Celebrating Nana and Grandpa's 40 years of Marriage

Last weekend was our last overnight until baby comes, kind of crazy to think about.  At the beginning of the summer Nana and Grandpa's only request to celebrate their 40th!!!! wedding anniversary was to have both families home at the same time.  Pretty simple, right? :)

It was great to have everyone together!

The kiddos are at awesome ages where they play so well together too!

Helping Nana make the fruit pizza for lunch!

Playing with the doll house...shhhhh don't tell them that's coming to our house soon, as a surprise after Baby arrives.  Thank you Hannah for sharing that with the girls!!!

Cousins hanging out.  Cannon Lllllllllllloved Libby and Libby llllllllllllllllllloooooved Cannon.  Sally got a little jealous sometimes of all the attention Libby got from Cannon ;)

Grandparents with their Grandkids

The whole crew, out to celebrate at Rudy's Redeye Grill

His only request at dinner was to sit next to Libby

All weekend Libby kept telling me that to celebrate the anniversary we needed to go get flowers, so we did just that after Mass Sunday morning, and surprised Nana and Grandpa.

One from each grandchild, Squirt too!

Happy Anniversary Nana and Grandpa!  Thank you for setting such a good example of what a true marriage is!!  Thank you for a fantastic weekend filled with wonderful conversation and memories!  We love you!

Apparently all you need is a road trip to Kansas to teach your children to take naps in the car!!

*****
Apparently this isn't our lucky week for appointments.  Yesterday I brought the girls with me to my prenatal appointment.  What was supposed to be a quick weight check, blood pressure, measure baby belly and listen to a heartbeat turned in to a lot of waiting around.  Grrrrr, I hate when that happens.  Thankfully the girls were FANTASTIC

The receptionist was prepared with coloring pages and crayons.  They have always told me it is a kid-friendly office

More waiting in the check up room.  Luckily Mom is tech-savvy and used the touch screen to find my way to the National Geographic Kid Videos they provide for you...usually the nurse turns it on ;)

The 3,568 time Sally redid her ponytail, now that she knows how to do it herself :)

All is well with Squirt!  So well in fact, that they're letting me skip my, what should be 2 week in between check-up and just wait until I'm 36, almost 37 weeks, eeeeeeeeeeeeek!  Because I don't have a history of high blood pressure or pre-term labor they feel comfortable doing so.  The heart rate this week was a little higher, in the 150's, maybe it was feeling the impatience of Mom sitting and waiting for over 45 minutes!!

Thank you for those who have submitted their guess.  Don't be shy, give it a guess, I'd love to know who actually reads this blog :) Don't worry about making me feel bad with your guess if you think it'll be large and in charge or if I'll be overdue.  I'm actually hoping for a few days late and I think it'll be over 10 lbs :)  Guess away!!  If for some reason the link doesn't work the game name is SquirtC-Mile


Continuing with the unlucky appointments, Sally had a dentist check up today.  We waited for 35 minutes!!!! to get called back, they came and apologized after 20, so I would know they didn't forget about us.  The cleaning was quick and then we had to wait for the Doctor.  When it was all said and done we were there for an hour and 10 minutes.  We've never had to wait THAT long before.  OOOfta.  And to think next time Libby will get checked too, and I'll have a 3rd little sidekick to take along!

Thankfully Rapunzel was the movie playing and they have a great little tree house so the girls were occupied once again!

Watching very closely as she knows she has a turn in a few months!

Love this girl and her creativity! Thank you Nana and Grandpa for the adorable cowgirl boots!!

Tonight we have Sally's Kindergarten Picnic, to meet new friends and the fellow Kindergarten Families.  We're quite excited!

She wanted to help make the Salad we are sharing.  Thank you Grandma for the awesome recipe!!

"I can't WAIT to meet new friends"-Sally

aaaaand that's a wrap!

Last Friday was our last day of the pool.  Continuing to teach the girls to be thankful it happened instead of sad that it's over.  We certainly had a good run at it this summer!!

There's so much growth during the summer months!!

Silly Faces!

Underwater Handstand

One last sister swim while Mommy can just sit and smile from the sidelines

Strike a pose!

Love her tan and her little beach bum

Belting out Skol Vikings!

As a treat for our last time, we didn't pack our lunch and we ordered it from the pool.  The girls were allowed to go up and order their own dessert after they finished their lunch

Traditional final walk poses

"See you next summer Pool, and we'll have baby too!" -Sally

Sally is quite proud that she knows how to use a hair tie now and loves to do she and Libby's hair :)

L got to stay up a little later the other night and play Candlyland with Daddy.  Mommy got to go with Kari and help Tiffany set up her new classroom!

 "Can I take a picture of you Daddy?"-L

It was Grandma Peggy's Birthday on Friday too!  I even got to see her in person the next day to hand deliver her gifts!  Thanks for teaching me everything I need to know about being a mom! Hope you had a great birthday! Love you!

With no pool open this morning and a cool breeze, we headed up to the new park, which used to be known as the green park.  The girls had fun!

This is how I'll always remember the summer of 2014 :)

Happy Monday! I'll be back soon with pictures from our weekend in Alexandria, celebrating Nana and Grandpa's 40th Wedding Anniversary!

Don't forget to submit a Squirt Guess!

Invaluable Years

The date is creeping closer and closer.  We've already had two months of paying tuition.  In less than 2 weeks, Sally will officially be a school-aged child.  

To be completely honest, we're kind of ready.  We all need a little break from one another.  We need a good solid routine again.  However, that doesn't mean I'm not torturing myself with envisioning her walking up those great big steps of the giant yellow school bus and waving with a huge grin on her face, as she heads off to take on the world.  And she will have a huge grin because the girl is soooooooooo excited!

The whole bus thing just gets me every single time.  I know, come the dead of winter how much I will come to appreciate that bus because it'll mean I don't have to load up the newborn and the feisty toddler twice a day, every day, quite possibly having to wake one or both from sleeping.  The bus is a very good thing, and I know that, it's just that she's only 5 and I've always brought her to where she needs to go, but this time I just need to let her go.

My little girl, the one who first made me a mama.  With the anticipation of the new baby you think about snuggling a newborn again and I can vividly remember the first snuggles with Sally.  How can it possibly already be time for her to start Kindergarten?

How perfect is this quote I read last night in my pregnancy journal thing:

"The mother-child relationship is paradoxical and, in a sense, tragic.  It requires the most intense love on the mother's side, yet this very love must help the child grow away from the mother and to become fully independent." -Erich Fromm

I remember, 4ish years ago, being so nervous to tell the families of the school I used to teach for that I had decided to resign mid-year, to stay home and raise Sally and our future children.  There were more than a handful of mothers that gave me the biggest hugs affirming the decision I had made.  "You won't regret this decision for one second.  The time is so very valuable and it goes incredibly fast. You can always come back to work, but you can't get back the time you can spend with your children."  It was and has been the best decision we have made for our family.  I'm so very thankful for the blessings we've been given in order to make this work.  My goodness, it hasn't been easy, but boy has it been worth it!

The days go slowly, but the years fly by!  From what I hear, once they start school, it only goes faster!

Alright alright, enough of that for now, up until this point I've done a pretty good job of avoiding reading the traditional blog posts and sappy poems of sending your first child off to Kindergarten. My one friend made a good point.  What's the point of reading it?  It's going to be hard no matter what.  Reading those things is like self abuse.  She's totally right :)

So, on a lighter note, here's what we've been enjoying this week.

Sister Moments

Perfecting the Underwater Handstand!

The Okee Dokee Brothers!

Sally was a little Star Struck--Justin smiled right at her

The concert was a complete gong show, these guys are a pretty big deal.  And I fully anticipated the craziness of the event.  Just thankful I didn't have to push a stroller through all of the craziness and that fact that we found a spot off to the side in the shade!

Enjoying the fact that they can do things on their own with a watchful Mama from a distance

"Mom, they sound just like the CD in the car!" -Libby

 She loves to pull all my hair to one side

Just enjoying :)

Happy Hump Day, Happy 32 Weeks, go submit a guess in the baby poll :)

**Side notes: Sally was 8 days early, 8 lbs 9 oz, 22 inches long.  Libby was one day early, 9 lbs 15 oz, 22 inches long.  Good luck!