July has been the craziest month ever! We are official home owners now, which is very exciting! We never realized that purchasing a house would be such a long process. It took over three and a half months after we put our offer in. Being 8 months pregnant and packing up the house and then unpacking again with a one and a half year old, in the heat is not so very fun. But the month has been filled with lots of fun too. Holidays and family gatherings have been sprinkled throughout the month making it really busy but enjoyable. We have had lots of help from the family too. My sister-in-law, sister and her husband came and helped us paint the entire house. We painted for 12 hours and finished around 12:30 in the morning!

 
Bree on the 4th of July

 We are not completely unpacked yet because we are living in the middle of a remodel. As inconvenient as it is all the space we have makes up for it.  There is an overwhelming amount of work to do before our baby boy comes in a very sort amount of time. There is only one of Chad and one of me and we are taking it one day at a time. I have discovered that I dislike Home Depot even more then I thought I did. We are definitely keeping the folks that work there employed. Yesterday, Chad invited me to run a few “quick” errands with him….I happily accepted... and ended up spending 6 hours with a tired 21 month old wandering up and down the plumbing and hardware aisles (the 6 hours part might have been a little, tiny bit exaggerated).  It’s really been fun though to be able to work on projects together and to see the house becoming what we want it to a little more each day.

playing in a cardboard box

Bree is completely in her “big girl bed” now. She looks so tiny sleeping in a big twin bed. We were expecting some resistance or at least a lot of getting out of bed when she was not supposed to, since she has been able to climb out of her crib for months now. She has transitioned beautifully though. She stays in her bed and sleeps all night and doesn’t even get out during her naps. Chad and I are very impressed…not with our parenting skills by any means, but with how easy she has made this move for us. She really makes it pretty easy for us to look like great parents. J 

We are enjoying living in a city…at least for now. No more driving 30 minutes to the nearest Target or Costco. It’s been so nice to just zip around down and to see all our shopping options. I miss driving down our old street on the weekends, to see horses tethered next to Harleys at Packard’s, the little local coffee shop. No more pastures with cows grazing on our way out of town…but I am not missing our dirt driveway! Yay for clean cars and clean shoes! Oh, and one more thing….I have had all the screen-less windows open all morning and there is not a single fly in the house!                                 

 
Our first meal in our house

It's A Boy!!

After weeks and weeks of waiting and counting, we found out yesterday that we are having a boy! We are so thrilled and excited! With all the pink in our house, it will be a fun change to have some blue. I am around the half way point in my pregnancy and now that I know it's a boy, I can hardly wait to meet him!

April so far has been really busy for us. The weather, with the exception of the last few days, has been really nice and warm and spring-like. In the midst of all the busyness we have taken advantage of the weather and spent some time out in the sun. This picture of Bree was taken after we all went for a ten mile bike ride. The Jamba Juice was a treat for sitting so long in her bike seat. She was very proud to have her very own and to hold it by herself.

Bree will be 17 months old tomorrow. She loves playing outside and getting dirty....especially at Grandma and Grandpa's, but she loves playing with her baby too. Daddy coming home from work is the highlight of her day. She waits by the front door when she hears me say he is on his way. Between me and Bree and our dog, he gets a pretty good welcome home each night. ♥

Last week after running errands all day with Chad and I, we took Bree to a lake to feed the ducks and to swing. I think she ate more duck food (popcorn) then the ducks got to eat. She had fun chasing the ducks and a few even chased back, which was funny since they were pretty equally matched.

 So I've mentioned lately that we have been super, crazy busy these last few weeks....and here is why: My beautiful, best friend of a little sister got married on February 7th.  Elisa married an amazing guy that Chad and Bree and I love. We couldn’t be happier that he is now a part of our family! My family flew in from all corners of the states to celebrate with and to support Elisa and Jimmy. It was really an honor to be asked to be the Maid of Honor and to be able to help with all the little detail and plans. Through different circumstances in both of our lives over the last 6 or 7 years, Elisa and I have grown incredibly close. I love her so dearly and I love the woman she has become. She is strong, loyal, and incredibly forgiving. She is such a beautiful person and I can learn so much from her.

My parents flew into town quite a bit before the wedding and rented a beach house so all the family could hang out together in one place to help prepare for the wedding. It was a lot of fun to be with my five sisters again, and to see most of their families. There was lots of chaos at times but lots of fun. Bree really enjoyed getting to know some of her cousins for the fist time and getting reacquainted with others.

It rained on the big day but everything else turned out pretty great. Bree made an adorable little flower girl. During the rehearsal on the night before, she walked down the aisle and cooperated to the fullest. On the wedding day however, she almost refused to walk down with the ring barer, and then when she was finally convinced, she walked down the aisle crying her eyes out. Thank goodness for Grandmas and fishy crackers to make all things better.  The reception was lots of fun. There were so many friends and family that came together. It was amazing to see everyone.

We are now fully recovered from lack of sleep and from all hecticness. Elisa is safe and taken care of and I am just so grateful to be a part of her and Jimmy's life...and I'm so happy that my baby sister is so happy! I love you both!

The 6 sisters
(number 1,3,2,6,4,5)

Unfortunately, I was really too busy on her wedding day to take many pictures, but here are a few snapshots of the day.

Elisa and Jimmy

Yes, we are still alive and well even though I have been too busy to post anything. I will write more about what has been going on and post pictures soon. Until then, here is Little Bug at the beach last Thursday. My parents were in town and rented a beach house. It was so really great to hang out with so much of my family and to see all five of my sisters at once. More about that later.... We are doing great and trying to get caught up on sleep and stuff around the house after the whirlwind of our last two weeks.