Funny Friends

Our dog, Denver, exudes love.  I knew he'd love our bunny girls when we brought them home and boy did he ever.  And his love has never lessened.  Every morning he is excited to go see them.  He shares veggie treats with them, rolls around with them, lets them sit on him, and seems to smile when he's with them.  I LOVE these animals!

Can you see his smile?

Pure Joy

Pure joy to Felicity means a big puffy white "marry" dress, music playing, and a brother who is willing (he isn't always) to "marry" her.  "Marry," in her mind means to dance.  So don't worry, she doesn't want to wed her brother.  :)

More Cousins

The last cousin post I did was with my kids' only cousin on their Dad's side of the family.  2 weeks later, since my sister and her family were visiting from Arizona, my mom wanted us to attempt a cousin picture with all 6 of the cousins from my side of the family.  I was so nervous because Kian had a fever but I snuck away at picture time and had my sister take him out to join the other kids.  It worked like a charm.  No tears!

Visiting Friends

Summer and I have a love/hate relationship.

I hate the burning sun, but love taking the kids to the pool and beach.

I hate the heat, but love how it grows our garden.

One thing I do love about Summer is that people visit.  And this week we had a WONDERFUL visit from my friend Harmony and her 3 kids.

Harmony and her husband lived in the same town as we did while I attended college.  We quickly became friends as I think its impossible to not love Harmony upon first meeting her.  She has one of the easiest laughs and is always full of joy.

We often talked about wanting to have kids at the same time so they could be buddies.  We knew this probably wouldn't happen as Zac and I never intended on staying in that college town once I graduated.

Well, Zac and I did move away.

And Harmony and I remained friends.

And we DID have babies at the same time.....3 TIMES!

This week we got to spend one wonderful day with my dear friend and her beautiful kids.

Here are our 6 beautiful kids!

The boys are not quite 2 months apart in age.

The girls are 4 months apart.

And the babies are only 2 DAYS apart!

SO fun!

I love how they're so joyful with each other, even though this is only the 2nd or 3rd time they've ever played together in their lives.  They were fast friends (as they were on our last visit right before the babies were born).  The boys ran off to play "jail" and fight dragons, while the girls bonded over Lissy's dress up collection.  And the babes just walked around being all cute and chunky together.  Double the baby goodness.....it was hard not to pinch them too much.

Goofs!

And here's Harmony and I.

This is the first picture Logan's taken with my camera.  :)

And here's my sweet Lissy as she watched them drive away.

"My friend is gone!  I'm sad!"

I know the feeling poor girl.

Children's Museum

We have needed some major family fun time!

So, we decided to spend a good chunk of our Saturday at our local Childrens' Museum.

We've only been there once before because the prices are outrageous, in my opinion.  Thanks to Grammy, we had a few free passes, so off we went for some family fun.

Fire truck play

Ball pit play

 Zac and I don't love the ball pit and he reminded me of the grossness of it while the kids were having the time of their lives. 

"Like what if a kid puked in there?!  Could it really be cleaned?"

Lever lifting

Kitchen play

Shopping

A theatrical performance

(followed by some needed consoling after a face plant on the stage)

Window painting

Crafting

And of course, the ball room.

We had to take a break mid day to go out to lunch.

I was inspired by all the play pizza cooking that had gone on in the play kitchen and suddenly was craving pizza, so off we went to the pizza parlor.

We then returned to the museum and played until closing time.

A GREAT family fun day!

Healing

Last Wednesday I got my blood drawn again and my midwife called me that evening with the results.  Not only had my hCGs finally lowered, they had plummeted.  Because of how low my numbers were, she said everything was done.  But how can that be?  Nothing had happened.  She had no idea.  Weeks ago, after having an ultrasound that showed a gestational sack in my womb, I was sent home to miscarry.  I was told what to expect and what to take for the pain.  We waited for that "nightmare" to occur and knew that afterwards, we'd start to focus on healing and moving forward, which of course we couldn't do while in that limbo stage.  We waited....and waited....and waited.  Nothing.  Then, I get a phone call saying its done. 
This was very shocking.  I felt like I was suddenly just told to move forward and I was shoved into a new phase of this journey because my midwife on the phone told me so.  I was so confused as here I've been sitting around waiting for the typical miscarriage. Though, nothing about this miscarriage has been typical. She said that she knew it was hard to hear, but they have no idea why this happened the way it did.  I asked if I could have miscarried when I originally thought I had, but my numbers continue to rise as my body thought I was still pregnant.  She couldn't say for sure.  Though that wouldn't explain why the gestational sack showed up on the ultra sound a week after that.  She said a very small percentage of women's bodies will reabsorb the pregnancy.   But she honestly could not tell me what happened.
We put so much faith and trust in medical professionals to know what's best for us, to know exactly how the body works, and to know what we need.  But truly, our complete faith needs to be with the ultimate Healer. God knows EXACTLY what happened inside my womb, and why. He knows the EXACT moment my little one left my womb and entered Heaven. And the lack of this knowledge from the medical professionals makes me see God's power even more.

So, we've now started healing and learning how to move forward.

The other day, as I watched my husband play with our kids in the pool, I thought about what a wonderful father he is.  I thought about how blessed my kids are to be held in his arms.  Later that night, I realized that yes, my children here with me on earth have an amazing father to hold them.  And they are so blessed!  But our sweet Heaven baby has the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, our Father in Heaven, holding him or her in His arms.  Our Heaven baby is the one who is blessed most, for he or she is being cradled in the arms of The Father. 

Baby Scrub Jays

We have always loved having birds in our garden.  We have tried to attract them with feeders, but what they love most about our little place is our tiny pond with its constant dribble of water which overflows a bucket hanging from a pipe.

Scrub Jays are very plentiful here where we live.  But a certain pair of Scrub Jays seemed to like us more than others and hung around quite a bit.  They welcomed themselves on to our porches whenever they pleased, even if we were on the porch too.  They helped themselves to Denver's dog food when it was outside on the deck.  Just a few months ago, they started helping themselves to the liner that was in an unused hanging basket we had on the front porch.  The liner is made of some sort of fiber and they took beak loads of the stuff.  The kids and I added yarn and bread crumbs to it for them and were happy to see when they'd taken the little bits of red yarn.  They emptied the WHOLE basket of that fiber stuff and then we didn't see them for a while.  I hoped they had a nest somewhere near us.  Apparently a BIG nest.

Over the last few days 2 baby Scrub Jays have come to visit us!!!

"Sup"

I had a feeling Mr. and Mrs. Scrub had picked the tree right next to our play porch (where dog food bits are plentiful) and now I'm certain as these baby Scrubs hop down onto our porch from that tree all day long.

See all the grey fluff the babes have?  They're not small babies, but they are smaller and thinner than their parents.  They beg to be fed by their parents whenever Mr. or Mrs. Scrub come near.  The babies squat down, stick their wings out and squawk repeatedly, begging for food.

They are very trusting of us, just like their parents.

They come quite close to my little bird lover.

That is, until he can stand it no longer and MUST run to try and squeeze that fluffy baby.

"Bir, Mama!"

We have had so much fun watching these babes and I feel a sense of pride in knowing Mr. and Mrs. Scrub felt comfortable enough around us to choose our little plot to grow their family on.  I feel like our play porch and carport is the baby bird's nursery.  They hop around, visit us, investigate my husbands tool bench, our canoe, our dirt pile, the ladder to the club house....you get the picture.  They make the funniest little calls, which we are learning the meanings of.  And its so wonderful to see my kids excited about them, especially Kian who currently loves ANYTHING that flies.  When I was a little girl, my Nana and Mom would take my sisters and I to the lake to bird watch.  They'd teach us all the names of the birds.  Nana and Papa always had a garden that catered to the birds and boasted LOTS of bird activity.  Those are all fond memories for me so it brings me much joy to see Kian, a 4th generation bird lover, get excited about these babies.  He's the only one of my 3 who never sat on Nana's lap and watched the birds with her out her living room window.

Nana would be proud that he loves birds.  :)

"Queen Lucy" Hearts Nova

Meet Queen Lucy

Queen Lucy, in her garden crown, will turn 4 in two months!

The planning has begun.

You may think it odd to plan two months in advance but this Mama likes to hand make the kids' gifts so I'm actually feeling a bit like I'm pushing it with only two months left.

Today, after playing in the water and shedding clothes (the kids, not me)  :) to try to deal with our over 100 degree heat, Felicity decided to make a wish list.

So she got her favorite catalog.

Nova

which is in tatters.

She wished...

...and wished...

...and wished some more.

Then she pointed out to me the things she wants most.

A Waldorf doll? 

 How interesting!  :) 

 It just so happens we've BOTH been wanting a Waldorf doll....for quite a while.  And it just so happens that a doll making kit with all the supplies I need to make her one is currently being shipped here now.  :)

(Before she saw the redheaded doll, she first pointed to the doll being held by the cute little blond, who just so happens to be my blog friend's cutie son.)  :)

Got it Mama?