August/End of Summer

Besides taking a fun family trip in August, we tried to enjoy some time at home as well.  The kids loved playing in boxes which turned into spaceships, camping tents, surprise gifts and all sorts of other adventures.  We enjoyed our weekly trip to the library for story time and picking out new books.

We even managed a trip to the zoo, thanks to my awesome sister coming with us.  And we are so excited to have her living with us for the next little while.  The kids love having their aunt around and I love having my sister here.  Extra adult hands are always helpful...too bad she has to work too!

We also enjoyed some time in the backyard

and Harrison has been working on his "preschool pages" all summer.  He likes it most days and it is helping him learn and hopefully getting him ready for homework and the school routine that will start happening next school year!

Family Vacation

Vacation in August and a baby in August?  Yep that's right...we are a little crazy like that.  At 37 wks. we rented a car, loaded up our stuff and drove to North Carolina to spend the week with Jeff's family.  We had an awesome time and although there was some fear the baby could come (we found the closest hospital just in case!), we are so glad we went.  Harrison and Raegan enjoyed the week with their cousins and family, we had great weather and a relaxing trip.

It was about 18 driving hours.  We did it in 2 days and it took about 24 with stops.  But the kids were good.  We had devices, snacks and we did plenty of singing for Raegan.

Once there, it was easy.  Just play at the beach, relax in the house, swim in the pool, eat, fish, and look for crabs.  We also saw sea turtle babies and played games.  We have the best family ever!

I didn't have my camera, so most of these are phone pictures. I'm hoping to get some pictures from the trip from the rest of Jeff's family as well.

Just a quick update...

 On August 23rd, I hit my due date and still no sign of baby.  It was a day of mixed emotions because I was ready to be done and meet this baby and so were my kids.

Then, let then 48 hours later, our sweet little surprise was born.  It all happened so fast that I almost forgot to ask if we had a boy or girl.  Turns out, we had another girl.  Here are just a few pictures of her first day to enjoy while we try to figure out our new normal, catch up on sleep and take care of a house and 3 kids.  I'll try to get more updates up soon though!

 Bode (Rhymes with Cody) Elizabeth Ward
August 25, 2013 at 1:50 am
6 lb 9 oz 19 in long
She is a great baby and doing well!

4th of July

We laid low this year and even though Jeff had a 4 day weekend, we enjoyed the long weekend at home.  We made star sugar cookies and the kids loved helping.

We spent some time at the pool over the weekend and some time in the backyard.

 We even got some sparklers and small fireworks to enjoy.  (Luckily Raegan was in bed and asleep when it all started...she was not a fan of our trail runs earlier!)

It was a nice, relaxing holiday weekend!