The final countdown

Today has been an emotional day. The kids have been hard the last few days and I'm pretty tired which is usually a pretty bad combination, but what has really thrown me into an emotional tailspin is the countdown to the move. It's funny...I haven't really been emotional at all during the last few weeks. Like I've said 100 times, this will be a bittersweet move for us but I have been mostly excited and ready to start this next stage in our lives. I feel like I've had a lot of closure over the last few months so it hasn't been as overwhelming as it could have been. That is until today. I was emailing my friend Lynda about scheduling some time for our families to spend together over the next few weeks and took a moment to count the days. 17 of them to be exact. Now, every time I think of that I start crying. 17 days is nothing. It will go in the blink of an eye and we will drive away from what has been our life for the last 3 years. We will drive away from Luke's first best friends. We will drive away from the only place that Caleb has ever lived. We will drive away from the kids that Kate has been in class with for two years now and who we will most likely never see again. We will drive away from the Adamsons who have been our family over the last 3 years while both of our extended families have been so far away. We will drive away from a place that we have grown to love deeply.

I am so excited to be close to my family and Chris' family again. I'm excited to be able to drive over and hang out with my closest friends anytime I want. I'm excited about having a house with more space and about the chance to come home to the place where Chris and I started our life together. But, I have a feeling that the next 17 days will be much harder than I have anticipated. I have definitely begun the mourning process and I'm not really looking forward to how my crazy pregnancy hormones are going to magnify that. It should be an interesting journey to say the least...

Summer's here!

Even though the kids have been out of school for a week and a half, I feel like we are only on day two of summer vacation. My sister and nephew came to visit last week so we didn't adjust to a normal summer schedule. We had lots of fun and the kids really enjoyed time with Jonte' and Wilson. Here are a few pictures of the cousins. The boys pretty much stayed in superhero gear the whole six days regardless of how hot it was (they even have their regular clothes on underneath the naturally steamy outfits).

Bless Kate's heart, she is surrounded by boys in all areas of family life! But Aunt Jonte' did take her for a special "girls' day" to get their nails done and have lunch. One of the many advantages of being the only girl in the family.

Yesterday was kind of a crazy day. I was terribly tired and the kids were really energetic and excited to do all of the summer things there are to do. It's both a blessing and a curse that we can walk out our back gate to the swimming pool. It's great if you want to go but it's torture if your baby brother is taking a 2 1/2 hour nap and your stuck in the back yard listening to everyone else splashing their hearts out. So I broke down and got the slip n slide out for Kate and Luke. They had tons of fun...even though much of the fun was unconventional slip n slide fun.

And Caleb was very excited about the idea of getting wet without having to sneak around and do it when mommy wasn't looking.

Three weeks from today the movers come. Like I've said many times, it's excited and sad at the same time. I have started the process of "tearing down camp" and getting us ready to be packed up. One of the things we did this morning was empty out all of the flower pots and spread the dirt around in the flower beds. Who would have known that this could be so entertaining!? There was added excitement because apparently a nation of roly polies had made their home in the bottom of one of the pots so there was a lot of action when that one was dumped. Endless wonders!

We also went swimming with our friends the Adamsons this afternoon. They were some of our first friends when we moved here and they have become like family to us. We have celebrated many holidays with them over the last three years and their kids are our kids best friends. So, needless to say, we're trying to squeeze in as much time with them as we can over the next few weeks!

And we're super thankful that we can mooch off of their pool!!

28 weeks

Well, here it is...my 28 week picture from last week. I'm still feeling pretty good and I'm trying to remember that as much as I would like for this baby to go ahead and make it's way out, ultimately a few more weeks without a newborn is what's needed most right now.




We're down to 3 weeks until the move and 11 weeks until cuatro's arrival! Exciting times!!!

This is a picture of Chris and the big kids being silly. It's really just here for your enjoyment! : )