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A Glimpse of our Littlest Girl

Here are a few 3-D pictures of our sweet girl at 22 weeks. Amazing! It is absolutely unbelievable to see her little face. She is growing really well. Everything is looking really good. Despite how big I look, she is actually right on track- in the 50th percentile. She has a lot of room, and there is lots of fluid for her to swim around in... this explains why I am so big. (We had to dispel rumors that my due date was in July-- 6 or 7 people at church were under that impression.) It also explains why I don't feel her as much as I felt CJ at this point. I, however, will be pregnant for the entire summer on into September. I am trying to stay positive. But the good news is that we do not live in the South and the Puget Sound is known for it's mild weather year round. But for those of us who live here, we know that out of no where it can get very hot, but fortunately it doesn't often stay that way for the ENTIRE summer. (See I'm thinking positive, just positive thinking right here, Pregnant and Positive... are you convinced?)

Mommy's Mini Vacation

In April I got to spend a very special weekend in Seattle with my mom. This was part of my Christmas present from last Christmas. My parents got me and my mom tickets to see Celtic Woman. They are a group of women from Ireland who sing amazingly and put on a beautiful show. (I would watch their concerts on PBS while I had mono-- right before my wedding). As if the concert wasn't enough we got to stay at the Paramount Hotel and make a weekend out of it. We had so much fun!

First we did a little shopping. Then we went back to the hotel and ate a snack and took a nap (the life of a pregnant tourist). Next we got to go to Palisades for dinner. My sister in law, Genesis, is a manager there. She arranged for 'the car' to pick us up at the hotel and drive us to the restaurant. We were pleasantly surprised to find that 'the car' was actually a limo. We had a VERY LOVELY dinner and then were whisked back to the Paramount Theatre for the show. The show was wonderful and everything I had hoped for. With the beautiful music still dancing in our heads we drifted off to sleep--- and I slept with out interruptions, and awoke to a lovely breakfast in bed! WOW!

The rest of the day we spent doing those fun Seattle things that just never seem to get old. We had a lovely time at Pikes Place. I even found a ring to wear in place of my wedding ring while I am pregnant (This is a big accomplishment-- my finger is usually a 3 3/4 when I am not pregnant, even when my fingers are swollen they aren't a size 5-- so finding a cheap ring is next to impossible) Anyway! I had a lovely time gallivanting around with my wonderful mom and I felt refreshed and spoiled when I returned to my husband and baby (who missed me a little- I think!)

Grass Therapy

Mommy I don't like this!
I CAN'T Walk on the grass!
I like the slide... but not the grass on the bottom. I'll just keep my feet up here!
Hmmm... this swing is OK, keep me up here and the grass down there!
Our silly girl!


CJ started walking on January 15th-- the day we found out we were pregnant, and the week we were moving to our new house. Since then we entered moving madness, and morning sickness season, as well as cold rainy weather, and since CJ had grown out of all her out door shoes--- she did not spend time walking on the grass. (We did, however, go on plenty of walks around the lake.) These are my excuses as to why my daughter came to become afraid of a friendly neighborhood plant called grass.

Now that the weather is nicer, the morning sickness has passed, and CJ has appropriate shoes-- my attention naturally turned towards playing outdoors on our big toy. We joyfully bounded outside only to discover that Cecily would not leave the concrete car port. She would NOT walk on the grass! I carried her to the grass, and encouraged her to come towards the slide (which she loves-- we had played on that earlier, but usually after walks while she was still in her bunting suit-- so she did not walk). She would not budge. She did not like the uneven ground.

Thus began grass therapy. We would go out side, and I would do my best to encourage her confidence about walking in the grass. The first two or three times she would eventually consent to checking the grass out-- but it was so exhausting, and there were many tears. These grass therapy sessions often ended in naps.

However, I am glad to say-- CJ has overcome her fear of grass and now frolics freely in our spacious back yard of weeds and grass like plants.

Frolic! Frolic! Play! Another happy ending!

Look at all the pretty weeds Mommy!

Have BBQ Will Travel!

Who doesn't like free stuff? We love free stuff, as long as it doesn't cost you a lot of time and money to then acquire and/or actually use the "free stuff."
On a recent walk, Rory, our hunter gatherer came across a FREE BBQ. Few things are as satisfyingly "manly" as a man's BBQ. And since Rory is not the true hunting type-- (actually shooting things to eat it) -- the next best thing was FINDING a BBQ.
Just as we walked by a home in our neighborhood a kid put this BBQ on the side of the road with a free sign. Rory's eyes lit up. "Can we keep it?"
Really, what wife can resist that face?
Well, this little BBQ is no beauty and has its share of rust, and we have yet to test it out and see if it works--- that will be the true test. However, beauty is in the eye of the beholder (I just hope that there isn't an explosion into the eye of this beholder once he tries to test it out!)
Anyway, Rory wheeled this baby home, and I walked next to him wheeling our actual baby home. We walked by a family having dinner on the porch. They laughed at us, out taking the BBQ and the baby for a walk.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

In January we moved into our new house. Our home is situated farther south down the peninsula from where we were, but just when you think you've reached "The Middle of No Where" you come into our housing development. The community we live in was built around a lake. It seems that originally the homes around the lake were mostly cabins. Then came the trailers and mobile homes, as people were looking for year round housing on less expensive land. Gradually, nice stick built permanent homes were added to the development. There was a period where this little neighborhood was rather shady, we are emerging from that now. It is very interesting to walk around the neighborhood. There are still quite a few stick built, A-frame cabins that are rather cute. However, more and more really nice homes are coming in. I think it is an up an coming neighborhood. Our home falls in the middle of the spectrum between the the really trashy trailers and the beautiful custom homes. We are happy with our little home and its place here. The lake is about a mile around and it's perfect for our little walks with CJ. There are also two beach spots along the lake. One of which is right down the street from us. They also stock the lake in the spring and summer. And as you can note from our previous article- there is a community basketball hoop!
Rory has been actively making friends with the neighbors, and he was able to organize a community clean up for our housing development with the youth group. (It was part of an all church community service day.)
Well, Hope you enjoyed the tour of our little community! Come visit!

The park closest to our house.

Here is an example of one of the many cabins in the neighborhood.

Some wildlife down at the swimming hole, in the park on the other side of the lake from us.

A nice little picnic area, and of course the beloved Basketball court.

Basketball Fan!

Here is CJ enjoying a little B-Ball time with Daddy. She says "Ball" very clearly and makes a mad dash for any ball that she sees. (I am foreseeing a CJ sized hoop in her future).
Rory, an avid basketball fan could not be more thrilled. Rory LOVES to play basketball, and whenever he sees people down at the court playing it is all that he can do to resist joining in (in fact he doesn't resist, unless he really has to).
CJ also really enjoys her walks. Rory used to take her down to the court and then she would watch him shoot hoops from her stroller-- she is his biggest fan (next to me of course). Now that she is more mobile-- the minute they reach the court-- she wants out!! At first she just wanted to carry the ball around, now she actually tries to dribble! She is a bit of a ball hog and has been known to travel, but as you can see she can really get some air.... Watch out MJ, CJ may be the next one to dominate dunk competitions.