The pics in the car seat on after getting home from a trip to see the midwife.  I let him eat his lunch and snack in the car on the trips to and fro that day.  The other pics our his new little outfit from Aunt Linda on Daddy's last day of school this year.
 
Yesterday was another appointment with the midwife.  All things seem to be going well still, thank the Lord.  We still don’t know whether this little one is going to be a girl or a boy and we’re excited to find out when he or she gets here.  Abe did a great job just playing with the toys in the office and then coming over to pay attention when Mommy got her blood pressure taken and we listened to the baby’s heartbeat.  I’m still measuring a little bit ahead, but now that the baby is head down, I’m only 3 inches instead of 4 inches ahead.  When she started feeling around she said my tummy was pretty tight, like I was maybe having a mini-contraction, which is no big deal, but she really had to push and poke my stomach to feel how the baby was positioned.  After the poking and pinching, I went to sit back up and I am pretty sure I had one real contraction.  Not a big deal, except I wasn’t expecting it and the pain really caught me off guard.  We’re looking forward to seeing this little one face to face.  We just wonder, when will he or she get here?

 

 
When Josh and I were first married a friend loaned us her copies of Financial Peace Revisited and The Total Money Makeover both by Dave Ramsey.  We read much of them in the car on the trip down to Arizona and then finished them up.  I would have highly recommended them then.  We didn’t grow up thinking the same things about money and reading through and talking about the books really helped put us on the same page.  And I’ll highly recommend them now.  We put some of the principles into practice.  We saved our $1000 Emergency Fund and we used the debt snowball.  But we missed some other big things, like actually creating a budget and telling our money what to do instead of relying on my income to “balance the budget” and save for fun things or needed things.  We didn’t realize that our spending habits still weren’t so good.  We didn’t realize how much we would have been helped by creating a budget and sticking to it—even for 3 months to establish a bit more discipline.  So…now we’re going through his materials again.  A friend has led some FPU classes and loaned us the videos and we’re hoping to really get serious about having our money work for us instead of just working for our money.  Neither of us is exceptionally disciplined when it comes to “the little things” like a coke or an humberto’s burrito.  We each have our strengths and weaknesses and hopefully this time around, we’ll get a little better hold of it.  Are you in control of your money or is it in control of you?  I’d highly recommend checking Dave Ramsey out.  You can listen to free podcasts online too.  Visit http://www.daveramsey.com, if you are interested.  I’ll post here shortly on a couple other financial books we are reading as we work through Financial Peace University again and pick up on some of the stuff we missed last time.

 
Last night when it was time for bed, we said "Let's go to bed.  B-E-D."  We said the last part in a chant like fashion and Abe thought it was great.  Each time we stopped he would say "again" and dance around some more.  We probably spent about 10 minutes chanting B-E-D while he danced around
 
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A few of the neighbors down the street were having yard sales today, so we decided to capitalize on it and set out some of our stuff while we worked around the garage and the house.  Abe loves being outside, so it wasn't a problem for him either.  We had a big bucket we'd filled with soapy water while we were washing some things up, but as I saw it sitting outside there (drying) I thought I would refill it so Abe could splash in it.  Well, right away he wanted to climb in.  He kept calling it his pool.  It was the perfect size for one almost 2 year old.  Why do we go through the trouble of the big one?
 
Today was the teacher appreciation thing for the teachers in the school district and Daddy received a pin.  Yes, that means five years already he's been out here in the desert teaching at Fox Creek.  He's enjoyed some days and some classes more than others, but congratulations Daddy for 5 years with the district.
 
I may be married to a slightly older man, and teachers may have often told me I was mature for my age, but to ask if Abe is my grandbaby...really???

We've been going to our church for just over a year and a half now, but besides a few families and a few individuals we haven't really gotten to know many people at all until recently.  There is one older lady we've met a few times though.  She never seems to  remember us.  Today, we were sitting in the back row.  The service hadn't started yet, so Abe was playing around and Josh was off getting something or doing something.  She stopped to say hello (in that "Let's welcome the new person kind of way") and after those few other questions that go along with introductory conversations, she asked me if Abe was my grandbaby.  I don
 
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I haven't really done this before, but I remembered to pull out my camera a few times this week, so I thought I'd do a little week in review post.  

Monday we took a walk with our new stroller.  This is a gift from many of the women at church.   I'm very excited about it.  I haven't really experimented with some of the different things it does, but it was certainly nice for our walk.  And bonus, it was pretty easy to put together.  It even matches our infant seat. 

Once in a while, I'll put down a vinyl tablecloth and we'll have a picnic lunch or snack in the living room.  This obviously isn't with the tablecloth; it is just a banana snack (they all gobble bananas up!), but here are three blond-haired, blue eyed cuties.  

Wednesday and Thursday I subbed up at a couple of the schools.  We didn't have all morning to spend getting the right shot, but I thought Abe looked like such a little ball star with his hoops outfit, bball bag and after the pic he was carrying around his bball too.

And during a shopping trip to Goodwill earlier this week Abe got a new (to him) basketball and an I Spy book.  We've been having fun sitting down looking at the pictures picking out different things he knows.  Today, after looking at the book we made our own little "I Spy" type activity.  Zach and Charlie used to have these cool search and find shaker things, so we attempted to make our own.  I searched the house for small little things last night and we also made a trip to the Dollar Tree this morning.  Once we had all the items assembled, I laid them out on the sheet and took the picture of all the items to find.  We made four that are basically the same, so that Abe and his friends can look and play against each other even.  (I am hoping they will last for years to come, too).  I also plan to do a little checklist on the back side and then laminate them and tie them on with a ribbon, but since we've got  quite a while before they are readers, that got bumped down on my priority list.  After we had it recorded what was going to go in each bottle Abe had a fun time dropping the toys in and then filling them with rice.  As you can tell, my pan underneath didn't quite fulfill its whole purpose of collecting the spilled rice, but luckily it was pretty easy to clean up.  Also, after we switched to the little shovel rather than my stainless steel measuring spoon, Abe had more control over where the rice went.  Now, we'll hot glue them and then put some tape around the outside and hopefully beat boredom with these fun little search bottles.
 
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Scout knows.  Do you?  Why, it is yogurt, of course!  Plain old sour yogurt or if you want, any flavor will do too.
 
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Well, little boys are known for often being dirty and messy and for being little bundles of energy, right?  We always stop Abe when he tries to play with the dirt in the succulent pot, but yesterday when the bougie bed was dripping water, he went to investigate and I didn't stop him...