MiMi is Marvelous!!

MiMi and Mallory came to school the day the Petting Zoo came!
Mal enjoyed SEVERAL trips to the zoo with MiMi and got more and more involved each time!
Showing her monkey (who she always sleeps with) the animals at the zoo...

Reading to friends at MiMi's in the "Youth Bed" that she will sleep in when baby brother is over MiMi and PaPa's to spend the night too! (I slept in this too when I graduated from the crib!)
Lots of reading was happening! (Makes this 1st grade teacher happy!) And below Mallory enjoying the jet ski MiMi got her for the pool...she loooooves it! :)
Mallory had so much fun with MiMi this summer while I taught. She wants to call MiMi on the phone all the time now and will chose her over Mommy sometimes when we are all together! (SADness!) But it's neat to see how close she is getting to MiMi! There is nothing like a Grandma! Thanks for taking such great care of her this summer MiMi!

Renovations Around the House...

We've been busy around the house...Mike enjoyed learning the tricks of the trade from PaPa...
MiMi and Mallory had fun inside playing and reading books while work was being done outside! (Thanks for the cute Cabbage Patch dolls Cousin Abby! Mallory loves them!!!)
Our front porch railings really needed to be worked on...So PaPa headed over to help with the project...it now looks wonderful! PaPa also stained the back deck for us...Thanks PaPa! :)

Grateful!

Thank you so much for your prayers!!! We had our Dr. appointment today and all went well! I'm measuring 33.5 cm on my tummy for 32.5 wks and his heartbeat was 130! Everything else looked great as well! We are grateful for the last wk and 1/2 and pray for more! Each day is a blessing! :)

Above Mallory is playing with her new love...Mr. Potato Head...She comes up with some crazy creations when she plays independently! It's a nice activity for her to do with Mommy as I lay on the couch...I think I might of offended her when I said he was funny....she said, "hey HEY!"

And below she is rocking out to one of the songs on her brother's CD that we made...she loves rocking out in the car no matter the song...if it is slow she will still groove like crazy....notice how the spell was broken when Daddy joined in...she is too funny!

Favorite Things!

Aunt Suzy came over to visit and brought with her a new toy...2 of Mallory's favorite things combined!!! A "Dog Bubble Maker!" She loved it! And she is always asking for Suzy and wants to call her all the time now on the phone....and when we are out and about and she sees a blonde she says, "Suzy????" Thanks for the fun new toy Susan! :)

And speaking of "Favorite Things" my other sister sent a link to an article about the REAL Maria from the Sound of Music (My Fav movie!)...I tried to copy the pic but it wouldn't let me...here is a little info from the site...

"Maria is in the house for the first time since her family fled the Nazi regime to the United States in late 1938. The original von Trapp family home was reopened as a hotel on Friday to give guests the chance to lay their head to rest where the von Trapp family once lived, get married in the house's chapel or have a Sound of Music dinner in the family dining room."

Click on the link to see the cute little Maria who is now 93!
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Maria-von-Trapp-visits-Sound-Music-home-The-Sound-of-Music/ss/events/lf/072508mariavontrapp/im:/080726/photos_ennew_afp/4a5ced1fbbe3f0cf13ec8ff0ce696128/#photoViewer=/080725/482/42d3552cd8654494a35d1091035825c2

Daddy is Delightful!!!

All smiles after a YUMMY dinner!
She sure loves her Daddy!!!
Mallory is enjoying lots of special time with Daddy while Mommy rests...they went to the library today and had a big time! She loves having Daddy put her to bed each night and hearing him read "Who are the People in Your Neighborhood" in the special way that only Daddy can...she also is a big fan of tickling toes now and loves making Daddy laugh....

We also let Mallory eat PBJ for the first time today for lunch and she loved it without having a reaction! She's 20 months (supposed to wait til 24, but several of our friends have tried it early and we didn't think she would have a reaction) and she loved it! Yay for a new option for lunch! It's gonna be a staple around here! :)

***I need to add pics from Mallory's time with MiMi...she loves her MiMi and has been having such a blast this summer with MiMi while I've taught...I will try to get those pics off Mom's camera soon and post them...such special times! :)

Reunited....

July 12th was Mike's Grandpa's funeral in MASS....we were unable to attend, but had attended his memorial in Feb...Mike's grandparents are the cutest and from the first time I met them they reminded me of the couple in "The Notebook." They were wearing matching sweaters when I met them...and holding hands! They had a great marriage for 66 years...we all hope to be as cute in our 90s as they were! :)

While family and friends were at Grandpa's grave on the 12th Grandma passed away back at the Nursing Home in Maine...The timing was very surreal and we will miss them both so much, but we take comfort in the fact that they are together again...

Our Little Guy has a HAPPY Heart... :)

Thank you for all your for all your comments, emails, and especially your prayers! We are so grateful that the steroid shots are available and that we got those this weekend to be proactive and give him extra help if he does come early. It was so nice to be hooked up to the monitor for 3 days straight and hear our little guy's heartbeat. The nurses were so wonderful and even gave us the print outs for his baby book! (as pictured above) :) He sounds great and seems happy! Keep praying for us as we wait and trust God with the timing...

MiMi and PaPa have been doing a lot of babysitting and renovations around our house while we were at the hospital for a couple hrs each day. Thanks MiMi and PaPa!

Our new Dr. is very compassionate and we really like him, but have only known him for 2.5 wks bc our other OB moved away (SADness!!! We miss her!) But he has been a good fit for us and is in the same practice/office and has given us great care in the last 3 days! So now we have to sit back and wait and pray for God to protect our little guy and give him everything he needs to have a safe delivery when the time is right... Keeping praying! We go back on the 30th to see the Dr. for a routine appointment....

"We know not what the future holds, but we know WHO holds the future."

Please Pray....

Please pray for our little baby boy in utero....I had some contractions yesterday (prob brax. hicks, but had the "magic number"in an hr to call the Dr.) and went into the Dr. to be checked...I was hooked up to the monitor and his heartbeat was great and the internal exam went great, so everything looked normal. But the Dr. also did a test to predict if the baby would come in the next 2 wks and sent it to the lab (fFN test)...it came back positive that he COULD come in the next 2 wks (not a 100% guarantee, but if the test was neg there would be little to no chance...sometimes it's a false pos). Please pray Phil 4:6-7 for us (verses near the baby to the side of the blog) as this has been our theme verse for all our pregnancies....

We know his little life is in God's hands...We are 31 wks today and we will be going in to the hospital for steroid shots today and Sun to give his little lungs a boost on the chance that he does come early. Please pray God's peace for us as we trust...and pray that we would pray and not worry constantly about our little guy. Thanks for your prayers!

If it's FREE it's ME!!!

My sis Susan just informed us that since it's 7/11 you can go to 7 Eleven and get a FREE Slurpee! You know where Mike and I and the Nannying Kids are headed!!!! Hope you can go to! :)

Cute and Crabby!

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Mike found the perfect souvenir T-Shirt for Mallory for the beach this year, but they didn't have her size..."Cute and Crabby"!!! She was one extreme or the other last week....prob bc she was on her second week away from home, on "people overload" (we think she is an introvert like her Dad), or bc she is heading towards the "terrible 2s"...who knows! She slept awesome both weeks on vacation though so that was a blessing!!!

Cute things:
Learned how to say MiMi and Suzy (for Aunt Susan)..still working on Laura!
Dance party leader
Loved the waves and going on walks
Playing with Tanner and showing him to everyone
Saying, "peas" now instead of just signing it!
Staying up late for her first Fireworks Show!

Crabby things:
Interrupting Mommy when she was talking to adults with, "mommymommyMOMMYMOMMY!!!" (it's so hard to share Mom and Dad's attention!)
Saying, "NO!!!!!" to almost every question! (not a soft "no'...a loud, cat-like "NNNNNNNNOOO!"

But we had such a good time despite these fun behaviors Mallory was trying out on a constant basis! It was our 25th yr to the beach with the same family. Our 2 families of 9 have grown into 5 families of 17 people!!! It was such a great week and we stayed Oceanfront to celebrate! Lots of Bocce and beach time was had by all!!! :)

We also got to hang out with my Mom's sister's family and all their children! They were there too last week! We loved the "hamburger cookoff", bib making for the babies who will be arriving this year, and scrapbooking for the B-Day girl! It was wonderful to see everyone and hang out for a week in a special place! :)

Hooray for Luray!!!

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We had a wonderful time in Luray! The highlights of the trip were "game nights," light saber fights, the Luray Zoo, and of course the caverns! Mallory enjoyed the 1st 20 mins of the caverns and the last 20....it got a bit "squirrel-y" in the middle and the paci had to be broken out in a desperate situation. Mallory loved hanging out with her cousins for a week and getting lots of help...especially at bath time! :) It was so nice to be in the valley near the mountains and play in the river! Gotta love God's creation!! Thanks for a wonderful vacation!!!!

Happy B-Day Daddy!

Today is Mike's 35th B-Day!!! We had fun celebrating at the beach and will continue to today! Right now we plan on taking a nice LONG afternoon nap followed by his favorite meal and dessert tonight! Happy B-Day Mike...We love you! And Happy B-Day to brother Matt as well! :)!!!

Vacations!

Mallory loved the Shenandoah River and got right in without being pensive about it!
Hanging out with Mom and Dad...
Mallory enjoyed leading the "Dance Parties" before dinner at the beach...future choreographer?!?!?!
She loved standing in the waves and would sign "more" as soon one had come and gone...

We had a wonderful 2 weeks away from home with family....I want to post the pics so badly, but am wiped out bc Mike and I have started back to Summer School....I'm working on the montages and will post them some time this week....enjoy some of of our fav pics until then! :)