Happy Fourth! After a very full month of June, we are ready to slow down a bit as we prepare for our new addition.
The last week of May we somehow ended up with plans every evening. It was also a week of milestones in Matt's life. Ten years ago on Memorial Day he made the decision to turn his life over to Christ. Twenty years ago on June 3rd, his mother went to be with Jesus. And he was born thirty years ago on June 2nd.
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| The boys and I surprised Matt at work for his 30th birthday with cupcakes and lunch! |
There was nothing on my calendar the next week, so I committed the week to stocking up my freezers with meals for after the baby comes. So it ended up being a busy and productive week. I am glad I got it done then, because I have since been losing motivation to get any projects done around here.
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| The boys enjoyed playing in the water one hot afternoon! I thought they looked like a firefighting crew in this picture. |
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| Levi got to go swimming in the pond one afternoon when some others came over to swim! He LOVES swimming!! |
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| My latest impulse buy at Aldi...I always like finding new entertainment to add to our deck! |
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| Since I didn't have a doctor appointment that week, I brought the boys to town with me for a field trip to the library and picnic at the park. |
Sunday the 10th was the Sunday School Picnic at Perkin's Park. It was Matt's last hurrah as a Sunday School teacher and Superintendent. The weather ended up cooperating and it was actually less than 90 degrees outside!
The next weekend was the Father-Son Campout at the fellowship center. Matt (being the Super-Daddy that he is) brought both boys with him AND kept them overnight! Both boys seemed to have a lot of fun camping with Daddy! They slept in a small room inside the fellowship center and used a pop-up sun shade for their "tent"...but that is considered camping for a one and two year old!
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| I received this picture at 11:30pm. In case Micah doesn't look like a zombie. The boys came home after breakfast the next morning, went down for naps at 10, and didn't wake up until 3 in the afternoon. A relaxing day for me! :) |
On Father's Day we joined the Schulz family at Mom and Dad's and had a dual 30th birthday celebration for Matt and James!
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| Grandma and Grandpa supplied all of the children with a balloon to take home! Micah was getting a little possessive and thought he needed to be holding ALL of them. |
Oh, and we have a small garden this year. Not sure why, since I get out there about once a week (or less). The whole "carpet" idea is working out nicely because it doesn't get weeds and I can just go out to pick the produce when it is ready. Which is also kind of a joke because I can't find the simultaneous time and energy to do anything with the produce when it comes inside. The garden does give me an excuse to go outside occasionally, since I would really just prefer to stay in the house all day at this stage of my life.
But hey, we have a garden! Levi thinks it is kind of cool and he will actually taste his green beans at supper now since he knows they came from our garden. :)
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| The "carpet garden" |
Now for a brief intermission as we catch up on miscellaneous pictures of the boys.
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| Rock climbing |
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| Picking flowers |
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| We got a cowboy hat from Phil and Kelli, so Levi decided he needed to ride his horse when he got home. |
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| I was doing exercises on my ball and Levi wanted to do it too. So I found them each a little ball to sit on so they could exercise just like me. (It must be noted that I was wearing more than a shirt and underwear.) |
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| A Big Tower! |
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| Levi has been learning his letter sounds. He was playing with this puzzle one afternoon and said, "Mom, I wrote kiss!" |
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| And this boy just discovered the dryer. Any time I leave it hanging open, he pulls out the clothes, climbs in, and tries to shut the door. A few days ago they were both playing in the dryer together and Micah managed to lock Levi inside! Oops... (ahem...confessions of a stay-at-home-mom) |
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| Micah's cheek had a run-in with his big brother's teeth and the brutal marks remained for several days. Thankfully Micah was all smiles later on! |
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| And then there are moments where they are best friends. Not sure which moments are more frequent, but I suppose in the end the joys seem to overshadow the cries. They didn't want to wear bibs for supper so I put aprons on instead. They ended up looking like two little girls in dresses. |
Matt left on business the Monday after Father's Day and was gone until Thursday night. It was a long week. I get very stir-crazy being home all day when he is gone, but it always sounds like a big ordeal to go anywhere either. So I sit home and lose my marbles. By the time he came home I was becoming very overwhelmed at the idea of adding a baby to the job of chasing after these two busy boys.
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| Another picture from Matt's job. They have been stringing power lines across a river, which has been quite an interesting process. |
Last week's schedule ended up filling up too. I brought the boys with me to town (AND to my doctor appointment-that was a first for me but it went well!) mainly so we could go to story time at the Burlington Library. I hadn't ever been there before and it was SO much fun for the boys!
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| Bubble time at the end! |
Wednesday I did my baking for church serving. Thursday after piano lessons we left on a mini-vacation to Davenport! We picked up Matt at work in the afternoon and got to the hotel in time to swim for awhile before supper.
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| They LOVE the water! Levi learned how to kick around the pool on his own! Micah also figured out how to climb up and down the ladder and fall back into the pool by himself. And he did it 95 times. :) |
We really didn't have a plan for the evening, but found out that Happy Joe's Jungle Bungle was only a couple blocks from our hotel, so we went there for supper and the evening so the boys could wear off the rest of their energy! I will also note here that Thursday was my birthday, since I have no photographic proof of the 24th anniversary of the event.
The next morning the boys were up bright and early. We spent our morning and afternoon at the Family Museum. It is a children's museum with all kinds of opportunities for play and pretend! There was a town with a grocery store, vet clinic, shoe store, pizza parlor, and post office, and then a farm, a water area, and a play house. It was so much fun!
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| Levi was fascinated by the grocery store! His first stop was the bakery area and he had his cart overflowing before he got past the cake and cookies. |
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| Checking out! |
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| He decided to make another trip for something healthy...and filled up his entire cart with tomatoes! |
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| Micah was kind of the wanderer. He was enjoying his ice cream cone for awhile. |
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| And then he found a stuffed puppy at the farm and carried it everywhere with him. |
The boys started getting tired around lunchtime, so we left and went through a drive thru and ate lunch in the van so they could sleep awhile. Then we returned to the museum for a couple more hours before coming home. We enjoyed the nice diversion from our usual routine (having Matt all to ourselves for 28 hours was probably the best part for me, I must admit!). I was exhausted when we got home so it even felt like vacation.
Now we are ready to hang out here until...well, I actually have zero plans to travel farther than Burlington for the rest of the year. :)
Then we had plans Saturday evening, served lunch at church on Sunday, and then went hopping from supper at my mom and dad's, to singing at church, to fireworks at Sperry. Monday was catch-up day at home, followed by get-behind day on Tuesday (AKA town day), and today we got Matt home with us! He spent the day working on the van and even got the car seats re-situated and ready for a third one!
Today marks one week until baby's due date. I have had a fantastic pregnancy and am very thankful for that. I credit most of my "feeling great" to eating healthy and could talk about that for hours. I'll try to spare you. But no sugar + no refined carbs has equaled WAY more energy, MUCH better sleep, and even ZERO heartburn! Yes, no heartburn. That one was a random nice surprise.
The doctor told me yesterday that I probably didn't need to plan on a Fourth of July baby. So I guess I'm just going to sit back and plan on going a week overdue again. Which is perfectly fine because I like my sleep, but there is also way too much suspense in wondering how everything is going to go.
This morning we celebrated Independence Day at the good ole' Northfield parade! It has become my favorite parade the past couple years. It is on a gravel road only three miles from our house, happens in the morning before it gets hot, lasts about three minutes, and somehow you still end up with too much candy. :) And you get to see horses and tractors, which are the boys' favorite things!
Hope you all enjoy the holiday! Our country, people, and leaders need our prayers more than ever, but we really have a lot to be thankful for. We are safe, we are happy, and we can freely worship the One who gave us everything. May God bless America!
