Gender Party!

On Tuesday my sisters threw me a "Gender Party!"

One sister stayed with all the kids while the other sister took me to get an ultrasound.... I just don't understand why I'm gaining so much weight??? ha! My sister Brenda hasn't seen an ultrasound before so this was a real treat for her. The Snickers she got me, to try and get the baby moving was a real treat for me too!:) There's our baby on the screen. Head is on the left side and feet are closest to me:) They made me promise I wouldn't look at the screen when it was time to look at the gender of the baby. Gosh, it was hard not to take a little peek! The ultrasound tech took some pictures and put them in a sealed envelope. At this point only the ultrasound tech knew what we were having! My sister didn't know either.... While we were out getting my ultrasound and some yummy lunch my sister, Brianna was back at her house decorating with help from the kids.... My sweet friend from Texas, Tara at Too Many Kids in the Bathtub sent me a box of goodies last week. It was filled with all the decorations needed to have a gender party! Along with a diaper cake and all! Here's the pink table! Thank you Tara!!!!!!

The blue table!

My sister Brianna made the cute sign. Everything looked so cute! We have never made a big deal when we found out the gender our babies, so this was different and exciting! My sisters then drove the secret envelope over to our friend Ashlynn's house. Ashlynn(who has a new great adoption blog) then opened the envelope and added either pink or blue candies to the insides of the cupcakes. She then frosted the tops and brought them over for the party. So now, only the ultrasound tech and Ashlynn (who is like a sister to all of us) know what we are having.......

Before biting into the cupcake.....hmmmm will it be blue or pink????

Will the blue team or pink team win???

Girls win! We will be having another girl:)

Daddy is still in shock! He keeps saying 4 girls, 4 girls, oh my gosh! haha....Landen is mad at God, and Austin is cool with it:)

I love my girls and can't wait to add another one...All our girls are Daddy's girls, so Justin is thrilled to have another little girl look up to him and adore him.

Farrah was excited to see pink in her cupcake too!

For all my friends who have asked for a belly shot...I set the camera up on the kitchen counter, then waddled over to get in position....here ya go!

I'm 19wks and a couple days here. Bigger than I'd like to be but trying not to concentrate on that. I am just really thankful to be able to carry this baby and I pray SHE continues to grow healthy in that oven of mine!

I have many friends who are having a hard time trying to get pregnant, have had miscarriages and I am having a hard time posting on all my happy baby news. I really don't want to hurt their feelings......Please pray for them and especially my dear friend Laurel at Our Journey of Faith.

She is going through a miscarriage right now:(

I don't mean to end this fun post on the down side...Just know that I am praying for each one of them. I also realize more than ever what a blessing and gift each baby is!

The last 2 weeks.......

we've been keeping busy!

Being busy is making this pregnancy seem to go by fast.

I can't believe I'm about half way already!

Austin attended "Night in a Box."

He's been helping out at the homeless shelter by our house.

A group of jr. high students spent the night in cardboard boxes to experience what it would be like to live on the street.

It helped him understand the tragedy of street children around the world.

He even put a cross on his "house."
He said he got cold and hungry during the night and couldn't imagine living like that!
He's been studying India, Liberia, Brazil and Romania's "street kids" and reading many stories about their life. How they breath solvent based glue at young ages just to kill their hunger pains etc. Breaks my heart!

Aunt Brianna came with me to drop Austin off for the night. She made sure he had a warm place to stay.

Austin also helped build loft houses for children in Mexico the next morning...

The kids woke up to some green treats and a silly string mess on St. Patty's day.

Then we had green milk and Lucky Charms for breakfast.

We got on our green gear and headed to a St. Patrick's party at the park...





Everyone wearing green....

Finley is throwing a fit because I wouldn't let her have a cupcake....tragic, I know..geesh!


We even painted our nails green...ta-da...

Helping themselves to the green treats....

Mardi Gras...not that we celebrated but I thought this pic of the girls was cute anyway:)

We had P.E. at the Gym....

Landen showing off his cartwheels...



Big sister help...
Big brother help....
I love how close all my kids are. Even though there is an age gap they are all close.

I'm thankful for homeschooling and the fact that my kids are always together.

My baseball studs after Saturdays games....
This season I cheer for the Boston Red Sox and the Texas Rangers!

We finally finished our model of the Tabernacle!

Here's Landen painting the lamp stand.

Austin working on the Ark of the Covenant...

his finished Ark of the Covenant. Those cherubim angels weren't easy to make out of clay...

The kids followed the instructions given in the bible...here's the inside of the Ark of the Covenant along with Aaron's staff, a gold jar of manna and the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments on them.

Here's the Holy Place with the lamp stand, altar of incense and the table of the presence...

The courtyard...
Faith made the washbasin a little large the priest would have to climb up it to wash. ha! She did a great job other than that. She also made the altar of burnt offering and painted them with brown because we didn't have a bronze color.

They did a great job! It was an amazing project to do together.
I loved watching the kids frequently referring to the Bible to be sure they were "making it right." We learned so much and had fun doing it!

When Daddy got home the kids gave a full presentation on the Tabernacle and explained the various rituals and what possible meaning they could have for us today. They talked Daddy through what each room was and the measurements etc...
While building the Tabernacle these two kept busy being princesses...

Maybe we do need some socialization....

I'm kidding...I sometimes think we are over socialized!

Here's Landen with his piggy bank of hard earned allowance.

He's donating it to a bake sale for Japan.

The kids have seen pictures and the news on what is going on in Japan. Our hearts break for them. They got all their money together and I drove them down to donate to the bake sale put on by one of our homeschool groups.

I think that about sums up our last 2 weeks around here....

Oh, and here is the bun baking away....

All stretch out in there!

Hi bloggy friends...do you think I'm a boy or a girl???