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Monday, July 22, 2013

Week in Review

Monday and Tuesday we stayed at home all day! I love days like that. I got stuff marked off my to-do list and the kids and I had fun playing. Jacob was super busy all week with a music camp and lessons and some conducting. I felt like we didn't really see him much except in passing. :(

A sweet girl from church came on Monday afternoon and played with Lily while the boys napped. 
It has been soo hot and humid here lately. I've been kind of feeling bad because the humidity just zaps me (I guess it's the pregnancy - I've never really been bothered by the heat/humidity but I've never been this far along in a pregnancy at this time of year either) and we've been staying inside most of the time, and not going to the park much. Thankfully the kids have been happy for the most part to do inside activities. They played outside with ice cubes one morning before it got too hot, and I was able to get the van cleaned out. Ugh! Do your cars get trashed as fast as mine does? I need to make a habit of cleaning it out once a week.

Levi had a big week developmentally. This is kind of random, but he took a 3 1/2 hour nap on Tuesday (normally he naps around 1 1/2 hours) and woke up in the best mood. We went outside for a little bit after supper, and he started tumbling in the grass (putting his head down and flipping over). I know that might not seem like a big thing, but he's always been afraid to do it. We were all excited for him and he just did it over and over.

We came inside for baths, and Levi started pouring cups of water over his head - again, not that big a deal, but for him, he's always fussed when we washed his hair or he got water in his eyes.

Later, while I was rocking Asher before bed, Levi was playing in the floor and I overheard him say something with the "L" sound and he said "la" not "yuh" like he usually does. He's had trouble lifting his tongue to get the "la" sound out. Anyway, I asked him to say it again, and he did! I started jumping up and down squealing and scared poor Asher to death! Ha. We went through all the "L" words we could think of and he said them the right way! 

I love seeing all my children progress, but with all the obstacles Levi's had/has to work through, it just "extra"-amazes me when I see him overcome! 

Jacob set up the tent in the back yard and had a campout with Lily and Levi one night. They loved it! We roasted hotdogs and marshmallows over the fire pit and enjoyed yummy s'mores! I made homemade graham crackers for the first time and they turned out so good!

We spent lots of the week reading. I'm so thankful that my kids love to read! We sit and read for 2 hours or more everyday - not 2 hours straight, but broken up throughout the day. We've been trying to make it to the library once a week for new books, so that's fun. There is a little program at the library for children 3 and under that we went to last summer and it hadn't worked out for us to make it this summer until a couple weeks ago. Lily and Levi really like it and try to participate in the songs and nursery rhymes. Asher gets a little overwhelmed with all the people and noise and mostly wants to sit in my lap. 

On Friday, we met Grammie and did some shoe shopping for the kids. Levi and Asher both wear the same size now (crazy!!) and needed some bigger shoes. We found them some tennis shoes and got Lily some sandals. We ate lunch at Panera and ran into Uncle Judah who was eating with some of his co-workers.

Saturday morning was the men's prayer breakfast and Levi woke up early and went with Jacob. Lily and Asher played so well together all morning. 

I hadn't really planned anything for Saturday supper, so we just made what we had on hand - baked potatoes and grilled veggies. It was so yummy! We are getting a bunch of cucumbers, squash, zucchini, and jalepenos from our garden.

Three sweet munchkins on Sunday morning.

Monday, July 8, 2013

4th of July weekend

Wednesday was my birthday! We went to the library and ran errands in the morning, then met Jacob's family for lunch at Panera. We had an amazing supper with my family before church. It was a fun day!
Levi is such a ham! He likes to make silly faces whenever I tell him to smile :)

Asher is a rascal. He was ready to go home and have a nap.

We made vanilla ice cream and homemade chocolate syrup for our 4th of July picnic. L&L definitely approved of the syrup!

Jacob smoked ribs. So yummy!

We had so much rain on the 4th! This is a house we saw on the way to our church picnic. There was so much water over the roads, it was scary!

We spent most of the picnic under the carport at my Memaw's or under umbrellas.

I love this man!

Asher is such a fan of watermelon! He'll eat it all the way down to the rind.

The rain did finally let up about dark, so we got to watch a pretty fireworks show. It was such a change from last 4th of July when we were roasting in the 102ish degree weather!

Mr. Asher is a daredevil. He keeps me running constantly. Climbing and standing on high things are his favorite things to do. Yes, he falls sometimes, but does that stop him? Nope, not one little bit! Just this morning, he set the house alarm off by climbing on top of a high stool and getting my key chain off the table (and he pressed the panic button on the alarm). He was happily playing on the kitchen floor and I went to the living room for a mere 5 seconds to help Levi with something and the alarm starts blaring. AHH! What a kid!! :)

On Saturday, Jacob stayed with the kids while I ran to get groceries. I had a little extra time, so I did my favorite "me time" activity - go to thrift stores for children's books! I hit the jackpot for sure! 40 books for less than $15! I got lots of Little Golden books and other books that I had when I was little. Boy, were my kids thrilled when I got home! :)

Hope y'all had a great 4th of July weekend!

Friday, June 28, 2013

Evening at the park

A few weeks back, we decided kind of spur of the moment to take a picnic supper to a park by the river and enjoy some time as a family. The kids and I made a pizza, packed our picnic basket with veggies and fruit and plenty of water, and loaded up to go meet Jacob, who had been working all day. 
We had the best time watching boats on the river,

Exploring the train tracks,

Playing on the playground,

And just hanging out together! 
I love my little family!

Friday, June 21, 2013

20 weeks

I'm not really sure how I can already be half way through this pregnancy! Our sweet little one is going to be here before we know it!

We had our ultrasound on Wednesday. It was the first and probably the only ultrasound we'll have this time around, unless of course, there is a problem. The baby is doing great! Measuring right on schedule and developing properly, according to all we could tell.

We were thrilled to find out that we are having a sweet baby GIRL!!!!! I still feel like I need to pinch myself to believe it! Ha! 

Of course we would have been happy to have another little guy, but I've been praying the whole pregnancy that the Lord would bless us with a sister for Lily. I know how wonderful sisters are, and I have always hoped that Lily would have a sister close in age.

20 weeks

I am feeling good. This is the first pregnancy that I've experienced low back pain, and it's no fun. Thankfully I don't have it all the time though! 

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Snapshots from the weekend.

Jacob conducted at a music camp last week, so he was gone a lot. Lily wanted to take a picture and send it to him and tell him that we loved him and missed him lots. 

Friday night Jacob had a concert and I was planning to take the kids to Five Guys for supper, but spur of the moment we found out my family was eating at Cracker Barrel, so we joined them. Papaw attempted to teach L&L how to play checkers. :)

The kids and Uncle Luke. 

Silly kids.

During lunch on Saturday, I left the kids for like less than a minute to run to the bathroom and I came back to a kitchen covered in milk. Mr. Levi thought it was great fun to dip his hands in his cup and sling them everywhere. I spent the afternoon wiping down everything (which I really needed to do, so it was fine...just not exactly how I'd planned to spend the afternoon.)

Asher is such a climber. I was in another room and heard him frantically yelling, "ma-maaa, ma-maaa." I went running and found him on top of this table. He's a mess!

"Is it naptime yet?"

The kids got this ark for Christmas, and I just remembered to pull it out on Sunday morning. I think it's going to be a toy that they only get to play with on Sundays - to keep them occupied while mama and daddy get ready for church. :)

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Details about the baby.

Thank you all for your sweet congratulations on our announcement of our new baby! We are very excited!

I am 18 weeks along! Just two-ish weeks until we have an ultrasound and hopefully find out the gender! Yes, we normally announce a lot earlier than this, but the midwife wasn't able to find the baby's heartbeat at our 10 week appointment (which isn't normal for me and all my other pregnancies) and then when we did hear the heartbeat at 14 weeks, we had just found out about Memaw's terminal illness and with that and her passing, I just didn't feel like announcing. 

We found out about our new little one just a few days before traveling to Indiana for Jacob's brother's wedding and then to South Carolina for my brother's wedding the following weekend. With all the stress and craziness going on at that time, we decided to tell our families after the weddings were all over with. A few times on the trip to my brother's wedding (when Jacob couldn't go with us) I nearly broke down and told because I was just so exhausted and sick-ish feeling. 

We had a little birthday party for Asher's 1st birthday the Sunday night after Jer's wedding. Everyone from both sides of the immediate family was there except for Jer and Anna who were on their honeymoon. I slipped the big brother shirt on Asher at the beginning of the party and we announced. There was a lot of excitement and I think everyone was super surprised! :)

14 weeks
I am feeling really good, except for the exhaustion that has not gone away when I hit the second trimester. Probably a lot of it has to do with being a mommy to three littles already. :) I am trying my best to rest every afternoon when the kids are down for naps.

16 weeks

I am working out at the gym three times a week doing 25 minutes on the elliptical and about 15 minutes on weights. I also do pilates at home on the days I don't go to the gym.

18 weeks

Eeek! I'm really feeling large this time around. I guess my abdominal muscles are just give out from multiple close pregnancies. ha!

Jacob felt the baby kicking last night! It's definitely an active little one.

The estimated due date is November 6th, but with my track record, it'll probably be a week or so late. :)

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Weekend Happenings.

Hopefully I'm getting back into the groove of regular posting. May seems like such a blur - there is so much to catch up on.
This weekend my sweet great Aunt Kay came to visit. She lives out in Iowa, so my Mom's sister (Aunt Jan) flew out and drove Aunt Kay around to visit lots of different family members.

On Friday we went out to my parent's for lunch and to visit with Aunt Kay and Aunt Jan. The kids had a great time playing in the sprinkler.

We went back to Mom's on Saturday evening for more visiting. My kids certainly put the Aunts to work reading to them. Ha. 

I think my kids think we're always supposed to eat when we go to Yaya's. I fed them supper (and they all ate a lot) right before we went to visit and almost as soon as we got there they were begging for food! Seriously. "Mama, I'm so hungry." "I need food!" Ha! All three of my kids and my sister's oldest son climbed up to the table and wolfed down a bunch of food. I guess maybe all kids think they need to eat at their grandparent's? I remember eating Ritz crackers with peanut butter with Memaw and my Granddaddy always went to the day-old-bread store and brought home a trunk load of junk food like Little Debbie (I think) pecan rolls and snowballs. We loved them! 

So...obviously my kids love to read! Here's Papaw reading the same book to them that Aunt Jan read the night before! ha.