We've been know to keep it a secret before, but this time it's come out. Both Mark and I had the intuition it was a girl, but were pleasantly surprised to find it to clearly be a boy. It will be fun for Sam to have a playmate and not be outnumbered. The girls are excited too so they don't "have" to entertain Sam as they say. So 76% of you were correct on the baby survey.

My ballet woes

The girls have always loved dancing, so I thought I would try out a summer ballet camp to see if it was something they would actually be interested in taking long term. I signed them up and they were scheduled to start tomorrow. Last week I received a call that made it sound as though the camp may have been canceled, so all week I've been trying to get a hold of someone. Tonight I finally got the call to say, no they had not been canceled until the other children called the night before to drop out. So now with my girls the only ones in the camp they decided to cancel. Now it's too late in the summer to find another camp. My dilemna is should I just put them in classes for the fall or forget it? The trouble (besides price and not knowing whether they will enjoy it or hate it) is the inconvenience of driving to classes and busying up a schedule that I was hoping to simplify with baby on its way. These insignificant decision shouldn't be so hard to make, should they?

We have a pig

Taylor was explaining to Grandma on the phone that she is a country girl and that we have a pig and she made me take pictures for proof. So Grandma - here's your proof, we have a pig.

Happy Birthday Kari!

We helped Kari celebrate her 24th birthday. Hope it was a good one for you.

Memories

Here are the directions:
1. In the comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Lake Lowell

For their last adventure together we took the children to Lake Lowell. It was a very warm day and we had almost the whole beach area to ourselves. The kids loved the water, but the mom's (and cousin Trevor) did not like the sand. That was a pain. We were sorry to miss Masen and his mom who were sick most of the week. Goodbye to our cousins! We love having you here.

Chuck E Cheese's

The children were spoiled this week with movies, parks, lakes, and Chuck E. Cheese. Sam loved the cars and anything with balls. You can certainly tell he's a boy.

Settler's Park

We went to Settler's Park with the cousins. The kids had fun playing in the Splashpad for a short time. They were excited about the new additions of the sound garden and climbing rocks. Taylor spent most of her time climbing to the top of these rocks which made mom pretty nervous. I wish I would have gotten pictures of her on top.

Warming up to dogs

My kids have been deathly afraid of dogs since they were little. This has really made Mark sad and although he wants one of his own - he knows this won't be happening soon. He always tries to get the children to warm up to dogs, but they usually run and scream the second one comes anywhere near them. Recently Taylor has decided that some dogs are actually okay. This includes a total of three dogs and she will play with them for a considerable amount of time. This dog, Sadie, Taylor spent a lot of time playing with. By the end of the day we even convinced Dani to pick up the toy she brought and throw it for the dog. That seemed to be a miracle enough, but then even Sam decided that the dog must be alright and stopped screaming every time she came around. He would pet her as long as she wasn't running up to him and liked throwing the toys, although the dog would never bring it back to Sam since he only threw it 2 feet.

Baseball - the American game

Taylor found a new sport that she is interested in. She was begging Uncle Jeff to keep pitching to her and got the rest of the kids interested as well. Don't ask me why she is pitching left handed. We were pretty sure she was right handed, but she insisted that this way felt better to her. Don't you love her inventive and patriotic outfit? She had to get all the colors in some how. Dani liked swinging too, but she prefered to do it one handed and it didn't work out so well.

Happy Independence Day with cousins

We were able to celebrate the 4th with Mark's brother's family who came up from Utah. The children loved being able to spend time with their cousins. Trevor and Sam tried to take the jeep for a ride, Dani tried helping Kara into the tree, they spent some time swinging, and Sam tried pushing Trevor on the bike. They had a great time and get to spend the rest of the week with them as well.

Canada Day in Canada

Today is actually Canada Day and we're busy celebrating if you can call it that. We were going to join all the festivities at the park, but it is pouring down rain so we're enjoying our time indoors. My grandma has been having chemo treatments this week so she's spending a lot of time sleeping and resting. I'm just glad to be here to help her and give her company, but she might not be so grateful. I'm sure we're wearing her out. We managed to get some family pictures in before the rain came down. Can't wait to get back to the states and celebrate on the 4th.