i have baby fever! a good friend's sister had her first baby, a girl, at the end of june. i've been spending time with my friend, jessica, and her sweet 7-month-old boy. one of my LLL friends had a baby boy in mid-june. my friend in pennsylvania is pregnant with her first, and another friend here is pregnant too. gosh... i want another baby. : ) and the cool thing is, josh no longer winces when i bring up the topic! we even have names picked out for #3. shhhhh...

we had SUCH a fun 4th of july in wichita falls with josh's sister, jill, and her boyfriend, richard. we stayed at their house and slept in their wonderfully comfy guest bedroom with a roomy king-size bed. josh didn't want to come home and go back to sleeping on his stiff, creaky twin trundle bed mattress!

on friday we arrived pretty early and played rock band at the house, then went out for a nice dinner. on saturday josh and i took the kids to a flea market, then in the evening we all went to a fun kids event at the civic center where micah got to ride one of those spinning carnival rides (with her aunt jill; those things make me barf) and eat cotton candy. the fireworks turned out to be a bust... it started pouring down rain, and we were waaaaaay too close to where the fireworks were actually launching from, and the noise was overwhelming for micah and rowan. they had fun running around inside the civic center, though, listening to the booms and pows from a distance.

the next day, sunday, we got up and had an early lunch, then went roller skating! it was micah and rowan's first time to do this, and they both had fun. rowan wore his skates for about ten minutes, holding my hands or josh's hands and scooting around, then he sat down and pointed to his laces and said, "uh, uh, uh!" translation: get these crazy things off of me so i can walk normally again! micah stood perfectly still on the carpet next to the rink in her skates for a long time, maintaining perfect balance and watching people zoom around in a circle. after about 45 minutes of watching me, her daddy, aunt jill and richard skate around and have fun, she decided she was ready to try it - and she did very well! : ) she held my hands first and skated forward with me behind her, then held one of jill's hands and one of richard's hands and skated in between them. it took her a while to get the hang of centering her body over her feet so her feet wouldn't shoot out from underneath her, landing her on her tail bone (that happened several times - ouch). once she got the feel of how she needed to balance a little differently, she enjoyed it. i love watching her learn how to do something brand new. it gives me the neatest feeling, and i hope i remember all these moments forever.

from the skating rink, we went to an early dinner, then josh and the kids and i headed home. we made really good time, so once we got to richardson we stopped at the grocery store for some stuff we needed for the house. micah slept the whole trip home, so she was a bit wired, but rowan, for some reason, stayed awake and whiny the whole trip home. he had a weird burst of energy once we unloaded the van (we borrowed joann and sheridan's van for the trip), then crashed at his normal time.

micah and i stayed up watching the dog whisperer. wesley, my stepdad, has us hooked on this show. it's got me totally psyched to be a better pack leader to mia!

today my aunt and cousins came over to play, and we had so much fun! micah always has the best time playing with them. then tonight we all ate dinner at my grandparents house. ahhhh, heaven. : )

and rowan signed his first sentence yesterday: he signed "milk" then "all done", to tell me he was done nursing. : ) : )