The playset

Benny did a great job on putting the swing set together almost all by himself!

Kendall resting in our bed waiting to go play on her play set!

Our weekend thus far....

Thank-you for putting my swingset together Daddy! You're the best!

I left with a diaper cake for Shelly and came home with one for Isaac. Thanks Kim!
Shelly's diaper cake.....I am getting better and better at these things :-)

Who knew that car shopping was so exhausting!

Happy Father's day

We just want to say Happy Father's day to Benny, Dadoo, Pa Beach, Pappy Heider, and all of our other friends and family celebrating this awesome day :-)

Car question....

Like many of our friends, we have decided to park the truck for the time being since Ben is making such a long, costly trip to work everyday.....So we are starting our search this weekend for our fuel economical car. Does anyone have any suggestions on what is cheap, great on fuel, family-oriented, large trunk, and possibly a roof rack?

Blue Angel Weekend

Pictures from Colbi's party

Recovered!

Yesterday was spent mostly inside for us Beach girls. We ventured out in the morning for me to go to my OB appt at Naval and Kendall to go to Kidz Bizz. I passed my test.....I have graduated back to being a "normal" pregnant patient so I don't have to have so many appointments! I had an MD that looked like he was barely out of high school so it was a little hard to take him seriously but he seemed very informative!
Kendall had a blast at Kidz Bizz as usual. She didn't want to leave and didn't give me a problems when I dropped her off...just ran in after she washed her hands :-)
We spent the rest of the day cleaning, organizing, and playing! It was refreshing to be in the a/c and not deal with all of the heat.
I finally watched the season finales of Greys Anatomy & Desperate Housewives. I loved both of them but biggest on my list that I completed was watching the season premiere of Army Wives. I spent about 20 minutes bawling my eyes out (so that means it was really good!) Those of you that watch those shows know what I am talking about!
Benny found out that the super triathlon is closed for June so he is of course bummer but he is looking into doing another 2 sprint triathlons.....August 1 in Goldsboro and then an October tri in Emerald Isle.
Today had both of us working. Ben with his normal stuff for the wing and me hanging lots of chemo.
Still trying to beat the heat!

Verbose posting.....

........on our weekend!
Even though it was crazy hot here in NC, we spent a lot of time outside this weekend. Saturday morning, we went to our home owner's association meeting. Ben stayed and I took Kendall home because she was pretty rowdy. Good news came out of the meeting....they had projected that each family was going to have to fork over $500 for retaining ponds in our neighborhood. Turns out the HOA (a.k.a. us) is not responsible for it so we are extremely grateful not to lose that money!
Saturday afternoon, we enjoyed Colbi's bday party and some great fellowship. The kids spent a lot of time in the pool, sprinklers, and with water balloons & water guns.
Sunday after church and sunday school we decided to go to the air show at Cherry Point. I was so very excited to see the Blue Angels fly again. When we got there, the car thermometer read 98 degrees with a very high heat index. (Probably making it feel about 110....so Heider family coming to the OBX....take note!!) Kendall loved seeing all of the aircraft and really didn't startle at all with all the loud noises. I ended up sitting in the handicap tent a lot and also in Kendall's stroller. (Don't ask!) Needless to say, we had a great time minus me almost passing out several times & not getting to see the whole Blue Angels performance.
Let's see some other updates......
Congratulations to Josh on his new job!
Happy Anniversary to Aunt Donna and Uncle Truck.
Ben
We actually found out that there were 125 participants in the Cherry Point Triathlon. Ben's ranking was actually #8 overall since they had included relay people in the original #11 ranking. What a great job :-)
He is working towards doing a super sprint triathlon on June 29th. I believe that it goes like this for those not familiar with triatlons..... 350 meter swim, 1.5 mile run, 10 mile bike then back through transition for another 10 mile bike, 1.5 mile run, and ending with 350 meter swim. I am sure that if I got it wrong he will correct me :-) I am extremely glad that Mom and Dad will be here to help me with Kendall for this one!
Other than that, he is doing a great job of keeping up with all of the house stuff and trying to help me out when he has time.
Kendall
Hard to believe she is going to be 2 this month! It makes me so sad to think that she is a little girl now. She is learning something new everyday. Not too much news right now on her!
Isaac
We decided to go with the second set of bedding. I am pumped to start his room but we are still working on getting Kendall into her new room before we can start that project! I have another OB appt today that I am hoping will put us back on a normal schedule!
I am going to try to learn how to hook the camera up to Ben's laptop so that we can post pics from this weekend's bday party and air show!

Another bedding option

Ok so when we were out shopping this evening we found this bedding at Babies R' Us that Ben liked a bit better than the other. What do ya'll think? Keep in mind we ordered the other bedding on May 31st and have heard nothing from the company. I am going to call them again bright and early in the morning and see what the hold up is.....then we will probably change the paint scheme quite drastically from the current plan. Let us know :-)

Last day of school, dancing, & black widows return...

Yesterday was Kendall's last day of PMO or school as we have been calling it. Just so she gets used to going there and liking it :-) Her teacher and assistant were so wonderful this past year and did such an awesome job with her. I can't wait until this September when she gets to go again. I am quite sure that I will not do an adequate job at keeping her up to date with all of the art projects that she is used to.
To celebrate her last day, one of the little boys in her class gave her a hug & kissed her on her cheek.....she promptly grabbed his face between her little hands and kissed him on the lips. (Yeah she is taking after Taylor Stef!!) Ben said that he needs to have a serious talk with this boy to see what his intentions are for our daughter!
They had a picnic there but decided that it was too hot to take the kiddos out. Boy was it! I think that the car thermometer read 98 degrees.
It was not too hot for Benny though....JK babe! He went outside (despite the heat and my warnings of heat stroke) to use some unexpected free time to seed the grass some more out front and work on putting more of the slate rock that we "imported" from PA into the flower beds.
Also, he had his work cut out for him in killing some more black widow spiders. I spotted a web in the back yard that I knew was one & he confirmed it when he saw the spider. He also killed another 3 or so as the day wore on. Those of you who know me well....know how much I hate spiders & the fact that I had to deal with these stupid things last summer. Today I am going to call our bug exterminator to get them to spray the yard since Kendall is always into everything. We called our vet because we worried that might have been the cause for Mo's problems last week. He called back to let me know that he didn't think that was the cause. Thank goodness for that!
Kendall has started liking to really shake her booty. The funny thing is it is not normally to regular music. She likes to hear the preprogrammed music from the keyboard that Jim & Chris gave me. It has started to become a little bit of a tradition for us to be shaking our booty with Bug. What a great girl!
I am going to take our other laptop into be looked at....Ben thinks that it has crashed. I am praying that if that is the case that the computer specialist can pull our pictures off of it because I don't have all of them saved or printed out. So for the time being we probably won't have any pics on the blog :-(
Let's see.....today we are hoping to go to the kiddie pool with our playgroup. We will see how that goes :-)

Proud of the boys....

I wanted to give a shout out to the Pens for their awesome season. Even if we didn't get to bring the stanley cup home to the Burgh again, those guys played their hearts out. I esp. wanted to give props to Sid the Kid and Malone. Those of our viewing audience from Pittsburgh that watched all of the playoffs will know why!
Next year guys :-)

Yummy!!

Great homemade maple syrup tapped from my family's camp! It goes great with Benny's homemade pancakes and waffles. Thanks to the Hardy Gang!

Go Pens GO

All I can say is that I am truly amazed and grateful that my boys will be back in the 'Burgh trying to beat some Detroit tail!!!

I graduated.....

.....well from Dr. Wright's (the maternal-fetal specialists) care. I had my last appt. with him today. Now that I have his clearance hopefully the Naval OB will clear me so that I can stop going to the MD every 2 weeks. Gosh you would think that it is time for me to deliver already.
A few snippets from the visit....
Dr. Wright said "great, beautiful heart" I know not super exciting but that was what we were there to look at on Isaac.
The ultrasound tech was quite a bit more colorful. The first question that I asked her when we started was "is it still a boy?" Quit laughing at me!! I had to try.....her response, "this right here is his winky & this is his hand right beside it." Of course being that I am a little bit of smart alack my next response was "oh it starts early doesn't it?" LOL. Ok so she did all of her measurements and such to find out that he is about 1 pound and 13 ounces right now. He is between the 60th and 70th percentile for in utero growth. (I had no idea that they could do this so I was amazed!) Yep he is still a big boy.
The rest of our conversation was quite colorful so read with caution. She said near the end... "big brain, big lips, big hands, big feet, big winky.....someone is going to be proud." I about choked on my own saliva. So he is taking after the Beach side with the big, pouty lips and after daddy with the big hands and feet.......and well we'll just leave the rest of it alone!

I am so thankful that he is healthy. We do have a prayer request for this arena though..... Ben has to go to California with his new squadron from September 1 -October 1. Chances are that they will let him come home but what I am hoping and praying for is that Isaac will hold on until his daddy gets here for delivery. I would like for Ben to be able to see one of his children come into this world. If you could just keep that in mind when you are praying we would greatly appreciate it!
Let's see onto emails, comments, etc. the turtle is still alive and well. He hangs out under the storage shed pretty much nonstop...guess there is a plethora of bugs and shade under there! We do get him out about twice a week for Kendall to see but no more than that as I am sure he would be traumatized!
Momo is doing great. Thanks to everyone asking about him. He was even outside chasing the water from the hose like his old self!
Kendall is also back to her old self and sassy! I have to get her a followup appointment this week sometime.
I am also doing better...just fat and pregnant!
Thanks to ya'll for all your kind words, emails, and prayers!

Kendall's Korner

Pushing her own lawn mower around the house

Hiding in her "new" toybox
New ways to eat fruity pebbles.....

Benny's triathlon

It saddens me to say that due to all the family members that were ill in this household, I missed Ben's triathlon yesterday. It is the first since he started doing them in 2003 that I wasn't there running around like a maniac trying to take pictures of him in the transition areas. This was another sprint triathlon in Cherry Point. He did really well placing 2nd in his age bracket and 11th overall. (He is not sure how many there were in the race yet....somewhere between 75-100) So here are the pictures of him with his trophy.....I must say he looks better in these pics than he normally does all sweaty and exhausted!

We are all on the mend here and feeling better thank goodness!

Ben and I went after church and got a lawn mower. The reel mower that Ben had bought for me before the deployment last year just wasn't cutting the mustard. Ben said that he would be better off just weed-eating the whole yard. He is about to put it to good use as the yard hasn't been done since before we left on vacation. (The spots that are actually growing need done about twice a week now thanks to our crazy tall fescue grass!)

Happy Birthday to Ashlyn yesterday too!!

A string of bad luck.....

I guess one of us must have broken a mirror......just kidding, I am not really superstitious. It certainly seems like the past few days have most definately had us under a bad luck spell.
Our anniversary day started out pretty good....I got ready for work, Ben got Kendall ready, and made us some pancakes then everything else went downhill.
I wasn't feeling good so I ended up seeing the MD that day. Ben's truck wasn't really safe to drive so we ended up having to take it to the shop for some costly repairs. I had some horrible news about 3 of some of my more favorite patients at work. But the biggest thing was Geronimo. He ended up falling down our stairs, couldn't stand on any of his legs, and was whimpering and crying. We took him into the vet. I could tell that he was alarmed since he has seen Momo is some serious conditions before but never this bad.
Due to Geronimo's serious neurological defects, there were several blood tests ran (that all came back normal), and then a steriod shot that was given to hopefully reverse what was going on with him. The vet had mentioned several very scary conditions that might be causing it. Fortunately, Friday morning he was walking and starting to act a little more like himself. When we went back into the vet on Friday, he thought that Mo might have had a stroke or an allergic reaction. As of right now, it remains a medical doggie mystery.
We are hoping and praying that he continues to improve with the 5 different meds that he is on. Kendall also got sick on Friday. Another MD visit for the Beach bunch!
Oh yeah, instead of the pasta that I was craving from Olive Garden for our anniversary, we had Chick Fil A. (Both of us were so emotionally and physically drained we just couldn't deal with going anywhere!) Ben said that if "Wendy's" was good enough for one of our first dates then Chick Fil A would do for an anniversary. :-) Those of you that know our history well will get the joke about wendy's!
We are all on the mend now so I am extremely thankful for that! Please keep us in your prayers over the next few days until we are all out of the woods!

Happy Anniversary!!!

Today Ben and I celebrate our renewal of vows wedding anniversary. Like many military couples, we have 2 anniversaries.....our elopement and our renewal of vows. It is so very hard to believe that 4 years and 5 months ago we celebrated our love with friends and family. So much has happened in the meantime and it has made me extremely grateful for that wonderful man that completes my life.

Happy Anniversary Beegeeweegee!!

Our Memorial Day trip

We left last Wednesday for PA. It was a great drive for us. We took a new route that was longer in mileage but avoided D.C. traffic & gave us some peace. My dad had been in on planning this surprise as my mom thought that we were coming in on Thursday. (These days both of us are too tired to just do the weekend trip!) It was pretty funny when we walked in to my mom's office on Wednesday afternoon. I still think she is in a little bit of disbelief about it!

Thursday, Ben got back in the car with my dad to drive 4 hours each way to see my family's hunting camp. He's such a good sport! They got to see some elk along the way so that was pretty neat. Dad took Ben hiking around some of camp and of course showed him some horrible pictures of me from my days up there! I believe that they had a good time and I am sure probably would have stayed up there if we didn't have more visiting to do. Kendall and I got to have lunch with my grammy & pappy plus some more relatives. It was really great just to relax and visit!

Friday was pretty low key. Ben, Kendall, and I got to eat lunch with our friends Brad and Bettie. I consumed a very large crab cake that was probably all of my fish/seafood servings for the week! We had a very interesting supper with mom & dad that involved Kendall running around the resturant. Thank goodness for small towns! Jen & Josh got there from their trip. Kendall was so excited to see "elvi" or elvis the terrorist.

Saturday, we went to Smicksburg with mom. Smicksburg is well known for all of the little shops that sell Amish furniture and other wares. I think we found a really nice wooden high chair that we might pick up for Isaac when we go back in December. Mom got us a wooden rocking airplane to go in Isaac's room. I am sure if he loves it as much as Kendall loves her wooden elephant from my dad that it will get a lot of use :-) Mom made a yummy round steak & gravy meal ( all of our favorites) for Josh's 30th bday celebration. Of course we had to have the traditional ice cream cake as well. (I am not taking my weight this week!!!)

Sunday entailed us going to my Lucas family reunion. We had a great time seeing everyone. The food, company, and activities couldn't be beat! We had a super time seeing everyone and catching up.

Monday, we went to the parade in Elderton. It was so much fun to see Kendall running to grab candy, clapping for the band, yelling for the horses, and just having a grand time in general. It was also good to be able to visit with lots of old family friends. We went to the service after that which was interesting even if the guest speaker turned into a long winded histroy lesson. It was so nice to celebrate Memorial day with Ben for the first time in 4 years!!

I am sure that I am forgetting many special memories but my brain is still so tired! Thanks to all of the friends and family that came out to see us! We loved visiting with you.

Happy belated Memorial Day to all of our friends, family, and of course the veterans & current service members!

Happy Birthday Laura! We are so glad that you had a great time in TX. We can't wait to see you in July!

Happy 30th Birthday Josh! You old man you :-)

HOME SWEET HOME!!

After being in blogger withdrawl (a.k.a my parents house where the internet is untrustworthy at best), we are finally home.
We got in yesterday evening about 6 p.m. We had such a blessed trip and had a great time visiting with family and friends. I will post about our outings, experiences, and pictures later on. As for now, we have Kendall's final rec play group for the summer this morning. It is also a potluck so I need to see what I can whip up with what we have here.