A Special Day & The Farwell Family Reunion

Last Tuesday, Ellie got to have her special day. Jackson and Lincoln went to my parents and then Ellie and I headed out to get her hair cut. She only gets it cut about once a year, so she loves to have it done. Then after that we went and had pedicures. She was so excited that they now have a special kitty cat chair for little girls to sit in. She of course chose a sparkly hot pink nail polish. After our pedicures, we picked up Andrew and headed to Colton's for lunch. Then it was off to Wal-Mart for school supplies. She fell in love with something else that was sparkly pink, a Hello Kitty backpack. Not my first choice (I did try to steer her to some that didn't have any characters on them) but I figured she should be allowed to pick out some of the things for herself. We ended our day by going to my OB appointment. I was hoping they would do another ultrasound, but they didn't. Ellie did get to hear the babies heartbeats which she was excited about. I wish I had some taken some pictures throughout the day, but that didn't happen.

Also last week, we had VBS at our church. I helped out with some of the younger kids while Jackson and Ellie both attended. Lincoln got to have some good, quality time with Andrew and I think a lot of that was spent riding his new tractor. He is so entertaining lately. He is a chatterbox, but there is still a lot I don't quite understand. Which can cause some frustration on his part. And he can sometimes be pretty silly. A few times at my parents house, he will find this toy microphone and will run in circles around the house just "singing" into the microphone, again and again and again. And he like to gallop when he runs-so cute. He is also a big helper. He likes to help throw trash away and empty the trash cans. He also likes to sweep and get the dust buster for me to clean up messes. And he loves to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse-the only thing he will watch. He interacts with the show and loves to sing the songs and do the hot dog dance.

So on to the rest of our week, which was attending the Farwell Family Reunion down in Cassville. We left Friday morning and made a quick stop at Cracker Barrell in Columbia because I have been craving chicken and dumplings. They were delicious. We also made a stop at Carters at the Lake since it was tax-free weekend, I had a coupon and they were having some good sales. Then it was on to Cassville. We ended up staying at the house that Andrew's mom grew up in. It has since been sold to a businessman that lives in Cassville and just uses it more as a little get-away rather than a primary residence. He was nice enough to let us stay there. Andrew was so excited to be able to share it with all of us. It was a neat log house on some pretty land. I was a little iffy though (which Andrew knew I would be and he would play into it). Being a single guy who owned the house, I don't think cleaning was up there on his list of things-to-do. When we first got there, I went inside to use the bathroom and there was a grasshopper sitting on the toilet seat. There were a decent amount of cobwebs and dead bugs laying around along with live bugs. I don't think the others noticed them as much-I'm just not a good outdoorsy person. But the part Andrew was most excited about was taking the kids down to Flat Creek on the land. He has many great memories of playing on the creek. The homeowner was very generous and let us use his gator to get down to the creek. Lincoln fell in love with the gator and wanted to ride it all the time. Andrew's parents and uncle and Matthew and Kristin and their kids joined us that night and brought some dinner. Then we all headed down to the creek. Jackson and Ellie were the only ones in their suits, but all the kids ended up in the water. They loved it. Andrew took the kids down the next morning and I joined him a little later, but as they were getting ready to come back to the house. The reunion was Saturday around lunch time and after that we drove around a little bit hoping the kids would fall asleep. We weren't really that successful, so we headed back to the house along with Matthew and Kristin and headed back down to the creek. It was very hot, around 104, but the creek was cool. They all had fun swimming in the creek, walking along it, skipping rocks and swinging on some rope swings someone had put up. I only took pictures the first night we were down there though.


We headed back to Kirksville Sunday morning. I unpacked and started the many loads of laundry while Andrew headed to the office. We had dinner that night at my parents before Lissy headed back to St. Louis. And now we are enjoying the last week before the kids head back to school. We went swimming yesterday but the kids thought the water was cold because it wasn't 100 degrees outside. They also got to have one last sleepover at my parents before school starts. We are going to have some wonderful weather this week and I'm so excited about it. We will be able to get outside and do a little more. I am feeling better and even broke out the mixer yesterday to make some banana cookies. I haven't really baked since the beginning of the pregnancy since I wasn't feeling well. It would probably be better for my pregnancy weight gain if I kept the mixer out of sight though. I am about 17 weeks and feel like I get bigger every day. I have a higher resolution (well higher than what we get with the in-office ultrasound) ultrasound scheduled next Friday and we will hopefully be able to get a better look at the babies and tell what the genders are and if they are identical or fraternal. I am so excited to see them.