Loose tooth and camping trip....

Ryan is excited to announce that he has his first loose tooth. He will probably be starting school in 3 weeks missing his first tooth. (He is already asking if the Tooth Fairy is real.) *Ü*

Other than that exciting news, we are home from our adventurous camping trip and finally settling back in! The laundry is all done and we are now able to get some good quality sleep! Except for Hannah having a hard time sleeping in the tent, we had a great time. There were 7 families that came with us and Hannah was the youngest of all the kids. I was very grateful that everyone was so forgiving in the morning. I can only imagine what they were all thinking with her fussing much of the night!

Here are some photo highlights of our trip...

This is a group photo of all of the families that went on the trip with us.

Ryan with a silly grin.

They really do love each other!

Hannah's favorite part of camping was playing in the dirt.

We went to a really fun water park which was a life saver since it was soooo hot!

Check out this play equipment. It was one big water playground!

Hannah was strutting her stuff in the kiddie pool.Hannah really enjoyed her Slushie. (I think she played with it more than she drank it!)

Ryan's Swim Lessons

Ryan started swim lessons last week. Unfortunately we had to miss a couple of days because he was sick, but he was back in the water this afternoon and loving it! I took a few photos of him with his swim teacher and the other boys in his class. With only 3 lessons under his belt, he is already willing to get in the water by himself and put his face in to blow bubbles. (I know it doesn't sound like much, but those are two things I thought would never happen.) He isn't as adventurous as the other kids, but I am THRILLED that he is making progress on his own level.
Here are a couple of photos of Hannah while she watched Ryan swim. We both really wanted to get in the water with him. It is almost 100 degrees today!

4th of July

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I have been meaning to post a few photos from the 4th of July but never got around to it. Ryan was sick on and off for a week and a half, so he has been keeping me on my toes. (His temperature got as high as 104.5 at one point.) He is back to his old self now and doing great!

Ryan went to work with Andy on the 4th of July and they didn't get home until 7pm so they missed a lot of the fun. (Hence no photos of the boys.) We always have a big block party on major holidays with the 4th being no exception. We had a water slide and a snow cone machine along with our annual bike parade and fireworks. We had a blast, but were sad that Andy and Ryan missed most of it. At least they made it home in time to see the fireworks. *Ü*

Isn't she sweet?

Here are all of the kids on the block lined up for the bike parade.

Hannah with our neighbor MacKenzie.Hannah is doing great peddling her little tricycle.

Praise God!

I wasn't going to post this, but I am just so overjoyed at how good God is and wanted to share my praise for Him with you all! Without going into too many details, I am going in for a type of surgery called a hysteroscopy in a few weeks. (Once I know the exact date I will let you know. I am a bit nervous and could really use the prayers.) I have been diagnosed with a bicornuate uterus, a cyst on my left ovary, a thickened endometrium (sp?), possible complications from prior hemorrhage, possible polyps, and a host of other things. My hormone levels are showing that I am post menopausal, which is 100% not true. (I actually wish it was true.) They cannot figure out what is going on, so they are going to do some surgery to see what they can find. They will be doing a biopsy at the same time to rule out cancer.

The reason that I am happy is because over the past few weeks I have had a number of people including medical doctors, nurses, ultrasound techs, and others tell me that, medically speaking, I was lucky to be able to 1. get pregnant, 2. be able to remain pregnant, and 3. deliver both of my children alive. Apparently someone with my "birth defects" as I read on one website, has a very low chance of getting pregnant at all. Then once pregnant, it would have been likely that I would have miscarried anytime during my pregnancy. I am praising our AWESOME Lord because it was not luck that I had no problems getting pregnant either time, carried them both to (almost) full term, and they were both born perfectly healthy! God's hands were all over me and our precious little ones! Every child is a miracle, but for me, Ryan and Hannah will always be a reminder of just how amazing our God is and that he is still in the business of performing miracles. It has been my dream since I was a little girl to marry a wonderful man and to have two children (one boy and one girl.) The Lord, knowing the desires of my heart, blessed me with both!

I will keep you posted on my surgery date and the findings, but in the meantime please share in the joy, grace, and blessings of our wondrous God! He is sooo good! *Ü*

Edited to add: My surgery date is scheduled for Friday, August 7th at 7am.