Sweet August!

August is gone, and I realize I haven't posted in a long, long time.  Our past few weeks have been busy with preparing for #2 and living every day life.  Because this little blog has primarily had the purpose of being a place of sharing with our close friends and family about what is going on in our lives, I rarely share what is heavy on our hearts.  I prefer to keep things light and  am always wanting to protect our family, right down to the horrible cat.  I firmly believe that once something is out on the Internet, it can't be undone.  Social media, even little family blogs that "seem" tucked away, can be damaging.  Oh, how I wish more of our youth (and adults) understood this!  I digress! 

The point I am trying to make is that please don't ever think that what you see happening here is always our everyday!  We face real struggles!  (First world, YES, but struggles to us!)  Over the next few months, we will make some key decisions that will impact the girls and all of us (even Cat!) over the next few years.  All along the way, we are so, so praying for the slightest wink from God and trying to remember that His plan is much, much better than any plan this super planner, controlling Momma can begin to contrive.

So while I think I wondered around praying and thinking in a fog for most of the month, we did get a few pictures and a few moments of savoring this sweet season of life!

*  DM started dance.  It was a rough start, as transition to the unknown is hard, but she is warming up to it.

Really not so sure on the first day!

 

But we did survive and even got a sticker!

 

By the second week, we were almost smiling leaving class.

*DM moved up to a new class at school.  The morning drop-offs have brought many tears as she tries to transition to her big girl room, but they quickly disappear!  She has also moved out of the nursery at church and on to Kidz Zone. 

* With all the rain, our pools have remained a bit chilly so we've swam very little this summer.  We've had LOTS of park play dates instead.

 

 



 

* Football season is here!  We may find ourselves grateful to have the baby to distract us from it in the end, but for now, there is no telling DM that UGA is off to a rocky start!

 

* And #2 is 3 weeks away from being dismissed by the perinatal specialist!  In the end, I have loved going.  The appointments are always quite efficient, and anyone who knows me can guess how much waiting on a doctor annoys me.  I never wait more than 10 minutes to see the doctor, have always received very thorough, scientific explanations and every statistic has been broken down to how it can be applied to our situation.  

 

A Baby Boy or Girl?

Several weeks ago David and I had a special date night!  Our date was the evening of one of the first days that we could get an accurate ultrasound indicating the sex of #2!  We had an early evening ultrasound to get the baby's sex and then headed to dinner in downtown Roswell to celebrate our little surprise!  Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures that night, but we had a great time.

We then kept our mouths shut for two weeks until we could get our parents together to tell them!  On July 3rd, we finally had all the grandparents in one house, which happens about every couple years!

 

AND . . .

 



This will make the fourth girl in my family and the third in David's family!  Yeah, PINK!

Due to some early (minor but stressful to us) complications, I get to visit every week via ultrasound with this little love for the next few weeks and bring Dad weekly photo updates!  And oh, how she has had so many prayers and positive thoughts sent her way over the past few weeks.  She is already so blessed!



Grandma and Grandpa Come to Visit!

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit for the week of the 4th!  Like most of Georgia, the constant rain put a damper on our July 4th week so we made do with lots of indoor activities, including an outing to the ever-reliable aquarium and Johnny Rockets!  DM had so much fun watching the fish with Grandma and Grandpa.  I think she would have sat in the observation room all day if we'd let her! 

 

We worked on our letters and numbers on the juke box at Johnny Rockets afterwards!

Grandma is a much more patient painter than me, so we enlisted her help to start working on DM's big girl room!  She is so, so good to DM.  Even let her "paint" with her! 
(Yep, it is white; I currently want to paint the entire house white!)

The rain broke just long enough on the 4th for us to go to the parade!

  This was DM's first parade.  In typical fashion, she just watched and observed everything!

We met up with Mimi and Papa to watch a Gwinnett Braves game.  Again, this was a first so there was so, so much to take in!

We finished the week with some flag art, which reminded me I am many years removed from my teaching days, as our hand prints didn't exactly end up in rows or even as complete hand prints.  Oh, well!

 

It was wet, but it was a Happy 4th and a happy week with Grandma and Grandpa!

DM's Big News!

Our family is growing, and it is not the second golden that I've been asking for for the past two years!  DM will be a big sister in early December!  Now that the shock has worn off, the excitement is growing.  It has been strange, as we are surrounded by so many, who for one reason or another can't have children, and we have been blessed by this little mini-surprise. 

Now yes, we both realize what causes children.  :) But after being told by one of my doctors that this could take a while, we were beyond surprised about our little mini-surprise!  As cliché has it sounds, this little one is definitely on His timing.  The pregnancy has been interesting to say the least.  This sweet little peanut is being watched after by so many doctors, and so far, so good!  

Santa Rosa in May

I don't think I have ever spent much time at the beach in May, but about February when I realized we didn't have time to get to the mountains for a break, I started digging through our calendar and found the first available week for us to get out of town in the spring.  That week wasn't until May! 

David and I both worked a lot leading up to our little trip to Santa Rosa so we were just happy to get the 3 of us there alive and only forget a few things.  After all, do you really need anything else at the beach besides your swimsuit?  We had so much fun and rested and played for days!  Mimi joined us for a few days, which DM loved!  The beach was so quiet and the Gulf water was the clearest water I have ever seen, even in my (so few) worldly travels! 

 

 

Visit here for more pictures!

May . . . Where did you go?

May has flown by! Like most of Atlanta, we have spent a lot of time indoors due to the rain that WILL NOT STOP!  We have watched more movies and gone to more "indoor" venues like the aquarium than we care to count, but we have had fun!  And we have eaten!

 

 

I think we celebrated Mother's Day all week!  DM's class put on a sweet music program with coffee and pastries and hosted a little "Mom and me" craft time.  I had a blast!

 My Grandpa Darsey preferred to worship the Lord from outside, in nature, and I thought of him as soon as my eyes opened Mother's Day morning.   After David let me sleep in a bit, I awoke to notice what looked like sunshine shining through the closed blinds.  Finally, a sunny day, and I didn't want to spend it cooped up in a sanctuary, as wonderful as the service was sure to be.  I popped right out of bed, called the strawberry farm to make sure they had berries left and told David I wanted to head to the mountains for Mother's Day.  Don't think it was what he was expecting, but he worked with me.  We had the best day picking strawberries, even saw some friends from school at the farm and had a late lunch in Ellijay.  It was a sweet, sweet day!

 



Happy Birthday, Daddy!

David kicked off his birthday by taking DM out to breakfast before heading out to play golf.

In the afternoon we played outside for a while, before enjoying David's bday dinner, which the poor guy had to cook himself!

Since birthday budgets are tight around here, DM and I made his gift. 

We gave him a jar full of 36 reasons why we love him (and cupcakes)!

And probably David's favorite gift was a set of passes to opening day at the Masters!
It was SO much fun!



Happy Birthday, Daddy!  We love you!