june rewind #1: a visit from friends!

my goal is to recap june before july ends! :) we'll see if i can do it!!


eric and kristi and kids came down the first week in june for a wedding, to see old friends, and to make a surprise visit to our youth choir's homecoming concert. (eric led the choir's summer tour when they lived here.) this was a wonderful bonus to the time we spent with them at the beach a couple weeks earlier. i was so glad we had all that time with them earlier, though, because when they are here, there are so many people who want to see them... so their visits are busy to say the least! but we squeezed in as many little hang-out times as we could. kristi was busy holding a baby in, and i was busy holding food down, so neither of us took very many pictures. i also rested in the fact that we'd just taken over 1200 pictures when we were together in may, so i gave the camera a break this go around!

we spent time at kj's with wonderful friends, as well as at kristie's, both where the kids stayed wet while we moms chatted away. we took the boys to get their haircut (steven's first non-home haircut!), and the kids played together at our house with my mom (thanks mom!!) while the adults went to a beautiful wedding. brian's parents graciously opened up their home to eric & kristi, so we spent a lot of time hanging out at nana & pappy's as well. (lydia & steven called glenda "mrs. nana"- it was so sweet!) it seems like we did more than that, but i was in a nauseous fog, so i am doing good to remember that much. :)

here are a few pictures from our days together...

these ladies are dear friends of mine and were also
special mommy friends to kristi when she lived here.
all of the kids of the moms above! (except ethan who would not get
NEAR the giant vortex water slide! but notice who is at the front of the line!!!)
the kids watching as ethan gets his haircut...
he LOVES going to see mrs. renee and sitting in the red car!
awww, sweet friends! this is right after the boys' haircuts
boat watchin' after dinner one night

it was a real blessing to see them again so soon after we'd just said goodbye. i'm smiling as i write this because now it is just a few more weeks before i get on a plane to go see them again! just me! to go see that sweet baby and play "auntie em" for a few days. i can't wait!

more june fun to come!

this girl loves her glasses

and this momma loves her girl!

smilin'!

i just have to share this picture of ethan & caroline from yesterday. they were "dancing" in the living room, which usually consists of them individually spinning around and caroline groovin' with her shoulders... but for some reason, the song playing must have inspired a little slow dancin'. this sweet moment quickly turned into a brotherly death grip from which i had to rescue caroline... but at least i got the cute picture first!

i am smiling because i am feeling really really good these days. i feel like most of my pre-pregnancy energy is returning, and i am up to being a fun mom and a slightly decent housekeeper again. all at the same time. it's amazing. :) as of this evening, i have a clean house and happy (now sleeping!) kids. i know i have many more tiring days to come, especially once my body is carrying a larger baby, but i am praising God for a little reprieve from pregnancy exhaustion.

tonite i am also smiling because brian just got home from a few days of work-related travel! just a few days seems like so much longer when he's gone... thank you, God, for a safe trip!

shepherd is here!

i am so excited to share the news that shepherd is here! kristi gave birth to this sweet 10 lb, 4 oz, 24 in. long baby boy at 3:44 this morning. everyone is doing fine, and i am told that he looks just like big brother steven! for all of you that have been waiting and waiting for shepherd to arrive, thank you for your prayers! i will share pictures as soon as i see them!

update:
kristi just posted a picture of shepherd on her website... check out that big cute baby! :)

june

well, june was pretty much a blur for me. my last day of work was the last week of may, and that came as such a relief. i could not wait to be home with my children every single day. and i could tell they missed my full-time presence, too. all i can say is (sigh)...thank you, Lord, for carrying us through this past year.

while the end of may brought a huge relief to be a full-time mom again, it also brought on a month of hazy-first-trimester-constant-motion-sickness. my poor kids. i was so excited to be home, and then i spent a month on the couch, miserable! don't get me wrong, i was very excited to be pregnant, but i did not expect to feel so horribly! the thought of food was enough to put me out of commission for a few hours, so i really don't remember what my family ate for dinner in june. i think we ate a lot of chick-fil-a. and i'm pretty sure my kids and i ate lunch every day. but i couldn't tell you what!

i have been feeling much better over the last few weeks, but i still feel like i'm catching up from june. catching up in so many ways... housework, time with the kids, etc. i was surprised to see that i wrote 8 blog posts in june, only to realize that only two of them were actually about june happenings... the other 6 were catching up from our beach trip in may! but we did do a few fun things in june, so i do want to catch up on here soon...

-eric and kristi and the kids came down to visit the first week in june...at the peak of my queasiness... it was a nice distraction and a wonderful extension of our fellowship a few weeks before that.

-in the middle of june, i traveled to atlanta with the kids for my annual college friends' reunion. we went to stone mountain, the aquarium, and did our usual hanging out! the kids did great, and it was a blessing to see my dear friends again.

-we left for atlanta on father's day and gave brian a gift of a niiiiiiice, quiet day with no hurried trips to the potty, no spilled anything, and no diaper changes. what more could a dad ask for!? but i know he missed us. :)

-i drove home from atlanta on my birthday and had a nice quiet celebration with family, and i got a great birthday surprise from brian! (you'll have to wait and see!)

and then i realized that i only had two weeks till ethan's birthday! ahhh! i was not in party-planning mode!!

-the last sunday in june marked the first sunday for our church's new pastor and his family to be with us. i will definitely write more about them later. in the few weeks that they have been here, God has blessed us through them in countless, countless ways. to God be all the glory.


so stay tuned to rewind with me. i look forward to reliving a little of june... but most of it i will happily leave as a first-trimester memory! :)