We had a wonderful time celebrating soon-to-arrive baby Olivia the last weekend in June. We all tried to finish up the baby registry for Joey and Tasha...I know this baby girl will have everything she needs...and most importantly, lots of love from all her family and friends :)

 Hannah and Vivian had lunch together at the beginning of the party. She drove up for the shower with her dad Lucas and Aunt Amy (my cousins) from NC.

 This is Mark, Tasha's dad, with his girlfriend Lynn and his mom.

 Babies everywhere!

 I threw the shower together with Tasha's friend Kara. We decided to do a color-specific dessert table...of course, pink!

 This is Tasha's cousin Magen and her son.

 Gramme crocheted another blanket for her grandbaby!

 Hank finally woke up at the very end of the shower to say hello to everyone.

I gave the girls their first-ever chore with a monetary reward. I told them they could get a penny for every stick they picked up and put in their pile. It was amazing how many sticks they got and how focused they stayed on the task. They spent most of the time during the shower doing this. Everyone there will not soon forget the havoc that occurred when Kate's pile was accidentally tampered with...!!

What a great afternoon together. The end was so relaxing and enjoyable for all of us. Many stuck around for a while afterwards. Lucas and Hannah and Amy stayed for dinner that night, and Hannah stayed to spend the night! 

We are excited to meet Olivia in about a month!

 I was so encouraged by the effort that the people at the Omelet Shoppe gave to make it special for her.

My dad had breakfast there that morning and just mentioned to them that we would be coming for a birthday lunch.

 They had fresh flowers on the table, got a 5 candle for her cake, played the birthday song on the jukebox while we were eating, and put a birthday wish on the sign for her! 

It needs to be the new birthday hot spot.

 We ran to Walmart quickly before meeting everyone to get a few party things and an ice cream cake.

 Uncle Joey proudly wore a birthday hat again this year :) He loves his nieces.

 Opening presents!

 Vivian played this game and won! We couldn't believe it!

Happy birthday, sweet girl!

 A few weeks ago I took the girls to Splash Valley one morning. Sweet time of watching them play in the water. The thing that I want to remember about that morning is that I really enjoyed noticing how they wanted to stick together the whole time. They always looked for each other and tried to stay close. I know there will be ups and downs in this regard but I am thankful for this season of closeness and dependence on one another.

 One day I had to get something fixed on the car that took several hours and got this picture of Kate sitting alone in the corner of the waiting room looking at a book. She is really starting to be more interested in books and picking out words lately.

 Snoozing on the car trip to Tennessee.

 Same car trip!

 Watering the tree that they planted with Aaron.

 This one gets dressed for bedtime and says, "Hi, I'm a rockstar!"

 They make for good grocery shopping buddies.

I took this picture of a page of Charlotte's Web. Vivian and I read this together for a few weeks in the evenings after Kate went to bed and it will be a dear memory for me. She is so attentive to what we read and can recall every little detail, and of course the story of Charlotte's Web is a precious one. I'll just admit freely that I cried when Charlotte died. I mean straight up sobbing. Vivian was so confused and said, "Mommy! It's just a book!" Ha! If you haven't read it, or it's been a long time, you should read it! The underlying themes of friendship and humility and servanthood and honoring another over oneself are really profound. V read this page by herself...she is progressing well with reading but of course still would rather be read to and just follow along. Most of the time I will read but she follows with me, and can read the next word if I pause. Just to clarify though...she needed help with about 4 or 5 of the words here. I know that reading chapter books with my kids is going to be one of my favorite things to do with them!
We stayed up a little late one night soon after finishing the book so that the kids could watch the latest Charlotte's Web movie. Popcorn, ice cream, blankets, the whole works. We all enjoyed it :)

Next time you are here for a playdate, let's get these out for the kids!

We went with Andrew and Lauren and saw some hilarious people having fun during the show...good memories :) 

It was a pretty busy week with VBS but I was grateful for some time with Aaron. 

This boy loves making a mess.

And he looks so cute doing it so it doesn't bother me much.

Although he is starting to drop food on the floor on purpose so he can watch it fall! We'll work on that. :)

 These are my favorite lunch dates.
This picture was taken with my phone back at the end of May. 

We are thankful for these warm days when we can eat lunch outside. 

To love about this picture:

H is still in his pjs.

It's better to eat lunch as a Minnie Mouse bride.

H and I ate that whole sleeve of Ritz crackers between the two of us.

They love to make shapes out of their PB&Js, but they eat the leftover outside anyway.

It would be awesome for some of our kids to learn to play well. 

Kate is insistent on learning guitar instead!

 This is how I was able to get him to go to sleep on the plane, bouncing him on my leg face down :)

 I was glad to get rid of that cup because it was starting to look gross in there.

 Go Stephanie! So glad you're doing this and not me! haha

Her assistant, Judy.

Yes, this is what unity in our church looks like. :)

Now we are just waiting for the butterflies to emerge!