Bits of Fun and a Big Thank You

Between many trips to the hospital and doctor, as well as days laying on the couch, we have managed to do a few fun things around here.

We did a few fireworks on the night of the 4th. I sat on a camp chair - most of the time with Sara on my lap - while Jason lit fireworks. The girls (along with our neighbor girls) loved the sparklers and watching the show in the street in front of our house.
Sara discovered two new joys. 1 - She loves a hidey-hole and her favorite is in the buffet in the entryway. 2- She can run the microwave by herself. And look at that cute haircut from Julie!
The girls love to dance for me as I lay on the couch. Sometimes they dress up, sometimes they do it to music or a movie, but I get several dance performances each day.
We stopped by J's folks' house for a few minutes and there ended up being almost all the girls in his family there at once...look at them all.
We made cookies and sculpted with the dough! Then we invited Grandma and Grandpa up for a little party with warm cookies - not made with the sculpted dough. (Yes, I can do almost the whole process while sitting at the counter.)
Laura has been doing many special projects while I've been down. She's worked on workbooks, crafted like crazy, and made cards and flowers galore. Most recently she made a chain to count down to Eliza's arrival. (The chain is long enough to get me to my promised maximum of 37 weeks and has a star on the day that we hope she'll get here after a good result with her lung maturity on the amniocentisis at 36 weeks.)
Most importantly I need to send out a huge Thank You to everyone who is helping me through this tough time! The biggest Thank You is to Jason who has been my rock, kept the house clean, fed the family, stayed with me at the hospital, put me back together emotionally and just been the best husband in the whole wide world. Thank you to Mom and Dad who have watched the little girls for more hours than I can count, given a special day to Laura, and accompanied me on scary hospital trips, and been at my house in seconds when I just can't take the pain anymore to put me back together. Thank you to Laura and Sara who have had a lot less Mommy lately and have really helped me by picking up, being patient, and learning to deal with Mommy's owies. Thank you to my girlfriends - Deb, Karyn, Andrea - who have called daily to keep me sane, fed my family, picked up after my kids, taken my kids, etc. Thank you to everyone else who has taken one or more of the girls for a couple hours, called to check on me, left comments of encouragement here on on Facebook - there are too many of you to count and I appreciate every bit of it and every one of you!