What we have been up to...

-Blueberry picking and eating way too many of them - no pics.

-Taking the kids to the summer $1 movies in the mornings.

-Spending time together and with friends.

-Nate took Dylan on a Scout camp, which Dylan totally loved. He even caught 3 fish and he got an award in camp for being a good helper. I missed them, but Cassie and I were able to go to ladies night out with medmates. Free dinner is always good.

-Enjoying food from the garden.

-Trying to get things organized for when the baby comes.

-We also had fun at the annual residency retreat party thingy last week. I found a few pictures that one of the residents took.

The residents started out by playing softball for a couple of hours.

Here is Nate in a couple of action pictures. He had a lot of fun and wasn't afraid to brag to me about his 4 over-the-fence hits, 2 of which went over 2 fences. He was using my bat, of course.

The families then joined the residents and we went swimming for a couple of hours. Dylan just loved that. He is such a little fish. He could swim all day and be happy. I love swimming when I am pregnant because it takes the weight of my stomach off. I feel as though I am not pregnant and it is great. Except I must have been treading water for too long in the middle of the pool and I got the sharpest knife cutting pain in my lower stomach and I thought I was going to drown. I was holding Cassie so that made it bad too. I moved so slow and finally made it to the edge of the pool and called it quits for the day. I seriously almost yelled for the life guard because I thought I was going to drown.

We then had a picnic with everyone and that was fun. Dylan can be found trying to escape below:

Then we all went to the Loons baseball game. (with the after swimming look)

We sat on the grass at the back of the field so the kids could move around. And my kids did just that. They wouldn't sit still. They love to wrestle and having a big blanket out on the grass gave them the perfect opportunity to do so. Yes, there is a kid under them.

So that is about it. Nothing too exciting.

Missing out...

Really wishing we were with my family in Montana right now, or with Nate's family in Island Park, but we're not. We are here. In Michigan. But this is the laaaaaast summer we will miss out on all these things. YAHHHHHHH. Knowing that, makes it a little easier.

And besides, I really don't think they are having a whole lot of fun with out us. I mean really, we are the coolest of all.

5 Things...

I am stealing this pregnancy tag from Rhonda. Thanks.


5 Things that make my stomach turn.....
1 - The smell of our kitchen garbage at the end of the day.
2 - When the baby keeps rolling or turning or doing some sort of special move of hers that makes me want to gag.
3 - When I don't eat frequently.
4 - Lots of food used to, but I am better now.
5 - Most smells.


5 Things I Absolutely Love/Crave.....
1. - Chocolate
2. - Fresh fruit
3 - Using pregnancy as an excuse for many things. (Ya right, I would NEVER do that!!!)
4 - When I lay on my side and the baby moves so distinctly that I can almost grab her little foot and hold it. I never had that with the other babies. It is kind of freaky, but really neat.
5 - Sleep, sleep, and more sleep. I can't get enough. Also, a little more energy would be good too.


5 Things I worry about....
1. - Having to have another last minute C-section.
2 - Going into labor early. I have had way too many Braxton Hicks this pregnancy.
3 - Nate leaving for a week shortly after I have the baby.
4 - The baby not moving.
5 - The lack of sleep. And one more...
6 - HAVING 3 KIDS!!!! I mean seriously, how is it possible that I am to this point in my life already?????????


5 Things I Am Excited About....
1. - Getting back to sports and regular exercise.
2. - Dylan and Cassie getting to meet their little sister that they have been so patiently waiting for.
3 - An excuse to have family come and visit!!
4 - Being able to sleep on my back for the whole night instead of just half of the night. (oops)
5 - The cute little baby clothes.


5 Names that I love...
1. - Claire
2. - Jane? (Nate really likes this, but maybe for a middle name)
3. - ??
4. - There are not a whole lot of names that I love out there. If anyone has any other suggestions, PLEASE SHARE!!!!
5 - Some other cute ones: Nora, Lucy, Stella, Ruby, Becca


So there you go. Some more pregnancy info that I am sure you have been wanting to know. All you other pregnant bloggers out there better do this too!

Meet Reggie

He (or she) is the newest member of our family. Sort of. I went to clean out this turtle sand box that we have kept on the empty lot next to us and this is what I found:


A little turtle. Kind of funny you know. Finding a real turtle in our turtle sand box. So Dylan named him (or her) Reggie and he loves to check on him (or her) all time.


I found Reggie a couple of weeks ago and amazingly he (or she) is still alive. We must be doing something right.

But what I keep wondering is where did this turtle come from and how did it get in the sand box?

A little over-crowding

Do you think we could have fit anything else in our garden?

Apparently we should have spaced the seeds as far apart as the little packet said to.

Our garden has grown a lot better this year than it did last year. Because of all the rain, we have only used our sprinkler the first couple of days after planting it. This picture was taken 4 days ago and I swear everything has doubled in size since.

At least we won't starve.

Unless it gets too overcrowded and there is no more room for things to grow.

P.S. - We are growing zucchini, yellow squash, peas, green beans, corn, carrots, tomatoes, and beets. Yes, I said beets. You must realize that I am pregnant. That's all.

Fourth of July Celebration

We had a wonderful 4th of July celebration on Friday. After hunting all over the newspapers and internet for events going on, we finally found a parade down at Birch Run. I was a little surprised at the lack of festivities in the area, compared to the ones I have been to in Utah and Idaho, but I guess the fireworks are the big thing to do here. They haven't stopped going off since Wednesday. So we went to the parade and it was pretty good. We were a couple of minutes late and I couldn't believe how easy we found parking and a place to sit. We didn't know where we were going, so we parked the van, walked a block, and found an open spot on the side of the road at the very beginning on the parade. That has never happened before (except at the Hill Spring parade). And we learned from this experience that the beginning of the parade is the place to sit. The candy came. And it kept coming...and coming...and coming. Soon, the kids were too tired of picking up candy so they just left it. This first picture is one of the only floats the kids would look at because they were too busy collecting candy.

Here is the loot below: (we had some more in another bag too. Not bad for a small town parade that lasted 30 minutes)

Cassie collected all this candy by herself. She walked away with more than Dylan.

We then went to Dairy Queen, because I love Dairy Queen and the only one in the area can be found down at Birch Run. Yummy. Dairy Queen ice cream is the best.

Then we came home for a couple of hours and headed over to the Bateman's for a BBQ. They sure know how to grill up some good food! The kids went swimming and we visited, played games and enjoyed the famous Bateman fireworks.

I love this picture of Cassie catching Caleb at the bottom of the slide:

Cassie was a little freaked out over the noise of the fireworks, hence why Nate is sitting with all the kids (Cassie is in his lap):

It was a great day. It has been so nice to have wonderful friends here to spend these holidays with that we would normally spend with family. I don't know what I would do without them!

I know...

I am a slacker.

I just really haven't had the energy or motivation to blog. I keep having these big spurts of energy that last a few weeks, and then I have a really bad week. Not super bad, just not as much energy. As in... all I want to do is lay on the couch and read a book. And I have done that. The kids have been really really good at playing together (most of the time), which has been great. I am hoping to get out of this slump really soon. Today was better.

We haven't been up to a whole lot. Nate just finished a rotation in Flint, which he didn't mind, but we were all very very happy when he finished yesterday. It was an hours drive for him and he saw way too much inner city stuff than he cared for. We thought Saginaw was bad! He got really tired of the 60 year old ladies coming in that were high on Marijuana.

And as of yesterday, we are officially in our 3rd and final year of residency! YAY!!!! I can't believe how fast it has gone and I am having mixed feelings about being so close to finishing. So much going on this year. Baby. Job hunting. Trying to see everything in Michigan that we want to see before we leave. Selling our house. Etc. The list goes on. And to think that after this year of residency, Nate will have completed 25 years of schooling!!!!!!!!!! Crazy. Yes, I count residency as school because it seems a lot like it!

And Happy CANADA DAY yesterday to all my fellow Canadians and those who wish they were Canadian! I sure do miss being home with family at this time of year. So much fun things going on. But seriously, the thought of packing up and heading home for a couple of weeks is the last thing I feel like doing right now.

I have taken the kids to the pool a couple of times and we have done some picnics at the park. The weather has been perfect here! 70's - to low 80's. My favorite. There has been a few big storms here as well, and let me tell you, the storms here are so cool! Nate and I often sit on the porch and watch as the sky stays bright from lightning all night long. So cool. Not so cool, however, is when I am reading books to the kids on the couch and witness firsthand the lighting almost strike our house. We could see it hit our lawn, or street, or somewhere right by our house. And the thunder that accompanied it was THE LOUDEST thunder I have ever heard. (I later went out to look for a burnt spot on the ground but never found one). Anyway, it scared both the kids and I pretty bad. The fire alarm went off, half of our breakers blew, the phones went out, the internet went out, etc. I didn't have the cell phone so I couldn't call anyone. We just hung out. But the worst part was... our phones and internet were out for 5 days! What a pain!

Hmm, what else... oh ya, I had another 3-D ultrasound yesterday and it was really neat. Things are still looking really good. The baby is about 4 pounds right now and not breach. YAY! I wish our scanner was working because we got some really neat 3-D pictures of the babies face. So much better than the 2-D ones.

Okay, I am not sure what else to say. I am trying to make this long so that I have an excuse not to blog again for a while. But I will be back. Probably sooner than later this time.