Summer Fishing with Papa

A few Thursday's back, Papa took Hayden out to Lake Minnetonka for some action packed fishing. Here they are with their keepers: two nice sized Bass. Can't you just see the pride in both of their faces?! :)

Papa Sharpe continues to alternate taking H & E out for adventures with him every Thursday. What a gift for all involved to spend this quality time together. It started when Hayden was 1 year old, and has continued every week since then. Hayden is already getting pretty sad that when he starts Kindergarten in the fall, he will have to give up his special days with Papa.

Just in time, though, for baby #3 to join in the fun, I guess!!

"Fresh Lemonade...just 50 cents!"

So, have I mentioned how much we LOVE our new neighbors and neighborhood?

Memorial Day was just another reason why we love it here so much. A few days earlier we had made plans with the Thorman's (two doors down to the East) to have our first lemonade stand on the corner of our lot--since we have prime location for walking, biking, and car traffic..aka..potential customers! :)

Nanette and her girls, Taylor and Kendall made the lemonade & cute signs, and we provided the space in which to set up shop and lounge.

Above: Our first customers, on bikes
Below: Hayden and Taylor, testing the lemonade--the true first customers

Above: Nanette and the girls all helping this gentlemen
Below: Blowing off some steam between customers. Just look at the joy on their faces.... I love this photo!!

And finally some photos of our whole crew, from afar. It was a lovely, lovely day with beautiful sunshine....and best of all, time with great friends.

25 weeks

As promised, a few photos of my growing buddha!
Here I am at 25 weeks gestation, and growing rapidly at this point.
Baby is moving like crazy, and Jonathan & the kids have felt he or she moving in there now, as well.

I stopped throwing up about a week ago, and am hoping to be over the morning sickness portion of this pregnancy now.....please, pretty please, with sugar on top???

Other than that, we are just getting more and more excited everyday to meet this little one, and excited that we only have a little over 3 months to go!

Memorial Weekend 2009

Memorial weekend came and went, and we thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the beautiful, glorious weather. We started out the weekend just hanging out at home, running errands, getting groceries, and doing some yard work.

Sunday morning started early with a Formula One race party & breakfast at our neighbor's house at 7:30am. It was a ball, and the food was great--Ummm...homemade waffles! From there we immediately jumped in the car and headed to Taylor's Falls for a day of fun with the Smith's. They were all camping there in their RV's for the weekend, so we just decided to go spend the day with them.

We had so much fun. The kids went swimming twice in the pool at the campground, we went hiking at the State Park right along the St. Croix river, we ate, we played, we laughed, we got too much sun, and we finished off the evening with a campfire and s'mores. A perfect day if you ask me!!

Above: Nana Smith (aka...Bubba) and all of the kids (excluding Cole)
Below: Three generations of Rae's; Erica Rae, Donna Rae & Tammie Rae

Below: A portion of our group on the Pot Hole Hike
Notice we are all wearing flip-flops....not the best choice in footwear for a hike on jagged rocks. Would rethink that one if we do this hike again! :)

Below: Erica and Riley, cute as can be, about to squeeze between some rocks.

Finally, our group just relaxing at the end of the hike, along the beautiful St. Croix River.
We realized once we got to the end that we only had one 1/2 full bottle of water between the 12 of us. It didn't go very far......

Our growing family:

AHHhhhhhh....FINALLY a drinking fountain:

The end of our perfect day:

Baby Sharpe #3

Jon and I went in for my 20 week ultrasound today....I know, can you believe I am
already half way through this pregnancy! We are over the moon excited that our baby
looks perfect and healthy on ultrasound. Heart, brain, face, spine, kidneys, extremities, stomach, diaphragm, etc...all checked out as completely normal.

We resisted the urge to find out the sex this go round, and are really
excited that we didn't. It will be a totally new experience for us to go into this
whole labor and delivery without knowing whether we will be coming home with a
baby boy or girl. The ultrasound tech knows, but had us look away while she took a peek.

Baby was measuring slightly over 20 weeks gestation, with an estimated weight of 14 oz,
and an official due date of September 8th, 2009.

Now just 19+ weeks to go!!

Look at those cute little tootsie's! :)

Our Baby Girl Turns Three!

Our sweet Miss Erica turned 3 on February 20th, which unfortunately was the same weekend that my dad passed away. Despite the sadness, we were still able to do some birthday celebrating for our big girl. Friday evening we stayed overnight at the Waterpark of America and played all evening until the park closed down. Then Sunday, we had a big "Dora" birthday party at our home with our friends and neighbors. We thought about canceling the party, but I am still thankful we had it. I think it was good for us--to take our mind off things for a bit, and just celebrate Erica's life. I knew, too, that my Dad would've wanted us to still have her party.

Erica, E.Rae, Little Miss E, Love Bug, Boo, Punky.......
what can I say about the little girl who we love so dearly,
and changed our lives forever on February 20th, 2006?

Not a day goes by that we are not beyond thankful to have you in our lives.
You never cease to amaze us with your independent spirit and immense strength.
You are loving, caring, & cuddly, yet feisty, strong & resilient.

Soon you will be a big sister, which you are Sooo excited about!
We are very excited to see you in your new role, and your new little brother or sister will be so lucky to have you as a big sister.

Happy Belated Birthday, Erica. We love you more than words can say!

And Now for Some Happy News......

As some of you may have heard already, we are happy to announce that we are expecting again!!

Yes-- call us crazy insane, or insane crazy...but we have decided to add a baby #3 to the Sharpe family. We will officially be out-numbered, which is sure to be interesting and a little chaotic at times. We keep having to remind ourselves that both of our parents did it, and we all turned out just fine (well, mostly)!

I am finally done with the first trimester, and starting to feel a little more human again. The nausea seems to be relenting a bit, which is a huge relief. I am also growing out of all of my "normal" pants, so have moved to elastic waistband yoga pants at this point. Ugh, it's insane how much quicker you "pop" with each subsequent pregnancy. *Note the above picture is from my pregnancy with Erica, not this one....it was just added for visual effect and impact* :)

So, much for to come on this subject--including growing belly photos. Hayden and Erica are ecstatic about the news, which has been really fun to see. Our unofficial due date is 9/13/09, which was my exact due date with Hayden, as well. Hopefully I can deliver before Kindergarten starts on 9/8?? We'll see!