Back to Reality

Justin and I had a wonderful trip to Chicago last week, but now it is back to reality for us.  This morning, Justin headed to work at his new office (he got to miss out on the big move last week while we were on vacation) and I am back to getting things ready for our garage sale this weekend.  If anyone reading this knows of anyone in the Springfield area who is in need of baby girl clothes send them my way because I have TONS to sell.  I also need to clean the garage out, but with the extremely HOT temps. I think I will wait until late in the evenings to do that.

Due to the garage sale preparations, I am not sure when I will have a chance to edit our vacation photos, but I will post them as soon as I do.  I also have photos from my family reunion yesterday to post as well.  Hope everyone has a great week.

Oh Sweet Day of Birth (a day early)

Happy 27th Birthday, Justin!  We love you very much.

Love,

Jennifer, Makenna, and Beckham

***For those reading this that are wondering about the title--it is Justin's coined phrase instead of saying Happy Birthday***

4th of July Recap

Here are some pictures from our 4th of July weekend.  We had a fabulous time with friends and family.

We have a pretty low-key week planned.  I am going to try to get more things together for our garage sale in a few weeks and of course, pack and get ready for our Chicago vacation next week. 

Breakfast with Dora and Diego

This morning we headed out early for Silver Dollar City.  For Kid's Fest, they are having special breakfast each weekend with different popular cartoon characters and when we found out Dora and Diego were the featured characters this weekend, we decided to go.  Makenna was a bit scared at first, but then warmed up to them and even gave Dora a high-five.  The whole event was a bit unorganized, but Makenna enjoyed herself and that is all that matters.  We were the last people to get pictures with D and D before they went on a 15 minute break (which didn't make sense to us because there were only two more kids behind us in line that were at the breakfast), but as we were walking away Makenna said, "Bye, Dora" and Dora waved back.  It was pretty cute.

Makenna eating breakfast

Makenna posing for a picture

Makenna thinking about giving Dora a five

Justin and Makenna with Dora, Boots, and Diego

 Dora waving bye to Makenna

Like I said the breakfast was kind of chaotic, but we are glad we went.  It just prepared us for when we take the kids to Disney World and do a character breakfast there.

We don't have any plans for the rest of the weekend besides church tomorrow morning.  We will probably catch up on housework since we haven't been home all week due to sports camp at church (it is our version of VBS) and who knows what else. 

22 Weeks

Today, I am officially 22 weeks and things are going great. I had a check-up appointment today and Dr. Williams said everything looks great. I go back in 5 weeks for the glucose test which isn't fun, but that just means we are getting closer to meeting our little guy. Makenna is very excited now about her baby brother and she even talks to him sometimes.

I had some time between school and my appointment so I stopped by a fabric store just to look at material. I have decided that with the help of my mom I am going to make some burp cloths and bibs and I found some CUTE fabric for the burp cloths. I can't wait to attempt making them.

If you read my last post you remember me mentioning how we got unexpected good news, but I couldn't go into much detail. Well, now I can say that since everything has become official I can share that Justin got a merit-based promotion at work. I am SO proud of him.

I only have 7 more days of summer school and then 4 days of curriculum work and then it will officially be vacation time for me. Justin and I are looking forward to our babymoon/5-year anniversary trip to Chicago in the of next month.

Unexpected Surprises

I absolutely love it when something unexpected happens and I realize that it is a total blessing from God. Today, the Coffer family got some very exciting news and although I can't go into great detail about it (or at least not yet), I can say that God is good and it is in situations like this when I feel bad that I ever doubted His control over our lives.

This weekend is my 10-year class reunion and tomorrow will be spent catching up with my high school classmates during a family gathering at the park and an evening dinner in downtown Springfield. We have a good family friend, Leah, coming to watch Makenna--this will only be the second time we have had someone other than family watch Makenna. Then on Sunday, we are going to church, taking Leah to lunch to celebrate her recent birthday, and then taking her home in Bolivar. It will be an eventful, busy weekend. I will try to post pics after soon.

It's A.......

BOY!

We are very excited and Makenna is getting used to the idea of having a brother instead of a sister. We can't wait to meet our little guy.

A boy or a girl?

We find out tomorrow and we are so excited! Makenna is dead set that see is going to have a baby sister. Guess, we will know at this time tomorrow. We will definitely let everyone know.

Waiting No More

We finally received word that we will be having summer school. So, it looks like my next few days will be spend getting ready for 19 days of teaching credit recovery before school ends on Friday. I also have next week, but I have already committed to help work on writing math assessments for 9 hours a day, so I don't believe there will be much time for summer school planning.

Speaking of waiting, we only have two weeks until we find out if Makenna will be having a baby brother or a baby sister. Today we scheduled the ultrasound for June 2nd and we cannot wait.

We are also in the process of planning a vacation to Chicago in July. We are riding the Amtrak there from St. Louis and we have our hotel booked. Other than that, we haven't planned anything so if anyone has any suggestions please let us know.

All I can say is bring on the craziness of summer.

Still Waiting...

That's right--we are still waiting to hear about summer school.  We were originally told that we would find out about state funding by May 7th.  Well, tomorrow is May 7th and we have now been told that they will make a decision by next Friday.  I just want to know if I am teaching or not so I know if I need to keep materials out or pack them up as I prepare my classroom for summer. 

In other news, Justin and I have recently made the decision to become the leaders of our small group at church.  I have lead Bible stud ies in the past, but Justin has not and since he isn't the type that is outgoing in groups he and I thought that he would never want to.  However, I guess God had other plans and when this opportunity was laid before us it was Justin who was first to say that he believed this was something we needed to do.  We absolutely love the other couples in our small group and we are excited to see howthe Lord blesses our group.