Memorial Day Beach Trip!

This year for Memorial Day, we were able to go to the beach with a bunch of Nathan's family! It was so much fun! We has all but one of the cousins there playing!

Mimi and Baby Aubrey...no worries, that storm didn't effect us, thankfully!

Cuteness!

Look at all those girls!

Not much is cuter than a two year old bum in a bathing suit!

Swimming at Uncle Mark and Aunt Jill's

Homeless

Well, we are officially moved out. We officially have no address of our own and are depending on the kindness of our in-laws to keep a roof over our heads until we can close on our house. The girls are so worried and upset. They just don't seem to understand all of this. Not that I can blame them. All their stuff went into boxes and then disappeared. They will be so happy when it all come back out again :) It was pretty funny, though, over the last week, Ava has been following me around telling me not to pack stuff. "You not pack this Barbie. It my favorite Barbie!" "You not pack my clothes!" "You not pack our cups!" "No pack my bed!" I got yelled at a lot. Oh well. We have two weeks of what will hopefully be rest and relaxation before Nate starts work, which I think will do everyone a lot of good!

Graduation!!!

It's finally here! After four long years, Nathan is finally graduating! We bought the girls "special" dresses and new shoes a couple of weeks ago and they have been begging to wear them since! Well, today, they got to wear them. After a frenzied couple of weeks of moving and repainting the apartment, we packed up our final load and headed over to the Philips Center with some of Nathan's family and Nana to watch Nathan and his classmates take their final step towards becoming dentists.

The girls did not want to cooperate with pictures...

Not at all...

Ava promptly conked out on Grandad's lap and proceeded to sleep through the whole graduation.

The graduating class of 2010!!

I love this one! Yay, for Daddy!

Lily was being such a crank! Doesn't Nathan look happy, though?

That's my man! I am so proud of him!

Three generations of dentists!

Nathan with his parents and mom's parents

Nathan and his parents

Nathan and his buddy, Phil. Congrats, guys!

The three UNF alum. Cara, Nathan, and Aida.

Nathan and his Mom

Last Trip to "The Butterfly Museum"

Nathan had graduation rehearsal today, so the girlies and I decided it was a good opportunity for us to make out last trip over to the Natural History Museum. We will miss this museum, especially in the hot summer months when it is so nice to have something fun to do inside.

Had to stop and get a picture with the fountain, of course!

Posing by the baby turtles. Seriously, could Lily be more of a ham? How cute is she, though?

I let each of the girls pick out some little animals from the gift shop to keep them busy while we waited for Nathan to finish up. They had so much fun and were sooo cute playing with them!

Is There Anything Better Than Playing in the Hose?

I don't think so!

Look at the camera, Ava!

You will look at the camera!

And, because they did not have enough time in the water, the shower was necessary afterward :)

10 Things.

Doing 10 Things a few days early. I need a reminder of the wonderful things in my life so I am not welling on all the stressful ones!

1. An amazing husband who has worked so hard to put us in a position to have a comfortable life.

2. My beautiful Lily Bear who is so full of joy and excitement.

3. Ava Bug. My sweet, loving little girl.

4. The new little life growing inside me.

5. So much generous family who would let us interrupt their lives to have someplace to stay and ease our burden.

6. A great group of friends who are full of love and support.

7. Being able to lean on God during all this stress and just give it all up to Him.

8. Florida sunshine!

9. Our ugly little apartment. Living there has put us in such a better financial situation than we would have been had we lived in a nicer place over the past few years. Not that I always understood or appreciated Nate's decision to live there, but I can see now it was where we were supposed to be.

10. Antacids. They are the only way I am getting any sleep these days :)

Thank you, God, for these and all the rest of the blessings in my life! Please, help us to remember that our family is blessed in so many ways! It is so hard sometimes to see all the amazing gifts You have given us because we allow ourselves to get so distracted by what we want or what we think we "need." Please, help us to trust in You. You have a plan for our lives. A good plan.

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. - Jeremiah 29:11 - 13

Adventures in Moving

Sooo, we decided it was time to start moving some of our junk into a storage unit in St. Auggie. We borrowed a trailer, loaded it up, and headed out of town. We left a bit late because Nate did not get out of school until almost 4:00 and it took him about 3 hours to load the car and trailer by himself (I am, unfortunately, not much help these days what with being almost 8 months pregnant and all). So, we get about half way there...an hour into our drive, and we are in the middle of no where (a.k.a. Interlachen) when the tire on the trailer blows out. Uh oh. The nearest store is an Advanced Auto Parts. We pull in at 9:03. Guess what time they closed? 9:00. That's right. Niiice. Okay, so now, we need to make it another 20 miles or so to the Wal-Mart in Palataka...while driving the trailer pretty much just on the tire rim. Not cool. Oh, and to make this whole experience even funnier (for me at least), Nate had been drinking sweet tea while he loaded the car. My husband does not drink caffeinated drink hardly ever and he had 5 cups full of tea in the course of about 2 hours. He was buzzing! Too funny. So, we thankfully made it to the Wal-mart and were able to buy a new tire and get it changed in the parking lot. What should have been a two hour trip ended up taking us three and a half hours. So fun. The best part, though, was the tire that got shredded. So, that is the image I will be leaving you with:

Niiiiiiice...right?

April on Facebook

April 1st: Alright, MOPS group, who is coming to our MNO tonight? Do Art at 6:00. Bring a snack to share :)

April 1st: We gave our 45 day notice yesterday! Can't believe we are moving that soon...now, to find a house...oh, and I may need to get packing some more boxes...

April 5th: Mmmmm...peach strawberry smoothie and sharing ham lunchables with the girls. All is right with the world ;)

April 5th: feels like my head is going to explode. I so cannot get sick right now...

April 6th: Just thoroughly disappointed my four year old when I told her that her How to Train Your Dragon toy from McD's does not really shoot fireballs. That only happens in the commercial. The funniest part of this to me is that she actually thought I would give her a toy that shot fireballs!

April 11th: Looked at an awesome house today. Think we are goingto put in an offer tomorrow. Cross your fingers for us :) I really want this one!

April 14th: I think my head is going to explode...one of my least favorite pregnancy symptoms I have been blessed with during all my pregnancies: constant congestion that causes sinus headaches. And, yeah, Tylenol does nothing...fun. Hoping my girls will go easy on me today.

April 15th: Yay! No headache! Guess that means I actually need to be productive today :)

April 15th: So, I just read my little weekly pregnancy update thing and it said we have 77 days (which will really be closer to 65 with my c-section) before Baby Kicker comes. 65 days! We still have to pack, move, buy a house, move in to a house, get Nate graduated and started working and we only have 65 days!?!?!? Okay...breathe, breathe...

April 18th: Still waiting to hear about the house. Expecting a counter-offer on Tuesday and Wednesday and I guess we'll just see from there...

April 20th: is overwhelmed.

April 21st: Love listening to my girls chit-chat with each other before bed. So sweet :)

April 23rd: Could be welcoming anther niece into the world this weekend. We shall see. If nothing else, she is making her momma super uncomfortable.

April 23rd: My poor SIL is still laboring. She has been having contractions for 43 hours now.

April 24th: The newest Baby Nemecek has arrived. Marc and Jillian welcomed their baby girl into the world at 6:40 this morning. She was 8 lbs 10 oz, but still has no name, yet :)

April 25th: We just had hail at our house!

April 29th: "My cheese stick has cheese on it!" - said with a very sad and upset face by Ava Rose.

April 30th: is thoroughly enjoying a chocolate croissant and frappacino. Kid free might I add (other than the little wiggle worm residing in my abdomen), not sure how I swung that, but I am sure going to enjoy it! Probably be the last time for at least a year!