4th of July

Since we were picking Jake up Thursday night, we decided to spend the weekend celebrating the 4th of July in Chattanooga with our good friends Zach, Kimberly & their kids Addie & Tyler. 

Jake & Addie after dinner Thursday night

Excuse Jake's "I've been at the lake all day" look

Friday morning, the boys went on a bike ride and us girls took the kids to the pool. The weather was so chilly that morning for July. It felt like the fall. And the water was freezing. Thankfully it slowly warmed up.

2 kids freezing, but trying to ease into the water

After their bike ride, the boys brought lunch to the pool & we had a little picnic and then swam some more. We packed up that afternoon & headed back to their house.

There was a lot of playing on their new swing set

And football playing

And watermelon eating

And annoying moms taking pictures

31 weeks pregnant!

Tyler's hair blowing in the wind

We cooked out and then came time for the fireworks

Smoke bomb

The sparklers were a huge hit 

The kids were so excited

Jake's arms in this picture!

Trying to make a J

There were larger fireworks in the distance, that we watched from the driveway

Saturday morning was the boys turn to watch the kids while Kimberly & I did some antique shopping. 

Watching cartoons

They met up with their friend Travis & his family for a swim. Jake loved the diving board! (Note: 4 weeks ago, Jake would not put his face underwater, much less jump off the side of the pool. Even in the shallow end. Between swim lessons & playing with other kids, he has gotten so brave! Robbie was shocked when Jake asked if he could jump off the diving board. He has never jumped off one. He jumped off the diving board & then swim underwater to Robbie. Considering how scared he was of the water a few weeks ago, we are so proud of him!)

Someone had given Addie a cotton candy machine, so we decided to break it out & try it.

Kimberly getting it started

This is what it looks like on the box

This was real life

No kidding

That's not an "after" picture after the kids had already eaten the cotton candy. That was all that the machine would produce. And as it was making the cotton candy, it would shoot the sugar all over the place, so we had to make the kids stand back. I'm not sure they will be using their cotton candy machine much.

Swing set also doubles as yard seating

On the way to dinner Saturday night
Poor Kimberly got stuck in the 3rd row entertaining the kids

We introduced the kids to black snakes
(They were one of my favorites as a kid)

Our little gang

We had such a fun weekend. The S family are some of our best friends and we always have such a great time together. I can't wait to the next time we have one of these weekends, there will be a new member to our gang!

Summer: Week 6 / Vacation with Mimi & Granddad

On Sunday, we dropped Jake off at Robbie's parents (Mimi & Granddad). They were taking him & his cousin Jackson (age 12) on vacation to Gatlinburg for a few days. Jake was beyond excited. This boy adores his grandparents & his cousins so they could sit in a padded room & Jake would think it's the greatest day ever. But the fact they were going on vacation, staying in a hotel, doing fun things and pesky mom & dad wouldn't be tagging along with all their rules, meant double the fun. The Bush's & Jake headed up to Chattanooga Sunday afternoon & spent the night with Robbie's sister & her family. On Monday morning, Mimi, Granddad, Jackson & Jake all headed up to Gatlinburg. 

The Bush's sweetly put all their pictures on a disk for me. Jake & I went through them, and Jake gave me commentary and his opinion on all of them. 

First stop was a visit to the aquarium. Jake said his favorite part of the aquarium were the penguins.  

Jake & Jackson

Jake thought the sharks were very neat but very scary

I love Jake's facial expression in this picture

Jake informed me he really wasn't wearing this suit.
It was just a body with its head cut off.

Monday night, Jake called us to tell us about his day. He had a lot of fun at the aquarium, but was most excited to tell us that they were staying in a hotel & it even had a TV in the room. And they had pizza for supper. He told us that no fewer than 5 times while on our 15 minute phone call. And each day after that when we would talk to him, he would mention the hotel room that had a TV and pizza. So Rob & I decided to scrap the plans to take Jake to Disney World, we'll just take him to a Motel 6 & grab some pizza. Best vacation ever according to Jake. 

Tuesday morning, they went for a swim at the resort's pool. Jake's favorite thing was jumping in doing cannon balls with Jackson.

Tuesday afternoon, they went to Dollywood. This was Jake's favorite part of the vacation (other than the hotel with a TV). We had looked up some of the rides before he left & he was most excited to ride the ferris wheel and a roller coaster. (Yes, this child that is deathly scared of all animals, even butterflies, is not scared of roller coasters. I do not get it sometimes.)

Riding the ferris wheel with Granddad

Wednesday morning, they headed back over to Dollywood.

Jake said the cars didn't go fast enough

This was a ride that would raise you in the air, then drop you suddenly. Jake said it was also one of his favorites.

I love the expression on his face
He is having such a great time

Jake was disappointed he was not tall enough to drive the bumper cars
He didn't feel like Jackson bumped enough people

Jake swears they rode this roller coaster.
I need to confirm with Mimi & Granddad

Wednesday afternoon, they headed back to Chattanooga & spent the night. They spent Thursday at the lake* with Aunt Andrea & Uncle Johnathan.

Mimi, Andrea, Jake & Jackson

Jumping in!

They went for a boat ride

And they went tubing**

Uncle Johnathan letting Jake drive the boat

*I love the water, but I am not a lake person. I've spent a lot of time at pools & beaches, but not really lakes. Lakes scare me & make me especially nervous with children. So I was nervous about Jake spending the day at the lake, but especially since neither Rob nor I would be there. I appreciate so much Chuck, Judy, Andrea & Johnathan for being so sweet and accommodating of my 1,000 fears & requests for Jake. I requested that Jake wear a life vest anytime he was on the pier or near the water. (Which Jake told me he didn't like wearing the life vest all day, sorry kid, your mom is crazy.) I appreciate Robbie's family for making me feel so comfortable and reassured. I knew he was in excellent hands which reassured this worried mama's heart. 

**Thankfully, I didn't see these pictures until after we got up to Chattanooga.

Thursday after work, Robbie & I headed up to Chattanooga. We stopped by the lake to pick up Jake and then headed over to spend the 4th of July weekend with our good friends the S family. (Weekend recap coming later this week.)

I want to thank Jackson for being such a sweet cousin. There are not a lot of 12-year-olds that would have the patience to spend 4 days with a 5-year-old. Jackson is so sweet with Jake and Jake looks up to Jackson so much. Anything Jackson does, Jake thinks is the neatest, greatest thing. Jake is lucky to have such a sweet kind older cousin that doesn't mind hanging out with his little cousin. I am thankful to Andrea & Johnathan for sharing their lake house with Jake and taking such good care of him. And I'm especially thankful to Chuck & Judy for being such great grandparents. This was a trip Jake will never forget and I'm so glad for the memories he made with his Mimi, Granddad & cousin Jackson.

July 1

I actually wrote the entry yesterday, but didn't post it because we couldn't cross out #1 from our to-do list. Now we can:)

Here was my to-do list for June:

1) Name the baby

2) Complete the following in the nursery:

Remove guest bedroom bed

Remove extra electronics

Paint the room

Purchase changing table

Purchase rocking chair

Purchase fabric for canopy & curtains

3) Remember to take my iron pills & drink a ton of water (I've done good on the water part, not so great on the remembering to take my iron pills part. Why is it so hard for me to remember to take them?!?!

July nursery to-do list:

• Purchase bedding for crib (bumper, crib sheet & crib skirt)
• Create canopy & hope Robbie doesn't kill me
• Purchase/refinish piece of furniture to go on wall with rocker
• Paint rocking chair & have cushion made
• Decide what to hang on walls
• Hang curtains

Updates:

• We are 62 days away from our due date!! I am 31 weeks this week.
• I had a doctor's appointment this morning. Everything looks good. Baby is measuring correctly and her heartbeat is strong (140-150's). I go back in 2 weeks which will start my weekly appointments & non-stress tests. 
• The baby is hanging out on my right side. Left side of my belly? Complete mush. Right side of my belly? Hard as a rock. All movement is just felt on the right side of my belly. So the doctor thinks she is balled up in a corner of the right side of my belly. He said she was probably just comfortable & hanging out there. 
• She moves daily, but her movements are not as noticeable or as big as Jake's were. Most times, I have to be sitting or laying down to feel her move. 
• She gets the hiccups around the same time every night.

When we lived in Chattanooga & were pregnant with Jake, our hospital offered several free tours & classes. I thought I would look into those here at the hospital we will deliver in. I wanted to see if they had a sibling class that Jake could attend so he would have a better understanding of what all would happen at the hospital and with a new baby. Evidently, our little hospital loves to charge for everything, including classes & tours. There was no way I was going to pay to walk around a hospital, so I got the bright idea for Jake & I just to do our own tour. I've been at the hospital in Atlanta for Gaines & Woody's births. That hospital is huge and you can just walk around all you want. I've roamed up & down the halls, looked at babies in the nursery, etc... No one ever asked me who I was there to see or made me sign in. The hospital we will deliver in, is way way way way way way, way way way smaller. And evidently they notice everything. To even go on the maternity floor, you had to sign in. I explained to the person manning the desk why we were there and he said that was fine (and he happily went on eating his McDonald's). So up Jake & I go to the second floor which is maternity. My plan was to do a loop around the floor and look at the babies in the nursery. Let's just say we were nearly escorted out. We stepped off the elevator and were immediately approached by someone asking who we were there to see. Whenever I said no one, you would have thought I had walked in with a big bag that said "place stolen baby in here". They freaked out, even after I explained what we were doing. And then more people approached us. Finally a sweet nurse intervened and said she would quickly show us around. I was so embarrassed, I felt horrible for her! I know she has a job to do & being the tour guide to someone too cheap to pay for the tour was not it. Really I just wanted to be nosy & check out what the maternity floor looked like, but I blamed it on Jake wanting to see where his baby sister would be born. Of course Jake didn't help my story, because he was completely uninterested in any baby talk from the nurse & only wanted to talk about the frisbee he was holding. So we got our quick little tour and then hurriedly scurried out of there. I'm sure my picture is now on the "people that might possibly steal a baby from here" board. Along with a picture of my sidekick & his frisbee.