Start Spreadin' The News!!

The picture speaks for itself, but I'll go ahead and say it: baby Chiarino #3 is growing in my belly!!! We are sooo excited and thankful that we were successfull after only a month of trying--God is so wonderful! Here are the answers to all the immediate questions(I've been through this before!) :
* I am about 6 weeks along and feeling great so far! A tiny bit of queesy stomach in the morning, hardly any heartburn, and just a few hormones so far!
* We should find out (yes, we are finding out!! I'm too impatient for that!) the sex of the baby around Gabriel's birthday in mid-october.
* I'm estimating that I'm due in mid-february, but I'll find out the "due date" in a couple of weeks when I see my doc.
We realise that the thought of having 3 kids is a bit crazy to most of our friends and family (with some exceptions!) but we are pretty crazy and are so thrilled to be adding to our family. Here's the answer to your next question: we would like to have four kiddos, but if we feel like our family is complete after this little blessing we might stop at 3. Either way, we feel sooo blessed!

Harvest

Our lonely strawberry rippened and I gave Christopher the honors of sampling it's sweetness. I took pictures so we could all experience it with him. I must say, his face didn't have the expression that I expected...it was a little "tart" looking.

We have also sampled a few ripened cherry tomatoes...right off the vine...doesn't get any better! I have decided that next year I am going all out with my garden...it's gonna be BIG!

Highlights

Summer is in full swing here at the Chiarino house! Here are some highlights from the past two months:
* Christopher graduated from the ladybug class at preschool. Everyone likes to remind me lately that he only has two summers left before kindergarten. I'm boycotting that idea and keeping him home from preschool and big boy school forever.
* Gabriel hardly seems like a baby anymore. He and Christpher are best buds and run around laughing and playing together. I love seeing their love for each other...it makes my heart swell!
* We have started potty training Gabriel. He loves watching his brother and doing anything Christopher does, so it only seemed natural. The first thing he did was poop on the potty...then a few days later he peed. I like to call that the "breakthrough" phase. We are now in the "boycott" phase. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.
* We have been spending a minimum of 2 days each week playing in the pool and jumping in the sprinkler.
* Our garden is growing...slowly but surely. We have tons of tomatoes that need to turn red soon so we can eat them! We are going to have more squash than I know what to do with. We have baby watermelons...I'm super excited about those! And our strawberry plant had two strawberries on in--Gabriel ripped one off--and now we are down to one lonely strawberry. Christopher is definately my little helper when it comes to the garden. He LOVES checking on everything and seeing how it's growing. I can't tell you how excited he is that our strawberry started turning red last night. I guess I'm going to have to let him have that one!
* That's all I can remember for now. Here are some fun summer pics to enjoy! I hope you are enjoying your summer fun!

* Oh, this picture reminded me--Chris built us a deck! It's fabulous and we are definately enjoying it!!

* Last weekend Chris was in a friends wedding. It was outside, so a little warm, but it was gorgeous and lots of fun! Doesn't she look fabulous in her dress?!

{I don't think any mama has a set of boys who are more handsome than these guys!!! I love these boys...and their daddy!}