Checking Out of Town

This is just a quick note to let you all know that WE'RE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD! Ahhhhh! :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) You may recall that JP's parents gave us this trip as a Christmas gift. It's been a long four months of waiting, but it's finally here.

So if you don't hear from me for a little while, that's why. Even though it is a relatively short trip, I have a feeling that even after we get home it might take some time to recover from the large amounts of fun (and sun!) we will be having.

Peace out, Minnesota! It's 80's and sunny where we are headed!

But before I go, here is a peek at another baby shoot I had the pleasure of doing this week. Wesley is so stinking cute. <3

Recent Photography

I have a fairly new facebook page for the photography I've been working on. Please feel free to check it out and "like" it, then share it with friends! www.facebook.com/31photography

Here is some recent stuff!

Asher at 6 months:

Newborn Emma:

Early Ultrasound

I was very excited when my new OB doctor told me that at our new clinic here in Princeton, all pregnancies are greeted with an early ultrasound. They do it to determine the baby's age and check for multiple fetuses. I've never gotten to have a first trimester ultrasound before (only at 20 weeks). It was such a joy to get to see our new little wonder, wiggling around as if to wave it's first hello to me and his or her three sisters.

I apologize...the photo is a cell phone snapshot of an ultrasound printout. I know it's not easy to interpret these things to start out with! The baby's head is on the left, with its little feet sticking up on the right. The bright spot by his head is its little arm up next to its cheek. At this point (just about 10 weeks), the baby is still only about an inch long, but it has lost its "tail" and tadpole sort of look. All four chambers of the heart are fully formed as are his or her little eyes. Life is so amazing and so precious.

At one point the baby did a little "happy dance" for us, wiggling its arms and legs up and down and seeming to bounce on its little back in a little break dance move. The girls absolutely loved it, and so did I. My due date remains the same (10/31/12) and I continue to feel wonderful, although I'm pretty exhausted by about 8:30 pm.

My "big" ultrasound will probably happen sometime in June, and yes, at that point we WILL be hoping to find out the gender. We have our boy name picked out but are still undecided on a girls name. :)

Rosie & The Bush: A Story of Perseverance

Spring In Our Steps

We have been soaking in every bit of this beautiful weather that we can. Yesterday we spent the day outside splashing in puddles (and mud, of course), riding bikes, cleaning out the van, cleaning up the yard (3 dogs worth of thawed out poop = yuck), climbing trees, and feeding the birds. I have to keep a close eye on Rosie when I clean up the dog poop. She follows close behind me, picks up pine cones, and runs up to me saying, "I foun' one!" Then she throws it in the scooper. Oh boy, I hope she continues to find the pine cones and not the real thing.

Today we had a picnic at the park, went on a long walk, threw rocks in the river, and now the girls are taking a nice, long nap. The windows are open in every room of the house so that we can air out and listen to the birds sing. We already found one salamander in the yard and the bugs are making a comeback. So far I haven't found any ticks on anyone, and I'm thankful for that!

I am still feeling wonderfully with the pregnancy. I'm only 7 weeks along right now, but I haven't felt sick at all, nor have I lost my appetite for anything. I do feel myself running out of energy earlier in the day, but it's not nearly as bad as the all-day-long fatigue I remember having with my other pregnancies. My weekly babycenter.com email today said that the baby is the size of a blueberry now and will grow his or her little hands and feet this week. It's all so sweet...I love it.

I am waiting on one of my dear friends to have her long overdue baby sometime soon so I can take her pictures. I bought some new props in preparation for little Emma's arrival and showed them to the girls. Rae was excited about it, then she said, "I have an idea!" and ran upstairs. She grabbed a baby doll, a toy camera, some baskets and blankets and started having her own baby photo shoot. It was so cute, I couldn't help but grab my camera and play along.

Ruby and Rosie got in on the fun, too.

And some of the finished products...

Finally here are some funny quote from the kids. Ruby has been on a roll lately.

Me: "Hurry up, slow poke!"

Ruby: "I'm not a slow poke, I'm a fast poke!"

_______________________________

Me (smiling): "Ruby, quit being so cute and go eat your food."

Ruby (concerned): "But Mommy, I can't stop the cutes!"

You Do The Math

We are very excited to announce the upcoming arrival of Charlebaby #4! According to several online calculators, our new sweetie will be due 10/31/12. I usually go late, so I'm assuming he or she will make an appearance in early November. Joe and his wife are due in August, and Amber is due in September, so I guess we will have tic, tac, toe babies again!

I just have to laugh when I consider that the new baby will be born right at the start of deer hunting season...the one time of year we were (originally) "trying to avoid" for having a baby. God really does have better plans, doesn't He?

The girls are ecstatic. Ruby really hopes it's either a boy or a girl and wants to name the baby Horsey Rainbow. I told her we could call the baby Horsey Rainbow until we find out the gender. Rae wanted to name the baby Rachel if it's a girl. I told her I didn't think that would work because then we'd have a "Rae" and a "RA-chel." She told me not to worry, we could just call the baby, "Chel!" They are so funny, and I can't wait to see how they will interact with a newborn.

Please be praying for a smooth and healthy pregnancy. So far I feel great.

Three Little Valentines

Anybody who knows us well knows that JP is not a big Valentine's Day sort of guy. He despises any sort of pressure to perform artificially because the calendar says you should. He will go out of his way to do nothing just to prove a point.

This has been the case for the whole of our relationship, and I have never minded because he is so good at showing me love every other day of the year. I have the maturity to understand just because he didn't bring home roses or make reservations at some fancy restaurant doesn't mean I'm not his valentine every day of the year.

My three daughters, however, are not mature. Even though their daddy loves them to bits and pieces every day, they (mainly Rae, but Ruby as well) are reaching ages where they understand the holiday and want to be someone's valentine. I first noticed it last year, and mentioned it to JP.

When I was young, my Dad (and my mom, and even my brothers) made a big deal out of Valentine's Day for me & my sister. I was extremely secure in my family's love for me, and I always knew that on Valentine's Day, I would be showered with extra doses of the same love I felt from them every day. I never dreaded February 14th or joined any pity party groups in wearing all black to school. I was loved from home, and I didn't need to look for it anywhere else.

Apparently, JP took my thoughts to heart, and this year, Mr. Anti-Forced-Affection himself went all out for the women in his life.

Each of the girls came home to find red heart-shaped balloons tied to their beds, weighted with a chocolate heart and a sucker, and a red carnation. The girls were absolutely giddy, squealing just like you would imagine and jumping all over their big daddy valentine.

JP told me he fully accepts that he will never again be able to ignore Valentine's Day, and he's happy to do it just to let his girls know they are always someone's special love. My eyes welled up with tears just knowing our girls will have the same security I had growing up.

After all the hugs and kisses, I went downstairs to do laundry and found a big bouquet of flowers waiting for me on our bed. For some reason, the flowers took me over the top, and I burst into tears! I knew he was going to do something special for the girls, but I still never expected anything for me!

JP doesn't buy me flowers often, but when he does, he likes to make it meaningful. This time he went into the flower shop and told them he wanted to make his own arrangement. They told him they had a bunch of nice bouquets and pre-arranged items, but he said no; he wanted to do it himself. He picked out the flowers and bought them al a carte, then arranged them himself at home. :)

Rae really wanted to do something special for JP as well, so we worked hard to prepare everyone's favorite dinner: Crab legs for JP, chicken for me, and Shells & Cheese for the girls. We even made up a menu (Rae named our "restaurant" The Surprise Bakery...haha), made a heart-shaped fruit pizza for dessert, homemade cards, and a video of JP and the girls. He was very blessed, and the girls were giddy to have done something for him.

Here (if it works) is the video we made for JP. I am warning you, it is VERY rough. I threw it together in about two hours. Most of the photos and all of the videos are from my iPhone and therefore very poor quality. To top it off, I had recorded most of the video vertically, but had to rotate it to landscape mode, which required heavy cropping. He loved it (he even cried, but don't tell), and that's all that matters. :)

Rae's 5th Birthday Party!

The day after my oldest princess turned five, a miracle happened. This low-key, no presents or parties sort of family did a 180º and threw a massive birthday party for Rae and all of her little friends. After years of quietly biting my tongue and respecting JP's no party preference (because let's be real, you know I'd be throwing parties every year, right?), he agreed to allow birthday parties for our kids at two ages: 5 and 10.

It was like the heavens parted. I was so excited I could have squealed! Actually, I think I did squeal. Ok, I know I did. I squealed.

I'm not sure JP knew exactly what he was getting into when he agreed to this, but I knew that if this was going to be one of only two birthday parties I would ever throw for Rae, we were going all out!

Rae decided she wanted to have a princess party (of course), and to accommodate her many boy cousins and friends, we made it a "knights and fair maidens" theme. Everyone was encouraged by royal decree to come dressed in their finest attire.

There was no use in trying to keep the guest list at a reasonable number. Israel wanted to invite everyone she had ever met, and I was happy to oblige. In the end we had 19 kids and 15 adults packed into our home. We ran out of pickles and cheese, but there was enough fun and smiles to go around the room multiple times. :)

The party began with a game of "pin the crown on the princess," which can be a little slow when you have nearly 20 kids waiting as patiently as they can for their turn. After that we sat down to decorate craft stick magnet picture frames that the girls and I had assembled beforehand.

Before the party, my very talented friend Brenda painted a beautiful rainbow and castle mural for the kids to have their picture taken in front of. In my perfect plan, I was going to print out the pictures during the party to give them; then the children could use those pictures in their frames. Since I completely forgot about that in the craziness of the day, I guess I'll just be emailing them to the parents. :)

After decorating the frames, Rae passed out party bags to all of her friends. The girls/princesses all got a paper tiara, a wand, a necklace, a heart-shaped lip gloss ring, princess stickers and a noise maker. The boys/knights got an inflatable sword, a knight mask, and a noise maker. The kids all got a kick out of their

Lunch was next on the agenda. The menu consisted of Rae's favorites: Turkey sandwiches, grapes, and pickles for the kids. My mother-in-law Margie made a phenomenal chicken salad for the adults. I do not claim to have any impressive baking skills whatsoever, but Rae and I did work together to create a castle cake that I felt was satisfactory. The kids thought it was the coolest thing in the world -- they are so easy to please. :)

The final event was perhaps the most exciting for the kids: a princess crown piñata (did you notice I figured out how to type the ñ?). Apparently Target makes robust piñatas, because we had some pretty strong kids taking some pretty hard hits at that thing, yet barely making a dent.

We really thought Rosie could tip the scales, but alas, she could not. :)

Finally we called in the reinforcements, and the kids all cheered when my brother Joe stepped in to finish it off, spilling candy everywhere.

I am truly thankful that we had the opportunity to do something big and exciting for Israel's fifth birthday. I know she is old enough that she will remember this party for the rest of her life, and it brought JP and me tremendous joy to see her so excited all day long.

Now...only a year and a half until Ruby's fifth birthday. She wants a horsey party. I guess I'd better start planning now. ;)

(P.S. I have to offer a big THANK YOU to my awesome friend Sarah who manned the camera for me all day. There is no way any of this could have been documented if I had tried to do it myself. THANK YOU SARAH! )