#4 Gender Reveal

 Eli and Micah (especially Micah) have been so curious about this new baby. They have asked a lot of questions and were hoping for a new baby sister. We decided to invite them to the ultrasound that could reveal the baby's gender. I was really hoping Baby would cooperate, but had a bad feeling going into the ultrasound that s/he may not.

As we expected, Micah and Eli were fascinated by the pictures of the baby moving inside my tummy.

 They had lots of questions about what they were seeing on screen.  It took a while for the ultrasound tech to get some good pictures because Baby was tucked in a little ball in one small part of my uterus--even though s/he had plenty of room to move around. (My bad feeling was getting worse and I reminded Eli and Micah that we can't make the baby move, so we may have a surprise baby.)

Finally, Baby uncurled and stretched out.

The tech got the pictures and measurements she needed. All looked healthy and well with Baby, then came the news we had been waiting for....

(Micah is on the left and Eli on the right.)

Even though they weren't thrilled at the time with the idea of having another brother, and it took some correcting gender pronouns for a while, Eli and Micah are now really excited for Joshua to have a buddy. They think it's great that Joshua will have a friend sleeping in his room just like they get to share a room. They also have been really active in our discussions on baby names. While we won't name this baby "Yoda" (sorry Eli) they have had some other great suggestions and readily offer their opinions.

I love June!

I don't know who is more excited about summer starting--Paul, me, or the boys. Either way, we always enjoy June and July. Typically, we spend most of June at home, (with Paul working summer school in the mornings) so we have a lot of time to play, explore, and catch up on some projects that were overlooked during the busy school year. Here are some of my favorite pictures of this June.

Eli (left) and Micah (right) took an extra bubbly bath in my tub...and made "Princess Leia" hair with the bubbles.

Every day Micah says to me, "Let's do a craft." On one morning, we looked through some of the crafts on my Pinterest page and found this one. The boys loved it--and it was something they all could do together!

 Joshua "helped" Paul make cookies and stole a lick of the batter before the cookies hit the oven. Silly boy!

 One evening, Paul suggested we go outside and enjoy the rain coming down. We did, and when it started to hail, Eli and Micah just had to go out and pick some up!

 Joshua loves water! He loves being wet and splashing in any water he sees, so he wasn't content to watch the rain for long without getting in it! (This was before the hail.)

We have had a plethora of slugs this year. The boys love to watch them and play with them. Eli was so proud to show me this particularly large one.

 Again this year, we braved the Texas heat to go pick blueberries. The boys are always such troopers and really do a great job finding the ripest berries.

 Joshua ate more than he put in our bucket. :-)

 Micah and Momma

One of the best things about June for our family is celebrating Paul both on Father's Day and his birthday.  On Father's Day, the boys made him a "What We Love About Daddy" book. It was full of pictures each boy drew about things they love to do with Paul and I wrote the captions for them. It's fun to see what they appreciate about him and the time he spends with them.

 Everyone was excited when Paul chose to grill Salmon for his Father's Day dinner. Paul's Salmon is our favorite family meal and the boys love to use the grill. 

 For his birthday, I made Paul this t-shirt to wear to Cross Country practice. Maybe his students won't ask him this question again this year. ;-)

We are so blessed to have Paul. He works hard and plays hard. He balances studying God's word, family, work and serving others all year long. He's often tired at the end of the day, but finds energy to wrestle and have light saber battles with our boys. Happy Father's Day and Happy Birthday, Paul! We love you!