Fun and Labor over Labor Day Weekend

We didn't do anything spectacular over Labor Day weekend, but as I was thinking back on what we did do, I realized that we had a lot of fun AND got a lot accomplished. It was a good weekend! Here's what we did:

Karaoke and Campfire with the Sunderland's
On Friday night we barbequed at the Sunderland's house. Then we enjoyed watching the kids and Lee and Peter do karaoke. Peter can really belt it! Then we made s'mores around the campfire. We had a great time and the kids enjoyed running around the yard. They ended up setting their tent up in their family room and Emma stayed and spent the night. It was fun!



Pregnancy Pics
On Saturday morning Lee went target shooting, and then picked up Emma. Lee and Emma spent most of the rest of the day working in the yard (yeah, I feel a little guilty not being able to help them!). Later that evening we had some pregnancy pictures taken. A friend of ours from our ward had a new camera and wanted to do some experimenting so asked if we would mind being her guinea pigs. We did some casual pictures and had a good time on a beautiful evening at Molalla River State Park. She took some good pictures and they will be fun to have. Then we treated ourselves to ice cream at Dairy Queen!



Peaches!
On Sunday night we had a super yummy dinner at my parents house. Then, we went to my Grandma Dorothy's house to pick up the peaches she canned for me. Several years ago she taught me how to can peaches and I have done it every year since up until last year. I was still recovering from surgery last year when the peaches were ripe, so my Grandma did them for me. This year I didn't have the time (it's amazing how little of the day is left when you have to rest most of it), or the energy to do it, so she offered again to can for me. So, the weekend before Lee and Emma picked the peaches at a local orchard, and my Grandma canned them throughout the week. Oh, did I mention that she is almost 83 and had open heart surgery back in May?? She also came to my house this week and cleaned my fridge, vacuumed my entire house, even the stairs and the wood floors. I hope I am that spry when I am 83! I love my Grandma Dorothy! To add to our canned food storage, my wonderful Relief Society President brought over several quarts of applesauce that she canned for me. We are well taken care of and very blessed.

A New Front Door and Dirt Pile Sliding at the Gibb's
On Monday morning Lee got to go golfing with some friends (lest you think I make him work all the time!). Emma had two friends over all day so while she was occupied Lee painted our front door. I was so excited because I have been wanting to get that done since we moved in. Our white door was always ugly and dirty, and Harley (our sweet but not very smart pug) had scratched up a good portion of the door and the weatherstripping last fall. Now we have a pretty red door. Much improved! We bought all new hardware for the door, but that ended up being much more of a job than we had planned on, and we had to put the yucky brass stuff back on for now. Oh well, hopefully we will be able to put the nicer hardware on sometime soon, and it still looks much better than it did!

That evening we went to the Gibb's house for some dirt pile sliding fun. They have a huge dirt pile on their property that they love to invite kids over to slide down. So we went with a few other friends to let the kids get filthy on the dirt pile. They had a blast and were of course covered in dirt. The best part is after the sliding when Shannon gets them all clean with the air compressor hose. They love that and it actually does a good job in getting all the loose dirt off. Then we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows around the campfire and had a good dinner.

Emma got to lead the Gibb's horse, Belle, which was her favorite part of the night!

So, we didn't do anything amazing for Labor Day, but we had a perfect end to the summer and got ready for school starting the next day.

First day of 3rd Grade

Today was Emma's first day of school. I can't believe she is in third grade. It seems like just yesterday that it was her first day of kindergarten. She wasn't too excited about school starting until the end of last week. She isn't much of a morning person and wasn't looking forward to getting up and having a morning schedule again. But, when she found out last week that she got Mrs. Johnson, the teacher she has been hoping for all summer, she started getting a little excited. Then, on the day of the Meet and Greet, her teacher from last year asked Emma and her friend Lacey to help set up her classroom so she was at the school all day going between her old teacher's classroom, to her new teacher's classroom. By the time I got there for the Meet and Greet she was definitely more excited. A lot of her friends ended up in her class and she couldn't be happier. She woke up easily and happily this morning, and was thrilled to find out that daddy was still home. Lee usually leaves for work by 6:00 and since Emma's school doesn't start until 9:00, she doesn't usually get to see him on school mornings. He had given her a blessing last night and wished her good luck already, so she wasn't expecting to see him in the morning (the upside of his car not working and needing a new battery!). Lee made waffles which was what Emma requested for her first day breakfast, and he was also able to go to school with us. Right before we left she said that her stomach was starting to hurt a little because of "nervousation". =-)


I always have mixed emotions about the first day of school. It's sad for me to have her gone all day, especially now when I can't really get out much and do things to take advantage of the time she is at school. I miss her! But, I was glad that she was excited and I left her in the good hands of a great teacher.

Best of all, she got off the bus with a huge smile and said she had a really good day. I know she will do great this year.

Twins Update

Well, I've made it to the big 3-0! It's hard to believe that we are getting close to the end of the road. I definitely want to keep these babies in for several more weeks, but I am looking forward to getting my body back! I went to the doctor this last week and had another ultrasound. Everything looked good. Baby boy is 3 lbs 2 oz., and baby girl is 2 lbs 9 oz. They are a little on the small side, but not enough to be worried about. I do need to gain some more weight (never thought I would have to say that), which is getting more and more difficult. My appetite is gone right now, and when I do eat I get full very quickly. I guess I need to eat more ice cream! I now start going to the doctor every week, and he will do an ultrasound at every other appointment so we will get to see a lot of the babies. I am trying very hard to stay down for 2 hours each in the morning, afternoon, and evening, but it is really hard when it eats up half your day. I'm not able to do much anyway, so I guess I should look at it as good reading time since I'm sure I won't get much of that once they are here. We have both cribs set up, most of the basic baby paraphernalia bought, and quite a bit of clothes amassed, so we are feeling mostly ready in that department. But here's to at least 6 more weeks!

Weekend with the Palmer's

Our good friends Chuck and Lanna Palmer came to stay with us last weekend from Minnesota. They were here for Chuck's dad's wedding. We had such a great time with them here! They were busy a lot of the time, but we still managed a couple late nights and Burgerville runs. It was so nice to see them, and we also got to meet baby Ava who came with them. Emma was disappointed that they didn't bring their other kids, but she immediately fell in love with Ava and was a huge help with her. Hopefully that is another indication of how much help she will be when the twins get here!

We got to see Arianna at Chuck's dad's reception (Chuck & Lanna are Arianna's uncle & aunt, it was her grandpa that got married). We had fun talking with her, even though it was for a short amount of time.

We love the Palmer's and think they actually belong in Oregon. We can't believe they have been in the frigid north for almost six years. Come back!!! (our phone bills would certainly be cheaper!) It was great to have them here, even for a short time and hope we can see all the Palmer's again soon.

28 weeks

I have hit the 28 week mark. I can't believe how much closer we are getting. Crazy!! I went to the doctor yesterday and got some pretty strict instructions to lay low. He made me promise that I would lay down for two hours in the morning, two hours in the afternoon, and another two hours in the evening. That's a lot! He also said I couldn't be out for extended periods of time, and especially no long shopping trips. I've been having a lot of contractions though which isn't good, so I will lay down for 6 hours a day to keep these babies in me longer. Everything else was good. He didn't do an ultrasound this time, but we heard both heartbeats. I have an ultrasound in two weeks, then I start going every week after that. I feel like we still have so much to do to get ready for these babies...

Go outside and play

That's what I told Emma a few days ago. When I went out to check on her, this is what I found:

This is definitely Emma's idea of "playing", reading a good book. She has spent a lot of time reading this summer, which I certainly can't complain about. It's hard to tell her she can't read!

One of the things she really wanted to do this summer was go to the Wilsonville library (it's a much bigger library than our small town library). So, last week we rode the CAT (Canby Area Transit, free bus system) to the Wilsonville library. She was thrilled to be able to spend 2 hours in the library. I must admit it was rather nice for me too, we both sat and read. It was a highlight for her and I'm glad we were able to spend some mommy/daughter time together doing something we both love. Last year I started keeping a list of all the books I read during that year. Emma really wanted to start one too, so we've kept track of every chapter book she's read since January 1st. She surpassed the 100 book mark last week! It's become a friendly competition between the two of us, who can read the most books. Of course, she is way ahead of me! Some of those chapter books have been easy, some of them are bigger and harder, it just has to be a chapter book to be included on the list. We've also included on the list the books we've read outloud together. Right now we are reading the Little House on the Prairie books which she loves. As always, Emma participated in the summer reading program at the library. In about 6 weeks time she logged over 60 hours of reading (those are just the hours we kept track of). All of her hours got entered into a drawing and she won a $20 gift certificate to Fred Meyer. She was thrilled and promptly spent it.

I am so glad she loves to read, she definitely comes by it honestly! Now I just need to get her to really go outside and play!

Penguin Club Swim Meet

Yesterday was Emma's last day of Penguin Club for the summer. Penguin Club is kind of a junior swim team, this was her second summer doing it and she loves it. She swam one hour sessions, four days a week. A lot of the time she would go to open swim for the two hours before Penguin Club, so she's spent a lot of time at the pool this summer. The last day of Penguin Club is a swim meet. Emma swam in three events: the butterfly, breaststroke, and the 100M IM (one pool length each of the butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle, it makes me tired just thinking of it!). She learned a funny little sentence to help her remember the order of the IM, "butter your back and your breast is free." Emma did great and was first in each of her events.

Afterwards they each got ribbons with their times on them and a t-shirt. Emma is a great swimmer and we hope she keeps it up.

I must admit, I am a little glad that Penguin Club is over. She swam all spring too, and her poor chlorinated hair needs a break! We started the summer with two new swimsuits, that are absolutely thrashed now (it doesn't help that our pool is SUPER chlorinated). Unfortunately I waited too long to buy new ones, and we are having a hard time finding any in the stores or online. Why are they all gone by the middle of July??? We did finally hit upon some fun swim caps that helped save her hair a little. She loves her tye-died one and her fish. Much better than the "ugly" yellow one she had before.

Emma and her friend Lacey thought it was pretty funny when she got her hands stuck in the yellow swim cap.

I'm also glad not to have to sit in the uncomfortable bleachers at the hot, muggy pool (although I only went for the last 10-15 minutes each day!). Now, soccer will be starting in a few weeks and soon we will be sitting on the cold, wet sidelines. Hmmm...I wonder which is worse!

A Day at the Beach

We spent Saturday with my family at the beach. It was a gorgeous day in Lincoln City with sun and blue skies, but it was really windy which made it cold. We spent several hours on the beach with the adults mostly all bundled up, while Emma, Tenley and sometimes Kaitlin played out in the water. Emma is crazy and was in her swimsuit the whole time and in and out of the water. That's the way she's always been at the beach, even with the freezing Oregon coast water. The wind made it a perfect day to fly our new kite. Emma was so excited to finally be able to fly it.

After playing on the beach we went to dinner at Mo's which is a family tradition. Yummy clam chowder!

The beach that Mo's is on happened to be having a sandcastle building contest. It wasn't a professional one, but there were some good sculptures and we enjoyed looking at them. After Mo's we hit the outlet mall and got some school shopping done. Emma is almost all ready for school (which is coming faster than I want to admit!). We had a great day and made some good memories.

11 years and still going strong

Today is our 11th wedding anniversary. I can't believe it has been 11 years since we were married! We have had a few ups and downs along the way, but it has really been a wonderful ride. I couldn't ask for a better friend and husband in Lee. He supports me, he takes care of me, he listens to me, and he leads our family with strength. He is an amazing daddy to Emma and will be to these two little babies coming soon, too. I am so blessed to have him to go through this life with, as well as into eternity. We are embarking now on a whole new phase in our marriage as we add the twins to our family, but I am excited for what lies ahead. Thanks for 11 great years, I love you Lee!

Our scanner isn't working right now, so I took a picture of one of our wedding pictures and another of a recent picture that somebody gave to us. The quality isn't great, but you can see us then and now!

On another note, today is also the one year anniversary of the second surgery I had last summer (the third in less than a years time). I was thinking last night how ironic it was that I was at the doctor's office yesterday having an ultrasound and getting a peak at the twins, when exactly one year before I was in the same ultrasound exam room with the same doctor telling me I would have to have surgery the next day. When I told my doctor the day after the surgery that he had operated on me on our 10th anniversary, he teased that he had spent more time with me on my anniversary than Lee had. Thankfully that won't be the same today! A lot has happened in the last year, and it's a miracle we are where we are now. We really are blessed!

Another old friend

I got to see another one of my good friends this week, Tasha (no, she's not old, I've just known her for a long time!). She and her kids came to play while they were in town from Utah. It was great to catch up with her and to let the kids play. Thanks for coming by Tasha!

Ashley & Emma

Tasha & all the kids