Abby's first crush

This post will probably TOTALLY embarrass Abby when she's 16 8, but I HAVE to record this huge moment in her life.

Abby has her first crush.

It's really cute.  One afternoon last week she came up to me while I was working on dinner in the kitchen and said, "Mommy, I want to marry Matthew.  He is SOOOOO handsome."
Then the other day while we were at the library, the girls were playing with some letter magnets on the wall.  Abby turned to me and asked, "Mommy, how do you spell 'Matthew?'"

Ohboy, here we go.  We are really in for it.


I have to add, I asked her teacher, Mrs. Edwards, to point Matthew out to me and told her I thought Abby had a little crush on him. She told me that that made sense, because Abby and Matthew are the two "leaders" in their class, and naturally they gravitate towards each other.  Haha. That just made me crack up, I don't know why. 

In other news...

Also, in other news, Little Benson #3 is looking to make his/her debut in early August. I'm 16 weeks as of yesterday, just starting to feel the fog of early pregnancy beginning to lift (including the all day nausea and vomiting, praise God!!), heard the heartbeat again on Tuesday and just started feeling movement this week.  There is nothing in the world like that.  Even the third time around it hasn't gotten old, and it hasn't become any less amazing or miraculous.
In fact, I think this one feels almost more miraculous to me.  A lot of people I love have struggled or are struggling to get/stay pregnant right now.  It's a hard, painful place to be. I feel more aware than ever that I have no control over the life and health of this child. That there is absolutely nothing I did to deserve this baby (or my other two amazing girls, for that matter).  Sometimes it seems so unfair. And, I struggle with emotions that seem so conflicting- grief and deep sadness for my friends, guilt (why me and not them??), fear- there is so much that could still go wrong, hope (I felt a kick! Everything will be okay!), excitement and love for this new life inside of me.  Sometimes I just don't know how to reconcile it all.  But maybe that's not the point?
 So, most days, I just try to be thankful.  To have gratitude.  To learn the daily eucharisteo.  It's all from Him, anyways.

So focused

We take our art verrrrry seriously around here

As you can see

Our silliness, too..

It's all quite exhausting, really

Sneaky girl

This is her favorite thing to do lately:

Drag a chair over to the counter and climb up,

Start eating whatever food has been left on the counter (in this instance, sprinkles from our Valentine's Cupcakes)

Get as many as she can before Mom notices...

But who could deny this face?

Closing Time!!!

We close today on our house.  Let the mayhem begin! The walk-through is at ten, and then we will zip over to the closing agent and sign about a zillion papers and then it will be all done! My mom is here this week to help with packing and watching the girls, cleaning the house, etc.... and I am SO thankful!!!
Once the house is ours, we will start with the floors- sanding, staining, sealing; then the walls, and then our stuff.  And one day at a time, this old and tired house we start to shine again.

What a ham!

It didn't take her long to realize this would get a reaction from us every time.  She's quite a ham.

Big News...

We have some big, awesome, life changing news....

We bought a house!!

Like, for real this time!  As in, signed on the dotted line!  It's ours!  We close October 18th!

It's old, it's tired, it needs a lot of love.  A LOT.  And paint. LOTS of paint (any volunteers??).

I turned in the final paperwork this morning, and drove away in this weird state of almost crying almost throwing up- I mean, this is probably the biggest decision we have ever made as a married couple. And it is DEFINITELY the most money we have ever spent.   

But, we are excited.  Excited to get to work and transform this old, tired, neglected house into a place of beauty, rest, welcome, and LIFE.

And, excited to spend early fall mornings out here, tucked under a blanket, with a cup of something warm.

What?  Did you think I was going to say we were expecting again?  Come on!  Give a girl a break!