Piano Recital

 The older girls both started piano lessons back in September.  They recently had a recital the last week of May.  They both did wonderful!  So proud!!!

 Kim needed her picture taken 'just because...'

Spring Break: Whatcom Falls

 We also went to Whatcom Falls on our spring break trip.  How beautiful.  It had miles of trails that people were walking or biking on and this is the scenery you had to look at!  I wanted to walk more of it, but this is what we saw on just a short walk:

 The seven "cheerful" kids together:

 We had two playgrounds to play at and let the kids play for a while before the weather started turning cold and rainy.  We had had beautiful weather up until today and then the good old Washington rain kicked in and rained the rest of our trip.  We had already done most of the things we wanted to but were bummed that it rained out our night to BBQ around the fire pit.

 The three eight-year-olds:

The two six-year-olds:

 And the two three-year-olds:

Spring Break: Bellingham Bay

Another fun thing we did while visiting is stop by Bellingham Bay.  It was so pretty!  They had a pirate ship playground for the kids to play on.  The boardwalk was also so beautiful and stretched for miles.  It is really hard for me to walk with this pregnancy so we only took a short stroll but I bet it would be fun to bike the whole thing or walk a few miles of it.  I think the kids had the most fun throwing rocks into the bay!

Pirate Ship Playground:

Who needs toys when you have rocks!!!

Nature made the perfect chair for us to watch the kids:

Sisters!

Two of my favorite people:

The Boardwalk:

Seven of the nine grandkids my side of the family.  

Not the typical couch picture we take but absolutely adorable!!!

Spring Break: Chuck E Cheese

 For spring break this year we went to visit my sister up in Washington.  It was quite the trip.  We took my three kids, Jeff's son, and I was over 20 weeks pregnant at the time!  We broke the drive up into three days since we had to stop every two hours for me to walk (and let's face it, that's as long as my poor pregnant bladder can make it anyways...).  Mother and I took turns driving but it was still crazy!!!  (Lee had to stay home to run the business that we own)  I am not sure I ever want to make that drive ever again.  I told my sister if we visit again we are flying.  It was either crazy windy outside, crazy traffic, or snowing/raining the whole way there and back.

It was fun to see my sister and her family though, so the crazy drive was worth it.  Chase planned a trip to Chuck E Cheese since there were a lot of birthdays coming up.  The kids had a lot of fun!  Kadie must have been having too much fun to slow down since we don't seem to have any pictures of her...

 My beautiful sister, Liz.

First Lost Tooth

Once again, I am seriously behind on my blogging but what else is new.  I am going to try to play catch up but I might be out of order since some pictures are on the camera and some are on the Ipad.  Back in February, Kadie lost her first tooth!  She has since lost the one right next to it as well.  We had to threaten her with pliers to get them out since the adult ones were starting to grow in behind the baby ones.  My kids are late bloomers with teeth.  She has only lost the two and she is turning seven on Saturday!!!

Bouncing Baby Boy

I had my 21 week ultrasound last Tuesday.  This little guy was a mover and a shaker the entire time.  In some ways it was great because he would move so we could see the different parts, but it also made it hard to capture images for the tech to measure with all the crazy movement.  He even kicked the ultrasound wand several times hard enough for the tech to feel it!  It was great to see him healthy and active.  At one point we could see him making a sucking motion with his lips and we could see his eyelids move with his eye movement back and forth.  That was on top of all the bouncing around and kicking.  He was happy to show his boy parts, but wouldn't let us get a good view of his face.  He kept his hands over his face most of the time and the umbilical cord was running right in front of his face as well.  Looking forward to seeing this little man in person (but not yet!)

 Profile:

 The best 3D shots she could get...he was too wiggly and the cord or his hands were in the way:

One of These Things is Not Like the Others...

 Never thought the day would happen where we would be able to announce we are having a BOY!  After three girls, I went into my ultrasound totally expecting similar results.  While it may be hard to tell if you are not an ultrasound expert, you can see the baby's knees with a very identifiable boy part in between.  Typical to boy behavior, he even had his hands down there in the way in some of the shots.  After a quick jab with the ultrasound wand, he was moving like crazy and not shy about showing off his parts.

Profile shot of baby with his hand up by his face:

The girls were mixed on what they thought it would be.  We told them by letting them each open a gift bag with a shirt for them with the gender color.  Who knew we would ever add a boy to this gaggle of girls.

 I have been so behind on blogging and am just now catching up.  While blogging this, I am currently 21 weeks.  Baby boy should be joining our family in late July.  It was miserable in the beginning with not feeling well but never actually getting sick, and being so tired, but we are now moving onto better experiences.  This little guy is quite the mover.  My favorite part of being pregnant is feeling the baby move.  I started out with killer taco cravings and still crave anything lemon.  Feeling much better overall, but sore already.  My hips hurt worse than the others did at this point and I am worried I will be crawling by the end of this pregnancy.  So excited to see how our features turn out on a little boy!