The Lion is a Bookworm: The Lion's Tales: Summer 2016 edition!

Three whole months have gone by without my writing about what we've been up to. You'll forgive me? I'll attribute my lack of posts to 1) Our schedules being goofy with all 4 of us being home every day, so I haven't had my quiet mornings like I do now that school has started and 2) All-day-every-day pregnancy nausea has been making me feel like not doing much of anything.

So here's a recap of the highlights of our summer! (beware of picture overload :)

1. We worked on finishing our basement.
When we bought our house 7 years ago, it had 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom, with a roughed-in basement for 2 more rooms and another bathroom (and another common room). When Abby was a baby, we worked for a summer putting up doors and drywall with the plan of having carpet down by the time she was crawling...

SIX YEARS LATER...

We emptied out the rooms, which had been used for storage and play space. We hung more drywall. We mudded and sanded and mudded and sanded. We stamped texture onto the ceilings. We vacuumed the inch of drywall dust from the floors. We caulked the windows. We primed the walls. We painted the walls. We painted the walls again. We painted trim. We hung trim. And we picked out carpet (not installed yet).

All that's left is finishing the bathroom, but at least once the carpet is down we can move stuff back into rooms -- and the girls into their new bedroom! Not bad for doing it all ourselves.

The office. Go green!

The girls' room. They call the color "Twilight Sparkle purple".

The hallway. The other main space/living area is also this color.

2. I attended the GEMS Annual Leadership Conference in Bozeman Montana.
I head up the GEMS Girls' Club at our church, plus do some leading for our state. Every summer there is a conference somewhere in the U.S./Canada, where around 400 women get together for mass meetings, breakout sessions, and FUN.

My highlights from Bozeman: a pre-conference tour to Yellowstone, leading a workshop myself and using my new ukulele for it, Liz Curtis Higgs speaking for three sessions, and a night out at a local ranch with pitchfork fondue and a beautiful sunset!

3. Rocky and I played on our church's new softball team.
Our church joined up with the local city's church softball league for the first time in about 20 years. It was so fun! We played every Monday night, Rocky in the outfield and me at catcher. Yes I played while pregnant, and catcher was the safest spot for me. :) We finished the season in 3rd place out of 9 teams -- not bad for our first year!

4. Ellie celebrated her 4th birthday.
Birthdays can be so difficult for second-borns and beyond... How do you make it special for them, when you don't need or want more "stuff"?? Ellie was happy with a scooter (her bike broke), a small Lego set (to add to the mess of others), and a trip to the zoo.

5. We spent most weekends (and several weekdays) at our family's lakehouse.
My husband grew up here, and his dad and stepmom live here during the summer. It's only about 10 minutes away from our house. Our days were spent with watersports, swimming, and relaxing by the water. We even convinced Abby to ski by herself... one time. :)

6. We found out Abby and Ellie would be big sisters!
We announced to family and Facebook on Fathers Day, with the picture below of us with our traditional Sunday-afternoon pancakes. Due date is February 5! We also found out a few weeks later that Rocky's sister is also pregnant -- with their first -- and due only 5 weeks after me!