's going to happen, but she can point to my belly and say "baby."

Here I am as of today with three more months to go.  I feel unusually large with this pregnancy, and the summer heat doesn't help, but overall, I'm doing really well and looking forward to our addition.

Rewind (January-March)

So . . . I've been really bad about updating our blog this year. Here are a few highlights:

Starting off the year right, with sparklers, of course.

Adelaide LOVES horses.  Poppie (my dad) put her on one of their horses and led it around a bit.  She was in heaven!  I think we're going to have to sign her up for riding lessons in a few years.

Can't a girl eat in peace?

In early February, Matt had a conference in Washington, D.C., so we turned it into a little couple-plus-baby get-away.  We got to tour the Capital,

visit lots of museums,

and walk through the Library of Congress (my personal favorite).  I discovered that traveling with a toddler is  . . . (what's the right word?) . . . arduous.  Adelaide really enjoyed all the mom-time and was remarkable well-behaved considering she was having lots of new experiences and was totally off her normal schedule.  She broke down a few times in the middle of the Smithsonians. (What 18 month-old enjoys looking at murals depicting the history of the War of 1812?)  And I discovered the important thing is to keep moving!  But all things considered, she handled everything remarkably well.

Ada's favorite was the Museum of Natural History, because it had lots of animals. A close second was the Post Office Museum because it had a huge statue of the Pony Express.

Really, the highlight for me was getting to visit my dear friend Sarah Mueller and her family.  We hadn't seen each other since she came down for our wedding six years ago, so it was a special treat. Just wish we could have stayed longer!

I love this picture!  Michael and Ada have always had a special bond.

For Michael's 5th birthday, he had definite ideas about what he wanted for a birthday cake.  It was supposed to be green and gray and have no definite theme, that I could tell.  When I tried to create some kind of space alien design on the top, Michael took things into his own hands.

This was his creation.  He called it his rainbow cake.

We had a few friends over and had lots of fun.

Adelaide and Sadie are dress-up queens

 . . . or princesses, to be more exact.

Enjoying a nice picnic at Grandma's house.

In March, Grandma and I took the kids to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

It was so fun!  They had lots of exhibits for the kids,

including a real hatchery where we got to see a little chick hatching out of it's egg!

Michael LOVES animals, so petting zoos are a BIG hit with him.  I always feel kind of bad for the animals, though.  They have to be the most patient animals in the world, because they get a whole lot of lovin' all day, everyday from lots of little kids!

A princess in the petting zoo!

For our Easter trip to Nana's, we included a little camp out in the front yard.  So fun! --for the kids.

Since my parent's were in the process of selling their house (more on that later), we knew it would probably be one of the last times we'd get to be there, so we made the most of it.

We made Easter egg rice crispie treats,

dyed eggs,

and, of course, hunted eggs.

We also had fun wading in the river down to the dinosaur tracks.

Michael found a "cave" in the rocks.

And Matt enjoyed a little rock climbing.