Painted Bellies!

I can now have this baby. The last thing I wanted to do was have Ray and the girls paint a picture on my belly. They painted a fish bowl on my tummy with a fish for each of us... it turned out really cute! However, my stretch marks are not so cute, so I won't post a picture. HOWEVER! I painted Melissa and Kayla's tummies and they turned out cute too!

They were very specific in what they wanted painted.

Build A Bear for Abbie!

For Mother's Day this year (yes, this is a little late) Ray and the girls took me to Build-A-Bear where the girls had a blast making a puppy for Abbie. We had SO much fun!

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Big Helper Melissa!!

We have been SOOO busy getting ready for baby Abbie the past couple of weeks. I will post more pictures of our preparations later. I just LOVE this picture of Melissa. She washed the cradle, put the sheet on all by herself, helped me put on the bumper pads, everything! She was so proud of herself! She even put a sheet over it so that when Grandma and Kayla came up to see it she could "whoosh" it off to show them. I love this kid!

My dad made this cradle when I was pregnant with Melissa.. I need to take a better picture of it. This one doesn't do it justice!

Happy Father's Day!

For some reason I was REALLY slack taking pictures on Father's Day. I didn't even think to take a picture until we were having dessert RIGHT before bedtime. Poor Daddy-O. As far as I know he had a GREAT day! Melissa came in around 2:30am ready to give Daddy the card she had for him. Thankfully she just snuggled into bed with us and waited to have him read it until she woke up again at 7:30. She was SOOO pleased to give it to him. After Kayla woke up the girls insisted on giving him the presents they had for him, so even before he was sitting up, he was unwrapping presents. heehee Melissa bought him some "Whoppers" candy and Kayla walked through the store labeling everything as "not manly enough" until she came across a bag of cotton candy. She was sold! AND so excited to help him eat it upon it being opened. The girls made him breakfast in bed... shredded wheat, a banana, and an orange.. all of which was their idea! After church Daddy took a LONG summer's nap and woke to the smell of homemade cupcakes baking in the oven. We made "Root Beer Float" cupcakes, hollowed out the middle, added vanilla ice cream and topped them with whipped cream and a cherry. They were SOOOO good! We enjoyed our day with Daddy and are so blessed to have him. We love you, Daddy-O!!!

Grandma Camp!!!

My mom decided to call her time with us "Grandma Camp" and has been doing all sorts of activities with the girls. This morning she pulled out an alligator pool/sprinkler thing that she purchased for them and they literally played for HOURS outside in it. They LOVE Grandma Camp!

Personal Prayers

Our little girls are such a great example to me of love, faith and caring. Each night Ray or I kneel beside their beds with them as they say their personal prayers and are humbled by the words that they speak to our Father in Heaven. Sometimes they choose to say their prayers "in their heads" so that they are truly "personal" and sometimes, like last night, we are blessed enough to hear their sweet words. Ray said that last night he convinced Kayla to say her prayer out loud so that he could hear it too. Evidently, she prayed for everything and everyone... she literally listed our entire family and prayed specifically for each of them. She prayed for Baby Abbie, her cousin Addison, cousin Kacey, Aunt Mindy, etc. Everyone. She didn't leave anyone out. ~ She reminded me of the importance of truly praying for one another. Over the past several months I have felt lifted up and carried by the prayers that are being offered to God on behalf of our family. I honestly thought we would have already had our little Abbie by now, but I know it is because of the faith and prayers being offered by us, and by others that she is still going strong and seemingly going to make it a bit longer. I am very humbled and amazed as I hear of more and more people praying for us. Family, friends, church prayer groups, strangers at Hobby Lobby, patients on an ambulance Ray is making small talk with... the list is quite long. If you are one of the amazing people that are praying for us, thank you. I know the Lord hears and answers our prayers. Are we having trials? Yes. Are we making it through them and being blessed? Absolutely! God is good.

The Great Fall...

On May 12th Mother Nature ferociously attacked our property. She threw spears of wood, crumbling the fence, and sending 1 1/2 trees crashing through the yard, landing inches from the swings we were just playing on.... 2 days ago. The girls were trembling with fear as their dad went to survey the damage. It was quite the traumatic experience.

Really, we were eating dinner when we lost power. Ray stepped outside to see if anyone else lost power and heard a loud snapping sound. We looked out back and saw, well, you'll see...

Ray tried for several weeks to get someone out to help him tackle the tree and fence and repeatedly found that no one was available. So, one month to the date (June 12th) my brother, brother-in-law, father-in-law, mother-in-law and our friend Bryan from church came to the rescue. They worked their butts off in 97* heat and took care of the tree, the trunk, the fence AND our neglected lawn. We are truly indebted to each of them.

The best part? Ray got a chainsaw out of all of this...

and still has all of his extremities!

Reward Date

Once the girls completed all of their reading assignments for the school year Ray took the girls to Books-A-Million to pick out a few new books as a reward. They were SOOO excited to go and SOOO proud of their accomplishments. They took their time getting ready so that they would look "overly pretty" for Daddy-o. (their words, not mine!!)

This is the results from their "hard work" getting dressed up:

Little Miss Kayla

Miss Kayla loves to dress up and pretend she is a Mommy. This is a picture of her being a Mom in Mommy's shoes. I love this kid!

This is a picture she took of her Mommy Shoes.. she was SO proud!

True Love

This past Monday my Perinatal doctor decided I needed to spend the night in the hospital to monitor my blood pressure. It ended up being fine, but I was thankful to have (at times overly) cautious doctors. We have been blessed to have Christy here with us this week to help with the girls and she stepped right up and helped the girls feel a little better about Mommy and Daddy not being home all night. Ray decided he would come and stay the night with me. Since it was only an overnight stay we were in one of the TINY L&D observation rooms. As a result I had a bed:

... and Ray did not. I don't know if you know very much about this fella of mine, but he is pretty much the most amazing man I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. He is the most thoughtful, understanding, patient, loving husband... and I have somehow been blessed to have found him. Over the past several months he has taken on the role of both parents to try to help me be obedient to the doctor's orders of being on bed rest. He gets up just before 3 in the morning, works from 4am-4pm (IF he gets off on time) and then comes home to cook, clean, do baths and bedtime with the girls, laundry, and grocery shopping. I do not know how he has the energy or strength to do all that he does, but somehow he is managing everything beautifully. He loves his girlfriends with his whole heart and we love him. We are blessed to have him.

Reward Bank

A couple of weeks ago Ray and I implemented a "Reward" system for the girls. We made little reward wallets and give them reward "money" for different things they do throughout the day.. making their beds, being good listeners, not fighting, etc. They loose money for doing things they should NOT do like hurt each other, sass mom or dad, etc. Every 3 days they are allowed to choose a reward out of the "Reward Bank" and pay for it with their reward money. So far it has been VERY effective. We mostly wanted to curb the fighting and disrespect and it has taken a few visits to the reward bank, but they are finally catching on! Now they scope out what they want after they purchase what they have earned and figure out how much money they need to earn over the next 3 days. They very rarely argue any more and it only takes ONE warning about being disrespectful for their attitude and behavior to change for the entire day. I am sure ONE DAY they will learn how to do these things on their own, but for now, I am happy with our plan!

Kayla worked hard to earn a Dino dig egg that had dinosaur bones in it.. She was SO pleased to have Daddy help her build it!

I am not sure why there isn't a picture of Melissa with her first reward, but she worked hard to earn 3 little dinosaur figures. She would take them out each day, check the price, and then count her money to see how much more she needed. Too cute!

Fairy Princess Melissa

Ray and I came home from the hospital the other day to find this... our beautiful Fairy Princess coloring pictures for us. I LOVE her style!

Ouch!

Let's see if YOU can figure out what happened here:

Talent Show

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