One of Annabelle's favorite things to do these days is playing in her fort. It is pretty easy to assemble - throw some blankets over the dining room table and VOILA - a fort! She'll bring all her animals in with her and throw them a tea party. It keeps her entertained for quite awhile.

Trev and I on our 5th anniversary. Woot, woot!

AB playing at the park. She LOVES going to the park.

On the chairlift swing with Grandpa John and drinking a smoothie. What could be better?!

What all can we pack into a week?

It has been one crazy week and we are finally settling into life as a family of four. It started with our sweet little boy being content to stay in the womb days past his due date (I guess that is why they refer to it sometimes as a due month). We were going to try and let the little guy come naturally but our plans are not always the plans the Lord has in store for us. We found out last Wednesday that my Grandma Bernice passed away, whom we loved her dearly and will really miss. It is something that we knew would happen in the coming months, but was still a bit of a shock when it actually happened. Obviously, I wanted to be able to attend the funeral and what added another twist to the events was that Trev would be officiating the funeral service. My dad had asked him months before if he would be willing to do this when my grandma did pass and Trev was honored at the request.

We decided the best option was to induce labor. We would then know when we were having the baby and would give us a few days after having him before we would need to head to Tacoma for the funeral. We went into the hospital on Friday morning at 6:30am to start the induction. We waited around for a few hours for another mom to deliver so we would be assured a room and a nurse. They started me on petocin at about 10am and we delivered our sweet boy just before 4pm that afternoon. It was a fairly smooth delivery and I only had to push for about 20 minutes!

We are so thankful that Jack has joined our family and Annabelle is quite taken with him. She always wants to check on him when he is sleeping, hold him, hug him, kiss him and help burp him after he eats. We praise the Lord for our healthy son and for seeing us through this past week. Trev did a wonderful job speaking at Grandma Bernice's funeral and it was great to see many family and friends and introduce them to Jack when he was only 4 days old. Thank you to everyone who was praying for us. And a special thank you to my mom who spent a few days with Annabelle loving and caring for her while we were in the hospital. Thank you!

Oh, and did I mention that Trev also started his class for seminary last Thursday and he is speaking this Sunday night at our church? I think Trev wins the prize for most things to do in one week in our family. We spent a lot of time in prayer this past week and we praise the Lord for answering our prayers and helping Trev prepare the funeral service, complete some classwork, prepare a sermon and welcome a son into the world and take care of his wife and daughter! I love you, sweet husband! You're the best!

Introducing...

Jack Stephen Mauss

Born: Friday, August 28th at 3:51pm
Weight: 7 pounds
Length: 20 3/4"

Showers!

A couple of weeks ago I had two baby showers in one weekend! Actually, one was a "sprinkle" (my friend Anne Marie came up with that) that included dinner at a favorite local Italian restaurant and dessert (made by Andi at Pure Bliss). It was called a sprinkle because it wasn't a full on shower with games and such but an evening out for ladies. Of course, I was totally not on top of it and did not get any pictures at the sprinkle. Oops! However, I did get a couple shots at the shower the next day. My friend Angela, who I have worked with at La Belle for the past year is also having a baby we are due within a week of each other. It has been so fun to go through the process with her at pretty much the exact same stages. Anyhoo, our other good friends from work (Rish, Tonya and Mary) put together a double baby shower for us and they did a spectacular job! They had a delicious spread of food for us and made the fancy diaper cakes (pictured below). We certainly felt showered! In the picture above, Angela and I are in the middle (with the bellies of course) and our other friends/co-workers are Melinda, Kelly, Rish and Tonya. Thanks to all you ladies who planned and attended the sprinkle and shower!

Marina

My parents have been on a boating trip the past few weeks and have docked at the marina here in Bellingham a few times. It has been so fun to visit them on their boat and be able to see them so much! I've also had fun taking pictures around the marina in the beautiful weather we have been having.

Captain Belle and First Mate Baby

Need a barnacle or two? Or three hundred?

A weekend at the farm

A few weekends ago we house-sat for some good friends of ours who live out in the county on a farm. We took care of their goats, cow and dog and watched their amazing gardens grow. It was like a little vacation for us. It ended up being a (mostly) beautiful and sunny weekend, so we were able to run around on their property. Belle LOVED being outside so much and enjoyed visiting all the animals. I also had fun practicing taking tons of pictures with my new camera. We were able to relax a lot and read and eat fresh veggies from their garden. Thank you, Seibrings, for letting us enjoy your home for a weekend!

The goat kept looking at me like this. I really wonder what he was thinking.

And sometimes I wonder what Belle is thinking. Haha! At least it makes for some good photo opportunities!

And other times I know exactly what Trev is thinking. "I am a man wielding a knife! I cut my food right from the earth and down it whole!" Okay, so he didn't eat it whole, but he did enjoy cutting the zucchini and then we added it to a delicious salad for dinner. ;)

One of Belle's favorite things about being at their farm was this toy car. She probably spent a few hours over the course of the weekend driving this car around the carport. She would take her baby for rides and just drive, drive, drive!

Here are some pictures from around their place...

Thanks for the camera!

Thanks to my wonderful hubby and all my parents I got a new camera for my birthday! A Pentax SLR camera which I have been playing around with and learning about the past few weeks. On my birthday we did some drive-by shootings, of the picture taking variety. ;) I wasn't feeling that well so it was nice to be in the car most of the time. Here are some of the shots I got on our adventure...

These seagulls were chasing the eagle around. Maybe he stole the fish they were about to eat.

Then we drove by someone's house where there was just a deer hanging out in the yard and eating their flowers.

A big thank you to my family for my new camera... THANK YOU!!