Fishin' Frenzy

Notice how the entire family is counter-balancing me?

Thanks to Grandpa Derek & Grandma Nancy we have been enjoying a lot of fishing in the last few weeks. Now that the kids have their own rods they would gladly spend every minute up at Beaver Lake if they could. It is a wonderful spot only about 20 minutes from our house. Grant & Drew have gone up after work many nights just to fish off the dock for an hour before the sun goes down. Drew is the only one of us that has actually caught a fish - and he takes much pride in this!

Drew is also very excited to start grade 1 next week. When did he get so big?!? We have a big back-to-school extravaganza shopping trip to do this week & he's already informed us of everything he needs.

We are now on a 'any minute, official countdown' waiting for baby 3 to make an appearance. Though it really could be another 3 weeks, my doctor seems to think about a week or so. Who knows? I'm betting I'll go overdue just because of all this early talk. Either way, we're excited and as ready as we're every going to be. DK are pretty tired of waiting and they are more than ready. It's funny because they have no idea how this will change their lives!

At Kin Beach. Al (35 weeks), Bobbi (25 weeks...twins!)

Today at 36.5 weeks

A sad goodbye

We said goodbye to our sweet, crazy & loyal Bailey this afternoon, making for a very empty and sad house tonight.

As most people know, Bailey had her first seizure in January & even though the vet promised the worst, we were hopeful when she didn't have another one for six months. Unfortunately, throughout June & July the seizures increased to where she was having one a week - and those are the ones that we know of. Sadly, she could have been having more when we weren't home.

Two nights ago she had the worst one yet and came very close to injuring herself during the episode. If I hadn't been there to move furniture out of her way it would have been terrible. Grant and I were forced to make the horrible decision to put her down & we have been devastated since. We knew she was only going to get worse and we knew it wasn't fair to hang on.

So, this morning the kids and I took her for our biggest walk ever & went swimming with her at the beach. We took a million pictures (that's the one thing I could do), and loved her the longest and best we could.

Of course we loved her, even in spite of her diaper-eating-toilet-water-drinking-face-licking ways. She was with Grant & I before we had kids, she was our fierce protector while Grant was away, and she was a constant tail-thumping presence in our lives for the past 7 years.

Grant had the hardest job of all & he took her in and was with her until the end. Now we are left with a quiet house, an empty blanket at the end of our bed, a lot of dog hair and even more heartbreaking questions from the kids. It's a hard, hard thing to keep it together around them. No one prepares you to parent when you yourself want nothing more than to give up and be taken care of.

A loose tooth, a nesting mama & beach time

We are into our first week of August & already it's been a busy month! We've been to Abby's birthday party out at 'the farm' (Nana, you would have been very proud of DK and their horse expertise! They remembered all the tricks and proudly showed them off to everyone!), we've painted both rooms and canvases (yah! the blue bathroom is officially gone thanks to my sudden & slightly obsessive nesting) and, we've spent all other free time at the beach or riding bikes.

Dad & DK went to camping with the Rennebergs on the long weekend (while I painted myself crazy), and they all came back tanned, tired and full of great stories.

Drew finally has a loose top tooth and is already telling me the tooth fairy is going to leave him $10 for it. Wow. Whatever happened to a dollar?

It's all fun & games until someone gets peed on (yup, she did)

This morning we met Trace, Anton & Tor at the beach as they flew through town on their way to the cabin. Trace is due 5 days before me. They know what they're having but keeping it a secret...hmmm...any bets based on our bellies?

Tor praying for Kai's soul

Drew (grumpy), Al (34 weeks), Trace (35 weeks)