One healthy Peanut : )

I have been lucky that I have been blessed with a number of things that often we just expect to happen in life. I like to call them "Gimmes." Meet my Prince Charming, fall in love, and get married. Check. Have a happy marriage (with a little work) Check. Have a Family - - - a long, hard road but a big CHECK! And to be blessed with healthy children. Check! We are so thankful that we found out yesterday that we received another blessing. A healthy baby growing in my belly. We are so thankful that God has been watching over Peanut the last 20 weeks and know that He will for the rest of his/her life. Again something that many people take for granted as a gimme, but we know it is not. Really the only Gimme that we have in this life is God's Love. Ironically, it was when I discovered that having a child wasn't a gimme for us that I felt God's love the most.

Peanut was quite the acrobat during the ultrasound. It took a little concentration from our chatty Ultrasound tech to keep the wand where she needed to measure. With a little work, we got to see the 4 chambers of the heart, the brain, and many other organs. Of course we didn't know what in the world we were looking at!



I have to give Eric and I a big HUGE pat on the back. We stayed strong and didn't find out the sex of the baby! And believe me, we had plenty of chances to take a peek and see. I even have a picture of the baby's "parts" in a sealed envelope. I plan on getting Eric to put it under a heavy piece of furniture for safe keeping for the next 17 - 18 weeks or so ; ) By the way---------------->
those are Peanut's totsies. 10 toes!



I have been reminded that I have yet to do our vacation post. Sadly, someone left our USB cord to our digital camera somewhere between here, South Carolina, and Missouri. So it will be another week or so until I get the new one I ordered. Then I will download our oh-so-cute pictures and give a full update. Here is a preview though......Biker Week in Mytle Beach.....60 degree weather.....high wind advisory.....fevers......lots of snots.....and some dancing to Jimmy Buffett. Don't you wish you were there? : )

Goodbye Uncle Gary......

On the morning of Monday, May 12th our family lost my Uncle Gary. Uncle Gary fought a long hard battle with Melanoma for the last few years. We are so saddened that he is no longer with us, but are glad that he his no longer suffering.

The whole family traveled to Jackson, MO this weekend for his memorial on Saturday. The service was beautiful. There was a lot of tears but also a lot of laughter....very fitting for a man like him. Kara and Clint put together a wonderful slide show of pictures of his life set to music. It was nice to see his beautiful smile over and over again. Like the pastor said at the end, we didn't "lose" Uncle Gary because we know where he is. He is with our Heavenly Father, and I know that beautiful smile is shining down on us.

Please keep my family in your prayers as we grieve for this wonderful man.

Chaos! Chaos Everywhere!!

Well the only word to describe the last couple of weeks is absolute chaos! At the beginning of April we decided to take our house off the market and do some renovations to our house. My old home office just needed some drywall, door, framing and some paint and Voila! Instant Baby Peanut nursery! (And no moving truck, realtor fees and other headaches)


After calling around and getting quotes we found a contractor that could start the work immediately. Once again I was extremely thankful that Mimi and Papa live so close. We all packed up and moved in to their house for a week and a half while the work was done. The only thing that is left to do is to paint the nursery. We decided to do that ourselves since we don't know what color to go with yet. We may just wait to see if it is a Mr or Miss Peanut before we do it.


We had such a great time at Mimi and Papa's. It was so nice for me to have help with the kids during the day. I think my injured back finally got a chance to heal. The kids absolutely LOVED being with their Mimi and Papa so much. Papa left to go to Missouri a few days before we left. Ethan kept looking at his chair and asking "Papa?? Papa??" Now that we are at home now I think they are a little bored with little old me all day.


We are leaving to go to Myrtle Beach on Sunday. I can't decide if I am looking forward to it or dreading it. We are already prepared that it won't be the relaxing beach trip that we are used to. I am pretty sure that we will have to have one hand on Ella at all times to keep her from doing a swan dive into the pool. Ethan, on the other hand, will probably be permanately attached to my hip. I will most likely have an Ethan tan line on one side! At any rate, I am sure it will make for an entertaining and guaranteed cutie patootie pictures next entry : )