Our Family: June 2010

Happy Father's Day & Due Date Day

6/20/10

Today is Father's Day and my due date. Jeff's enjoyed his father's day by helping mop the basement after the washer/pump somehow overflowed all over the basement. The rest of the day he's been cleaning and re-installing the toilet in my bathroom after we had taken it out to re-do some of our plumbing as we continue to slowly work on finishing our basement. What a glorious way to spend Father's Day. We love you daddy!

Unfortunately, I don't think Jeff is getting a beautiful little girl for his father's day gift this year. Unless things begin happening quickly, I'll be going over my due date. With Julia I was 13 days over (although I always thought it was miscalculated by at least 5 days). I'm still feeling pretty good, but quite round and ready to meet our little girl. Julia is also very excited for her baby sister. Julia likes to say she's inside my belly saying "knock, knock, let me me out."

Here are a few pictures of me as I've grown.

20 weeks

27 weeks

37 weeks

Jesus and Easter!

At Christmas and especially now at Easter, Julia has also become very interested in Jesus and God. During the lenten season, our church had the crusified Jesus hidden. Julia spent one mass asking over and over "where's Jesus" I tried a few different methods of answering, but all I would get for a response back is, "no, not that Jesus." When I tried to tell her he was in heaven and had pointed up, then she thought he was in the ceiling. Anyway, the question, "where's Jesus" continued, for my sanity and those around us, I chose to leave right after communion. Needless to say, I also skipped church until I knew the cruisifix was back. For many weeks she asked about Jesus and is still very curious about him and why he was hung on the cross. In her little mind, she thinks she will be hung on the cross when she dies too, I do my best to re-assure her that she won't. She's very matter of fact about it, but it sure makes death seem kind of scary to me if I were her. ... Finally, just recently (now June), we had a large storm come through. We had talked about thunder in the past and I had described it as clouds crashing into each other, apparently Jeff didn't think that was entirely all correct and when I asked what he'd say, he said he would have told her it was God bowling. So in our recent storm, I tried that method. I don't think she was too happy with God. In the morning she advised me that she wanted to go to heaven and tell God to "stop doing that, to stop bowling." Guess I need to get some tips on how to explain Jesus and God to a 2 1/2 year old. I'm glad she is so interested, but it's a tough concept to explain.

Now, for a quick recap on our Easter Celebration activities. ... We celebrated Easter with a trip to Minnesota to visit our families. In preparation, Julia enjoyed making her first colored Easter eggs. She wouldn't eat them, but mom and dad enjoyed them.

We were thankful to be able to see all of Jeff's siblings - it's always tough to get everyone together. It was nice to have the little cousins together to play. After spending time with Jeff's family we spent some time with mine as well. Great-grandma and Grandpa S. were able to drive down. We love seeing them and enjoy every precious moment we can get with them. Julia still gets such a kick out of Great-Grandpa and how he winks at her (he tried teaching her to wink at about 2 months). She finally (kind of) has a one-eyed wink down now at 2 3/4 years. Below are a few pictures recaping our festivities:

Above: Jacob, Carter & Julia on at Easter egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpa L's.

Below: Julia enjoying her basket from the Easter Bunny.

Above: Enjoying another Easter egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpa S's.

Below: A quick photo with Great-Grandma and Grandpa.

Below: Smiles with Aunt Michelle!

Getaway to Savannah

In March I attended a wellness conference for work in Hilton Head, SC. Jeff joined me at the completion of the conference for a quick couples getaway. My parents stayed with Julia while we were gone - thanks guys! We all enjoyed ourselves. Julia loved getting spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa S., and Jeff and I enjoyed a long weekend together. After enjoying the chilly beach on Hilton Head (the weather was unusually cool), we drove down to Savannah and spent a somewhat rainy weekend in Savannah. Although the weather didn't fully cooperate, we were still able to do everything we had hoped to do. We went on a trolley tour of the Savannah historical district, walked through many of the historical squares and along historic River Street, and enjoyed a haunted evening walking tour where we learned about various haunted houses, etc. We didn't see any ghosts ourselves - I was OK with that.

Above: Sunrise in Hilton Head.

Below: Us on the beach.

In Savannah we stayed right on the riverfront on River Street in a hotel in this old building, it was very nice.

Above: The mansion in the "Garden of the Good and Evil"

Below: Forsyth Park, a large, beautiful park near downtown.

Below: One of the many squares throughout the historic district.

Winter Catch Up

A quick catch-up on winter ....

Julia enjoyed playing out in the snow and making snowmen with dad. She especially liked the mommy snowman with the pregnany belly (me). It is now June and Julia still watchs Frosty quite routinely, makes Frosty out of play-doh, pretending one of her toys or usually one of her hands is Frosty and the other Karen. She continues to want to get on the train to the North Pole to visit Frosty.

In February we went to Sesame Street Live (second year we've gone). It's an evening show, so she was fairly tired and didn't react much at the show, but talked about it for a long time afterward.

Jeff's parents also came in February, we enjoyed their visit and went to a small fire truck museum near here.