Ice Cream & Movie Night

I am so thankful to have a husband so dedicated to serving the Lord. He has been laboring with all his buds as they work to finish some projects at church that must be completed by September 1st.

Last night, we were without Luke. The boys and I were determined to still have a great evening. We walked in the wagon to McDonalds to get a chocolate shake and then they took a long bath and then we had a movie night. Leighton sat through the whole Cars movie. Then this morning he woke really early, as chipper as can be, and asked, "mommy watch Cars again!" McCabe didn't quite get the idea of sitting down and watching a movie, but he was still a pretty good boy!

I enjoy my boys so much! We missed Luke but we are very thankful that he was out laboring for the Lord.

Luke is Nesting

Here are some definition and notes regarding NESTING which will serve as background info this post:

- Around the fifth month of pregnancy, the "nesting" instinct can set in. This is an uncontrollable urge to clean one's house brought on by a desire to prepare a nest for the new baby, to tie up loose ends of old projects and to organize your world. (parentingweekly.com)

- Females of the animal kingdom are all equipped with this same need. It is a primal instinct. Just as you see birds making their nests, mothers-to-be do exactly the same thing. The act of nesting puts you in control and gives a sense of accomplishment toward birth. You may become a homebody and want to retreat into the comfort of home and familiar company, like a brooding hen. The nesting urge can also be seen as a sign of the onset of labor when it occurs close to 40 weeks of pregnancy. (parentingweekly.com)

- a snug retreat or refuge; resting place; home. (dictionary.com)

I haven't totally bought into all the pregnancy vocabulary and theories.

I think cravings are simply excuses (no I am not judging and yes, I do participate on occasion, but I think it is an excuse to eat bad stuff more than a craving)

and I think nesting is simply pudent planning.

Anyway, whether it is nesting or prudently/wisely planning, I think I am doing it! I have a large list of things I want/need to buy to prepare for the new baby, I have a large list of things I want to clean, things I want to organize, things I want to rearrange, I have a long list of things I want to get set up, washed, and hung, I have a large list of places I would like to put shelving units and baskets, I have a lot of unfinished projects that I want to complete and I even have a spot on my to do list that says, "Organize to do list into categories or by order of neccessary completion date." Any this list comes after all the hours already put into a massive garage sale. I am so excited to have gotten rid of a bunch of stuff because it makes organizing that much easier.

For a type A, excel spreadshhet, to-do-list type of girl who also happens to be expecting a baby in 6.5 weeks, this behavior is to be expected and is normal. But ....

Luke is also nesting or prudently/wisely planning, which ever you want to call it. I am not sure of this is normal or not, but I am very thankful for his diligence and help in getting stuff done. Luke has already spent hours redoing electrical work in our house with our friend (which resulted in a 20 minute long bath in the dark for the boys who cried about it being dark and hated the flashlight - I promise this expereince was safer than it sounds), rearranging the living room decor (which I am not opposed to in thoery, but since I don't like the replacement of stuff, it has now gone on my to-do-list to rearrange it again), bought paint to paint all outside doors, scraped paint of the windows of one of our doors (an year long unfinished project), cleaning the gutters, scraped the basement walls to prepare them for kills paint and he has plans to asphalt our driveway, landscape to prevent water from getting into the basement, put shelving in the garage and closets in our home, and plans to put on the base/floor boards in the kitchen (another year long unfinished project).

With just 6.5 short weeks away, Luke and I are both trying to be responsible and complete these tasks. Some are need-to-do's and others are just prefer-to-do's, but either way, we are SO EXCITED TO WELCOME HOME BABY BOY #3 and we just want everything to be perfect, complete, organized and we want to create a wonderful resting place for us all to enjoy one another.

My First Garage Sale

We had a wonderfully FULL week. I have been going through clothes, the basement, the boys rooms, the house, the garage and everywhere else ... looking for stuff to sell at a garage sale. I did WAY TOO MUCH lifting and work. I lifted too much, I went up and down the stairs too much, and I moved a little too fast all week (so fast in fact that I even fell off our front cement steps while holding McCabe and shook up the both of us). The whole day, Leighton gently reminded mommy by saying, "Mommy hurt Cabe!"

I am so glad I did all the work. I was able to put stuff in Nichole Cline's garage sale, have some great fellowship, and even make some money for some of our baby 3 needs. I had a fabulous time getting to hang out with Nichole and Anna A LOT this week! I enjoyed their company very much. Add a splash park trip, several grocery runs, some bedding shopping, a night at Tokens with some bible studies and a wedding, and we are exhausted ... but joyfully exhausted.

Garage Sale at Nichole's House


The poor boys had to eat peanut butter sandwiches 3 days in a row! Leighton got a little sick of it, but McCabe enjoyed every minute of it! Sorry this picture isn't great, I took it on my phone because it was so priceless! He is full of peanut butter.McCabe was sooooo tired. He fell asleep on me outside one day. It was a little too hot for that so after 10 minutes it and holding him most of the day, I tried laying him on Nichole's couch. Isn't he a precious sleeper! I so badly wanted to curl up on the couch too!

And Saturday, after the sale and the wedding, I just got to relax and enjoy my amazing boys. My activity of choice was quiet blanket time. The boys did a great job and I enjoyed coloring with them and only whispering for 45 minutes. This was a great way to end our busy week. We are also looking forward to going to bed early and waking up refreshed and ready to be a blessing to others at church tomorrow morning! (To be followed by a busy day of transporting some stuff back to our house and taking trips to goodwill so that the Cline's can use their garage again!)

Tokens with our Bible Study

Leighton and McCabe had their first arcade expereinces. Leighton climbed on and off of the trucks, boats, cars and trains, pretending to drive them. But he did NOT like when you put a token in so that the vehicle moved. He would climb right out and climb into a non-moving vehicle. It made for a cheap evening for us! Leighton didn't like tokens at all once he associated them with making his vehicle move! Luke got to play some black light mini-golf. I wished Leighton could have played .. he seems very interested in golf.

Leighton on the green truck.
Leighton on the red train.

No I didn't take a picture of him on all the vehicles, just these two; They were his favorites!

McCabe was there too. He just moves too fast to get a picture of him. Luke and I got in a free game of chase the kids.

It really is fun to spend friday nights with our bible study every week. We are looking forward to starting up bible study again this monday night! Yikes, what a reminder that fall is just around the corner ... and new babe too!

Goodbye Splash Park

The splash park is closing for the season in a few days. :(

I was very sad at first, but I guess I can understand it since today was actually a little chilly to be in the water and september is fast approaching with even cooler weather. Now keep in mind it was still hot, just substantially cooler in comparison to 88 and crazy heat indexes.

McCabe and Leighton enjoying water and peanut butter!

Leighton and Quinn enjoying each others company.Goodbye splash park!

Rain Rain go Away

We had a lot of rain last week. One of Leighton's favorite parks was underwater. This picture was several hours after the worst of it. Can you imagine the water being higher than this picture? Leighton keep saying, "Park underwater" and "clean up park with paper towel" and then then I said that migth not be strong enough to clean it up, he said "clean up park with washquash (his version of washcloth)". It has been a week now and though the water is gone, the sand and woodchips are gone too and the park is still closed!My boys playing!

Leighton insisting he play with his shirt off!

This week we had more rain. Ill steal a quote from my friend and say "rain rain go away, we want to go to the fair today!" We wanted to go to the fair so badly on family day this week. Leighton wanted to see the pigs we had been talking about. However, it was rainy, so we went for ice cream instead. Leighton calls it, "Arce Cream!" It is quite adorable!

Leighton enjoyed the ice cream and enjoyed looking at the paintings on the wall. There was a pig on the wall at Dairy Queen ... hopefully he didn't think this was the pig we were talking about all week.

McCabe enjoyed some too! Sooooooo good .... but sooooooo cold for him to eat!

Robin and Derek get MARRIED!

Look at my handsome husband! We had a great time at Robin and Derek's Wedding. Congrats to the Wadle's!

Vacation in Clear Lake, IA

We went on Vacation to Clear Lake, IA. We had a relxing and wonderful family time.

We spend 2 days at the pool and 2 days in town at the beach! We all loved it! If you watch the videos you will see that Leighton, as usual, stays out of the water, but thoroughly enjoys his time throwing sand and rocks into it. You will also see McCabe getting very dirty and loving every minute of it while being much more of a water lover than Leighton. He liked to throw a rock into the water a few feet and try to crawl into the waves after it. We are amazed at how wonderfully amazing, yet different, our boys are.

We enjoyed eating meals on the deck! We learned that Leighton likes strawberry cream cheese on bagels and he LOVES eating red and green peppers with ranch dressing with Daddy.McCabe is growing less interested in baby food. This would be good news except for that despite his growing interest in adult food, he doesn't actually eat it. He may try it, but them just throws it around. We learned that he likes peanut butter on bagels, he likes cheeze-it crackers, he likes peaches, and he likes breakfast bars filled with fruit.
Most night we went to town to take a walk, play at the playground and then eat ice cream on benches by the water! It was beautful and I enjoyed several great conversations with my wonderful Hubby Luke.

And in betweek the outdoor fun, the boys, including Luke, slept very well!

Our last night, we drove north to meet my parents, my sister Amber, and he son Hayden. Hayden is one month older than McCabe and her and I are doe with our next children only 3 days apart! He had a great dinner at famous daves. I am pretty sure the burger I ate was one of the best burgers of my life! And Corn Bread ... Mmmmmmm.

The girls and the baby boys! I wonder if Phil and Nancy will have 5 grand boys in jsut a few months. We know we are having a thrid boy but Amber isn't going to find out the gender of the new babe.

The whole gang!

Leighton and Hayden playing on the fake pigs. We tryed getting McCabe in the shot, but he was very scared of the pig! It was cute.

We had a good time on Vacation and are very thankful to Luke's Uncle for letting us enjoy his condo in Clear Lake. I wish were still there!