having two is not for the faint of heart

Let me just say that i can't even feel bad for not blogging since June 23. Our life has been tossed upside down and shaken up. In a good way, but none the less....... :-P We welcomes sweet Timothy Stephens Sharp into our family on July 14th at 10:27 a.m. weighing 7 lbs 9 oz and measuring 19 3/4" long. He was born healthy and happy and continues to blow our minds at how much he has grown! He already now weighs 9 lbs 13 oz and is the apple of his big brother's eye! Chip just adores being a big brother and loves nothing more than to kiss all over him all the time! We are trying to find ourselves in a routine and to establish a new normal and that is proving to be more difficult than we could have imagined! Stephens seems to be a grumpy baby during the days, but, thankfully, is a really great sleeper at night. We are beginning to wonder if he, too, has food allergies like Chip and I have begun to remove foods from my diet to see if we can get it under control. I find myself with waves of emotions - good and bad - toward this change in my life and staying above water some days, seems to be all I can do. We are beyond blessed, though, and are very aware of that. He is a beautiful child, a gift from God, and a joyful new life. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we adjust to being parents of two and a big brother! Enjoy the pictures below!

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Rebecca

9 months and counting

Well, the countdown is truly beginning at the Sharp house for the arrival of Tinky Tiny! Friday, June 20th marked the 'true' 9 month mark. Nesting has somewhat set in, though there seems to be not much to do, and we are all becoming very excited for the baby to be here. Chip will be 6 in just a short 13 days and the new focus right now is on his birthday party! He hasn't had a birthday party in a couple of years and he is super excited to be having a Lego party. This will still be a fairly low key party -for OBVIOUS reasons- but a party for him none the less. He has helped pick out all the fun things, goodie bags, favors, cake, cookies, snacks, etc. and is now just looking forward to it and counting down the days til the party is here! Plans and arrangements are being made for where he will go/who will come here when we have the baby, family arrival, etc. and things are just truly counting down.

We were recently abundantly blessed by a shower at the church which left us needing and wanting nothing for our sweet arrival. We are again reminded how much we are loved here in PA, how much we, ourselves, love being here in PA and how we would want no other place to have and welcome this sweet baby to. We can't wait to introduce you all soon, to our new arrival, and so until that day, I will sign off...... to be back with a new baby soon!

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Rebecca

the room is done and the countdown begins

Well, we finally finished TinkyTiny's room this past Friday and have begun the 'true' countdown. Starting tomorrow, I will be 34 weeks pregnant and am beginning to feel it! We are so pleased with the way the room has turned out and are getting very excited. Sweet baby gifts are already starting to trickle in and we are finding places for them each as they come in. We can't believe that in just a few short weeks our family will grow by a whole other person....... wow!

Thanks to pinterest the stripe above the changing table/dresser is pegboard (so smart, right!?!?) and the dresser was a purchase off craigslist for $35 that we painted white. The shelf above the pegboard was a craigslist purchase for $20 and the couch was, also, a craigslist purchase for $40. The best part is that the couch is a pull out so we haven't totally lost our guest room abilities :) so come visit!

the bedding/curtains were our bedding from when Chip was a baby and the crib and rocking chair are both heirlooms. I'm sure i'll have more to update later but for now, here is where we are as of now!

the best weekend yet!

Well, this post finds itself as a 'must' after our weekend. We had absolutely the best weekend, yet probably one of the most exhausting weekends, since we have lived in PA! We started this weekend off on Friday with the boys cutting the grass and then we all got out and did our standard errand running to the bank, the library, and recycling. After those errands were done, we went by Lowes to pick up a piece of pegboard for TinkyTiny's room, came back home and played outside and spent some much needed time together as the three of us watching movies and playing Legos.

Saturday morning started out by sleeping in to near 8:00, a little bit of breakfast and then we decided to venture out to do something new. We had never been on the riverwalk before and I had always wanted to do that and so we chose to take our bikes out and go for a family ride. What a beautiful day it was and what a great day for a bike ride. We rode the 2.75 miles down to where the walk crosses the river and decided to park on the grass and the boys decided to skip rocks and just hang out on the river for a while. Afterwards, we came home, grabbed some lunch, took a nap, and headed off to church. When church was over, we came home to Jambalaya in the crockpot and ate and crashed early - we were TIRED!

Sunday morning came around and like every Sunday morning, we got up and headed to church. We enjoyed our Sunday morning routine of church and Bible Club (for Chip) and then headed home to grab a small lunch. After lunch was over, we headed over to a friend's house and had a picnic of burgers, hot dogs, salad, and dessert. We coupled our meal with some friendly conversation and board game playing while Chip played soccer and sidewalk chalk with the big kids, while also coupled with a little board game playing himself! He partook in Yahtzee and Guess Who.


Monday came around and by now, our weekend had already been filled to the brim with fun but we decided to add to it by going fishing with some wonderful friends! Chip had gotten a fishing pole for Easter from Lee and so we went and tried it out. We went to two different places: the Montour Preserve and Trout Pond Park. At the Montour Preserve, the 'big lake' we didn't have such luck catching fish and so we moved to a walking trail where there was a small stream that went through the preserve and hit the motherload! We couldn't do anything ourselves for Chip snagging every little fish in the stream. He was THRILLED!!!!! after we had been at it for a few hours and had a picnic lunch, we headed out to Trout Pond Park where the fishing was a little more difficult but we did manage to come home with a couple of trout to eat. We were headed home from there when we got a phone call from some great friends that they were grilling burgers and did we want to head over. Well, we had no clue what we were going to do for dinner and so it sounded good to us, so off we went to one more stop for the weekend! We ate burgers, laughed about our weekends, had great conversation, and topped it off with Ice Cream for dessert and then came home, showered and crashed.

WHAT A BLAST!!! I hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend and spent it with those you love. I also hope that you took a moment to be silent and to remember those who died so that we could have these kinds of amazing weekends! Blessings to you all!!!

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Rebecca