OK, it's been a loooong time since I've written. I was worn out chasing after my 3 kiddos and being pregnant, but now that Zach is 6 weeks old, I think I'm getting some energy back! The biggest news is that Zachary William was born at the beginning of July. It was a quick delivery (1-1/2 hours after the Dr. broke my water and sent me into labor) so there was no time for an epidural this time! He is a huge blessing to our family and we are enjoying him every day. He seems to fit right in with the other kiddos and they love to hold him and give him kisses. He is still waking up a couple times a night, but he goes right back to sleep so it's not too crazy. Of course I'm hoping that he starts sleeping longer stretches at night soon.
I think since it's been so long, I'll go backwards in time in this post, if I can remember what we did. Joe and I celebrated our 7th anniversary on June 22. We usually try to go away for a weekend (or at least a night), but since I was 37 weeks pregnant we just went to dinner. We'll try to do an out-of-town weekend later in the year.
We attended the Hugghins family reunion on June 20th in Huntsville, TX. It was kind of a small group this year, but we enjoyed seeing everyone and catching up. I think they decided to do the reunion every other year from now on, so we look forward to seeing everyone again. The last reunion was in 2005 when Ben was the youngest Hugghins in attendance.
The boys took swim lessons in the beginning of June. Abby will have to wait 2 more years since she'll need to be 3 years old (or we may try to sneak her in at the end of the summer next year when she'll be just a month shy of 3). They did really well. Sam loves to go under water and look around and he likes to sink, which makes mama nervous! Ben is a little more timid, but did a great job and has been improving all summer. We are blessed that Grandma & Grandpa have taken the oldest 3 swimming several times this summer while mama gets some rest at home with Zach.
In May Sam was playing soccer and he scored some goals in the final few games. My cousin Tom and his wife Missy moved to the D/FW area in the spring so they came down for a visit in May and attended one of Sam's games. It's kind of like herding cats (watching 5-7 year olds play soccer) but there was noticeable improvement between the fall and spring. Sam is looking forward to playing again this fall.
Also in May, our church had a baby dedication ceremony and we had Abby dedicated to the Lord. A couple of other friends had their babies dedicated too, including one that was born 2 days after the dedication. I can't remember much else about the month of May so I'll just post more later if I think of anything.
In April we went to Gonzalez, LA to visit Gramby and Pa. They are living there for a year while Pa works for his daughter's company. We had a great visit just hanging out with them and going to Pa's "favorite fishy place" where we all ate some fried alligator. The kids all did well on the 6-7 hour drive. Abby kind of lost it the last hour each day, but who can blame her when she's strapped down into a car seat for the whole trip.
March involved a trip to the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco. We saw lots of animals and had a good time. It's really a nice little zoo that's inexpensive and a good size for a family with little kiddos. We can cover the whole thing in a couple of hours.
