8 days to go...

Before baby # 3 is Due! But that might not mean anything, as I was a week over with both our girls and then induced. We'll see with this one.

It's fun to see the girls somewhat understand that there's a baby in mommy's tummy. Briana comes up to my tummy and says in a sweet little voice "hi baby" with pats on my belly or kisses. Alayna too, even more so will do the same. Briana also goes to the infant car seat we have ready and says "hi baby". They're a fun age right now, but definitely challenging ~ as with all st-ages!

Alayna told me recently, on several occasions "I love my baby" and when I asked "which one?" she says "the baby in mommy's tummy!" 99% of the time, Alayna says it's a girl. And when I asked her what her name was, she said "Moses". Hmm! Not quite the name we picked for a girl.

Not brave enough to post a pix of me at 9 months...So you'll just have to imagine how big I really am! We'll keep you posted as best as possible.

Playing opposites already?

As I was driving around town on errands the last few days with the girls, Briana yells out "apple". I assumed she was seeing all the pumpkins around our neighborhood and other random places ~ so I responded "pumpkin". Well, she kept repeating "apple, apple, apple" and I kept repeating pumpkin. Finally I decided to say apple. And when I did, she then said "punkin".

What a little pumpkin!

Beauty Shop

Yes, Briana's hair is slowly growing. It seems Alayna has heard Scott and me comment about it more than once on how long it's getting. She told me right before I took these shots "Momma, Bonna's hair is getting long" as she had opportunity to "comb" it. Surprisingly, Briana allowed her to ~ for a short time.

A little clip of Alayna in action!

Alayna's 3rd Birthday

Our little girl is growing up! 3 years old already! We had a little birthday party Sunday night before we left for our camping trip in the morning. With that being said, mom didn't bake a cake...but the store bought cupcakes went over great in a pinch.

She had no problem helping herself and digging in.

Although this pix is a little blurry, I love both of their expressions

~ especially Briana's






Below is a video of her "Happy Birthday" song... If you can stand to hear the two sorry voices singing it. It's a little over 1 minute long so you might get bored. Hopefully Grandmas will enjoy it. Briana watched on with delight and did very well sitting taking it all in. We think Alayna sucked in the candle flames instead of blowing them out as there was a delay after she blew on them !?!?

Miscellaneous

Behind again, but thought to get some different pix up here. They're a little older, but wanted to put them on anyway.

I have a bunch of things to post as we've been keeping busy the last few months.

~ Alayna's 3rd Birthday

~ camping

~ growing kids and tummy

~ misc

4 weeks and 3 days to go until baby #3 ~ getting that nesting syndrome right now and want to clean out and organize EVERYTHING!!!!

Thankful everyone is healthy... God bless!

After laying Alayna down for a nap, I walked in her room to get something and saw her reading a book. After noticing she didn't stir from me coming in, I took and closer look...

... and found she fell asleep holding her book upside-down!




One thing daddy loves to do is put his little girlies up on Mr. Elk for a "ride"

I get a little nervous when he puts both of them up there at the same time.

He actually took them down fairly quickly, as he mentioned it might be too

much for both of them to be up there.

Caught Briana with a babydoll's pacifier in her mouth.

She was pretty possessive of it too.

My little helpers. They love the vacuum.

Alayna teaching Briana how to cook and stir food.

Once I brought up the play kitchen from the basement,
they seem to play with it a lot more

Briana trying to talk on the phone, cook and taste test all at the same time.
I wonder where she gets that from.

She keeps busy, that's for sure


A few videos below... Hopefully you can open them. The first is catching Alayna "reading" out loud from a little Bible. However, it didn't last too long as she caught me recording her and she wanted to "see".


The second is of Briana "cooking" and talking on the phone saying "hi" to grandma. These videos are some months old. Oh well, I try to capture some things, but still try to enjoy them and the special moments with them.

I couldn't get the second one to upload. Maybe I'll try another time.

My Sister Joy's Wedding - June 2010

It was a wonderful and blessed weekend for Art and Joy as they were united in marriage. So thankful all went well. But now, she's twice as far as before :( but we're thankful God had a wonderful plan for her and Art ~ and we're soo happy for them.




We drove to Peoria on Friday and stayed in a hotel before heading up to Princeville, Saturday morning for pictures. The girls love the pool and we enjoyed a good night sleep before a jam-packed weekend.

She loves the water

But they didn't move around enough to stay warm... Can you tell?

They graduated to new carseats, and this

was their first road~trip trying them out.

Alayna just loves her new carseat and kept telling us

However she is alot lower than she was, so looking out the window

is not as easy ~ but she'll get there soon enough!

Briana seemed to adjust just fine~she loves looking out the window

and pointing a lot of things out

~~ Some wedding picture snapshots ~~

Us 7 kids ~ from oldest to youngest (L~R)

Sam, Joy, Grace, Mark, Philip, Me & Faith

All the nephews and nieces with Art & Joy

I was pleased the way this turned out ~ considering 12 children

We missed having Skyler (Sam & Sherri's) with us

My Uncle Sam (my mom's twin) made it out from AZ

These 2 little cousins are 6 months apart. Kaitlyn is Philip and Donna's.

Also, Jadon their 6 month old is right behind her.

~~ Some pictures of the reception ~~

There's the happy couple!

My 2 sisters (Faith and Grace) worked the cake table with me

Grace and baby Seylah (Sam & Sherri's) 2 1/2 months old

She has more hair than Briana does at 14 months old

Alayna is becoming quite the smilier

Thankful Dad & Mom Schambach came and helped out with

our 2 girls ~ Thanks again for all you did!

I just love this genuine smile of hers

(Uncle Sam & Dad Schambach)


Faith and me



Christy (Faith's best friend) and Faith

My little helpers...

...Um, part of the time ~ at least as far as Alayna is concerned. Now, Briana...just exploring and, well... in training!?!

Alayna is actually a pretty good helper, when she is willing. She does like to set my table with plates, cups and silverware...and does a pretty good job for a 2 year old. She knows where things are placed for the most part. She loves to find stuff for me and will go around looking for things too that we're "missing" or lost, following with a phase like "Nayna find it". She's rather proud and excited when she does find stuff. Last night, her and Briana helped pick up puzzle pieces and put them in the box. Briana is in that stage now where she likes to put things in purses, bags, boxes or whatever. They really worked together. It was neat to see.

The dw and Briana is like what honey is to bees.
It sends her coming every time, whether clean, dirty or empty!
Even though she tries, no, she is not allowed to stand on my dw door. I caught her red-handed!

Alayna loves to help with putting away silverware. When I wear an apron, she needs to wear one too. So I have to alter one of mine "a little" to fit her.

Now that she is more familiar where things go, she teases me and puts things in different places and asks me "here?...here?...here?" knowing she is choosing the wrong places on purpose.
She does love to help me cook in the kitchen too. Which does not always go well for the both of us. But, she is so ready to tell daddy when he walks in the room that "Nayna help momma!"


She loves to make brownies or cookies with me and/or daddy...and wants a taste and lick the beaters. Where did she ever learn that one?