Half Way There!.......or not

I went in for my 20 week ultrasound today and to answer the first question on everyone's mind...no, we did not find out the gender of the baby :) Everything went really well. We were able to see the baby moving and hear as well as see the heart beating. I think the ultrasound is one of the coolest things in pregnancy. The ultrasound tech told us everything she was measuring and what we were looking at. Then at the end she said that she thought my due date was off. Apparently the baby was measuring only 17 weeks and 5 days instead of 20 weeks and 2 days. So, that means that my due date has changed...I am now due October 29. My doctor seemed very surprised that we were so far off and there were some measurements they couldn't get because the baby was not cooperating and is too little. I have to have another ultrasound in 8 weeks, so we'll have to see how that one goes. Overall I am happy that the baby is doing well and it was great to see him/her, but I am a little frustrated because I thought I was half way done. I just have to get used to being 18 weeks instead of 20. Here are some pictures of Baby Staal....they aren't the best quality but we'll take what we can get :)

Memorial Day Weekend

On Friday we packed up the pop-up and traveled to Van Buren State Park in South Haven. We had a great weekend! The weather was beautiful....it only rained once at night, so we were able to enjoy being outside most of the weekend. We had 3 other families that joined us, the Littles, the Kidds, and the Rodenhouses. Lily and Sadie loved having the other kids to play with. Here are just some of the pictures we have from the weekend.

Family Photo on the beach. We went there only a couple times. Lily loved it and wanted to dive in despite the frigid temperature of the water. Sadie seemed to like the water but she wasn't a big fan of the sand. She was better closer to the water where the sand was more packed down.

Roasting marshmallows...or as Lily says "Grilling marshmallows" was one of the highlights. Lily loves marshmallows and thought it was so cool to help daddy grill them. She had graham crackers too but still no chocolate for this girl.

Sadie loved the chocolate! She isn't a big fan of marshmallows but she loves the chocolate and the grahams. She even learned how to say chocolate and asked for it everytime she saw it. She may be a little like her mommy when it comes to sweets :)

Jackson, Sadie, Brady, Kennedy, Lily, and Owen taken right before we all left. One of our sites was next to a path and had this nice fence along it which helped to keep the kids from running away all the time. I thought it was so cool to see how all our kids got along so well. The Rodenhouse kids were great as well but they had to leave early so they missed being in the picture. We can't wait to do this again next year!

Enjoying the Outdoors

Lily and Sadie have been enjoying these nice days. They can't wait to get outside everyday and hate coming back in. Here are some things they have been doing.

having a picnic

learning to ride a big bike

sidewalk chalk

using the wagon to give "bus rides"


The girls also love to use their watering cans to water the flowers, playing with bubbles and going for walks. We go for at least one walk almost every day. Lily always walks with me and Sadie is starting to as well.

Lily's Friend

While at Kinderplaats we noticed that the Critter Man was there. I pointed out to Lily that there was a snake she could pet. Much to my surprise she loved it!

She held it.


She had it on her shoulders.


And at one point she kissed it.


She also touched it's eyeball, which grossed me out :) Matt and I couldn't believe how much she loved the snake. Most kids were too afraid to even touch it. She told me later that it was a "very friendly snake" and it wasn't scary at all.

Kinderplaats 09

Saturday we went to the Tulip Time Festival. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time. Lily loves tulips, so she wanted to spend some time looking at them and smelling them.

Sadie liked the tulips too...she just loves to be outside so she was very happy.

Sadie played in some bubbles because she was too small for most of the big inflatable slides.

Lily was very intimidated by the other kids on the slides but she did go through this obstacle course and was very proud of herself.

The girls both had their faces painted, Lily wanted a pink tulip and Sadie got the ladybug. They liked the dancing entertainment too.