On My Heart

My Toothless Wonder

Yesterday evening while Josh and I were in our room watching the movie Fireproof while the kids were in their rooms playing quietly tearing up the house acting like animals, Colton comes running into our bedroom with this news...

"I lost another tooth!". This time Fletcher did the job for him so I didn't have to. According to Colton, Fletcher head butted him and knocked his very loose tooth right out. So the tooth fairy made another appearance to our house five days after her first visit. The boy's racking up the dough I tell ya!

And here is a sneak peak of Gracie, Ava and Kaya's ballet costumes for their upcoming performance on the 30th.

Aren't they just the sweetest? I sure think so!

16 weeks

The kids and I went to see Lori (my midwife who also delivered Gracie and Fletcher at home) today for my 16 week checkup. So far things are looking pretty good with this baby. His or her heartbeat sounded like a running stallion as it measured at 157 beats per minute. That's a pretty amazing sound to hear that I never grow tired of.
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Sometimes it's hard to imagine that a human life is growing inside of me like another Colton, Gracie or Fletcher in the making. It's hard to picture the amazing love and bond that I will have for this child but I know it's real and I'm all too aware of the powerful feelings that it brings. And I'm ready! He or she is inside of my womb growing and moving and becoming another little one that we will love so dearly.

We scheduled my ultrasound for June 5th which also happens to be our 10 year wedding anniversary. What a doubly special day it will be! I think I have convinced myself to find out the gender this time. I had a peace with Fletcher that I just didn't want to know until the birth and in the end, there was truly nothing like that wonderful surprise we received. So many people had us convinced it was a girl that the look of shock on Josh's face will be forever embedded in my memory. Lord help us if wild Fletcher was a girl. We would have been in BIG trouble! But through my pregnancy I never stopped to really wonder and imagine what I was having. I really had a strange peace that allowed me to be patient and enjoy the surprise.

This time however I am so curious. Especially since about 90% of folks believe I'm having a boy. I truly don't even know what to guess but I have had two dreams so far if that ever means anything. The first one I had a girl and in the second dream I had a boy. So I guess that really doesn't help me too much.

In two weeks five days we'll know. Hopefully.

Back to everyday life, the kids are wrapping up another school year. Sigh.... we survived another one! They had their testing and evaluations on May 2nd so that gave us the extra reassurance that homeschooling really is working out well for these two little students of mine. And after attending Gracie's kindergarten graduation with Olivet Private School and the end of the year ceremony with Sonshine Christian Academy, which recognizes each children's accomplishments of finishing their school year, we officially have a 1st and 3rd grader!

{Gracie preparing for her graduation}

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{receiving her diploma and medal}

{C & G were very excited by their end of the school year gift from Grandma and Papa}

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Sonshine had a fun Mexican fiesta themed night.

{Colton receiving his end of the year certificate}

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{Gracie being asked "what she wants to be when she grows up". Her answer, a ballet teacher.}

I can handle the fact that Colton is now in third grade but something about knowing that baby girl of mine is now a first grader just doesn't settle right. I know she is and I saw the proof that in most areas she tested at a 2nd grade level but it just doesn't seem possible to me to think of her in that way. Will it ever though? Will I be saying the same thing at her high school graduation? Probably Most definitely.

In the meantime we will just enjoy the summer with our friends like we have already begun to do.

We had some tragic, tragic news with our chicks. The night that we dropped most of them off at the farm, something got to the remaining ones. We don't know what it was, whether it was Bob the bobcat or someone else but all we found the next morning was feathers. So this ended our chicken farming experience. Maybe some other year we'll try for round two, who knows.

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But I do know that we surely enjoyed our brief encounter of farm life. Especially with this cutie around!

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Mother's Day was a blast! After teaching Sunday school to the little ones at church, we went out on the boat with family. We stopped by Shrimpers first for a nice Mother's Day lunch where the dad's were on duty, followed by a nice relaxing day at the sandbar. I think I only got up from my chair twice maybe? All I know is I hardly did a thing that day except for take advantage of what day it was and it was nice. Really nice.

{Kaya and Gracie at Shrimper's}

{Kelly and I enjoying this moment of peace and quiet while the kids were being taken care of}

{Aunt Joyce and the kiddos}

{Gracie and Yaya}

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For Josh's mom Gracie and I worked on a little sewing project this year. For Mother's Day we made her a bread quilt (or cookie quilt in this case) to go along with the cookies we made her. My girl loves to sew! Oh, and bake too!

{Tessa smells some yummy lemon cookies all wrapped up for Grandma!}

Lastly and probably about the biggest news of all...

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News that we've waited a long 8 years and 2 1/2 months for...

{Colton with his pillow that my mom got for him when he was a wee little baby. I was wondering if we'd ever get to use it!}

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It may have taken the ole' dental floss tied to a door knob trick but my boy was ready and brave and it worked first try.