Gennie's new pool

Gennie got a new pool! It's huge for our little yard but she loves it. We were looking for one for her because she popped her old one at the end of last summer . . . at least it was at the end, not the beginning . . . and found this one at WallyWorld. This one is supposed to be an animal park, complete with waterslide, ball game, kiddie pool, ring toss, and palm tree that showers you from its top.

As you can see she had to have all the stuff in it with her at once, but then decided it was too crowded so she stacked all the toys in the kiddie pool section. She says Josiah can use that next summer when he's old enough.

And she thought the ball toss lion made a great hat . . . she didn't get many of the balls in its mouth so she gave up for now.

I think the best thing about summer is swimsuit colors. Gives me plenty to play with in Photoshop, popping the colors and stuff. I think I need to figure out how to keep the skin tones normal, tho . . . she looks a little sunburned and I assure you she's not. For a 3 year old, she has become the sunscreen Nazi. She refuses to go outside without it . . . and knows that SPF 50 is better than 20, etc. I shouldn't complain, tho . . . at this altitude it only takes a half hour or so to burn to a crisp, and I don't normally burn easily. I guess 6000+ feet really is closer to the sun . . . :)

What?!

So, we were driving to worship team practice on Sat evening and saw this. Cracks me up! I've seen him up there on other occasions but finally had my camera in the car with me so I could get this. These peoples' house is 3 stories . . . well, two and the basement, as are most houses in GR . . . and apparently the balconey from the second floor on the back side is just the right height that he can hop over the rail and get out onto the garage roof. He suns himself during the day, then cools off in the evenings. He was very interested in me and my camera, but as soon as we drove away he went back down.

Just a fun photo for a boring Monday morning. Enjoy!

Our new banner

So, what do you think about our new banner photo . . . the Anticipation one? I saw a photo kinda like it somewhere and thought it was really cute, so I did my own version. The shoes really are those colors . . . I just turned the photo b&w and brought back the color for the shoes. I'm getting this shot blown up really big for our bedroom, to go with the other b&w ones in there.
I took this one when Gennie was born . . . actually it was the first day home . . . she was sitting with me and just reached up and grabbed his finger. You can even still see the scratches on her wrist from her crazy-long fingernails when she came out. Right now, this one hangs over our bed. Kev thought it was kinda silly to put up the Anticipation one since the little guy will be here soon but I told him I'm sure I'll think of something else to do when he does get here and I want the shoe one, too. Good thing he likes photographs . . . I think I would have driven him crazy by now if he didn't.

33 down, 5 weeks to go!

I promised my friend Nichole that I'd post another photo of me so she could see the baby progress. When she was preggo she was really diligent about sending "belly update" pix every 4 weeks up to the end so we could see her progress. Well, I haven't been good at that at all so I have to make up for it now. We had another dr appt last Fri . . . everything is still going great. The doctor is still holding out for July 26 as our date . . . unless I happen to go into labor before that. He said that the bigger babies actually take longer to develop their lungs than the scrawny ones so he doesn't want to pull him any sooner than 38 weeks unless the boy decides he's done on his own. He's still planning another ultrasound around 36 weeks to give him an idea of how big this little guy will be at birth. Everything else is just as it should be apparently so we'll just take it easy and keep waiting.

Gennie gives him a hug before nap time and bed time every day. She has been doing it almost since we found out about him. She also thinks that my belly button is the portal with which to speak to him . . . she often yells into it to tell him all the important things she's doing that day. I think we're going to make a paper chain to count down the days until he's supposed to get here so she has a more tangible way to count it instead of by days and weeks since she really has no concept of time. I can still stretch "in a minute" to an hour if I need to.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Happy birthday to my mom! She almost always has to share her birthday with Father's Day, but since we don't do any big hooplah - usually just dinner out - for the dads, she got to pick where we went for lunch after church. Since our options are limited here, she chose Cruel Jack's . . . it's actually a truck stop/restaurant but they have really good food. The service yesterday was crappy because I guess they didn't expect much business for Father's Day and were bombarded with customers . . . they're down to one cook for the whole place and our waitress kept telling us that the dishwasher is the slowest person on the face of the earth. But the food was still great and usually they do just fine serving so we'll let this one slide. They give you a HUGE slice of cake for birthdays and make you wear this enormous cowboy hat . . . and usually they take a polaroid for their bulletin board . . . but apparently they ran out of film for the camera . . . glad I happened to have mine with me. I'm sure that if it wasn't her birthday we never would have gotten a photo like this of her. :) Happy Birthday, Mom! And many, many more!

After we ate Gennie desperately wanted to ride the horse. Since she actually let us put the money in and stayed on it I thought we should have a photo . . . any other time she's been horribly scared by the mechanical rides and wants to just sit on it, not put the money in. But a little kid had ridden it before her and she saw how it wasn't that scary so maybe that's why she was brave today.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there. I had to put in these two pix because they seemed to epitomize the two fathers I know best. (If I had a picture of Kev's dad I would have included it, too, but I don't have one . . . I'll remedy that when he gets here after Josiah is born!)

The first is my dad . . . and what better backdrop than a driveway and a snowshovel. He hates the snow . . . doesn't really like the cold . . . can't stand having to shovel . . . and yet if you add up the time we spent in Montana before they came to Wyoming he's been living in it for 14 years straight. He was born in Albuquerque, NM, and will always prefer the desert to anything white and wet. But what will always speak more to me than his immense dislike for winter is the fact that he's always put God's will before his own. It's always been more about where God has called him to be than where he'd like to set up shop . . . an important factor in the life of a minister . . . and God has always blessed him in each place. I know that on just about any given day Dad would rather be outside in the warm sun . . . and since 8 months out of the year the sun doesn't actually "work" here, that's not really an option . . . but since this is where the Lord has put him for now, this is where he is. He's been known to mutter under his breath . . . "You know, Lord, I didn't choose this, you chose me." . . . especially on days when he has to go to SLC and dreads the 3 hour trip on the freeway in a blizzard . . . but that just shows me he can still see God's sense of humor in life. He's taught me many lessons but I think this one will stand out to me forever. I love you, Daddy!

And this is my Kevin. Playing with his baby girl . . . one of his favorite things. When we first were dating we spent a lot of time talking about what we wanted out of life over the years to come, and one of Kev's biggest desires was to be a husband and father. He spoke often about how he wanted to work to keep the bills paid, but never so much that he wasn't home to enjoy just being with his family. We've always agreed that it's so much more important to have the time and memories with the family than the "toys" but no dad. A few years ago Kev was working with a guy who God used to teach him a tremendously valuable lesson . . . Kevin is not the provider for the family - God is. God will provide for us as He sees fit, and it's our responsibility to be wise with what we've been given. What a freeing idea!!! Kev tries so hard to keep this principle and it's been amazing to see how God has blessed him personally and us as a family because of it. Wow. I love you, Kev!

So there's my shout-out to the fathers this year. Hope you all have a fabulous day!

PS: In the photo of my dad . . . yes, that is a for-sale sign in the yard across the street . . . and yes, the real estate agent is named Doody. Hee Hee. Enjoy!

some pix for no reason

Can you tell Gennie likes watermelons? Actually, she can't stand the taste of them but she loves watermelon stuff. We found this shirt at WallyWorld and couldn't pass it up for $3. Would you believe it's a size 6/6x? I'm sure it will shrink the first time I wash it so I wasn't too worried about it being a little big to begin with, but it fits her pretty good already. I had out the measuring tape the other day so she wanted Kev to tell her how tall she is . . . 42 inches already, and she's only 3 1/2. Her last dr's appt said she weighs 38lbs. Every year they have "Kindergarten Round-up" at the elementary schools here . . . it's like a preview day for all the little kids so they can see their classrooms and meet some friends before school actually starts for them. Kev had to go help with computer stuff and he said as he watched the parents bringing in their little guys, he realized that Gennie is as big or bigger than most of the kids who will be starting Kindergarten this fall. I have to be careful when I go put of ads for the photo biz at the schools because they think she is out of class.

And this is a picture of her new hat. Her friend Chloe's mom sent us pix of Chloe in one like it and Gennie went thru my crochet pix and found one like it for me to make for her. I think I'd like it better in another color but she wanted purple so, whatever. She also got to go thru my button bottle and pick out the button for the center of the flower but you can't see it here. She already has plans for other hats she wants as soon as I get some other projects finished. I hate just sitting and watching TV in the evenings . . . feels totally unproductive and I swear my hands have ADD . . . so I crochet. I think I would have loved being in the early days when radio was all you had for entertainment . . . I can't tell you how many movies and TV shows I have just listened to as opposed to watching. If I happen to see the show later I'm always amazed at who was in it.

After a busy weekend

Wow, we made it thru! The first shower was a blast! Valerie and Jared got some really cute stuff . . . a ton of clothes but also some fun, unusual stuff too. I took a picture of one of the gifts because I will probably do one for each of our kids and use the idea for shower gifts in the future. It was so cute . . . called a CAN't let go. It came with a great little poem to direct what kinds of things you put into it . . . the hat they give you to come home from the hospital, first shoes, hair from the first haircut, etc. And the whole thing is the size of a regular paint can so it doesn't take up too much space, which Kevin will love. Anyway, it was a great shower.

Afterwards, I ran home to get the last minute things done for the camping couples shower that night. It turned out well, too! Most of our church family came and the couple got lots of fun camping stuff. Funny tho, they didn't get a tent. I thought for sure someone would get them that. The s'mores and trail mix were a big hit and clean-up wasn't too bad . . . since we had to set the church up for services the next morning, most of the guests stayed to help put the room back together and it went really fast! I didn't get any pix of the event tho because the bride's father was snapping pix like crazy and I figured the couple could get their mementos from him and that was one less thing I had to do this time. All in all it was a great weekend, although busy, and now that those events are over, all I have left to do this summer is co-direct Vacation Bible School July 9-13 and have a baby. Then I'm done! Well, hee hee, I guess "done" is a relative term. Hopefully those two things won't overlap . . .

not much to post about today, but tomorrow....

So, not much has been going on here again. I'm still trying to kick this sickness, whatever it is, and would love a day where my right tonsil didn't feel like it was being torn out everytime I cough. But that's just not in the cards right now, I guess. I went to the baby dr appt last Fri and he checked out all the cold stuff, too. They did a strep test and it came back negative . . . the nurse was training a new CNA on strep tests and the CNA didn't know she had to take the lid off the tube to put the swab in . . . the nurse ended up doing 3 swabs, with much gagging from me, just to get one usable test . . . then she had a great laugh with the other nurses at the station right outside my exam room door at the expense of this poor, new CNA fresh out of classes. I felt bad, kind of, but I guess that's how it is everywhere when you start a new job. All this to say that it's apparently not strep, and the dr says to just keep taking the otc sore throat stuff. Actually, Tylenol has been working better than any of that so I think I'll stick with that, especially since Tylenol has little chance of actually hurting the little guy.

Tomorrow is a jam-packed day. I have a baby shower to go to for a friend who is due about a week before us, then in the evening I'm co-hosting a couple's shower for some friends from our church who are getting married at the end of the month. My mom and I thought it might be fun to do a shower that the men-folk have to come to, too, since the ladies usually get all the fun. I asked the couple to pick a theme since the bride has already had quite a few showers and gotten most of the usual housewarming stuff. They picked "camping" so we're decorating the church like a campsite complete with awning and lawn chairs and picnic tables with edible campfires as centerpieces. For the dessert we're making s'mores in a fire pit outside, and the activities are men vs. women building a shelter, etc. We've been making announcements about it in church for the past month so that everyone is able to come, and the groom keeps begging the other men to join him even tho it's called a "shower" because he doesn't want to be the only guy there. I told Kevin he's mandated to be there to keep the groom company, and the couples' parents will all be in town for it so the dad's can lend their support. Tonite we have to do all the set up and decorating so there's less to do tomorrow. How is it that I seem to have weeks of nothing going on, then everything lands on the same day? Oh yeah, and 6 weeks AT MOST left until Josiah makes his appearance. Okay, my heart has resumed beating. . .