The Runaway Summer

It has happened again. Summer has been taken stolen from me. Why does the fourth of July come SO fast every summer? It feels like we only have half the summer left, but in reality, there are almost two full months left. Every weekend in July is full, but thankfully our craziness slows down in August. I'll jump right in to our summer happenings since my last post.

A few weekends ago we packed up the car for the day and headed to Oskaloosa to celebrate Corey's Grandma's birthday. Gwen knew that Grandma Zollars loves peacocks, so we spent one day making her a peacock craft. Truthfully, it turned out better than I thought! Gwen painted the canvas, and chose some scrapbook paper to make a body for the peacock, and we got these awesome feather/wire-y things at Hobby Lobby way on sale.

We had a wonderful time at her birthday party, and the weather was absolutely beautiful. We got to catch up with a lot of family members, had a great potluck lunch, and the kids got to run around and play all day. Gwen loved playing with her cousins and friends. There was a cool castle playground the kids could play on, several games available at our shelter, and even water balloons and a sprinkler to entertain the little ones. I wish I had taken more pictures, but here are two (How cute is Gwen in piggy tails?)

We got home and relaxed that evening because the next day was Father's Day and a big race day for Corey! We all got up early, packed the car, grabbed our sign to cheer for Daddy, and headed to his race. We spent the morning and most of the afternoon cheering him on and relaxing in the shade while he raced. Gwen made him this sign, and really loved holding it up as he rode by. Unfortunately, she had it upside down the first time he went by, but he got the jist :) She also had several people admire her art-work. Corey finished fifth, and we were so proud!

We really enjoyed watching him, and especially wanted to be there to make sure how much we love and appreciate him as a Daddy! We stopped and ate pizza on our way home, and picked some berries near Ankeny.

The next day we decided to celebrate Corey's birthday a little early. Gwen and I met him for lunch and saw the movie Inside Out. We LOVED it. We're not huge movie-goers, and we don't watch much TV at home, but we thought it was a great movie and would recommend it to anyone. It's one of those movies that has a lot of adult humor, but still kept Gwen interested and engaged (which can sometimes be difficult!).

The next weekend was one of very few weekends that we didn't have anything planned. I did technically have my 10 year high school reunion, but we were both so exhausted from having traveled so much that we just decided to have a relaxing weekend home. It turns out that my sister-in-law and nephews were coming in for the weekend to visit her friend, so we got to spend Saturday with Titan, Jett, and Colt. Angie text me Saturday morning asking if we'd like to hang out with Jett while she took Titan and Colt to the skate park; of course we obliged. So while Titan skated, Jett came and played in the yard while Corey washed his bike. Jett rode Gwen's bike, tried to catch grapes in his mouth, played disc golf, and played with chalk. After he was tired of playing outside, he tried his hand at every toy inside. Later, Angie and Colt came over and had lunch and played some more. Titan is getting to be so big! He'll be six in September and will start kindergarten. He has gotten very into skateboarding lately, and it's so fun to watch all the videos of him as he learns more and more tricks. He's also pretty brave for a six-year-old! Corey has very quickly gotten interested in Titan's skating, and can often be found watching YouTube videos about how to "drop-in" and "rock the fakie" (or whatever). He's currently planning on building a ramp in Evan and Angie's spare bedroom in the basement so Titan can skate in the winter. I think Corey needs a boy :) Colt was so happy the entire time he was at our house and has gotten even cuter (if that's possible). When we played outside, he put monster trucks in a little wagon and pulled it around. When we were playing inside, he was obsessed with Gwen's Baby Natalie and her stroller. Every time he'd get side tracked with another toy, I'd put her back in Gwen's room, and soon enough Colt would find her and bring her back out. Eventually Titan and Colt were wrestling and chasing each other with Baby Natalie. Gwen would be mortified. Just kidding, she would have cracked up :) Boys are so different than girls, but they were quite fun. Later, Corey took Colt and Titan to the skate park while Angie, Jett, and I went to get Angie a tattoo. Later that night, we all went to the Arts Festival and had a great time. The boys were so good and had a lot of fun doing all of the art activities that were available for kids. Corey and I really love the Arts Festival, so it was fun to share that with them. Last summer we went with Corey's brother, Travis, and sister-in-law, Julie. It's hard to believe that was an entire year ago! The next day ended up as another race day (can you tell it's really hard for us to just "relax" and do nothing? :) We rode up to Ames and Corey competed in a mountain bike race. He did very well (I think he got second...I can't remember now!). I love to watch him race because he's incredibly driven and dedicated. He has that competitive edge that I never really got :)

In the midst of all of these busy weekends, my mom and I painted the baby's room while Corey and his mom celebrated his birthday in Kansas City at a concert! It was fun for both of us to spend time with our moms, and I was really happy that Julia went with Corey to the concert so I didn't have to! I went last year and really enjoyed it, but this big ol' belly wouldn't have enjoyed it nearly as much as last year. I did miss seeing some of our friends who also went, but it was nice to see my mom and get the baby's room painted, finally! Since then, Corey put the crib up, I've washed all of the baby clothes we have (which isn't a lot since we don't know the baby's gender, but it's definitely enough to get us by for several weeks early on!), and started organizing pictures, decorations, and baby books. Corey's step-mom, Joni, is working on an awesome dresser/changing table for us and is reupholstering Gwen's old rocker, and then we'll essentially be set! Corey found some awesome prints for the walls--a variety of biking pictures, maps, and book covers/references. My favorite print is one of Dr. TJ Eckleburg's eyes from The Great Gatsby. Corey remembered how much I loved that symbol from the book and made it one of the prints. He also did one from "The Raven" by Poe. What a guy :) We did finish Gwen's room, and I know I promised pictures; I just haven't quite had the time! Corey found some incredible prints for her room, too. We have a painting of zebras my aunt did, a few princesses, and Gwen's favorite: a picture of Freddy Mercury. Once Gwen saw the baby's room, she wanted in on the action, so she drew two pictures: one of a princess and one of a prince. For now, we have the princess framed on a nightstand next to the crib, but if the baby is a boy, she naturally wants to switch to the prince picture. Of course :) Angie and Titan brought us the cutest little doll/stuffed animal from Where the Wild Things Are that I absolutely love! People have already been so incredibly generous to us and the baby; we feel so grateful to have so much support and so many people excited for us. It's hard to believe that in two months this baby will be here! I did have a doctor's appointment the morning my mom came, so she got to come with me. It was a short appointment since there was no ultrasound, but it was fun to have her come with me. Everything has gone so well with my pregnancy, and I feel very lucky that it's been so uneventful. I've felt great overall, which is probably good since I'm a worrier :) My mom got to hear the heartbeat when we went--that was fun! I'm measuring right on track and everything seemed fine, so that was that! I should be having appointments every two weeks, but this week I'm out of town at a training, so it will be next week instead. I've started to really pop out even more--here's a picture of me at 30 weeks (just a few days ago).

You can tell I'm starting to have a hard time sleeping--my face is swollen and I look exhausted. But I feel well, so that's all that matters :) Here are a few family pictures our friend Justin took for us last week, too! We love his work and are so grateful for how he captures how lives so quickly and accurately. Thank you, Justin! Here are my favorites:

And finally, that brings us to last weekend, the fourth of July. On Friday, Gwen, Corey and I went to Corey's Dad and step-mom's to celebrate America and hang out with family. Dave and Joni were on their way back in town when we got there, so we helped ourselves to their pool while we waited :)

Once they got home, we all got cleaned up and went to an old car show downtown.

Gwen enjoyed looking at the cars, and especially enjoyed the ice cream afterwards :) The next morning we got up relatively early and went to a parade. Gwen's cousin Avery and Corey's brother and sister-in-law joined us there! Avery and Gwen are inseparable :)

They loved getting candy from the parade, dancing, and then playing some fun games in the park after the parade. It was pretty hot, but the girls were troopers and had a blast! We then went home, had a quick lunch, and put the girls down for a nap. When they woke up, we all went swimming (it felt amazing after it being so hot). Gwen and Avery both had floaties around their bellies, so they could be pretty independent. That was awesome to see.

I also worked a little bit with Gwen on floating, kicking, putting her face in the water, and swimming on her belly. She really loved when we "motor-cycled"--haha, I essentially made car noises as I dragged her around the pool. Later, she and Avery were doing their thing and jumping in the pool while Corey, Brandon, Dave and I played with the water guns and diving toys. At one point I asked Corey if he'd do a "dirty dancing lift" with me--you know, lifting me out of the water over his head. We thought it might be funny. It wasn't. I basically free-willied directly onto his neck, which he heard pop. Sorry, Boo... Nothing makes you feel really pregnant like almost snapping your husband's neck. I still think it would have been cool had it worked ;)

We got home in the afternoon that Sunday and all took quick naps before getting ready for the upcoming week. Gwen and I went grocery shopping since the house was pretty barren, and tidied up for our next visitor, Grandma Julia! I left pretty early in the day on Monday for AP Training in Iowa City. I've been here all week. Gwen and Grandma did so many fun things while Corey was at work and while I was in class! They got their nails done, went to the park, painted some pottery, did water balloons, played dress up, made a pie... and I'm sure a ton of other things! Gwen has been looking forward to Grandma Julia's visit for a long time. Here are some pictures Grandma Julia took over their fun few days.

We are so grateful for her willingness to come and watch Gwen for us while we worked! Gwen is so fortunate to have so many wonderful, loving, and sacrificial grandparents.

Tomorrow (Friday) after class, I'm going to meet Corey and some friends in Clear Lake for the weekend. I'm really excited for it, and it should be fun to spend time with friends away. Corey has several races, so I'll let you know how those go at a later date. Next week Gwen starts Cheerleading. We're both pretty excited about it :) I think she's going to love it. Then next weekend is our baby shower. I can't believe how quickly it is coming--I'm very humbled and touched already at how excited people are for us. I'm really looking forward to seeing so many of my favorite people all in one place :) It is really rare that I get to see family, high school friends, college friends, co-workers, and new friends all together at one time!

PS: Please forgive the lack of paragraphs and organization of this blog. I swear when I'm typing it that I put in paragraphs and breaks between topics, but for some reason, the blog won't publish it that way. Don't judge me too harshly :)

Luggage

I was hopeful that this summer would be relaxing, easy, even (dare I say it...) boring! I was wrong, as always :) But I'm very grateful I was wrong. Summer has hardly started and I'm already carrying luggage underneath my eyes. I'm exhausted, but so full (figuratively and literally--seriously, someone take the food away from me). Last weekend was busy as we went to Belle Plaine on Friday night to stay with Corey's dad and step-mom. Gwen also got to hang out with her Grandma Peggy and read ALL the books she brought to her while we were there. She is very into her Bible right now, and it's fun how proud she is when she can tell me some of the stories. She loves to talk about how God made all the animals and explains how he knows all the stars by name. When she gets to a story we haven't read, I like to ask her what she thinks is going on. Sometimes it's close, other times it's amusing. Apparently, Jesus had a baby he was teaching to float in a basket because the baby couldn't walk on water like Jesus yet (this was the story of Moses' life--haha). At least she was making inferences and using prior knowledge to formulate that response :) She loves to read, but her Bible and "Demotional" (devotional) are her favorite books right now. A few days ago I was re-reading one of my favorite books by James Dobson and taking some notes, and Gwen grabbed her Bible and journal, and started taking notes over what she was reading, too. Here she is writing notes in her journal:

Both Dobson's book and Gwen imitating me in that moment were important reminders of her tender age and current developmental period, and it also illuminated the immense responsibility we have in raising her and instilling important values in her daily life. It's a huge responsibility, and one we don't take lightly. I strongly recommend Bringing Up Girls by James Dobson. He also has one called Bringing Up Boys if you have any boys.

Gwen is already growing into such a kind, polite, and helpful little girl, but we also hope to instill in her: truthfulness, trustworthiness, respectfulness, discipline, self-control, and generosity. We are currently working on teaching her manners and how to overcome our natural inclinations towards being selfish, demanding, etc. (all really humbling things to teach when we fail at them daily!). One of our favorite devotionals is one about how princesses always go last. We read it once, and talked about ways she could put others before herself, and over the next few days she continued to bring up how she'd like to go last and gave an example of how she let her friend play with a toy she REALLY wanted to play with before she did. I was so proud. I wasn't even very intentional about continuing to talk about it with her, but she's such a sponge that she remembers even the smallest conversations. (Note to self: watch my use of "dingleberry" when enraged on the road. *Insert sheepish face*). In additional to some of those morals/values, we also hope to teach her to think and learn and to search for Truth. She's at such a tender age, one I'm not sure ever really ends. Girls are so delicate and more easily wounded than their brothers. Their gentleness and emotional nature makes them vulnerable, and easily manipulated. She longs so much for connectedness and attachment--there is just something sweet and special about little girls. The more I read, the more I was convinced that good parenting will always require sacrifice. Sometimes I will go weeks just living my life and adhering to my routine, and I do this without really stopping to think about why I'm doing what I'm doing. My family is the most important thing to me, and I feel is my biggest responsibility in my life. I don't want to lose sight of my role in raising our children and creating a loving, peaceful and God-fearing home. I don't want to be too distracted, overworked, and stressed out to care about spending time (real time) with them. Not stressing myself out is mostly my responsibility. Saying "no" to extra responsibilities or never-ending school work is hard at times, but incredibly necessary. The essays never end, the worrying about kids never stops, and the lessons are never fully perfect in teaching. I'm getting better at it, but hopefully I will continue to grow in this area! While all ages are important in raising children, we know that these young years are so formative and important in terms of who our babies become in the future; we don't want to mess it up. I'm skimming through the book right now and found one of the hardest (but truest) quotes to swallow: "Kids thrive in an environment of order, vigilance, and close supervision, which is very difficult to provide by those who come home every night exhausted, distracted, and frazzled." Oh. -_- Jesus, take the wheel because I'm falling asleep at it! Seriously though, it was just another reminder of certain sacrifices that need to be made (sleep, patience, attention, physically moving when I'd rather melt into the couch, etc.) in order to raise our children well. Another point he made that I really appreciated was the idea that children need their parents to be their authority/parents. Our kids don't need us to be their best friends, and we really can't afford to be. I believe there will be an age, likely after adolescence, where our parents become our friends, but it isn't during those first 18 years or so. My mom and I were always close, and I felt like I could talk to her about most things, but she and my dad never failed to discipline me, say no when appropriate, and never apologized for doing what they thought was best (and always explained their responses/actions). My mom is now one of my best friends and still plays an important role in my life (often serving as a sound board and counsel in difficult times). Corey and I are thankful for such wonderful parents who made a point to instill respect, responsibility, kindness, etc. in us--we hope to emulate them as much as possible! Oh, on another note, another wonderful book I have read that's helped me both in the classroom and in parenting is Boundaries with Kids by Henry Cloud. He particularly speaks to the "strong-willed child" and the one that doesn't naturally want to please. Out of 180 students last year, I'm pretty sure about 140 of these would have been considered strong-willed. Ok, that was a HUGE side road that I wasn't intending on taking. I'll get back to our weekend. Saturday morning we woke up, got ready, and drove to Swisher for Corey's sister-in-law, Ashley's, Baby Sprinkle! She is due in August with a little boy they named Dierks David, so we got to celebrate them in the morning. Gwen and Avery embraced like it had been years since seeing one another, and proceeded to color everything, pretend everything, wear everything, and eat several things :) Here are a few pictures from the shower!

Gwen helped me put together a potty training kit for Dierks--complete with bleach, rubber cloves, pull ups, a potty scrubber, m&m's as bribery, and a urinal to attach to the potty! She was pretty excited about the urinal and thinks we better get one if we have a boy. I agree. While we were at the shower, Corey was riding his bike to Swisher from Belle Plaine. I'm pretty sure he went off course to get more miles in, but he arrived sweaty and exhausted (yet thrilled) around 2:00 that afternoon! After the shower, Gwen, Avery, and I went to Grandma Julia's and relaxed and played for a while before Uncle Brandon's Surprise 30th Birthday Party! Ashley organized a wonderful party for Brandon at Julia's, and he was genuinely surprised. We were so excited to celebrate Brandon; he is such a kind, fun, and thoughtful guy that there was no way we could miss an opportunity to celebrate him! While we partied, the little girls ran around, played with a bow and arrow, did lawn games with Grandma, played inside, and rode bikes. They were on the run the entire night! Here's Gwen being Katniss (and being pregnant):

She loves to pretend she's having a baby, lately. She told me a little later that she went to the dentist's office to have her baby, and that she delivered a healthy baby boy named Rajh. Here are the girls checking out the pond and some jumping fish with Grandma:

Here's a family picture! Soon this family photo will have 4 instead of 3! :)

The next day, we all slept pretty late, and before we left, Gwen and Grandpa Pete went fishing and caught several fish. The amazing thing was that Gwen threw SEVERAL back into the water on her own! We were so proud of her and pretty stunned that she was open to putting her fingers in a fish's mouth and throwing him back. That was all because of Grandpa's influence! Here they are spending some special time together:

We made it home relatively early that Sunday, so while Corey cleaned his bike, Gwen ran through the sprinkler. Later, Corey and Gwen had a water-gun fight! PS, how cute is this swimsuit? I got it for $4 at the Williamsburg Outlet this winter.

The next two days were busy as I had training, Gwen went on some field trips at day care, and Corey had his usual work days. That Monday night, Gwen and Corey made a fort and watched part of a movie before bedtime. She loves any special time she gets with Daddy. Also on that Monday, Gwen's newest cousin, Jack Ryan, was born! Audrey, Ryan and Evie welcomed Jack a little early, but he is now doing very well and came home yesterday! He's the cutest little guy and has a lot of hair. We are so thankful that there were very few complications and that he has been doing so well. We can't wait to meet him and snuggle him! This weekend, Corey and his friend, Casey, went on their annual 200 mile bike trip. They spend two days riding 100 miles (each day) around the Bettendorf/Davenport/Dubuque area. Here's a picture from last year, and one from this year:

Corey said they got a bit of a late start yesterday, but quickly made up time. I'm sure they're close to being done with day two as I write, and I can't wait to see him when he gets home! To pass the time, I ran some errands and did a few things on Friday, and then yesterday I went to Cedar Rapids to spend a girl's day with Julie (Corey's sister-in-law)! It was so needed for both of us--we hung out with my cute, cute, CUTE niece, Kenna, went to lunch, and then made a craft for our baby rooms. Here's Kenna, the cheekiest little shopper, and our "finished" products. Clearly, you don't get to know the letter we chose for the baby's name :) We still don't know what we're having, but coincidentally, our girl name and boy name both start with the same letter, so I was able to make something gender neutral for our nursery.

We also hit up several garage sales and both found great deals on baby goodies, and we hung out with Travis some before I left later that evening. It was so fun getting to spend time with them, and I'm thankful they let me come crash their Saturday! This morning, I went to church, talked baby stuff with some of my favorite people, and caught up with many friends. Coming up this week... On Tuesday, Gwen and I are headed to the splash park for some water fun and a picnic with some of our friends. On Wednesday, I'm hosting a bachelorette party at my house for my dear friend (Gwen's beloved Sunday School teacher), Stephanie! We are so excited. Then on Friday, we are headed to her wedding to dance the night away :) On Saturday, we are going to celebrate Corey's Grandma's birthday, and on Sunday (Father's Day), we are going to cheer Corey on in a race he has in the Des Moines area. Soon, my mom will be coming to help paint the nursery (and she gets to go to a doctor's appointment with me!). Before we know it, it will be July -_- July will be full too, with traveling for the 4th, a week-long AP training for me, a weekend at Clear Lake, our baby shower, and a weekend at the waterpark--it will be busy, and full, and blessed. We can't wait :) I'm also in awe of how quickly the baby will be here! Time will fly. My belly is definitely growing, and just yesterday the baby kicked me HARD in the ribs--that was a first to feel it all the way up in my ribs. It was a little painful, too. I've been so lucky with a very uneventful pregnancy, and I've been feeling awesome. I'm just now starting to feel "pregnant" as my belly gets in my way when I'm trying to do things! I've slowed down a little bit, too, but I'm sure my body appreciates it.

Memorial Day Weekend: "The Best Weekend Ever!"

"This is the best day ever!" said Gwen, as she picked the dirt from under her finger nails and snuggled her new moose, Nala. I agreed.

We spent Memorial Day weekend riding bikes, jumping on a trampoline, meeting new friends, going on adventures with Grandma Julia and Grandpa Pete, and getting dirty! Corey's mom and step-dad were so gracious to have us in Prairie Du Chien this past weekend, and it was an incredible trip. It was the first weekend in a long time that we got to relax and catch up on our rest. Gwen stayed with Grandma and Grandpa in their camper (she made sure to let us know that was the plan every night-- "I'm staying with Grandma and Grandpa!"), so we got to sleep in a little more than normal. Corey got to ride in the big hills and beautiful landscape that Prairie Du Chien offers, and we even got a little sun and shopping in! We arrived around dinner time on Friday afternoon, huddled around the fire and roasted smores, and retired to bed so we could have an early day. Saturday was extremely sunny and warm (I even got some new freckles! A big feat), so Corey got up early and went on a bike ride while Gwen, Grandma and Grandpa and I hung around outside playing, making new friends, and riding bikes. We kicked a ball, played with dolls, jumped on a big trampoline (that was Gwen's favorite part of the weekend), and later went on a boat ride and did a little fishing. Gwen asked Grandpa many times if we could go fishing, so he made a point to take us on the boat. Gwen even touched a worm! If you know Gwen, that's pretty impressive for her! I touched a worm, too. It was gross.

We had smores again after dinner that night, and headed to bed sun-kissed and exhausted. The next morning it was raining, so Corey skipped his bike ride, and we headed over to the other camper a little later than normal since Gwen was still zonked out! Julia made pancakes, which were delicious, and we ended up heading into town to do a few things. First, we went to the Cannery, which is a really great little shop with a ton of goodies. Gwen ended up getting a moose she named Nala (thanks, Grandpa!) because she'd been so good. She really was awesome all weekend--she had great manners, a good attitude, no melt-downs, didn't whine at all, and was just awesome. We've worked really hard on a lot of these behaviors, and we are so proud of her! Nala was well deserved. Here are a few fun pictures from the Cannery.

Oh! We also went to the CUTEST fabric store! Julia had some awesome fabrics all picked out already for our baby quilt, but we needed a few more, so Julia and I hit up the fabric store and found a few awesome additions. I am so excited! I think it's going to be incredibly cute and it also helps give me more of a vision for the nursery. We're going between green and yellow for the walls, and are mixing maps/traveling, books (we have a cute old book mobile for above the crib and some cute book prints for the walls), and biking. This first picture is a picture of the front of the quilt (well, roughly some idea of it) and the second shows a dark, feather material that we're going to use for the back of it!

We love it so much! I'll post more pictures of it at a later time. After the Cannery, Julia, Gwen and I went to the cutest book store that had some really unique books. Corey and Pete went across the street to Old Man River brewery/restaurant. At the book store, I let Gwen pick out a book for herself, and she chose a big book with little stories for girls. When she first saw it, she opened to a page and saw a Mermaid. She was sold. Then, she picked out a book for the baby, a little Pig bath time book that came with little plastic pigs to play with. She was positive the baby would like it. I also found two other books for the kids. One is called "The Beard Book" and each page has a different beard (from the nose down) and a little rhyme that accompanies it. There's a little spot on the spine that lets you hold the book up to your nose so it looks like you're wearing the beard--Gwen loved it! We also got a book called, "DO NOT READ THIS BOOK!" (I think--something along those lines.) She loved that one, too. It starts off with a King who has his scribe tell him a story, but the scribe has lost the pages to the story, so they go on a quest to find it. The King gets mad at the reader a few times for continuing to read even though he told them to stop since it wasn't done. By the end of the story, we hear the tale of the Princess and the Pea (which Gwen loves). She really loves the page where the King gets mad at yells at us :) There's also a little Gingerbread Man in it who says something like, "This is so crumby." I tried to teach her the meaning of "double entendre," but I'm not sure it stuck ;) We'll work on it. We had a late lunch, and headed home, and before we knew it, it was time for bed again. We left around lunch time on Monday, but not until Gwen jumped once more on the trampoline and said goodbye to her "new best friend!" (She met a little girl named Kiley and they played SO well together on Sunday and Monday morning.) Corey and I grabbed a Pete's burger for lunch on the way out, and Gwen and Corey found two geo-caches before we drove home! Here Gwen is looking ragged and exhausted, but very happy :) She crashed on the ride home, thankfully, and went to bed pretty early so she could be ready to go for school yesterday.

She was sluggish a little bit when she woke up yesterday morning, but had another great day at school (we've been working on a few behaviors and have a rewards/consequences system set up, and she's doing very well with it). She has had six good days in a row! Last week, after she had five (that's been our goal for a while), she got to pick a prize from the Dollar Store. She chose a weave. Atta girl, Gwen. :)

I also had a doctor's appointment yesterday, and that went really well. Baby and I are both measuring on track, and everything looks good! We had two ultrasounds in a row because last time she wasn't able to get all the images she needed, so we got a few extras and captured this one yesterday. We're dying over the cuteness :)

Corey and I are still working on framing/hanging Gwen's pictures in her room, so we'll still post that once it's done. We're out of town a lot, so it's taken us longer than we'd like. We're headed to Kansas City this weekend, and then to Cedar Rapids next weekend for Aunt Ashley's baby Sprinkle! School is winding down and we only have 5 more days total. I'm in a fury of grading and getting in final grades. I'll have several trainings this summer, including an AP week-long training in Iowa City, and a few trainings for a new position I have for next year (I'm still teaching, just also taking on another role), so we should be on the go a lot. We are so thankful for what life has given us at this point-- an incredible family, a GROWING family, the means to enjoy our hobbies and fun, and a wonderful support system of friends. We are very lucky!