Our Family Vaca to Colorado!

 So my little sister got married this summer! We made a little week long gettaway out of the trip and had a ton of fun. It's making me reevaluate my use of electronics and DVD players in the car because as we were driving through one of the most beautiful places in the world, my kids were like, "When can we watch our moooovie. This is booorrrrring. Can I play on the iPad?"

But I must say, with four little kids it was a pretty successful trip. Wade and I are a rockstar team when it comes to airports and traveling. Can't wait to go back!

A decent family pic!

S'mores and watermelon

At the campground

My four, right before we left

GOOOORRRGEOUS!

Two studs

The newlyweds

She was a beautiful bride

We flew in and out of New Mexico. Or is this Durango? I don't know, it all looks kinda the same...

Driving into Albuquerque, NM

Inside of our little cabin for the week. Best decision ever!

A perfect little creek for the kids to play in all day long.

Pretty little flowers all over, pretty freshly manicured toes.

Did I mention it was beautiful?

At an ancient New Mexican pueblo

The church in the pueblo in NM

My niece! 

Mark, why can't you take a good picture?

Climbing around at the Soda Dam on our pretty drive through NM.

Soda Dam

Just to prove that I was there... I think this was the only pic taken of me. And it's blurry.

Our drive up to the wedding. It was so high up in the mountains, it could have been on a movie set.

Shopping on Main Street, in front of a random statue. It was bright...

It was like stepping back in time. These kids just riding their bikes to the local store to get something to drink because it was so hot. They had boots and cowboy hats, just chillin' under the American flag. I loved it. :) So I took a picture, like a good tourist would. 

Just some random pics from my phone!

"Mommy, this is Maggie. And here I drew her a bag that she got on clearance at Target."

A green smoothie goatee

3 outta 4 ain't bad! 

Hey Jasper, I see you found Reesey's lip gloss. Unfortunately you missed the memo that it's supposed to go on your lips.

Heyyyyyy buddy!

Sleepy buddy

Free food!!!!!!!!!

Look at all those sweet kiddos! I tried to get them to line up from oldest to youngest but quickly realized that wasn't gonna happen.

Reese's 7th birthday. Opening her new bible!

Becky's first day of preschool! He was pumped. When I picked him up I said, "Hey bud! We missed you today!!!" And he replied (with a HUGE grin) "Well, I didn't miss you!" 

Random Sentences

At the moment, my mind cannot form a complete blog post about one or two things. I'm all over the place right now so here's a brain dump.

We just got the cabinets and the counter tops in this week for the house. I LOVE LOVE LOVE them :)

At this time, we are scheduled to close on August 27th. That's in 17 days. (!!!!)

Jasper pooped in the pool yesterday. I was MORTIFIED.

I've been thinking a lot about hospitality and what kind of hostess I am and want to be. What kind of atmosphere I want my new house to have. And I just read an article about being a great dinner guest and I totally hated it. But then thought maybe I was ignorant. And at the end all these people commented about how they get so annoyed when their dinner guests don't bring anything or a small token of appreciation like a jar of local honey. I'm sorry, when I have someone over, my food, my house, my ears are my gift to them. In NO WAY do I feel like they need to bring anything at all. If they'd like, sure, that's fine. But it's NEVER expected. I hope I haven't offended anyone in the past by my family coming, not bringing a thing, eating and leaving. Hmmm.... Still thinking about this one.

Gus has some kind of head cold. Gunk coming out of his eyes and nose, the poor little guy. Therefore, he's not sleeping well or for very long stretches at a time. It's been fun.

Wade is still working a lot. Like A LOT. So hard. :(

I'm just got another necklace in the mail this week from this website. Cheap, cute, addicted.

We got Reese's 2nd grade school stuff in the mail this week too! She's super excited. It's from this company and it looks awesome.

I start training for a half marathon next week. My love Christina and I are running this race in November!

Beckett starts preschool in a week from Monday. M-W-F 8:30-1:30. I'm gonna miss him!!

Our iPad is broken. :(

Saturday night is pizza night at our house, but if I order it tonight it'll be the third night this week we've had pizza.

Our (lots and lots and lots of) library books were due yesterday.

Reese sewed a pillow for her friend today.

I bought a table and 6 chairs this week from a For Sale group on Facebook this past week. I think I'm gonna paint the chairs a light mint green and paint our table white!

After this I'm gonna put in an order for Sam's Club. Did you know you can order it all online then just go in and pay/pick it up? They even bring it out to the car for you.

We are working on potty training with Jasper (see above...) and he peed on Beckett's leg this morning. And all over the carpet. And then Beckett used the hand towel in my bathroom and just threw it on top of the mess and forgot to tell me about it. Until I stepped on it later.

I learned how to make my own iced coffee in my french press and it is now a daily staple in my routine.

I don't have a routine.

But I hope to have one this September when school starts, Gus is a little older, and we are in our new house with a little better organization!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. :) :) :)

(Maybe my next post will just be all pictures!)

We're Building A House!

Yup, that's her! I've been meaning to post about this for awhile. And for those of you who follow me on Instagram have known since I've posted progress pics. But we're so excited! It's a two story and has a large (for this neighborhood...) backyard that I've got grand plans for.

Standing in the kitchen area, looking out to the back yard. Not the best pic to show size.

We're hoping this is our forever home. Like lots of memories talking at that kitchen bar, Christmas tree in the same spot every year, never have to update our address again, kids coming home from college, grandchildren playing in the backyard, until we need to downsize HOME.

This is the view from the kitchen pantry, looking into the kitchen/living room. That's the bar that'll have the kitchen sink and dishwasher. 

 These pictures are a few weeks old. They actually got all the sheetrock up yesterday, so you can't see through all the rooms, which really makes it feel like a house. There's a closing date of around mid-August.

The opposite view. That back wall will have cabinets and the kitchen table will go on the right. The front window will be the playroom.

It truly is everything I've always wanted in a house, but never thought I'd have. The walk-in closet, a kitchen pantry, five bedrooms, one which will be a guest room, an open living area/ beautiful kitchen, a play room, a homeschooling area, a large backyard??? I'm still pinching myself.  I was absolutely content with buying an older home, fixing it up, all that stuff.  About 6 months ago when were were looking at houses in this area, we were having a hard time finding anything that wasn't gross or in a bad location. When we realized we could build a new home for about the same price as buying an old one, it seemed like an easy choice!

If I'm honest, I'm still nervous about it. Nervous that we can't afford it. That it's too much, too soon. That Wade will have to work even more to be able to pay for it. That something will happen to one of my children, because no one is really this blessed.

I also feel guilty for having such a large house. And that others will be envious and resent me. And I feel like I have to justify it, like they don't know the whole story and if they'd sit down and talk with me for a bit they'd not be so jealous. It's a strange feeling.

And at the end of the day, I know that this isn't my house. It's HIS house. He's the one blessing us, and I'll do whatever He wants me to do with it. Cook meals for those hurting in my kitchen? Sure. Have moms over for a playdate because we have a fenced in backyard? Okay! Host a bible study? You got it. Homeschool and stay at home with my children because He's called me to do so? Yup. Invite someone in who needs a place to stay for awhile? Absolutely.

That is my prayer. That I'll use this home for His plans. Which I could be doing now, yes, but I almost feel like in the past few years he's been preparing my heart for this and now I've been given the space. I'm so excited.

August's Birth Story Part 3

Okay, sorry for the delay. I've been a little...busy. ;)

Where were we? Oh, yes. I was about to deliver this child in a toilet. Let's start from there, shall we?

After I told Wade there was no time to go get the midwife or a nurse, it all went SO FAST. The urge to push was unstoppable. I remember moving away from the toilet and Wade rushing to help hold me up. And just like that the head was out.

There was an immediate relief of pain and pressure. And all of the sudden there was a rush of people into this little bathroom and someone saying let's get her over to the bed. Um, yeah. You see, there is head between my legs. Not happening. So then I heard Vivian's voice very firmly say, "Okay Liz, then I need you to get on your hands and knees." Two (or so? I have no idea) pushes later, I heard someone say "It's a boy!" and I thought, "Of course it is. I already knew that."

He was born around 10:30 PM. It wasn't glamorous. It wasn't like on TV. It all happened so fast! Once the baby was out, most of the focus went to him. Still on all fours on the cold, now wet tile floor, I relaxed a little bit and thought, "Holy cow, did that really just happen?" I looked back at Vivian who was squished next to the toilet and she smiled, shook her head and said, "I'm getting too old for this."

With a little help I walked over to the bed where I proceeded to have my usual bleeding issues. Usual stuff like panicked-yet-acting-calm nurses, quiet-concerned midwife, lots of pressing on my belly, pitocin IV in, etc. After 20 minutes or so she was able to get the bleeding under control but wanted me on lots of pitocin. Boo. That was painful and made me grumpy. So after an hour or so I turned it off. It just hurt so bad and I'm a rebel so I didn't care.

I just wanted to cuddle with my new son and get some rest. It was probably midnight at this point and we were all exhausted. Wade passed out in a recliner and I curled up with my Gus in a reeeeaally uncomfortable hospital bed.

Best birth so far. ;)

And I finally received my pictures in the mail! Most of you have seen them on Facebook, but here are a few again. Can't recommend birth photography enough! I love love love having those moments to look back on. It's all still pretty fresh in my mind, but I'm guessing in 5 years or so it'll be a bit more hazy. Even though she missed the actual birth (which I don't think I would have wanted pictures of anyway, way awkward...) she was there minutes afterwards and was great.

The next morning...

 (Yes, I realize we look like an ad for the Iowa Hawkeyes.)