Ruth,

You are still our sweet baby girl, full of sunshine.  You are a real joy in our lives.  You have grown in leaps and bounds since last year.  You are finally starting to get some height and are beginning to lose that rolly polly shape we love.  You run and do everything in your power to keep up with your big brother, who you still adore.  If he is doing it you are going to try.  That means you like to play with cars, you climbed your fort and went down the slide much earlier than he did, and you are currently attempting to jump, where you only get one foot off the floor.  You really love to spend as much time as possible in the pool.  You are starting to talk more in a way that we can understand.  Though I am constantly reminding you to enunciate words, and to say what you want rather than pointing and grunting then nodding uh-huh, when we guess correctly.

You seem to be just as excited as Britt about moving.  You don't talk about missing Daddy like he does, but you woke me up this morning, by bringing me the tape, and dragging an empty box.  So we packed a little together today.  You aren't much help, but you think you are.  I think the next year will bring lots of changes and excitement in your life.  A new house, leaves changing color, snow in the winter, and you don't know it yet, but Daddy is now working with Santa Claus.  Your enthusiasm and adventure when viewing the world is contagious.

You have been a little slow to adjust to the news of a new baby coming.  Though for now you have decided to slobber kisses all over my belly when we are cuddling.  I'm sure you'll be a good sister.  You worry over your dolls and stuff animals.  You are still tender hearted, quick to run to Britt when he gets hurt, to pat him and tell him "It ok, Bit."  You love to give kisses, and often a stern look is enough to stop you from doing something and put you in tears.  Every now and then you dig in your heels and show some temper.  You can be festy when you want. haha.

Over the last few days your nose has really been runny and bothering you.  You've slept alot today, and wanted to cuddle when you are awake.  I'm sorry you don't feel good for your birthday, but I am quite content to snuggle with you as much as you want today.  No matter what remember sweetheart that Momma and Daddy love you very much, and we pray that the Lord would bless you and guide you through life.

Love,
Momma

We are excited to share the news that we are expecting again!  I will be finding a doctor up in Indiana, when we get there.  I don't have any official dates yet, but we think baby number 3 will be arriving around the beginning of March.  Britt has known for a little while, and done a great job of keep a secret.  He is constantly reminding Ruth not to wallow or climb all over my belly, "or you will hurt the baby."  Whenever we ask him what he wants or what we are having he is very certain that it's another sister.  Ruth still points to herself when you ask where the baby is.  But in the last week, she has decided that there are three babies in there, one in each of the growing areas of my midsection.  They like to give the baby kisses at night, and Britt talks to the baby when he first gets up.  He usually asks random questions, and then fusses at my belly when he gets no response.  He wraps up the conversation by saying, "Don't make Momma's belly hurt today, or she will have to spit in the toilet again!"  Gary and I are so excited.  We just feel so blessed, to have a new job, preparing to move, and to be having a baby again.

So weekend before last, Gary and I flew up to Indiana to look around.  We were hoping to find a house to rent while I was up there.  He introduced me to alot of the folks he'll be working with, and I got to see the area.  For an area that's been suffering from one of the worst droughts they've had in 40 years, it looked pretty good.  We stayed at a nice little bed and breakfast, where we were able to talk with the owner over a couple of delicious breakfasts.
Everyone was pleasantly nice.  Surprisingly so.  They were more blunt and less deferential than the average Southerner, but for the most part they weren't actually rude.  Some were over the top sarcastic and kinda callus (which in my opinion is incredibly rude), but they weren't intentially rude.  Everyone we ran into asked us if we would be needing a new Church home.  Often it was one of the first questions asked.  I told Gary I thought that was just a Southern thing.  The area seems to be primarily Lutheran, but we saw some Methodist and Catholics.  The lady that ran our bed and breakfast was a Church of Christ.  Of course we hope to visit some of the Primitive Baptist Churches in the area, but will mostly attend the Church in Fort Wayne.
We were offered almost as many opinions on the best school systems in the area as anything else.  There are a few really good county schools in the two counties we are looking for houses in.  So, that's always a good thing to learn.  One of the best schools in the state is in one of them.  Finding a house is proving more difficult than we imagined.  Apparently in one county the 87% of the population owns their own home, and in the other 92% of the population owns their own home.  As a result there isn't much to rent, the two apartment complexes  we saw weren't big enough for a family, and were geared more toward singles or newly married couples.  Gary has found some places in unbelievably bad shape and one really nice place that needed a ton of work (aka no central heating, exposed wiring, but a jacuzzi tub, wrap around porch, and very fancy molding).  Another place he saw earlier this week wasn't in too bad shape but the fenced in yard was smaller than the kids swingset.  Today he found one place that might work, though the rent is a little high.  There are some other places he's hoping to look at this weekend, but it's going a little slow.
He's really enjoying the new job, but more on that in a later post.  We are really missing him here.  Britt broke his toy saw the other night, and I don't think it can be repaired.  Of course he wanted it fixed right that moment to sleep with, and when I told him I couldn't do it.  He ran off to bed crying and yelled, "Daddy would fix my tools!"  We've spent several evenings with his folks, but it's pretty lonely around here without him.
In the meantime we have gotten alot of packing done.  I'm estimating that I have gotten about 1/3 of the house packed up, maybe more.  All of the office, most of the living room, everything I could get away packing in the kids room, and the china cabinet.  I've worked on mine and Gary's closet today.  Joan came by and helped me pack in the kitchen what we could go ahead and pack up.  Only 20 more days till Gary comes back to move us.