One year ago today...

...I found out I was pregnant with Callie. I still think about this day often. I'm pretty sure it was one of the biggest, maybe THE biggest surprises of my life. I remember what I was wearing even. I was at the hospital for my gallbladder scan and they just wanted to make sure I wasn't pregnant before they did the scan. I remember waiting in the waiting room for the test results and I wasn't even nervous that I would be pregnant. I remember thinking it was sure taking a long time to get the results back. I remember the nurse calling my name and as soon as we entered the hall to get to the room, her saying, "Well, congratulations, you're pregnant!" I can still hear her say it in my ear now. I remember my reaction of, "NO! You're joking me!" and saying that over and over. I remember starting to cry and the nurse becoming uncomfortable and asking me if I was ok and me saying no I wasn't.(But it was) I then went (as I had planned) to go see my friend who just had her July 4 baby. I met her husband in the elevator and I remember shaking all the way up to the birthplace. I could not believe that I'd be there again having a baby! She ended up giving me some of the chocolate I'd given her as a gift to help me calm down. I remember calling mom to tell her the "results" of my scan and her excitement at hearing the news and me blubbering into the phone at her. I remember thinking about how I was going to tell Brent and deciding on telling him with a card. Bring on the cravings! We're expecting!, it said. I videotaped his reaction of, "No. NO!" and his nervous laughter. I remember going straight to the computer and finding one of those site's that can supposedly tell the gender by your age and dates and I remember it saying girl. I still can't believe we had another baby. I can't imagine my life without Callie. It was the biggest surprise of my life, but one of the best, too. I'm so glad I'll get to experience the girl side of things. I love her to pieces and I think she is a great finish to our family.

From the week...

It's been another busy weekend. I just love summer. I can't say that enough. We started off the three day weekend doing a little yard work:


Then on the fourth we went to a parade with our friends. The kids got lots of candy(I ate all their sour candy, I love sour candy.) and it was a patriotic fun time. Callie held a flag to show her patriotism.


After the parade we headed to our friends for a grill out. The weather was great and we had a nice time lounging around. We left our friend's house in the late afternoon and went straight to our other friend's child's first birthday party. He was born on the fourth last year.
They have an AWESOME yard for get togethers! It was really fun. The kids loved going exploring on their path, Brent played some ultimate frisbee and I got in a "game" of bad mitten. At the end of the party they brought out the sparklers and the kids all really liked those. Even Callie was smiling at them. We didn't take in the fireworks because let's face it, keeping the kids up till 11 is not something I'm keen on.

Yesterday was spent lounging around and recovering from the day before. Brent did some more yard work and we played a game of crocket while ALL THREE KIDS SLEPT AT THE SAME TIME!!! That hasn't been happening lately. And since I didn't use all our budgeted grocery money for the month we treated ourselves to some taco pizza for supper. It was a good day.

Today we went to the beach after church. Callie tried the water, but was more content sleeping.


At this particular beach you can go out VERY far without the water getting past your thighs, so Hunter and his friends floated around in the water for a long time. Tate was happy in the sand, or throwing sand on others. I buried his feet and I think he enjoyed that. Here he is making "sand angels":


Something cute Hunter said:
-last night as he was praying for supper he said, "...and thank you for mom and dad and their love."
-he came over to me as I was sitting on the couch and said, "Mom, I'm going to give you a hug and a kiss b/c you are beautiful."

Why I don't use the breast pump...

I think the kids were mega worn out from our first two days of the week. Yesterday Hunter asked me if he could take a nap at 11:00 am. (They could sleep a little later in the morning, I don't think 6:30 is late enough, esp when Callie has been getting up at LEAST once in the night lately) I asked if they wanted to go outside and play and they said no. Tate got a pile of books and sat by the door reading them quietly and Hunter laid on the couch playing with his cars:



Now on to the subject. I got a nice breast pump when I was pregnant with Callie and had FULL intentions of using it so I could go out by myself for more than an hour and a half. I REALLY tried to get it to work. I tried with Tate and got nothing. Not even anything after 15 or 20 mins, but I was determined to make it work. So I tried it, and it has definately worked out the best, but I still am not making near enough to feed Callie at one sitting. I think about it alot, and want to make it work, but my kids seem to think its some sort of fun machine. Everytime I try and use it I have to use it around the kids (b/c locking myself in a room for 15-20 mins is a recipe for disaster when they are around) they stare at me as if I am some sort of alien monster(which really helps me relax). Tate has even turned up the nobs on me while I'm using it(kind of painful, let me tell you!) But yesterday when I had it out(because I was cleaning the closet I keep it in) they found that it has another use: it is now a fun playtoy for them. They were actually fighting over it. Hunter had out part of it and was using it as a musical instrument and Tate was using it as a sprayer. Then Hunter took one of the tubes and pretented to use it as a gas pump for his car. I got a picture of it: If they ONLY knew what it was they were playing with! I am thinking I've got major blackmail stuff here. My friends and I were talking about breastfeeding at the park today, and we were joking how we all feel a bond to cows now.

In other news, I was on the local Christian radio this morning. They have been giving away tickets to Sonshine all week, so I thought I'd try to win them for two of the youth that are going. Brent and I went last year with the youth and it was really fun. I had just found out I was pregnant, so I was kind of sickly and tired, but we still had a good time. They were giving the tickets away if you won the game of "Name that tune". The radio announcer was playing all sorts of instruments that he did not know how to play, so it made it a little tricky. He played the harmonica for me and I guessed the right song, so I won the tickets!! Being the clever girl I am I enticed one of the youth kids with a ticket IF she agreed to watch the boys for a night while Brent and I go out. She said that the tickets are $80 and that I could have TWO nights of babysitting! I am very excited about that. Esp since Brent's birthday is this month. We'll see what I can get for the other one... :)

I better go and clean the bathroom now. Happy Fourth of July!!

Good Stuff...

I came across this on a blog I frequent. It goes along with what I've been starting to realize lately about parenting...

"...the best thing is not a to-do list about all the activities you need to do with your kids. Or about how your going to change your family devotions. If you are not the person you want your kids to become, the greatest gift and the greatest stewardship you could perform right now is to look in the mirror and say, ' If there's anything in my life that I wouldn't want my kids to imitate, OH God! lets go to work on that together RIGHT NOW!
Let me play it differently for you, ok, cause I think as parents we should do this. Imagine if you will, I've got my living room- little family room- here's the couch. Ok. I'm asking my kids to walk into the room, regardless of the age, ok. For me it's four, 1, 2, 3, 4. I get em all lined up. I'm the parent...But I sit in the chair right across from em and I look em all in the eye. And I say...
"Okay gang. Um, I'm your parent. I believe you're a gift from God. And I believe probably the biggest job I have on this planet is this sacred stewardship, so are you ready? However you see me drive, that's how I want you to drive. However you see me use my money, that's how I want you to use your money. I want you to give like I give. I want you to save like I save. And I want you to make wise purchases the way you see me do it. Whenever you see me get cut off in traffic, or something that really offends me, I want you to respond in the same way that I respond with my anger. I want you to spend the same kind of time in the Bible that you see me in my time in the Bible. I want you to have the same passion for Christ and care for our neighbors that you see in me. I want you to never put anything in your mind that you don't see me put in my mind. And the things that I say, I don't want to watch or look at I don't want you to, too.

More beach days...

Yesterday the temp was supposed to reach 90, and it was another sunny day, so we decided to go to the beach AGAIN! I went this time with my friend, Nikki, and her kids. I also decided to go get my months groceries in Brainerd with the kids after the beach, which was their nap time. I anticipated it would be not good, but I'm trying to conserve gas and we were more than halfway there anyway. It went really well, though! Nikki came with and we got the kids ice cream at the McDonalds in Wal-mart first, and then I went about like a madwoman on a mission. I was pushing a cart that had two child seats on the front, Callie was on the cart and I had the cart SO packed with stuff that it was overflowing. I had diapers packed in with the kids on their seats, the whole bottom covered and was carrying a bag of veggies at the end.

We took our van to the shop on Monday and found that it needs about $1200 repairs, not including our deductible to fix the deer damage. It's quite frustrating for our one income family, and we're not sure what to do about it, but we are going to trust God.






The boys were out like a light before we even left Brainerd:

I love summer. And the beach.

I just love to go to the beach. These are the kind of days that get me through the awful winter. We went to the beach not once but twice this week. On Monday I went with my friend, Erin. We had a great time. The kids LOVED the water(which I can't wrap my head around. They hate pools b/c they are too cold, so I don't know why they like freezing cold lake water. Maybe its the sand?) I had anticipated leaving at 2:30, but we stayed an extra hour. It was lovely!

Summerfest

I have not been my normal blogging self lately! I think it is b/c I've been out having fun with my family. I decided to do seperate posts instead of one big one, so here goes...

We had Summerfest on Saturday. The weather was quiet chilly, but I think the kids had fun. There was a parade(which Hunter called a circus), and they went on a fire truck ride with Brent and Hunter rode a pony:



Then on Sunday I dressed all the kids patrioticly and tried to get a nice shot of all of them before church. They both want to hold Callie alot.