Hello from Benjamin, Sarah, Olivia, Zachariah & Isabella!: June 2013

June 30, 2013

21 Weeks!

We are now at the halfway point in the pregnancy! Friday marked the start of 21 weeks. I'm so thankful to be feeling great and really enjoying the energy the second trimester brought! This Wednesday the 3rd we will have our next sonogram and hope to find out if we are welcoming a boy or girl! We have lots of opinions for both boy and girl so we will see! The kids are really enjoying the idea of the baby coming. They love to talk to the baby. Today Olivia was talking to it and said "Are you a boy or a girl?" And then she said "It's says it's a girl".
Zachariah has gone back and forth but currently says it's a boy.

Who would have thought we would catch such a sweet picture. I would have planned for a better background!

But I will take what I can get :)

The kids were excited to put up the crib so we went ahead and set it up so they could be use to the idea of sharing a room with the baby....the pink princess things are Olivia's, not the baby's. We plan to paint their room and finish up some decorating in the next few months.

So what do you think we're having?????

June 18, 2013

Another Visit...

...from the firefighter and princess ballerina...

June 15, 2013

Our Garden is Complete!

It was a family team effort but we finally finished it! In the front we have 2 kinds of Tomatoes; Green, Red, Yellow & Sweet Banana Peppers; 3 kinds of Cucumber & 2 Zucchini. We also have Mint, Basil, Cilantro and Beautiful Marigolds for a border!

In the back we planted Strawberries & 2 Sweet Banana Pepper Plants

And we're trying out a tomato & Sweet Banana Pepper in buckets.

(For the Banana Peppers I had to buy a 4 pack, that's why we have so many!)

Progress Reports to Come!

June 10, 2013

Father-Daughter Dance

Olivia and Daddy enjoyed the Father-Daughter Dance at church Saturday night. We explained to Olivia that she was going on a date with Daddy. She was very excited! She painted her nails, did her hair, picked out her fancy dress and shoes and of course finished it off with some lip gloss. It was a very special night for them. They enjoyed the dancing. And when the dancing wore down, Daddy started playing with balloons that were all over the floor. All the little girls jumped in! Then Olivia asked Daddy to tie 2...3...4 and more balloons together! Of course the other little girls wanted this too :) They stayed to help clean up and Olivia got to bring home a big bundle of balloons and all the pink silk rose petals she could carry. Here idea...thread them together to make a neckless...and she did!

The Princess and her Daddy

(Pics from church coming in a couple weeks)

Olivia and her friend Sutton Dancing...

Dancing with her balloons...

Were planting a garden!

We have a flower bed by our driveway as you walk up the path to our home. It has always been a rock bed with just a couple flowers. This year we decided to turn it into a vegetable garden. Due to travel and work schedules it's had a few delays but we're almost there! The bed is now complete and we've started our planting. Hopefully within the next day or two all the plants will be nice and cozy in their new bed...and hopefully lots of vegetables and herbs to follow!

We are trying the method of Back to Eden Gardening. You get rid of the large weeds, etc from the dirt. Then you layer it with newspapers, composted soil/leaves, rich compost & finish it off with composted woodchips (not bark, actually wood chips). We hope it works! We were able to use the composted leaves we have (lots and lot of), some rich black compost we have from the last couple of years, and wood chips from our local dump. So far we've planted a couple sunflowers, basil, mint & cilantro. Next we're planting tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, strawberries and a variety of peppers. And of course a border of Marigolds!