Tuesday, April 28, 2009

More Park Pics and My American Girl

We went to the park yet again after lunch today. We have still been making this a part of our (almost) daily routine. The boys are both having a blast playing and we've enjoyed meeting and playing with friends and going to different parks each day. We've also had a couple "picnic suppers" at the park which have been a nice change and fun for our whole family since Jamie and Hanna can both join us.


Today we went to Hollywood Park. We kind of forgot this park even existed. Over the weekend Jamie remembered it and suggested we go there for a change. We drove around for quite some time looking for it unsuccessfully. Thanks to my friend, Hannah, we rediscovered Hollywood Park's almost hidden location and enjoyed playing there today. This park is kind of tucked back behind pretty shrubs and flowers and a partial brick wall. The play equipment is off to one side complete with a fairly tall rock climbing wall and there is a large, grassy open area nice for picnics/kicking a ball around on the right side of the park. It's also nice because they have a couple different equipment setups--one for older kids that will even satisfy Hanna and a really small one perfect for little ones like Jack.


Joe had fun playing on everything and kicking his soccer ball around with Jack as well. He also picked some flowers and shared a couple with me. (The boys are really hot in these pictures, hence their red cheeks and sweaty heads:-).)





Jack had fun on the "little" equipment and the riding horse. He spent alot of his time playing and digging in the sand with sticks. In this last picture of Jack he decided he'd had enough and parked himself against the brick wall for a rest.





Lastly, tonight Hanna wanted a picture with one of her American Girl dolls and their matching PJ's. She looks adorable! We've had a great start to our week. Looking forward to doing lots fun things throughout the rest our week and weekend!


Tuesday, April 21, 2009

At the Park With My Boys

After lunch today I took Joe and Jack to the park to play for a while. They both had lots of fun. I got a few pictures. The one of the two of them together they both have goofy looks on their faces, especially Joe, he was so winded from running like crazy the whole time we were there. It was a pretty informative trip for me and a really fun one for Joe. Jack has fun anywhere we go. He's just happy to run/walk around and explore all of his surroundings. Joe had fun because there was a fair amount of kids there and he immediately went up and introduced himself by name (this is his routine when we go to the park and there are other kids there) and asked if they wanted to play. He played tag and chase with these kids the entire time. It was informative for me because one of the families there was a homeschool family and we talked alot about curriculums and I learned some helpful things/websites for future use. This mom has five kids and has homeschooled for 12 years now and brought three babies home during this time, very, very encouraging for me!!


On a side note--I started Joe's homeschool "preschool" with him this week. I decided I wanted to get into this school routine with him a few months before I start and incorporate Hanna's school routine into it as well. He is loving it so far! So eager to learn and he loves doing all the things I have planned for him each morning. When we finish each morning he looks at me and asks, "Is that all?" Today after we finished I asked him what his favorite thing was we did today was and he answered, "Everything sweetheart." It is definitely a positive start. I have pictures to post of our week of it that I'll post this weekend. For anyone interested, I found a great totally FREE preschool and 5K curriculum on a website (Brightly Beaming) that is listed in my sidebar. I am using this for his 4K year along with some other info I've gathered from the Homeschool Creations site also listed in my sidebar. I am so excited about homeschool. I have loved planning and working with Joe and can hardly wait to start with Hanna!




Memories

Jamie got me a printer this past week. I haven't had a decent printer in a few years and I've really been wanting one to print out homeschool materials. He brought one home last week, an all-in-one. I was really excited because it has a scanner on it. I've wanted a scanner for awhile now to scan old pictures of Hanna and Jamie and myself from when we were dating. I'd like to go back and scrapbook certain things and can do it now. Anyway....I figured out the scanner today and decided to look through old pictures and scan a few. Since I have lots of pictures of Jack on my blog as a baby and a good many of Joe to in my slideshow I scanned baby pictures of Hanna. She is so grown up and the time has passed in the blink of an eye!!


This is a picture of Hanna when she was two months old the day she was blessed. Her gown was beautiful and she looked like an angel in it. My mom had this gown made for her, it's beautiful.




Here is one of her at her first birthday party getting her first taste of cake. She LOVED it!!




Here are a few more of her. In the last one she is about 8 months old and the first two are between the age of one and two.






Here is one more of Joe. He was a little over one. We were at a picnic for Hanna's school and he had just finished a cookie. I love this picture of him. I love pictures, they capture memories we would otherwise never remember.


Friday, April 17, 2009

Patience of a Three-Year-Old

You probably think from the title of this post it will be all about Joe, who is 3 years old, right? Wrong:-). It's all about his 31 year old mama! So, I know I posted yesterday that I would have my 3D ultrasound next Friday....well, I couldn't wait until next Friday. Jamie and I drove to Fort Mill this afternoon for a 3D ultrasound because I just HAD to know. So what am I having, besides the obvious, a baby--




I think this picture says it all!! I was really surprised after what my doctor told me on Wednesday. I will definitely be taking these pictures in for him to see at my next appt.:-)! I'll be completely honest, I thought the whole way there I was going to be devastated and truly upset if this was another boy. But I was so fine with it. As soon as the tech got to the "area of truth" I could immediately tell it was a boy before she said a word. I felt fine, no disappointment, surprised, yes, but definitely not disappointed. And when I saw his sweet face, hands and feet I felt nothing but completely overwhelmed with peace, gratitude and love for my sweet baby. She counted all his fingers and toes for us and really looked over his whole body. It was wonderful. I know you can't see much from these pictures, but on our screen with the movement and 3D imaging we could see so much detail and action, it was great. It was truly bonding with him before he is here for me to hold in my arms.


It is such a blessing and miracle to have a baby grow inside your body for the nine months of pregnancy. Being a woman and experiencing the blessings of pregnancy and motherhood are the greatest gifts of all in my life. I can't wait to hold my baby for the first time and have him here on the outside with our family. I am so blessed to have 4 beautiful children, a husband who I love more than words can say and is truly my best friend and a home filled with so much love.


Here are a few more pictures from today's ultrasound. I can't figure out how to post the live video (which is so much clearer) yet. I'll add it when I figure it out. I'm not one who minds sharing names before the baby is born, so here are the ones we are throwing around. The first name is 100%, the middle name I like is Kent but Jamie says he doesn't (it's his middle name and he isn't too fond of it), so only the middle name is to be decided upon--Jesse Kent, Jesse Matthew or Jesse Albert.




Thursday, April 16, 2009

Blessings and Answered Prayers

I went for my ultrasound yesterday. I am very happy to say that my baby is 100% healthy and all looked just as it should on the ultrasound. This is such a blessing and answer to my prayers. I always love the opportunity to see my babies on the ultrasound screen and hear their sweet heartbeats.


Now, for the part everyone wants to know--boy or girl?! Not sure, that's right, not sure. I was so hoping to find out yesterday. My doctor couldn't tell with Jack either--his words with Jack at this point were, "I'm not really sure, looks like a boy. If I was the gambling type I'd say boy." Well, yesterday his words were, "I'm not sure, but from what I see, and I see nothing at all saying it's a boy, if I were the gambling type I'd say girl." He was pretty confident girl, but not 100% sure. He is not very fond of determining sex, he even has a sign in his office that states this. So, if he isn't positive he won't say for sure.


I'm really holding out that this is a girl:-)!!!! He won't do another ultrasound until 32 weeks. I went to a 3D ultrasound place with Jack to find out because I couldn't wait that long. I have an appt. for next Friday at this place to see about this baby. Everyone keep your fingers crossed that this will truly be a girl and my doctors "gambling theory" is proven correct! Don't get me wrong, I am so thankful the baby is completely healthy. But I won't hide it, I want a girl this time so badly I can hardly stand it:-)!!!! I know ultimately though, when I hold my baby that first time and there every time after I will feel nothing but pure love. And let's be honest, look at how beautiful my two boys are:-)!!


So, we'll have to wait another week to see what the sex of Little Lambert is, until then, keep those fingers crossed:-)! (I'll post ultrasound pics next week. The ones from today are just too fuzzy.)

Monday, April 13, 2009

Easter Finale

Sunday we started off our morning letting the kids "find" their baskets the Easter Bunny had hidden Saturday night. They found them pretty quickly and began checking out their stash and digging into their candy. Jack decided he didn't need to take the wrappers off of his candy, he just grabbed about 4 pieces of shiny wrapped chocolates and shoved them all into his mouth at once. It was funny to find him in the kitchen with wrapped chocolates in his mouth and chocolate "juice" dripping down his chin:-)!!


We headed out to church later that morning. Joe has really taken a liking to his Primary teacher and both of his Sunday school classes this year. He really enjoys going (this was such a BIG step for him) and he is learning doctrine and songs and it is wonderful watching him grow this way. Jack is in "training" mode right now, so church is quite challenging (to put it positively) with him.


After supper that night we went over to my parents for one last Easter egg hunt. We stuffed the eggs with candy and all three kids, Jack got to join them this time, had more fun finding them.


We had a great weekend. It was busy, but so much fun. Having Hanna home this past week was wonderful. Makes me look so forward to the summer and knowing what lies ahead for our upcoming school year even more. We've got some big changes coming in the next six months for our family. They will take some getting used to on everyone's part, but I know after we are all settled into our new roles and routines we are going to grow closer together which is our ultimate goal.









Saturday Easter Egg Hunt and Afternoon Train Ride

We had a pretty busy weekend filled with lots of different Easter activities all of which the kids thoroughly enjoyed. Saturday morning the kids had the Ward Easter Egg Hunt at church. They had fun finding lots of "treat" filled eggs and then enjoyed playing games. This was Joe's first year really getting into things at the ward activity. He loved the games--sack race, egg on a spoon race, jump rope relay and a few others.




That afternoon Jamie and I took Joe to Winnsboro to the South Carolina Railroad Museum to ride the Easter Train complete with the "Easter Bunny". Jamie has been taking Joe to this place for a couple of years now to ride the train from time to time, but this was my first time going with them. Hanna (who informed me she was "too old for this":- )), along with Jack stayed at my mom's, (thank you mom!) so Jamie and I got to take Joe by himself. It was nice to give him some one-on-one time with both of us. He gets one-on-one time with us individually but rarely does he get both of us all to himself for any length of time. It was fun. He snuggled up on my lap for the whole train ride and we both enjoyed every minute of it:-)! The Easter Bunny made an appearance and we got a cute picture. We enjoyed looking at a few antique trains they have on display there, but most of all it was just fun being with Joe and knowing he had a good time.




Easter Egg Dying

We had alot of fun dying our Easter Eggs this year. Hanna has been able to dye hers all by herself now for a few years. Joe was able to do his almost all by himself this year too. He was so proud of his little creations. It was such fun for Jamie and myself to help and watch them dye their eggs. I love doing all these fun things with the kids!



Friday, April 10, 2009

Easter Pics

I took the kids to a church down the road for some pictures in their Easter clothes yesterday. There are some really pretty tulip beds at this church and I'd been wanting to get some good Easter pictures of the kids all dressed up, so this made a really pretty picture with lots of bright colors. (Thanks for the idea, Lauren!)


I could not believe how cooperative they were for these pictures! It took no time at all and I didn't even have to beg for decent shots and smiles:-). It was a very pleasant experience for all of us. I'm sure you can relate to those "photo shoots" that are supposed to capture memories and you're actually on the other side of the camera yelling at your kids:-). This was not one of those times and I'm so glad.


I was able to get some good ones of all of them together and each of them by themselves as well.











Sunday, April 5, 2009

Dan Nicholas Park

We took Hanna and Joe to Salisbury, NC, yesterday to Dan Nicholas Park. We had alot of fun. There was so much to do. This is a beautiful park, very well maintained and you can tell alot of money has gone into the park for upkeep. There were so many different activities to choose from. We tried to do them all, but Joe tuckered out after being there most of the day and we didn't get our Putt Putt in. We'll have to go back again in the future:-).


While we were there we toured the small aquarium, rode the train, toured the "Wildlife Walk" (which includes some cool animals like bears, foxes, wolves and woodchucks among others), panned for gems in their flumes (our favorite part), rode the carousel and the kids had fun playing on the mega playground equipment they have set up. Jamie and Hanna also took us on a paddle boat ride around the pond. (You can even fish while you're there if you'd like.) I sat in the back of the paddle boat with Joe while Jamie and Hanna chauffeured us around.
















After we left the park we headed to South Park Mall in Charlotte and met my brother and Teresa for a very yummy dinner at Maggiano's. We headed over to The Cheesecake Factory:-) for dessert and then came home full of good food and tired from all we did throughout the day. We always enjoy these little day trips we take, but this one was extra fun. It was so relaxing and we did things we don't normally do, lots of fun things. It was a fun day and definitely one we will all store in our special bank of family memories that I hope to keep adding to through the years to come!