Memorial Day Weekend Fun!

Happy Memorial Day, everyone! I hope that everyone had a wonderful time together. We had a great long weekend together as a family! We started off the weekend by spending Friday night at the Kane County Cougars game. Many of my students and their families were there, as it was the game celebrating the Ozzie Reading Club initiative. We had a great time, although Taylor was more interested in running up and down the hill on the side of the field than she was the actual game. She was also very, very upset with the men who were sitting next to us, because they put their peanut shells on the ground. She kept saying "oh no, somebody was not nice!" and talked about it the whole way home! In the car, she kept saying "I am so upset about the crumbs!" and "I will get the black broom and sweep it all up!". Gee, I wonder where she gets that from?!? 

On Saturday and Sunday, Sam was sick, so we spent the day in the kiddie pool in the backyard. On Monday, we went to our neighbor's house for a BBQ, which was a lot of fun! All of the kids played together so well. Our neighbors have a chicken coop in the backyard, which was the highlight of the party for Taylor! She was very brave going in there and picking up the chickens! 

At the Cougars game! 

Family pic

Yup, that's my husband...

In the chicken coop!

 Looking at her favorite chicken

She was very brave and picked this one up all by herself!

Making music with the neighborhood kids

It's a Girl!!

We are very excited to announce that baby #2 is a girl!! We had a 19 week ultrasound last Monday, May 14th. We are very excited, and very surprised, as we both thought that it would be a boy! Taylor is so happy to be having a little sister. She yelled "I'm having a sister!" to everyone who walked into the waiting room! We can't wait to start deciding on girl names, and decorating her room!

Baby was moving around quite a bit in the ultrasound. She even open her hand and waved to us! Her development looks great. She does have a mild pyelectasis, which is a slight dilation of the kidneys. However, with the rest of her development looking right on target, doctors aren't too worried about it, so we are trying not to be either. Apparently, in most cases, it corrects itself before birth. We will continue to monitor with ultrasounds. So, the good thing about that is that there will be many more ultrasound pictures to post in the near future!

Her due date hasn't changed, so we are anticipating our little girl's arrival on or around October 9th! 

Learning about the Life Cycle!

For the last couple of weeks, we've been housing caterpillars and watching them in their transformation into butterflies. Taylor has been witnessing her small caterpillars go into their chrysalis, and then come out as beautiful butterflies! It has been very exciting for her! She checked on them every day. She kissed them when they were in their small jar, and hugged them when they were in their large net. 

We finally let them go today, as they were becoming crowded in their net. They also were practicing some inappropriate behavior... yes, they were attempting to start the life cycle all over again! We felt that that should be a lesson for when Taylor is a little bit older! In fact, when we let the butterflies go, two of them were physically "engaged" and would not come out of their net! We even took them out of the net, but they were attached to each other and wouldn't budge! Good thing she is too young to ask us any questions about it! 

 Admiring her new caterpillars!

 This is where Taylor decided that the caterpillars should live! 

 They're getting bigger!

 In their chrysalis! 

 Waking up to find some beautiful, fluttering butterflies! 

 Watching the butterflies fly around! 

 Releasing the butterflies! 

 Taylor and her buddy, Gianna! 

 Being very brave and trying to pick them up! 

 Gianna was successful! 

Goodbye, butterflies!