More Family Visits and Don't Forget Miner's!

On Tuesday, before heading home we took a detour to Tri-Cities to visit Melanie and Arlene. Arlene moved from Moses Lake to Tri-Cities into a new assisted living place so we wanted to go visit her there. Melanie also cut my hair which was nice to get done before the baby comes. We had a quick, but good visit.

Here is Nathan holding Reed and I love Reed's expression! He is such a funny kid and even though he is only 2 1/2 he acts like he is 4 and runs around with all the big kids.

Kate and Preson with Grandma Great (Arlene). Her place is bigger than her last place and she seems to like it there better.

On our way from Tri-Cities to Everett you pass by Yakima and I can't go by Yakima without stopping at Miner's!!! This place is SO delicious. I figured we should stop before the baby comes since we won't be traveling anytime soon (everything is "before the baby comes" :)) Growing up, we ate here a lot after sporting games (coaches could eat for free!) and with my family. It's definitely a family favorite. Too bad they don't franchise...I want one over here.

They have amazing cheeseburgers (that are huge), fries to die for with yummy fry sauce and homemade milkshakes! My mouth is watering now. Yummy!!!

Sabin Reunion

Our 2nd family reunion over the 4th of July weekend was for my Dad's family and his siblings. We had a good time and enjoyed the beautiful weather. That night we did fireworks and smores.

The guys playing basketball in the pool. It's more like rugby because they are so rough! They end up with scratches and bruises afterwards. All in the name of "fun".

Doing the pinata. Preston was actually hitting it and it was so cute!

The whole family playing Bingo that was prepared by my Grandma Helen Gene. She even brings toys and prizes for the winners (everyone gets to win)!

My Grandma as the official Bingo leader. Isn't she cute?!

Jared won these amazing glasses and Preston put them on. They are so funny looking!

Christensen Reunion

We went to my parent's over the 4th of July weekend because we had 2 family reunions. One on Saturday with the Christensen clan and then one on Monday with the Sabin clan. Both were fun and it was nice to see family that we haven't seen for a while.

Kate is no longer scared of swimming in my parent's big pool! We are excited about that and so is she. She loves it. She is jumping into the pool in this picture. When she asked to go swimming I told her only if she goes in the big pool and she agreed. She happily put on the life jacket and got in. It was amazing compared to how she reacted last time we tried to get her to swim in the big pool. My family kept saying "is that the same Kate?!" She lived in that pool over the weekend and ended up getting green hair because of it! It came out- thank goodness!

On Saturday, my Mom's family came over to my parent's house before we headed up to Royal City for the Christensen reunion (this was for my Grandma Joyce's side- she was the only girl of 4 boys and there are lots of relatives that live nearby so it's fun to have such a big family gathering- like almost 100 people were probably there). There were little kiddie pools there and we originally thought the kids would stay away from them since they had been swimming all day, but we were wrong. Kate accidentally fell into one of the pools after being there only 5 minutes.

We played "minute to win it" games (like the game show) and they were hilarious! Each family chose a representative to participate in a game. It was so funny seeing all the different games they had planned. This picture is of my cousin Austin picking up noddles with a spaghetti noodle. He had to get 6 round noodles onto his spaghetti noodle and he won! They had other games where you had to shake out ping pong balls out of a kleenex box that was attached to your bum, the game was called "junk in the trunk". My brother-in-law got to play that one- ha ha. There were several other one's. It was a lot of fun.

We are really into the fireworks show! I love how we are all looking up. The fireworks show was amazing and lasted forever. Three of our relatives are licensed pyro techs so it was an impressive fireworks show.

Preston didn't think the fireworks show was impressive. He didn't like it at all and buried his head the whole time. I think he even almost fell asleep towards the end. I thought it was funny. I remember Kate being like this at his age.

Baby Bedding and Flowers Blooming

Here is Lindsey's crib bedding. I thought it matched Kate's bedding really good and it was cute. Kate is just excited to have the baby sleeping with her. I don't know how exciting she will think it is once the baby keeps her awake at night!!!

This hydrangea is finally blooming. I got it last year and it never got any flowers on it. This year these blue one's showed up. They are wilted now that we have had a heat wave, but they were pretty.

Kate got this marigold from a preschool field trip and so I let her plant it in this pot that I wasn't using. It's in our backyard and we aren't out there as much as the front yard so just the other day Kate noticed that her marigold was growing. She was so excited.

Update

I picked out some new bedding for the crib to match Kate's existing bedding. It was interesting b/c I was so limited on my choices (unless I wanted to redo the whole room, which I did not want to do). I'll take pictures next week once it's all put together, but I think it looks pretty good together. I found it at Babies R Us and for some reason they had one set on clearance so I even got the set I wanted for cheaper!

Preston had tubes put in last year, but one fell out back in April and then last Friday he was crying and holding his ear. We went to the doctor and she couldn't see the tube in that ear either! He had an ear infection and later, the tube fell out- I think his ear drum ruptured. Poor kid. We'll wait and see if he gets another ear infection and if he does then we'll probably put tubes back in both ears.

Kyle went on a motorcycle trip last Friday with my Dad, brothers and brother-in-law near Ellensburg. They had fun and no one got hurt. That's the first thing we ask when they call "did anyone get hurt?" It's a tradition for them to go out for pizza afterwards before coming home all dirty and tired. They love their bike trips.

I went out for a girl's night out last week b/c a friend is moving away. We went to Macaroni Grill (yum, I haven't been there in forever) and then we went shopping. I got a cute necklace and some earrings. It's fun to find cheap, cute jewelry. Gotta love the store For Love by Forever 21.

I'm feeling fine (pregnancy wise) except I got another stiff neck and I can't take muscle relaxers so I just use a heating pad a lot and ask Kyle to massage my neck. It's getting better, but it hurts the most laying down trying to go to sleep so my sleep has been limited. I slept in the chair last night and I think I actually got some good sleep! I'm due in a month so the time is ticking away- yikes! Even though it's my third kid I'm still nervous on how it will all go (delivery and all).

work, Happy Father's Day, life

I am working 4 days this week, which I am hoping to make it through. I fell down our front porch steps on Friday and tweaked my neck. I'll be fine, but it's annoying to have a sore neck...well, and back b/c that is what I landed on. The steps were wet and I was wearing flip flops. I should have grabbed onto the railing b/c I had that thought right before I went down that I needed to be careful. Well, too late, my feet came out from under me and I landed on the steps. Ouch. My neighbors saw b/c we were just cleaning up from being outside all afternoon. I'm sure it wasn't graceful at all. :O I remember my Mom falling on the ice when she was pregnant, but she fell on her stomach so that was scary. I'm fine other than a sore neck and back.

Happy Father's Day to my own Dad and to Kyle! They both are great father's and I'm grateful for them in my life. My Dad is really such a great Dad. I remember him taking us kids out on the farm with him and he didn't mind all the annoying things we did. He is the most patient man I know! Kyle has been so good with the kids during this last year while he's been home more and I've been working. I know it hasn't been easy for him, but he's such a good dad. The kids will miss him when he goes back to work. We didn't make it over to my parent's house for Father's Day so we stayed here and Marci came up to visit. I made steak and chicken shish kabobs, garlic mashed potatoes, fruit, green salad, rolls (from my Mom- yum), corn on the cob and then 4-layer pudding dessert. Then we played games and had a good time chatting. Kate was so excited to have Marci come visit. She drew her a picture and made sure to have Marci watch her every move.

Last night, we went to a going away party for our Bishop and his family (who we are good friends with). They are leaving for California. It's always sad to see good friends move away. We've had a lot of that lately. We had the party at a park and a lot of people showed up even though it was overcast and kind of chilly. We are still waiting for summer weather to show up. When we got home I was opening up the back door to our suburban and we had tables in the back that we used at the park. Well, as I opened the door a table came crashing down on my ankle/shin area. It hurt so bad! I now have a big bump and bruise. Good thing it didn't break my leg or anything, but I'm sick of getting hurt this weekend!

Kate finished swim lessons last week and after her last session I took her and Preston swimming. That was fun. Now we are officially on summer break...no swim lessons and no preschool. I'm working up until 2 weeks til my due date so I have a few more weeks left of working. We have some family reunions coming up, but I'm thinking this summer will be low key as far as traveling goes. Definitely not low key as far as family goes with a baby coming and all. ha ha. It will be interesting to see how we adjust to another baby in the house. It seems so long ago that we had a baby.