The Sound of Music

About a month ago, I bought The Sound of Music on VHS for $1. We've watched it twice through and the girls are really into it. There are definitely lots of questions that accompany watching it, especially questions about nuns and Nazis. Avery got Yahtzee Jr. for her birthday and she calls it her Nazi game. Not sure the word "Nazi" needs to be in a four-year old's vocabulary, but it is what it is...her daddy is a history buff, so it was bound to happen sooner than later.

Anyway, here is what Amanda has come away with:

Project 365, Week 26

June 21
Father's Day being on Sunday is a little tricky when your dad is a pastor...its his busiest day of the week! My sisters and me and our families surprised my dad and showed up at his church for service. The kids got to sing a song while he played his guitar and it was a big hit. My sister posted a short video.


Happy Father's Day, Shaun. After church we stopped for ice-cream on a dairy farm, then while the girls were napping, we watched a movie. In the evening we worked on the games and puzzles Avery had gotten for her birthday.

June 22
Nathan and Laryssa got Avery this make-your-own flip-flops kit, with the promise that Auntie Laryssa would come help Avery make them. After several phone calls in one day from Avery, Laryssa realized she better do it sooner rather than later. :) Avery was very pleased and now she and I have one-of-a-kind flip-flops! I haven't worn them out in public...yet.

June 23

Rain, rain, rain. The girls are so good about finding their own fun during all these rainy days we are stuck inside.

During a small window in between the rain, I loaded the girls in the stroller and we walked down to Main St to do some errands at the bank, post office and library. We figured we'd go play at the park for a little bit, but as soon as we got there the rain started. I hid under a tree but the girls didn't even seem to notice they were getting wet. When it didn't show signs of letting up, I called Shaun and asked him if he could pick us up on his way home. By the time he got there, the rain was slowing down.

June 24

Avery's birthday. We walked down the street to our local favorite breakfast place to celebrate with her.

June 25

Avery and Amanda got to attend Jared's elementary school graduation and spend some time with Auntie and Uncle Tony at their house.

June 26

Again, we got caught in the rain on the end of our walk, but this time, we got pelted with hail immediately and no tree was helping us stay dry. So, I made another call to Shaun, but just then our neighbor was driving home from work and spotted us. So, the girls and I, the double stroller and the dog all piled in his truck, completely soaked.

Later, this was the view from our front porch. THE most incredible rainbow I've ever seen. A double rainbow, both were full arches and very clear and vibrant.

June 27

We got a fairly early start to picking strawberries, in hopes of beating the rain that never came. The girls had fun, which was my main goal in the adventure, although I have to say being nine months pregnant took away much of the fun for me. The rest of the day, other than naps, we had a family day, helping daddy with some yard clean-up at one of the rental properties. We were so thankful for sunshine!

Go over to Sara's and see what other projects are out there...

Pregnancy-38 weeks

This was a good week. My emotions have leveled off, I think in large part because Shaun has been around more. Everything is just better when he's home in the evenings and has a little flexibility. I was also so happy about the results of the ultrasound on Monday.

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My focus for the week was to get caught up on some things for work and I made progress with that. While I can't predict the work that will come in, preventing me from "working ahead", there are plenty of things that fall into the category of "I can do them today or a month from now" and I'm trying to knock those off so they are not still sitting when the baby arrives.

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I feel comfortable, except for my back aching by late afternoon. I sleep soundly every night, although its almost always a full eight hours, which I don't require when I'm not pregnant. I guess my only impatience for his arrival is so that he'll be as small as possible. Amanda was nine days early, so that would put us at this Wednesday...we'll see.

My Sweet Birthday Girl

Birth Day

One year

Two Years

Three Years

Four Years

My little firstborn, my Avery-girl turned 4 years old today. She was so excited about being bigger, it was hard not to get caught up in her enthusiasm. For about a week she's been quizzing me about how big she will be when she turns 4 and what will happen. She just knows its older, and older is better....to her. Obviously her daddy and I have different feeling on the matter.

However, I read a great blog post a couple months ago that has been going through my head as I've been dealing with her birthday. You can read the entire thing here, but this is the part that I recalled as Avery's birthday approached:

I like watching you grow up into what God wants you to be. So often, parents want their kids to stay young. Don't grow up! You're my little princess! Oh, my sweet baby! Recognizing that God has a plan for our children (and realizing they need to learn to do stuff on their own) is essential to loving our children. Children need to be excited about growing up and finding God's way for their lives.

She really is becoming a beautiful young lady and I want to be excited with her about all the things she is learning and the ways she is competently independent. Its HARD watching my kids grow so fast but I know they really belong to God anyway.

Today, I am so thankful for the gift she is to our family. It is a cliche, but she really did fill a hole in my heart that I didn't even know existed. Before she was born, I was fairly certain life was just about perfect without children. The moment I first held her in my arms, I knew how wrong I had been.

Happy birthday, Sweet Girl. I'm so, so grateful that I get to be your momma and that I have a front row seat to watching you grow into the woman God created you to be. For now, let's just take it one year at a time...that's all my heart can take. Four is good.

Brecitals and Birthdays

Amanda's long awaited recital took place this past Saturday. She was the "star" of the show, dancing to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Most of the "routine", if there ever was one, imploded as one of the girls began to cry and three others in front stopped to stare at her. Amanda stuck with it and made up her own moves in the back, happy to be dancing on stage and having her moment.

After, her daddy and cousins gave her flowers.

I didn't verify it, but I think it likely she had the biggest fan club there. She was talking about her "brecital" for weeks leading up to it and she would ask me who was going to be there watching her. It was a time and money sacrifice for everyone to be there and on behalf of Amanda and our family, I say, "thank you"!

These great-grandparents were also there, but didn't make the picture.

Since we had dragged out most of the family anyway, we thought it would be a good chance to celebrate Avery's birthday, too. This was her reaction when Shaun showed her what was setup in our yard.

A bouncy house! A friend of ours loaned it to us for the day and Avery was thrilled!

Actually, all the kids were

Except the big cousins, who had to wait their turn.

In following tradition, I made Avery's cake, a princess cake at her request.

Here she is wearing a new birthday outfit with her cousin Allie. In all she had:

• 5 great-grandparents
• 5 grandparents
• 5 aunts
• 5 uncles
• 9 cousins
• 2 sort of related, but I couldn't tell you how people

What a blessed little lady she is. Thank you, Family for loving her like you do and for taking the time to show her. She's got a big heart and adores each one of you!

Photo Contest

I entered a couple pictures in a photo contest, and the voting started today. This is the site, which has the voting guidelines and all the photos. Basically, you click on the star beneath the photo you are voting for and you get three votes only. You have through Sunday the 28th. I entered these four:

#109 Nana & Avery

#108 Fun at the beach

#86 Cousins

#85 Summerfun

If you get a chance, go check out the photos...there were some great ones submitted.

Good Report!

The girls, my mom and I went for my ultrasound today and we got the good news that his head is down!! Thank the Lord!

He looks great and all the fluid levels are good. The only “problem” is that he measures at about 7lbs 11oz today, which is the 88th percentile. I understand those measurements are very loose, but even if he's close to that, in three weeks he will be large. My mom had two babies over 9 pounds and so far I've taken after her with easy pregnancies and deliveries, so I'm praying that will continue. Thankfully I will be pushing out my third and not my first!

Isn't this picture amazing? The tech couldn't get over how much hair he has...see it?? Like my mom said, if he was a girl (which they confirmed he is not) I'd be able to put bows in right from the start. In another picture his cheeks look very chubby.


I'm feeling so thankful for the good report we got today. Thank you all for your prayers...God is good!

Project 365, Week 25

June 14
We had a small graveside service to bury Shaun's grandmother.

June 15
Shaun, Avery and Amanda came to my OB appointment. Avery took over the camera and Amanda helped the doctor.


June 16
My friend Shelva was in town so she and her two little ones came over for a visit. It was a bit crazy but we still had fun. A little different now than "the good 'ole days" when we would talk over breakfast for four hours...but we know we'll get those back someday. :)

June 17

Amanda's last dance class and a pre-recital photo shoot.

June 18

Where I spent a good portion of my day. Shaun's grandparents were off for the day and Shaun hung around for the rainy morning so I could make a dent in my work. Love the productive days! I'm trying to catch up, keep up and get ahead on work before the baby comes. We usually slow down in the summer anyway, so it should be good timing.

June 19

After all the rain we've been having, conditions were perfect for playing at Daddy's softball game.

June 20

A big day for our family...Amanda had her first dance recital and Avery had her birthday party.

As always, Sara thank you for hosting! Check out her Project.

Happy Father's Day

A couple weeks ago when Shaun was right in the middle of his 80-hour weeks, he came home about 8 pm. Less than 10 minutes after he'd been home, I watched him walking out to the shop carrying a small wooden doll house, with Avery trailing right behind. It needed some gluing and Avery obviously had asked him if he could fix it. After such a long day of work and not being home, at that time there was nothing he thought was more important than helping Avery with something that was important to her.

That is classic Shaun and so are these tender and fun moments with his daughters. We are all madly in love with him and wish him a happy, happy Father's Day.

Pregnancy-37 weeks

I'm officially considered full-term today, which I'm trying not to think about, because it still could be another four weeks or so. I found this week to be a bit emotional for me. Its completely frustrating to be talking with someone and just bust into tears. BUT, after a few rough days, I feel like I'm stabilized again.

This week I went through the clothes that have been loaned or passed down to us. I washed them up and folded them in the dresser after I rearranged the girls clothes to allow for the extra dresser. So, so strange to have blue and brown! Avery simply cannot get enough of going through everything and exclaiming how tiny and cute it all is. I wonder if I'll ever be able to pick out his clothes.

I'm enjoying the movement and having this baby all to myself. My doctor and I both agree that he is laying sideways instead of head down like he should be. This has been a good thing because his feet have not been up in my ribs and his head has not been putting pressure on my bladder (explaining why I never have to get up in the middle of the night). However, its not a good position for delivery. I go for an ultrasound on Monday to confirm his position and I guess we'll have some decisions to make based on that information. If you would, please breath a quick prayer that he cooperates and does what he is supposed to do.

Avery, my budding photographer, has been really into taking shots of her baby brother. She instructs me whether to have my shirt up or down and places my hands where she thinks they should be. The idea is there anyway!