I had my 20 week ultrasound and midwife appointment on the 12th. All looks good-yay! We closed our eyes in order to keep the baby's gender a surprise. So, we will be taking a list of names for boys and girls to the hospital with us again. We are still on track to keep the Sept. 23rd due date and baby and I are both healthy, such a blessing and relief for sure. In recent months and days we've heard stories of people really struggling with pregnancies, both lost and difficult, newborn health issues and losses in families. It can be so easy to think your day is tough, but stopping to celebrate all the real blessings in life on a daily basis is so important!
Jeff has been working like crazy to get tasks done on the house on Boyd. The weeks seem to slip by so quickly, and there is progress, but always more to do. We are now to drywall and cabinets and then onto more final steps in the process - painting, trim work, flooring, final electrical and light fixtures, and on and on. We decided that there had to be a goal in order to get this house done and on the market. So, Jeff self-imposed an 8-week schedule and timeline starting June 1st - that puts us at the end of July to get it ready to go on the market. He will be burning the candle at both ends to get it done, but he has done a great job so far! The house is a complete transformation, inside and out really.
Jeff took time to enjoy a manly weekend of camping with his brother and brother-in-laws over Memorial weekend! He so deserved the break to just hang out, shoot guns, relax and set things on fire - you know, typical guy camping stuff I guess. They had fun up north on his brother-in-law, Nick's, family property then came home and went out a day later to camp near Lincoln with the guys again, adding another brother-in-law, Nick B., this time. The Derby girls (Michelle, Laura and I) took advantage of the guys being occupied and Grandpa and Grandma willing to watch the four kids and went to dinner and a movie! We ate dinner and dessert at Olive Garden - actually able to converse the whole time in peace - walked a bit at Village Pointe, then saw a movie "Age of Adeline". It was so nice to spend some time together since we're all now spread out from Grand Island to Oklahoma. I've known them for 18 years now, which is crazy!
We wrapped up the month with some extra time with Pennell extended family. Grandpa and Grandma were here from SLC so we had dinner on Memorial Day at Karre's with everyone. Then we had lunch at my parents two days later with Grandpa and Grandma and Grandma and Poppy. We are so thankful to have family that can still all have get togethers at eachother's homes when everyone is in town.
Samara's Month:
- Samara had a fun last couple weeks of preschool - a trip to Gifford Farms, a potluck picnic on her last day and even a "Graduation" that evening. She is looking forward to going to preschool all day next year on Tues and Thurs and Friday mornings where they do music and cooking!
- She loved helping plan and get ready for Noah's "baby party" as she called it. The day of she thoroughly enjoyed saying hi to everyone and playing with the other kids at the shower.
- We hit a rough patch at the end of the month with Samara though. She kicked her tantrum tendencies back into high gear after a busy week and getting to staying up extra late one night with family in town. This resulted in an ugly scene on the way home which involved her throwing things at Mommy, unbuckling her seat belt in the car, etc. Needless to say, after stopping twice to re-buckle the angry (to say the least) kid back in to her car seat, I was DONE by the time we got home. Thankfully Jeff was home when we got there and he took over! She had to just be in her room as there was no reasoning with her. Her consequences were laid out the next day in order that she would know despite being tired, her actions and attitude were not okay. She went nearly a week before it happened again - starting at Home Depot nonetheless. We hope this is not a preview to her teen years and are taking time to consider what is causing this - just tiredness, lack of one-on-one attention, something else? We are taking time to consider any changes we need to make in order to remedy the issue better.
- After seeing a video that Daddy showed the kids, Samara was explaining to Kalum how the dinosaurs died. "An earthsteroid crashed into Earth. Some dinosaurs died then and some didn't." Talking about dinosaurs has now become an obsession with both kids, talking about their demise daily and acting like dinosaurs in their playtime.
- At the lunch table one day he said he wished he was a grown up. I said, "You do? Why?" He said, "Cuz then I can do bible study." At first you think, wow, what a Godly child we are raising! Maybe I should pat myself on the back! Then you realize he knows that's where the best snacks are offered on those evenings - in the room with the grown-ups!
- He now insists on choosing what he will wear. Only "cool" shirts (his term) can be worn. As in, "How about this shirt today Kalum?" "No. That's not a cool shirt." Then he digs for just the right look - usually it must have cars or flames or something of the like on it.
- We started potty training at the end of the month with Kalum - right to big boy underwear (for the most part). We figured if he can be dry for hours at a time, now might as well be the time. Stay posted for the updates I guess, we gotta get this guy out of diapers before he becomes a big brother!
