Then & Now

It's been over 5 years already since we moved into our house, and in that short amount of time Mike and I have slowly made it our own.  Here is the biggest and most recent change we've made:

I am so relieved to be done with this process (finding someone to put the siding on, waiting and waiting and waiting for them to start, coming home to find things have fallen off our walls, taking everything off the walls so nothing else gets broken, etc)...hopefully it's something we never have to mess with ever again!

There's no place like home.

Back to School

Tomorrow is the first day of school for us and to be quite honest, I'm feeling a lot like I did my first day of high school - excited but also very nervous!  Tomorrow marks the beginning of my first day as a special education director and I've already realized it's going to be quite a learning experience for me!  It should be quite interesting being pregnant and embarking on this new challenge/adventure at the same time...but I'm looking forward to it.


The best teachers teach from the heart, not from the book. ~Author Unknown

Summer Fun!

It is SO hard for me to believe that in about 2 1/2 weeks we will be back in school every day!  We are so fortunate to have so much time with our little family during the summer and try to make the most of it!  Here are some of our favorite adventures from this summer:

Our backyard "waterslide"

 Fishing at one of the state parks

 Xavier's 1st Fish

 Reading books from the Bookmobile

The parachute Xavier caught on the 4th of July

 Our cute little backyard visitors

Daddy & Xavier having a water fight with Scott & Maddie

 Meeting Henry

 Playing at various parks

 Riding the train at the zoo in SF

 On the train

 Chasing the ducks at the zoo

 Sydney's birthday party

Riding horsey while wearing the new cowboy hat from Great Uncle Mike & Great Aunt Ginger

 Visiting Summer in Clear Lake

 Mini Golf

 Swimming

 Visiting Aunt Summer

 Visiting the capitol in Des Moines

 Xavier's first Go-Kart ride

 Go-Karts

 On the Lady of the Lake (riverboat) in Clear Lake

 Watching the water while on the riverboat

 Xavier even got to honk the horn on the riverboat

 Enjoying some popcorn while watching the baseball game

 Baseball game at Principal Park

Walking on the pier



Watching Mama's tummy grow



Summertime will be gone in September, but it's still something I'll always remember.  ~Unknown

Summer should get a speeding ticket. ~Unknown

 

I love my bump!

Today I'm 24 weeks pregnant, and time seems to be flying by!  I absolutely LOVE being pregnant!  Feeling the baby moving and kicking is such an amazing experience!  I'm amazed at how different things are this time around and yet when I compare pictures the bumps look almost identical!  One of the best experiences this time is being able to see how Xavier acts and hear his comments.  The other day while he was playing, he told Mike, "I'm going to go say 'hi' to my baby brudder!"  Then he came and gave my belly a hug and said "Hi baby!" <3  I can only imagine the things he will do and say after the baby arrives!  It's bittersweet that it's only about 15 weeks away (give or take a few days)!  I'm excited to meet this baby and find out if Xavier has a little brother or a little sister, but I really do love being pregnant and know I will miss feeling the baby moving and kicking around after his/her arrival!

                                         23 weeks
                                                

~All the time we wondered and wondered, who is this person coming/growing/turning/floating/swimming deep, deep inside.       -Crescent Dragonwagon

My new challenge...

I have decided to try my hand at blogging (I have to stay one step ahead of my hubby now that he has facebook!).  Actually, I'm hoping it will be an easier and more effective way for me to update family and friends on the happenings of our growing family (I started out strong with emails after Xavier was born, but those "update emails" have declined significantly over the past 2 years).  So, hopefully I can conquer this new challenge!