20 Weeks

By week 20, your baby-to-be is gearing up for the next phase in his development—filling out. His organs are getting into their proper places. His kidneys are now in position with their familiar bean shape. His testes (or ovaries for girls) have reached their position. His brain continues to form and grow. His teeth are beginning to appear, and he can swallow. If you haven't been able to feel him move, chances are you'll be feeling him move more and more over the coming weeks.

Baby is about 10 inches long (crown to heel) and around 10 ounces.

Last Day in Canada

On our last day in Canada, we went out for doughnuts with Oma and Opa,
rode the 5 cent carousel,


and played at the park.

Fun at the Zoo

Dave's parents took us to the zoo yesterday. It's a fairly new one, so we have not been there when we have visited before. We had a fun day!

Jordanna loved the animals. She was way more interested in them than Caleb and Alexa (who just wanted to get to the splash pad). Here she is with Dave looking at an elk.

Alexa took a break from walking to ride in the wagon that we rented to carry all our stuff.
Caleb checking out the animals.
Jordanna swinging while Caleb and Alexa played on the playground.
Finally made it to the splash pad! The water was cold!

Jordanna splashing with Daddy.
Waiting for the tram.
Jordanna cuddling with her new stuffed monkey on the way home.

Thanks, Opa and Oma, for a fun day!

Having Fun in Canada

So, we drove to Canada to visit Dave's parents last week, breaking up the trip into two days. When we were about one state away from home still, Caleb saw an American flag and asked why since he was sure we were in Canada by then. I had to break it to him that we still had ten plus hours of driving before we got to Canada. But we did make it eventually, in time for dinner even. And we've been keeping busy since we got here. Here are some of the things we have been doing.

Swimming in Opa and Oma's pool

Playing in the splash pad


Helping Oma in the kitchen
Playing with wooden shoes

Lack of Bloggage

So, not only have I not been blogging, I haven't even taken pictures this week. The only pictures on the camera were from Caleb opening this present from Alexa on his birthday. He has slept on it every night since.
Friday and Saturday, Dave was gone camping, and I survived while he was gone. Molly came over Friday night and we "watched" Sleepless in Seattle.

Sunday was the usual church and lunch at Molly and Nick's house. It was also Nick's birthday, so Molly made his favorite meal and dessert, and he opened his presents.

Monday was a fairly normal day until about 7:30 p.m. when Molly called to tell me that I get to be "Aunt Emily' because they were chosen to adopt a baby girl in early August. To say that I was excited is a bit of an understatement. I made Dave go up to the attic that night (and again the next night) so that I could start washing baby girl clothes (of which I have a TON) to pass along.

On Tuesday, I had some teacher meetings. I led a seminar on classical education (which I fortunately prepared for ahead of time because I was majorly distracted by baby news on Monday night).

Today I had another teacher meeting. Molly came over to babysit for my kids, and I had almost half of the dining room table covered with baby stuff for her to take home.

And finally, tomorrow we begin our two day drive to visit Dave drive to visit Dave's parents. I'll try to get pictures while we are there.

Birthday Doughnuts

I took the kids out for doughnuts this morning as a fun treat for Caleb's birthday. The big kids both picked a Stars N' Stripes doughnut, and then they split a frozen hot chocolate (yes, that is an oxymoron). Happy 6th Birthday, Caleb!

Caleb's New Toy

Caleb has been having a good time playing his Nintendo DS that we gave him at his birthday party on Saturday. He likes to play it with his headphones on, but it's still not exactly quiet because he sings/hums along to the music.

Wiggily Fun

Our local library has a contest where kids had to write (or in the case of little ones draw) a book report to win different Wiggles prizes. Third prize was a CD, second prize was a book, and first prize was four tickets to go see the Wiggles live. Imagine my surprise when the librarian called to tell Alexa that she had won the tickets!

I never would have bought tickets to something like this myself for two main reasons. 1) My kids like the Wiggles, but they don't LOVE them. We had a good time, but they didn't even know all the songs. 2) I am cheap. The four tickets we won would have cost over $200 total. That doesn't include the $6 we paid for parking or the $12 for snacks. That said, the kids did have a lot of fun, and I'm glad we got the chance to go.

Here we are waiting for the show to begin.


Dancing and clapping.

And making goofy faces.
The Wiggles on stage.
Eating candy.

The Wiggles saying goodbye.

Goofy Girl

Alexa (who will NOT look at the camera these days) spent the morning tromping around the house in her jammies, covered by a hand-me-down pink sweater that she got yesterday, fanning herself with her new fan from her birthday party, and wearing my black sandals. So goofy!

New Haircut and 17 Weeks Belly

Partying

We had Alexa's 4th and Caleb's 6th birthday party yesterday morning. I tried to talk them into a different type of party, perhaps one that was air-conditioned, but they wanted a backyard pool party as always. So that's what we did.

First the kids played in the pool.

Then we had snacks. I made two different kinds of cupcakes and set out 3 colors of icing and lots of sprinkles so that everyone could decorate their own. It was a hit!


Then Caleb and Alexa opened their presents.





Jordanna even got a few presents.
I think she liked this one (a My Little Pony)!
I handed out goody bags to our guests, and we did the pinata. It was a really cool one where the kids pulled out the strings. Once all the strings were out, the bottom was open (although I did have to shake it a little to get the candy out).

Two of the little ones pulling out strings.

Hey! Where's the candy?

Oh, there it is!

The loot, I mean presents.
Then, we just hung out for a little while more.
The end!