"Greatest Gift"

This week was a big week for us!  Wednesday afternoon we met with the title company of our beloved first home on Silver Palms Circle to sign the final paperwork on the sale of our home.  We walked out the owners of only one home (yay!) onto our ultrasound appointment anxiously anticipating to see another gift of life we've been blessed with (and the anatomy screening of our little baby).  The technician was busy taking measurements as we watched our baby do somersaults on the screen.  The baby must have turned just the right way, because all of a sudden the nurse said,

"Oh ya! That's a boy!"

Of course we were going to be more than happy with a healthy report, regardless of gender...but it sure was fun to hear her say that and look over at my husband who was grinning from ear to ear.  We high-fived. :)

I think my favorite memory from the ultrasound was Carly's deep concern for what was happening to her mama.  She asked to be held, so I placed her little booty way up on my chest and lifted her dress to tickle that tummy.  I asked her if she liked being tickled, to which she nodded her head and giggled.  I explained that mommy was getting tickled by the nice lady and Carly turned to her and said something to the sort that she approved.  It was so cute to see her care so much.  She has no idea that she will be getting a little brother come January, but she will soon find out.

And without further adieu, his name shall be:

We chose this name for a number of reasons.  Our son will be named after Luke, one of the New Testament Gospels. We know that Luke was a Gentile by birth, well educated in Greek culture.  A physician by profession and a companion and loyal friend to Paul.  But most importantly, he loved Jesus.  We have no greater hope than our son choosing to follow after and love Jesus with all of his heart.  

We haven't chosen a verse for our little Luke yet, but I can share the verse I will think of whenever I'm daydreaming of my son, a precious gift from God:

Luke 12:22

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes.  (25) Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?"

"Shine Bright Like a Diamond" {18 Months}

Delightful

Carly is a joy to be with; day in and day out.  She is totally my little buddy and a great side kick she is! She is becoming more and more eager to help, learn, explore and do what I'm doing...and teaching her is so fun!  I'm already making of list of fun things we can do together over the next 6 months.  But, before I get ahead of myself, I must share her interests at a year and a half old.

• Carly's favorite foods are turkey, cheese & eggs, and won't ever turn down oyster crackers or chocolate.  She is not a picky eater in the least and still tries anything we place on her tray. She's happy to eat fruits and veggies as well as her fair share of dessert.  Thankful for an easy eater!
• Carly enjoys being outside and wants to walk or RUN around the block.  Her running is one of the cutest things I've ever seen.
• Girlie-girl! Carly loves to wear dresses, pretty shoes, frequently asks to wear a bow, loves putting on my jewelry, smelling good (she is always asking to rub herself down with lotion), having her toe nails painted and being clean. She was playing in mud the other day and when she realized her entire self was COVERED in dirt and sand, she actually cried.  She can certainly be rough and tough...and obviously enjoys playing in the mud, but needs to return to being fresh and clean right when she's done.
• It astonishes me to see how observant she is and how she tracks with what we do.  Everyday she sneaks into our bathroom and crawls up on my vanity stool to play with all of my cosmetics.  I was watching her and saw her pretend to put my mascara on her eyes, brush her teeth and even lifted up her arm to put deodorant on!
• She was picking the neighbors flowers the other day and I told her "no, those are not Carly's flowers."  She took the flower over to their dog statue that sits on their step and she showed the dog the flower and said, "no, no."  Hey, at least she got the message!  We'll plant some flowers she can pick soon!
• Her favorite books are "Oh the Wonderful Sounds Mr. Brown Can Do" & "Goodnight Chicago" (she requests this EVERY night before bed)
• Can do the motions to the songs, "Itsy Bitsy Spider," "Wheels on the Bus," "Happy and You Know It" and "This Little Light of Mine."  She sometimes attempts to sing but at this point has failed to do so.  Brian sings with her ALL the time, I slack in that area.
• Has an OBSESSION with Minnie Mouse and the gang.  She throws her arms in the air every time she sees one of the fab 5 (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto & Goofy).  At first I wondered how she had developed such a love for these characters, but after further thought I realized I have pictures of them with us hanging in the house, she has books about them, has a game on the iPod featuring Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, toys, plush and...we go to Disney all the time.  I didn't realize how many images of Mickey the child sees in a day until I really started to pay attention.  If you want to her dance, just sing the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme song.  
• She also loves to visit the characters when we're in the parks.  She likes any and all of them, but gets most excited to see Mickey, Minnie & Jessie from Toy Story.  She doesn't understand the waiting-in-line part or the leaving part, but is more than excited to give a hug and a kiss and pose on their laps for a photo!
• Can moo like a cow, neigh like a horse, quack like a duck, woof like a dog, meow like a cat, baa like a lamb, snort like a rhino, cherp like a bird, oo ah like a monkey, roar like a lion and snort like a pig.
• Her vocabulary of names include: mama, dada, carly (caca), nana, gma, gpa, mimi, trey, tiff, jess, cora & ty
• Other frequently spoken words that she initiates include: yes, no, baby, glasses, please, cheese, up, go, pretty, ut-oh, bubbles, hi, bu-bye, ouie, paci, bow, minnie, stop, night-night, book, ball, golf, toes, hat, poo poo, two, nine & ten and gibberish words, gula gula (I want), loca loca (being silly) and minga minga (hungry).  I've been making a list the past few days...no way I would have remembered all these off the top of my head!  She also attempts to say everything we ask her to say, and sometimes says them correctly, but the above words are ones she will volunteer without prompting.
• Snuggles with me every morning for approximately 90 seconds then plays on the iPod while I lay next to her with my eyes closed. ;)  (I love the extra relaxation time but am also getting her used to starting the mornings slow since I may need some extra time nursing baby in the mornings)
• Loves being on the go.  Her favorite place to be remains the Disney water parks, and we visit at least once a week.  One of our favorite things about her right now is that she shows such gratitude when we're having fun.  She will give us hugs and kisses til we are blue in the face as her way of showing excitement for what we're doing.  She's even been known to give a kiss when we let her eat something super yummy!  She loves to have fun, and we love to have fun with her!
• Is very interested in her babies, and is frequently seen taking them on stroller rides
• Enjoys throwing things from upstairs to downstairs
• Is showing MAJOR interest in the potty.  Announces when she is going poo poo, wants to be in the bathroom observing us, desires to wipe herself and us, wants to sit on the potty (we let her pick out her own potty seat this week...of course she chose a Minnie Mouse one), and enjoys throwing toilet paper in, flushing, waving good bye and shutting the lid.  Isn't 18 months too early to potty train?!  We shall see...

Determined 

I was actually going to title this section as, Demanding, but after further thought I decided it was too negative.  Really, though, being demanding isn't always a negative thing, but I suppose most of the time it is.  So, here we are talking about a little girl who is very determined to get what she wants (aka demanding).  Carly's vocabulary doesn't yet allow her to communicate all of her needs through words, so therefore she finds herself frequently yelling for things.  This has been going on quite a while, but a few weeks back Brian and I decided to put an end to the screaming.  Our lesson from parenting that way was that a strong willed little girl only wants to do it more when you ask her not to.  We were giving all sorts of timeouts, smacking her hand and speaking in a very stern tone, but all of it merely intensified her desire to scream.  So...we gave up.  We decided to just look at her confused and each and every time (having patience can be exhausting) we reminded her to use her words.  This week all in all it has been so much better.  She will always say please and mama or dada when prompted...she just can't seem to remember to do it on her own.  I texted both my folks when we were going through this to ask why my child desires to do the exact things I request that she doesn't do.  They both seemed to get a chuckle out of that.  My Dad's advice was to send her to Iowa and Gpa would take care of it (that made us laugh out loud) and my Mom empathized with me as she had the same struggles.  The encouragement that I took away, however, was that in many cases a child feels most comfortable with his or her mama, and therefore will push mama's limits the most (she misbehaves more for me than for Brian). She knows I love her, and she knows that love is unconditional.  She feels completely secure and safe...so why not test my limits?  Oh the journey of parenting as so begun!  Here are the things she most demands:

• Paci.  Carly LOVES her paci and is determined to have it with her as much as possible. Of course we only allow it when she is sleeping, in the car or in the stroller, but she thinks she needs it all the time.  She is so determined that she tries to climb in her crib to get it out and will also climb in her stroller to retrieve her paci that she believes is in the top cup holder. 
• Food.  She's determined to eat anything and everything in sight.  She yells most about wanting more and more and more food.  It doesn't matter if you are a complete stranger; if you've got food, it's only a matter of minutes until Carly finds you and has her hands reaching out for your food.  Ha.
• Fun.  She is so delightful when we are on the go and having fun, but the minute we say it's time to go, she is bound and determined not to leave!  She will kick and scream about having to leave something fun.  I've seen this a thousand times with kiddos...and can you really blame them?! ;)

 Daring

Carly is essentially fearless.  She is a climber, a runner and is willing to explore, touch, eat and go just about anywhere.  I frequently have other mamas tell me they wish their child was more adventurous like Carly.  Even strangers will take note of and comment on how fearless my child is.  It doesn't matter where we are, Carly will find whatever is most dangerous.  Surprisingly enough, she rarely gets hurt...although I think falling/tripping/bumping into, etc would help her realize there is danger in the world.  She is most daring when it comes to the swimming pool.  Carly has gotten WAY too comfortable with water, and just doesn't understand the danger.  She can hold her breath a good 5 seconds under water and loves to dunk herself.  I've fallen short when it comes to finishing her swim lessons...so I need to really hone in on that to see if I can be successful in teaching her how to swim.  This week she has started swimming short distances to me or the wall.  She is strong enough to paddle to where she can get her head above water, but just barely.  Here's a snapshot of her in our community pool:

I waited until today to post this because we just visited the doctor.  Carly weighed in at just over 24 pounds and was 32 1/2 inches tall (8 inches away from being able to ride Splash Mountain!), coming in at the 50th percentile in height and 20th percentile in weight. She's on the bell curve she's been at all the time...although I was surprised she hadn't jumped up more than that because she seems so big to me!!

Her schedule has been just perfect the past month, finally transitioning to one nap/day.  This week has been rough with some 6am or before wake up times (which also lead to two naps) but normalcy includes sleeping from 8:45pm-7:30am and taking a nap from 12:30pm-2pm.  This schedule breaks up the day very nicely.  Our general routine is to "snuggle" in bed (I snuggle her while she plays her games...which by the way she can unlock the iPod, swipe over to her page and click on the correct game), play upstairs, eat breakfast, go for a run, play outside/swim/playdate, eat lunch, take a nap, afternoon playdate, dinner, more outdoor time as a family, indoor playtime, bath and bed plus lots of other random activities in between!

And finally, I thought she posed rather nicely for her 18 month photos.  Guess what got her to smile?  I sang Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, of course! ;)

Thanks for being the delightfully sweet, determined and daring little girl you are.  We love your eagerness to learn, your energy and your capacity to love.  Besides for God's grace and your wonderful daddy, you have been the absolute best gift in life.  Happy 1 1/2, Carly!

"I'll See You Again"

I am finally posting the last entry about our trip to Iowa...which was well over a month ago.  We had such a wonderful trip and it was the perfect way for a sick mama in the heart of her first trimester to get some rest and just relax.  I think the entire trip I had to get up in the morning with Carly, twice, and I got to sit on the couch a lot throughout the day. I didn't book us up with play dates this go around, knowing I couldn't handle being that busy, so I'm SO sorry if we missed you.  But, I'll see you again...you know I will.  Actually, I cried pretty hard on the plane ride home and then for then next few weeks.  Each time we go and the trip goes so well I just want to move back so desperately.  I want the help and the fellowship.  I'm so over missing every life event that happens in the lives of my family and friends.  Over it.  So, when this song was playing on the radio every day, I'd cry as I'd listen to Carrie Underwood's beautiful voice.  I don't think the song is targeted to a young mom who lives across the country and misses her family, but that's how I relate. ;)

Carly and I arrived a few days before Brian did, and got right to announcing the news of our new baby! My brother was probably the first to know (actually...I told Anna & Lindsay a few days after the positive test...I just couldn't keep it in!) and I bursted it out to my Grandma as I was crying to her on the phone about a particularly rough weekend.  So...there were quite a few people who knew.  Grandma and I came up with the idea of her ordering cupcakes, and after we were all together as a family, she handed each person a cupcake and told them to unscramble then. I had briefed Trey before the event and told him to just play along. ;)  The cupcakes spelled, "Baby #2."  I think my favorite memory was when Tiff got the "#" and yelled, "guys, it's hashtag something!"  HA!  My Mom figured it out and pointed to me while my Dad just looked at Carly (who was on my lap) with a confused look.  I said, "surprise," to which everyone yelled and I was quickly embraced by a man who had yet again let a few tears slip down his cheek.  Announcing babies is so much fun!

Grandma's BEST EVER Spaghetti that greeted us!

An excited group who all got to share in the moment together!

There is no way to give a day-by-day synopsis of the TWO WEEKS we were in Iowa, but I do have some photos of the highlights.  Like I said, I got to rest a lot and went on lots of walks with friends.  I was very excited to see two of my personal attendants who I hadn't seen in 2 years!  Both Jayne & Audrey just happened to be in Iowa (they both live out of state now) while we were there, so they made time to come see us.  They have both been major blessings in my life and it was a meaningful catch up time. :)  I also got walk/jog/chat time with Anna F., Carley, Renee, Stacy, Libby, Lindsey & Jen and had a play day with Lindsay and her boys, Eli & Micah.  We saw the Loecke's as well, and stopped on campus to chat with my old colleagues, but of course I don't have pictures of those events. :(

I think just about every time Lindsay and I snap a photo of our clan there is a new babe in the picture!  We have planned our babies opposite of one another and therefore share ALL of our maternity clothes! I had to pack a near empty suitcase this time bc I knew I'd be bringing tons of clothes home! I now have 15, yes 15 maternity dresses!

Carly had lots of fun exploring all the houses we went, but particularly enjoyed the elliptical, trampoline and berry tree at Grammy's house; which is where my parents happen to also be living at the moment.

We took a DSM day trip and got to hang out with my Nana, where Carly learned to play the harmonica, ate lunch with Mimi & spent the afternoon with Shayla and her kiddos.

We also spent a night in North Liberty with Carly's godparents, Chris & Nikki, and their very fun puppies!  Carly loves dogs and becomes more and more comfortable with them the more exposure she has.  These two were fun playmates for her!  We got in our annual trip to HuHot and celebrated Chris' birthday with some delicious Cold Stone cake!  Brian & Chris also got a round of golf in (which is actually about all Brian did while he was in Iowa...he even shipped his clubs there!  He's silly but we were both thankful for that time on the course for him!).

Oh boy...I think that about covers it...at least the photos I have to remind me!  We had a lovely time, thank you to everyone who made it special and relaxing; and who poured love into our little girl.  See you later!

"All Over The Road"

I am choosing this title for this post for two reasons.  First, I have a very scary story to share that actually happened a few weeks ago.  Second, I thought I'd give an update on each component of our life.  Other than mentioning that we moved and are expecting a baby, I haven't really talked about how we are adjusting in this new life stage (kind of).

So...I was driving home from work 2 weeks ago around midnight in the pouring down rain.  I love my drive to work, so much easier and faster than where we were before.  There is one road, however, that does not have a single street light on it.  It's the road that I turn onto to get to our neighborhood from the county road.  It is windy and very much a back road...complete with a herd of cows that I enjoy looking at in the daylight.  The speed limit is 45 (it shouldn't be more than 35 in my opinion) but because it was raining and I couldn't see very well I was not going that fast (fortunately).  I hadn't turned my high beams on yet because I saw headlights in the distance.  All of a sudden, the car came speeding around the curve, shining it's lights on what was a man on his bicycle!! I swerved into a turning lane that just happened to be available at that moment and just about threw up.  What was this man doing riding his bike in the rain, at midnight, wearing black with NO REFLECTORS?!  My blood pressure still rises just thinking about it.  Had that car not been coming in the opposite lane, I would have hit him...and I probably would have killed him.  My life would have been ruined in a matter of a second.  I was so shaken up when I got home I jumped into bed and held onto Brian.  I thought of a million scenarios that would have happened proceeding hitting a pedestrian.  Would I have been taken to jail that night, would I have had a trial?  Would I have been charged with vehicular manslaughter?  Oh...I am so grateful that God protected me that night!  I actually have a Cast Member at work whose husband is a Sheriff, so I shared the story with her and asked her to ask her husband what would have happened to me.  She said that in Florida, if you are riding your bike after sun down that you must have a flashing light on your bike, so because he was breaking the law and I was in no way shape or form in the wrong, I wouldn't have been charged...but it still would have been a mess (not to mention the emotional toll I would have gone through for watching myself hit someone).  Praise God for keeping us safe in those dangerous moments.

Wow...that took more words than I expected.  Needless to say I am quite cautious on that road, especially in the dark.  I wonder if I should mention it to Orange County?  Street lights would at least be nice.  At any rate, here's some thoughts on our life the past few months:

Our Home
It's growing on me!  I love it!  There are always things we get used to living in a place...from little things like faucets and height of things, to big things like your appliances.  So, a new place has taken some getting used to, but just this week I feel like this house is our home, and not someone else's place. There are ample amounts of organizing and decorating that need to be done, but overall we've kept up on daily chores and cleaning.  We finally hung some photos this week (and by "we" I mean Brian graciously did it for me).

The wall is actually the same color...

I'd still like to take all the curtains off, wash them, iron them, and re-hang them, but I just don't have that kind of time.  We still need to hire our air ducts to be cleaned and get the water faucet on the fridge fixed, but other than that we are in pretty good shape.  Carly makes the place look like a mess with all her little toys she leaves everywhere, but that's a quick fix.  There's a big different between messy and dirty.  I love the size of our kitchen...much easier to keep the tile clean when it's half the surface area.  I love having two levels, LOVE our master bathroom...if we ever get to build we will make a replica of the bathroom!  I love the size of Carly's room and that there is a bathroom connected.  She loves her tub and we use much less water to fill it than we did when we were using our tub at our old place.  I LOVE cooking with a gas stove and it's SO easy to clean!  Brian put in a new kitchen faucet so I now love that, too (I was very impressed that he figured out how to do that!). 

I enjoy not having sliding glass doors that are easy to break into and I love that our back and front porch don't get near as dirty.  I think the magnolia tree in the front yard is just beautiful and I love sitting on the swing while Carly chases lizards.  I love the sidewalks, the pools, the playgrounds, our neighbors, the jogging paths, the greenery, the mature trees, the gazebos, the amount of kids out and about and the fact that I've met more mamas with their toddlers than I've met in my whole life!  Because Carly wants to be outside all day long, we meet friends at the playground, at the pool and when we are out on walks.  I'm so thankful that we have moved here and as long as we can keep up on the hefty bills we've created for ourselves, it will continue to be a blessing.  Our other home was suppose to close on July 31st, but the financing fell through, so we've given him another 30 days to get that straightened out and if he doesn't than it's back on the market.  So, this is our first month of having double mortgage payments, but we will get through it.  As of this Saturday, we have a tenant in the studio, so that will help us out financially carrying two homes.  She is a very sweet girl who happened to work for me 2 years ago and has come back to Disney on a professional internship.  She has also been babysitting Carly recently so I think it will be just perfect to have her living there!

Carly
C is doing wonderful!  She is a fun playmate and loves to get on the floor and wrestle with us.  That's really the only way to steal some snuggles these days.  She loves her house and plays in every single room...and you can tell!  There are Carly toys everywhere!  How does any mother keep a tidy home with toddlers?  Actually...I have yet to see one. ;)  We have made lots of new friends, one of which lives right across the alley from us.  They were married one year after we were and have a 14 month old boy and a dog that Carly adores.  The dad is a GSM just like Brian and I and the mom is an ICU nurse who also works part time.  This week we have been spending the mornings at their house playing with their dog, Tucker, as they are out of town.  Carly has had a blast playing with new toys and loving on Tucker. :)  I'm excited to see our friendship grow!  Carly also says new words every single day and when asked to say something can frequently repeat it correctly.  She refers to herself as Caca, and has recently learned to say "ut oh" and "bows;" both of which she says all day long.  I've been keeping a running list and have to add words daily.  It's so fun to watch her speech develop so rapidly!  We try to get her to put two words together, like saying, "bye, dada" but so far that's the only one she's mastered. Here's a cute clip of her throwing Brian's freshly folded socks through the banister and into the living room.  I always fold laundry in the hall way so that she can play in her room but she also likes to come out and "help" me.

Baby #2
We are so excited to find out the gender of the little avocado-sized baby inside my belly.  We are hoping to find out next week or the week after...but I haven't officially made the appointment yet.  My official guess is a that it's a boy, and I was right about Carly, so we shall see if I'm right again.  I think this for these reasons:

1. Although I've been sick, it's not been near as bad as with Carly, so this pregnancy has been different
2. I'm exhausted....another old wives tale that it's a boy
3. I smell.  This is weird...but my body odor is way stronger than it is normally, so I attribute that to having extra testosterone in my body and smelling like a stinky boy.
4. I have more acne than I've ever had my entire life...another thing to blame on testosterone
5. I'm not nearly as emotional as I was with C and feel much tougher.  Again, a male attribute.
6. I am carrying "out" rather than "around" and haven't gained a single pound. (That's a big deal for a mama who gained 65 pounds with her first pregnancy)

I am at least 16 weeks and had my first appointment a couple weeks ago.  The doctor was quite scared when he couldn't find the heart beat and proceeded to ask, "you said you haven't been bleeding, right?"  What kind of question is that?!  Obviously bleeding is a bad sign and I had already told him that I was having pain in my low abdomen but that I hadn't had an blood.  Don't suggest that my baby is dead just because you can't find the heartbeat when searching in the wrong place!  Anyway...I knew right where the baby was because I feel plenty of movement, so I gently told him that if he placed the Doppler on the right side of my belly he would find the baby.  Sure enough, mama is always right.  He apologized for the scare but I wasn't scared.  Still don't think he should have asked me that question for a second time, though.  He wanted me to have an ultrasound right away but I opted out.  He just wanted to be able to give me an official due date and Brian and I didn't think it was necessary to pay $150 bucks out of pocket to get an "exact" due date.  The baby will be here between January 26th-28th...I can almost guarantee it. ;)

Me
I've been a bit "all over the road" the past 4 months, but I am doing great now! The nausea subsided right before 14 weeks hit (yay for a more normal pregnancy...Carly I was sick until 20 weeks) and I'm not nearly as tired.  Less fatigue overall!  I still throw up frequently, but it happens in a split second when I smell something foul (I've thrown up on Carly while changing her poopy diaper twice)...so that's not near as bad as feeling sick all the time! I just barf and move on with my life. ;)  For a good three months we were just in survival mode...I didn't clean, cook and had very little energy.  I felt like a failure of a mama bc I just couldn't pour into Carly like I wanted to.  My bones ached with pain and I could barely peel my eyelids open after closing at work.  Now I can at least function the next day with only 5 hours of sleep!  But...I was doing a lot for my other baby.  Did you know that in the first trimester, your baby doubles in size each week! No wonder mamas feel so lousy...they are supporting a being that has to double in size! Think about how much you and I would have to eat to double in size during one week!  In 10 weeks the babe grew from a sesame seed to an apple.  That's truly remarkable.  I am in a great place; spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically and have such joy playing with Carly while fantasizing about watching my children play together in a short year from now.  I am allowing myself to enjoy being pregnant this time around.  I have a cute little bump and soak up the moments I feel movement.  Last night as I carried my sleeping toddler from the car to her room, the baby kicked her so hard I jumped a bit.  I guess he/she didn't like her body weight resting on his/her nest. ;)  I'm delighted to be on this journey with Brian and I'm thankful for his help and his patience.  I can't believe I'm 16 weeks already...nearly half way done!  I have one more week of closes and then I'm back to a normal mid-shift schedule.  So....life will get even better when I'm getting 8+ hours of sleep 7 nights/week rather than 4!

Carly turns 18 months old this week...can you believe she's a year and a half! Stayed tuned for some photos and video of her at 1.5!

"Made In America"

This is one of the current patriotic songs on Country Music stations these days, one of the many by Toby Keith.  I just love it.  It makes me think of  my Grandpa (who I've been thinking about a lot recently).  My Grandfather was one of the most patriotic people I knew, and I think nearly every time a Republican President was in office he would have a big 8X10 photo of him sitting at his desk.  He prayed for our nation relentlessly and appreciated being able to chase The American Dream starting as a boy who came from a very, very poor family.  He worked literally from sun up to sun down, many times 7 days a week, and made a name for himself in the midst of doing so.  He had the support of one of the best wives in the whole world...and this song is a tribute to their thankfulness for America.

Anyway, it's also a tribute to how fortunate we are to live in the United States.  I've had some very intense conversations with God over the past several months about why we are so privileged when so many are not. I remind Carly all the time that she's so blessed to be able to take a bath in clean water or eat food even when she's not all that hungry.  We are so richly blessed.

This 4th of July (like every 4th of July that we are in Iowa) was celebrated with the Weiss clan.  We stayed with Brian's folks and both of his brothers, our sister-in-law, niece and Nathan's girlfriend were all at the house that day.  We hit the Ames parade with two very cute girls who just happened to have matching outfits!  Aren't they sweet?

And our attempt at a family 4th of July pic and a pretty good one of our American girl...

The parade was the perfect length, and Carly enjoyed watching the action.  She fell asleep in the car ride home and after a very long nap was ready for more play time with her cousin, Cora.  There was a spread of snacks and desserts laid out, along with my favorite food to eat at the Weiss household, a frozen fruit cup.  I think I had one each day we were there. :)

The girls had a lot of fun swinging and playing in the pool and whatever else they were doing.  Carly followed Cora around at all times, I nearly lost track of what activity they were at minute by minute.  I hope my two kiddos, who will be similarly spaced in age as these two cousins, enjoy each other as much as these girls did.  It's way easier to get things done/relax a bit when a very trustworthy 3-year-old takes your 1-year-old by the hand and plays with her. :)

The 4th was a day of relaxation...but hey, most of the trip was!  It came at the PERFECT time for a mama who was feeling nauseated and uncomfortable with a growing 9-11 week old babe in her tummy.

I think, besides the great food, what I enjoyed most about my time with Brian's family was time I spent laying on the couch or on a blanket in the back yard while Carly's Grandma played all sorts of games with her, and chats/walks with my sister-in-law.  The older we get the more we have in common.  Just this summer her and I have both experienced similar feelings with raising strong-willed girls and moving to new homes.

We were blessed to get to see Brian's Aunt Crystal & Uncle Dick, his Aunt Paula & his Aunt Dawn, who came at different times throughout the week to say hi.  Here are some of the photos we took throughout the week.

posing in front of Gma's flowers

"Oooooo!"

Cora was about to get her...

She got her!

Carly ADORES bubbles

Cora hugging Carly

And Carly hugging Cora :)

Well there you have it...another post from Iowa complete.  We are blessed to have family, and blessed to be "made in America."