lots of activity

Well...lots have been happening here. Rayna had her 3rd birthday party with all of her little friends. It was a lot of fun hearing how excited all of her friends get when they see each other. As more and more people came...our little house seemed really tiny. Rayna had been practiciing singing happy birthday and blowing out the candles for weeks before her party. When everyone sang to her, her face couldn't have been smiling more...she was so excited. She got upset when we cut her Elmo cake though! It wasn't that she didn't want to share, the moment had just gone too quickly and she didn't want her pretty cake cut. My parents were able to be here for that week which was also a lot of fun. Jon and I also celebrated our 7th anniversary and we took my parents to the cities and went shopping at IKEA and then to Cheesecake Factory. We found Rayna her big girl bed and will get it when we get all of the epicenter furniture. THEN...Jon and I went to Tulsa, OK with 15 other youth leaders and students to see the Oneighty building (a large youth ministry with a facility) at Church on the Move. It was really good for our leaders and students to see a youth facility in action. THEN....over the 4th of July, a family in our church gave us the use of their lake cabin as a little getaway for the holiday. This cabin was wonderful and we spent the time with the Cherry's and Jessica...and then other friends came out on different days to visit. We were there for 3 days and just relaxed and swam. Rayna loved the "ocean" and loved to go up & down the spiral staircase that was in the cabin. She also loved her "pretty room" which was filled with flower decorations. She did get scared of the fireworks, which she called "funder." Anything that is loud noises are called "funder (thunder)....or the ice cream truck" which is actually the garbage truck that wakes us up once a week. I am leaving for Wyoming on Thursday for 3 weeks while Jon is at camps and doing a lot of work on the epicenter. I am not working much anymore and my last day is the beginning of August before we go on vacation to New Jersey. It was a hard decision but I couldn't juggle the very part time job on top of everything else going on this fall. The baby is still giving me lovely morning sickness and an extreme fatigue that I don't remember with my pregnancy with Rayna as much. I feel like I could sleep all the time...it makes it hard to get a whole lot done around here. We pray all is well with you and I will be blogging on Wyoming too.