Belly Picture and Pirate the Dog

Here is a recent picture of me and my belly. I am 29 weeks now! Gosh, where has all the time gone? I'm still feeling great as long as we aren't out walking in the hot and humid weather. Whew! Aubrey is quite the kicker! Ashlyn was a stretcher so Aubrey's quick punches and kicks often come as quite a surprise to me. Ashlyn still loves on my belly and tells us on a regular basis that "baby Aub-ey be here in couple months". We were at Walmart the other day and they had little onesies on clearance so I picked up two preemie tops, even though newborn clothes look so tiny they always swallow babies up the first couple of weeks, now Aubrey will have at least two shirts that will fit. Ashlyn was so precious, I let her walk this trip into the store since we only had a couple of things to pick up, so she proudly carried her sister's shirts through the store and put them on the belt to pay for them. I think she understands more than we give her credit for.


My mother-in-law will appreciate this story more than anyone else. Ashlyn is really starting to get into pretend play. She loves to act like she is a dog, and I'm sure you can guess what her doggy name is, yep, "Pirate". This morning as we were getting ready for church she was in full doggy mode. She absolutely loves it when we play along and treat her like a dog and call her Pirate. She was very quick to correct me of her name when I was brushing her teeth and told "Ashlyn" to open her mouth. Normally once we get out of the house the pretend play stops and she forgets all about acting like a dog. Well not this morning. The dolled up, pink bowed sweet little girl panted and barked all the way to church and continued as we got out of the car to walk into church. This wouldn't have been quite so bad had we not been visiting a new church where no one knew us! Ugh! Thank goodness the barking ceased as we walked in the building but as I was getting Ashlyn checked into the nursery Phillip whispered out of the corner of his mouth, "She's still panting like a dog". Oh, I love my sweet silly girl!! About twenty some odd years ago Phillip's older brother did the same thing except he LICKED the deacons hand as they were walking into the sanctuary!
For a couple of months we have been praying about whether the current church we were attending was where God wanted us to worship and serve. A couple weeks ago we made the hard decision that we would leave our church and find where God would have us. We know this is God's plan and we are excited to see where He leads us. We visited a really great church this morning. The church is only about 8 years old and quite a bit smaller than our old church of over a thousand. The atmosphere was very different, it was very casual and contemporary, a change from choir robes and suits that we were accustomed to seeing. The pastor seems to have a heart for the community and a desire to stop "playing church". Ashlyn also said that she had fun at church and when asked if she wanted to go back next week. She said "yes".