Happy 4th of July!!!

Happy 4th of July!

It was a little strange not going home for the 4th of July holiday weekend, but we are still enjoying our weekend very much!
Friday nite, we kicked off our holiday weekend with grilling steak, zucchini and squash and ate supper outside, it was such a beautiful night!

Yesterday, we all slept in! After we got up and ate some zucchini bread for breakfast, Shane and Emma headed to the garden to pick the first of our cucumbers (pics below). After snapping a few pics and picking a cucumber or two, I went inside and enjoyed a hot, peaceful shower (very much a luxury for me nowadays). When I got out, Shane and Emma had all our cucumbers washed and laid out on the counter. We then set out to pickling those yummy cucumbers! We ended up with 4 very FULL jars! We have a lot more cucumbers that will be ready to pick next weekend, and will probably be pickling again (I hope the plants stay healthy, they are calling for thunderstorms like every day from now until Friday)! We then grilled hamburgers for lunch and spent the rest of the day relaxing some, I also did some cleaning and Shane worked on a window that is going out of his work car.

Picking cucumbers

Emma picked some dill, thinking it was a flower, she thought it had quite the smell!

Today, we got up and went to church, it was a great service, music was beautiful and the message was great...about the ways we can hear God's voice (thru His Word, His Spirit, His people, or thru circumstances). After church we stopped and chatted with several friends, then ate brunch at the Muscatine Family Restaurant. We came home and relaxed for about an hour and a half and then we headed out to our friends, Ann & Pete's ranch at 1:30pm and stayed til 7:30pm! We ate, played cards, took a tour of the ranch. It was beautiful! They showed us our pumpkins they planted for us (so I can make pumpkin seeds come fall!) They had 3 12week old kittens!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Emma LOVED them, and of course I did too! I can't believe how much abuse those kittens took from Emma and never ran away! We also petted the horse and saw some chickens. We played cards for while too. Emma was so good and so enjoyed herself, and was constantly on the go. Ann and Pete converted an old corn bin into a screened-in shelter, it was a great place to hang out away from the bugs.
When we got home, Emma was asleep, so I went in the house and went to the bathroom, restocked our cooler with fresh drinks, made some popcorn while Shane stayed in the car with Emma, then he came in and went to the bathroom. By that time it was 8:15pm, so we went to Subway, got some supper and took it down to the river front and found a great place to park for fireworks. We had to wait about an hour for the show to start. At first Emma said no-no-no to the fireworks when they went off and plugged her ears, but after awhile she was going 'whoa daddy' and 'wow'. After fireworks were over, we got right out of there, traffic wasn't bad at all. We came home, Emma got a much needed bath and is now in bed, fast asleep!

Hanging out at Ann and Pete's

Today, also marks the start of my 18th week of this pregnancy! The belly is definitely growing, and the baby moves all the time! I didn't feel too bad this week, the headaches were a little lighter, but I hardly had any energy. July 7th is our ultrasound. I am praying that this baby is healthy and growing like he/she should. We are excited to see how much he/she has changed since our 10 week ultrasound.

18 Weeks Pregnant!

Shane has tomorrow off, we don't have any plans really, just enjoy some quality family time!

I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday weekend. We are very blessed to live in this country!

God Bless America!