mommy

my first mother's day w 3 darling daughters.... LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!

occasionally I still get the question "are you going to try for a boy"... ummmm.... no. not that I have anything against boys, but really, I believe God will give us the children we are meant to have, our hands are pretty full at this point, and the assumption that our family isn't complete without one of each gender makes me feel like the person asking me must not realize that there is not one canned 'boy personality' and one canned 'girl personality'... with 3 daughters I know that they are each very different, and they are each such wonderful gifts to me

I thank God for that!!

3

Baby girl #3 has arrived... I can't begin to describe the wonderful. She is perfect and beautiful and lovely. I'm loving the time I have to spend getting to know her. This was easily the hardest labor I've ever had, but I also appreciate this 'after' so much more. I guess that is a pretty decent trade, considering I have a forever of 'after' and the labor was only temporary...

more on her birth story in a bit, but for now... feast your eyes...

have you had the baby yet?

I'm getting that and similar comments a lot lately... you're so huge! are you having twins? when is the baby coming? what is the baby doing?

I'm getting to that uncomfortable and cranky stage these days and the snarky answers that I come up with in my head, fortunately aren't leaking out to the rest of the world... yet.

But, today is the 16th, and my edd is the 25th. Since I'm using a new doctor this time, I don't know his policies on letting moms go past their due date, but all signs point to the fact that I'll be holding my sweet baby girl within the next 9 days. Only 9 days left! It is really hard to wrap my brain around.

We have 2 major things left to accomplish 1)choosing her name (which won't be posted here anyways, but trust me, it is HARD finding a name that you and your husband agree on that 'goes' with the names of your other 2 girls) and 2)buying a minivan. We're hoping to do that on Friday (if I haven't had the baby yet!!).

That's right... I'm going to be one of 'those' minivan moms. And since husband coaches soccer at school, the 2 older girls already have a deep fascination with all things soccer. Which means, I may eventually have to become... gulp... a soccer mom. Maybe I should start wearing jumpers and keds... sigh. I'll think about that another day.

But really, this post is about my baby. I cannot wait to meet her, to hold her, to nurse her, to witness her sisters meeting her for the first time. I cannot wait to take that first bleary-eyed photo of the 5 (yes, I said FIVE!) of us together. Baby girl come soon! Your family cannot wait to meet you!

Cruise Control...

I'm sure its obvious if anyone is even still checking my poor little blog here, but I'v ebeen on serious cruise control. Keeping the car between the lines was about all I could manage for the last 2 months... here is a short rundown...

~husband started school and another season of cross country (which means waking up at 5 am)
~oldest daughter started school only 3 days after a diagnosis with a double ear infection
~youngest daughter developed an ear infection shortly after that
~youngest daughter and husband were diagnosed with a strange virus that resulted in sheer exhaustion, fever and sores in their mouth that made it difficult to eat or swallow

~youngest daughter came down with bronchitis followed up by a nice round of thrush from her antibiotics

~oldest daughter got a stomach virus

~husband and I caught her stomach virus

~oldest daughter came down with bronchitis

~oldest daughter got another stomach virus

~I was diagnosed by my ob/gyn with a medium (fist-sized)fibroid growing off of the back of my uterus (on the outside) toward my spine which can cause some pretty uncomfortable back pain
~meanwhile youngest daughter has had 5 weeks straight of unexplainable diareah

Yeah. Needless to say my life has been hectic, messy, frustrating, expensive, and tiring. Oh and did I mention that in the middle of all of that our dryer and our heater stopped working? Fortunately for us, the fixes for those only totaled $40 (which is good b/c our savings is about drained)...

We racked up well over $200 worth of co-pays to the doctor not to mention I-don't-know-how-much extra we've spent on: prescriptions, otc meds, sprite, carpet cleaner (for the diareah and vomit), paper towels, disinfecting wipes, ramen, applesauce, gatorade, etc. I think once we add all of that up the toal comes to around $500. Yikes. That is kind of a lot when you think about it. I could have a new couch for $500 easily. I need a new couch, but I won't be getting one anytime soon.

But, for now, I am grateful. Yes, you heard me... GRATEFUL. Today, my family (for the most part) is healthy, my bills are paid, I have a job and a roof over my head. Oldest daughter is THRIVING at her school, youngest daughter's language skills are skyrocketing, husband finishes cross country season this weekend, and this weekend we celebrate oldest daughter's 4th birthday with not one, but two fabulous birthday parties (one for family and older friends, one for the girls in her class). We also happily celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary, found out that this little peanut is going to be a girl (Lord help us! ha ha), and managed to go on 2 date nights within one week. Not too shabby. We are blessed.

So, Thank You Lord, for this:

And this:

And this:


And this:

And this:

Amen.

What we've been up to

(ck, this room should look familiar!)

the last few days have been a bit of a whirlwind. If you every check me on twitter, you noticed that I've named my mom a saint (what? I can do it. the pope told me so! ;P ) because she agreed to watch the girls for us Thursday AND Friday evening which meant:

1)we got to sleep in two mornings in a row

2)we got to go anywhere we wanted all day Friday without- changing diapers, unbuckling from carseats, choosing a restaurant based on where we knew the girls would eat something

3)going to a movie

4)staying out late

5)SHOPPING!

of course I have no pictures to show of any of that. Because when you catch yourself getting reacquainted with your husband after a month worth of working weekends (either one or both of us... blah!... but, thank goodness we have jobs!) you don't have time to stop and get new batteries for the camera... you have to relish every minute!

We saw the movie Duplicity (fantastic!), shopped (Target, Old Navy, TJ Maxx, Children's Place), ate (mmmmm PF Chang's!), talked (in the parking lot of Braum's in the car him-jr. cheeseburger, me-frozen yogurt in a cup)and relaxed (kwim?!). It was all fantastic.

Saturday morning we packed our bags, dropped some stuff off at the consignment sale, picked up the girls and headed out of town. Husband's grandparents were celbrating their 60th (yes, sixtieth. as in 50 + 10) anniversary and we were so glad to be a part of that! (even though it meant missing out on our neice's birthday party (so sorry, A!).

But, here are a few pictures of the anniversary party...

on top of all of this, I volunteered yesterday at our local JBF Consignment Sale. This is my number one favorite children's consignment sale in our area, and it is so well organized, friendly and FULL! I only had time to snap one quick shot before the sale started, but what you're seeing in this picture is JUST the floor toys. There are racks and racks and racks of clothing, plus strollers, furniture, small toys, shoes, bedding, etc. It is AMAZING! Check out one in your area soon!