Happy Birthday to me...

Paul put together a wonderful dinner last night with some of our friends at a local Japanese restaurant to celebrate my birthday. I really hate "big deals" in my honor with people looking at me and all that, but I had a wonderful time! It was nice to be with a large group of adults with out having to chase kids and deal with melt-downs! We need to have more grown-up only dinners!Cory & JenniferLindsay & BrentDanielle & BenMichael & JamieErnie & AnastasiaBaris & SusanJen catching riceJeez, I really hate this crap!Me & Jamie
The Girls!

BOY oh BOY!!!

Not only am I finally announcing my pregnancy... but I am also pleased to announce that Molly will have a little brother this summer! I am 16 weeks and my due date is July 31st/August1st

I had my amniocentesis this morning and everything went very well. Paul and I were nervous to return to the same office where we received so much bad news with Julia's pregnancy, but today was very different. Everything looks great and we saw BOY PARTS! Paul still wants to wait for final confirmation when we get the amnio results back in two weeks, but I really hope it's a boy otherwise our little girl is growing some sort of tail in the front.

Once again, I was able to throw out my favorite phrase "I told you so!" I've suspected I was carrying a boy since I was about 6 weeks pregnant because both girls made me so sick - although I've been exhausted, I've felt great this entire pregnancy.

We've been kicking around names for several months but Paul wants to wait on making a final selection until we're 100% sure it's a boy.

Little Boy QuinSweet little profile with the same cute nose as his sisters!
You be the judge - boy parts, right? Perfect little handAnother prefect hand making a little fist (elbow almost touching knee)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Whew... it's 4pm and we're home from a jam-packed Valentine's Day. This morning Molly had her second soccer game at 10am. Today she wasn't really into playing, she preferred to sit on the sidelines, pick grass and watch her friends. She played the first half of the game and luckily in the second half we had a lot of eager little kids ready to take Molly's place on the field. (Our team won today, 4 to 2.)Molly cheering for her team from the sidelinesTypical girls... instead of watching the game they play with each other's hair... And act like total goof-balls!

After the soccer game Paul took his girls to a local tea room for lunch. A year ago Danielle and I took Molly and Caden to the same place for Valentine's Lunch. They bring out a tiny little tea cup and cute little china tea pot full of pink lemonade for each kid. It is too cute! (Please remind me next year that Daddy gets Valentine's lunch at a manly Texas steakhouse!)
After tea we headed to Kiera's 5th birthday party at a paint-your-own-pottery place. While the kids had fun painting, the moms were busy planning a girl's night out at the same location! Look forward to pictures from that outting one day soon!

Birthday Girl, Kiera
After the painting party, Kiera's mommy planned a balloon parade to the neighborhood park next door! What a cute idea!!Gunnar giggling with delight as he plays with the big boysCheck out Natalie's new 'do! LOVE IT!Happy Valentine's Day!

First Soccer Game

Molly had her first soccer game last Saturday and LOVED it. She did a great job of keeping up with the pack, but for the most part she got aggravated that the other kids wouldn't give her a turn. Here she is trying to tell the coach that Kendall won't share.

Do you see Molly off to the left of the soccer goal? She spent about 5 minutes flipping her braids around... I don't know if she is planning to use them as a secret weapon or what... but that was how she spent a good portion of one quarter. Some snuggles with Daddy after her first game (Our team 1, other team 4)

It Was Bound To Happen

Tonight Molly went for a bike ride... the roads were a little slick and when she went to stop she lost control and took her first true knee-skinning fall off the bike. She was a trooper and road her bike back to the house to get patched up (we were only about 5 houses away.) As soon as she was all cleaned up and calmed down we continued our walk, except she decided to go on foot and leave her bike parked in the garage.

Boo-Boo Kitty and magic spray (dermoplast) always make it all better!