9 Weeks

I scheduled the birth of Ava Jane for July 19th, so that will be her birthday unless something unforeseen happens! We are so looking forward to it and to her coming. We have been working on consolidating Matt's office so that she has a room to sleep in. Trying to make it cute. It's not coming together as easily as Jack's room did, but little by little it is coming along. And we have a little time still to get it ready. Now we just need to paint and accessorize. Accessorizing is the fun (but could get expensive) part. What I wouldn't give to be able to walk into Pottery Barn Kids and actually buy something! That's the cutest store ever! Maybe someday!

Looking forward to a beautiful week. The weather should be great for playing outside, and we haven't been able to do that for a while. So we are looking forward to some outings this week that we have planned.

10 weeks to go...

Since I'm counting down, just thought I'd let everyone know only 10 weeks to go! I'm 30 weeks along today. Whoohoo as Jack would say! We had a great mother's day yesterday with great church services, yummy dinners, gushy cards, and time with family! The best! I love how loved Matt and Jack make me feel (along with both sides of the family). It makes me proud and happy to be the woman in their lives. I'm also looking forward to having a daughter with whom I can have that relationship, too!

So we're getting very excited in our house for her arrival. Jack said last night sighing, "I want my sister." It's hard for all of us to wait! But she's much better off where she is than if we had her to look at. I'm feeling good and just looking so forward to the end being near. The date is July 19th. I'm starting to get her massive amounts of clothes in order. Matt said, "She has more clothes than I do, and she's an amoeba. It's just not right." HA So yes, that's true although most have been given to us. Nice! So today I'm hoping to organize them and put them in her dresser and sort of start getting her "room" ready. She will be in the study for a while which we are hoping to fix up a little before she is born. But she won't care, I guess. I'm the one that likes fixing the house up. Since I'm never in that room, I usually just shut the door and don't look at it. But as I told Matt, "If I have to spend any amount of time in here, I want it to be pretty." So we'll see!

11 Weeks!

11 weeks to go until Ava will make her appearance. Looking forward to her being here! I recently got an urge to decorate Jack's room (too much HGTV, I guess), so here are some pictures. I am happy with how it turned out, and all we really did was paint, new curtains, rearranged and consolidated. I packed away his baby stuff and now let him have his games (his big boy stuff!) in his room. He must like it because he kept saying how beautiful his room was. And it didn't even take 2 full days of working on it. So I was inspired to continue and redo the study, but Matt says this is all for now. Little by little, I guess. I don't know if these are the best pictures, but I just stood in each corner and took one. I don't feel like it got everything, but oh well. You can get an idea. The first one is from the door.

So a couple of funny Jack sayings lately:

Yesterday, it was too quiet, so I said, "Jack? What are you doing?" "Nuffin'" "No, what are you doing?" "Just relaxin'." And he was! Just lying on the floor in his room. HA

He's very independent which makes me proud and sometimes sad, so one Sunday I was actually going with him to Jr. Church because I was supposed to help; and he said, "You don't need to come, Mommy." Oh well!

In other news...we've been having some great services at church. God is working in our church, and we seem to be growing both spiritually and in numbers! What a blessing! We now have close to 20 members in our Homestarters Sunday School class which means lots more kids running around our church, and I just love it. There's at least 20 small kids now for Jack to grow up with and eventually be in the youth group with. So that is very exciting! But in the meantime, we are starting a playdate in the park this week in which the moms and their kids can meet once a week and visit and play. This could turn into more of a ministry, but right now we are excited about this fun thing to do for the summer. We found a great park close to the church that is semi-secluded, so we are looking forward to this. I always try to catch up with all of the moms; and since there are so many now, this will be an easier way to do it. So far, they seem to be interested; so we'll see how it goes.

More Ava

Had another ultrasound. Ava weighs 2 lbs. 3 ozs. I got tons of pictures, but just chose a few to put on here. The feet ones were fun. She is a mover, so it's sometimes hard to get good pictures. But I got to see her rubbing her face with her hands and playing with her toes. Also we got to see her eyes opening and closing and could tell she has hair! Very fun! I think it should be required once a week just to help the mom remember the bigger picture. 12 weeks to go! For the first time, I feel like I can do this. Jack got to come this time and hung in there for about 5 minutes before finding something else to do in the room. Luckily they had crayons and pictures to color. Once we were done, he said, "Mommy, are you all better?"

Make 'em laugh!

I don't know if Jack is trying to get me to laugh, but this is the new thing. If I get off the phone, he will ask who I was talking to and say, "I like her. She's a nice lady." Or "Really? I love her!" Or when I ask what he thinks about something, "I love it (or them)." When I tell him what we're doing that day (and if he likes it), he says, "That's wonderful! or perfect or gorgeous...etc." So he could really mean all of it or he could have picked up on the fact that whenever he says something like that, I laugh. And his goal is to get us to laugh right now.

Just loving the weather! This week we will be wrapping up some ministries at church before the summer. Awana will be ending Wednesday with the awards night, and the Ladies Fellowship is having our last Bible study for this year on Friday. But then softball will be starting, and I'm sure we will find ways to keep busy! Hoping to have more class activities with all of this nice weather we are experiencing! And then the baby will come. Eventually. I think.

I am at 25 weeks along and am starting to count down. 14 weeks to go. It's still a lot, but it sounds a lot more doable than 40! I will be delivering on July 19th if everything goes as planned. I have been having more pain when I walk, so that is frustrating; but other than that, I feel good. And this weather really helps!

We had a great day at church today! A new family coming and others coming more regularly. Very exciting to see some growth. We had a picnic today after the morning service, and many came to that.

This week Rebekah has a birthday - Happy Birthday, Aunt Bek! Hope you have a great week! She's a great sister and a great aunt. And as she would say the "best daughter". HA

Happy Easter and other Happenings...

At the zoo - Isn't this the life?

Target Field - the new home of the MN Twins