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...)

Around the Yard in May

Here's some of what I'm enjoying around the yard this month:

Does anyone know what kind of bush/flower this is? I'm stumped. But it sure is beautiful!

Sunflowers were a gift from Talitha. The rest are spring flowers from my yard.

Don't you just love a freshly mowed lawn??

And perhaps my proudest moment was to find apples growing on the tree I tenderly pruned this winter. It was a ton of work because I don't think it had been done for several years--which explains why there were no apples last year. Looking forward to finding out what these will taste like!

20 weeks

Here are some photos-inside and out from 20 weeks (2.5 weeks ago).

Everything looked good at the ultrasound and she even caught him "waving" at me. It was pretty cute. And he is definitely a boy!

And here are some more self bump photos since my photographer is gone. :)