It's SO dark!

I can't believe how dark the mornings are...can't wait to turn clocks back, I feel like I'm getting the kids up in the middle of the night!

So far we have been successful in avoiding any of this flu/sickness going around. I think the worst we have had has been allergies...a few sneezes and dry throats. The humidifiers are helping a great deal. I have become a "wash your hands with soap and water" recording!

We had a taste of winter for a day or two...the kids LOVED being out in the snow...it was really a fun afternoon. The cats...not so crazy about it!

Tomorrow is the kids' Halloween party at school. Becca is going to be a beautiful girl vampire, Sam a "monster" type guy, and Adelyn will be Elmo. So I get 2 dreary and 1 cutie! I love Halloween! Then Saturday we will Trick or Treat! We had our 4th annual Pumpkin Carvin Party and again it was a lot of fun! Sometimes the best parts are the things that aren't planned. My dad had gotten a bunch of mini pumpkins to shoot from a launcher, but it wasn't really working, so he set up Sam's TBall and the kids all hit the pumpkins with the bat...they loved how they smashed as they flew threw the air! It was really funny!

As far as the pregnancy...I am almost 30 weeks and already feeling uncomfortable...when Ihave to bend over to help Adelyn or get something, I always "grunt" at the discomfort. My back and legs are soar and I have been going to the Chiropractor to help with keeping things aligned which does help...I think being pregnant over 30 is very different from my younger years...and my next complaint would be my weight, partially my own fault for not making good choices and not walking like I used to, but it is still depressing...I know the end reward will be worth it all and I know these are all "fixable" things so I am not getting too down about it, just nice to vent about for a bit. On the bright side, the baby is really growing and moving, I can feel when he/she is laying a certain way and what body part is moving, and when he/she is turned in facing my organs/bladder/etc...this morning Jason was laying with his back to my belly and the baby was kicking him, he thought that was pretty cool. It's weird how it is something I feel everyday, and have in 3 other pregnancies, but the miracle of it is still so awesome...really one of the best feelings in the entire world, I almost feel bad for men that they don't get to experience it like women do!
Now if only we can come up with some boy names, I'm pretty set on Julia for the girl...the more I see it and hear it, the more I love it. I think it goes with the other kids' names too. I am really a blank slate for the boy name, which is something that I am thinking of more now that I have less than 3 months left...I'm still leaning towards this being a boy in there!

The excitement for the week is that I FINALLY found my CD's from 2004 when Becca was 1...I had just about accepted that they were lost forever, then when playing babies downstairs with Addy, I was like, "wait, what is in the other blue bin" and there was about 20 disks! YEAH! Now I am excited to finish up my Christmas Album! It is really coming along nicely and I hope our children will appreciate it later in life as it is a record of our Christmas Holidays since Jason and I met. Now it will be so easy to stay caught up...I'll do the page every January and just add to the book year after year. I am really loving digital scrapbooking for many reasons...I still am going to do traditional for the everyday stuff, but holiday books, vacation book, etc will be digital!

Sleepy Me!

Wow, not sure if it is the weather or the pregnancy or just a combination of it all...but I am SOOOO tired all the time! I will say that I sleep like crap, so that explains a lot. Even when Adelyn doesn't wake me up at all, this baby gets annoyed by 4:00 with my full bladder and lets me know, so then I'm up! I will be taking a nap today, for sure...I snoozed a little on the couch Saturday and it felt so good.
I had an appointment on Friday, the one where you drink the super sweet sugar induced orange drink. They haven't called so everything must have been normal, so that's good. The heartbeat was again around 140 so I am seeing blue. I feel so strongly that it is a boy, which probably means I'm having a girl! I am really bad at 50/50 things. I always choose wrong! We'll see. Now I need a boys name...Jason is set on one, but I want that to be the middle name, so I need one he will like as much if not better to go with the change, actually, I don't, I mean, I'm carrying this baby, letting my body be completely disformed again, doing all the appointments, will be doing all the labor, and will be doing almost all of the parenting...yes, I will decide! ha ha ha
I've been busy working on my Christmas Album, but put that aside in order to get my neice, Rylee's Disney Album done...really fun, but much harder since I wasn't there. I need my mom to come over and explain some of the events and photos I have to help me complete the book.
Sam has been busy with Cub Scouts, he is a "wolf" now, and this weekend he had a "fall outting" at Irvine Park. He now wants a bow and arrow, which Jason almost stopped on the way home to get...Sam gets almost whatever he wants due to Jason's inability to say "maybe for your birthday or Christmas" which I tell the kids all the time. I mean, if I went out and got all of them what they asked for each time, I'd be good as broke!
So my ambition level is not too high, my goals for the day are much more "simple" than they used to be...laundry. clean basement. vacuum floors. These are also not all in the same day either! ha ha ha...today my goal is to get through this pile of papers Jason left on my desk from cleaning out the work trucks...and that is a job...I mean PILES! And to get everything caught up on the current job to see where we really truly stand on it...has been kinda a nightmare to deal with this job, but lessons learned I guess!
Okay, Addy is paging me and I suppose I should feed her breakfast...ha!

Updates, updates, updates

So my 2 times a week has turned into a month later...

Kids started school the beginning of September, Becca was so excited to ride the bus I thought she was going to piddle on the floor each time she thought about it! I was not near as "sad" for her to go to kindergarten as I was for Sam, he was the first and it was a new experience...now it's just routine. I'll probably get that same way when our last one goes to school, although at this point I wonder if we will ever truly have an end to our childbearing...ha ha ha!

Addy had a tough time adjusting to the kids being gone at first, but is now doing really good being home alone with mom and even being my sidekick to go to buildings, drop off bids, etc. Grandma Becky and Grandpa Jim help out a lot too when I have work or meetings so she gets some fun play time over there and loves it. At first she did not want to leave my side, but now it's like, "bye mom, see you later" and she's off!

I had a ultrasound on September 8th and found out that it is a.................baby! ha ha ha...I'm really glad we don't know what it is...makes it a whole new experience for the whole family and the kids and I go back and forth with the guessing game. I still don't have names picked out, Jason thinks he knows what we are naming it if it's a boy, but I will only have that be the middle name for several reasons, and for now I will leave it at that. I have some girl names I like and one has been on my list the last few years so we will see if a "he or she" comes out and what they look like to us! The baby weighed approximately 1.1 pounds and was moving like crazy...I had to go to the bathroom 2 times during it for drinking too much water, which each time was like someone took a load off my...shoulders, man it's hard to have a full bladder with someone kicking it! I am so amazed at the whole miracle of life...I mean, to see this "person" inside of you and feel it is just amazing!

We feel the baby A LOT now, I am currently 25.5 weeks along, and the first time Becca felt it, her eyes about bulged out of her head and she smiled so big...I knew she really felt it then. Sam and Addy have both too now and they love it. One night Sam was laying next to me and I put his hand on my belly and the baby kicked it really hard...he just laughed and said, "whoa!" I love that the kids are so excited, it really gets me thinking that everything will be just fine with 4 of them running around!

As far as complaints, I have gained too much weight, which is partially due to my naughty eating habits and excellent baking skills! I don't think I will go over my usual 40 pounds for sure, but I was really hoping to keep this one around 30...which isn't going to happen in the 15 weeks I have left! Also heartburn is becoming a daily, several times a day, event...tums, tums, tums! And finally the sleep deprievation (sp?)...truly I wake up everynight for one thing or another, usually a family member who needs me...and then I'm up! Most nights it is from like 2 to 4 ish, but tonight when I got woken up the first 2 times I fell back to sleep...but when Addy needed me to find her puppy that was laying right next to her (hear the sarcasm there) around 3:30, that was it for me...I really intend on taking a nap today when Adelyn does or I know I will not make it through Cub Scouts tonight! I have only taken a nap 1 other day during this pregnancy, and I remember it felt so good! So overall, a great pregnancy with quite minimal things to complain about...I'm very blessed for that!

We had the boat out more times than we thought we would have since the weather was getting so cold when we bought it. It warmed up again, and I think it was warmer than in the summer. We got a "tube" thing for the kids and they LOVE it, especially Sam. Becca likes it, but wants to quit soon after going on. Addy tried it behind the pontoon one day with the kids but ended up crying and coming back in the boat. We usually go to Lake Wissota for the size of it and look forward to going to some campgrounds next summer with large lakes to camp and boat. I get to teach the kids to waterski next year and look so forward to that. And for myself too, maybe that will help tone up these "thunder thighs" I'm getting!

No sign of Jack the snake...the pet store told us he could live for a long time, even 2 years...but then we kicked the heat on in the bathroom and put a mouse (dead one) in there and he did not take the bait, which means he has probably left the vacinity.

So I will end this on a funny conversation I had with the kids the other day while making breakfast. I said, "that baby was kicking my tummy SO hard last night that I thought it was going to pop a foot through my skin!"
Sam: what does it look like now?
So I got the pregnancy book and showed them the photo for week 25 and we talked about it.
Becca: I don't ever want to get pregnant cuz I don't want to have my belly cut open.
Mom: Well, not everyone has to have their belly cut open, I never had my belly cut.
Pause....
Sam: Well, how do your babies come out then?
Pause...thought, "shit, what'd I just do?"
Pause....
Sam: Oh, I know, your mouth.
Mom: No, You know how you have a hole you poop out of?
Kids: Yeah
Mom: And you know how you have a hole you pee out of?
Kids: Yeah
Mom: Well, mommies have another special hole that the baby comes out of too.
Sam: Oh, no wonder why they need a bath!
Becca: Gross, what if they throw up?!
Mom: It's not the same hole Becca, it's a whole different area.
Sam: Oh yeah, cuz, you know, your poop hole is farther back.
Mom: yeah.

It was too funny and I kept waiting for the school to call me wondering what the heck the kids are talking about with their peers! ha ha ha

Okay, I think I will end it here! Have a good day!