Thursday, March 31, 2011

He's Here!!!

We're still working on names, but HE made his appearance this morning at 4:28.  We came in last night to do cervidel, and progressed along nicely all night (lame--not the progressing, the being all night!!!).  

Epidurals. are. my. friend.  Our anesthesiologist has quite the reputation around here--all the nurses keep saying, 'Oh! You got a Walt Epidural.'  The BEST one I've had...that is how epidurals are supposed to work! Except for some tail bone pain, I felt nothing and it was SO STELLAR!  My water broke broke at 4:00 and he showed up 28 minutes and 3 pushes later.  Awesome!

8 lbs. 3 ounces
21 1/2 inches
Dark hair, beautiful, and perfect.

We'll keep him!

We went out to dinner last night as a last hurrah...last time our family looks like a family of four!



 The boys--we LOVE our Doctor--he gives a daytime discount, but looks like we missed it!  Oh well...he's the BEST!  Thanks Dr. Johnson!!

 Proud parents...of three?!  Can it really be?



 Check out this face!  Does that look like a girl who is sad about the outcome of a baby brother?  Thankfully, no! She's THRILLED to have a new baby in the family--whew!


 Joshy is going to have such a fun time with his brother!

More to come!! Thanks!!

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Has this happened to you...?

Watch this clip....


Then watch this clip....


I'm sure it happens in every household, but the day I thought would never come....came.  

R.I.P. Herman the (not so) Hearty!

Happenings...

Well, still waiting for this baby to come!  The past two pregnancy's I didn't experience any contractions until I was hooked up to monitors in the hospital. This baby--not so much! They started about 34 weeks and I've had them daily since then.  Miserable.  I swear, the last month is bad enough, but having contractions everyday has totally wiped me out and has made this last month feel longer then the entire first 8 months of pregnancy!  I'm hoping for a no-contractions 3rd trimester next baby!
In any case, although it's been long, we are DOWN TO HOURS!!  I go in on Wednesday evening and should have a baby here shortly! We'll be home in time for Conference and finally get to hold our sweet little 'kidney bean baby.'  Or alien child.  Or munchlet.  It all depends on how Mike is feeling at the moment... :)  We're excited!

In the meantime, Katelyn went to a Big Sibling class.  I had high hopes, but it was mostly lame.  But fun.  She got her own little diaper bag and they practiced wrapping babies up in blankets and the rules of new babies...you know, wash your hands, ask an adult, etc, etc.  She was cute.


I've also been hooked up to these a lot recently. 

 None-stress tests are BORING!  But, very comforting.  Saturday night we thought for sure we were headed to the hospital.  Regular, steady, painful, and close together contractions started about 9:30 and we called my little brother over to sleep with the kids about 1:00.  I was packed and ready to head to the hospital, when contractions just stopped around 3:00.  And then, I didn't feel the baby move again, for hours!!  We ended up skipping church (he, he!) and heading to the hospital for testing.  They kept me for a couple of hours, but everything looked good so home we went.  I was hoping for that actually.  I assumed that the only way I was leaving the hospital Sunday with a baby would have been due to some sort of traumatic, emergency C-section event, and didn't want that.  So we came home and went to my parents house to pick up the kids and help Brielle celebrate...SHE JUST GOT ENGAGED!!


We love Matt and, although we had to take Matthew off our possible name list, it's worth it!  They are so happy and great--wahoo!!  Yeah for planning another wedding!! :)


So, guess that catches us up.  We got the kiddos presents for when the baby comes, but we gave Josh his early so we could keep him occupied and he LOVES it!  Every minute of every day he would be playing 'ball' if he could. So cute! (The video is long, but cute...if you've got time, and a strange affinity to my children!)




Saturday, March 26, 2011

We Miss Aunt Bom Qui-Qui!!

Jilli has been in Vegas all week for work, and we miss her!!  I didn't realize how fun it was to see her and cross paths every couple of days, until she wasn't around to bump into!!  Katelyn loves Aunt Jillisa--even if she won't admit it, and lots of times we drive around somewhere and she says..."Hey! We went there with Aunt Bom Qui-Qui!!"  (I don't know where Bom Qui-Qui started, but that's Jillisa's official name around here!)  So...Aunt Bom Qui-Qui...We miss you! Come home soon!!!


We wish the baby was here by now...but glad that at least Jilli will be home to see it right away! (How's that for positive thinking...dumb pregnancy!! :)





Thursday, March 24, 2011

Gonna Craft Today...

I'm getting together with some friends this morning to etch our Pyrex Dishes...so cute! What do you think?











I'll have to show you the finished products when they are done!  
Yeah for no more lost dishes!!

Monday, March 21, 2011

Welcome Spring!!



"And so with the sunshine and the great

bursts of leaves growing on the trees, 

just as things grow in fast movies, I had

that familiar conviction that life was 

beginning over again with the spring."


-The Great Gatsby



I know it's going to rain all week, but 
these beauties can still be seen in my 
yard!  Today was the first official day of 
Spring, 2011~~!

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Induction Day is Set...!

We have anywhere between 0 and 12 days to go!!  

We moved the Induction day up by one....we'll have a March baby instead of an April Fools Baby!  (As my good friend says.... "You moved your date up by a month!")  For all the talk of having this baby early, for all the contractions (every 10 minutes, like clockwork today), and for all the times my Doctor has said, "pack a bag!", this baby is still hanging on and not budging!  I'd love the experience of going into labor myself, but in the end, sign me up for getting this kid out on a schedule!!

Jillisa came over today and gave me a pedicure.  Lovely, I tell you, just LOVELY!  So, it's up for the guessing...boy or girl?  I've got a poll over there on my sidebar, give a guess if you wish.  We're ready to head to the hospital anytime, but...if you don't hear about it before then, check back March 31st to see the verdict!


Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Silly Joshy--

I love my little Josh-man. He's becoming crazy wild, but still loves to snuggle and give kisses!  Just love this little man!


It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

We started prepping the garden last weekend...which means we were ready to start our first round of planting last night for family night.  It's just like Christmas for Mike around here...and Katelyn loves to join in on the fun!  We planted peas and carrots and can't wait until they start to grow!!


Check out the concentration!

Don't worry, Josh was there too.  He was just more interested in eating sand!  See him?

We love planting!!

Monday, March 7, 2011

A New Car!!

The plan has been, all along, to get a VAN before the new baby came.  And then everything with our Texas house imploded, and our tax return got delayed (can you believe the IRS doesn't have record that we paid back our $8000 owed first-time-home-buyers-credit last year?!!!), and we couldn't qualify for any type of credit, and...and...and.   You know the drill--it feels like the whole world is combined against you.  

I finally reached a Zen state about the fact that we weren't going to get the 'dream van'--some beautiful 2011 Honda Odyssey or Toyota Sienna....but I struggled with the idea of squeezing 3 kids into a tiny car (seriously...how posh does a car seat REALLY have to be?  Those things are huge!).  A tiny car, which, by the way, broke down every other day--it seemed--and just recently, on top of not having heat, stopped sending the exhaust fumes OUTSIDE of the car and started piping them INTO the car.  As well as not starting most times, stalling whenever stopped, and always have warning lights and junk on.  Needless to say--one way or the other we needed a new vehicle~!

So, my sweet husband, who loves me, figured out a way to come up with exactly $5340 to spend on a van...a combination of sexy moves like taking a loan out on our 401K (which Chase is going to seize if we didn't have some sort of hold on it) and combining our tax return, and any available cash we had sitting around randomly.  The search began!!

And junk showed up!  Do you have any idea what kind of van can be purchased for $5340?  Not much, I'll tell you.   A depressing 3 week search turned up nothing, and I spent the afternoon in tears.  Weren't we trying? Didn't we pay our tithing?  Wasn't this a good desire of my heart?  What else might I need to learn from this situation (so I could hurry up and learn it and move on!)

Well, Mike headed out solo on Friday to look at one more vehicle.  He took it on a test drive, drove it home to me and said..."This is the best one we've seen yet.  I'm going to go buy it!"  One hour later I was piling our kids into our very broken, tiny, smelly vehicle for the last time!  I drove to meet Mike at the dealership and signed some papers and wha-la!  We were van owners!  I can't believe our good fortune and HUGE blessing...


It's a 2003 Dodge Caravan, Sport Edition (which, near as we can tell, just means our display features look snazzy).  115,000  miles with 2 previous owners.  We were looking for something that would simply buy us 50,000 miles of driving comfort, as we anticipate being in a whole different financial place come 3-5 years.  The prideful part of me LOVES the fact that it looks nice!  Inside and out!!  We were close to buying a really sexy looking gold beauty, with the paneling falling off in the inside, so to have a nice, clean, sharp looking van seems too good to be true.  Bucket seats for the kids, which wasn't my first choice, but Katelyn has named the van Penelope and tells us that "it's AWESOME!"

So if you'd like to see a pregnant lady do a little jig, come on over to my house when I buckle the kids in their car seats.  Watch me beam with joy when the heat comes on--and actually works--and see me get giddy at the idea that the radio works....all the stations, all the CD's, all sorts of sound.  Driving in our family vehicle is not longer accompanied by Katelyn saying, "Mom, what is the smell" and me thinking--am I killing my children with this exhaust smell?  It starts when it's supposed to, keeps running at stop lights, and doesn't have to be flipped into neutral when sitting in traffic. Oh, and did I mention how easy it is to get the kids in and out?  And have extra passenger and cargo space?

I have recently heard several times, "Well, I'm just not a van person."  I'm not sure what that means--but, even if it conjures up some image of a frumpy, curler and robe dressed mom with soccer balls flying out of the door, and 17 screaming children driving down the freeway....sign me up!  

I AM a van person! :)

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Proud to be a COUGAR!

We've been Jimmerized around here...and...with all that has been going on, we are especially proud to be COUGARS!!!




 

Tuesday, March 1, 2011