Hello friends . . . I'm been hoping I'd be able to get up one more update before the big day in our household. There are stories and pictures I want to share and I fear that they won't get told if I wait until my next update which will most indeed be focused on the 5th and newest member of our clan. T minus < 9 days until his or her arrival. Eeeek!
We've been very busy getting as prepared as we can be for the arrival of the baby.
A few gender neutral clothes are washed (though I fear they may be too small?), the pack n play is set up in our bedroom, the car seats are rearranged, the cars have been cleaned, and our garage has never looked so organized . . . (Good work Kevin!)
My chest freezer is overflowing with "easy to cook" meals. I have had a couple marathon cooking weekends using recipes I found that say you can prepare
8 crockpot meals suitable for freezing in one hour. (Perhaps a slight under-estimation of the time commitment, especially if you include the shopping time and in my case, the time spent whining on the couch after that fact given how much my feet ached after a day in the kitchen). Regardless I am proud of my full freezer and hope we can deplete its contents over the next few months instead of eating ridiculous amounts of take out which is how I remember the early days of H&J.
This is what my kitchen looked like one Saturday as I started cooking . . .
OK . . . enough about my to do lists. Though I do feel like Kevin and I came to a relationship break through the other day. We'll celebrate 10 years together this summer and for many of those years, he has bemoaned my lists -- during wedding planning, they often were inside the dreaded "white binder" and lately, I've displayed them via "stickies" on the desktop of our home laptop for all (him) to see. If you know me at all, you know I'm rather type A and feel better if things are organized nicely into lists so I can get the satisfaction of crossing them off as completed. It just makes me feel better! Motherhood and in my case full time working motherhood has taught me that things just don't get crossed off my lists as fast as they used to and that that is totally okay. And thankfully, I do have Kevin who in moments of sheer stress outs on my part will look at the lists and help cross a few things off. He'd prefer that they just get done by us without having to be organized and discussed on said list, but as he said just the other day "This is what I get for marrying a scientist!" (a la above mentioned break through!) :-)
A few weeks back, right before our group on aquarium year pass ran out, my dad and I took the twins to the aquarium for another visit. I love that Jack associates my dad with the aquarium (also the zoo) and many times, if you tell him that he's going to see Granddad on a given Saturday. He follows that up with the statement that "we are going to see Granddad at the aquarium and that we are going to see first the crocodile and then the turtles and then the sharks and the sharks have sharp teeth, but they aren't going to eat me". The order of viewing of marine life varies with each update from him and is really quite sweet. Here are a few highlights from our recent visit:
Team Hope participated in our 3rd ASF National Walk at Cooper River in Cherry Hill, NJ recently and we had another record day. Most of you who were there walking or who donated to our fundraising attempts should have gotten my wrap up/highlight letter (if you didn't, please let me know!), but we raised over $3000 this year and had a great showing of family and friends out there with us. Hopie was in a walking mood and showed off her skills to all who wanted to see them. The walk is starts/ends at this great playground complete with a base/bed of recycled tire material. Someone taught Jack early on how much fun it was to throw, roll, bury himself amid the tire pieces and I cannot fully describe how black his fingernails were by the end or how much fun it was for us to clean him up, but you can really tell from the pictures how much fun he was having.
Here are a few of my favorite walk highlights. Many many thanks to
Uncle Eddie for being our photographer again this year. I didn't take a single photo of my own this year so I am grateful to all the great ones he captured. Here's a
link to all of the photos as I know some of you have asked for copies of specific ones.
Black fingernails here we come . . .
These two are often up to no good when together . . .
Abby is now really sad as her dad's just told her she has to leave . . .
A rare belly shot . . . Luckily we have extra Team Hope shirts in larger sizes than the one I've worn in the past . . .
The walk organizers had set up this great balloon frame and sign to set the stage for the team photos, but Team Hope is so large that you barely see the sign (in front of Aunt Marianne) or the balloons (just a hint of them behind Sharon and Liz's heads).
Finally just a few fun pictures from various recent events.
Mother's Day with Grandmom - if only Jack didn't have so much energy, this is one of our the best attempts at a cousins picture in months . . .
"What is this, Mommy? A baseball mitt. . . Thanks Pop!" - one which did not come off his hand for the entire car ride home from Grandmom and Pop's house.
And often shows up on lazy weekend mornings while watching cartoons.
Hope likes to come in for kisses at these snuggle moments.
Guess who likes their new helmets . . .
and who take biking very seriously . . .
Who wants to walk or ride bikes when you can ride in style with Daddy.
This video is a little long and will only work when watched at the blog site on a computer (not on a phone), but if you want to see how good Hope is at walking now, check it out. There are a few good views of my baby belly and a few too many good shots of my bum, but I am so proud of my pumpkin's skills that I'm sharing those just so you can see her showing off.
Sorry for how long this is . . . I can get long winded with my stories, but I hope you enjoyed them. . . XOXOXOXO to you all!
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