A Different 4th . . .

We started off our 4th of July with a morning walk
over to our neighborhood pond to feed the geese,
but got rained on before we could make it there.
We didn't mind too much though, it was kind of fun
because we weren't cold at all.
That was def. different! Never had rain on our
4th that we can recall!

Later that afternoon, we headed over to
Chuckie Cheese for some family fun time.
We all had a blast!
Never been to CC on the 4th before!
That was different!
Neither Jace or I had
eaten there since we were kids, & lets
just say, you def. wouldn't go there for the food!
It's all in the rides & games baby!

Cole's a fierce competitor in this Derby race!
And Daddy helping with the reigns.

Shooting hoops with daddy
Skeet Ball, one of my favorites! And Coles now too!

After Cole was down for the night, Jace & I kicked back in our
own backyard on our trampoline with pillows, blankets,
popcorn, & Popsicles to watch the show!
Never done that before either.

Pretty much all fireworks are legal here so people
go nuts & spare no expense when buying fireworks!
Every night for the week leading up to the 4th we would
hear them going off.
And that night, there were tons of huge air show
fireworks surrounding us from every angle.
That was def. different!
And Cole amazingly slept through it all!

After watching only a few minutes of the awesome
lights display going off everywhere around us,
we decided to go grab Cole so he could see a few minutes off them,
but, he was already out like a light!

Needless to say, we enjoyed our different 4th!

Our Crazy May . . .

Oklahoma City Temple Trip
w/ our friends the Saumwebers.

Cole & David enjoyed their time together chillaxin. We switched off watching
the boys while the other couple did a session or sealings.

~~~

Coles 2nd Bday BBQ party, May 3rd

The weather here in AR. is very temperamental in the spring time, so our
out door BBQ got "rained in" to the garage.
Cole got cars galore & was in heaven until any other kid touched his new cars, he
would have a complete melt down! He loves the cars! And pretty much only wanted to
eat "coookies" at his party. He's our little "cookie monster"!

~~~
Painting Projects


We had a kill all day with our great friends volunteering
to come over & help us get some of our house painted & molding/trim
put up. I wasn't allowed to paint (being prego & all), so I documented the
event & got the food/fuel to keep everybody going.



Cole had to get in on what everybody was doing.

Jaces first time cutting & putting up trim & he did a great job!


Thank you! Thank you to the -
Gosneys, Grahams, Hammontrees, Saumwebers, & Hoffmans
for all your painting efforts!

~~~
Mothers Day!

A great day!
Jace made a yummy french pancake breakfast, a nice pasta dinner, & took
care of Cole all day!
Thanks babe! Love ya!

~~~

Suze Orman Live!


She spoke to woman Wal Mart associates (& spouses of assoc.)
via satellite conference from California.
She is so great & very motivating!
After her speech, she opened the floor to us for any questions.
So I got up the guts to go get in line & talk with Suze myself.
Wow, more nerve racking than I thought! The adrenalin was pumping!
Suze is very straight forward & to the point!
I asked, "I'm a wife & a mother of a 2 yr. old boy with twins on the way,
so how can I as a woman working in the home best work with my husband financially?"
Her answer is too long to write cuz she immediately had a lot to say about it.
Basically she said to- 1st off, not define myself by my roles to others, be aware
of all of our financial ins & outs & participate in & have a say in all of our
finances just as much as my husband. Oh, & she said to make sure that I tell my
husband that night all about what she said, but he was in the audience so he got
to hear it all too. When she was finished speaking to me, everybody clapped
like crazy while I tried to take it all in while walking back to my seat.
For me? - that def. was an experience to remember!

~~~

Exploring Nature

Spring time is soo beautiful & green here!


And Cole's my favorite subject to photograph! :)



An afternoon with mom & dad at Bentonville Fishing Lake & Park.

~~~

Bye Bye Crib . . .




Hello Big Boy Toddler Bed!


Cole really took to his new bed well!


Cole playing the "Wake up! Wake up!" game with daddy- a favorite of his.

And we are so excited that he can get himself in & out (especially me, can't ya tell!?)Yea!
The 1st couple of weeks he would wait for us to come & get him out
of bed, until he figured out he could just do it himself!
He's been pretty good about staying in bed for the most part & have
only had to lock him in his room a few times to make that stick.
Now, every morning, he crawls out of bed, closes his door behind him, &
comes in to get dad so he can come play cars with him & get
him his "puppy milk" as Cole calls it (since we always used this one sippy
for his milk with Clifford the dog on it).

~~~

Silver Dollar City
Branson, Missouri weekend trip!

Our good friends the Gosneys insistently invited us to come up with them
to a favorite past time of theirs & experience Silver Dollar City for ourselves.
It was a lot of fun! (And we'll not count the "fun part" of getting up there on extremely
windy roads with me throwing up 4 times & Cole puking all over himself & the carseat. But seriously, besides those forgettable moments, we had a blast!). With lots of neat arts & crafts to see, great food to eat, fun shows to watch, rides to ride on, game areas to play in,
& neat shops to explore! The era theme time is in the late 1800's so all the workers are dressed as such & the artists, skillsmans, & craftsmans all make, do, or sell things from that time period.
We got to stay in a great condo with a beautiful 2nd story view of a huge lake
from our balcony & enjoy dinner on it with great company!
Thank you again Gosneys for introducing us to Silver Dollar!

What a full month! And June was just as crazy busy good!

Baby Faces

Twin A @ 28 weeks

In the 2nd pic, baby A is making a face bcuz I was rolled over to my side on my left to try & get a clear shot of baby B & boy does he hate it! Cuz he's getting sat on by his brother. :)

In the 3rd pic, Baby A's face and arm/fist are to the left of the pic & baby B's feet, toes, & legs are all in Baby A's face! :0
Getting crowded in there! No wonder why baby A hates it when I'm on my left side - He's getting kicked in the face.

And here's Twin B @ 28 weeks

The technician tried & tried to get a good shot of his face, but as you can see he was
all balled up with his knee in his face. So you get to see the back of his head, ear, shoulder, & knee! I guess he's a little camera shy. :)

7 Months

or 28 1/2 Wks.

If I made it to my due date (Sept. 14) I'd have almost exactly 2 mo. & 1 wk. left to go!
Some days lately though, I don't see how I'll make it that far!
Everything checks out great from my last wks. doctors appt.
Twin A, on my left, weighed 2 lbs. 10 oz. & Twin B, on my right, weighted 2 lbs. 4 oz.
with strong heart beats & busy bodies! Its nuts! - to think that each of them needs to
still more than double in weight before the end! Yikes, they are already starting to feel heavy! I'm gonna be huge!
I call the twin on my left the Spaz because he always seems to have soo much energy & I'm not sure about the one on my right because his placenta is in the front of my stomach so I can't feel a whole lot of movement on his side, but I def. still know he's there!
I've been so extremely blessed to have been able to go & go & go & do as much
as I have thus far, but my body is def. really starting to slow down.
Which is really, really hard for me to accept; but I know its needed.
Only because I can't fight the truth of my body telling me that I need to desperately,
& my husband telling me that he has seen me go down hill rapidly these last 4
days or so with me getting severe braxton hicks sometimes in the evenings. Jace keeps saying, almost like my new motto, "Take it slow & still get some things
done, or push too hard & be forced on bed rest where you can't get anything done."
You can tell my body that (sometimes), but try telling my head that! I still try to fight it because I'm starting to stress with all that I still want/need to get done before the twins come, especially knowing that from this point on, its not uncommon for twins to come early because your body feels so full & ready (If I were prego w/ one, I'm measuring 33 wks., so my body is physically 5wks ahead of what I really am).
But I've got a wonderful husband who has so willingly offered to do all the grocery shopping from now on, the dishes, the laundry ( I can still fold 'em though!) and anything that would be strenuous to me around the house.
Now is a time for me to focus on things like, potty training Cole, resting my body with extra sleep, journaling (which I'm terrible at), reading material on the twins to be prepared for them, & teaching my son as much as I can while I can still have my full focus on him.
This amazing ride has flown by so fast, yet at the same time hard to believe that 2 more months are still to go!