Boy, oh boy!

We're getting a baby brother!! 

I am surprised -- much more than I should be, considering I had no real way of knowing -- and we are all thrilled. It feels good to say "he" and "brother" instead of just "baby" and Mitch and I are already narrowing down names.

Our ultrasound pictures are still a little scary-looking since baby boy doesn't have any fat yet. He has a lovely little skeleton though! We saw ten tiny toes and little balled-up fists that he kept punching himself in the face with. 

All his measurements looked good and he's already measuring a week ahead. If he's going to be like Julian, we'll expect that number to increase every appointment until we have a monster baby. :)

Pardon the intrusion, son.

 Yikes! We couldn't stop laughing at this one and coming up with all the different things he looked like. Sorry little guy!

Guess Who?

Only one more day until we find out who our little tie-breaker is. I'm like a kid waiting for Christmas. I'm so excited to hear "boy" or "girl" and get to know our new baby a little bit more. Plus, I think the kids will understand better after knowing if we're getting a brother or sister.

Everyone has their guesses, so we'll see early Monday morning...

We took our first trip to the apple orchard this weekend. I say first because I know we'll have to go back at least one more time before the end of fall. The kids loved it and I got some Honeycrisp apples. Win/win.

 Didn't quite get the idea here...

 Figuring out how it works...

 Looks like it's naptime...

Julian started preschool and loves it. He has made new friends and his favorite part is "gym class". He had his turn for show & tell on Friday and was so proud to bring in his real bowling pin to show the kids. His teacher said he did a great job talking in front of the class and segued from bowling to skee-ball to hotels and waterparks.

Evie wanted her picture taken the first day of school too. She is loving our Mommy-Evie mornings and when we're not out getting stuff done, she wants to either wash dishes or cuddle on the couch together. I try to get things done around the house, but boy is it hard to turn that down!

  

Be back tomorrow with the results of our ultrasound!!

I'm losing my mind.

 "Pregnancy brain" + "Mommy brain" =  Nothing left for everyday remedial tasks.

Last week, I put Evie's shoes on the wrong feet...three times. In one day.

Zoo Self-Portrait

Then, after dropping Julian off at vacation bible school, I was letting Evie play in the van while Amanda and I chatted in the parking lot. I knew she was messing with all the buttons and controls, but was just happy she was keeping herself busy. When we were ready to leave, I strapped her in and closed the door. Yep, you guessed it, the doors were locked...with Evie inside (along with my phone and keys).

Just a mere day later, I left my camera in the church pew after the VBS parents' show. That made for a nerve-wracking couple of days.

Julian and Cam singing on stage together

I'd better just stay home as much as possible unless I can bring someone with a fully-functioning brain along with me. (Also, I should mention that due to said missing camera and brain, these pictures are from my phone and have nothing to do with any of this.)

 Some out-of-the-blue exciting news coming up: Julian will be starting preschool this week! We had no plans to send him originally, but VBS planted the seed.

I was pretty nervous dropping him off that first day of bible school since I've never left him anywhere other than with family. I watched his shy, nervous little smile as I got him settled in with his class, and asked if he was worried. He just looked at me with a brave grin and said "nope!" In fact, he might have told me to get the heck out of there if he wasn't so sweet. So I tore myself away, glancing back every two steps to make sure he wasn't changing his mind. (I might have teared up in the car on the way home. Don't bother asking Evie, she's sworn to secrecy.)

But after the initial heart-tugging subsided, Evie and I had the best morning together. It really made me realize how little she gets to choose the activities she wants to do and have my undivided attention. We loved our quiet girls' morning and when we went to pick Julian up, he was sad to leave and couldn't wait to go back. I had him signed up for preschool by the next afternoon! He has been asking when he gets to go every day since.

And now for some pictures of random fun stuff lately:

Feeding Baby Ellie (or as Evie calls her "Baby Ana")

Create-your-own pasta, followed by make-your-own ice cream sandwiches. Very messy. Very fun. 
(Also as it turns out, a handy trick for getting the kids to eat a bunch of veggies!)

Egg smashing! Yeah, I still had colored eggs from April.

Hot air balloons! We chased balloons any time we could while the World Championships were in town. It was so cool to see so many so often, and lots up close. We got to see an amazing launch of over 100 balloons at one time!

Balloons and a train? Jackpot.

Carnie rides at the fair

Backyard bonfire and camp out (with Mimi of course)

She likes marshmallows, what a surprise!

Special kid date nights: On Julian's date night with Mommy & Daddy, he got to eat a doughnut while going through the car wash. If you know this kid, you'll know that's pretty much the ultimate.