Passing the time & enjoying the summer

We've been enjoying our summer, and being pregnant I've had lots of things on my "to do" list. I've tried to keep things fun by planning different activities for the kids. It has also helped to make the last couple months of my pregnancy go by really fast!

Cousin Over-Niter

Playing computer games & DS.

The original plan was for Aspen's cousins Luke and Adam to come over and spend the night with him. Unfortunately, Adam was sick, so only Luke came, but they really had a blast.

We are not campers, but did grow up camping, and know how much fun it is when you are a kid and don't have to do all the packing, planning, etc. So Mark set up the tent on the deck with the plan to camp out with the boys. They made it until about 11:30pm before the boys got scared and they came inside. I sure was glad Mark was willing to camp with them, because I sure wasn't going to :)

The next day Aspen and Luke spent the entire morning outside in our forest area.


Fun Family Time as Four

It is very rare for us to all go out to dinner as a family. There are many reasons...Mark and I love our dinner's out just the two of us, sometimes going out can be more stressful than it's worth, not to mention, Aspen doesn't usually like anything they serve anyway!

Okay, so these are some bad pictures, but we wanted to remember what could possibly be our last dinner out as a family of four. This was at Hoda's, one of our favorite Lebanese restaurants. The kids did great and loved the pita bread and baklava for dessert.

Boating

Mark usually keeps the boat at the beach all summer for ocean fishing, but had to bring it home for some repairs. It's a long story, but during one of his tuna tournaments the boat started bringing on lots of water, both bilge pumps quit working and they had to call the coast guard to come rescue them 50+ miles off shore. Life with Mark is never dull (or inexpensive)!

We decided to take advantage of having the boat home to go out on the river for an afternoon and cook dinner on the water. Unfortunately, once we launched we figured out that the engine started had gone out from being submerged in salt water. Since we were already out on the water, we used the trolling motor to very slowly take us out to Government Island.

Despite all the unexpected setbacks, we had a great time out on the river. Aspen especially loved swimming in the water with a life jacket. I wish we had the boat home more often to go out on the river...



The Children's Museum

Peyton 2, Journey 2 1/2, and Aspen 5 years

Peyton got a membership to The Children's Museum for his birthday this year and Charity was able to add Aspen and Journey to it as well! We had a great time playing at The Children's Museum during the week of super hot weather. It was so nice to escape our house when we weren't able to play outside. Being 8 months pregnant, I just couldn't stand the 100+ temps.

Random Life...

Like father, like son... Mark working away on the computer while Aspen plays kids games online on Kidzui.com

The frogs have been a big deal here this year. Aspen caught and released this big one a couple times before he sadly passed away. Not to worry though, there are lots of little froggies in the pond still!




Happy Valley Splash Pad

Ava and Journey are normally a little timid about getting into the water. Journey's like me, she hates to be cold!

Still, it's fun!

Journey's Pictures & Pregnancy Update

A month or two ago we had Journey's pictures taken, but instead of going to a studio, we had Kirstyn, (Troy's awesome girlfriend!) take them for us. I am so happy with how they turned out. Our vision behind the pictures was to capture Journey's two year old innocence.

Go here if you want to check them out. These pictures are also the inspiration behind her new room. I'm almost finished with it so I'll be posting pics soon!

We moved her into the new room a couple weeks ago, and she loves it. The transition went smoothly, I think mostly because we were working on it for so long that she got used to the idea of the move. Aspen was a little jealous for the first couple days, but he's now over it and in love with his own room all over again since we changed the position of his bed. It's the little things, ha ha!


I'm now 36 weeks pregnant, and am winding down with all the projects on my to do list. It feels good to to feel like I'm pretty much ready for this new baby to arrive. I'm feeling pretty big and like the baby has run out of room. As I type, I feel like I'm being used as a human punching sack! I'm guessing that she is already at least 6 1/2lbs., and am praying I'm not too overdue and that she's not bigger than Journey was...

We have not picked out her name, but we do have a list of three that we are planning on taking to the delivery room. The three that are on the list are:
Sterling Rose
McKinley Jade
Haven McKenzie

Aspen's favorites are Sterling and McKinley. We'll see once we meet her :) It's kind of fun to not have everything planned out.