colorado fun

I am so grateful for good family! The kids and I took a trip out to Colorado in early June, and it was such a blast to be with almost all of the C-family side! The kids loved playing with cousins, and we definitely kept busy the whole time. 

 A trip to CO would not be complete without a stroll through the city zoo. Love this place! 

 Those long tongues even made L-man squirm - which says a lot since he loves animals so much!

 Lady-LE hanging out at the new elephant exhibit.

 Cute nephew C! 

Snack time!

  We watched an elephant get her bath and a regular grooming session.

 It was neat to see them a little more up close and learn from the zoo staff.

 We always love feeding the birds as well!

 This is the I'm-too-busy-to-really-give-you-a-good-smile look. 

 And after being disappointed by not seeing the bears we decided to ride the carousel! 

 All the cousins (minus Baby S)

 The next day was really warm, so we played out back in the kiddie pool! 

Yay for cousin time!

 The boys started playing a running and jumping-in game that they just thought was hilarious. 

 It started getting really interesting when they started doing it at the same time! Minor slips was all that happened, thank goodness!

One night we all even went to the circus! I might be wrong, but I don't think I've ever been to the circus before - so this was a first for many of us!

 The acrobats were by far my favorite! Simply amazing to watch them all! 

And yes, Lady-LE continued her trademark of covering her ears for almost the whole thing. She doesn't do so well with loud noises, but she definitely enjoyed it. 

This tiger portion was insane! So many tigers in the same ring with only one ring master. Yikes!! L-man especially loved this part!

Funky picture of us all, but we had a blast! 

Other memories not pictured:

-getting one of my teeth chipped from a minor collision with a niece at the zoo. Thankfully my sis-in-law's brother is a dentist in the city and he was able to check it out for me and give me peace of mind about what needs to happen in the near future

-helping J&C move into their new house! Even though I'm pregnant I still wanted to be of help and am so grateful they let me! And super excited for their new home - can't wait to see it again in person and see how they've settled all in.

-attending their church meeting and listening to my father-in-law speak. Seriously the highlight of the trip for me. Still impresses and resonates with me to this day. Incredibly grateful I was able to do that. 

a boy!

Even though Ryan could have taken me to the hospital any day to have our own sneak-peak at the baby, I dragged my feet about it until it was time for our official anatomy ultrasound with my OB's office. I had strong impressions that it was a boy, but also had some strong concerns that kept me from wanting to do our own thing. As it turned out, I have an anterior placenta with this pregnancy. That is nothing scary at all; it only means the placenta is in front, which literally kept me from feeling the baby move until maybe 22 weeks or so. I felt really uneasy about not feeling the baby move at all up until our ultrasound appointment, and if something had happened to the baby I wanted there to be other medical professionals there besides just my husband so that we could have more support if needed. Gratefully that was not the case, and instead we just watched the baby move around and kick like crazy without me being able to feel it at all. 

And we were able to offer a sincere prayer of gratitude for seeing beautiful images and video of our baby boy!!

So we are welcoming another boy "all-star" to the family {hopefully} around the 22nd of October!!

{ultrasound date: May 29}

moments in may

The problem with not keeping up on blogging for me is that I lose my memory so dang fast! May came and went, as does every other month, but I have very little to document of it. If I were to go by my camera photos alone, there would only be two days in May! 

 L-man had a birthday party to go to at a local strawberry farm. I could have just dropped him off, but wanted some strawberries for myself so we decided to make it a family outing. 

 They had this kids' maze set up and the kids loved it!

 Sweet L-man tried to carry his sister around ... but it didn't last very long.

 This was later in the season than we went last year, and look how few ripened berries there are! We were overwhelmed with rain this spring and summer. So much so that a lot of the farms were struggling to keep plants alive and thriving without any glimpse of the sun for weeks! 

 But we made the most of it and still found a few to bring home!

 And looking at these photos remind me of something - Lady-LE had an accident with the hot stove and burned her fingers. It happened in the evening, and her screaming woke up Daddy who was sleeping due to his night shift schedule. She absolutely refused to open her hand to show us the burn, and after trying to figure out a plan of action for over an hour we just gave her some children's ibuprofen and we all went to bed. We seriously could not get a good view of it at all, no matter what we tried, and she fell asleep holding her boo-boo buddy. 

The next morning it was the same story, and finally when Daddy came home from his shift we found a way to let her open her hand so we could evaluate. All four fingers had big blisters down the whole length. :( Poor girl. We got some medicated ointment for it, and special bandages to keep it clean and dry. We kept it wrapped for over two weeks, changing the bandages twice a day. She became quite talented at using just one hand, and I was grateful that it was the light-jacket kind of weather and we didn't have to struggle with long sleeves or heavy coats. 

Seriously! This girl has made Ryan's profession very necessary in this family! 

 A funny story to go along with the burn accident though - it happened right before L-man's preschool was working on their Mother's Day crafts, which included one of those questionnaires for the child to answer questions about their mom. Many of the questions related to this burn incident, and how "smart" I am to know that we shouldn't touch the stove when it is hot. Glad there was a take-home message even for him throughout the whole deal! Sheesh ... don't want to live through that again.

{another side note about it all - have I ever mentioned how L-man cries uncontrollably if his sister gets hurt? Holy cow. He's always done it, but this time around it was really bad because they were both just crying and crying loud forever. He's very empathetic I tell you. Whew!}

The only other photo memory we have from May is L-man's last day of preschool. Words cannot describe just how dearly I love this preschool! They had their sing-a-long on the last day again, and this time we were fully prepared with knowledge of every song. Lady-LE was singing along right beside me because we've watched those VBS music videos all.year.long. :) And L-man did not disappoint in his enthusiasm for it all. He was such a ham and performer! Cracked me up!

We were really sad to say goodbye to his teachers. Man alive they were good. 

He is super excited and ready to start kindergarten in the fall. We have loved and appreciate this preschool so much for helping prepare him and provide such a phenomenal atmosphere of love and learning. Lady-LE gets to start at the same preschool in the fall, and I must admit that I might be more excited than she is! :) It's been a great year, and summer here we come!

april snapshots

A few memories that are clumped together from April:

L-man had spring break the same week that I was hosted Lady-LE's preschool! So he got to play with us and join in on the fun. It actually worked out perfectly, and the kids enjoyed having a small change with a newcomer. 

 L-man continued his soccer practices. 

 This season he was almost the oldest in the bunch of 3-5 year olds, but still had a great time. 

 Lady-LE was just itching the whole time to get out and play herself. Soon, sweetheart!

 This was us playing our camera game again, and it turned out good! :) 

 Warm weather begs water fun! Have I ever mentioned how this girl wears her heart on her sleeve?

 She perked up pretty quickly when she was given apart in the play though. :)

 Love her squishy face.

 This sweet neighbor friend is getting cuter and cuter as she grows. We love baby Elizabeth!

We had fun at a preschool family activity where the kids had a chance to play on the playground afterwards.

Kindergarten Beginner's Day! It was a day that the school invites all the rising kindergartners to come and learn more about the school and what to expect in the fall when school starts. I didn't hesitate about it at all leading up to it - some of my friends are really emotional about this next step but I've been very matter-of-fact about it all. But the second we walked into the school and L-man clung on tighter to my arm and showed way more hesitation than I expected my eyes just started to water! I was a wreck! How silly!! The kids went in one room, and us parents went in another and I soon got myself under control. :) 

Washing the car with Daddy!

 Such good helpers! 

We even had a fun, short visit from my mom! She was flying to go visit a brand new grand-baby, and had a long layover in Charlotte so we made the most of it and brought her home with us to hang out for a few hours. And since there was an in-person opportunity, we couldn't resist sharing some good news:

Hooray! 

We were able to tell Ry's parents in person while in DC, and then got lucky enough to tell my mom in person too! We are excited to add another little one to our family in late October. 

April was definitely a full and very fun month!