Pictures from the 4th!

We had such a fun day on the fourth of July! Our neighborhood had its annual block party and it really was such a blast. For the kids, we had pools and a slip n slide, along with face painting and a bike parade around the block. For the adults, yummy food and drinks, great socializing time, and of course, we ended the day watching the local fireworks, which were only about a mile or two away at our local city park.

Chloe going in for a hug with one of our sweet neighbor girls. She absolutely loves any child who seems even a day younger than her.
Emma after a beautiful face painting job done by the professional face painter we hired for the day.
My goofy peanut getting ready to dive in!

Bringing up the rear of the kids bike parade. Seriously, my belly just cracks me up! It has its very own nose!

The bike parade in full swing.

Daddy testing out our slip n slide before opening it to the neighborhood. His comment was, "man, it's sure not as long as I remember it being as a kid!"

Launch number one, Super Emma!

Super Chloe really flew! She's such a water baby, no fear at all!

All in all, it was a glorious day, everything a summer day in July should be. Next week Emma has VBS (Vacation Bible School) and her birthday, it will be a full week to be sure. I am really in such shock at the way the summer is flying by! It's almost halfway over:(. But I love living in Colorado, because just when you're ready for a change in the weather, a new season begins. I hope you are taking in every sweet breath of your summer and relishing in memories made.

It's Good to Be Alive!

Tomorrow marks the beginning of my 30th year on this earth (to avoid confusion, that means I'm turning 29). While some may bemoan the end of their twenties, counting every wrinkle, feeling "old", I just don't feel that way. Maybe it's because I've always been more of an optimist by nature (or choice), but I'm just feeling pretty darn blessed and lucky to be alive! For twenty nine years, I've seen the beauty of changing seasons. I've fallen in love, been heartbroken, said good-bye to loved ones, welcomed loved ones in. I've cried, I've laughed, struggled, and rested in sweet contentment. I've tried and failed, tried and succeeded. I've carried and felt life move within my womb, I've experienced the miracle of birthing a child. But most importantly, I've been wooed by my Creator into a personal relationship with Him through Jesus Christ, I've been saved by grace! I'm not guaranteed tomorrow, but I have the promise of eternity! So as I sit here, on the eve of my 29th birthday, I am giving much thanks! "Thank you Father for every breath you've given me! May every moment of my life be lived for You and Your glory. Shape me and mold me into all you've called me to be!"

Philipians 1:21: "For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."

28 weeks!

I never thought I'd say it, but this pregnancy seems to be flying by now! I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that the summer always flies for me. I really can't believe June is practically over. I also can't believe I'll be turning 29 a week from Thursday, where oh where have my 20's gone?! But enough about the speed of time, here we have my ever-growing belly at 28 weeks today. If I follow my normal of being about two weeks "early", I only have 10 weeks to go! That's 2.5 months for those of you who need a little math help.

In other news of progress, remember all those painting projects I told you about? They are officially done thanks to my mom! Well nearly done. It was such a treat having her here for a whole week this past week, not just for her work, but for her beloved company. I won't give you pictures for another month or so, when I get get the decor on the walls, but I will tell you, both bedrooms turned out beautifully! I was also able to get Sawyer's dresser painted, along with a china cabinet I'm refinishing. It's all primed, now it just needs the paint, but should be complete within the next week or so. It feels so good to have these projects under my belt, they've been haunting me for some time now. My next projects include creating a play area in our unfinished basement for all the girls toys, moving Chloe into her big girl bed in Emma's room, and cleaning out my closet. Let the nesting continue! I hope to do a belated anniversary post some time this week, so stay tuned.

Roses

I think my little Canon Powershot was feeling a bit jaded after my previous post about her hopeful replacement, the Nikon D40X, so she decided to really strut her stuff today. Last mother's day, Travis got me a beautiful yellow rose bush. We did all our rose research about planting and pruning and feeding and this year, we are reaping the reward. Here are some of the first buds to blossom on the plant and let me just tell you, there are dozens more buds waiting in the wings! I'll post another picture of the whole plant when it's in full bloom. There's just something about roses. They look beautiful, they smell beautiful, maybe that's why we women love them so much. Could it be that we aspire to the same, hoping our inner and outer beauty and the fragrance of a sweet spirit will diminish our thorns?

Sawyer's Nursery

Ah...to decorate a nursery! Most of you remember where we were living when we brought Emma home from the hospital. It was a basement apartment with cinderblock walls and indoor/outdoor carpet. I did my best to create a nursery setting, but there were no fancy paint colors or nice curtains, and we were on a tight budget, so very simple had to do. Then with Chloe, we had just moved into a rental house two months before she was born and again, who wants to paint the walls in a rental only to paint them back again in less than six months? And furthermore, unpacking boxes was enough work for this pregnant mama at the time. But here we are now, in a home of our own, and I am just thrilled at the thought of getting to do a nursery for this, my "last" (sniff, sniff) baby. As I mentioned in my previous post, Sawyer is set with baby clothes. We have all the gear for the most part, minus a few odds and ends I'd like. So that leaves me with the nursery, something I've never officially had. As I did with the girl's room, let me try to describe what I'll be doing. The bottom 1/3 of the walls will be painted a darker, rustic red color. The top 2/3's will be alternating tan and brown wide stripes. The two sections will be divided by a 3 inch dark brown stripe. I'm going for a classic and vintage look that will hopefully carry him through childhood. Here are some of the decor items I've registered for at jcpenney.com, to give you a good picture of what it will look like.

Next week, my mom will be coming up for the entire week to help me with my painting/decorating projects. She's already insisted on doing all the painting, so don't worry your pretty little heads about paint fumes:). I'll be sure to post before and after pictures as soon as I have them.

Counting Blessings

First of all, let me just acknowledge that my "thinking" posts have been few and far between lately. I've been in a bit of a dry spell lately, but I'm going to guess it has something to do with being seven months pregnant. The tiredness and difficulty getting up and down phase has officially started as this third trimester gets underway. But I really can't believe how fast this pregnancy is flying! The summer always flies to me, and at the end of the summer, Sawyer will be here! Speaking of our little man on the way, he is officially set with newborn and three to six month size clothing! We have received and are receiving gently used, beautiful little baby boy clothes from four different sources. Already, he has 45 onsies in size 0-3 months and 21 sleepers in the same size! And we still have clothes coming from two more people! I've had so much fun going through everything and picturing my little son in each item. I hope this summer is starting off well for each of you. We finally have sod in the backyard, what a difference! In about two weeks, we'll be able to play with reckless abandoned, I'm positively giddy at the thought!

Love to each of you, Sarah

Camera Dreamin

This is the camera I'm dreaming of lately, the Nikon D40x. My love of photography has been a growing passion over the past couple years, but alas, money is required to get started. So patiently (or not so patiently) I wait... Some day, some day. These are some pictures I took last night of a thunder head at sunset. My little Canon Powershot did okay, but it's moments like these that I long for the camera above. In the spirit of contentment however, I am everso thankful for my canon and will use it and love it until I get to move on up.

No, you sci-fi finatics, that's not a UFO you see, just a dust particle on my lense I'm sure.