Look Who's Home!!

We are so thankful to be back together. All praise and glory to God!

Sister Visit

My sister, Ruth, brought her 5 kids down to hang out with me for 4.5 days recently. They were so helpful around the house and we also had lots of fun playing together. Tobin especially was thrilled with learning to play croquet. Ruth and I even got to go out on a movie date one night thanks to Talitha who babysat for us! And Ruth was really sweet to bleach my shower and get it all cleaned up for me. Thank you, sweet sister!

26 weeks: baby is beginning to really pop out!

An ikea stop. Trudy is now old enough to enjoy shopping with her mom and aunty while the other kids play.

This is Greta's depiction of my house and what I look like these days. :)

Just Another Day in My Town

This is from a couple weeks ago. We live just minutes from the freeway, but you wouldn't know it once you come down our street as there are a lot of small farms around. I looked out the window one evening to see some locals walking down the road in front of our house. Maybe they heard the butcher was coming soon and headed off for greener pastures. :)

Baby Shower

We've only been at our church for a few months now, but that didn't stop the ladies there from hosting a wonderful baby shower for me and our baby boy. It was funny to me that my first women's event at the church was a party for me, but they did a wonderful job of making me feel loved and showered with blessings for our little guy. Here are the guests who made the day very special:

For anyone in the Tacoma area, my mom and sisters are hosting a shower for me on the 29th at 2:00 and I would love to see you there!

Visitors and the PDX Rose Garden

Last weekend I got to enjoy the company of Ben and Jaclyn and her grandma (who is visiting them from Cali for a few weeks). They ventured down to my house for a quick weekend and it was really great to spend some time with them. We packed a lot into 24 hours-- Ben got rid of the dead bird that was stuck in my eaves (I'll spare you the photo). Thanks, Ben!! We hit a cinetopia movie, we worshipped at my church, hit a local Portland bike restaurant to partake in the delicious burgers, and made it over to the Portland Rose Garden along with everyone else in Portland since the roses were at their peak of blooming. Glad you guys could come down and hope we can do it again soon!

(24 weeks)

(the above and below photo courtesy of Jaclyn)

Canadian Cousins

Here is part two of our trip: Hanging out in Calgary with the cousins. It was really fun to catch up and hang out with them. We came bearing gifts of Krispy Kreme and in return they filled us up to the brim with delicious Alberta Beef--Brazilian churrasco style. Grace is just under 2 weeks ahead of me in her 2nd pregnancy and it was fun to be pregnant cousins together. Daniel had just moved to the area, so it was great to explore his new town with him. And we were also blessed with visits from other Albertian friends! (Justyne, Mike, Steve, and Kurt). All in all it was a great visit and I left already wanting to plan another Calgary trip!

Road Trip

A highlight of the month was taking a trip to Calgary to visit my cousins who are migrating north from their homeland of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Grace, Andre, Kevin, and baby Esther (due a week before my little guy) have lived up there for a year now. My other cousin Daniel just moved up about 2 weeks before we came to visit and he is eagerly awaiting his family to join him there next month. I think its pretty great that I can now drive to see them instead of taking a flight around the world. And I had two wonderful roadtrip companions: Talitha and AndraLea, who were eager to take the trip into Canada with me.

Here are some highlights from the road trip portion of our journey:

(21.5 weeks)

(We stayed with the Pine's in ID but it was so late when we arrived and early when we left that we never took a picture with them. This shop in Banff was to remedy that...)