Day at the Farm

 

Our MOPS group recently took a Playdate to a place called Shiloh Farms. It is a Christian ministry that allows kids, church groups, etc. to experience life a on a farm, to pet animals, ride horses, etc. It was a really neat place and the kids had so many opportunities they would not have ordinarily gotten. They both love animals and I saw a whole new side of Leah, who is normally afraid to try anything! She was so excited to do everything, especially ride the horse!

Even though she looks scared, she really wasn’t until maybe the very end when she wasn’t sure how to get off. They really only rode about a minute or two around a ring.

 

They got to take a ride around the farm on both a train and a 4-wheeler.

 

And my absolute favorite picture of the day. Leah got to hold a brand new baby goat!

Andrew pet the Daddy goat.

And they got to have Icees. You can see by how dirty his face is that they had fun! (And you can also see his new curl-less haircut in this picture.)

Baby #3- Halfway There!

Our family is now living the American dream: 2.5 children... Well, okay, we don't have a dog or a white picket fence. Are those required? Anyway, I can hardly believe this pregnancy is halfway over (I am at 20.5 weeks.) And yet I know the longest part is yet to come. So far this time around has been just as easy as the others. I haven't had many symptoms at all. There was a little nausea the first few weeks, but only when I didn't eat regularly, and nothing serious. I'm more tired now, during the 2nd trimester, than I was the 1st trimester, which is unusual, but then, I do have 2 preschoolers! I really haven't even had many cravings.

I feel like I'm showing way more than I should be at this point, and have already gained 16 pounds (which is about what I had gained with Leah by this time), but I'm not worried. I'm just this week feeling the baby move more regularly. I have been feeling it only slightly right before bedtime for a couple weeks now, but there is definitely more activity now.

We really haven't done much at all to get ready for the baby, yet, with the exception of purchasing a bigger car and a car seat for Andrew. But really we have pretty much anything a baby would need to survive around here. We have had someone offer us a toddler bed, so Andrew has a few changes coming up in the near future.

And now, finally, we reached my favorite milestone: the revealing of the baby's gender. Nothing really seems official until I know this one big question. Though many people tried to persuade us not to find out this time, I do not like to be surprised in something that requires so much planning and preparation. So I needed to know. But Brett, however, wasn't so sure he wanted to know. He knew though that it would be a hard secret for me to keep, so here's what we did:

It's a gender reveal cake. Partially in celebration of Father's Day, and partially so that I got the privilege of telling him the gender rather than the ultrasound technician, he stepped out during that portion of the ultrasound, and all day I kept the secret. I made him a cake with pink icing in the center, carefully concealed by plain white icing. So when he made the first cut, he knew right away it was a girl!

My preference for a particular gender went back and forth. At first, I really wanted a boy (and, thus, convinced myself that my instincts were saying boy), because: a) a boy would be easiest, since the nursery is already decorated for a boy, b) it would be nice to have the 2 boys close in age, c) boys are much less drama and generally less high maintenance (although Andrew as a baby was not so much!). Then, about 4 or 5 weeks ago my instincts started leaning more towards maybe I'm having a girl. I haven't felt much movement, and the baby is sitting very low, both of which happened while I was pregnant with Leah. And I started convincing myself that having a little girl to dress up again would be fun. So I realized I would be content either way! Brett was excited, too, and said girl was also his instinct.

Somehow we were lucky enough to see the ultrasound in 3-D this time-- I've never had that before, but apparently that's standard at this doctor. It was so cool to see our baby in "real life." Although she was quite shy and kept putting her hands in front of her face.

"No pictures, please!"

Drama Queen:

"Okay, I'm tired now." We caught her yawning!

She does have some sort of issue with her kidneys, where they are not functioning properly, not draining like they should be. The doctor was not too concerned at this point, it may be that they just haven't finished developing. They will monitor me and do another ultrasound in a month. If there is still an issue at that point, I will be placed in a higher risk pregnancy. We are praying none of this is necessary and everything turns out okay with our little girl's kidneys.

Our New Ride

Though we loved not having car payments for almost a year, there was no way our growing family was going to fit in either of our small vehicles. So we had to get a new one. Brett did all the research before we went out, looking on Consumer Reports and searching online. We knew we wanted a 3rd row of seats and plenty of trunk space. We really only looked at about 3 different models and finally this is what we got:

It is a 2005 Toyota Sequoia. It is taking me awhile to get used to how huge it is, but I know we will love it for longer trips, or even just short ones once the baby comes. We can easily fit all 3 car seats in the middle row and still have the whole back seat for other people or stuff! Plus my stroller fits in the trunk with room for groceries. I love that the kids can get in themselves and then I can close them in to be out of traffic. We also love the comfy leather seats and lots of storage space. We pray it lasts us a long time!

This Is What Summer's All About...

I finally decided it was warm enough (and not raining long enough) to get out our little kiddie pool. We bought this at the end of the season about 2 years ago. Last year we didn't use it at all, and now I have no idea why. The kids both loved it! It took Andrew a minute to decide to get in, but once he did, he was all over the place. He loved to splash, and every time he sat down in the water, his look was priceless, like it was freezing, even though it really was warm. Leah loved to pretend she was "swimming." We are definitely giving that girl swimming lessons this summer.

A few days later, our neighbor gave us a watermelon. Andrew thoroughly enjoyed it! And his shirt is still showing the evidence...

 Andrew has always had a fascination with the lawn mower. So when we were playing outside the other day, Brett let him push it around the yard with him (not powered on). Of course, Leah had to get in on the action.

And can you believe it's only the beginning of June? We still have 3 more months of fun!