My Backyard

Our freshly mulched backyard, with labor provided by the Hamiltons and Dave, I supervised.

Guesses as to the fruit? Plum?

I think this one is a peach!

Pomegranates in the making.

Pomegranate Pollination Station.

The first Bonnie Grape tomatoes are coming in!

Greedy little birds already drained my bird feeder. I half-filled it on Friday,

 and one week later, crumbs are left.

Maternity Photos

Tada! While Diane was here - in the 45 minutes we had before we had to load everyone in the car to go to the airport - we did a mini-photo shoot of Noah and I. These are some of my favorites.

(Click on any of the photos to make them fullscreen large.)

The photo shoot wasn't hard until later - we were so busy getting everyone out the door, and then driving, and then driving again. But yesterday it was a little hard. I mean, I love the photos, but it's still difficult knowing that we won't have more photos of Noah. Regardless, the photos are a tribute to Diane's photography abilities - since the only light we used was the natural light from our bedroom window.  

So.

So. Dave's been gone for almost two weeks, boo, in Panama City, Florida. He comes home on Thursday, yay! Since he's been gone I've attempted to keep busy. I attended a surprise birthday party for a friend from church, attended a birthday soiree for a friend/Katie's neighbor, and saw a local production of Butterflies Are Free preformed by the King's Players. I met the director at Jo's soiree so it was fun to chat theater for a while. Our church was scheduled to have a church picnic on Sunday at a local ancient park with big trees, but due to high winds (25mph) we had to stay at the church (not nearly as fun). I also pet-sit Topher last weekend. Slider enjoyed having some company and playmate, but I think he was worried Topher would be a permanent addition - he just wasn't himself all weekend. This week I've been preparing for the Hamilton Invasion, who also arrive on Thursday. I'm driving to LA to pick them up, and we're banking on their "packing light" abilities so that' we'll all (7 of us) fit in our Highlander - with 3rd row. So I've been busy making nest-beds for the youngest boys, including a "clubhouse" in the walk-in closet in the guest room. I decorated it with Dragon and Navy paraphernalia and put a touch light and night-time reading books in there. It's pretty cool. It's like Nathan and John's own room, and I think Connor's going to be bitterly jealous. Ohwell.

Noah and I are off to our regular doctor's appointment with Dr. Shipper, Katie is accompanying.

more updates

I'm making this quick because I'm super tired of finding more things wrong with Noah.

We had a fetal echo cardiogram on Monday and the Tech found that Noah has Trucus Arteriosis. Click the link to learn about it becuase I don't feel like describing it. The good news is that it doesn't harm him while he's inside me, cause I keep him safe. As always, if it were the only thing wrong, it is treatable.

We had a really good expereince with the doctor there, super nice, easy to talk to, willing to listen, appreciated and supported our decision, inspired by our bravery, etc. The Tech offered to see us whenever we wanted to have an ultrasound - regardless of insurance - during his lunch any day. He's willing to do as many pictures as we'd like.

We also discussed that a) Noah's cute; b) we are blessed that he doesn't have any facial deformities; many babies with these types of abnormalities have cleft palates or the like. It's comforting to be able to just look and him and think he's beautiful, and not have to see everything that's wrong.

Slider's busy eating cat vomit, so I'll leave it all at that.