The Saturday 7

1. Last Sunday, we finally celebrated Lena's birthday with my family. I was looking back at pictures of Lucy's 3rd birthday. I got her a special birthday shirt, she wore a special outfit, I did her hair all cute, bought an expensive cake from Meijer, decorated the house, etc. This is what Lena got:

Lol. 2nd child. I did make strawberry shortcake to go with that cake roll. It was delicious (as was the cake - I may have eaten 4 pieces). And here are the 2 other pictures I snapped:

She doesn't need a birthday outfit to be cute!

The awesome present my mom found at Once Upon a Child:

It's a swing for her babies! This thing has gotten a ton of use in the past week. 

And she was well spoiled by my siblings and parents. She doesn't care how lame the party was. She's just thrilled with the gifts. :-)

2. I felt a lot better this week. At my ultrasound on Monday, Baby was head down. I think he finally got off my sciatic nerve, and it makes a world of difference! The pelvic pain still gets bad with activity, but the over-all pain has gotten a lot more bearable this week. (That said, I don't think he's head down anymore, so we'll see what next week holds. More on that tomorrow in the weekly update.) I do think I'm also getting good at taking it easy, which helps. We had a sweet friend bring us dinner on Monday. It's the best we've eaten in weeks! Haha.

3. I got my new laptop this week, and my fabulous brother got it up and running for me all the way from Florida! I never should've underestimated his technological prowess. Once I got the wireless set up (with his help via text), he could remotely control my computer and do whatever needed to be done. I'm greatly enjoying the speed of a working computer . . . and my glorious x key! He also transferred all my pictures/files to this computer so they're safe until this one dies at least. Maybe someday I should think about backing up all my pictures for real . . .

4. My dad and I were talking this week about the "buts" in Psalms. He wanted to look up a verse in my ESV Bible and commented on how he makes special note of the "buts" the same way I do, then went on to remark about how many "buts" there are in Psalms. Big buts, little buts, buts of every kind. Lol.

The one that got us started was Psalm 13:

How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, Lord, my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say, "I have overcome him," and my foes will rejoice when I fall. But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lord's praise, for he has been good to me.  

I love that despite all the oppression and fear David is experiencing, he is able to say, "But I trust" and go on to sing the Lord's praise.

Here are a few others:

 "For I hear many whispering, 'Terror on every side!' They conspire against me and plot to take my life. But I trust in you, Lord. I say 'You are my God.' My times are in your hands . . ." (Psalm 31:13-15)

 "If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you." (Psalm 130:3-4)

"you destroy those who tell lies. The bloodthirsty and deceitful you, Lord, detest. But I, by your great love, can come into your house; in reverence, I bow down toward your holy temple." (Psalm 5:6-8)

"My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." (Psalm 73:26) 

 Know of any other great "buts" in the Bible? In the Psalms or otherwise?

5. Last night, we went to a friend's house to hang out. Since my built in babysitter (Mom) abandoned us to Florida, we brought the girls with us. They're flexible with bedtime, and I knew they'd be fine watching movies after the other kids went to bed. I really didn't think we'd stay that long, but we started talking at 10:00 . . . and didn't stop til 11:45. The girls were downstairs watching a movie, and both of them stayed awake the whole time! They didn't even fall asleep in the car on the way home! What kind of robot children are they?!?! Lucy slept 'til 8:45 this morning, but Lena was up at 7 - only about half an hour later than usual! (She did take a good 3.5 hour nap this afternoon.)

6. This morning, Lucy had "walk-a-thon" at school. It's a fundraiser for the school put on by the Pre-K, Kindergarten, and 1st grade classes. Basically, the kids walk laps around the gym in exchange for donations. Many people just give a one-time donation, but a few pledge the kids per lap. We had one family member pledge Lucy $1 per lap, and she was so excited to see how much she could earn. I honestly didn't think she'd do a ton of laps in the hour we were there. She's a little bit like her mother and doesn't appreciate strenuous activity. But she got 41 laps! I told Justin he was on duty for this particular event. He walked with her while I helped at the registration table. And Lena did 34 laps with them as well! That's a lot for those little legs! Haha.

7. The last bit of excitement for the week came tonight when my nephew Tyler and his fiancee Rieley showed up with this:

Lena's going to have her first flower girl experience this summer! Hopefully. Haha. She's not super cooperative. But she'll be 3.5 by then, and we'll bribe her up the wazoo, so hopefully she'll do OK. This will be the first wedding Lucy's ever been to where she's not the flower girl. I was a little concerned about how she'd react, so I prepped her before hand. I told her that she's been a flower girl 3 times and now it's Lena's turn. I said that Rieley was coming over with a surprise for Lena to ask her to be her flower girl, and Lucy was all excited for Lena. So far, she seems to be happy for her and not upset that she doesn't get to do it herself. We'll see if that lasts when Lena gets the pretty dress and styled hair, etc. . . .