Crazy September..

Well...it has been a busy, crazy, fun few weeks since I last blogged! I've just been trying to keep my head above water with all the responsibilities and running kids here and there. Alec has soccer and karate, Ava started gymanstics, they both have Awanas, I have BSF, small group and MOPS and Eriik has been working extra late at work because of his new position as a plant supervisor. So, it's been a little crazy, but fun too. And to think we will be adding another baby into the mix soon! So...here are tons of pics with captions on some of the things we've been up to.



Alec finally talked me into letting him take the bus home from school, and it has been great for him and for me! This pic was taken the first day he came home on the bus, and he was all smiles. He sits by his friend who lives nearby, and I feel good about it since it's only Kindergarten through 2nd grade on the bus with him.

We have had a couple nice cool nights and so we got to enjoy a family night of mini golf which was a ton of fun!


Labor Day at Caddo Lake

Hangin at the "swamp"

Soccer games every saturday...and man has it been hot! I can't wait for the cooler weather to come and stay!

Ava makes a good little cheerleader for Alec's team.

Always dressing up! Our little princess.

This is a sponge bob halloween bucket she got from a preschool friend last year. She thought it made a great hat.

Eriik has started letting Alec steer the lawn mower by himself some...scary!

6 months pregnant! Can't wait to meet her!

Ava started gymnastics this month and loves it!

It's a girl!!!

Well, we found out yesterday that we are having another baby girl! We are so thrilled! Eriik was a little shocked because he had it in his head that it was a boy, but he'll be fine :) I picked up Alec just a little early from school so that he could see the sonogram too. Right before we went in everyone guessed what it would be and everyone said boy except for me...my last minute guess was that it was a girl. And I was right! Alec and Ava's initial reaction was hilarious. Alec said "Aww Man" and Ava said " No, I'm having a baby brother." She said it very matter of factly like the nurse was wrong or something. Anyway...Alec and Ava are both excited now, and Eriik is over the shock, and happy. I kind of knew all along that it was a girl because of the fast heartbeat, and my cravings for oranges and chocolate ice cream (I normally don't like chocolate ice cream but Wendy's chocolate frosties are a new favorite). The old wives tales say that if your having a girl you will crave sweet things and citrus. It was right in this case! By the way, she weighs 1 pound 1 oz and is approx 11 inches long! Here are our baby girls sono pictures...she's already a cutie :)

The 4D pic...so sweet. She had her little arm covering her ear, her foot up to her face, and her other arm on her forhead.

This was the first attempt. But she was covering her little face...she was squirming all over though so we knew she would eventually move her little hands!


Her arm looks so skinny in this one.

She's got her little foot up to her mouth.

Ava's First Day!

Well, little Ava started back to preschool today. This is her second year at Prep and she really loves it. Every day since Alec started Kindergarten she has been asking "Do I go to school today?" Poor little thing...I think she was a little bored with me :) She will be going Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Anyway...I can tell already that this is going to be a great year for her at Prep. She already loves the teachers helper Mrs. Christy (who she knows because Christy's son Levi was in Alec's preschool class and is still in Karate and Soccer with Alec) and Mrs. Christy loves her right back. This morning she greeted Ava by scooping her up in the air to a giant hug saying "There's my Ava!"...what a welcome! Ava was giggling the whole time as she ran into her classroom. She's going to love Mrs. Sheila too...Alec had her a couple years ago and she is so sweet! So, another one off to school.... and here I sit alone...but not for long in a little over four months I will have a newborn to keep me company :)

Ava with Mrs. Sheila and Mrs. Christy at Open House.

This morning after dropping off Alec at school.

She's so silly.

My little Kindergartner!

Well, it's still sinking in, but my little boy is growing up! He started Kindergarten this Monday! I was afraid that he was going to be scared and timid on the first day, but he was so excited and jumped in with both feet. He was literally giddy before leaving the house. He woke up at 6:20 AM even before I did...this wasn't out of sheer excitement it was due to the fact that we set an alarm clock for him. It was an old fashioned really loud Curious George clock. This may sound like a harsh way for a 5 year old to wake up, but he begged me for one, and he is REALLY hard to wake up in the mornings so I thought I would give it a try. It did the job! When I came out of our bedroom he was sitting in the living room staring straight ahead...I said "wow your up!" he answered, "it's a really loud clock!" You see this is quite an adjustment for him since he normally wakes up at 8:00 and now we are leaving the house at 7:30! It's a good thing that the first week they get out of school early (1:00) because he was exhausted when he got home! We started getting them to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 last week and they seem to be finally slipping in to the routine.

After picking him up from school on Monday he said he had a great time, but was mad that he didn't get to ride the bus home! Little mister independent all of the sudden! Anyway...it was a success, and I am slowly learning to not hover so much. Doesn't he look so old in these pictures?

The Tooth Fairy and God Speaking

Well, our big boy lost his first tooth last Wednesday night while munching on a banana of all things!!! Could there be anything softer than a banana? He had been working on this tooth for weeks and it was hanging by a thread. When it came out he yelled at the top of his lungs "Hey everyone! I just lost my very first tooth!!!" He was overjoyed to join his two friends from preschool who had lost their's a few months ago. I thought a kid had to be older to loose a tooth, but his baby teeth started coming in when he was around 5 months old, so I guess that makes a difference. Anyway, my sister had given us this cute little tooth holder that glows in the dark. So he was thrilled to have it under his pillow finally.

OK...I just couldn't resist putting in this pic of Alec when he was 5 months old! He was eating rice cereal (at his Nanny and Poppy's house), and somehow it ended up taking the shape of two little front teeth...so funny!

I also have a really cool story about Ava. Last week my pregnancy brain had caused me to forget to pick up Eriik's prescription at Walgreen's twice! We had never talked about it in front of the kids nor had I mentioned to them that I needed to go to Walgreen's. But on Friday we had left WalMart and I was almost back home (forgetting Walgreen's again) when Ava said in an urgent voice "Mommy, you've got to go to the drugstore!!" I said in a shocked voice, "Ava, how did you even know that???" She replied matter of factly, "It wasn't me, it was God" then added with a great big smile "He's my God!" Wow! Last Sunday I sang the song "God Speaking" in church and the words of that song ring so true. "He'll do and he'll use whatever he wants to, to tell us I love you."

Me Ma's house in Missouri!

Well...last week I ventured out with Alec, Ava and my niece Sydney to my Mom's house in Missouri. This was the first big drive that I have taken with the kids without Eriik. I was a little intimidated to say the least, but I knew that Syd being 11 would be at least a little bit of a help. It turned out to be a really fun trip (except for a few Ava tantrums! But hey that's just where we are right now in life.) We took the 11 hour drive in two days which we normally don't do, but with being pregnant and without Eriik I wanted to take it easy. It really turned out to be great we stopped around dinner time on the first night and got a hotel with a pool. The kids were able to eat a nice meal, swim and wear themselves out enough to get a good nights sleep. And then the next day of travel was only four hours! Well, I have tons of pics so here you go! I will explain the pics more in the captions.


The kids love to have Me Ma read them a bedtime story...she's pretty good at it, she got lots of practice since she was a preschool teacher for 25 years!

There was a fund raiser carnival at the catholic church just across the street from Moms house. The kids noticed it right away, so of course we had to go check it out. We went after church and lunch on Sunday.

The swings are always a hit.

Mom with the kids in front of the fun house!

The butterfly house was a huge hit. I didn't know what to expect but when we walked into the atrium butterflies were all around us, it was really beautiful..but a little too hot that day (at least the kids didn't care about the heat)

We saw so many brightly colored butterflies but this is the only butterfly pic I took that wasn't really blurry. Their wings were usually moving which made it hard to get a clear pic.

They had a little room with a butterfly library and activities for the kids.

They all got to dress up...so cute.

Alec's favorite part was the "Jurassic Bug" exhibits.
This one was some really gross roaches...yuck! Alec liked the giant terantulas and scorpians the best.

We swam over at Pam and Marios house one day. It was great to be able to swim since it was over 100 degrees that day!

Chillin at the Beach!

We spent all last week in Galveston, and had a wonderful time! It was kind of a last minute planned trip since we had cancelled our trip to Destin because of the oil, but it all worked out great! We stayed in a beautiful condo on the far east end of the island called Palisade Palms. It sat right on the beach, and the kids loved the pools. We loved that it seemed like such a short drive (it only took 4 1/2 hours) verses a two day trip to FL. And plus it was oil free..yay! Here are way too many pics..sorry...I did narrow it down from over 200 pics though! I explain more details of the trip in the captions.

Ava loved finding sea shells!

Look how wild the waves were on this day! The Ziesemers joined us this day at our beach.
The beach in front of our condo was never crowded..it was so nice.

We went with the Ziesemers and each rented this funny bike to ride along the sea wall. It was an adventure!

Ava and Eriik about to hit the waves...she loved "surfing"!

We went with the Ziesemers to Schlitterbahn for a day and the kids (and dads) loved it! Since I'm prego, I didn't go on any of the really fun slides...just kind of hung out at the kiddy places. Even Ava went down some of the big slides with her daddy...and loved every minute of it.

Back at our condo pool.

That is our condo in the background.

Here we are with the Ziesemers at the Rainforest Cafe. We loved having them with us for a few of the days!

A view from the third floor central patio of our condo. This was actually the only day it was a little rainy, and it was the morning we left. Perfect timing!

On our way back home we stopped at NASA...it was a quick visit, and very crowded that day, but the kids still had a great time!