Here We Go Again !?!?

I was driving to Bible study this morning and suddenly I thought, "I think I might be pregnant!" I was not yet late but I just had this feeling. As I drove I decided I wouldn't take a test or anything until I was late. Bible study was awesome and when we got home a few hours later the first thing I did was run do a test (so much for waiting). Those 3 minutes waiting to read the results felt like an eternity but I thought I would just confirm that I was not pregnant and be about my day. Well after those 3 grueling minutes I took a quick glance at the test. It was definitely positive. Not like a faint line, maybe an evap line positive. Straight positive.

This was not planned BUT it also wasn't totally unexpected. But still, it felt like a shock. I started feeling anxious and sick like maybe it was a bad test, etc. I started reading about home pregnancy tests and quickly discovered that a false positive, especially before a missed period, is pretty rare. So I quickly moved into the acceptance phase… Richard was on an airplane somewhere between Oklahoma and Arizona so I couldn't talk to him and just sat with this frustrated feeling of "Oh. My. Goodness." -and- "Woohoo!" for a couple hours.

It was time for Cade to take a nap and I was feeling like I could use one too so we snuggled up together. As he held my hand and I watched him fall asleep I felt so peaceful and excited about the opportunity to be a mom to yet another precious soul. I know God has prepared and equipped us to handle big family life so I have nothing to fear!

Once Richard was on the ground I asked him to call me on his drive home from the airport. I could've waited a little longer to tell him in person but I wanted him to have that drive time alone to process the news. He was not totally against more children but he also didn't think we would really have more. He called me and I got right to the point. He was surprised/not surprised and was pretty quiet on the phone. (He's not a talker when he's thinking.)

I plan on testing again tomorrow or sometime in the next couple days (need to get another test).

Ava's Robot Presentation

In her homeschool group at our weekly morning Bible study, Ava has been working hard to build and write about a robot invention. Today she gave a presentation to a group of ladies and her peers. Proud of her!

Answering questions from the audience

Presentation complete

Posing in front of "John"

Ava's brainstorming map

Facebook Survey and Graph

I posted a question on Facebook for Ava to gather data and make a graph from. 

What's your favorite fruit?

Tallying the responses

Graphing the responses

Proud of her work. :)

Ava's 7th Birthday

I got my ears pierced for my seventh birthday and today the tradition was carried on.

Dinosaur cake she picked out

Excited!

Getting a little nervous now

This kinda hurts

Done! She chose these cross earrings.

Done!

Done and heading to the zoo.

Catch Up Post (December 2014 - May 2015)

Okay, so A LOT has happened since my last entry (September 2014)…

December 22, 2014 - Ava turned SIX and we turned in the keys to our house in Fort Lee, VA. On the 23rd we hit the road for GA where the kids and I would spend a few weeks while Richard did some training in Kentucky. Ava was such a champ spending her birthday "homeless" and I love that she didn't think anything of it or take it as some form of persecution.

End of January 2015 - We hit the road to drive from Georgia to Arizona. We stopped to visit "Mom Avery" in Alabama, then powered on through Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, and finally Arizona. We broke the trip up over a few days. We drove the Expedition and pulled the Fusion on a trailer behind us. Again, the kids were absolutely amazing. So flexible and easy-going with the HOURS of sitting in carseats, gas station stops, and hotel stays (the fun (for them) part).

January 29, 2015 - We signed for our house on the evening of 1/28/15 and slept on air mattresses. Then all of our stuff arrived from out of storage on the 29th. Richard was sick as a dog all day, literally throwing up and lying down between loads being brought in that he checked off the packing list. The weather was beautiful so we were able to have the kids play outside and pretty much stay out of the way. The girls were so excited to see their room coming together and to get to help with things.

February 2015 - Richard took command of his recruiting company. Here we go again with another two year command. He is excited yet has quite a learning curve ahead of him as well a good bit of travel and time away from home (probably weekly).
We found a church home. It has a great children's program, including Awana. It has small "journey groups" for closer connection and life sharing with fellow believers in similar stages of life. The pastor(s) are awesome and we feel very welcome and ready to jump in serving here.
I also happened across a homeschool group on base. The kids and I had walked down the street to hang out at the neighborhood center playground and there were a bunch of school age kids playing. I thought "well either school is out today or we have found a homeschool group already!" And it was the latter. It is a relatively casual group that meets for a weekly PE class followed by park time, optional Spanish weekly for reading aged kids, monthly art class, and monthly science experiment/dissection.

March 7, 2015 - Sweet little Rae turned 4! I can't believe our little love is four years old. She is such a delight and was super pumped about the pretend hairstyling kit she picked out with her birthday money.

April 2015 - Richard turned 31 and life is just ticking along. We are coming down the home stretch of Ava's first homeschool year and she is learning and growing so much. I feel like we are close to a breakthrough in the reading department.

May 2015 - We celebrate our 9 year anniversary.

Ava's Book

Ava created this completely on her own. All I did was video her explaining to me everything that was in it. Such a creative girl!

Amazing Memorization

We have known for a long time that Ava has some pretty amazing memorization abilities/skills, but today she blew me away. Each unit we do in her homeschool kindergarten is 6 days long. We started Unit 1 last Monday which means we were finishing the last day of the unit this Monday. One of the daily things we did in Unit 1 was read this poem, My Shadow.

So we read this poem a couple times each day last week Monday-Friday. No school Saturday-Sunday. Today we were supposed to read it one last time before we start a new Unit tomorrow, but Ava told me she already knew it and just started rattling it off.

She recited it almost perfectly without me even reading through it once since Friday! She finished having no idea how awesome that was and was ready to move on to the next thing. I just sat there like WhAt!? Needless to say, I am going to be expanding her collection of Bible verses to memorize and get her going on some whole Psalms. She is such and sponge! And she loves learning!