Little Kicks

On Sunday I felt the baby move for the first time! I am 18 weeks so the first kicks are very faint and sometimes not very definite. But, I was sitting in service and the choir was singing, and she started moving! I am taking it that we are going to have another dancer! It is so sweet to feel the baby and life starting to take place! Thank you Lord so much for this little blessing. Thank you for entrusting Matt and I again with a precious life. Help us to raise her up to honor and follow you. We know you have big plans for her so mold her into the perfect person you desire her to be. Amen.

Drumroll Please

Last week, we went for the ultra sound! And we are having .............. A GIRL!! I really thought it was a boy, but, I am never right, so I should have assumed it would be a girl. The kids all thought it was a boy too. They said it was a pattern - girls, boy, girl, so it should be a boy. Now of course they are thrilled about another sister. Matt just laughed. I told Matt that now I don't feel so bad buying 2 of everything for the girls because one set will go to Finley and the other to this baby. Now yes, everyone's initial response is poor Harper, but come on!! In high school when these girls have friends over all the time, who wouldn't want to be Harper!! He will have a nice assortment of girls around at all times. :) I love this picture of the baby because it looks like she is either waving or getting ready to suck her thumb. It is amazing to see our sweet baby - she is the size of an orange here. Amazing - God's miracle of birth is spectacular. So to the 12% of you that voted girl (that was only 2 people and I know that Matt was one of them), you win!!! And no we do not have any names picked out - yet!!

Rectangle Fan

This post is out of order, but I had to document because it was funny. Tonight we tucked everyone in bed and when I walked past the thermostat, I looked and saw it was 78 in here!! We went the whole day with the air off and the windows closed. I didn't realize it was toasty in here, because I didn't leave the house! I told Matt to open the windows so it would cool down. Carly came out of her room about 10 minutes later and she said she was hot. I told her we were working on it and it would cool down in 10 minutes (just said something to get her back to bed). Then she looked at us and said, "Turn on my rectangle fan!" Matt and I were looking at her like she was crazy and told her they don't have a fan in their room. We said her window was open and to stay on top of her covers. She was adamit and kept telling us that she wanted that rectangle fan on. We had no clue what she was talking about and she described it for us. "The rectangle on top that blows - the FAN!!" AHHHH - the ac vent!!! Matt and I burst out laughing because we finally figured out what she was talking about. She wanted some AC!! We couldn't stop laughing. So we told her to stand in front of the window and she could feel the cool air. With a big smile, she retreated back to bed satisfied that she would cool off soon.

A day at the Beach

So 2 weeks ago, I texted Matt and said that he needed to have the next day off. He asked why and I told him that it was necessary that we go to the beach. With a new baby coming in March, we may not want to make a beach trip (I don't like babies and sand mixed together). So I told him we needed to have an overnighter in North Myrtle. He spoke to his boss and she let him have it off!! So I made some hotel reservations at 9:00 that night and the kids had no idea. We actually had hotel points so our room was free - even better! In the morning, we fed the kids and told them we were taking them on a surprise trip. I gave them clues once we got in the car about every 20 minutes. After a good hour and a half, gave them a big clue and they guessed the beach. They were so excited!! We got there around 11. I had packed a lunch and we went to see if our room was ready. It was, so we unloaded, fed them lunch, got suited up and hit the sand!!! It was beautiful! The wind was blowing there was no humidity, it was hot, but you couldn't tell - perfect weather!! This was the first time Finley had actually played in the sand and she liked it of course.
Here she is on some sort of mission. Notice her tongue handing out, so she probably is on her way to eat one of those shells - yes, she eats shells too. Matt had her stand up and he backed up a little bit and she took her first step!!! We were so excited. I quickly got out the camera and was able to record the second and third steps :) I was so happy that he was there to see her first steps. She was proud of herself too.

Here is Daddy teaching them how to make a pool. They ended up making about 4 of them, but they kept washing away because the tide was coming in. The hotel was actually on property of a time share place, so it had a nice water park as well. The kids absolutely LOVED the water slides. They could all go down together and I think they did about a million times. At the end, our poor Chloe got her finger all sliced up. She was bleeding all over and it was a pretty long cut. She was a trooper, but it was still very painful.

Finley decided to take a stab at building a sand castle. Don't worry, she didn't sit her long!

We got in from the beach/pool around 4:30ish and took showers and got ready for dinner. We took them to Red Robin, where Finley was quite excited to get a balloon. After dinner, I told Matt we needed to take Chloe back to the scary plane ride she was tortured by 2 years ago at Broadway. When we got there, they remembered where they were and were SO excited to ride the planes! Here is our Chloe proud as punch in her plane alone! Carly and Harper had a blast and had their planes going up and down. Chloe was still hesitant so she stayed low to the ground and her hands couldn't have been any further away from the controllers. But she was so proud she didn't cry and she conquered her fear. Her smile was spectacular.

As well as her first steps, Finley also had her first ice cream (despite what TJ did at Chic Fila - I don't want to know what happened)! She wasn't too thrilled with it. She ate it of course, but I think it was too cold. Of course it was Chocolate Peanut Butter - my favorite so I was glad to help her out (good old Ben and Jerry's).

As we were in line getting the ice cream, she riped her hair bow out, so we had to keep her upwind so her hair would blow out of her face for these pictures!! Got to love the hair!!

In the morning, I took the girls for a walk on the beach while the little 2 were still sleeping. It was so pretty out and the girls enjoyed picking up sea shells. Chloe had picked up one shell and Carly and I were walking looking for a good one. I looked in the water and saw a pretty good sized one (biggest I have seen at Myrtle) so by default Carly was the recipient of the big shell. Chloe just looked at it and said she was going to look for a big one. We looked and looked and finally Carly said, "here Chloe you can have this one!" It was so sweet. What a thoughtful thing to do for your sister. The smile on Chloe's face was priceless!!

After our walk, we went back to the room, ate breakfast, and got ready to hit the beach before we left. They played in the sand for a while building sand castles and then Chloe's finger started to really hurt so I told her I would take her and Finley to the pool so the salt and sand wouldn't bother her any more. We swam and then Carly, Harper, and Daddy met us and swam too. We then headed up to the room around 11 to take showers and pack up and we were checked out at 12:00 on the dot. We had some Wendy's and then buckled up and took naps (everyone except for Finley!!) Our little day trip hit the spot! It was so much fun and we enjoyed our family time!

Sweet Kids

Our backyard is torture for my sweet kids. It never fails, the second they go out, they get eaten alive!! Yesterday was no exception. I told them to go out and I would be out there shortly to spray them up. By the time I got out there - no more than 5 minutes - there were a total of at least 12 bug bites!!! 3 of them being on all their heads!! I thought it was funny that Carly got hers on her right side (she is right handed) and Chloe and Harper got theirs on their left side (the lefties). So now the cortizone is out and their legs look horrible, but soon it will be cold and I will be wishing for some warmth!

Another Proud Moment

Chloe decided to write her story today. I just showed her where the space bar and the back space keys were and she went to town. She did want her word cards to type the word like. She said she sounded it out and it didn't look right, so she needed to see her cards. I am very proud of my little bug spelling all those words right! Way to go Chloe!!

Story: Rat can pat rag cat (don't think the word cat is supposed to be there)

ben can rub the dog

I can woos (wash) rag

cat and rat like to run

pigwig likes to job

chloe riffle is 5

Smoothie

I got this receipe from a blog I read and it is quite yummy and seems kind of healthy. In a blender mix: 3 frozen bananas, 2 tbls. peanut butter, 2 cups chocolate milk. Blend and it turns out thick like a milk shake. Matt really enjoyed it the other night when I delivered it to him as he was plugging a hole in his tire. Try it out!