The Home Stretch....

Well we are in the home stretch for this baby thing! Thirty-five days to go till we meet this little guy! I am still convinced they missed the twin because I feel like I am constantly being kicked with at least four feet and punched with four hands! He is in constant motion and doesn't give me too much down time. My prediction is another ball of energy and spunk that we see in his older sister Katie. Can you predict personalities from the womb? Let me be the first to try and I bet I am dead on! It does not help that Allison has appointed me her new jungle gym. I cannot keep her off of me all of a sudden. I think she is sensing some changes as she has become pretty clingy and wants all of my attention. Should be interesting. Jessica has had to pick up alot of slack with Ally because alot of the time I can pass her off without too much fussing. Allison loves her big sisters and will go to them easily. Jess has to carry her up the stairs now when Sean is not home. I am afraid I will drop her, not to mention I am completely out of breath by the time I get up there! We are expecting Carson on July 22. Hopefully he won't make an early entrance, would not play well into our schedule. I might need to keep my mother-in-law and my sister Bethany on stand by because Sean is going to Milwaukee for AHL meetings about 10 days beforehand. I don't have early babies, but who knows...boys might be different!

We are in the home stretch of our remodeling project. The guys are SO close to being done with the framing and then we can put up dry wall. It looks like we are going to sub contract the dry wall for the purpose of time and professionalism. We have never drywalled and don't want to screw it up, and we are getting into crunch time! Then we can lay carpet, paint and make our moves! Jess is getting very excited. We have started packing up her room upstairs, partly because the mess is getting pretty bad, partly because she won't stop bugging me about it!

Team tournaments start Wednesday for softball. Jessica's team finished the season with a double header, loosing both games. They were pretty tough in the first game, but they had to go all six innings and they were pretty pooped by the time they started the second game close to 8:30. They were running on adrenaline the first inning and did awesome, but then kind of shut down in the second and couldn't get it back. Jess did throw out her first steal attempt at second for the year. It was awesome and she was pretty excited. She has thrown out at third before, but this was her first one to second. I don't even think she thought she was going to do it when she threw it down, but it was dead on and the second baseman had a great tag! It did alot for her confidence, especially against the best team in the league!

Katie is at basketball camp this week. She had to go to camp in Hudsonville because Jenison's doesn't start until 5th grade. Doesn't bother Katie. She has run into some friends from soccer and is enjoying herself. Just like school though, ask her what she learned, she says "nothing". Why are we paying for camp then if she knows it all? She loves to scrimmage. I was able to watch her for a little while yesterday. She loves basketball. I hope she sticks with it, she has the potential.

Allison is as busy as ever! The attitude is out in full force and the volume of her voice has increased dramatically in the last couple of weeks. I swear she is sassing us! Like everything else she has done, she has started the terrible twos early. She is into everything and anything. Climbing is her new thing! I keep putting off having her pictures taken because of the bruises, but I think there will always be bruises! She doesn't walk anymore, she runs..fast and she doesn't talk anymore, she yells..loud! She reminds me so much of Jessica at this age...only on steroids! She is definitely the busiest toddler I have ever had! We love her to death, she keeps us laughing and is a complete joy. She can yell and scream at you and be super naughty and then snuggle up with you and give you hugs and kisses. She is so sweet and very tenderhearted. The tough girl act does break down when she she senses someones feelings are hurt...she is such a sweetheart!

We were able to get to Hart on Friday to celebrate with Laura on her move to Virginia. My whole family was there, minus my brother Ben who is in Tennessee. We haven't seen my brother Mike and his family since Christmas. Mike couldn't get over Allison's energy level. She ran from one end of the house to other, back and forth all night long. She was wrestling with the boys and keeping up with the girls! At 11:00 she was still going strong! It was good to see everybody, the kids are getting so big and I can't get over how grown up some of my nieces and nephews are getting. Benny wasn't there, but he made it on Sunday for Father's Day, but we missed him. Well catch him next time! We were not able to stay for the parade in Hart on Saturday. According to everyone's blog posts, it sounds like it was a good time. Maybe we will make it next year. But then again with four kids, we might be hermits and hide out in our house until Ally and Cars are four or five, might be better on my nerves!