Family Pictures

This is the sneak peek of the family pictures we took with my super cute and super talented sister in law Julie.
I wanted to capture what our little family looked like in the Summer of 2012 right before Baby #2 arrived.

And along with capturing that...she captured Ruby's all around adorableness.
More to come!

Julie is local and very decently priced...$100 for an hour and that's it. No extra charge for editing or the photo disc or anything. Her number is 479-381-0543...call her! Yes, this is the same SIL that is a very good hairdresser. The Kiehns are oozing with talent. Glad I'm making babies with one of them!

Glorious Sundays and Mondays

These two days of the week are most people's dreaded days. It's the end of their weekend and soon the first day of work will be here.

But for some reason, Sunday evening and Mondays I have the most energy than I do for the rest of the week. I love it and look forward to it!

I think it's because Friday evenings, all day Saturday and all day Sunday Kevin helps me so much with Ruby and the house that I feel rested and it's so nice to have the help.

Last night we went on a bike ride on this beautiful trail. It was 7:45 at night and warm and gorgeous and still light. Summer is most definitely my season. I was practically floating with happiness.
If you wanted to see a funny sight, it was me, 31 weeks pregnant, squeezed in my size small running shorts, riding a bike. I mean, are there even maternity workout shorts? I cannot find any anywhere. Needless to say, I had muffin tops and some serious waistband indentions on my skin when I took those babies off:)

Then today, we took Ruby to the pool because I have been LONGING to swim laps for a while now and today was the first day the pool opened.

It was, in a word, skanky.
Lots of grossness is gross bathing suits.
Just...not a classy family hangout, I'll say that:)
I'm sad because I need so badly to swim laps. It feels so, so good on my back and body and everything.
I think we decided I'll go by myself a few times a week when Kev can watch Ruby and I'll just go, swim my laps, then leave.
Do I sound like a snob? Not trying to. I'm just telling you...public pools. Kinda gross.

Summer is just the best.
So much activity going on.
So much carefree fun.
So much less hair and makeup to be done.
Everyone's tan.
Everyone's eating fresh and yummy foods.

It's just wonderful.

Tonight we are having a little family dinner since my family's not doing anything and Kevin's is out of town.
We are going to make Ruby's all time favorite...grilled corn on the cob. And all the other yummy fixins.
Thank you, to the selfless men and women who fought and died for our country.
We prayed over the families of those men and women today that they would be filled with righteous pride and with peace.

Happy Memorial Day!

Friday Phone Dump

Daddy met us at the park after work!

go Ruby girl!

I let Clarence out of his kennel and, as always, he scratched me in excitement. It hurt SO BAD. I sent this pic to Kevin along with "if you can give me one good reason that we still have Clarence other than 'we bought him 5 years ago' then I will not kill him today"

backyard excitement

the girls' room will be painted soon! yahoooooo!

Happy Mother's Day to me from Kohl's! Seriously. They sent me a $10 gift card for MD. I walked in and got this pretty thing without paying a dime!

I was having a rough day last week and I went in to sit in the glider in the girls' room (my "getaway spot") when I saw these on the floor. These precious, tiny little tights that will soon be filled with my chubby newborn this fall. Suddenly, nothing else mattered and it hit me how good life really is.

Ruby and I were in line to get an ice water. The man in front of us said "water?! you're not going to get her some ice cream? I'm a Papa in training...can I get her some ice cream?" and Ruby said that was fine:)

the most beautiful summer evening. 80 degrees and a breeze. people all around playing banjos, mandolins, guitars, fiddles etc and singing old gospel and country music. love this town.

is there anything better than seeing your babies asleep?

Recently At The Kiehns

My older brother Brady graduated from college! He is an Elementary School teacher and if you know him at all...it suits him perfectly. He is gentle and quiet and slow to anger mixed with outgoing and fun for the kids. You will rarely RARELY find him in a bad mood or pouty or negative. He's just steady on and always positive. The kids at the school he's been interning at just LOVE Mr. Carman.

Did you ever have a male teacher at your elementary school? Wasn't he like sooo cool because he was the only guy teacher?

L to R: my little brother Baylor, Molly (Brady's wife), Brady, my momma, and you know the rest of us

 Me and Kevin are total shawty's compared to my family. And I have wedges on!

Ruby loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. TV is one of those last-resort things, but sometimes after a long long day of your toddler tugging at you...it's not only nice, it's necessary.
Anyways, we don't have cable so we just YouTube it. Walked by the other day and Ruby was watching like this:

30 weeks!
 

major thanks to my client Annie who gave me these great maternity capris. they are perfect!

Weight gained: 15 lbs.
Cravings: I've been loving fresh fruit (especially watermelon!) lately. And Braum's crushed ice. And Braum's ice cream. Cappucino chunky chocolate and choc chip cookie dough are my special little treats:)
Due date: July 27th
Gender: girl. although some people have questioned because of the way I am carrying being different from Ruby but I say HUSH! it's a girl, and I'm stickin to it. of course, I'll be happy no matter what this babe comes out.
Position: right now she's head down and facing up. Elizabeth said that's no problem at all because with 10 weeks still to go, she'll turn and face head down the closer to delivery. But that makes so much sense of why I can feel her kicks and movements so easily because she's RIGHT under my belly. She also mainly hangs out on my right side.
Exercise: I stopped doing yoga and strength training because it was literally hurting my back SO bad. (Which is ironic because exercise during pregnancy is supposed to help/prevent that exact thing) I am walking pretty regularly and keeping up with the Rubinator.
Nursery: oh. A hideous hodge podge of Ruby's old cute room with awful curtains slapped up and big robin's egg blue patches painted on the wall for color testing. It's gorgeous, really.

The nursery to-do?
-prime and paint room
-sand, prime, and paint crib
-get crib mattress (Ruby's is on her toddler bed now)
-different curtains
-Ruby bedding
-buy and assemble (and possibly paint) some sort of cubby shelf. If you see one of these-PLEASE TELL ME ASAP. And no...we don't have IKEA here:(
-spray paint frames I have sitting around
-decorate here and there which is the fun part

See why I've been putting it off? sooo much work and money honey!
Also, Kevin has to do the painting and he's been busy and I feel like a slave driver giving him that list because he does NOT like painting. And I paint a room in our house about oh, every month.

Soon my little toddler will seem like a giant compared to our newborn. Which is so sweet and so cool. We'll have two little girls to watch grow and to adore.

You know what I think about almost everyday?
This:

Oooooh! My dream car!
I mean seriously...have you ever driven a Honda Odyssey? Have you?
I will gladly eat the humble pie it takes to drive a mini van if this is the one I'd get.
They are so perfect. They are so made for families.
Honda thought of everything.
It's like they took 100 moms and asked what they wished they had in a car and then they created it.

*sigh* one day...

love, total mom.

Unconditional Love

Today has been so peaceful.

When I got to church this morning and tried to sing for the sound check, exhaustion hit me hard and I asked Kevin if he minded if I just sat out this morning. He said of course that was fine, and to just rest.

Immediately, I knew that this Sunday morning, I was going to get to be on the receiving end of ministry instead of the giving. 

I just sat there, and was able to hear my Heavenly Father speak to me while the music was playing and I was surrounded by people engaging in worship.

And it was so, so sweet.

Yahweh said to me

"Jessica, you can't perform for me. You can't get me to love you any more than I already do"

And I started crying. Because I was feeling guilty for not being on stage singing and helping out and being a leader. 

 Because I spend so much time trying to do everything right.

I am so quick to judge anything or anyone that is out of order, especially myself.

But He said to me

"Let Me change you, in due time, the right way. Nothing you can do within yourself is going to last or impress me. I don't want performance. I want you and a tender heart"

Then, as if she was eavesdropping on mine and the Father's conversation, my amazing mother-in-law came up to me and encouraged me word for word what I was hearing this morning. She said it took her years and years to learn this lesson but she finally has (and is.) That we cannot do it all. We can't be perfect for anybody or anything. We can't worry that if we don't do this this and this that we are letting people down. Letting God down. We just have to do our best and trust that the Father is doing a work in us, as long as we are humble enough to listen and let Him.

I'm not even sure what all of this is going to look like, but I know there's been a change in me.

A releasing and a freedom to not earn Yahweh's love and approval but to just accept it in it's perfect entirety. Even though I did absolutely nothing to deserve it. 

That's just the way a true Father operates. 

Unconditional love.

So simple, but for me...so huge.