And the Winner IS....

FARM THEME FUN!

While I can't tell you what it will look like, I can tell you that it won't be as goofy as this:

But more detailed than this:

The tractor will NOT be red and it won't be this busy...

I can only guarentee that the tractor will have some kind of emblem like so...

This is the little bit of information that I do know and now we have a plan...Thank you all for your imput! We'll post actual pictures when he decides just exactly what will come out of that brain of his.

Trading Mural Idea Spaces

Karl and I have been thinking about what mural we want to do for the baby’s room and we are not agreeing on much. We need more ideas. Do you have any suggestions? We thought about a few things. Either vote on one of them or throw out a completely different mural idea.

Farm Scene
Kites
Big fun animals
Teddy bears
Ducks

Remember, we are not going to find out the sex of our baby, so we have to keep it non-gender specific! This whole non-gender thing is harder than I thought it would be. It is also difficult to find yellow and green in the stores. We are going to stick with it though. Karl is much stronger than I am…

If you have any ideas, we’re all open!

Bridges of Madison County and a Wii bit of fun!

Mom, dad, Amy and Jorge all flew in for Memorial Day weekend and we had a blast. When I say we I mean Wii! Karl and I; after searching for two weeks found a Wii. The plan was to have it hooked up and ready to go when Amy and Jorge got here because playing games with Amy…well, it entertaining!

Micah and Jennifer located one for us in Paris and sent it with mom and dad. The day that Amy and Jorge flew in (Thursday) I made one final call just to check out the chances of there being one in the Newton Wal-Mart and I struck gold. So, Friday morning we introduced the Wii system to the Beck, Perez, and McDonald household. It was as fun as you can imagine. We played all weekend. Lyneil is great at tennis. She will kick your tail. Amy looks like a windmill the whole time while playing tennis, according to dad. Mom is fun to watch bowl as well as Amy. We had a blast!
During the middle of the day on Saturday, while the little boys were napping, Jorge, Amy, Karl and I went to explore. Jorge drove us to Winterset, Iowa and we got to see the birthplace of John Wayne and all 5 bridges. Karl had it all mapped out for us and there was no back-tracking. I must say, once you’ve seen one bridge, you’ve literally seen them all five. The John Wayne birthplace was neat…sort of. Papa is a big fan of JW, so we went by for him. We got to walk through his house he grew up in for the first 7 years of his life and we also got to go to the gift shop. Last Saturday was the 100th Birthday of “The Duke”. I thought of Papa the whole time and we got him some souvenirs.
Then on to see more and more bridges…..We saw bridge after bridge after bridge, while Karl read the stats and history on each one. While in Winterset, JW home town, also home of the one of the bridges, Karl found a sign that told about a rock tower. So, we took the tour in car mode and found it. It was probably the neatest thing we saw that day. By the way, the bridge in the Winterset Park was the neatest bridge in my mind.

Here are some pictures of the four of us checking all the bridges out!

Hope you enjoy them as much as Wii did!!

Some of the best entertainment in life is FREE...

Karl and I were left with the boys while Neil and Andy went out on a more than deserved date. Why is it that we get to have all the fun? I think that Braxton has had his eye on this water hose for a long time and finally Karl let him have it...

I don't know who was more fun to watch; Braxton with the hose chasing Karl or Brazos coming back for more and just squealing everytime the water got near!

Karl finally coaxed Braxton into taking a drink from the hose. It only took once. He learns quick. I am so scared for our kids. Braxton and Brazos are going to teach them so many things...Can't say we don't deserve it!

All in all - Fun Times!

We ordered a special turkey for Thanksgiving...

Well, my goal was to loose my first 30 pounds and that would be labeled my baby making goal! I made that back in March. Little did I know that we would be actually making more than just one goal! Of course, it took a total shock on my body for all of this to happen, but it did. I came home one day from work and got completely worked up about one of my ankles being swollen to the point that it hurt to bend it. So, Neil prompted me to make a Dr. appointment. I went the next day thinking that I had a bad circulation problem and well, kind of….

Dr. Tapp wanted to do an extra of my ankle and I asked him if I needed to take any special precautions in case we were pregnant. Karl and I have been trying for a year or so but not to the point where we were stressing. Since December we had been serious about it, but I was more than sure that things would happen on God’s time and His time would be after I got some of the spare tires ran off.

His plan was happening in March and I had no idea. Over the last two years I have been off the pill and taking pregnancy test like they were free. Karl (my loving, tight-wad husband) asked that I didn’t take not one more. He said, “when you are, you’ll know.” So, to be the (acting like) submissive wife I yearn to be, I respected his wishes/demands and Dr. Tapp proceeded with a blood test first. He came back in and said that my white blood count was pretty high and my iron was pretty low. I asked what could make that happen and he simply, calmly replied, probably because your blood test was positive for pregnancy!! I was so surprised I teared up and hugged him! Had no idea!

I proceeded like everything was normal because the first person I was going to see was Lyneil! I have NO game face. So, I spent most of the afternoon downstairs. Karl and I had volunteered to keep the boys while Lyneil and Andy went on a date that evening. So, after a stop to Target, I left Karl at the supper table with two messy boys and went downstairs to get him a little gift. He had it figured out when I left to run downstairs….NO game face.

We are 12 weeks and so excited. Lyneil has helped me pick out some really great stuff at garage sales and I am getting in change everything mode! Life is great and Karl is giddy!

I had to make a trip to the sonogram room early but everything turned out perfect. We heard the heartbeat and all is well!

Here are the pictures from 3 weeks ago.

Cousin Kanyon - The Fighter

Jaymie and Kory had premature twins at week 25 last Sunday. Kanyon is pressing on and strenghthening daily. Jayde went to be with her loving, Heavenly Father. We rejoice that He knows our limitations and can see what we need as individuals.

If you have not been able to visit their site, we need prayers. Please visit the Phillips site and pray for them and we ask that you pass this request along to as many as you know.

If you have not checked the Phillips Phamily blog in while let me tell you some good news~Kanyon is doing good!! Praise God!! I am so glad that he is doing well. His lungs are holding up right now and they have started giving him Jaymie's milk. Over the past 24 hours he has been stable and is processing and digesting the milk very well. Thank you God for wonderful news.
Please continue to pray for Kanyon, Jaymie, and Kory as they all need our prayers right now.Also, Please pray for Jay and Gay, Clint and Rachel, and Clay and Maurine as they all could use some strength.

Thanks for all the prayers so far - it is working!

Ice hockey anyone?

Have I told you lately how much I love being an aunt…I missed all four of them for the long week that they were all gone, but I really missed those boys! Church was much less active and coming home wasn’t the same. We are glad that they are back safe and sound and they had a blast in Texas. One of the best things about being an aunt is that we can let things like this happen and no one ever thinks different!



While the Beck’s were visiting Texas, Micah and Jennifer came up from Paris to spend a couple of days with us. Karl and I have not made the time to spend with them since we left college, so it was great being up here away from everything. It was nice not to have to share our time with anyone else….so selfish!




Micah, Jennifer and I got to go and see our first live hockey game. That was exciting. I would love to go and do that again. It is so fast paced and aggressive. I loved it! Amy had told me how much fun they are and she is right, they are a blast. This was old school for Karl but it was nice to have him to explain all of the rules!


Here are some pictures of our event. We had really good seats. We were on the 6th row even though my camera looks as if it should tell a different story.

I don’t know that I have any “normal” pictures of Micah. Then again, not many Zant’s I know fit in the “normal” status!

My favorite man in the world. Isn’t he a hunny? I love being married to this guy!