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| My big 1st grader!! (And baby sister!). |
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| Julia and her friend Lexi. |
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| Nicolas, Andrew and Ryan. |
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| And they are off! (sniff!) |
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| Julia and Ryan pose at Missouri Botanical Gardens for a last bit of summer fun. Countdown until brother starts school: 1 day! |
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| Awww. |
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| The settlers. |
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| It's nothing short of a miracle none of the kiddos ended up in the fountain! Jake, Ryan, Julia and Andrew. |
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| In an effort to try and squeeze in more summer activities before the kids head back to school, we headed to the zoo this afternoon. (That AND the fact the temp today was expected to be just a high of wonderful, glorious 80!) |
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| The kids had fun in the Children's Zoo brushing the goat's hair. |
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| We met up with our friends and neighbors! Ry and Nicolas share a seat for the train ride. |
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| Lexi and Trina chug around the park. |
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| Juls decides she needs to share a bench with me "in case I am scared." |
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| After our zoo fun we head to Pho Grand to celebrate Aunt Stacy's birthday! The kids are excited to share special cards they created just for her. Happy Birthday, Stacy! |
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| THIS is who greeted me first thing this morning. Ry is going through a costume phase. Well, it's lasted on and off over a year, so perhaps it's not a phase? I've finally had to make the rule "no sleeping in costume!" after we'd put him to bed in pjs, I'd return a few hours later to check on him and find him sweating in full costume. So..weird!? Sometimes, when we are driving somewhere, we will arrive and I'll turn around to tell them to hop out, and our favorite superhero is peering back at me. Crazy! =) |
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| In a moment of insanity, errr good mothering, Krista and I loaded up all the kids for an afternoon adventure. |
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| Fun at the Transportation Museum! |
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| Choo! Chooo! |
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| Our train lover was CRAZY happy to be here! Julia: "Ryan, who are you going to marry?" Ryan (ignoring her): Silence. Julia: "Ryan!! WHO ARE YOU GOING TO MARRY?!" Me: "Ry, your sister is talking to you." Ryan: "Aggg. I am not going to marry anyone!" Julia: "How come?" Ryan: "Because I am going to have a busy job on a train, and I won't get to see those kids too much." |
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| ..has sorta been a train wreck. Seriously. I'm having trouble keeping up. TGIF! In the last 7 days: - Learned baby sister's cord is wrapped around her neck 3-4 times. My OB actually said, "But don't panic." Yeah, right. - Sought the advice of multiple others in the medical field about what this means. - Broke down in tears on several occasions hearing the advice. - Had a plumber come and tell us the water heater is about to go out and we need a new one. ASAP. - Been without water on and off for hours at a time as the the basement plumbing is completed. - Been without internet or home telephone service on and off the last 5 days?!!? - The washing machine broke mid-cycle..full of water, soap and clothes! - Learned how to siphon water with the garden hose out of the washing machine. - Went to the hospital for a non-stress-test after not feeling baby move for a morning. - Hospitalized for pre-term contractions and given 2 injections to try and stop these. - Got in a tiff with my OB because he keeps telling me to "not panic about this cord!" and refuses to keep a closer watch on her as others are recommending. - Hosted a Premier Design's Jewelry Party (FUN!) - Had to lay down multiple times because I just didn't feel like I could get enough air in my lungs to be standing. - Called about a zillion maternal-fetal OB practices BEGGING them to take me as a third-trimester patient. - Was turned down by about a zillion practices as soon as they heard about the cord issue. (Liability, schmialability! Grr!) - Was asked by my goofy Ryan why I am talking to so many Drs on the phone, was it to save our baby from dying? (Possibly the most serious I've ever seen him be). - Wanted to HUG Chantel a nice nurse at Dr. Webb's office who said I could come in for a consultation after I harrassed her three times on the telephone! - Learned yesterday after this consultation and ultrasound that she has (THANK YOU GOD!!) unwrapped herself all but once! While we were watching her on the ultrasound she was trying to bat the remaining cord away from her neck/face. |
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| My hero. Ok, it's not really Batman, but when you let your 6 year old son loose with the camera, it comes back with photos of train sets and super heroes. =) My hero this week has been the hubby. He's managed to: - restore our internet and telephone service after a trip to Best Buy (which seriously, shouldn't be called Best Buy...it should be "More-Expensive-But-You-Get-It-Faster-Than-Ordering-Online-Buy." - FIX the washing machine after ordering two parts online. THIS was amazing to me..someone who grew up in a house where we fixed NOTHING. When something broke, we didn't TELL my dad, mom just called the repair serviceman out or bought a new one. So, when Jeff and I first got married I really doubted some of his handyman abilities, but time and time again I have been shocked and impressed. The perks of the engineer mind and the savings of $2K! - Texted our pediatrician (LOVE DR. STAHL!) while I was hospitalized about what we needed to do next and took charge. - Didn't even make a face when the nurse said I needed to be on "pelvic rest". Sorry babe! - Made tough decisions about staying with my regular OB or "breaking up" with him to head to a specialist seem like black and white when I was in agony. Next week is going to be a breeze. It HAS to be after this week! |
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| We'd always planned to finish out the basement someday, but our plans got moved up in schedule a bit when we learned we were expecting baby sister earlier this year. |
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| The room to the right here will be Jeff's office. He'll be getting kicked out of his current home office in about 7 or so weeks. |
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| Future wet bar. |
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| Family room/playroom. |
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| Built in shelving/tv straight ahead, storage behind, bathroom and workout room to the left. |
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| Ry and Uncle Patrick ready to launch the rocket! |
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| Juls thinks it's pretty cool too. She ran and caught this one on the way down. |
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| A boy and his toy. |
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| Love! |
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| It was a full birthday day. I dropped the kids off at Kids Bible Camp in the morning and headed to the OB and got to hear our sweet baby girl's heartbeat. Then Jeff and I went for a fancy-schmancy lunch at my favorite sandwich shop, Jimmy John's (I'm a high maintenance girl, ha!). Then I picked up the kids, we spent the afternoon together, and headed to the KBK carnival in the evening for fun and games (hot!). Jeff then headed to his softball game, and the kids and I couldn't head home until we stopped in The Cupcakery for some celebratory cupcakes! |
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| Always surprising us by her food choices and mature taste buds, Juls chooses the lemon cupcake... |
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| Colin Anderson Rudd meets his brothers. |
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| Isn't he super precious? |
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| Daddy love. |
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| Ryan and Julia are in love with their newest nephew already! |
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| I've got some of the BEST girlfriends! Here are some of "the notorious 9" crew at a Peel lunch. |
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| Amanda, Kel, Em and I pose with Ryan as he shows us some moves. =) |
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| We had a fun 4th hanging with family at the pool and then spending the rest of the day cheering on the Cardinals. (Thanks, Mr. Busch for the tickets!) |
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| The munchkins pretending to be statues...one of their favorite pastimes these days. I can't figure out WHERE they ever got this idea from!?! |
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| Happy 4th of July! |
