i've got all my sisters with me...

(except my sisters in law, whom i love dearly)
I had a perfect, amazing, weekend because I got to spend it all with my sisters. Not much better in the world! My sister Laurel drove from Kentucky to help throw a birthday party for Melinda. We had so much fun. Some highlights of being with my sisters that you don't get with just anyone:
*we all wanted to take a nap at 10:00 every morning :) (in the same bed)
(My Dad told all of our husbands when they asked to marry us that "his girls have always needed their sleep". A self fulfilling prophecy, we are 3 of the biggest sleep whores I know!)
*cramming into one fitting room so we could all be together
*eating donuts for breakfast and lunch, and bread and oil and cheese for dinner

Laurel, Heidi, Melinda

(for those of you who don't know our story, yes, we are quite far apart in age. :) same parents(everyone asks) and they have never treated me like i was any younger! we have been best friends since as long as i can remember!)

When I went to the dr. last week the baby was breech. Luckily there was a midwife there to give me some tips on how to turn her. However, I was not very good at said exercises. (I was also very glad Mark was not there to witness for lots of reasons!)

Wore me right out.

I'm going to need to avoid white shirts when baking for the next 5 weeks. This one may be beyond repair!

lake effect (2).

So we are moving to the Flinstones phase. A little Pebbles fountain. (Thanks Katie for the bows! :))

Eating Uncle Dave's corn on the cob that he grew and then had to give her. :) You can't see too clearly but the last picture has her completely covered in corn pieces. Yes, there were several jokes made about "DeKorne".

Remember my sunset obsession?? I told Mark to get the camera for this one-and he was like, "Heidi, we will never get through all the sunset pictures we HAVE..." but, it turns out I was right and it's a good thing he did. Got some cool shots of Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Dave and Aunt Barb, and Baby DeKorne. I always choose to have on no make up and lake hair at the wrong time.

LOOK AT THIS!?! She isn't crying! It wasn't foolproof...but definitely bought us some time. This is good since Mark and I really like to play the radio game on car trips. :) (Last time we went he won, despite an incredible comeback by me with Evan and Jaron....but this time I took the trophy after we got home and settled a little bet. For the record, "A little bit me, A little bit you", is by the Monkees.)

lake effect.

We escaped for a quick getaway to the lake this weekend since our summer weekends there are running out!

Family Shuffleboard :)

I believe in only the healthiest food when growing another human. (at least I'm drinking water and not diet coke!)

detour...

I can't post pictures for a couple days...but my friends from Houston left yesterday and so there are lots of pictures from the week on my friend Melissa's blog if you are interested. :) http://www.parsons411.blogspot.com/

For the record, in addition to the grunting, it's also the "everything is swollen and my face looks huge and i keep running my stomach into doors and tables" stage of pregnancy. Just a disclaimer.

:)heidi

Sad..

I have had my first pangs this week of losing my first baby. I know I won't ever lose her-but just sad that she is going to no longer be THE baby...something she was only called for a short time!

True white trash fashion stripping her down one piece of clothing at a time to play in the water. Of course I'm not willing to get in the water-so there's no bathing suit on either of us. (i am SUCH a grandma sometimes) (no offense, grandma :))

Yep, there goes the shirt.

Delighted at the birds....oh to be 1 and not know that they poop on the dock. :)

SIDENOTE (Do not read if you don't have kids/kristy, ryan, etc.) : I am a self confessed diaper snob. I would allow my child to wear nothing but Pampers having tried a few other varieties that came off of diaper cakes and other gift packages. However, during our bout with rotovirus--when I was changing like 15 diapers a day-I bought some at Costco-the Kirkland brand. COULD NOT BE HAPPIER! In fact, when we were at the lake a few weeks ago, I had to buy some cruisers because I had run out of the Kirklands-and she leaked thru probably 4 diapers overnight. Has never happened with the Costco-they are 20 cents a piece, and survived the complete immersion in water above beautifully. I'm just saying.

If you build it...(getting sick of that one, yet??)

Thank goodness for our new guest room! Since I don't have many friends in Michigan yet I just have to keep shipping in old ones. :) This week my friends from Houston are here. Alicia and Melissa and baby Addison--this is good Baby Bootcamp for my darling Ava. Please pray for Addison that she does not get stepped on or smashed in any other way this week!

Playing with the toy-getting in the toy-staring inquisitively-and finally deciding Addie would be worthy of some milk.

We did get to sneak out for a little while kiddo-free. Well, almost-besides the one I'm lugging around. (I'm getting to the obnoxious stage of pregnancy, the one where I unknowingly grunt when I stand up or bend over...really need to work on that.)

Alicia's ingenious solution to deal with the mullet: a french twist! :)

peanuts and cracker jacks

The last several weeks we have spent Thursday nights watching Ava's cousins Aidan and Cole play baseball. Well, Ava would say we have spent them playing outside completely oblivious to baseball. Mark always asks who won/scored, and I'm like-ummm...I think I might have been picking grass out of Ava's teeth. Anyway-not the best pictures-but tonight might have been our last game so I documented a little.

Ava LOVES Aidan. Says "hi" repeatedly and waves and runs to him. I love Aidan, too. :)

She found the bat. I couldn't get around to take her picture from the front because the bat was intercepted by the cute blonde in the background. This, however, gives you an excellent view of the mullet/rattail/curly-q thing she's got going on. I won't cut it off though...

This was when I said "let's go see the boys play baseball". She went outside and waited for me on the front steps. :)

More Amazing People

Not sure if you caught it-but the Steven Curtis Chapman family was on Good Morning America yesterday morning. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh2VFkF7NLo)

Also on Larry King tonight..

So humbling to me how God uses people in tragedies like this to help strengthen others.

I've got all my cousins with me...

Tonight-I watched Project Runway. Oh wait, I'm not blogging about that...though I could. (stop it suede, and leather is annoying, and tanorexic is on my last nerve...) Anyway, Mark's family was nice enough to come over and hang out tonight even though Mark is out of town for work.

Jeff and Ava were coordinated perfectly.

Getting a little more Brian in before he leaves for flight school.

Dan shows his love differently than the rest. :)

Dad was off working hard for our family. We missed you babe!

But seriously, if you build it they really will come!

We got to use our guest room for the second week in a row! My friend Kelly and her sweet 2 year old Bryce came for the weekend. We had so much fun doing nothing except eating and drinking Diet Coke and changing diapers! :)

I am not even going to TELL you what the main course of our meal was. All I'll say is the server who brought it out asked where the other 6 people were. :)

I dragged Mark and Kelly to the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning. They liked it despite the harassmsent I received.

While we ate our Farmer's Market lunch, Bryce helped himself to Mark's shoes. SO cute!

Bathtime fun. Kelly was nice enough to bathe Ava twice for me since otherwise ain't happening much-bending isn't the easiest right now! (Like, those sprinkler pictures from last week was her last immersion in water :))

Two Posts for the Price of One

Mark's cousin Brian has been away becoming an officer of the Navy. He came home this weekend and Ava was happy to see him back. She was especially happy to get new clothes-her very own "Navy" onesie. Thankfully we had a bow to match. :)

Whole lotta fishin going on at our house. Mark's Uncle Dale "doesn't like to fish"...but somehow out-caught all the othe boys with a big 7 for the night. He would not, however, touch them or the worms, so Mark was busy being the fish handler.

Mark was also able to snag one of his own. That thing is HUGE!

Poor sweet Ava had to get a whole vial of blood taken from her arm today. Praise the Lord Mark was there to go with me. Anyone who knows me knows needles and I do NOT get along well. (My friends from Indy remember an emergency room nurse once asking me if I had cerebral palsy after passing out after a blood draw alone.) Anyway, she was very sad..and pointed to her hot pink band aid and whined the rest of the day. :( Good thing I was there to document it.