Family Reunion

We had a fun weekend!  We had a family reunion at my parents' house and my hometown also had their annual celebration.

 We went to the parade with our east coast cousins.

 Cousin L and G were in the parade.

Then we headed to Grandpa and Grandma's for an entire day of family reunion fun.  Which of course included sweet corn!  The llamas loved the corn shucks!

 Uncle J was in charge of the meat, and he sure knows how to smoke large pieces!

This girl LOVES meat!

 We even got to celebrate Great Aunt Phyllis' belated 90th birthday!

 The kids enjoyed a water balloon fight.

And we ended the evening with a fire and s'mores!

Prego Pictures

36 weeks and counting.

I had 12 hours of mild but persistent contractions a few days ago.  I finally was able to fall asleep at 2 AM and when I woke that morning they had stopped.  About 10 PM, I decided I had better pack a few things in a hospital bag.  I also took a shower at 1 AM because I realized I probably needed to shave my legs if I really was going into labor.  Thankfully, it was just false labor.  I'd feel much better about contractions in 2 more weeks. 

Chasing two kids with a belly is exhausting.  I am ready for this pregnancy to be over.  I really try to savor the baby's movements all day long, but it's to the point of making me nauseous when I see and feel my belly roll with tidal waves.

 

 

We are all patiently (or at least trying) waiting to hold this little being in our arms.

 

 

 

Nesting

Lance keeps making fun of me for "nesting", but I keep reminding him I'm just doing things that HAVE to be done before baby #3 arrives.  Ok, so cleaning the carpets and dusting all the trim in the house may have been "nesting."  But everything else just needs to get done. 

The kids will have to share a room until we finish the basement, so my talented woodworker husband is constructing a custom made bunk bed for the kids.  So he's not actually a woodworker, but he definitely is good at figuring things out even if it's not something he's done before.  I found some basic bunk bed plans that I knew he could handle.  He thought I was crazy at first, but he's doing an amazing job!  We had to tweak a few more dimensions than planned, so it's taking a bit longer than we hoped.  For now, Mara is able to sleep on the bottom, and hopefully the whole thing will be finished in the next week or so.  More pictures to come soon!

In the meantime, the kids have been working hard on artwork for the walls in their new shared room!

He finally got to graduate to a booster seat.  But after cleaning up the floor after every meal, I really wish he was back in his high chair.

I've gotten most of the baby stuff washed and ready.  The kids love trying out all the baby stuff.  The swing kept them entertained for quite awhile one morning.  I figured it was best to let them try everything out now before there's a real baby for them to practice on!

Just a Castin' and a Reelin'

The kids have never been fishing, and it's on our summer bucket list. So we did it today.  We headed to one of Lance's customers private pond and enjoyed some peaceful fishing time!  It was so beautiful and quiet, I'm thinking about getting a babysitter tomorrow and heading there with a chair and book for a couple hours!  Wishful thinking.....

Of course, the girl in pink was in charge of the worms.  "I love worms so much, Mom!"

learning how to cast

So we had quite a few "bites" but NEVER caught a fish.  Not sure what was a matter.  The expert fisherman tried a couple different tackle options, but nothing caught us a fish.  We warned them ahead of time that they might not catch one.  I was pleasantly surprised how much they enjoyed the experience and really didn't seem to care that we didn't catch one. 

We checked out the animal tracks.

There were TONS of frogs!  Large and small.  They were hanging out in the mud but were so quick to jump in the water when approached, so I couldn't even get a picture of them.  But there was seriously a frog like every couple of feet along the bank.  They made this squeaking noise when they jumped into the water.  I did get a picture of the lily pads since I couldn't capture the frogs.

What to do when you don't get a bite for awhile?  Bust open the candy of course!  Candy is a special treat around here, so they were really enjoying themselves!

 

On our way home, we spotted a LARGE helicopter spraying a field!  Of course, we had to stop, roll down the windows and watch for a bit.