Frankenmuth Couple's Retreat

Sam and I attended a Strong Bonds couples retreat for National Guard couples in Frankenmuth, MI. It was so wonderful. We stayed at the Bavarian Inn, which was very impressive. This place had five levels. The bottom level was the family fun center with six different pools and a waterfall. It had a huge arcade area for families, an inside jungle gym, and miniature golf, plus gift shops. It was grand. National Guard paid for everything which was wonderful and what's even better is that they paid us both for being there. Of course, that check won't come for a couple of weeks.

Here is the back side of the Inn. We crossed the covered bridge to the Bavarian Inn Restaurant to take this picture. At first they tried to give us a bedroom with two double beds. Being that this was our first time alone, that is without a baby, in nine months we immediately changed that to a king size.

We went sight seeing at Bronner's Christmas store. Sam lept at the chance to talk to the big guy in red.

The picture is suppose to go the other way, but oh well. This is just a glimpse of the endless sea of bobbles and tree decorations at Bronner's.

My handsome hubby. We attended classes throughout the weekend that taught couples how to better communicate. The room above where he is standing was one of our classrooms.

This was the view from our balcony. They had the tower below chained off so we couldn't climb up in it to see the view. It felt like we were in Harry Potter or something.

Baby #2

Baby Zollman #2 gave us a great picture at the midwife's office the other day. You can see both legs and arms. I think he or she is sucking their fingers and you can't see it in this picture of a picture, but the ear is visible as well. Our little one has a strong heartbeat and is looking great. It's so weird. With Ruby I was right on and could tell you just what the baby should weigh and look like at whatever day of whatever week I was at the time (which I kept rigorous track of), but I am so distracted during this pregnancy so far that I had to ask the midwife how far along I was. Oops. I will have to look at the calendar more closely. We are so excited to welcome another little one in October. The official due date is October 22nd. So Sam will have a child born in his birth month and I will have one born in mine. How wonderful! That makes it easy to remember. Anyways, for those wondering, I feel wonderful. I have had little to no morning sickness, thank goodness. The midwife said the baby is doing a lot of major developing right now and so I feel drained constantly. The fact that three days after we moved into the house we started remodeling doesn't help with that either. By the way, the living room is coming right along. I will post about that in a couple days when I have all of the before and after pictures ready to go. So I feel great, just tired and we are so excited. Sam is so cute. He wants a girl this time. We will see what Heavenly FAther is sending us.

Ruby and George

Out for a stroll.

They held hands almost the entire time, like a little old couple.

Play time

Ruby giving George some pointers on crawling.

Easter

Who has the longer tongue?

Our little Princess Ruby.

Auntie Mindy and her peeps.

Papa had his arms full.

Which one should I eat first?

Aunt Sandra bought the dress. Isn't she beautiful?!

Random Ruby

"Mom, not another picture."

Ruby loves to hoard her toys under the bouncer.

"hello up there"

Bad hair day.

"Let me show you how it's done, Dad"

"I'm being attacked by the homemade decorations."

Loving her daddy.

Tada.

Enjoying the moment, but looking forward to...

I realized I haven't written in a while because there hasn't been too much exciting stuff going on, but then I realized that everyday is exciting and wonderful I am just so looking forward to other things like....

-The Snow to Melt
-50, 60 and 70 degree weather
-Walks in the warm sun
-Planting the garden
-Moving
-Getting my scrapbooking caught up (I told myself it has to be done before we plant our garden)
-Sarah and the Skinner kids to come home for July
-SUMMER!!!!!
-Ruby's first birthday party (I don't really want her to turn a year old, but I have a cute party planned already)
-Canning

And a whole lot more that I can't think of or that sound really cheesy. Ruby and I have been trying to stay busy. We have scrapbooked a lot lately. Yes, that's right, my little seven month old insists on being a part of it and loves to sit on my lap and hand me everything she sees. We are up to Halloween. I will hopefully finish that tomorrow.

I am selling Lia Sophia now. I love it! And I am actually making some money at it. Last week I had a great party and now I have possibly two new recruits as well as some cash in the bank. Things are going great. Sam is helping where he can, trying to make this a family business as much as possible, but he is still super busy with the branch and work. We had thought about other business ventures prior to Lia Sophia, but they required Sam's full attention and we knew that wouldn't work right now. So, we took a different route. This way I can work for my family and stay home with Ruby.

Ruby is learning to crawl. Recently she has mastered the motion of moving from the sitting position to rolling on her belly. Occasionally she will push herself up on her knees, but the rest of the time she just looks at me like "what do I do now" and then proceeds to cry. She is so sweet and still has the two little teeth in front. There is a third one somewhere that is just taunting her. All the signs are there, but it won't show. Maybe soon.

There. Am I caught up now? I have some other good news in the works, but it is too early to share just yet. I'll catch you up soon.

Semi-Formal

Corrie asked Joey to the Dekalb Semi-Formal. Her hair was beautiful, her dress was beautiful, she was just beautiful.


How cute!

Work it, Corrie!!!